Mark Cluff believes that education is a natural process and should be cultured for each child. This is the reason why he used the Sudbury Model to establish the Alpine Valley Academy. His school approaches learning the nontraditional way, allowing his students to grow and learn at their own pace. He does this while teaching them how to survive in the outside world after graduation. Get to know more about the amazing things Mark does in this episode.
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Listen to the podcast here:
The Sudbury Model With Mark Cluff
My guest is Mark Cluff, the Founder of Alpine Valley Academy in Lehi. Mark, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Mark, what intrigues me the most is the story of your journey of how you came to find a private school. You don’t have a background in education. Could you start with that? Tell us about your background.
My background is that education has always been important to me. I’ve seen what it’s done for my life, for my siblings, and others. You say I don’t have an educational background or I don’t have what you might say traditional education background. When I was in graduate school, I taught an undergraduate class a couple of different classes. I didn’t have the traditional background, but I taught. Within the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints, I was a seminary teacher for a number of years. That gave me a background and that I understood education from that point of view.
I spent seventeen years in education and observing first-hand education. I’m a father of five daughters who’ve all gone through public schools and universities. From my point of view, I have a nice background in what education is what it can do, its issues and such. My education led me into engineering and computer science where I work through industry, consulting and ultimately started my own software company. I got to the point where I had sold the company, I was still working with them when individuals came and asked me if I’d consider running for the State Board of Education here in Utah.
When I looked into it, I saw that it was my passion for education. It was something I wanted to be involved in. I ran, I was elected and started serving on the state board. It was an amazing learning experience as well as working with education, schools, teachers, and students. I had a number of constituents who had kids that did find public education charter schools, but they had had these one or two students that struggled or having issues. I decided since I had retired from my software company that I had started that I would look into education around the country and look at different alternatives. See what has been done and study that. That led me to a number of discoveries of what’s being done in education.
I also was elected to be on the National Association of State Charter School Boards as a western director and gave me an opportunity to talk with individuals around the country. My search led me to a school in Massachusetts called Sudbury Valley School. I was intrigued by it, their model. I was amazed at the success that their graduates had had and are having. I was skeptical about their process. I got their startup kit, I read all their books. I delved into it and for my own religious background, it made sense to me. When you give someone their agency and let them use that agency to direct their learning their lives, amazing things can happen.
You have a strong background in valuing education and understanding the power and worth. You also have a strong background in engineering and software. That’s great, that’s a good balance. You selected the Sudbury Valley approach as the most effective and I know you also went out to visit the school, didn’t you?
I’ve been in contact with them for years. I finally took the step and went out there personally and spent a whole week at their school. I participated, talked with students, talked to the staff. After reading all the books, I knew pretty much what it was like and their system. I was able to see it firsthand and it gave me a wonderful experience. Let me to the more believe in what I was doing.
Amazing things can happen when you give someone their agency and let them use that agency to direct their learning and their life. Share on XWhen did you decide to open a school here in Utah?
When I was in my journey and looking into the Sudbury school my youngest daughter who is in middle school at the time at a charter school. She and I looked at together, we talked about it, discussed it when she moved into high school. Her sophomore year, she had great anxiety and she was desperate for a school like this because she felt it would be a great benefit to her, and I agreed with her. I wasn’t in a position at that time to start a school.
The years went by. It was always in the back of my mind looking for the opportunities, figuring out what would be needed. Finally, I felt I need to start moving in this direction. There are decisions I was making in my life, how I use the great blessings that have come into me and move forward. That’s when I started looking for a site for a school. For me, one of the important things about Sudbury they’re on five acres. They have lots of grass and trees being in Massachusetts, it’s always green. The outside is as important as being able to be in a classroom.
That is true.
I searched around. I found different sites that didn’t work out. Finally, I found the site that we’re at and started the process of preparing and working with the city and the state and bureaucracies to move forward to get the school going.
I want to mention what I found unusual about the school. I went to one of your open houses and ended up driving right by it because it’s a house.
That was my intention. I wanted it to feel like a home because I feel that that environment where we feel safe and comfortable in a home environment. We do have other buildings, which are quite like home, but the students feel at home. They feel comfortable. They feel safe.
