Question re: D20 schools (Mountain View: environment, work, special needs)

[devongirl]

Hello,
We are moving to CoS in a month and our children have been assigned to Challenger Middle and Mountain View Elementary (per our address in Briargate) I was thrilled as I had checked the test scores of all the D20 schools and favored some over others. These two schools have excellent ratings.

On coming home and doing further research, I have found that these schools are in the technology magnet strand. We are unfamiliar with this type of school. I have calls in to staff there but if anyone can shed some light as to how this type of schools differs from a more traditional model, I would appreciate it. My husband is skeptical as he wants our children to have a Liberal Arts based education and sees technology more as a tool thus we are considering the choice option in a nearby IB school. We are open to be informed more on this issue.

I also read on the Challenger Middle school web-site that they are the school that takes all the emotionally disturbed middle school students in the district, in addition to all the ESL students.
While I appreciate the needs of all children, I am slightly alarmed as to what to expect on reading this. Our son is already nervous about moving state, starting Middle School (it is 7th-9th where we are now). Obviously, I want the transition to be an easy one and if I am comfortable with the school, it would help tremendously.

I know calling the school to talk about this specific matter I will get the party line so does anyone know anything about Challenger school in particular? Should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[froggin4colorado]

Devongirl,
To be honest, when I first read your post I was highly urked at the comment towards being concerned that your child would be with kids with special needs. However, I took a step back and remembered you are not familiar with the way our schools operate and I relaxed. I put this comment in here for any others who might react the way I did originally.
Anyhow, districts will often create a more or less self-contained classroom for students with significant disabilities, both physically and emotionally. Granted, inclusion, inclusion, inclusion...yes. However, the least restrictive environment is also recognized so if a student isn't going to excel in a regular ed room and different goals and objectives need to be addressed, then often those will be taught/addressed in a seperate classroom.
What your child may or may not experience is an occasional visit in his or her classroom from one of these students, usually with a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio. Here in Colorado, we consider students with emotional issues as SIED or having a Significant Identifiable Emotional Disability. More often than not, these students have had to deal with trauma in life or thier bodies can not get normalized chemically allowing them to deal with life in general like other "normal" people. Please do not hold any fear in your child's education. Schools all over the area have a similar set up.
Additionally, D20 is a wealthier school district so the number of ESL students is small. Again, a lot of thier education is done through pull-outs where they go to a seperate room in addition to their ESL teacher doing a lot of scaffolding in the regular education system.
Please rest assured that D20 is one of the top districts in the state and this includes all of their school. Where else to look??? D12 I guess, but your population of sped and ESL students will be slightly higher. Stay where you are at. Your child will be attending a school that is predominately white, middle to upper class, and in a district that prides itself for being elite in the area.

If anyone disagrees, feel free to say so.

[Amery523]

My husband worked at Challenger for a year (and has since transferred to Rampart HS). Challenger spent a lot of money revamping the technology in the school and hired an awesome technology teacher as well. Besides newer computers, there will also be things like audio-visual classes, 3D art, tv production classes....so things like that. The regular curriculum is the same. There's just 'extras' like what I mentioned above. Also, Challenger will feed into Pine Creek which is a good school as well. If your son likes to play football, Challenger has an awesome football program. When my husband was there the teams went undefeated for two years straight.

[Trinity Florida]

Originally Posted by devongirl

Hello,
We are moving to CoS in a month and our children have been assigned to Challenger Middle and Mountain View Elementary (per our address in Briargate) I was thrilled as I had checked the test scores of all the D20 schools and favored some over others. These two schools have excellent ratings.

On coming home and doing further research, I have found that these schools are in the technology magnet strand. We are unfamiliar with this type of school. I have calls in to staff there but if anyone can shed some light as to how this type of schools differs from a more traditional model, I would appreciate it. My husband is skeptical as he wants our children to have a Liberal Arts based education and sees technology more as a tool thus we are considering the choice option in a nearby IB school. We are open to be informed more on this issue.

I also read on the Challenger Middle school web-site that they are the school that takes all the emotionally disturbed middle school students in the district, in addition to all the ESL students.
While I appreciate the needs of all children, I am slightly alarmed as to what to expect on reading this. Our son is already nervous about moving state, starting Middle School (it is 7th-9th where we are now). Obviously, I want the transition to be an easy one and if I am comfortable with the school, it would help tremendously.

I know calling the school to talk about this specific matter I will get the party line so does anyone know anything about Challenger school in particular? Should I be looking elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for any help.

wow i didnt know that about challenger , my daughter attends there. we just moved here not to long ago.

Schools are ok here, could use some updating and some newer buildings but its not a bad area its actually one of the nicest areas you will find in COS

[ksenn]

Challenger is a great school. My 6th grader goes there and my 1st grader attends Mountain View. I have no heard no issues with what you are talking about at all. Almost every school whether elementary or middle is going to have their share of ESL or special needs kids of some sort so you really arent going to get away from that. If they were violent or something like that, they probably wouldnt have them there.

[ksenn]

Forgot to mention the technology part of the school. In 6th grade, there is just one quarter of technology so it isnt like every single class has something to do with technology or that they even use technology more than any other school. In fact, I was disappointed that they dont use it more being a technology school. So I wouldnt worry about it being too "techie" for your kids. You could always "choice" them into another school, but we moved here last year at about this time and we couldnt do it as the window to do it was closed and no where else for them to go. We pretty much wanted the technology magnet anyway.

If you have any other questions, please dont hesitate to fire away!

[devongirl]

Thanks for all the positive replies. I am sure my son will be fine at Challenger. My issue was not with having my children in school with 'special needs' kids...I am a teacher and agree with integration and I also taught ESL in Asia for 2 years. My worry was reading that this one particular school took ALL the emotionally disturbed kids in the district! I know it's a huge district and the thought of that was quite alarming. To me, 'emotionally disturbed' is quite different than learning disabilities. In our current school, my second grader has a classmate who is deaf and has a full-time sign teacher working along-side the class teacher. I sub in there often and it's a wonderful experience for all the children. They all take sign language classes every Thursday before school too so they can 'talk' to their buddy! My concern was with the possibility of my children being in classes with a large proportion of disruptive,disturbed children with behavioral problems. I have worked with children with these issues and though I have tremendous sympathy for them and their problems, I don't want my own kids exposed to that in school. I make no apology whatsoever for that.

I did finally talk to a counselor at Challenger and she expressed surprise at the web-site statement (it's in the 'History of Challenger' section of the school web-site). She said that there is a school in the district that has a separate classroom for 'high-risk' kids, but that Challenger had regular integration of ESL and kids with learning disabilities. I hope that is indeed the case!