Seventh graders celebrate the end of a year of Tahoe Garage School

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Parents and students had to get creative in navigating the school year in the middle of a pandemic, and nothing may have been more out of the box than the Tahoe Garage School.

What started out as a temporary solution for the first few weeks of the 2020-21 school year, ended as a full year of 7th grade for eight boys in a garage. Yep, a garage.

Parent and educator Kathy Haven cleaned out her garage and moved in tables with shields between the student seats, her desk, and easel. The eight boys arrived masked, socially distanced, and sanitized, ready for a journey they most likely won't be repeating. Their "journey in the garage" has been documented on a website, named tahoegarageschool.org, of course, and in a yearbook full of photos showing the boys as they moved through math, science, social studies, physical education (skiing, skating, running, basketball, etc). They also had daily lessons in Spanish since all eight are part of TWI - Two-Way Immersion.

They attended garage school five days a week, all subjects every day so their motto quickly became "We work hard so that we can play hard."

On Tuesday, June 8, they celebrated their year by showing their parents and family members their digital portfolios during an end-of-year open house and celebration.

Haven had help from two of the other parents, Sarah Pierce and Marlene Guerrero, both Spanish-speaking so they could help with TWI coursework. They each came in two times a week.

The garage kids not only spent a year of learning with their friends, but they also had 100 percent attendance!

Haven followed the Lake Tahoe Unified School District's Independent Learning Acamedy curriculum and was officially known as a TLC - Tahoe Learning Cohort. During the school year, they had four rigorous days of school with weekly Friday field trips (the last being two days in San Francisco with stops at Alcatraz and other historical areas of the city). The boys read 6,000 pages each, finished Algebra 1, wrote nine essays in English, three essays in Spanish, dissected three organisms, and studied nine different cultures.

"It has been inspiring and such a blessing in such a tough time," said Haven. "I am going to miss these boys immensely."

Haven volunteered her time for the Tahoe Garage School. She got started it for her son Marcus and then brought in the others to the cohort prior to the school year. Little did she know that t-shirts and lightweight pants would lead to the wearing of puffy jackets, beanies, and gloves during the school day.

The students of Tahoe Garage School:

Richie Grajeda
Emiliano Guerrero
Sebastian Guerrero
Marcus Haven
Trevor Mattila
Jonathan Mendoza Nvarette
Ralston Pierce
Simon Stafford

After their well-deserved summer vacation, the boys will rejoin their other classmates at South Tahoe Middle School in the fall for their 8th-grade year.