That is the most important part for every student, especially students with special needs. I also had the chance to visit your school at your invitation. I met the students and watched the process and attended a student council meeting. That wasn’t the term you use though. Can you tell us about that?
We call it a student council. Sudbury calls it a school meeting and we chose to use a council. For me, councils are extremely important and it’s a way of working with people individuals and getting things done. The school council is what runs the school. The school council is made up of all the students and the staff. We have seven staff members, most of them are part-time. There’s three of us that were full-time. Everyone has a vote in the school council. The school council sets the budget. They are involved in the hiring and if necessary, removal of staff. They’re involved in creating the rules that are governed with the lives of staff and students. Everyone is treated as an equal in that regard.
I was impressed with this meeting. It was led by a student. She’s fourteen and she talked about teaching leadership skills. She was learning how to conduct and run this meeting keeping everyone on task and doing it effectively. I was impressed.
She’s grown in there. She was elected at our second meeting. She and some others ran for the position. We also have a secretary who was elected. She was elected and did have all the leadership skills. We worked with her and helped her and her time will run out and she was re-elected again for another term. The first thing, you’re all have another election and elect a new school president. We run the school council using Robert’s rules. We’ve been teaching the students how Robert’s Rules works and function under that.
They’re learning about government, Robert’s Rules, taking a leadership role. I saw where if students had a question or concern there was a process that they could bring that up.
We came in with a list of safety rules and rules that we felt should be in. We talked these through the school council at the first meeting. We had another meeting where the school council voted in all those rules. Since that time, students and staff have been adding rules to it and they go through a first reading and second reading just like our legislature. There’s a discussion on it. There’s an amendment to them and then they’re voted in. Once we have a rule that’s been approved by the school council, it’s put into our rule book. Everyone, staff and students, have to live by those rules. If anyone, staff or student breaks one of the rules or is not following one of them. Any student or staff member can write up the individual who may have broken a rule.
We have a judicial council made up of three students. One of them is elected as the clerk of that council and one staff member. They meet every day at 11:00 to hear any complaints that have been leveled against someone. This was a scary process for some of the kids at first because they didn’t fully understand, but everyone loves it. The one who’s the accuser has a chance to express what they felt happen and what rule was broken in their mind. The accused has an opportunity to express their feelings about what happened and why. The majority of the time it’s evident and the accused pleads guilty. The council decides on a sentence which could be from a warning to a sentence that makes sense to help them to learn.
There are two things I could bring up with what I’ve seen with the school council, it’s been amazing is that there are two young men, ten years old good friends play all the time together. One does something inappropriate and broke one of the rules. His friend wrote him up and they each present their sides and the one who has accused, admitted he was guilty. He did break the rule and he says, “I’ve thought about it and I now know I should have done this.” To me, that’s one of the greatest things I’ve seen. They have an opportunity to think about it, to express themselves. He came up with his own solution, what he would do in the future if that same situation arose.
We had another student. This is a seven-year-old who at home has two younger sisters. One of them attends school. He felt one of his sisters broke a family rule. He went and got a blank piece of paper. He wrote up his sister and gave it to his mom. They held a family council and they went through the complaint and they had an opportunity to work as a family to resolve this issue. The mother came to me and told me how happy she was that these children are empowered. They don’t have to wait for a teacher a principal or someone else to take care of it. They can act immediately to write up, to state what happened and it’s heard immediately. They feel empowered in their lives. This has even gone into their homes in this case.
I observed the courtesy and respect. There was no anger, no raised voices. It was calmly discussed. The students are learning to take responsibility for their actions and appropriate ways to correct a wrong or solve a conflict. I was impressed with that. I also had the opportunity to talk to some mothers who commented on how much better, one mother had a hyperactive son who was always getting into trouble in his previous school. Here, he bumped into the rules occasionally, but it was a much more accepting environment plus the choice.
This is another key element I thought was important and goes along with the episode on the research trip to Finland and Sweden, this student-directed learning. They choose their curriculum. I talked to one teenage student who explained her passion is art. She is allowed to pursue that passion to her heart’s content. She also explained in the process, she is expanding and learning and growing. They’re not carrying over her art into writing assignments. It was quite fascinating.
