New Santa Fe charter school a place for students to Thrive

Sep. 24—As a class of first graders makes their way out of a school building and into the sunshine for lunch, one of them is distinctively dressed in a red cape, not unlike a member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

He is the "turtle buddy" of the day.

"It's totally picked at random, so it doesn't matter if you've been struggling with behavior or not necessarily the star student, you're going to be celebrated and identified as 'special,' " said school administrator Sean Duncan.

With a curriculum focused on social-emotional learning, Thrive Community School opened to students on Aug. 17. The new charter school moved into the campus on Old Santa Fe Trail formerly occupied by Desert Academy, a private school that closed in 2020. Thrive's co-founders and administrators are former Santa Fe Public School educators Duncan Lucero and Julie Lucero.

Thrive serves 111 students in kindergarten through third grade as well as sixth graders, but administrators plan on classes for kindergarten through eighth grade in future school years. Duncan said two more students are set to enroll over the next few weeks, which means Thrive is on track to meet its projected enrollment, which is capped at 120 students per state grant funding.

That kind of strong start with regard to enrollment is rare for a new charter school, said state Public Education Commissioner Steven Carrillo, saying "things are moving beautifully" at Thrive.

"The commitment to both [social-emotional learning] and STEM is exceptional," Carrillo, a longtime member of the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education who lost a bid for reelection in 2019, said in an interview on Friday.

"I think this particular school is putting more resources into professional development for teachers than many districts in the state are able to do."

Some parents of Thrive students said their children are performing better at their new school than they did in their previous schools due to more — or different kinds of — attention.

Trudy Archuleta said her sixth grade son is on the autism spectrum, which leads to his feeling overwhelmed by various factors in school. The open layout of Thrive's main building and the large amount of natural light let in by its floor-to-ceiling windows create a "calming space," she said, and he is benefiting from just the right amount of attention from teachers.

Archuleta homeschooled her son for three years after pulling him out of E.J. Martinez Elementary School.

"Some of the public schools were trying really hard to accommodate his autism and it was disregulating him instead," Archuleta said. "Trying to pull him out of class for different things. He didn't get a chance to learn or see his strengths in the classroom. At Thrive, he's getting that opportunity."

Every teacher at Thrive went through 2 1/2 weeks of training over the summer, Duncan said, and the school will take three days off for more training during the school year. Teachers are trained in programs that focus on social-emotional competencies and emotional intelligence, and Duncan said the school's anti-bias and anti-racist education training correlate to the social-emotional learning training as well.

"Our approach to all of this has been less about a curriculum and more about, how do we make sure teachers have access to development that ensures we all have the same mindset about emotional intelligence, learner variability, students from different backgrounds and cultural identities and how that intersects with all of it," Duncan said.

In the classroom, what social-emotional learning looks like depends on the grade level, but it involves teaching students about the subtle differences between the emotions they experience and healthy forms of expression as well as how to build relationships and community.

For kindergarteners and first graders, this means students form a circle and take turns sharing compliments about one of their classmates at the end of the day.

The school's focus on social-emotional learning and restorative justice was one of the primary appeals for Ari Blackwell, whose son is a first grader at Thrive.

After transferring from Santa Fe Waldorf School, which cost too much for her family, Blackwell said she has noticed an increase in her son's confidence and excitement for school. She said her only initial hesitation about Thrive was that there was no one to whom she could turn for a recommendation since the school was brand new. The founders' "contagious" enthusiasm, she said, helped her overcome that.

"The practices they talked about — they're actually doing them," Blackwell said. "They're doing the social-emotional learning and restorative justice approach. I'm actually seeing them happen. [The staff] are so receptive and so helpful. It's been an incredible experience."

Duncan, a former reading support specialist with Santa Fe Public Schools, said he sensed frustration in school district staff despite many good efforts and "pockets of success.

"There are good things happening in every campus across the city," he said. "There's just not enough collective momentum across buildings that I feel like we're seeing our efforts turn into what we want to be the result for kids."

Duncan said he began planning Thrive Community School in December 2020 alongside Lucero, teacher Amy Chacon and Dr. Angelia Moore. The group's June 2021 charter school application says the school district's "average proficiency rates across grades three to eight in reading was 33 percent, and math proficiency was 18 percent," and says Thrive's goal is to get to at least 45 percent of students achieving the 50th percentile for reading and math on the aimswebPlus universal assessment by spring 2023.

The school received strong support in public testimony at a Public Education Commission meeting in July 2021, although district Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez called it "contrary to the best interests of Santa Fe Public Schools and the district" due to declining enrollment that was already shrinking funding for the district. The commission approved the school unanimously the next month.

Thrive is funded largely with public dollars, with much of its revenue projected to come from the state equalization guarantee distribution as well as grant funding from the New Mexico Charter School Program. Thrive also gets a small amount from Project Lead the Way, a STEM nonprofit from Indianapolis.

Duncan said he worked with his team on school recruitment efforts for the last year, holding community events, distributing flyers and calling parents of prospective students to fill the school's roster. Thrive's events were well-attended, he said, and he had a chance to get to know potential families and what had sent them looking for educational alternatives.

Yessenia Marquez said her son and daughter had a difficult time dealing with her recent divorce while they attended Sweeney Elementary School, but she noticed a "huge change" in each of them after they began attending Thrive last month.

"Something that's really great is they teach a lot about emotions and give the kids an opportunity to express how they're feeling," Marquez said. "That's really helped them. They feel safer there, and issues are addressed right away."