Enrollment at Durango charter schools is often a game of chance.
Three schools make up the city’s charter landscape – Mountain Middle School, Animas High School and the Juniper School – all of which use enrollment lotteries when demand exceeds available space.
The Juniper School serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade and is authorized by the Durango School District, though it operates independently. Mountain Middle School, serving grades six through eight, and Animas High School, serving grades nine through 12, are both authorized by the Colorado Charter School Institute.
The Juniper School and Mountain Middle School, in alignment with state and charter guidelines, use tiered preference systems for siblings of enrolled students, children of staff and board members, and students from disadvantaged or low-income households. Animas High School only gives priority to siblings of enrolled students and children of staff members.
Outside those priority categories, a student’s chance of admission is left to luck.
At Mountain Middle and Animas High, where demand is often high, lotteries are conducted digitally, with staff members overseeing the process. At the smaller Juniper School, the lottery is done by hand. The drawing is conducted publicly by an unaffiliated community member and streamed on Zoom, said Juniper Principal Philip Werline.
At all three schools, numbers – not names – are assigned to applicants to encourage fairness and privacy, and full lists of numbers drawn are released publicly after the lottery. Submissions typically open in January, with results announced in March.
Mountain Middle sometimes assigns a “dedicated staff member” to oversee the digital drawing and sometimes uses an outside technology company, Executive Director Shane Voss said. The school intentionally rotates systems each year to ensure fairness, he said. Animas High runs its lottery in-house using a digital random number generator overseen by at least two witnesses, spokesperson Libby Cowles said.
Neither school disclosed the specific electronic systems used, though common platforms for charter lotteries include EnrollWise, Parchment K-12 Lottery, School Pathways, Avela Match and Finalsite Enrollment.
About 600 students enter Mountain Middle’s lottery each year – double the school’s 300-student capacity, Voss said. At Animas High, the odds are generally favorable, Cowles said, with most wait-listed students eventually accommodated, often before enrollment closes in late September. Juniper also has relatively high acceptance rates in most grades, Werline said, with exceptions in high-demand grades like second and third.
Students already enrolled at any of the three schools may re-enroll annually without reentering the lottery.
Priority is handled differently across schools. Juniper and Mountain Middle give priority applicants extra entries in the lottery. At Animas High, priority students are placed first, and the remaining seats are offered through the lottery.
The fine print
State, federal and Charter Institute guidelines for enrollment lotteries
Per Colorado Department of Education guidelines, the Charter Schools Act allows a charter school and its authorizer to employ a waitlist or lottery for enrollment. If a charter school is a recipient of the federal Charter School Program grant, they are required to use a lottery system for enrollment.
The full Charter School Handbook by the CDE can be accessed at bit.ly/4syIcxt
Colorado law (C.R.S. § 22-30.5-104(3)(a)) dictates that charter schools must make enrollment open to any child who resides in the chartering district and make enrollment decisions in a nondiscriminatory manner.
The statute describes that children with disabilities may be given priority enrollment as part of a locally approved plan.
The use of weighted and priority lotteries is allowed for certain groups, according to the Colorado League of Charter Schools and the Colorado Charter School Institute.
More information via the CDE on weighted lottery regulations can be found at bit.ly/3Lsy5tp
More information from the Colorado League of Charter Schools can be accessed at bit.ly/4qkjhfy
More information from the Colorado Charter School Institute can be found at bit.ly/3Z5BqBK
Enrollment policies at local charters
The Mountain Middle School enrollment policy can be accessed at www.mountainmiddleschool.org/enrollment/
The Animas High School enrollment policy can be accessed at animashighschool.com/how-to-enroll/
The Juniper School enrollment policy can be accessed at juniper.durangoschools.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=786885&type=d&pREC_ID=1181692
Mountain Middle parent Maya Kane first entered her son, Emmett, into the school’s lottery in fourth grade. He wasn’t selected that year, but was admitted the next year, and is now in eighth grade at the school. As he prepares for high school, the family is once again facing a lottery – this time at Animas High.
Emmett is on the autism spectrum, and Kane said his learning style is well suited to smaller, project-based environments like Mountain Middle. Before attending Mountain, Emmett went to Durango Montessori School and stayed an extra year after not being selected in the lottery the first time around.
If he hadn’t gotten into Mountain, he probably would have gone to Miller Middle School, Kane said, though she isn’t sure it would have been the right fit.
She said she appreciates the fairness of randomized lotteries, even though the process is stressful.
“There’s always stress with it, but I like that everyone has a fair chance to get in,” she said. “That feels so much better than a merit-based admissions process, or something that allows families to take advantage of the system.”
She said she supports priority systems as long as equity remains central. Emmett’s younger brother benefited from sibling priority and now attends Mountain Middle.
Kane said Big Picture High School and Durango High School are backup options if Emmett isn’t admitted to Animas High.
Voss said some hopeful Mountain Middle families have had emotional reactions to not being picked in the lottery – and that he understands the frustration.
“You’ll have parents calling in desperate the day after the results are posted on our website,” he said. “(Parents) are in tears, saying, ‘What will it take?’ or ‘What’s my probability of getting in? I’m 19th on the waitlist.’ And it’s difficult, you know? Some families try for five years and don’t get in. And some try for one year and get in automatically. It just varies.”
Cowles said Animas High generally does not receive negative feedback from families about the lottery, in part because wait-listed students are frequently admitted later. Werline said Juniper families are sometimes disappointed, but that spots often open as circumstances change.
Durango School District schools do not use lotteries, and accept all students who apply.
A column written by Durango School District spokeswoman Karla Sluis in July referenced the charter school lotteries.
“We serve every student who walks through our doors – no lottery, wait list or interview required,” she wrote, referring to Animas High and Mountain Middle School.
The Mountain Middle School and Animas High School boards responded to the perceived slight in a column a week later.
“(The lottery system) ensures fairness and broad access, particularly for families seeking an educational environment that best fits their child’s needs,” the boards collectively wrote. “In fact, that these schools use a lottery system to manage enrollment simply reflects the demand for their academic programs – not a failure to serve.”
All three charters emphasized the intentionality and benefits behind their smaller school populations while acknowledging they wish they could serve every student who applies.
The advice Kane would give to parents or families entering a local charter lottery? Don’t stress about what you can’t control.
“We’re really lucky to live in a district where all of the schools are strong,” she said. “There are a lot of great options. It’s just about how the cards shake out.”
epond@durangoherald.com
