Education Options: Private and Homeschool
While Archuleta School District offers excellent educational opportunities, some people relocating to Pagosa wish to enroll their children in a private school, online or blended school, or would like to homeschool their children. Pagosa Springs offers many private educational options, online and blended options, and homeschooling groups.
Pagosa Family School: Pagosa Family School is an Archuleta School District shared-schooling educational outreach program offered to all homeschool, private school and Archuleta School District students. PFS offers Spanish, art, drumline, choir and an exploratory class consisting of science, music and drama. Please visit Pagosa Family School on Facebook, visit the school district website at MyPagosaSchools.com or contact the Shared School Liaison at (970) 264-2228.
Pagosa Valor Academy: Pagosa Valor Academy is a University Model School for kindergarten through 12th grades. It combines the best traits of home education with the best traits of public school education. It is a family-oriented school with the core purpose of teaching kids from a biblical perspective while preparing college-ready young adults. Learn more at pagosavaloracademy.org.
Our Savior Lutheran School: This early childhood school offers preschool through seventh grade in which every discipline is taught from the Christian worldview. All classes are taught using a Classical Christian Curriculum, which includes such classes as Latin, cursive, traditional math (no common core), phonics-based English, science, art and music. The school is located on three acres, complete with six classrooms, a gymnasium and two playground areas. Information is located at oslcpagosa.org.
Online and blended options: Online schooling options, many of which are tuition-free public schools, are gaining popularity.
GOAL High School is a free public charter school and a Microsoft Showcase School. With more than 10 years in operation, GOAL serves ages 14-21. GOAL offers a blended learning format with online courses and student drop-in centers. Visit online at goalac.org.
A sampling of other popular tuition-free public online schools available in Pagosa include Southwest Colorado eSchool (southwestcoloradoeschool.org), K-12 schools (k12.com/colorado-online-schools), and Colorado Connections Academy (connectionsacademy.com/colorado-online-school).
Pagosa also has a robust and diverse homeschooling community. Homeschooling families of all educational philosophies are invited to stay connected through Pagosa Homeschool Connection’s Facebook page. In addition, three homeschooling groups meet weekly throughout the school year. Classical Conversations of Pagosa Springs group (classicalconversations.com) follows a classical home-education model with weekly community days. Friday Co-Op offers academic classes and field trips for preschool through high school as participation dictates. Adventures à la Carte group gets together every week for social and enrichment activities such as hikes, sledding and other field trips. Families who are considering homeschooling for the first time or moving into Colorado are encouraged to review homeschooling laws in Colorado, available through HSLDA (hslda.org) and the Colorado Department of Education.
For more information on these groups or for advice on additional homeschooling resources, contact Pagosa Homeschool Connection leaders at pagosahomeschoolconnection@gmail.com.
Archuleta School District
