Vail Valley Unbound, a new K-5 school in Edwards, prepares to welcome its first students

On Friday, Aug. 18, Cassie and Zach Boca opened the doors to their new K-5 school in the Edwards Riverwalk, welcoming students and families into the space for the first time. The school, Vail Valley Unbound, will welcome its inaugural class of students on Monday, Aug. 21.

“I feel like everyone’s just really excited for a new opportunity in the valley to serve different learners,” said Heather McMahon, a longtime Eagle County local and early childhood educator who will serve as the school’s Lead Guide and head up the school and its curriculum. 

“The momentum behind this idea is really, really strong, and ideally this will spark a little movement and prove that things can be done a little bit of a different way and that a learner-driven community is possible,” she added.

The school is planning to build toward serving K-5 students, but will only have K-3 students during its first year. It plans to open additional classrooms the following year. McMahon and another educator will serve as the school’s two “guides.”

Kids on a learning quest

Cassie and Zach Boca started the school as a way to fill a gap they saw in the traditional education system. The hope is that the school will focus on learner-driven success and the importance of developing a growth mindset.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Vail Valley Unbound is an affiliate of Acton Academy and is accredited through the International Association of Learner Driven Schools. The students will still learn common core skills, with curriculum and materials provided through Acton Academy, but students will help drive how these are learned.

Make staying informed the easiest part of your day.

Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at VailDaily.com/newsletter

McMahon said she’s most excited about this aspect of the learning model.

“I think that they find more value in their space and in their learning when they do get to make those decisions on their own and for themselves,” she said.

The school will be taught in sprints — or work periods — with the kids selecting a “quest” in each sprint where they will work on building the skills they need.

“We have the first quest kind of mapped out, but then we’ll just follow their lead,” McMahon said, adding that much about the school year ahead is “still open” as students will have the “ability to create alongside us.”

The first quest is meant to help build the school’s community as well as integrate with the surrounding community. The goal of this will be to get the learners out on foot into the Riverwalk and “create a solid foundation within the learners and, of course, ourselves as well,” McMahon said.

“It matters a lot for them to trust in each other and the community that surrounds them,” she said.

‘Keep learning fun’

Community is a big part of the school and its goals, Cassie Boca noted.

“We’re forming those partnerships, we’re getting our name into the community and we’re really utilizing so many resources that we have here — even ones we don’t know about today that are available,” she said, emphasizing the importance of “forming those relationships is so that we can start getting the kids even more engaged with those community resources.”

Throughout the year, the school plans to integrate learning with opportunities from Walking Mountains for field science programs, from Alpine Arts for arts programs, as well as with organizations like Mountain Recreation and the Eagle River Watershed Council.

The space itself — located just below Ptarmigan Sports — is designed to support this independent, student-driven model of learning as well.

“It’s our design initially, but we’re already thinking of ways to keep things open and fluid and not make too many decisions upfront so that we can let them kind of decide what this is going to look like too,” McMahon said.

Boca added that the way the studios are designed is so that “everything in here has to work pretty hard for us, serve a lot of purposes and be able to be flexible and moved around.”

This includes having a Lego wall to split the studios, making all of its tabletops be whiteboards as well as allowing for the tables to be moved around or even taken outside.

“The goal of all of the furniture is that it really helps kids kind of learn where they want to learn best. And there’s nothing too rigid about anything here,” Boca said.

Through it all, the school hopes to “keep learning fun,” McMahon said.

“These learners are super excited to continue to be here with us; the energy in the studios right now is so high and I really believe that they’re going to just love this new environment,” she added.

For more information on the school or enrollment, visit VailValleyUnbound.org.