Brighton Schools and parks will see the biggest benefit from the city's Denver Broncos sale windfall, councilors agreed Feb. 14.

Councilors reviewed a plan to give $150,000 to the 27J school district and also reviewed improvements to three city parks —including a new playground at the Brighton Recreation Center that will be paid with Broncos sale money.

“That is money that can be used specifically for youth programs, and even more specifically for one-time programs,” Budget and Performance Manager Kayla Barber-Perrotta told councilors. “They want the bulk of this money to be spent in 2023. This is not an ongoing revenue source.”

The Metropolitan Football Stadium District announced in October that it would distribute more than $41 million back to the cities, towns and counties that paid a Mile High Stadium-supporting sales tax through 2011.

Brighton, which levied the tax along with a number of other Front Range communities, received $454,084.93 as a part of that agreement. According to the District's lease agreement, that money must go towards youth activity programs.

Councilors agreed in January to accept the money.

“We outlined four different uses for this funding; the playground structure at the Rec Center, our own youth programs — an expansion of those — as well as a community youth programs grant. Those are already in the works. We took that direction and we ran with it.”

The fourth option was a partnership with Brighton's 27J School district.

$12.99 per student

Barber-Perrotta said that $150,000 of it will be given to Brighton's 27J School District to be used on activities at the schools within Brighton's limits.

“Based on your feedback, we did broaden those categories to include not just physical education and sports equipment but to include those arts and humanities programs you wanted to fund, as well as uniforms,” she told councilors. “That is something we heard from a number of those principals when we reached out. Uniforms is a big need for the schools.”

School Superintendent Chris Fiedler said those schools have 11,543 students between kindergarten and high school, so the money will be broken up that way.

Each Brighton school will receive $12.99 per student for upgrades to PE equipment, sports and safety equipment, arts and humanities programs and uniforms. Individual school principals will decide how to best use their school's share, she said

“The reason is that those principals are ultimately on the front lines,” Barber-Perrotta said. “They are going to know what they need the most and what will benefit them the most in this program.”

Fiedler agreed. It's the fairest way to divide the money.

“I want to be very clear to presume to know what our principles need for each of their buildings,” Fiedler said. “Bear in mind, we have one building that will turn 100 years old in 2026. Thats' Brighton Heritage Academy. And then we have schools like Brighton High School that was built when Eisenhower was president.”

Exanding playground

Parks Manager Ryan Smith said another $150,000 will be used to expand the Brighton Recreation Center Playground used by the city's daycare and summer camp program. That fenced-in park at the N. 11th Ave. location was originally built in 2004.

Plans call for expanding the playground area to make room for more children.

Work installing that new equipment should begin in May and is expected to take about two weeks to complete. Smith said the city wants to have the work completed before the summer camp at the recreation center is set to begin.

ADA Park, tennis courts

Smith also reviewed plans for two other park improvement projects set to begin this spring, redoing the busy playground at Donelson Park at 4500 Midland St. and replacing the tennis courts at Colorado Park, 254 Miller Ave.

Neither of those parks would be paid with Brighton's share of the Bronco's sale rebates.

Work on Donelson Park would begin in March and wrap up in June. Work on the tennis courts would begin in April and be finished in June.