Escalante Middle School Home

We are crew,
not passengers.
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About Us

Escalante Middle School is for 6th-8th grade students and is located on the south end of Durango, Colorado – just beneath the beautiful Purple Cliffs along the Animas River. Escalante is an EL Learning (formerly Expeditionary Learning) school. This means we believe that learning is active, challenging, meaningful, public, and collaborative. 
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Where we’re located
Durango School District map
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Mission

Our mission is to empower students to apply the habits of work, learning, and scholarship to become productive and caring citizens. Reading, writing, mathematics, geography, science, and history are all taught using the team approach. We meet students' individual learning needs by challenging our instruction to address each student's learning style, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We use online and computer-based instruction, individualizing reading programs, and student learning groups based on similar academic abilities. 

School & District News

Mullet Eagle

EMS Summer News

The Escalante Middle School building will be closed to the public from May 27 - August 7th due to construction. Office staff will work from a remote location and can be reached via email. If you have questions or concerns and need to speak to someone, please contact the District Office at 970-247-5411

Principal Emily Moreland - [email protected]
Asst. Principal Jessica Stumme - [email protected]
Asst. Principal David Tanaka - [email protected]
Admins. Asst. to the Principal Tami Jantz - [email protected]
Registrar Shanda Price - [email protected]
Counselor Kim Osby - [email protected]
Counselor Bruce Williams - [email protected]

Fall Check-in for all grade levels - August 14th from 5:30 6:30 PM
This event is designed to welcome students and families back to school with information from the EMS administration and district departments. Those attending will be able to tour the school, meet teachers, ask questions, and complete necessary forms via provided Chromebooks. Students will receive their team assignments at Fall Check-in and their schedules on the first day of school, Tuesday, August 19th.

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Eagle Track & Field 2025

The Escalante Track & Field coaching staff is happy to welcome you to the 2025 season. We intend to make this beneficial and enjoyable for everyone involved. Please find below information about the Escalante Track & Field program we hope you find useful.
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Did you receive the emergency message on April 22?

On Tuesday, April 22, at 12:39 p.m., Durango School District sent out an emergency message to our entire school community about Boys and Girls Club closing that afternoon due to a power outage. If you did not receive the message, please complete the following steps to ensure you receive emergency messaging in future.
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Cook Center Mental Health Series: May 2025 classes + watch recordings on your own schedule

Need help in supporting your child's well-being? We are offering FREE live webinars on Monday-Thursday evenings throughout the school year, and you can always watch previously recorded classes on your own time by visiting the Cook Center's full content library. Live webinar topics in May include: how to motivate your child, mindfulness for improved mental health, suicide prevention, protecting your child on social media, emotional regulation, video game addiction, stopping bullying cycles, and more.
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Emily Moreland

Principal's Message

Welcome, Eagle students and families! At Escalante Middle School, we focus on building cultures of respect, responsibility, courage, and kindness – where students and staff are committed to quality work and citizenship. Our highly qualified staff is trained to tailor instruction to help a diverse range of learners. We meet students’ individual learning needs by adjusting instruction to address specific learning styles, abilities, strengths, and needs. 

Events

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Quality of Life

Durango is a beautiful place to live and work. It is located at 6,512 feet elevation in Southwest Colorado near the Four Corners region. Families who live here enjoy a historic steam train, ski resort, rivers, vibrant downtown, bike trails, sky-high “fourteener” mountains, and four distinct seasons with an average of 266 sunny days per year. We welcome new families and new staff members, and we offer excellent benefits and competitive salaries. 
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Accessibility Statement

It is the goal of Durango School District 9-R that the information on this website be accessible to individuals with visual, hearing, or cognitive disabilities. Good faith efforts are being made to ensure that our website complies with web accessibility standards.

Most pages on our site are available in HTML format, which can be read by screen readers. Some documents are in Adobe PDF format, requiring Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website. Additionally, some documents are in Google Docs, and Google Forms. Most modern browsers and screen readers can access Google-based documents. More information about Google web products accessibility can be found on the Google Accessibility website.

In order to ensure that Durango School District websites are accessible to everyone in our community, including those with disabilities, we are using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

If you cannot access any page(s) on our site, please email us at [email protected]. Include the location of the webpage/document, your name, email address, and phone number so we can provide the information in another format, and address the issue.