east valley
Volume 3 Issue 27 Mesa, AZ
January 17, 2021
Mesa ‘micro-school’ serves home-schooled kids TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF
F
IN THE BIZ
ourteen years ago, Lara DeRoule needed a break. She had been a Pre-K-2 teacher for 15 years, both in Mesa Public Schools and a small private school, but tired of the bureaucracy of a public school system and decided to become a dental hygienist. “It just was a bunch of testing at that time where I felt like we weren’t really using what we found out,” the Gilbert woman said. Now, DeRoule is back in school – her own. Two years ago, she started Dynamic Micro School, riding on a wave of a growing interest in small-group schools that are neither charters nor public and that aim for home-schooled children from Pre-K level to sixth grade. Working in an old barn on the Superstition Farm in east Mesa, her goal is to help a group of no more than 15 “highly sensitive children find freedom, flexibility and fun in their learning environment so they can build the scaffolds they need to pursue their passions, enjoy life and contribute positively to the community.” At a time when many campuses are closed because of the pandemic, microschools are gaining popularity as parents look for a nontraditional environment that offers classes small enough to encourage social distancing while countering the isolation often associated with online learning at home. DeRoule said her school is an enrichment program for children who are homePublic Notices ............... page 3 © Copyright, 2021 East Valley Tribune
Lara DeRoule is back to teaching the way she thinks kids should be taught with her own micro-school located on Superstition Farm in Mesa. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff Writer) schooled. “It’s kind of cool for parents who want their kids to be in school,” said DeRoule, a certified teacher. “They’re able to socialize and we have a lot of open air and the kids can wear or not wear masks – whatever their parents want them to do. It’s just if a parent wants everybody else to be wearing a mask, I can’t guarantee that. Everybody has to be respectful of everyone else’s decision. I try to wear a mask when I’m close enough to the kids.” Dynamic Micro School also is a kind of throwback to the little old schoolhouse, where kids of different ages all learn to(USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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gether. Because it’s on Superstition Farm, which is partly an animal rescue, “it’s a cool place for the kids to be because of the animals,” said DeRoule, adding students also work in the garden as they learn about plants and how to grow them. Though her students sit at desks in the cleaned-out barn for now, De-Roule is planning to work with the farm owner and eventually have a school building that will look very much like a one-room schoolhouse. Although all her students are in one place, she said, that doesn’t necessarily Subscriptions are $26 for 2 years, $14 for one year. Periodicals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ 85026.
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