After holding classes in a church basement, an airport hangar and now, in rented space in a 1950s-era building belonging to
The private school uses specialized curriculum, teachers and tutors to work with students who have dyslexia, are intellectually gifted or are twice-exceptional – dyslexic and intellectually gifted.
The school site is a 9-acre parcel along Junction Creek north of Four Corners Health Care Center. The parcel was annexed into the city of Durango and granted a special-use permit earlier this year.
“We’re only going to build on 1 to 2 acres and the rest will be pretty much untouched,” said Liberty Head of School Christian Holmen. “We’ll use it as outdoor classrooms, to be vibrant backdrops for videos, enjoy the apples from the apple trees, install webcams to watch wildlife, including bears and mountain lions, just have an awareness of wildlife habitat.”
Teachers have already conducted science classes on the site, he said.
The school agreed to 16 concessions for the special-use permit, including not having a gymnasium with a raised roof and offsetting its entrance on Western Avenue between Hocker and Pleasant streets to slow traffic in the residential neighborhood.
“We want to be the best neighbors we can be,” Holmen said. “A lot of the neighbors have been really supportive and happy to have us.”
One amenity recently added is a loop trail through wild brush to Junction Creek. Neighbors are using it for strolls and to walk their dogs, he said, and they’re welcome to do so.
The school has raised $1.8 million of its $3.5 million goal, which includes the value of the land given by a donor.
Janet-Wiley-Architects designed the school, which can be built in three phases if the entire $3.5 million isn’t raised quickly enough.
Because Liberty’s model includes a significant amount of one-on-one teaching, Phase 1 includes three classrooms, eight tutoring rooms and an extra-wide corridor that will serve as a mingling area as well as space for bookshelves and room to work on projects, Wiley said. Administrative offices and a small conference room are in the first phase.
The school has 27 students, and Phase 1 will allow it to accept up to 32 students.
Phase 2 will include a multipurpose room – originally intended to be the gym – and kitchenette, which will be used for cooking classes. Phase 3 has a two more regular classrooms, one of which will be used for science, smaller rooms for film and music studios, and four more tutoring rooms. When fully built, the school will accommodate up to 49 students, the maximum allowed under the special-use permit.
The goal is to raise the money quickly, so construction can begin in December, and the school can open for the fall semester in August.
District 9-R had planned to put its new charter, The Juniper School, in Liberty’s space. Because the second floor of the old Arts and Sciences Building is not handicapped-accessible, a requirement for a public school, the district is looking for another site for Juniper, said Dan Snowberger, 9-R superintendent. Juniper, which is scheduled to open for the 2017-2018 school year, will be an elementary school combining elements of Montessori and project-based learning.
“Our hope is for them to be successful in finding a new site,” said Holmen, considering what would happen if Juniper has to move into Liberty’s space before the new school is finished. “Uprooting our students twice in one year would not good for them.”
Wiley’s design team, the team at Russell Engineering which did much of the site and permitting work, Jaynes Corp., the selected construction company, and the city of Durango have donated or discounted fees to help make the building possible. Holmen donated his beloved vintage BMW motorcycle to be auctioned, because he wanted to make a meaningful donation.
“No one is safe from the pitch,” he said. “In addition to our school’s families, we’re finding that many of our major donors are adults who are dyslexic. While we certainly like deep-pocketed donors, any amount, even if it’s $25 or $50, helps.”
Liberty is a small school with a big reputation. It’s considered so effective in working with the student populations it serves, a number of families have moved to Durango from places as distant as the Virgin Islands, Florida and Nevada so their children can attend.
“When we were planning to move to Colorado, we liked Durango, but thought there was no way a rural school district could offer what we’d had in Connecticut, which is pretty progressive,” said Josh Freeman, who moved to Durango with his wife, Heather, and 10-year-old daughter, Zoë, a year ago. “When we called the state (Colorado) Department of Education, and they told us about this specialized school in this small town, I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
The results he’s seen with Zoë have sold him on the school’s model.
“Watching her reading improve, seeing how excited she is when she comes home and tells us what she learned,” Freeman said. “It gives you such joy as a parent, because you don’t want to see your kid get stomachaches all the time, it’s so hard to see your kid struggle.”
The turnaround for their daughter, Alyce, 10, has made Patricia and Stuart Goff, converts as well. Alyce, who’s twice exceptional and diagnosed with auditory and visual dyslexia, attended kindergarten and first grade at Needham Elementary School. She’s had an individualized education program since she was 3.
“First grade was horrendous for her,” Patricia Goff said. “I remember soaking her shirts after she chewed on them all day. She had a stomachache every day. The most important thing was getting her excited and interested in school.”
Both families say the school is a strain on the family budget, but they feel it’s worth it. And many students attend on scholarship.
“It is a financial issue,” Goff said, “but the grandparents are all helping and share the burden. A previous parent at Liberty told me you’re paying for college twice. But if we don’t pay for this, she’ll never make it to college.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
To learn more
To learn more about The Liberty School and to donate, visit www.thelibertyschool.org or call 385-4834.
