Miss-Delectable
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Jeffco deaf school looking for matching funds to help land new building grant - The Denver Post
Students and faculty at Rocky Mountain Deaf School could probably make do with their small, crowded cafeteria. They might put up with not having a gym, or with the dingy, strip-mall building that houses their school, or even the leaks.
"We have pretty persistent leaky roofs that damage our stuff," said school director Nancy Bridenbaugh.
But put all that together, add in the fact that the 65-student school is expanding — 10th graders are due to show up next fall, and the only place to put them is in what now is the library — and it's a bit much.
The Jefferson County charter school hopes to get a $10.8 million state grant that would allow it to leave the leaky Golden strip mall behind and build a new school from the ground up.
But to get the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant administrators have their eye on, the school needs to raise $2 million on its own.
To do that, they're asking for the public's help.
"We've been working for quite some time to raise funds," trying everything from calling philantropic groups, who have committed about $200,000, to on-air fund drives. "We went on KOOL 105, we were their cause of the month," Bridenbaugh said
Rocky Mountain Deaf School is one of two schools in the state that serves deaf students.
The state-operated Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs reported enrollment of 558 in 2010. Many of those students live at the campus during the school week.
Many of RMDS students come to the school after attending typical schools with non-deaf classmates, and finding that doesn't work for them, Bridenbaugh said.
"There is research that deaf children just learn differently, and that you can't just put them in a typical class and expect them to learn the same way," she said.
Often, though, the decision to try a school for the deaf stems from something else entirely. Making friends through an interpreter is tough, she said. "So often, they become very lonely."
The school will apply for the BEST grant in March; if approved, it must have the $2 million in place by October.
Students and faculty at Rocky Mountain Deaf School could probably make do with their small, crowded cafeteria. They might put up with not having a gym, or with the dingy, strip-mall building that houses their school, or even the leaks.
"We have pretty persistent leaky roofs that damage our stuff," said school director Nancy Bridenbaugh.
But put all that together, add in the fact that the 65-student school is expanding — 10th graders are due to show up next fall, and the only place to put them is in what now is the library — and it's a bit much.
The Jefferson County charter school hopes to get a $10.8 million state grant that would allow it to leave the leaky Golden strip mall behind and build a new school from the ground up.
But to get the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant administrators have their eye on, the school needs to raise $2 million on its own.
To do that, they're asking for the public's help.
"We've been working for quite some time to raise funds," trying everything from calling philantropic groups, who have committed about $200,000, to on-air fund drives. "We went on KOOL 105, we were their cause of the month," Bridenbaugh said
Rocky Mountain Deaf School is one of two schools in the state that serves deaf students.
The state-operated Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs reported enrollment of 558 in 2010. Many of those students live at the campus during the school week.
Many of RMDS students come to the school after attending typical schools with non-deaf classmates, and finding that doesn't work for them, Bridenbaugh said.
"There is research that deaf children just learn differently, and that you can't just put them in a typical class and expect them to learn the same way," she said.
Often, though, the decision to try a school for the deaf stems from something else entirely. Making friends through an interpreter is tough, she said. "So often, they become very lonely."
The school will apply for the BEST grant in March; if approved, it must have the $2 million in place by October.
