Jeffco open school and enrollment questions

[goofygrin]

a) it's an option school -- no boundaries
b) the area it's in has very few houses/neighborhoods that are acceptable for us.

[2bindenver]

Is it a charter school?

[goofygrin]

Originally Posted by alliern

Where is your job going to be located in the Denver metro area? that might help narrow down your home search.

I'm going to be all over (consulting). Principal office downtown, lots of clients at the DTC with a few elsewhere.

There are other considerations as to where we live that I don't really feel like talking about publicly. We've been working with a good realtor and have made multiple trips to look at houses.

We're in JeffCo for the next few months, so I was just exploring the various schools there in my research and the Open School was one that interested me since I'm very disenfranchised with the traditional school system. However I don't want to buy in Jeffco under the hopes of getting my kid(s) into that school. Especially since, in the areas near the school and where we'd be looking, the neighborhood schools are poor performers for his/out needs.

Simply put, if you're more than 2sd from the mean in terms of academic performance, traditional public schools rarely are sufficient. We'll deal if we have to, and have looked at private, but the ideas behind the Open School (specifically experiential learning and age diversification) specifically suit my kid very, very well. I would have been an ideal candidate as well. Luckily I was put into a very good, pull out program when I was young... when I transferred to a private IB high school I coasted since there was no challenge. That issue continued through college (to the mighty annoyance of my wife).

[goofygrin]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Is it a charter school?

https://sites.google.com/a/jeffcoschools.us/jcos/

It's one of very few in the country. You should know about it as a broker... it is a very, very interesting concept for independent, non traditional learning kids.

Basically the reviews are either overwhelmingly positive ("JCOS was the best thing that ever happened to me") or overwhelmingly negative ("I/my child did not fit the unstructure").

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by goofygrin

https://sites.google.com/a/jeffcoschools.us/jcos/

It's one of very few in the country. You should know about it as a broker... it is a very, very interesting concept for independent, non traditional learning kids.

Basically the reviews are either overwhelmingly positive ("JCOS was the best thing that ever happened to me") or overwhelmingly negative ("I/my child did not fit the unstructure").

Boulder Valley has schools like that, too. Up here they're called "focus" schools. The difference between a focus school and a charter is that a focus school uses the regular curriculum in its own way, and operates within the standard BVSD structure. A charter may have a totally different curriculum, and of course operates under a charter and outside of the regular BVSD structure. Here is an example: http://schools.bvsd.org/p12/hp/Pages/default.aspx

[MissTerri]

Here are a few other public schools that might interest you. Some are easier to get into then others.
Downtown Denver Expeditionary School
Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning - Home
Core Values
About |
Odyssey School of Denver
Polaris at Ebert

[goofygrin]

Thanks for the info, but I'm not interested in living in nor attending any schools in Denver county.

Right now I think we're focusing on the Cherry Creek school district (SE Aurora). Perhaps Douglas County (highlands ranch).

Unless we decide that we love a house in JeffCo.

[azcater]

There's a school down south in Jeffco that a lot of people are loving called Collegiate Academy. I've heard good and bad from Jeffco Open School and haven't heard about anyone not getting in that wanted to get in.

[blackmet]

When I was a Jeffco student, the open school was where you sent your almost completely hopeless burnout cases in a last ditch effort to keep them from working at Subway for life.

It's probably improved since then...but you probably have better options.

[DoodlemomCoS]

OP, we are not in Denver but north Colorado Springs and I think they operate under the same system as Denver. It was very difficult getting an answer to the question. We also had a specific school in mind. While I've read it isn't an option for you, we decided we had to buy in the school boundary area in order to ensure admission. Even then our oldest is having to go to a different school for the remainder of the year until the new school year starts in the fall even though this is our neighborhood school. The school we selected is an IB school and very popular therefore slots are almost always taken.
Best of luck. It's frustrating.