Castle Rock opens applications for 2026 Your Town Academy

Castle Rock is opening a small window into town hall, with 30 free seats in its 2026 Your Town Academy for residents and business owners who want to see how decisions get made and how services actually work.

Applications opened June 1 and are being accepted online, but the town says they could close as early as June 30 if the class fills up. Admission is limited to adults 18 and older, and preference goes first to Castle Rock residents and business owners, making the program both a civic primer and a way for local voices to get closer to the process.

The eight-week academy will meet on eight Mondays from Aug. 17 through Oct. 12, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Participants must attend at least six of the eight sessions to earn a certificate of completion. Graduation is planned for the Oct. 20 Town Council meeting.

Each week is built around one of the town’s major departments, including Development Services, Finance, Fire, Parks and Recreation, Police, Public Works and Roads, and Water. The sessions include demonstrations, discussions and interactive learning, giving participants a practical look at how Castle Rock delivers the services and infrastructure that shape daily life, from road repair to emergency response.

That matters in a town that describes itself as a full-service municipality with more than 87,000 residents and about 650 full-time employees. Since 1987, Castle Rock has used a council-manager form of government, with a seven-member Town Council that includes six district-elected councilmembers and a mayor elected at large. Town Manager David Corliss runs day-to-day operations, carries out council policies and appoints department directors, so academy participants will see the chain of decision-making that connects elected officials, staff and services.

The town says the program is meant to increase governmental transparency by increasing community awareness about Town operations. That goal comes with added weight in Castle Rock, where growth continues to test planners trying to preserve the town’s unique identity, history and small-town character. Development Services plays a central role in that balancing act, and the academy gives residents and business owners a chance to hear directly how that work is handled.

Castle Rock says nearly 240 people have graduated from Your Town Academy so far, a sign that the program has become a steady pipeline for civic literacy in a fast-growing community founded in 1874. The town also offers a Citizens’ Police Academy, which adds classroom and hands-on training about daily police work. Together, the programs show that Castle Rock sees resident education as part of governance itself, not an afterthought.