A few days ago, the Archuleta School District (ASD) School Board considered the following item on their January 11, 2022 meeting agenda.
Agenda Item Details
Category: ACTION ITEMS WITH DISCUSSION
Subject: Pagosa Peak Open School Reauthorization
Type: Action
Recommended Action: It is recommended the Board reauthorize Pagosa Peak Open School as presented in the reauthorization plan.
The School Board had been provided with a 178-page “Charter Renewal and Expansion Application” (which you can download here).
The question facing the School Board was not complicated. Should the non-profit organization known as Pagosa Peak Open School be granted a renewal of its charter, to operate an independent public school for another five years… and should the school be allowed to expand its enrollment significantly?
(Disclosure: I serve on the Pagosa Peak Open School board of directors, but this editorial series reflects my personal opinions and not necessarily those of the board as a whole.)
Five years ago, in January, the founding board members of Pagosa Peak Open School were anxiously awaiting the approval of a new Charter Contract between ASD and PPOS which would define, more specifically, the relationship between the District and the non-profit.
The PPOS founding board members were not ‘educators’. They were parents of young children who had spent two years learning about Colorado’s charter schools process, largely through visits to 14 innovative schools in Colorado and New Mexico. The school that had impressed these parents most — Jefferson County Open School — featured multi-grade classrooms and an educational model based on “Project Based Learning”.
The 450-page Charter Application submitted to ASD in the summer of 2016 described a school very similar to Jefferson County Open School. Based upon a survey of young Pagosa parents, the founding board determined that Pagosa Peak Open School should open its doors as a K-4 elementary school, and then add one grade each year until it reached a total enrollment of about 135 students in grades K-8.
Two months earlier, in November 2016, the Pagosa Peak Open School board of directors, plus a dozen supportive members of the community, had squeezed themselves into the cozy conference room at the Archuleta School District administrative offices, to witness the ASD School Board’s vote to approve the proposed charter school — the first charter school ever to be authorized by the District.
With only a single item on the agenda, the November meeting was short and sweet — compared to typical School Board meetings — and included all five School Board members: Greg Schick, Bruce Dryburgh, Brooks Lindner, Jason Peterson and, attending via telephone, Lisl Keuning. Board president Greg Schick began by reading aloud the resolution approving the new charter school, with the understanding that six “conditions” imposed unilaterally by the School Board would be negotiated in the coming weeks.
The new school had not yet chosen a specific location, but was planning to open its doors in the fall of 2017, serving a total of about 75 children in grades K-4. As a Colorado public school, tuition would be free and enrollment would be open to all families within Archuleta County.
As part of its mission to offer an educational alternative, Pagosa Peak Open School would operate on a year-round calendar.
The conditions stipulated by the ASD School Board included a requirement that the Pagosa Peak Open School board of directors raise an additional $175,000 in grants and donations during their first year in operation… (Or perhaps prior to their first year in operation? That section of the ASD resolution’s language was a bit fuzzy.) These funds would be in addition to the Per Pupil Revenue and grant funding already shown in the school’s six-year budget projections.
Other conditions included stipulations that the innovative “Project Based Learning” (PBL) model be more thoroughly described and delineated; that the soon-to-be-formed board of directors include a professional educator and a professional with a financial background; that the School Director have at least two years of experience as a PBL teacher or administrator or that at least 50 percent of the teachers have at least one year of experience as PBL teachers or administrators; that the School Director have at least five years experience as a school administrator; and that at least one teacher be a “Colorado licensed teacher.” (Charter schools are permitted, under Colorado state law, to hire highly qualified teachers who do not necessarily have Colorado teaching credentials.)
The school’s founding board was still waiting to hear the results of grant application submitted to the Colorado Department of Education, but ultimately did receive a three-year startup grant through the Colorado Charter Schools Program (CCSP) which provided funding for school materials and equipment, as well as technical assistance.
The PPOS board expected enrollment for Kindergarten through 4th grade to begin the following January. But contract negotiations dragged on… through January and into February… to finally reach a settlement in mid-February.
Then came the next problem — finding a school building, followed by the problem of finding a School Director with ‘PBL’ experience.
Fortuitously, a prominent Pagosa Springs business — Parelli Natural Horsemanship — was in the process of downsizing, and was willing to make the bottom floor of its corporate headquarters building available to the new school.
The Parelli folks also allowed the fledgling school to create a playground on the west side of the 3-acre property, and install an educational garden on the south side.
An implied long-term plan suggested that the school would eventually purchase the building and property.
The board interviewed eight candidates for the School Director position and settled on James Lewicki, then the Executive Director of the T.R. Paul Academy of Arts & Knowledge in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Not bad for a group of young mothers without any experience opening a school…
Read Part Two…