The Liberty School students and staff moved into a permanent home this semester after operating in five different buildings over the last 11 years.
The private school’s new building in west Durango features three classrooms, tutoring rooms and a large multi-purpose room for gym and other activities.
The building was intentionally designed not to feel as institutional as other schools to better serve its dyslexic and intellectually gifted students, who often have struggled in those environments, Head of School Christian Holmen said.
It was built on a 9-acre parcel on Western Avenue along Junction Creek north of Four Corners Health Care Center and has plenty of space for outdoor lessons and exercise.
“This is a big step up,” said Margaret Williams, an eighth-grader.
Last year, the school operated in an office building in Bodo Industrial Park. Before that, it occupied a former airplane hangar, the basement of a church, inside a home and it shared a building with Big Picture High School.
“This has been a long and arduous journey and one we have shared with so many that helped make this dream of a permanent home for our students a reality,” said Holmen at an event Thursday to celebrate the new school.
The school raised $1.5 million for the building and received an additional $1.3 million loan from Triumph Bancorp, formerly First National Bank, said Barbara Stine, president of the school’s board. The school is fundraising to pay off the loan, she said.
Among the key features of the building are the cozy, well-lit rooms where students will spend a significant amount of time each day working one-on-one with instructors, tutor Claudia White said. The one-on-one time with tutors sets the school apart, she said.
“Every kid gets what they need, we meet the kids where they are and that can be different on a daily basis,” she said.
Last year, the school operated in a building in Bodo that relied on 5-foot-tall cubicle partitions to separate tutoring rooms, which could be distracting, but the students and staff made it work, she said.
The first day of school was spent in the building, not on the school’s traditional first-day field trip, said Pam Savage, teacher and gifted programs coordinator.
The staff greeted the students with crazy hats and music as they were dropped off, she said.
“It was just sort of magical,” she said.
The school serves 28 students, but its maximum capacity is 49, Holmen said. The building was designed so that it can be expanded.
mshinn@durangoherald.com