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Popular School in the Woods to take more students
Academy School District 20’s Choice Enrollment Window closes at 4 p.m. Feb. 24. Anyone interested in attending School in the Woods for the 2012-13 school year is invited to apply by then. Enrollment in the program is decided by lottery. For more information, visit the district’s website at www.asd20.org or call 234-1200.
More students will take classes out of the box by watching insects skitter across water or studying plant cycles while attending class amid trees starting next school year.
School in the Woods, an extremely popular Academy School District 20 program, will grow from 52 to 78 students, the first time the fourth-grade program has expanded since it opened its doors in 1999.
“The word is out on the success of the program,” said D-20 Superintendent Mark Hatchell. “It really brings together education and the environment.”
The spots for 26 additional students create another class in space carved from one of three portable buildings where the school is housed on Vollmer Road in Black Forest.
School in the Woods grants students access to 640 acres used as a living classroom. The curriculum is designed to increase students’ knowledge of natural science and appreciation of the natural world, although all the core subjects are studied.
“They consider themselves to be naturalists,” Hatchell said of the students.
Fourth-graders who study at School in the Woods take that experience back to their schools, he said, adding that some students in high school and college have shared how critical the experience was in later years.
“We have an outstanding staff that think outside of the box,” Hatchell said.
Student test scores are included with those from Edith D. Wolford Elementary School.
Anecdotally the students do well after their year at School in the Woods, he said.
Students apply for the fourth-grade program, with spots awarded in a lottery, said D-20 spokeswoman Nanette Anderson.
In recent years, 120 to 150 applications have been received for the 52 spots, Hatchell said.
The cost of running the program is comparable to the costs at other schools, he said, although starting up the program might have been a bit more than that of typical classes in 1999.
Right now, the Black Forest acreage is the only location District 20 has for the small program, and there is no more physical space in the portable buildings at the site. Students pick up morning buses at Academy Endeavour, and go to Wolford Elementary on Black Forest Road to catch buses home.
“This is a big step and we are confident in the program’s continued success,” Hatchell said.
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