About

Mission

The mission of the Rocky Mountain Deaf School (RMDS) is to provide Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children, preschool through 12th grade, a publicly-funded bilingual education that promotes academic excellence, full proficiency in American Sign Language and English literacy, and which supports the home-school connection by offering a language-rich environment that includes the RMDS personnel, the RMDS Board, parents and the Deaf community.

Purpose

RMDS’ purpose to to inspire every deaf student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care.

Rocky Mountain Deaf School is founded on the belief that deaf children can and should succeed. The driving force behind the school is a theme of excellence in research-based academic programs. In this intellectually stimulating environment, communication is totally accessible throughout the day from every person in the child’s environment. Each student’s potential is maximized as teachers continue to instill in each child the joy of living and learning.

Vision

As a high-performing, innovative educational program for students who are deaf, we are deeply committed to providing a rigorous, standards-based curriculum. We prepare each deaf student to be literate, academically successful, and technologically competent. We provide a linguistically rich learning environment through the acquisition of American Sign Language and English both inside and outside the classroom.

Through strong collaboration with parents, the deaf community, the educational research community, the school community, and the business community, we are a model of best practices and an exemplary resource in the field of Deaf Education both nationally and internationally.

Credo

RMDS recognizes that:

• “Deaf” means individuals who have varying hearing acuity (deaf, Deaf and hard-of-hearing).
• Each deaf child is unique, important and inviolate.
• Each deaf child is the child of their parents, not the product nor the property of any culture, theory or establishment.
• Parents are partners in each deaf child’s educational program.
• Being deaf is a positive state of being.
• Deaf children need school personnel who are competent in and knowledgeable about the current trends of education, deafness and research.
• Deaf children deserve, and are capable of, an American education and English literacy on par with non-deaf children.
• Deaf children should be educated in the company of other deaf children; deaf children need an education that uses and develops accessible language and communication methods and respects the child’s visual skills and strengths.
• Deaf children deserve a rigorous curriculum and fair assessments.
• Deaf children can succeed with innovative instructional methods, materials and leading-edge technology.
• The world is the classroom.

Values

High expectations – We expect the best work from our students, faculty, administrators, board, and parents.

Family atmosphere – We create a welcoming and intimate environment where students, parents, and educators feel comfortable and can work productively together through respectful open communication.

Exceptional teamwork – We work collaboratively and inclusively to help each other succeed and to ensure that our collective efforts result in more than what we could accomplish individually.

Continuous innovation – We seek out and find creative new ways to be more effective in everything that we do, including thinking outside of the box.

Zest – We maintain high motivation to be the best

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility- Empowering through diversity, we embrace equity and promote inclusion at Rocky Mountain Deaf School. Our mission is to celebrate differences, break barriers, and create a united community where every individual thrives.

History

From 1990 to the present Colorado’s Deaf community has spearheaded efforts to expand use of American Sign Language in Deaf education and to establish a day school, primarily for Deaf students in the Denver metropolitan area.

By 1993 this effort had become identified with Colorado’s emerging charter school movement. The Colorado Association of the Deaf appointed a “steering committee” to guide the charter school effort. During charter application and appeals in 1994 and 1995, the steering committee developed a smaller “core” group handling day-to-day efforts to establish the Magnet School for the Deaf.

Jeffco Public Schools and the Colorado Board of Education turned down the MSD charter school application and appeal for the second straight year in 1995. While MSD supporters had completed many tasks in connection with the 1995 application, both Clifford Moers, the leader of steering and core committees and William Bethke, an attorney recruited to pursue appeals to the State Board concluded by the summer of 1995 that a language policy was an element of the proposal that was underdeveloped. Moers and Bethke solicited policies from bilingual Deaf schools around the nation. A third charter school application was submitted and approved by Jeffco in 1996.

Magnet School for the Deaf began on Sept. 2, 1997 with an enrollment of 11 students ages 3 to 9 years old. Lisa Hann and Ellen Kowalcyzk were hired as teachers. The name changed to Rocky Mountain Deaf School in 2000.

RMDS Five-Year Strategy Plan