New Student Enrollment/Registration Continues!
Our goal is to have 100 students registered for this fall and we will continue to offer public information and outreach events to reach this goal. Our upcoming public presentations are June 2 and June 9 (Spanish presentation) at the Durango Public Library Conference Room from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Please spread the word – forward this email - about these events!
We are also very interested in working in small groups to help bring the AHS message to your child’s friends. We are actively working with families to host small gatherings this summer. Please let us know if you, your family or your friends would like to attend one of these small group gatherings.
Registration will remain open for our incoming class of 2013 until we are at capacity. We are currently looking to enroll approx twenty more students for this fall.
Upcoming Student Events
AHS Student Advisory Committee: The Student Advisory Committee is actively shaping our student government and planning AHS events for this summer. All students are welcome and encouraged to participate in this forum. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday June 9th. Contact AHS Registrar Jake Lauer at jake.lauer@animashighschool.com with questions and concerns and location info.
June Jam-fest: The Student Activity Council announces the June Jam-fest, June 6 at 9160 CR 250 Durango, as our next All Student Gathering. Come hear some terrific student bands, bring your own instrument to play in the open jam session, wear your hiking shoes to take a stroll up Stevens Creek Trail, or come and enjoy some time to hang out, talk & eat. As always, friends of registered AHS students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Stay tuned for more details to come from the Student Advisory Committee on this fantastic experience!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Greeting AHS Students!
My name is Jake Lauer and I am the registrar for Animas High School. I have met many of you and I can't wait to meet everyone else. This summer and next school year I will be writing to you and talking to you about some important stuff. And I want you to know from the start that you are all a vital part of this school. I want to hear your ideas, your concerns, your frustrations, your joys. I am here to listen, to talk and to troubleshoot and to enjoy this experience with you.
On that note, I am writing you today about the first ever AHS Student Advisory Council meeting. Head of School Michael Ackerman and I met last Wednesday, May 20th with eight of your fellow students.
This was the first of many meetings this summer. The Council has been formed to allow students to begin shaping our school community and culture prior to our opening this August. The Council will be tackling some important issues, such as student government, student activities, etc. EVERYONE is invited to participate on the council. We will have two meetings each month. If you can, please attend all or some of the meetings. If you cannot attend, you can still participate. You can contact me with your ideas, thoughts and opinions about the issues the Council discusses. Below is a message to our student body drafted by the Council:
Dear Students of Animas High School,
As you may know, the first meeting of the Animas High School Student
Advisory Council (AHSSAC) took place on May 20th this past week. Eight
students attended the meeting in which they discussed many subjects
such as the AHS government set up and leadership to spearhead and ini-
tiate summer projects. The students decided that AHSSAC meetings will
take place every two weeks at the Durango Crossroads Building if possi-
ble. Emergency meetings can take place and will be announced via email
by the AHS registrar. We are asking students to please attend the meet-
ings so they can have a voice in school affairs.
We want students to be able to address school issues and openly discuss
them with other students. Other details will be sent later regarding the
exact time and place the next meeting will occur. Hope to see you there!
The Student Advisory Council
Here is a recap of our first meeting:
During our first meeting, the Council explored options for AHS student government. In a spirited discussion, students asked many questions: what will student government look like at AHS? How will students voices be represented and what opportunities for student leadership will exist at AHS?
The group reached the following conclusions:
• AHS will employ a democratic model of student government.
• The Council will determine a democratic structure of government at AHS.
• Students settled on the following four options for AHS student government:
1) Direct Democracy: Every student votes on every single issue with no one person acting as student body president/representative.
2) Representative Democracy- Students elect leaders to represent their ideas and opinions and the elected leadership will vote on issues.
3)Committee System- Students are elected/appointed to various committees that will tackle specific issues/areas. These committees will develop proposals and refine action steps. Then those proposals/steps would be presented to the entire student
body for vote/action.
4) Committee System/Representative Blend- This option allows many students to serve on particular committees presenting their recommendations to an executive council(elected leadership positions like a student body president/vp/etc.)Then the
executive body votes on the action/measure.
