Alternative P.S. Colorado

[flowerpower]

If there is anyone out there that is interested in making a life changing move to the Colorado Rockies, I have got the best little public school that could ever exist. Seriously, if you are at all disillusioned with your public school, and want your kids to go to an incredible school in an incredible little community, move here! We have 28 kids in the school total. The building is a former one room schoolhouse. Now we actually have three rooms. The teachers are the best we could ever wish for. There are no desks, kids work at their own pace, at their own level, and have the freedom to make choices throughout the day. There is a huge emphasis on community, and the kids really take care of each other. Nobody is excluded... I have never seen such compassionate children. Classes are generally broken down into K-1-2 and 3-4-5, but it really depends on the individual child. With less than 15 kids per teacher, children really get individual attention. The teacher really gets to know each child personally. My son says that his teacher is the one person that he can reveal his heart to. The teachers borrow theory from Sudbury, Waldorf, traditional, etc, to tailor to the needs of the students.
In the Winter, kids ski on Fridays. Last Spring, the school took a week long camping trip to Mesa Verde, to bring to life the previous unit of study on the Native Pueblo people.

We'd love to build on this community and have more kids join our school. Parental involvement in the school is very important, thus we are what AP looks like at the elementary school level. We are a community diverse in economic means and social class. We'd love to be even more diverse, and would be thrilled to have more people of color, same sex parents, and children with special needs join the community. We are 30 minutes from Boulder in an historic mining town with an interesting history. There are many houses for rent in the area. There are houses for sale, also, but the market is high.

There is something very special happening here. I'd love to have more people be a part of it!





flowerpower

[flowerpower]

BTW, it is †he Gold Hill School. (I got so excited telling about it, I forgot to include the name! :LOL )




flowerpower

[crunchykids]

So where in Colorado are you? Are you actually at Gold Hill?

[flowerpower]

Hi Crunchykids,

I live 1/2 way between Gold Hill and Boulder. We open enrolled to have our kids at Gold Hill. Before that, my oldest son went to a Waldorf school in Boulder.

How about you? Where in Colorado are you?

flowerpower

[ChristaN]

I'll have to go on mapquest & see where that is. We are halfway btwn Lvld and Ft. Collins and I would love my girls to be in a more diverse, tolerant environment than what they have at their current school. This year is going well so far, but I am really concerned about the long-term outlook where we are. We have a good option for highschool, but until then...

What types of options does your school have for gifted children? My older dd (second grade) is very academically advanced especially in the area of language arts. She's hit the cap on some of the literacy tests that she has been given (12 grade), so I think that she requires a bit of a different approach to keep her interest captured.

[flowerpower]

Christa,

You should just come up and visit. It is worth it just for the drive at this time of year. The Aspens will be at full peak later in the week, and Gold Hill is a really cool old mining "ghost" town. There is a main street which is a dirt road. The only businesses are a general store and an inn. The school is at the end of main street. People are welcome to drop in to the school just to check it out. There are good hiking trails, if you want to make it a day trip.

Anyway, about your daughter... There is no gifted program per se. But because the school is so small, kids have the opportunity to work at their own levels. There other children who are exceptionally high as well. There is a third grade child who reads at college level. There is a boy who in kindergarten was working with the third graders in math. There are also children with various learning disabilities, and one child with downs syndrome. The greatest thing about all of this is that none are labeled in the way I have just done here. These are just observations I have made about them. The learning and teaching is so individualized that the kids don't feel competative/lacking/better/whatever. They just all are who they are, and the teachers celebrate them as individuals.

The two teachers were hired competatively from over a hundred applications, and they really know their stuff. One has experience working with diverse learners in traditional classrooms (lots of experience with second language learners in an intergrated classroom), and the other has a background in experiential education.

Boulder is about 30 minutes away. If you live in one of the two canyons that lead up to Gold Hill, it is closer to Boulder. People do their shopping in Boulder. There are various natural foods grocery stores there. Many people also work in Boulder and others work from home.

Come on up, I'd be happy to show you around.

fp

[littlehawksmom]

W ehave been thinking of moving (we live in the mountains-Leadville) and a good school is high on our list of requirements. We want to live more rural (we are in town and want to be in the middle of nowhere). What are the costs of land around there? How much is the school? It is pretty close to the city, so it may not be what we are looking for, but you never know...
We have also looked around Durango. Does anybody know of the alternative schooling situation around there? I guess there is a montesori in Salida (and several in Summit and Eagle counties, but that is too urban for us :LOL ).

[flowerpower]

LittleHawksMom,

Hey there! I love the Durango area, it is so beautiful there.

The Gold Hill School is a public school in the Boulder Valley School District, so it is free. Parents are a huge part of the decision making process, and our principal is really supportive. She is only in the building part time, and the teachers and community really decide what goes on in the school. The kids have a huge say in it too.

Gold Hill has a pretty remote feel. That is in fact why it doesn't appeal to the mainstream culture. You need good tires and a 4 wheel drive vehicle to live up here. There is an amazing view of the Continental Divide. I think it is the most beautiful spot in Boulder County. It might not be Ouray, but it comes prettty darn close to looking like Switzerland. Many people who live here choose to go into Boulder once a week for supplies. You could also go to Nederland instead. It is very crunchy and liberal, but accepting of different lifestyles. Many parents and some of the kids have dreadlocks. Some families are dirt poor and several others are multi-millionaires. It might be hard to be the child of a conservative republican, however. I'm trying to work on that kind of tolerence, though.

Land is expensive because this is still Boulder County. There are other parts of Colorado that are less expensive.

There are some cool houses for sale. There's a great Dome house for rent, and it also has horse property. That one is pretty remote. Several families at the school live off grid. Other people up here live in yurts. There are some nice, rustic little houses for rent on Main Street. Kids who live on Main Street walk to school, and can walk to each others houses and the store.