Jefferson County Open School

Let’s hear it for Happy Hippie High! This school is Unilocal-​worthy for being the only school I know of that is both publicly funded and prone to packing up the entire student body and marching to the Capitol for a peace rally. It’s also the only public school I know that teaches about Nelson Mandela in second grade. I attended here for grades 7 – 12, and had way more wacky adventures than I could fit in a single Unilocal,from the aforementioned peace rallies to international trips.
Yup, international trips. There are fewer now than there once were, in those idyllic pre-​September 11^th days when a pack of high schoolers could fly to Cuba for a school trip and raise only a few eyebrows from the school district’s army of lawyers, but kids willing to raise the fundage from parents or with part time jobs and bake sales can still participate in a variety of extended learning excursions far afield. I went to Paris with the school in seventh grade.
For the parents with school age kids on Unilocal– this is a satellite school. That means that it attracts kids from all over the place. It’s also limited admission, and admissions are done by lottery, though most applicants generally get in. This also means that the school district does its best to ignore the school, including cutting off direct bussing from farther away than the direct area the school is in, meaning kids without a carpool ride have to get there either by a series of school bus transfers or by being dropped off at a pickup point– some of which are along highways. WTF? Let’s make second graders stand on a highway frontage road to wait for a bus! Fun!
The philosophy of the school is that experiential learning will best shape students and prepare them to excell in the future and out there in the real world. For the most part, the school succeeds in using small class sizes, lots of trips and activities, and a great deal of self directed learning to prepare students for college and life after college; however, there are times when this motto falls down on the job. The science and math departments are quite weak, though teachers are more than happy to help students find a way to take advanced classes elsewhere, including community college, while receiving JCOS credit.
Also, a school like this depends on an extremely dedicated staff that excels at teaching for its alternative education style to be a rousing success. The last of the teachers who started the school retired during my time there, and newer staff members can be hit and miss as far as how well they understand how this unique school works. Google my name and Jefferson County Open School to see an example.
If you are a parent with a gifted child who doesn’t take well to authority and constant CSAP prep, but is extraordinary when asked to discourse on a subject that he or she is really interested in, you might consider this school as a haven for their individuality, which would otherwise be summarily pounded out of them unless it fits into an extracurricular activity or a class at traditional schools. But beware– your second grader may come home wanting to start planting trees all over the place to win a Nobel Peace Prize, your seventh grader might well show up with a trip permission slip asking you to pay $ 1,000 to send him or her to Spain to study cooking, and your high school senior is likely to be less interested in prom than in buying an old car and turning it into an Art Car resembling a large shoe– all for credit.