 While remaining an open public school without charter or magnet status, D'Evelyn consistently ranks among the top 100 high schools in the US.D’Evelyn’s academic tenets derive from the efforts of a volunteer council to create an "alternative educational environment" in the early 1990s.D’Evelyn’s eponymous founder, David S. D’Evelyn, died in a plane crash before the council's efforts resulted in the successful enactment of the Colorado Charter Schools Act of 1993 and the nascent school secured the "option school" status required to pursue its own academic objectives with a high degree of freedom from the district.