The Council decided its next meeting will at 4 p.m on Wednesday, June 3rd at the Durango Crossroads Building in Conference Room 100. During that meeting, the Council will vote to adopt one of the four student government options and make plans for implementation this fall. During student orientation in August, the Council will
present its plan(s) to the student body.
Additionally, the Council recognized the need for student action prior to our August 24th start date. The Council created a list of opportunities that exist for students to begin working on immediately. These include:
• Animas High School’s First Annual JAM FEST on June 6th 2009
• AHS Spanish Outreach presentation
• Paradise Island Summer Tubing Trip
• Student/Parent/Staff Olympics
If you are interested in helping plan and organize any of the events, please contact me.
We want to acknowledge the participation and efforts of the following students at our first advisory council meeting: the Seths,Nathan, Ashley, Cooper, Chad, Isabelle and Hank.
I personally can't wait for Animas High School to start. I hope you will all join us this summer as we give shape to our new school. If you have any questions, concerns or ideas, please contact me at jake.lauer@animashighschool.com Happy summer!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New high school offering new approach
Article Last Updated; Tuesday, May 19, 2009
In Suzanne Garcia's letter to the editor (Herald, May 7), she shares her enthusiasm about Colorado Teacher of the Year Susan Elliott's message at the Colorado Education Association Delegate Assembly in Denver. Garcia shares Elliott's message about the need for educators to rethink the way we are educating our children in the 21st century.
Elliott spoke of the need for a new approach to education - one that fosters creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills. Our community needs to be aware that Durango is not at the crest of the wave, but is riding the wave. Our community has Animas High School, a free charter school opening for freshman this fall, to meet the need to educate our students for the 21st century. The founders, board of directors and staff members have done their homework and have adopted a nationally acclaimed model with a proven track record to provide our students an education that is rigorous, relevant and collaborative in an atmosphere where the students are excited about learning and committed to excellence. Visit www.AnimasHighSchool.org for the full mission and values statements.
This model is proven to help students stay engaged in school, ignite a passion for lifelong learning and send 99 percent of students to excellent colleges. With the student population set at 100 per grade, the staff has a personal relationship with each student, allowing them to provide individualized instruction to meet the students' unique needs. No student will fall through the cracks.
This approach to education includes teacher-led lectures, student-led discussions, research, projects, assessments and ongoing teacher feedback all with technology integrated throughout the process. It's a lot to understand, therefore I recommend attending an upcoming informational meeting to learn more, (6-8 p.m. June 2 and 9 at the Durango Public Library), or call Head of School Michael Ackerman at 403-4827 to set a personal meeting. Nearly 90 area students have enrolled for this opportunity. It's time to find out why.
Judith Wallace, Durango
Getting Down to Business
Don't Miss Out on these Upcoming Opportunities for AHS Students to Get Down to Business!
Wednesday, May 20th, 4:00 – 5:00 PM Durango Crossroads Building - Conference Room 100
Pre-Opening Meeting of the AHS Student Advisory Council
Many students listed Student Government as an interest area on their enrollment data sheets. I would like to invite those who are interested to join Head of School Michael Ackerman and fellow AHS staff members for an informal discussion about student government. We will be discussing what Student Government at AHS will look like. What positions and term limits do we want to create? What issues and areas should Student Government take an active role in? What is the best way to share leadership within our community? How do we effectively represent student voices?
These are just some of the ideas and topics we will be discussing Wednesday afternoon. In addition to planning for the 2009-2010 school year, we will be looking for student leaders to help spearhead projects and initiatives this summer. Got an opinion? I’m sure you do! Let’s hear from you this Wednesday!
Thursday, May 21st, 1:00 to 3:00 PM at Animas High School, 3206 North Main
Art Team
Our student community is full of artists and we want to give you a chance to employ your creative talents! Join AHS Computer and Art Teacher Roxanne McKnight for an afternoon of painting and fun! Our students will work to make the front windows of our facility come alive with all the colors and energy of summer! We have the paint, the brushes and the drop cloths. You bring your creativity and a positive mental attitude. Together, we’ll liven up our space through art and share loads of laughs along the way!
Monday, May 18, 2009
School Reform That Works
Bill Gates released his annual letter in January, 2009 outlining the state of his foundation and its goals for 2009. Below is a copy of that letter. The article is short enough to read through quickly – but if you don’t have the time, I will paraphrase for you.
