Joshua Hodges is the site director for Aspen Ridge charter school in Fresno. Photo contributed

Aspen Ridge Public School will open a new campus in a new partnership with Fresno Mission in the fall.

The school will be located at the City Center, near Blackstone and Dakota avenues. It will be open to all students in Fresno.

The first day of school will be Aug. 3 with enrollment for seventh, eighth and ninth grade classes. Each year, an additional grade will be added until the 12th grade.

“There’s going to be opportunities for students to engage with the community on campus,” said Joshua Hodges, Aspen Ridge’s site director. 

Students and their families will be able to interact with non-profit organizations that will be located on campus. Hodges hopes this will allow students to network and seek internships with those organizations. 

“We are excited about our new partnership at City Center and the opportunity for two organizations to come together to provide a valued service to the community,” said Fresno Mission’s CEO Matt Dildine in a press release. 

Aspen Public Schools and Fresno Mission have had different partnerships over the last seven years.

Aspen Ridge School specializes in personalized learning and dual enrollment. According to Hodges, the school uses the Summit Learning Platform, which contains three pillars: self-paced content, real-world projects and mentoring. With this platform, educators at Aspen Ridge School can see what kind of learners students are, how they can help students learn and implement concepts into projects and mentor students once a week to help them reach their academic and personal goals. 

“We develop our students as leaders,” Hodges said. “The more we develop leaders, the more our community benefits from it as a whole.” 

With its dual enrollment, Aspen Ridge Schools aims to help high school students get ahead in their education and allows them to take classes that will count toward their high school and college degrees. 

“We’re partnered with Fresno City College, and we’re going to be offering pathways that are going to allow our students to earn up to two years’ worth of college credit before they leave high school,” Hodges said. 

Parents interested in enrolling their children for fall 2021 can visit ridge.aspenps.org or call (559) 374-0080.