Message from Executive Director
Our amazing school has had a story book beginning, and each and everyday we get to add new chapters and story lines to our book. We started out with a group of parents and community members who had the desire to create a school for the Clark/North Routt area and for future families looking for a high-quality education in our small community. From a small school house, to a state-of-the-art facility built in 2011, our school has come a long way!
As a school, EL (formerly known as Expeditionary Learning) and Outdoor Education and Wellness (OEW) are the foundation to our daily curriculum. Key EL design principles include the fostering of curiosity, the fundamental primacy of self-discovery, the development of empathy and caring in all students, a respect for diversity and inclusion, the collaboration, collectivity and responsibility for learning, a commitment to solitude and reflection, and a deep respect for the environment and natural world.
When we add a few character traits and habits of learning to our curriculum and design principles, we’ve created an environment of hands-on learning that perfectly fits our community, our students and our staff. This allows the impactful relationships which blossom between students and staff, thus, allowing each student to grow and learn at their ability and pace, and feeling supported while on their journey.
In the high-stakes world of public schools, we pride ourselves in giving our students a high level of real-world academics, character development and teaching them to find their own practice of scholarship and growth. It is with this combination of learning is what it means to be a student at NRCCS.
Brandon LaChance
We are able to create this amazing school while performing at a high-level in comparison to the state. Since 2015, our school has been the proud recipient of the Governor's Award for school improvement and the John Irwin Award Schools of Excellence award.
My biggest hope is that all our stakeholders--students, parents and staff--all feel proud of their association with NRCCS.
Yours in Education,
Brandon LaChance
We Are Crew!
As a student, I want to:
- Be known and know that there is at least one staff member who really believes in me and at least one student my age that gets me.
- Feel accepted for who I am and the kind of learner I am.
- Feel that I am cared about as an individual.
- Feel safe, respected and challenged.
- Be happy, excited and proud of my school.
- Be recognized for hard work and extra efforts.
- Be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.
- Be trusted and treated fairly.
- Celebrate my individuality, strengths and weaknesses.
As a parent, I want to:
- Be proud that my student(s) attend NRCCS.
- Know that the staff genuinely care about my student and their success.
- Know that my student’s teacher creates an interesting and engaging classroom environment, and my student builds confidence and skills for a lifetime of success.
- Know that my student can express him/herself, be creative, solve problems and think critically with the right balance of structure and freedom.
- Know that my student is safe and has friends.
- Bask in the joy that my student gets to explore and learn outdoors.
- See my student develop a lifelong love of learning.
As a staff member, I want to:
- Laugh, love and learn every day.
- Always have the students’ best interests at heart.
- Be amazed at the progress each student makes each year.
- Know that all staff have the backs of my students and each other.
- Feel respected, challenged to do my best, free to think outside the box, free to make creative choices, free to make mistakes and trusted.
- Know that I can get help or advice from my peers when I need it.
- Lend my individual strengths to the school.
- Make a difference.