The Kohl Open School Experience

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    Our Mission

    Kohl Open Education is dedicated to fostering lifelong learning through collaborative engagement utilizing a blend of academic and community resources as well as visual and performing arts to nurture individual development of the whole child."

     

    Our Vision

    At Kohl Open School, we envision a thriving community to cultivate a culture of lifelong learners. Through experiential and project-based approaches, we empower students to become complex thinkers, collaborative workers, flexible participants, self-directed learners, quality producers, and effective communicators."

     

    Our Past 50 Years

    Kohl School was established in the early 1970s as an alternative to traditional educational practices. It has grown and flourished and continues to offer a well-rounded education developing the whole child.

    Examples of what Kohl provides include multi-age classes; reporting student progress to parents of K-6 students in three personal conferences a year; project-based curriculum centered in a yearly theme; many chances for off-site trips to take learning into the community; presentation opportunities with projects, theater, and music; all embedded in school with a small peaceful population of wonderful children.

    A great strength of Kohl is the constancy. A document approved by the SUSD Board of Education in 1972 continues to reflect the goals and everyday educational life at Kohl. Kohl teachers come and stay. They are able to work in an ongoing process of refining their teaching over time. And now Kohl graduates are sending their children to Kohl making a wonderful historical connection between young and younger.

    The backbone of Kohl remains our parents. From the moment parents make the decision to sign up for our lottery; go on to help in classrooms; chaperone field trips; attend parent/teacher conferences; garden; sit on compliance committees, and participate in the Kohl Education Foundation (KEF); parents are an integral part of what makes the total Kohl experience joyous and moving.

    The Kohl Education Foundation was introduced over 20 years ago to raise funds for Kohl Open School. Over the years they have provided money to send kids on over-night Science Trips, many other field trips, materials tied to projects and presentations, and beautification projects for Kohl’s outside spaces. Perhaps the most unique feature of the KEF is the Kohl Scholarship. Every year at least two college scholarships are awarded to High School graduating seniors who have attended Kohl. The scholarships are presented to former Kohl students at our big end of the year celebration, Soirée.

    Over 25 years ago as a Kohl teacher, Bud West and another teacher stole the theme song from a popular TV show and rewrote it. They branded Kohl as the school where, “everybody knows your name,” where we, “let our minds come out and play.”