Monday, March 9, 2009

Animas High Meets 1st Benchmark



Animas High meets 1st benchmark
63 enrolled, with 75 needed by May 15
by Garrett Andrews
Herald Staff Writer Article Last Updated; Sunday, March 08, 2009


With 63 students enrolled, start-up alternative Animas High School is on track to meet a goal for fall enrollment of 100 set by the state agency responsible for its charter.


Pansze

The start-up process is being overseen by the Colorado Charter School Institute, which set an initial benchmark of 50 students enrolled by April 1.


Head of School Michael Ackerman and his small staff have been zealously preaching about the small class sizes and student-driven classrooms to area parents to help fill the 37 remaining seats. They've shown parents materials that highlight the successes of San Diego-area charter school High Tech High, upon which AHS is modeled.

One unsettled question is where the school will be located. Ackerman, responding to a parent's question at Tuesday's informational meeting at Escalante Middle School, said he still doesn't know where the school will hold classes in the fall, but he's been pushing for the campus to be within two miles of Durango High School.

The start-up process is being overseen by the Colorado Charter School Institute, which set an initial benchmark of 50 students enrolled by April 1. The next benchmarks are 75 students by May 15 and 85 students by June 15.

Board member Gisele Pansze doesn't expect problems meeting these goals. She said AHS is building momentum and credibility with each student it enrolls.

Community of Learners and Excel Charter School are recent Durango-area charter schools that struggled with, and eventually succumbed to, enrollment problems. Both schools were closed because of the financial difficulties brought by dropping enrollment numbers.

Pansze said the established High Tech High model AHS is using will help maintain consistency and keep the school afloat. She said having a set and stable model will help keep fleeting parental input from overtaking the school's mission.

"We have this model that we as a board will measure our decisions against. So if an issue comes up that doesn't fit with our model, it won't go," she said.

In addition to Animas High School, Durango School District 9-R is working on its own alternative high school, Big Picture School. The district needs to enroll 65 students by fall for that school to open. Big Picture School's academic mission includes two days a week of external internships and a heavier focus on job-related skills.

Sue Lawton, a mother of three and AHS board member, is a believer in the AHS model. She has a third- and a sixth-grader she hopes one day to enroll at AHS. She said her oldest daughter excelled in a private school with a project-based mission similar to AHS.

"It's not only the curriculum; it's the approach to the curriculum," she said. "There are small class sizes; the kids have a real connection with their teachers and the teachers know what's going on with them and exactly what their capabilities are. A bar is set for each student, individually."

AHS board members and Ackerman will be available until the end of April for questions at "coffee chats" from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Durango Joe's on College Drive, and from 2 to 3 p.m. Thursdays at Durango Joe's in the Wal-Mart shopping center. A public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 23 at the Durango Public Library.

gandrews@durangoherald.com