I wanted to provide a separate communication with some important notes from the Student Handbook, reiterate our cell phone procedures for the 2025 - 2026 school year as well as note the new athletic fees.

This past year, I ran a book club on The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, with a group of parents and teachers. We had great discussions as well as learned a lot. I presented our information to our school Miner Community Meeting, the Board of Education, THS Student Council as well as TMHS staff. In all the feedback I received and research I did I came to the conclusion that to provide the best education both academically and social emotionally we need to ban cell phones, air pods, and smart watches from being used on the TMHS campus. 

As Telluride High School educators, we value the relationships and connections that we make in person, face to face; we want to create this culture at school, one where people talk to each other, laugh with each other, and experience the joy of being truly present and not distracted by texts, snaps, tweets, games, and more. By limiting access to smartphones during the academic day, we are creating an opportunity for students to connect with each other and their teachers more deeply; to be more present and engaged in their learning; and to be free from the constant pressure of responding to notifications or keeping a streak alive. 

We are excited for all of the great opportunities that a cell phone free environment will afford students and staff alike.Please click on the link below for the policy at Telluride High School; the MS policy stays the same in that phones and smart watches are locked up for the day. 

Thank you in advance for supporting our efforts to prepare TMHS students to be the very best that they can be! 

I am aware that everyone signs off on our handbook but not everyone knows the details of our handbook.

At the start of the year Mr. Murray, Ms. Jenni, Mr. Jones and I will be visiting classes to review The Miner Way of integrity, respect, responsibility. In that we will cover some handbook 101. In addition, teachers we review the Miner Way on day one of school.

Please be on time for school, that means in the classroom at 8:10. At 3 tardies per quarter a student will be given an early morning detention.

The school determines what an excused absence is, the following are considered excused:

A student must complete a pre-arranged absence form prior to their absence and then we determine if the absence is excused or not.

Class changes can be made without penalty only during the first two weeks of each semester. Students may add a class for credit only during those first two weeks. Partial credit after that time is not possible. If a student drops a class after the drop deadline, that student will receive a final grade of a (Withdrawn Failure). A student dropped from a class for disciplinary reasons receives a W.F. and loss of credit. That weighs into the cumulative GPA as a 0. 

The follow criteria are in place for independent study courses: 

To align with best practices we have updated out academic integrity policy, which is linked below.

The purpose of this message is to inform you of the increases to athletic fees for middle and high school sports for the 2025-26 school year. With the challenges we face in educational funding for 2025-26 and upcoming years, combined with increased athletic programs offered, we need to increase the family contribution (athletic fee) towards sport participation. We have made the decision that the two most costly programs, Boys Hockey and Boys Golf, will follow a pay to play model, while the remaining programs will move to $500 per student per sport for high school and $250 per student per sport for middle school. The chart below shows fee by program for the school year that just ended and the upcoming year. We will continue to support students who qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch with fee reduction scholarships and are grateful to both the Telluride Lizard Head Hockey Club and the THS Athletic Booster’s for providing funds to support those scholarships. Information about applying for Free or Reduced Lunch can be found here in English and here in Spanish.

 

While I know that our new fees are still in line with participation costs for many other programs around the community, I greatly wish we did not need to implement these increases. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns that you have.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns. This does not include everything that is in the handbook but the most common things that we see. We are here to support you and your student having a successful school year.

Warm Regards,

Sara Kimble