ConGRADulations to Cooper! There was a time or two when he was struggling with school when I wondered if he might just get his GED instead of finishing up traditional high school. We'd already gone a non-traditional route, with Mountain Heights Academy, a local, but online school.
A few years earlier, after trying a couple days at Bingham High School, Coop decided that traditional school wasn't for him. This is something that had come up for years. He'd wanted to be home schooled (we'd had a few days of it here and there) in elementary. We'd switched from year-round at Columbia (every off track time was last starting again) to traditional at Terra Linda, and Coop had met some great friends there. He went with those buddies (on permit) to Elkridge, but the school struggles started up again, hitting hard 8th and 9th grade. We managed to get the permit to Bingham, went in and scouted out all his classes ... but it was not to be. And that was okay. I'd had some online options on the back burner, and Mountain Heights started a bit after the in-person schools, so Coop was still able to take a week off, and then start on time.
Mountain Heights Academy was a perfect fit for Cooper. Every class had the year planned out, schedules were flexible - with weekly assignments due on Friday each week. Students could do their work when/where they wanted ... a little from each class each day, or as Cooper tended to do, he'd do everything for one class on Monday and be done with that, then do another class on Tuesday, etc. He could sleep in, he and I could get some pickleball in during the day. I'd watch some of the school lectures, take notes, then go over assignments with him. His math teacher gave him personal tutoring (as I'm NO help there) as needed. When it was time for the ACT, he went in to the main offices (here in WJ) and scored higher than his brothers to date. He graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.93.
Cooper started Mountain Heights Academy as a sophomore, Fall of 2019 ... BEFORE Covid hit. Mountain Heights had started back in 2009, so they had 10 years of online education under their belt already. It was interesting to see how well they were set up, much better than all the traditional schools switching to online education during the pandemic (not really a fair comparison due to the circumstances, but we felt lucky that Cooper's school had everything so organized and was so on top of things). Even before the pandemic hit, I remember a snow day giving Colton the day off, and Cooper sighed "just a regular school day for me!"
When graduation time came ... it was set for Wednesday, June 1, 2022, downtown at the Capitol Theater. There were 154 graduating seniors. Unlike the Jordan District schools, where you "rent" a gown, this was an actual purchase (and I think cost less!) ... and I went ahead and ordered one, even though Coop said he wasn't planning on attending the ceremony. Which ... was okay with me, as I really struggle with ceremony and crowds and downtown. It was livestreamed, and I tuned in for part of it.
I loved that the school came over personally to place a "congratulations graduate" sign in the yard! Graduations were back in effect ... the year before, when Covid concerns were so prevalent, graduations were cancelled and "drive by" parades were done instead.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up the size of the graduating classes for the other boys - Landon's was 759, Callahan's was 914, Keaton's was 895. Still waiting to see what Colton's will be (probably in the 500s). Couldn't find the actual numbers for the other schools in 2022 - but this document had some interesting stats.
(Posted in May2024 and backdated to it's chronological spot. With Colton's graduation upon us ... I realized I never did an official post for Cooper! Blogging, and life, got away from me a bit in 2022 when I had a seizure and ended up in the ER early in the year. Can that be my excuse? Updating now, and will backdate to June 2022 ...)
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