When students are given control over their own lives and their own education, they step up to the task and they expand. Share on XThat’s why I’m doing this because when students are given control over their own lives, over their own education, they step up to the task and they expand. They realize that they have to do something. They can’t wait for someone to tell them what to do.
I know some parents are concerned, “It’s not accredited. How will they ever get into college?” There are many advantages to being not accredited as my understanding is you are not required to administer any end of level testing or report to a government agency.
Unless they choose a class that may have a test to see where they’re at. There’s little testing that’s done at the school. Some of the opportunities for the students, there are some safety tests they have to take. In this day and age, these students are considered in a home school. That’s how universities look at them. The SAT is what they’re more interested in. We do offer a diploma, it’s not an accredited diploma, but it’s a diploma that means something to us. Where a student has to pick a subject while the subjects defined is that what they’ve learned and how they’re going to apply at their lives and they have to write a thesis on. They have to defend that thesis before a committee. If they perform all that and are able to defend their thesis, then they can receive one of our diplomas.
This is based on the Sudbury model that has been around for 50 years. I’ve been on their website and they have the statistics of how many of their graduates go on to college. One thing I thought was significant is the high percentages that go into owning their own business. The type of entrepreneurship and thinking for themselves. I’m seeing this is as creating much better citizens, much better members of society that can contribute that take responsibility for their actions and are proactive. I see a lot of benefits to this.
I’ve seen with my own daughters and I’ve seen it with others as I’ve worked at universities. New freshmen coming in, sometimes this is the first time in their lives that they had their freedom, the freedom to choose. They’re not always making good choices right then. What we’ve learned that children at a younger age are given the freedom to make choices. The more opportunity they have to learn to make good choices. When they get totally away from home, they’re more likely to make good choices and their lives.
I’m going to have the link to Alpine Valley Academy. People can contact you through there. If parents are interested in enrolling their children, or maybe if they’re in another area, they might be interested in starting a school of their own and are you available to help people with that?
Definitely willing to talk with them and help them with that. There are schools modeled after Sudbury Valley all around the country. There’s another one in Utah and they’re in Europe. They’re in the Middle East. They’re looking in Asia. This is a model that’s expanding the earth.
It sounds like a good one and it’s a good thing to know that. Any other comments? Anything else we need to know about Alpine Valley Academy and the Sudbury model?
You have your expectations, but what I’ve seen has equaled or surpassed my expectations in many ways. There’s an amazing youth in this day and age. They have to be given the freedom to take charge of their lives and to learn how to be in charge of their education and their lives and they’re happier. Anxiety is not an issue. ADHD is not an issue. All these societal issues go away in these environments.
I believe it. Some may think, “It sounds like the students are running the school.” I taught in a large public high school and for a while, we did not have effective leadership. I saw what it looks like when students ran the school, but that is not what is happening here. I was impressed, there was respect.
We call ourselves a constitutional council, where we do have a constitution that the students approve at the beginning of the year that lays down the ground rules and the rights. They’re able to live by that and to grow with.
Naturally, they want to choose what’s best for everyone. I love it.
That’s one of the things that amazed me when I was at Sudbury even is that the age of mixing is incredible. Older students have empathy for the younger ones and are helpful and looking out for them. The bullying goes away because they care for each other. If someone does do something that maybe along the lines of bullying, that student has the power to take care of it to write them up.
That’s one thing we forgot to mention. There are no grade levels. There’s no second grade, third grade. They’re all students.
They’re all students and they follow their own interests and passions. Our art staff member brought in clay. We had some five-year-olds working on it. We had some fifteen-year-olds working on our project side by side. They look and see what each other is doing. They talk about it what Sudbury has found when you have age mixing, we don’t have grades we’re ages five to eighteen and that the students learn to talk with a staff person to person with the older students, so when they go into life, which that’s the way life is. Age isn’t the criteria, it’s working with others of all ages. These students aren’t afraid to talk to me or any of the other staff members and they’re able to deal with society in that way.
I agree that they’re much better prepared for the workforce whether they’re working for someone else or starting their own company. I have great admiration for what you’re doing. I know you’re a busy man. Thank you for taking the time to share that with us.
My pleasure.