Bijou turning page in history

As The Bijou School prepared to move from its Walnut Street site to the Whittier Elementary School building, it held a family gathering.

Those attending Friday's annual luau generally were not related by blood or marriage, but the bonds were deep: Teachers who helped build an alternative high school program long before most saw the need. Graduates who said they would've dropped out of high school if the program hadn't been there. Students who said they are in a school where they are accepted and can succeed.

And when asked what the school means to them, the response was nearly universal: family.

"It means a lot to me," said Dedrie Davison, who began at Bijou in November and will soon be a junior. "It's like a second home."

"It's family, really," said 2002 graduate Renée Cockrell, who went on to graduate from Colorado College in 2006. "Still to this day.

"I never would've gone to CC without this school. I probably never would've graduated from high school."

She's just wrapping up her first year of teaching English at Cheyenne Mountain High School and believes she has found her calling, a profession she choose because of teachers at The Bijou School.

"Math was a subject I never had any love for, but it was my favorite class," she said, crediting former math teacher Randy Gabler. "I think it made me realize how important an individual can be in a student's day."

That's exactly what Richard "Dick" Robinson had in mind when he helped create the Educational Opportunity Program in 1969, said his widow, Joyce Robinson. Though the program has evolved over time, Robinson said she is glad to see it still going strong.

She and former teacher Vicki Patterson, who taught English for 28 years, recalled six or seven years when the program would always be on the chopping block. The students would go to public meetings and tell their stories, and the program would be spared, Robinson said.

The EOP was Colorado Springs School District 11's first alternative high school program and evolved into the Tesla and Bijou schools that are running today.

Bijou has been housed in what has been characterized as D-11's most decrepit facility.

The district expects to sell the site after Bijou moves out.

Money from a 2004 bond issue was approved to upgrade Bijou's facilities, but when the school board decided earlier this year to close eight elementary schools, it also voted to move Bijou into the Whittier building and use some of the bond money for needed modifications.

The relocated school will be called The Bijou School at Whittier, said Principal Wayne Hutchinson.

He said he wanted to keep the Bijou name because the school's name had changed so many times and because of its symbolism.

"Bijou means jewel," he said. "That's what it is."