Silver SPRUCE Academy

Spruce has been in operation for 11 years for k-12 school choice services in the four corners area, with 21 years working with area shared school students, families, and stakeholders. We are appreciative of our contracts with mountain middle school, animas high school, pueblo community college, san juan college, charter school institute and Colorado department of education to continue being able to fund our efforts. We served 87 funded students, employed 10 staff members, benefitted from 109 volunteers w/ over 484 hours to offer 103 classes and 44 educational events to a total of 273 student participants, and appreciated the leadership of our 3 executive board members that have served additional terms in support of our endeavors we completed our 4th year at the leased campus at 6699 cr 521, bayfield, co 81122 location of 40 acres of rural outdoor adventures near lakes, rivers, trails and fields with indoor classrooms to offer classes in; hunter's safety, parks & parkour, foliage & fairies, baking, public speaking, interior design, technology & robots, personal finance, forensic, theater, spanish, flora & fauna, outdoor sports/history, bountiful breads, microwave magicians, roman numerals, birds, archery, reuse your food, branches of science, wacky wild animals, basket bundles, construction challenges, toaster treats, animal habitats, willy wonka play, foraging fun, intuition & horses, slippery soaps, punnett square, homesteading, sword fighting, ropes & knots, plants to dye for, forensics, historical figures, creative candles, culinary chefs, aspiring entrepreneurs and more Spruce had to sell our property november 2023 at 743 cr 510, durango, co 81303 that we had planned to build our future permanent campus on due to the exponential effects of inflation and the outfall of covid-19. Our 5,000 sq. Ft. Build estimated at 900,000 @ 2.1% in 2019 came to a close at 3.6 million @ 8.7% when we were informed aug. 2023 by usda that our project was being denied after four years in progress, appeals, and covid-19 chaos. We were greatly saddened as we had invested almost 10 years into numerous aspects of the project including time, money, and energy but we understood the financial ramifications that inflation had created. Spruce remains a viable and successful non-profit creating financial feasibility and stability for the organization, staff, participants, and community collaborations and while we considered closing down the school after the 2023-2024 school year from the heartbreak of selling our property and challenge of establishing a permanent home for our program, we found an incredible opportunity to move to sda at 1775 Florida rd. Suite a durango, co 81301 where the columbine christian Academy campus had operated up until 2016 but could not open due to challenges of its own. We are excited for the possibility that this could be our permanent location for years to come. Our mission to provide educational enrichment programs and courses to students and families throughout the four corners area, in collaboration with other educational organizations will continue at this new campus with more space, classrooms and outdoor areas to continue our experiential learning shared school non-profit educational opportunities for our students, staff, families, collaborators, participants, and stakeholders who have supported us through these challenging times and encourage us to continue our mission, support our work, and celebrate our successes through the challenges excited for our 12th year in operation for the 2024-2025 school year and future years to come