At their first meeting of 2025, the Southwest Open School board discussed interim Director Joe Kelly’s start in the position, unique educational experiences for SWOS students this intensive session and grants.
Kelly officially became the interim director on Jan. 1. He stepped into the director role after longtime director Casey Simpson accepted a position with the city of Cortez. He shared how he has been doing as director so far, noting that some parts of the position will be a learning curve.
The board also discussed some of the unique experiences that students are able to participate in this year. Those include Ecology of the Southwest, Numbers Behind Bars and Southwest Students of People and Place.
Indigenous “wellbreity circles” will also be making their way to SWOS at the end of the month.
In Ecology of the Southwest, students will go to Medicine Horse near Tucson, Arizona, to study the Sonoran Desert. The week in the desert goes hand in hand with what students have been doing in their ELA course.
According to SWOS, students have been learning about, reading, discussing and analyzing “Odes and Nature Narratives.” Students wrote a short version of an ode “to the natural world” and are working on a nature narrative.
While in the Sonoran Desert, students will be taking notes in their journals to use for a final ode or nature narrative. This narrative or ode will be included in their portfolios.
Students who participate in Numbers Behind Bars will go to Canon City to tour the Colorado Prison Museum, and those who will be part of Southwest Students of People and Place will go to Durango to interview people on the street about their perceptions of “crime, health and homelessness” in Durango versus Cortez.
The board received a facilities update, with the board saying that campus improvement bids have been submitted.
The school has been awarded multiple grants, including a re-engagement grant for a case manager position. This grant will provide $292,000 over the course of three years.
They also received the School Health Professional Grant to support a school health professional at SWOS. This grant totals $75,000, and another grant, the Stronger Connections Grant, totals $150,000.
Other grants will help fund the e-sports and biking club, project based learning and career and technical education programming, academic interventionist role, instructional coaching, the completion of a four season greenhouse and updated drip lines, the school’s food and snack program and more.
In action items, the supplemental budget was approved.
