Durango School District 9-R Home

We help them find their path to success
 
Portrait of a Graduate
  • 95%
    Graduation rate at Durango High School
  • 29
    Home languages spoken by students
  • 3
    Schools awarded Governor’s Distinguished Improvement
  • 20%
    CMAS test scores rank in top 20% of all Colorado Schools
Durango High School grads

About Us

Welcome to Durango School District 9-R. We strive to create a learning environment where all students own their learning, act on their learning, and impact their community. We provide learning opportunities where students develop their critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. 
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Students examine seedling
Where we’re located
Durango School District map

District News

students recycle milk cartons

District awarded recycling green grant

Durango School District has been awarded a "green" grant from the Carton Council to help continue food waste diversion programs started in our school cafeterias last year. The grant will help purchase items to make the same carton recycle process available in every school cafeteria.
Miller banner at Impact

Miller to move out of DHS, into new building Sept. 24

Project Angel Flight Update: Miller Middle School staff and students will move out of Durango High School's West Wing and Impact Career Innovation Center and into the new school building at 2608 Junction St. next month. Staff and students will resume classes on Sept. 24.
Bond postcard

Board approves ballot language of $150M bond measure

August 27, 2024, Durango, Colo. – The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education unanimously voted to approve ballot language for a $150 million bond measure that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. This decision was made during the Board’s meeting on Aug. 27.
student working on robot

FIRST LEGO League teams forming now

The Powerhouse is hosting FIRST LEGO League teams at Animas Valley, Fort Lewis Mesa, and Florida Mesa 4th and 5th grade students. Transportation will be provided from Sunnyside to Florida Mesa for participants. Programs run weekly from Sept. 9-Nov. 22. This is a district-supported program, participation is free to Durango School District students.
student with blocks

Multi-sensory Learning partnership supports literacy success for all

Durango School District is now an accredited partner with the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education. IMSE Accredited Partners support literacy success for all students. This partnership signifies that the district is officially an IMSE Orton-Gillingham accredited district that is committed to the Science of Reading and the Structured Literacy approach utilizing the IMSE Orton-Gillingham methodology in all of our K-2 classrooms.
Bus Drivers next to a bus

Riding the route to improvement: Tips for bus-riding families

We are thrilled to welcome back around 1,400 bus riders district-wide this year! We understand that safe and reliable transportation is crucial for many families, and we want to apologize for any confusion or frustration caused by the recent delays in communicating bus routes and pick-up/drop-off locations.
parenting support webinars

District invests in Cook Center webinars in support of student wellness

Raising kids can be challenging. Whether you’re a dad of five or a grandmother of one, you know your child best – but it still takes a village to raise a child. Your school district is part of that village. This fall, we are launching a series of free online learning sessions to support you.
SOIL garden

SOIL Outdoor Learning Lab field trips and school visits

The SOIL Outdoor Learning Lab will be hosting field trips again this school year! Our gardens are exploding with produce and we cannot wait to welcome students from across the school district on field trips. We are excited to offer field trip opportunities to ALL educators and staff across the school district this year.
DEF Resource Fair poster

Back to School Resource Fair, Aug. 27

The Durango Education Association (DEF) is hosting a Back to School Resource Fair on Aug. 27 at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. This is a free, one-stop celebration to learn about resources for a successful school year! Meet people from Durango School District and more than 75 community resource providers.
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graduates

Our Mission

The mission of Durango School District 9-R is to ensure each student develops the skills and attributes for lifelong learning and has the ability to compete and contribute in the global community, by guaranteeing equitable educational opportunities in a safe and healthy environment.
Strategic Plan

What people say about us

Olivia Cruz, Headshot

TEACHER

“I get to work in a supportive environment with empathetic people who love what they do, and who genuinely care about student success.”

– Olivia Cruz, High School Science Teacher
Eduardo Gonzalez headshot

PARENT

“My kids have thrived in Durango schools because of the quality of instruction. The teachers in these schools do life-changing work.”

– Eduardo Gonzalez, parent of middle school student
Michaela Richardson headshot

STUDENT

“I have so many opportunities, and I have come to love school. Now I want to inspire others, and be on the Board to be that person that others can look up to.”

– Michaela Richardson, high school student and Student Board Member
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Superintendent

Superintendent's Message

Welcome to beautiful Durango and La Plata County! Our schools – and our community – are committed to ensuring all students reach proficiency in all content areas as well as have a high level of social-emotional well-being. Our primary objective in the Durango School District is to help every student achieve their life's purpose through Portrait of a Graduate. This is our district's "north star." It inspires students to find their Ikigai. This is a Japanese concept that incorporates four essential criteria: what you love (your passion), what the world needs (your mission), what you are good at (your vocation), and what you can get paid for (your profession). East meets West with this ancient philosophy in a modern mountain town.
Meet our district leaders

Universal Calendar

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Engineer Mountain in fall

Quality of Life

Durango is a beautiful place to live and work. It is located at 6,512 feet elevation in Southwest Colorado near the Four Corners region. Families who live here enjoy a historic steam train, ski resort, rivers, vibrant downtown, bike trails, sky-high “fourteener” mountains, and four distinct seasons with an average of 266 sunny days per year. We welcome new families and new staff members, and we offer excellent benefits and competitive salaries. 
Join our team
Teacher Elfreida Begay

Land Acknowledgement

We respectfully acknowledge that Durango School District 9-R is located on lands and territories taken from the Núuchiu (Ute) people. This land is also the ancestral home of or served as a site of trade, gathering, or healing for Apache, Pueblo, Diné, and other nations. We recognize and honor these peoples and nations as traditional stewards of this land and water and respect their enduring relationship with it.
Listen to the land acknowledgement in Diné Bizaad (Navajo language), spoken by Elfreida Begay

Accessibility Statement

It is the goal of Durango School District 9-R that the information on this website be accessible to individuals with visual, hearing, or cognitive disabilities. Good faith efforts are being made to ensure that our website complies with web accessibility standards.

Most pages on our site are available in HTML format, which can be read by screen readers. Some documents are in Adobe PDF format, requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website. Additionally, some documents are in Google Docs, and Google Forms. Most modern browsers and screen readers can access Google-based documents. More information about Google web products accessibility can be found on the Google Accessibility website.

In order to ensure that Durango School District websites are accessible to everyone in our community, including those with disabilities, we are using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

If you cannot access any page(s) on our site, please email us at [email protected]. Include the location of the webpage/document, your name, email address, and phone number so we can provide the information in another format, and address the issue.