Our Mission

Donner Trail Vision Statement

All Donner Trail students will be provided an environment in which there are high expectations for academic, civic, environmental, and social responsibilities.  Students will grow in a safe, caring, risk-taking environment which nurtures our students to become independent lifelong learners. This goal will be accomplished through reflection, collaboration, innovation, and communication among a small community of students, staff, and families that come together in a shared culture. Our guiding value is that every child can and will learn through hard work, rigor, and perseverance.

Our Core Beliefs and Practices

1. Addressing the needs of the “whole child” is the focus of all decisions.
2. Students feel confident, appreciated, valued, and connected.
3. Foster character development through accountability, tolerance, acceptance, inclusivity, leadership, and perseverance.
4. A multi-age model maximizes collaboration, flexible grouping, leadership, learning from each other, and community.
5. Strategic instruction addresses diverse learning styles and a broad range of abilities to ensure multiple opportunities for accessibility and mastery.
6. Project based learning embraces real world application through our local environment, stewardship, cross-curricular connections, and scientific inquiry.
7. Literacy is a powerful path to developing 21st century critical thinkers.  Donner Trail is committed to balanced literacy that includes embedded technology, reading, writing, speaking and listening opportunities. Research across content areas is evidence based.
8. We reinvent ourselves and our practices by learning from mistakes.  We are an innovative, ever-changing community of explorers constantly seeking new habits of mind that are research-based best practices.
9. Schools, families, and the community are partners in helping students develop a sense of ownership for their learning.
10. All teachers and staff members at Donner Trail believe that each student is “our” student.