Like all schools in Colorado, construction, expansion and site improvements at Mountain Middle School are governed by the state. That is somewhat of an anomaly – and an understandable frustration – for local regulators who are accustomed to some say about what happens within their jurisdictions, but the premise behind leaving school construction approval with the state is sound: It prevents local jurisdictions from erecting insurmountable hurdles for schools. Nevertheless, as community hubs, schools must at least involve local entities when planning construction. Doing so, as Mountain Middle School has in its plan to expand into the elementary grades, offers a chance to address concerns and shape the project accordingly. The result, in Mountain’s case, will be a welcome expansion of educational options.
Mountain, which serves 180 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students, has planned since its inception in 2011 to take its project-based learning model into the elementary level. The charter school received its initial approval from the state Charter School Institute with those plans in place. Now in its fifth year, Mountain is an established and successful institution and is ready to grow its program according to its vision. That will require a facilities expansion as well. Initially, the school had envisioned a 10,000-square-foot addition to house 90 more students in third through fifth grades. After the city of Durango appealed the school’s proposal to the state, Mountain and the city Planning Department sat down to hash through the concerns – about traffic and neighborhood impact, primarily – and settled on a scaled down expansion: 7,000 square feet to accommodate up to 60 new fourth- and fifth-graders. It is both a reasonable compromise and a victory for educational choice in the community.
Mountain and its sister, Animas High School – along with Durango School District 9-R – have forged an expanding educational collaboration toward the shared goal of providing a range of models for educating the community’s children. The public charter schools offer students an alternative to traditional educational methodology that suits some learners. There is documented demand for expanding that to the lower grades, and with a proven track record, Mountain is well-positioned to meet it.
Of course, a school of any size has impacts on its neighborhood, and Mountain is no exception. The school’s Animas City surroundings in three directions are quiet, residential low-traffic environs. To the east on north Main Avenue, of course, is a busy commercial corridor. Neighbors are warranted in their concerns about a growing influx of cars and kids – it will add more life to an increasingly busy neighborhood – but a greater good is at work, and the city was right to work with the school to find a compromise position and withdraw its appeal to the state.
For its part, Mountain went beyond what was required – merely to notify the city of its plans – and sought neighborhood input, attempting to respond to concerns. With some neighbors opposed to the school even in its current state, addressing that unease to everyone’s satisfaction was not realistic. Instead, the school and the city worked together to find as much common ground as was possible, to the benefit of K-12 education in the region. That is a victory that will endure long after the school day.
