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Ceci Reynes: New Legacy Charter School is a school for teen parents. It is a public school so anyone can come in and register. You necessarily don’t have to be a parent, but we have an early learning center on site. Our parents don’t have to worry about looking for childcare elsewhere.

Nadia: After I had my son, I didn’t really want to come back to school or just to go to any school because I was really worried about like not being in the same place as him, but having a school like this, I get to know that I’m under the same roof as my son and it gives me the liberty to walk across the hall and know that he’s there. I get to see him and check in on him even if he doesn’t see me. I can see him, and I feel, like, at peace.

Ceci: We do structure around parenting; we have parenting classes and what’s so special about that is that the parents are able to go into our early learning center and implement exactly what they learn in their parenting classes with their child.

Elyssa: Parenting to me such a big thing so for them to make a class just focused on that was very helpful. I’ve grown in so many ways as a parent just because of that class and I know who I want to be as a parent now, I have a goal as a parent now.

Julissa: I felt a sense of comfort knowing that my daughter was directly down the hallway for me, while I was in the high school wing, and I was also learning. My daughter, she was learning how to communicate with me at such a young age. She learned sign language, her teachers were fantastic, they took care of her as if that was their own child.

Sara Kahn: I think when you walk in these doors you just feel a sense of community and a sense of belonging and this is such a special and safe place and we want it to always feel that way and we want to always be here for every student who just needs us to come in and make their life a little bit better.

Carla: Hi, my name is Carla. I’m a Ute Mountain tribal member here at Towaoc, Colorado. My son Michael will be attending the kindergarten with Kwiyagat Community Academy. We are very excited. We’re excited for the school, in general, just because they’ll be teaching the Ute culture to the children. It’ll be good for my son because I want him to learn our culture and learn our language. My father passed away when I was young, so I won’t be able to teach that to him.

Lyndreth Wall: [First Portion Spoken in Ute] As I was saying in my Ute language, it’s for the people, for the kids, the curriculum. It’s going to be for the tradition as well as our language. Because the language is dying, we’re losing our identity, we’re losing our language. This charter school is like our mountain, it’s a contour of the shape of our Ute Mountain. That’s how unique our charter school is because it represents the mountain, it represents the people, it represents our language, it represents education.

Betty: It’s important that we have a school here on the reservation. They’ll feel more comfortable coming here and wanting to learn.

Austin Turtle: I think one of our biggest accomplishments that we’ve achieved in the past year is setting up our charter school, the Kwiyagat Charter Academy. I think it’s important that we partner with all entities out there, including CSI, to let them know the importance in Indian country and having a charter school such as this is unique and important. It helps us identify what needs to be taught to carry those traditions to the next generation.

Nate Nelson: The New America School is a public charter school. We serve the public by opening our doors to students that have been underserved and want this chance, they’re ready to turn the lights on.

Sam Anderson: Here at New America, some of our students and families come from a whole different country and it is their first time in an American classroom setting so we provide them with an experience that feels like home away from home and gives them the chance to love an American education.

Sam: I am from Ghana, but I live in the United States. New America accepts every student and is ready to help any student, if only you are ready to learn and improve your academic ability.

Alondra: I think that the people that come here that are from different countries, I think it’s beneficial for them just because they get to learn the language here and they get to learn in the language that they speak. A lot of people come in here with struggles and I think this school is really helpful to get you back on track and teaches you, it’s okay, there’s an end goal, and you can achieve it.

Sam Anderson: Our students, they come in, they know they’re going to see a warm face saying, hey, good morning, how are you doing? Pass appeared. Our staff’s in the hallway talking to each student and we really, we’re always interacting. Even when they’re walking to the bathroom, you’ll see staff, hey, how are you doing? Where are you going? How’s your classes? They come to us immediately when they have problems and that’s something I’ve never seen at a high school. I think it really gives them a huge boost when they come here because this, it’s really like their home away from home. They come here with the understanding that they can be their most comfortable and their most at-self here.

Nico Alvarado: Thomas MacLaren school is a K12 charter public school. We’re a liberal arts school on the east side of Colorado Springs. We are categorized as a classical school. We offer a one-track model of schooling so there are no advanced classes or remedial classes, there’s just one excellent high-quality program for all our students. What that means is that we have to make that accessible for all children and it means that some students are going to be able to come into that program and really thrive and excel right away and some students are going to need a lot of support to get there on the way.

Jamin: My favorite subject is history because I get to learn like the American Revolution, the Constitution.

Andrea: Thomas MacLaren has really helped me kind of develop my sense of wonder. It’s definitely pushed me in a lot of ways and all of the classes in their own ways have kind of prompted me to ask questions that are not easy to answer but kind of going in depth in a lot of ways that you wouldn’t go otherwise, especially just learning not for the test, but learning for the sake of learning. The subject that brings me the most joy personally is orchestra, and music. I’ve played music since I was in third grade, I started playing the violin.

Keith Redpath: It’s pretty unusual that at Thomas MacLaren orchestra is part of the curriculum, it’s not an elective. Every student does orchestra, which is super exciting to me as a music teacher and because I believe so much in the power of music and the benefits of music. You might think that a lot of the students might turn their backs on it or I wish they didn’t have to do it but I have to say, from my experience, they come to it and they have a great time playing and they enjoy what they do. And I think they feel really glad that they’ve had this experience.

Sara Kahn: Charter schools are still a public school, but they’re not funded in the same way that a typical public school is in a large district. Funding is really something that I think needs to be boosted for charter schools, to take care of these kids that sometimes just don’t fit in or are maybe not even wanted in traditional schools.

Anonymous: I’m even getting emotional just thinking about it, but this school is just so important because if it was able to change my life and my daughter’s life, it’s able to do that for so many other students. That’s why it’s so important that the school still receives the funding because as long as this school is still up and running there’s so many lives that are changing every single day.

Nadia: When I am able to walk the stage with my son, I am just going to feel so proud, and I know he is going to be very proud of me too because not only am I building my future for myself but for him as well.

Sam Anderson: It feels great to work at New America. This came as a chance for me to really look at the chances that I wish I got when I was in high school and give it to another student.

Andrea: When I look at the younger grades and the middle schoolers coming into the school for the first time, I just feel excited for them and for the adventure that this rich curriculum is going to provide for them in the next seven years.

Lyndreth Wall: When you learn your tradition, your custom, and your language, it builds a very strong foundation. That foundation is going to take you a long way in life.

Nico Alvarado: The Charter School Institute provides this opportunity for families to choose a school that really truly meets their needs. When I think of our colleagues at New Legacy, I think of our colleagues at New America. These are wildly different schools with wildly different models but the fact that we’re all able to exist and provide families with a great educational option is, I think, really a great thing for the state of Colorado.