Boulder Prep Charter High School

Disenfranchised: When our family was advised to enroll our son in this school, I was concerned - it certainly didn't match my expectations for a high school, based on my own experience.  But we really didn't have a choice, as the tier-1 and tier-2 schools were clearly more interested in enforcing their rules and regimen than helping one more child in a sea of children gain his potential.  Admitedly, my son, bored with the standard high school experience, chose to "spit in the wind" on numerous occasions which didn't fit the standard experience.  My son was on the express train towards not graduating and likely living an unfulfilled life while getting in trouble with the law.

Yes, Boulder Prep is one of the last stops for kids at risk (possibly one stop past the point of no return for some) and it's not located in a lush paradise, but this school achieved success for my son, where the others had failed.  It was a 180 degree transformation, my son connected with the life experience stories in the morning, finally started participating in PE, completed his reading and math on time, grew a strong interest in the sciences, and standardized test scores are steadily climbing to where our family always knew he could perform.

There are the same distractions as other schools, but it is in fact a learning environment that can connect to children that are having trouble living within the tight lines drawn at a standard school.  

As we near the end of this journey for our first child, it's interesting to look back at the mix of teachers that had the pleasure of my son in their classroom, there was never a middle ground in parent teacher conferences ... either they loved him and he flourished through exposure to knowledge, or they purely hated him and they used administrative rules and false discipline to force him out - although he had more teachers of the first description, BVSD has given too much support through the years to the discipline based non-teachers (whether they live in a classroom or administration) and in that support they have created a low tolerance system that rejects the type of non-linear intelligence that transforms our world.