The Pagosa Peak Open School Board of Directors has scheduled a special board meeting tonight, Monday November 27, at 5:30pm, to discuss facilities, our district enrollment limitation, and potential growth. The meeting will be held around the Art Table in the main school room, at 7 Parelli Way. The public is welcome to attend.
Pagosa Peak Open School was founded partly upon the idea that a small, intimate school size would provide a superior education for families looking for this type of educational experience from their children, and the Charter application submitted to the Archuleta School District was approved a year ago, specifying a 15-to-1 student-teacher ratio, with each grade limited to about 15 students.
As a public K-4 charter school, Pagosa Peak receives “per pupil revenues” from the state of Colorado, in much the same way as the Archuleta School District (ASD). But the District operates mainly in district-owned facilities, while Pagosa Peak pays monthly rent for its leased spaces.
The school opened its doors in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship building last September, and makes use of two large office spaces and a few smaller office spaces within the building. The school has also created the beginnings of a multi-age playground on the west side of the building. In the past, the charter board has expressed an interest in purchasing the entire Parelli building at some point in the future.
The special meeting will focus on the long-range challenges of maintaining limited class sizes, given the realities of public school funding. Changing the Pagosa Peak model would presumably require negotiations with ASD as the authorizing district.
The board will also discuss a CORA (Colorado Open Meetings Request) received from the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, requesting the audio recording of an Pagosa Peak executive session that may have been improperly convened. Also on the agenda is a discussion about the school’s After School Club.