Parents and children busily toured Foothills Academy on a sunny Saturday last week and excitedly asked questions during an open house for a new school to open on the campus this fall.
Foothills Academy at 4725 Miller St. in Wheat Ridge will close this summer after 27 years, and pre-K through 8th grade Mountain Phoenix Community School will assume the lease and open for the 2011-12 school year.
Mountain Phoenix Principal Donna Newberg-Long is in the process of hiring about 21 teachers and taking enrollment applications for the tuition-free charter school.
She will serve as principal of the new school and continue to be principal of the “mountain site” Mountain Phoenix school for 65 students in Coal Creek Canyon, which serves northern Jefferson County.
Newberg-Long describes the curriculum to come at the school as education inspired by Waldorf, known for an emphasis on arts, experiential learning and strong background knowledge in support of learning comprehension.
“We were being asked by parents, begged by parents to come down where (a Waldorf setting) is more centrally located,” she said.
She answered questions for 45 minutes past the 10 a.m. to noon open house Saturday and was not surprised with the good turnout other than a high number of parents interested in preschool for their children.
The school hopes to open with 281 students and has accepted about 150 students, she said. The number of students in each grade will materialize based on the enrollment.
“We are drawing a lot of private school people or people out of district so it helps Jeffco,” she said. “It is not my wish to take any of the children from the private Waldorf school. I think our location is so far from them all, that it is one reason I am so fond of this location, we don’t wish to compete with them, we want them to thrive and do well.”
Some walls in the high school building at the present Foothills Academy site — which is the newest building and contains science labs — will be removed to make larger classrooms, but otherwise the campus will see little initial renovation, she said. The larger classrooms will have 24 students while some smaller classrooms that cannot be enlarged will have about 16 students.
“What I love about this facility compared to a regular public school facility is that it has charm, and it has a courtyard where we can gather, and it has character,” Newberg-Long said.
Newberg-Long has experience with Waldorf-oriented schools that dates back to 1979. She also was a principal for five years at Boulder Valley Schools Peak to Peak charter school, which has a curriculum based on Core Knowledge, worked three years in Denver Public schools and in recent years earned her doctorate at the University of Denver.
Parents interested in enrolling their children should visit the Mountain Phoenix website at www.mountainphoenix.org and download a Jeffco Schools choice enrollment form from the Jeffco Schools website. Forms may be faxed to 303-642-2455 and or mailed to 11398 Ranch Elsie Golden, CO 80403.