With its graduating class of 2026, The Bijou School in Colorado Springs District 11 saw its last class of Bijou Dragons receive their diplomas Thursday morning at Colorado College’s Ed Robson Arena.

Starting next year, the school will join the Tesla Educational Opportunity School under the latter’s name as a single, unified campus. Students enrolled at Bijou will automatically be enrolled at Tesla going forward.

The graduating class of 27 students sat alongside the classes of the district’s alternative schools, Achieve Online and Tesla. The three schools are similar in that each offers flexible options for students.

In the case of The Bijou School, which opened in 1997, students could earn two credits simultaneously in single, smaller classes to recover credits or accelerate their path to graduation.

During the commencement ceremony, Bijou’s principal, Mary-Catherine Ruben-Clapper, said the graduates include those who have overcome anxiety, homelessness and personal losses, and others who became parents or worked full-time jobs to support their families as students.

“And we had students who once doubted if they would even be alive today,” she said. “And yet here you are.”

In the case of Airycelys Khayala Wood, the schoolwork and helping her fellow students were “tough,” she said, but these challenges strengthened their bonds.

“And we got to push each other through all the ups and downs. It’s been great and I hope we can continue to make the memories, even as adults,” she told her fellow graduates.  

Earlier this year, district leadership announced that it would move the Bijou School’s programming and staff to the Tesla campus to create and offer a stronger program for students seeking individualized paths to graduation.

D-11 Superintendent Michael Gaal told The Gazette that the decision to unite the schools was the result of both campuses being well below capacity, the similarities in their offerings and hands-on approaches in building relationships with their students, and the district being “more efficacious of that limited dollar that we have in the district.”

The Colorado Department of Education reported that 119 students were enrolled at Bijou for the 2025-26 school year and 240 at Tesla. Tesla will also phase out its middle school grades, starting next year.

While he said he wasn’t at liberty to discuss the administrative positions, Gaal said all teachers at Bijou were offered jobs at the new location at 3302 Alpine Place. D-11 spokesperson Jessica Wise said next school year will act as a “zero design year” where both schools’ staff and leadership will determine the best way to blend their programming.

As for what might go into the space at D-11’s Roy J. Wasson Academic Campus, where the school is currently located, he said that they’ve explored potential workforce development and co-location possibilities.

Previous offerings at both schools include a bike tech program, criminal justice and law education, outdoor leadership and recreation pathways, attendance based on academic progress, credits earned by quarter and classes for 5^th, 6^th and 7^th-year high school seniors. 

Bijou graduate and D-11 school board member Charles Johnson told the crowd that the school and other opportunity campuses can provide a path to postsecondary success and the confidence to get there for those who might lack both.

“Students can work at their own pace with hands-on learning and real-world experiences,” he said. “Opportunity campuses help those that might not find their true path in traditional schools.”

Bijou faculty member Mellisa Vasquez, who’s worked as an administrative specialist, registrar, data processor, and business manager at the school over the past four years, kept busy visiting with fellow staff and students and taking pictures immediately following the ceremony outside the arena. She said there was “a big sense of community” at her school, because of its small class sizes and close relationships and support systems between staff and students.

She, herself, admitted to feeling “emotional” seeing students she first met as freshmen walk across the aisle that morning.

“Because they succeeded,” she said. “Some of these kids, you know, their families were like, ‘You’re not going to make it,’ and I was like, ‘Yes, you are.’ And they did and I love that.”