Edwards students have more room to learn

EDWARDS, Colorado — Students and teachers at Red Canyon High School are now enjoying one thing they’ve never had before — space.

Classes have started at Red Canyon’s new campus in Edwards, built next door to Berry Creek Middle School and across the street from its old location, where June Creek Elementary is now being built. Red Canyon has another campus in Eagle.

The new building is small compared to other schools, but big, airy and bright compared to Red Canyon’s previous homes. The hallways are wider, there’s a lot of color, and you don’t have the feeling of being squeezed in, as you did at their other building.

After walking in the front door, you’re in a wide open space that runs through the center of the school, a perfect place for students to congregate and hold community meetings, Principal Wade Hill said.

At one end, you’ll find sofas and tables, a place for students to eat lunch, study and hang out between classes. There wasn’t a good “common area” like this at their old building.

Red Canyon is an “expeditionary learning” school, which means they center their classes around focused, in-depth topics, and spend weeks researching and debating every facet of those topics. This usually means that instead of sitting at desks, small groups of students are gathered around large tables talking, brainstorming and challenging each other on issues.

Teacher Lara Jackson, for instance, is doing units on the meaning of philanthropy and the relationship between the United States and Native Americans.

So, it helps that their classrooms are much bigger now, teacher Ann Constien said.

“We have rooms that are actually big enough to hold everyone,” Constien said.

The school has a nice computer lab, and while the old building had a computer lab as well, it was too small to effectively teach classes in, teachers say.

And now, like other schools in the district, all the rooms are equipped with LCD computer monitors. The new school also has a kitchen and a principal’s office — something that was strangely missing from the last building.

More than anything, the school feels more like a school now, teachers and students say.

Sure, there are practical reasons why having a bigger building is good, but now, the students are more comfortable, have more pride and see that the community is taking care of them.

“It feels good to finally have a place of our own,” said sophomore Curtis Hart.

Red Canyon is the first major construction project to be completed stemming from the $128 million bond passed in November 2006, which is paying for June Creek, the new campus for Battle Mountain High School, renovations to Eagle Valley High School and districtwide technology upgrades.

The new Red Canyon campus wasn’t actually on the bond question, but the school board decided to build the school after getting a better than anticipated deal on the premium bond sale.



Staff Writer Matt Terrell can be reached at 748-2955 or mterrell@vaildaily.com.

Top test scores Compared to 74 other “alternative” high schools in Colorado who took the Colorado Student Assessment Program, known as CSAP, Red Canyon High School had the highest scores in reading, the third best in writing, and scored in the top 10 in math and science. Alternative schools like Red Canyon are attended by students who, for whatever reason, aren’t finding success in the traditional high schools. This could mean they’re uncomfortable with the big and cliquish social settings of high school, maybe the classes don’t interest them, maybe their job is getting in the way, maybe they have a difficult family situation — could be several of things. All of the students have their reasons.