The Denver Public Schools board revoked the charter of the Denver Collegiate Academy on Thursday night.

The board voted 5-2 in favor of a resolution that not only denied the charter school's request to defer its opening until fall 2008, but also revoked its charter.

"We were frankly quite surprised," said Heather Lamm, chairwoman of the academy's board.

"We're devastated for everyone involved, especially those kids in Montbello. We had provided a good alternative, and the board has taken that away," she said.

But board member Kevin Patterson, who represents the area where the proposed charter school would go, countered that "we have to think about what is best for the kids."

Last November, the DPS board approved the charter for the Denver Collegiate Academy, which was to provide more choices for K-8 students in the Montbello area, where schools are crowded.

In February, academy officials notified the school district that they would not be able to get the best people for the school in time to open this fall.

They asked to defer the opening until next year.

School officials also received conflicting information about whether the three locations they had picked for the school fell within the Montbello boundaries.

"We approached DPS in good faith to talk about opening the school with the best quality education and that is what the vote should be about, and I don't think it was," Lamm said.

Board member Jill Conrad, who was one of two who voted against the resolution, said the school should be given more time to work things out.

Bruce Hoyt, the other "no" vote, said that the academy offers longer school days and a longer school year - options that are not available at other schools.

But board member Michelle Moss said she did not want the board to approve a charter school only to close it later.

"There are too many unanswered questions," she said.

In the resolution, the board noted that it had approved the charter for the Denver Collegiate Academy with certain conditions that the school had not met.

Those include not having a location acceptable to the district, not having an architect's estimate of the necessary costs to construct or renovate a school facility and not providing written enrollment commitments from at least 75 students.

Lamm said academy officials had explained to the board why the school could not meet those conditions when the request for the deferral was made.

She said she will meet with the rest of the academy's board within a week to decide what to do next.

fongt@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5489