Students across Durango strolled up to school, put on their COVID-19 face coverings, passed a quick symptom check – and started a brand-new school year.
For Durango Big Picture High School students, the year started with change.
The high school, which follows the international Big Picture Learning model, started the year with a new principal and a new approach to student mentorship. Notably, Tuesday marked the final first day of school in its location next to the Durango School District 9-R Administration Building.
The Big Picture building, slated to be acquired by the city’s fire department, will be torn down after this school year to make way for a new fire station. Next year, students will learn in a new, currently unidentified location.
“We have done artwork on the walls, and that’s just going to be destroyed which is kind of sad,” said Justice Hanson, a junior. “But at least in the new location, we can just repaint and have more ideas.”
Inside Big Picture, students have painted murals on almost every wall – geometric designs on a hallway, a giant tree in the cafeteria and a badger, the school mascot, near the main entrance. Photographs of students line the walls, forming a hall of fame of past graduates.
Students get to take quick walks outside and do their classes and internships in the middle of downtown Durango.
“It’s pretty bittersweet,” said Haley Smith, a senior at Big Picture. “There’s so much culture in this building. I understand the culture is within the student body and everybody who’s here, but it’s still going to be so sad because there’s so much life in the building.”
Big Picture is not the only school in the Durango School District with construction in its future. Miller Middle School is scheduled for a multimillion-dollar on-site rebuild.
For Brady Lumsden, a junior, it was nice to be one of the last groups in the old building and first group to graduate from the new location.
He was excited to see so many students in person after going through a year of remote, in-person and hybrid learning during the pandemic. But he was also nervous.
“There’s a lot of changes, especially with our principal. And COVID’s still going on,” he said.
Like many school districts in La Plata County, Big Picture is also navigating staff turnover. The former high school principal, Bradley Hardin, left the school. In mid-August, the school district hired Samantha Tower, former student support services coordinator for the district.
Her focus in her first year as principal is to learn, observe and support.
“When you talk to kids and staff about Big Picture, there’s a deep connection to this learning model,” Tower said. “I want to maintain what is already amazing about this school and prioritize ways to refine, improve and potentially expand in the future.”
Students at Big Picture, established in 2009, come from a variety of backgrounds. Some might face additional challenges, like a lack of family support or additional responsibilities at home. Others might be drawn to the flexible four-week class structure and internship opportunities.
The alternative high school focuses on personalized, student-centered learning with as many projects as possible. The students, about 90 total this year, must apply and do formal interviews to be accepted.
“We try to make learning as relevant to real life as possible,” Tower said. “And we offer a lot of creativity and unique opportunities to serve kids that maybe need a different type of structure and have structured in the more traditional type of educational model.”
Bergen Hein, a freshman, was excited and nervous on his first day of high school.
“The internships look really interesting. I think that’s going to be cool. The classes look pretty neat, and just being in high school, you know?” Hein said.
The year kicked off with Badger Week, a week of orientation, student games and introductions.
The first event: An assembly early Tuesday, at which teachers introduced themselves and talked about plans for the upcoming year.
Another key difference for students: their adviser groups changed, primarily to accommodate more students.
Christopher Calagias, an adviser and social studies teacher, has been a Big Picture instructor for 10 years.
“We’re going to see some greater mentorships amongst the students, older students to younger students,” Calagias said. “I’m really excited to see that because our peer-culture is what drives our school. ... Advisers facilitate the education opportunities for our students, but it is our students that in fact take the lead over their education.”
Through COVID-19 and other changes, students and staff members have shown they can adapt. That’s what they’ll do when they transition to the new high school location, Calagias said.
If the school district can find a new convenient location near downtown Durango, that would be ideal, but if not, they’ll adapt, he said.
Karen Cheser, Durango superintendent, said the district was looking for locations with easy access to internships and space for classes and other services located at Big Picture. The hot real estate market in downtown Durango might be a challenge, but “the sky is the limit,” she said.
“We want to dream big for our students. We’ll find a good place,” Cheser said.
Calagias calculated he has spent around 2,200 days in the school building. He’d miss the memories in the building the most: the student projects, presentations and exhibitions.
“The fun we’ve had with learners,” Calagias said. “It’s the memories that we’ve made in this building that I think I’ll miss the most.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
