West Campus (grades PK-8) Established in 1924, West Campus is located in Colorado Springs District 11 and supports 150 elementary school students and 140 middle school students. Located blocks from the commercial center of Old Colorado City, West PK-8 is engaged in a redesign that aims to draw on the entrepreneurial and community-connected learning opportunities presented by its surroundings, inviting shared ownership of and pride in its students’ growth and development.
Embedded Files
A Day in the Life
West Campus is currently in the middle of their redesign process. This day in the life of a student describes their aspirations for what a day will look like when they’ve more fully implemented their redesign plans:
A day at West Campus might begin in Packs, small, mixed-age groups where students connect, set goals, and build belonging. In Packs, older learners often mentor younger ones, strengthening relationships and building opportunities for support.
In core classes, learning is shifting. A math lesson might tie to a local design challenge, or a humanities project could explore Old Colorado City’s history with in-person research nearby. The trend in this work is that teachers are increasingly designing community-connected projects that make academics lively and purposeful.
Some weeks feature Career Exploration Mondays, where students meet local entrepreneurs or visit workplaces, which are early steps toward future industry-connected learning.
On a given day, students might also prepare for Public Celebrations of Learning, practicing how to share their work with families and community members. While others join teacher-student leadership committees, planning events and shaping West’s mission-driven culture.
Though the redesign is in its early phases, students already experience belonging, leadership, and authentic, real-world learning on a daily basis.
Learn more about School Redesign at West:
West Campus Clip.mp4The video clip is from Learner-Centered Collaborative’s and the Learning Policy Institute’s School Design for Learner-Centered Ecosystems Webinar Series
School Design Elements
Clear Identity
West Campus is actively shaping a strong sense of who they are and what they stand for. In the first stage of their redesign, leaders and staff are working to embrace and make visible their new mission, vision, and values across the school and in the Old Colorado City community. After exploring personal connections to the new mission, vision, and values in an all-staff retreat, the West team has begun circulating them in classrooms, newsletters, and even in television interviews. In addition, West’s leadership is promoting the #OneWest tag in public spaces as it works to build partnerships that reflect the school’s culture and aspirations. Early messaging around #OneWest and the slogan “Learning and Growing with Purpose and Community” is already helping unify staff, students, and families.
Small Learning Communities
West is piloting mixed-grade, relationship-centered advisory groups (“Packs”) to nurture belonging and social-emotional growth. Current efforts include themed advisories designed to meet learners’ academic and whole-child needs with a focus on peer and adult mentorship. The long term plan is to expand these advisories across the entire PK–8 campus so that every student belongs to a consistent small community guided by a caring adult and supported by older peers. 6th - 8th graders can regularly be seen working with their “brother/sister” in elementary classes with reading, math, and other fun projects.
Real-World Learning
As a core part of its redesign efforts and its vision for the future, the foundation for West’s real-world, career-connected learning is being built now. West is currently piloting Career Exploration Connections and fieldwork experiences, beginning with middle grades and expanding downward over time. In addition, new partnerships are being mapped with local businesses and industry leaders, with early pilots tied to entrepreneurship, design thinking, and robotics. As part of its five-year redesign timeline, West plans to scale fieldwork, community-connected project-based learning, and partnerships so that students across all grade levels can explore authentic career pathways and contribute to their community’s needs.
Teacher Collaboration
The redesign prioritizes time and space for staff to learn and plan together. The first phase of this work is marked by team-building retreats, deeper use of collaborative committees, and professional learning focused on learner-centered design. These structures aim to create a professional culture of trust, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Performance Assessment
Assessment practices at West are shifting from traditional grading to making learning public and celebrating growth. Early plans include Public Celebrations of Learning, where students will present work to peers, families, and community members, both on campus and in public spaces like libraries or local businesses. Over time, West aims to expand exhibitions and defenses of learning to promote students’ reflection on their personal growth and to showcase mastery of both academic skill and the whole-learner competencies identified in D11’s Graduate Profile.
Distributed Leadership
In addition to the vital role that distributed leadership is playing in West’s broader redesign efforts (which includes co-design and learning partnerships with local businesses, parents, and community members), leadership at West is shifting in the classroom in important ways as well. Teachers and staff are beginning to serve on community-wide committees, with a plan to expand leadership to include students as decision-makers and then, eventually, to student-led committees with staff guidance. The ultimate vision is for leadership to be widely distributed, with families and community members also taking active roles in shaping school priorities and culture.
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