Staffing, opening plans for Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School in Pueblo detailed

Eventful months await Pueblo School District 60 as administrators and staff lay the foundation for a forthcoming magnet school on the city's north side.

Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School, 715 W. 20th St., will open next school year at the 14-acre site of the former Freed Middle School and Heroes K-8 Academy, with capacity to serve up to 665 students. The school opened early enrollment to incoming kindergarten through sixth-graders Wednesday morning and will grow to serve kindergarten through eighth-grade students in two years.

Nic Roberts, principal at Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School, and Andrew Burns, executive director of student support services at Pueblo D60, shared the school's plans for enrollment, staffing and curriculum development with the district's governing board at a public meeting Wednesday night.

"Learning expeditions are the signature piece of Expeditionary Learning. ... These are long-term, in-depth studies of compelling topics," Roberts said. "These structures and topics vary depending on grade level and they include a wide range of themes such as tools and work, the American Revolution, epidemics. Over the course of an expedition, students will engage in their own original research, which often involves field work experience."

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Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School also will place an emphasis on career and technical education (CTE) as students will have the opportunity to explore various careers within the Colorado Career Cluster Model and learn about the existing CTE programs in Pueblo D60 high schools. The school building will be equipped with a CTE lab, an art room, a science lab, music room and multiple classrooms serving special needs students.

With Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School being Pueblo D60's first Expeditionary Learning school, the position of instructional guide has been created to serve as an "expert in Expeditionary Learning," Roberts said.

Hiring of an instructional guide and a principal secretary will conclude the first of three staffing phases for the new school. A second staffing phase for the new school will begin in January and include hiring of an assistant principal and "lead teachers" at various grade levels. Additional teaching staff will be hired from March 2023 to June 2023.

Despite historic location, new Freed K-8 will not have neighborhood boundaries

Freed Junior High, named after trailblazing local educator Nettie S. Freed, opened in 1954 on the site of what will be Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School next fall.

The original Freed, later known as Freed Middle School and Heroes K-8 Academy, served students residing north of the Arkansas River and west of Fountain Creek for more than seven decades. The school was closed by the district in 2019 following low enrollment and architectural dilapidation. H.W. Construction demolished the school building soon thereafter.

While Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School shares a location and similar name to a longtime feeder for Centennial High School, the new Freed anticipates enrollment from families throughout and outside of Pueblo District 60 boundaries. After opening Wednesday morning, early enrollment for the new school will remain open until Jan. 3, 2023.

"The early enrollment process is open to all community members," Burns said. "This includes D60 families, D60 charter school families as well as other community members. Families do need to actively apply since Nettie S. Freed is a magnet school and as such does not have specific enrollment boundaries."

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By Jan. 13, Pueblo D60 will notify families of their enrollment application status. Additional families who did not submit an early enrollment application also may enroll their child at Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School during the district's regular school choice window from Jan. 16 to Feb. 13.

"By providing early notification to families about their Nettie S. Freed application, we will be able to assess the enrollment impact on our current schools," Burns said. "While inevitably, some families may opt to move their families from a current school to Nettie S. Freed — we are committed to all of our D60 schools and ensuring that we provide education experience at all D60 settings."

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: New Freed K-8 school in Pueblo details staffing, opening plans