School Reform That Works Bill Gates (Jan. 2009)
Key Points: He has invested $2B in education in America. When reflecting on the schools he has invested he, he notes that not all were successful. He notes that the changes to improve education need to be radical including allowing principals the ability to select teachers and curriculum. He saw more success when new schools were newly created (charter schools). He identifies the successful charter school High Tech High (our model school) because it is achieving amazing results. We have a winning model and we are so excited to bring it to the students of Durango!
School Reform That Works
By Bill Gates
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; Page A15
Bill Gates released an annual letter this week outlining the state of his foundation and its goals for 2009. Following are excerpts from the section on education:
Warren Buffett [says] every American, including him, is lucky to have been born here. He calls us winners of the "ovarian lottery."
But even within the United States, there is a big gap between people who get the chance to make the most of their talents and those who don't. Melinda and I believe that providing everyone with a great education is the key to closing this gap. . . .
The private high school I attended, Lakeside in Seattle, made a huge difference in my life. The teachers fueled my interests and encouraged me to read and learn as much as I could. Without those teachers I never would have gotten on the path of getting deeply engaged in math and software. . . .
How many kids don't get the same chance to achieve their full potential? The number is very large. Every year, 1 million kids drop out of high school. Only 71 percent of kids graduate from high school within four years, and for minorities, the numbers are even worse -- 58 percent for Hispanics and 55 percent for African Americans. . . . The federal No Child Left Behind Act isn't perfect, but it has forced us to look at each school's results and realize how poorly we are doing overall. It surprises me that more parents are not upset about the education their own kids are receiving.
Nine years ago, the foundation decided to invest in helping to create better high schools, and we have made over $2 billion in grants. The goal was to give schools extra money for a period of time to make changes in the way they were organized (including reducing their size), in how the teachers worked, and in the curriculum. The hope was that after a few years they would operate at the same cost per student as before, but they would have become much more effective.
Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students' achievement in any significant way. These tended to be the schools that did not take radical steps to change the culture, such as allowing the principal to pick the team of teachers or change the curriculum. We had less success trying to change an existing school than helping to create a new school.
Even so, many schools had higher attendance and graduation rates than their peers. While we were pleased with these improvements, we are trying to raise college-ready graduation rates, and in most cases, we fell short.
But a few of the schools that we funded achieved something amazing. They replaced schools with low expectations and low results with ones that have high expectations and high results. These schools are not selective in whom they admit, and they are overwhelmingly serving kids in poor areas, most of whose parents did not go to college. Almost all of these schools are charter schools that have significantly longer school days than other schools.
I have had a chance to spend time at a number of these schools, including High Tech High in San Diego and the Knowledge Is Power Program, or "KIPP," in Houston. . . . It is invigorating and inspirational to meet with the students and teachers in these schools and hear about their aspirations. They talk about how the schools they were in before did not challenge them and how their new school engages all of their abilities. These schools aim to have all of their kids enter four-year colleges, and many of them achieve that goal with 90 percent to 100 percent of their students.
These successes and failures have underscored the need to aim high and embrace change in America's schools. Our goal as a nation should be to ensure that 80 percent of our students graduate from high school fully ready to attend college by 2025. This goal will probably be more difficult to achieve than anything else the foundation works on, because change comes so slowly and is so hard to measure. . . . If one school's students do better than another school's, how do you determine the exact cause? But the difficulty of the problem does not make it any less important to solve. And as the successes show, some schools are making real progress.
Based on what the foundation has learned so far, we have refined our strategy. We will continue to invest in replicating the school models that worked the best. Almost all of these schools are charter schools. Many states have limits on charter schools, including giving them less funding than other schools. Educational innovation and overall improvement will go a lot faster if the charter school limits and funding rules are changed.
One of the key things these schools have done is help their teachers be more effective in the classroom. It is amazing how big a difference a great teacher makes versus an ineffective one. Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.
Whenever I talk to teachers, it is clear that they want to be great, but they need better tools so they can measure their progress and keep improving. So our new strategy focuses on learning why some teachers are so much more effective than others and how best practices can be spread throughout the education system so that the average quality goes up. We will work with some of the best teachers to put their lectures online as a model for other teachers and as a resource for students.
