Head of School

Credentials:

Ongoing Professional Development, High Tech High, San Diego, CA

MA – Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

BA – Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado

Principal Institute, Colorado

Shane Voss

Head of School

Mr. Voss grew up in Colorado Springs.  He earned his B.A. from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and his M.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.  Mr. Voss brings 25 years of teaching and leadership experience to Mountain Middle School with a focus on change management and progressive elements of project based learning. Mr. Voss has been the Head of School at Mountain Middle School going on eight years. He has led our expansion efforts to include 4th and 5th grades along with the construction of our new state of the art facility.

He and his wife have enjoyed raising two daughters in Durango. His passions are rafting, fly fishing, bow hunting, skiing, and traveling with his family.

Educational Leadership

Mr. Voss has worked extensively with Expeditionary Learning, Buck Institute, Deeper Learning, and High Tech High to effectively lead and implement essential Project Based Learning structures and strategies at Mountain Middle School.

He recently completed ongoing professional development at the Principal Institute. He has participated in programs at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, designed to prepare reflective practitioner leaders to work with colleagues and communities to develop innovative, authentic, and rigorous learning environments. This professional development is designed for experienced educators who aspire to lead an innovative school focused on deeper learning and equity.

The Rocky Mountain Region of Colorado’s Expeditionary Learning headquarters noted Mr. Voss’ intense commitment and unusually steep learning trajectory.

Accomplishments

Mr. Voss has been noted for his ability to bring clarity to a vision and his coaching of teachers in a progressive methodologies.  He has been nominated as the Colorado Charter School Leader of the year in 2014,15,16,17, and 18. Under his leadership, Mountain Middle School has earned the State’s highest accreditation rating of Distinction in 2014, 2105, 2016, 2019 and 2020 with the school ranked in the top 12% of all public schools in Colorado.

In his first year at Mountain Middle School, Shane led his school to achieve the “Performance with Distinction” accreditation endorsement from Charter School Institute in 2014. This is the highest accreditation rating possible for a Colorado charter school and is an improvement of 2 levels of performance from the prior year. Under his leadership, Mountain Middle School’s accreditation of Distinction has become the norm.

The Distinction accreditation rating recognizes Mountain Middle School in 3 areas of achievement:

• Academic performance – MMS student academic performance consistently is in the top 10% of all 900 public schools in the State of Colorado
• Sound financial stability and sustainability – MMS achieved a balanced budget with no reliance on fundraising for operational expenses.
• Strong governance and leadership – our students are engaged in highly collaborative and innovative learning, our staff is highly qualified in their fields of expertise with a student teacher ratio of 15:1, we have wait lists for enrollment in all five grades, and we have worked towards realizing the vision of our founders to expand our school to include elementary grades four and five.