970-317-2151 hello@ppos.co

Enrollment Policy

Política de inscripción (Haga clic aquí)

Pagosa Peak Open School welcomes all students and recognizes diversity as a virtue. PPOS prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, ancestry, disability or need for special education services in accordance with C.R.S. §22-30.5-104(3) — ensuring access to the school for all, from academically low-achieving students to exceptional students, and including students with special needs.

Currently enrolled students have priority for enrollment the following year. Beginning in January, parents, guardians, or legal custodians of students currently attending the must declare their intentions to return to the school in the next academic school year. This website will post a reminder to parents/legal guardians of the need to return intent to re-enroll forms, along with the forms and the final day that intent to re-enroll forms will be accepted. It will be the parent’s/legal guardian’s responsibility to return intent to re-enroll forms by the last business day in February.

On the first business day of March, the School Director or designee will determine the number of spaces available for new students in each grade level for the upcoming school year. If there are more applicants for positions than available spots, the School Director will hold a lottery. Priority for available Kindergarten through eighth grade spots will be allocated to the following groups:

  • Children of Founding Families, defined as: Children of current Board Members whose families completed at least 200 hours of volunteerism for the school by January 2017.
  • Children of full-time School Employees (School Director, Advisors, Staff)
  • Siblings of returning Pagosa Peak Students
    1. Should there be more siblings of returning PPOS students than enrollment openings for a given grade, enrollment shall be offered by random selection from within this priority group for the affected grade level.
    2. Any child(ren) living in the same household or with a common parent(s) or legal guardian(s) in separate households will be considered siblings of returning Pagosa Peak students. This includes children who become siblings by marriage or adoption. Any sibling born while a student is enrolled may retain status even if the original student graduates from Pagosa Peak before the sibling reaches Kindergarten.
  • All District Residents on the Enrollment List
  • All non-District Residents

The combination of children of Board Members and full-time Pagosa Peak employees will not exceed twenty percent (20%) of the total school enrollment population in any given year. Should these two groups exceed the twenty percent (20%) limit of the total population, priority will be given to:

  • Children of Founding Families, defined as: Children of Board Members whose families who have completed at least 200 hours of volunteerism for Pagosa Peak Open School by two weeks prior to the lottery.
  • Children of full-time Employees (Executive Director, Advisors, Staff)

Lottery Eligibility and Process

  • Prior to enrolling in the lottery, interested parents and legal guardians of potential students are strongly encouraged to attend an Informational Workshop. These workshops will provide an overview of PPOS’s core values, culture and climate, as it applies to child development, the academic content of the curriculum, and details about PPOS and the enrollment process. Dates, times and places for the workshops will be announced on this website and in local media outlets.
  • Families who wish to be considered for the lottery must also complete an enrollment form by the last business day in February. Enrollment forms can be emailed to hello@pagosapeakopenschool.org, mailed to 7 Parelli Way, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147, or handed in at the school’s front office. The Administrative Assistant will compile a database of all families with completed enrollment forms in order to ensure their inclusion in the lottery.
  • Placement in a program is prescribed by the student’s age as of October 1 for students entering Kindergarten or 1st Grade the upcoming school year. If the incoming student is enrolling for 2nd through 8th grade, he/she will be placed in the grade level that corresponds to the grade level he/she would be entering in his or her former school.
  • The lottery will be conducted from the highest grade level with available spots down to the Kindergarten spots. As a name is drawn, all younger siblings of that student will be given priority for their respective grade levels.
  • After available spots for each grade level have been filled by the lottery, remaining students will be placed on an “order drawn” list that will become the wait list for openings that may arise in the upcoming school year. Each lottery wait list will remain active for one school year. In order to participate in the subsequent year’s lottery, parents/guardians must indicate that they want their child to be considered for that lottery, and must update their enrollment form by coming into the school office and completing the appropriate paperwork prior to the last business day in February.
  • Any potential student who is offered a position and refuses placement will lose any and all lottery positions for that potential student. Students may reapply for the lottery the following day; however their names will be placed at the end of the compiled wait list.
  • After October 1st of each year, the decision of whether or not to accept additional student enrollment would be determined by the School Director.

Lottery Dates

The lottery will be held on the first Wednesday in March, unless otherwise announced, for available positions in the upcoming school year. Families interested in having their child or children included in the lottery must have completed enrollment forms submitted to the Office Manager (or to a Board member in Year One) no later than the last business day in February. Parents/legal guardians whose children are selected in the lottery for available spots in the upcoming school year will be notified the same day by phone of their child or children’s selection. If the parents/guardians cannot be reached on the same day, the Office Manager will continue to attempt verbal notification for the next four (4) days. If parents/legal guardians are not reached during that time, they will forfeit their child/children’s position in the lottery, and their child/children’s names will be placed at the bottom of the wait list. Notification in Spanish will be provided for those parents/legal guardians who have indicated a Spanish language preference. Pagosa Peak must receive a verbal confirmation of intent to enroll each selected student no later than five (5) business days after the lottery and notification, and parents/legal guardians must complete an Enrollment Packet within ten (10) days after the lottery and notification.

If a family does not respond to the lottery notification after five (5) business days their child’s name shall be withdrawn and that available spot will be offered to the child at the top of the wait list. Should a position in the school become available from August first to October first, parents/legal guardians with children on the waitlist will have two (2) days upon verbal notification to notify Pagosa Peak of acceptance of those positions. PPOS will attempt to contact parents/legal guardians for two (2) days only during this time period. It is the responsibility of the parents/legal guardians of a potential student to maintain current contact information with the school.

Kindergarten Lottery

  • Pagosa Peak will offer full-day kindergarten. Full-day kindergarten is considered “best practice” for children enrolled in the program. However, a family may choose a half-day kindergarten option.
  • All Kindergarten students will be assessed for academic and social preparedness before being allowed to enter first grade.

Weighted Lottery

Subsets of students: The following categories of students will be allowed to participate in a weighted lottery (per section 1115(b)(2) of the ESEA):

  • Economically disadvantaged students (e.g. free or reduced priced lunch eligible students)
  • English Language Learners
  • Homeless students
  1. Amount of weights: Each of the three groups will be entered into the lottery three times. If Pagosa Peak has any portion of the population that is less than 15% of the district’s population, the board will adjust the lottery to help address the school demographics.
  2. Rationale for amount of weight: State demographics demonstrate these three groups show lower rates of these students attending charter schools; therefore there is a need to recruit and enroll students from these categories. PPOS is committed to the mission to promote cultural ties and community awareness and believes our student population must represent our community population. In order to provide a representative cross-section of the community, we must weigh the three mentioned subsets of students in order to achieve a diverse and authentic student population.
  3. Process: Applicants will indicate if they qualify under any of the three subsets during the application/enrollment process. School staff may need to contact applicants and/or authorizer for further and specific information regarding the criteria for the three subsets of students. Once applicants are identified and confirmed to qualify under any of the subsets, by school staff, those applications will be photocopied two times (to make a total of three applications for each student). All three applications will be given three different lottery numbers when received (for lottery organizational purposes only). All three applications and three application numbers will be placed into the lottery process (as described below). Applicants in the three subsets will have two more chances than other applicants to be drawn from the lottery.