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda French Gates is a director of The Washington Post Co. The full letter is online at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/.
School Reform That Works Bill Gates (Jan. 2009)
Key Points: He has invested $2B in education in America. When reflecting on the schools he has invested he, he notes that not all were successful. He notes that the changes to improve education need to be radical including allowing principals the ability to select teachers and curriculum. He saw more success when new schools were newly created (charter schools). He identifies the successful charter school High Tech High (our model school) because it is achieving amazing results. We have a winning model and we are so excited to bring it to the students of Durango!
School Reform That Works
By Bill Gates
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; Page A15
Bill Gates released an annual letter this week outlining the state of his foundation and its goals for 2009. Following are excerpts from the section on education:
Warren Buffett [says] every American, including him, is lucky to have been born here. He calls us winners of the "ovarian lottery."
But even within the United States, there is a big gap between people who get the chance to make the most of their talents and those who don't. Melinda and I believe that providing everyone with a great education is the key to closing this gap. . . .
The private high school I attended, Lakeside in Seattle, made a huge difference in my life. The teachers fueled my interests and encouraged me to read and learn as much as I could. Without those teachers I never would have gotten on the path of getting deeply engaged in math and software. . . .
How many kids don't get the same chance to achieve their full potential? The number is very large. Every year, 1 million kids drop out of high school. Only 71 percent of kids graduate from high school within four years, and for minorities, the numbers are even worse -- 58 percent for Hispanics and 55 percent for African Americans. . . . The federal No Child Left Behind Act isn't perfect, but it has forced us to look at each school's results and realize how poorly we are doing overall. It surprises me that more parents are not upset about the education their own kids are receiving.
Nine years ago, the foundation decided to invest in helping to create better high schools, and we have made over $2 billion in grants. The goal was to give schools extra money for a period of time to make changes in the way they were organized (including reducing their size), in how the teachers worked, and in the curriculum. The hope was that after a few years they would operate at the same cost per student as before, but they would have become much more effective.
Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students' achievement in any significant way. These tended to be the schools that did not take radical steps to change the culture, such as allowing the principal to pick the team of teachers or change the curriculum. We had less success trying to change an existing school than helping to create a new school.
Even so, many schools had higher attendance and graduation rates than their peers. While we were pleased with these improvements, we are trying to raise college-ready graduation rates, and in most cases, we fell short.
But a few of the schools that we funded achieved something amazing. They replaced schools with low expectations and low results with ones that have high expectations and high results. These schools are not selective in whom they admit, and they are overwhelmingly serving kids in poor areas, most of whose parents did not go to college. Almost all of these schools are charter schools that have significantly longer school days than other schools.
I have had a chance to spend time at a number of these schools, including High Tech High in San Diego and the Knowledge Is Power Program, or "KIPP," in Houston. . . . It is invigorating and inspirational to meet with the students and teachers in these schools and hear about their aspirations. They talk about how the schools they were in before did not challenge them and how their new school engages all of their abilities. These schools aim to have all of their kids enter four-year colleges, and many of them achieve that goal with 90 percent to 100 percent of their students.
These successes and failures have underscored the need to aim high and embrace change in America's schools. Our goal as a nation should be to ensure that 80 percent of our students graduate from high school fully ready to attend college by 2025. This goal will probably be more difficult to achieve than anything else the foundation works on, because change comes so slowly and is so hard to measure. . . . If one school's students do better than another school's, how do you determine the exact cause? But the difficulty of the problem does not make it any less important to solve. And as the successes show, some schools are making real progress.
Based on what the foundation has learned so far, we have refined our strategy. We will continue to invest in replicating the school models that worked the best. Almost all of these schools are charter schools. Many states have limits on charter schools, including giving them less funding than other schools. Educational innovation and overall improvement will go a lot faster if the charter school limits and funding rules are changed.
One of the key things these schools have done is help their teachers be more effective in the classroom. It is amazing how big a difference a great teacher makes versus an ineffective one. Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.
Whenever I talk to teachers, it is clear that they want to be great, but they need better tools so they can measure their progress and keep improving. So our new strategy focuses on learning why some teachers are so much more effective than others and how best practices can be spread throughout the education system so that the average quality goes up. We will work with some of the best teachers to put their lectures online as a model for other teachers and as a resource for students.
Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda French Gates is a director of The Washington Post Co. The full letter is online at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/.
AHS Weekly Email- 5-18-09
Happy Monday!
We have another gorgeous day after a gorgeous weekend. We are so lucky to live here! I have a lot to share this week, so I hope you can forgive this wordy email update. I will try to make it easy to read.
Registration: We had a fantastic registration event! Thank you for all your positive feedback about the event. We have nearly 80 students registered for next year ~ enough to open the school!! What a great accomplishment for our community.
New Student Enrollment/Registration: Our goal for registration is 100 students and we will continue to offer public informational events to reach this goal. Our upcoming public presentations are June 2 and June 9 at the Durango Public Library from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Please spread the work about these events to assist us in meeting our goal of 100 students. We are also very interested in working in small groups to help bring the AHS message to your child’s friends. PLEASE contact me if you are willing to host a small group gathering with your child’s friends. The sooner the better!!
Facility: We began demolition efforts at the building this weekend. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who came out to lend a hand! We had great emails afterwards from parents thanking US for the opportunity to help our school and giving their family an opportunity to serve the community. Thank you!
Here is the schedule for the next volunteer opportunities:
Wed, May 20th from 4 – pm
Sat, May 23rd from 8:30 – 11 am
Thurs, May 28th from 4 – 7 pm
Contact Nancy at MindExpanseChildren@yahoo.com or 946-3322 to register – wear your dirty clothes!!
Teachers: We have hired almost all our staff and we have such FABULOUS teachers! Michael will be sending an email to share the information about our teachers – it is so exciting!!
Other Important News: We will be working all summer – so feel free to contact us at any time with questions, ideas, etc. We are planning All Student Gatherings for June, July & August. If you have ideas for things you would like to do, send me a note! (suelawton@aol.com) We are planning a jam-fest for the June All Student Gathering. Join us June 6, bring your instrument to play in our jam session or come and enjoy some time to just hang out, go on a hike, talk & eat. As always, friends of AHS are welcome. Details to come.
I look forward to hearing from you! Give me a call or send me a note!
Warmly,
Sue
970-759-1347
We have another gorgeous day after a gorgeous weekend. We are so lucky to live here! I have a lot to share this week, so I hope you can forgive this wordy email update. I will try to make it easy to read.
Registration: We had a fantastic registration event! Thank you for all your positive feedback about the event. We have nearly 80 students registered for next year ~ enough to open the school!! What a great accomplishment for our community.
New Student Enrollment/Registration: Our goal for registration is 100 students and we will continue to offer public informational events to reach this goal. Our upcoming public presentations are June 2 and June 9 at the Durango Public Library from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Please spread the work about these events to assist us in meeting our goal of 100 students. We are also very interested in working in small groups to help bring the AHS message to your child’s friends. PLEASE contact me if you are willing to host a small group gathering with your child’s friends. The sooner the better!!
Facility: We began demolition efforts at the building this weekend. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who came out to lend a hand! We had great emails afterwards from parents thanking US for the opportunity to help our school and giving their family an opportunity to serve the community. Thank you!
Here is the schedule for the next volunteer opportunities:
Wed, May 20th from 4 – pm
Sat, May 23rd from 8:30 – 11 am
Thurs, May 28th from 4 – 7 pm
Contact Nancy at MindExpanseChildren@yahoo.com or 946-3322 to register – wear your dirty clothes!!
Teachers: We have hired almost all our staff and we have such FABULOUS teachers! Michael will be sending an email to share the information about our teachers – it is so exciting!!
Other Important News: We will be working all summer – so feel free to contact us at any time with questions, ideas, etc. We are planning All Student Gatherings for June, July & August. If you have ideas for things you would like to do, send me a note! (suelawton@aol.com) We are planning a jam-fest for the June All Student Gathering. Join us June 6, bring your instrument to play in our jam session or come and enjoy some time to just hang out, go on a hike, talk & eat. As always, friends of AHS are welcome. Details to come.
I look forward to hearing from you! Give me a call or send me a note!
Warmly,
Sue
970-759-1347
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