From Deseret News archives:
Yurt to help school with lack of space
They piece together the wood frame, over which a canvas cover will be draped. The circular, tent-like building will serve as an addition to the Walden School of Liberal Arts — it's cheaper than a portable classroom — while the administrators continue to raise money for a new building on 2 1/2 acres on University Avenue that they purchased for $560,000.
School administrators would like a 20,000-square-foot building by next school year, but they are discussing financing options. "We don't know if it will be ready," school director Diana West said. "It's looking less and less likely."
For now, the school, which opened in 2004, rents a space from Provo city at 250 W. 500 North, a cozy, laid-back space where sofas in some classrooms substitute for desks.
The Walden School is a charter school — a school that receives public money but is operated by teachers and parents.
Next year it will have 106 students from the seventh to the 12th grades. School administrators plan to add, when the building is completed, an elementary school based on the Montessori method, in which students learn through their senses and discovery.
The philosophy of the Walden School is hands-on and real world, with an emphasis on the outdoors. Since its opening, students have travelled to Oaxaca, Mexico, to work with street kids. Some students have also traveled to San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Guatemala. The Guatemala trip, for instance, cost $1,100.
The trips are not mandatory. But students are encouraged to attend and raise the money for the trips through fund-raising and part-time jobs. West allows some students to work at the school for extra cash.
About 30 percent of the students live in families with incomes below the poverty line, which means the Walden School receives some money from the federal government's Title I program. It receives about $11,000 but is not considered a Title I school.
West said the school's small size makes it easy for teachers to drop their activities and take students to nearby Brigham Young University if, for instance, there is a speaker they believe the students will enjoy. Hundreds of speakers have visited the school, too, to address students' academic interests.
If the students have an academic interest, the teachers will allow them to use class time to study about it. Students are most successful if they are internally motivated, said head teacher Eric Beecroft.
"The school doesn't work for everybody," Beecroft said. "That's OK. The public schools don't work for everybody. That's why there's charter schools."
