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Mountain Middle plans expansion

Grades 3 to 5 could open in new building
Mountain Middle School seventh-grade life sciences student Brandon Biddle holds up a container filled with water collected from the Animas River. The charter school announced plans to expand to include grades three, four and five.

Mountain Middle School, a 4-year-old charter institution already recognized as one of the top schools in the state, plans to grow next year by adding grades three, four and five.

“The expansion was part of our strategic plan since we were chartered,” Head of School Shane Voss said Wednesday.

One class at each grade level, capped at 30 students each, would be housed in a new building adjacent to the current school at 108 West 31st St., starting in fall 2016. The new building also would have space to accommodate some activities for grades sixth through eighth.

There is no time schedule, but kindergarten and first- and second-grade classes are planned. School officials want to make sure grades three, four and five are producing the results they want before they assume new responsibility, Voss said.

In 2014, the Charter School Institute, the chartering authority, awarded Mountain Middle School its Accreditation with Distinction award, signifying that academically it is among the top 12 percent of public schools in Colorado.

A letter going to parents this week says the expansion aims to meet three goals – maintain Mountain Middle’s current success, undertake only what can be achieved with excellence and maintain fiscal stability.

The Mountain Middle expansion coincides with the anticipated opening, also in fall 2016, of The Juniper School, with K-5 students learning through Montessori and project-based instruction.

Durango School District 9-R board members are scheduled to consider approving The Juniper School application Tuesday. Approval would allow Juniper proponents to fulfill requirements for a charter contract and seek state startup funds and private donations. It’s the third effort by Juniper backers to win charter status.

A two-story addition at Mountain Middle School would provide an art room, cafeteria, project room and digital media laboratory. In addition to teachers – two per class – the budget includes money for an assistant head of school, a full-time nurse, full-time business manager, full-time special-education teacher and a part-time custodian.

“Based on an extremely conservative pro forma budget, this plan affords us the ability to finance the expansion well within current levels of funding,” the statement to parents says.

Tammy Fraley, a Juniper organizer, hasn’t paid much attention to Mountain Middle plans.

“We’ve been focusing on opening our own school and the great things we want to do,” Fraley said by telephone.

Fraley said Juniper has more requests for enrollment than space available, even before it’s chartered.

“Juniper supports educational choice,” Fraley said. “The more choices available, the more it strengthens our community.”

Dan Snowberger, superintendent of 9-R, also favors choice.

“We are always in support of creating new opportunities to engage students,” Snowberger said. “The more choices there are, the more chances students get to achieve success.”

Mountain Middle is looking mainly to a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan program for business and industry and Tier 1 grants from the Colorado Department of Education for building the new $2 million building.

daler@durangoherald.com

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