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New local charter school?

Plan calls for opening in 2015

Durango School District 9-R board members Tuesday urged a community group to move ahead with plans to form a charter elementary school.

If the Durango Schools of Choice steering committee can pull off its plan, a K-5 school would close the charter-school circle in Durango.

Mountain Middle School and Animas High School complete the loop.

In a unanimous vote, the board approved a resolution that ended: “The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education supports efforts currently under way by Durango Schools of Choice, welcomes submission of their application under timelines outlined in statute, and pledges to work with them in the development of a school model that will meet needs within our community not currently available in the district.”

Durango 9-R would charter the new school, a process that follows a formula. It was not authorized to charter schools when Mountain Middle and Animas High schools came into being. The two were chartered by an authority in Denver.

In May, Schools of Choice announced its plan in a letter of intention. A name for the school would be chosen later.

Organizers want to hear from the public on their ideas on educational principles to guide the curriculum that might be needed but presently lacking in the district’s elementary schools.

Katie McCullough-Vanbuskirk, who teaches kindergarten at Needham Elementary School, is a steering committee member.

The idea for an elementary charter school was not the brainstorm of a single individual, but a concept shared by several people, she said in an earlier interview Tuesday.

Other members of the steering committee are Greg Ooley, the operations coordinator with Open Sky Wilderness Therapy; Michael Ackerman, former head of school at Animas High School; and Noah Koerper, an aide in Denver to Sen. Michael Bennet, who plans to relocate to Durango soon.

Parents, educators and interested community members round out the roster of the steering committee.

McCullough-Vanbuskirk arrived in Durango 15 years ago and has been a 9-R teacher for two-thirds of that time.

She has taught pre-school through fifth grade.

“I think that currently children learn the way we teach,” she said. “I think maybe we should teach the way children learn.”

The philosophy appears to mesh with what 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said at a convocation last week. He said educators have to find a way to prepare all youngsters, not just the brightest, for a future not yet envisioned.

The steering committee is going to hold weekly listening sessions, starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Durango Public Library.

“We want to know what people want and need in elementary education,” McCullough-Vanbuskirk said. “This is a community open to options.”

Meetings at yet undetermined locations will be held Sept. 9, 17 and 22.

If plans work out, a school with one class per grade level from kindergarten through fifth grade would open in 2015, McCullough-Vanbuskirk said.

“We want to start slow, start smart and build as we go,” she said.

daler@durangoherald.com



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