5280 Recovery High School

📚️ That's a wrap on the school year! Last night, students presented all their learning to their families, friends, and community members at Exhibition, our end-of-semester showcase. As a project-based learning school, Exhibition is a fantastic reminder of how powerful it is to apply real life skills while learning. Congratulations to everyone for finishing strong!

Now, we're off to celebrate our seniors at graduation tonight! 🎓️

Happy Staff Appreciation Week!

Really, every week at 5280 should be Staff Appreciation Week. We seriously have the best staff a school could wish for. Please join us in thanking our teachers, recovery and behavioral health team, and support staff for the hard work and love that goes into serving our students each day.

Our Under the Sea Prom this Sunday was BEAUTIFUL! Everyone showed up in the very best to dance, laugh, and explore the Denver Aquarium together. Thanks to Hannah and all the other staff who made this such a memorable community event!

The gala was a success!! We raised a good amount of money from it ($65,000!) and many student art pieces were sold. We plan to do this again next year with more student art and a more planned out and bigger event.

We want to hear your feedback and thoughts about the gala! How can we improve? How was your experience? What did you personally like? We push to make these types of events memorable and enjoyable for students, parents, and community members.

Next year, we also want to have a more variety in art types. We encourage digital, painting, oil, clothing design, abstract, poem and writing! We’d like to see what your creative minds can cook up! Students and community members are welcome to donate art at any time during the year, for the next Art Gala.

5280 thrives to break stereotypes and break expectations. Students in recovery are often disregarded and tossed aside. We want to show everyone that students in recovery can still lead a bright future and we want to showcase their creativity! Thanks for joining us!

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✨️ This post was written by Lemon, a 5280 sophomore who is our new Marketing Intern. Lemon was one of our student artists featured at the gala.

We'll be sharing more pictures and thoughts from this incredible community gathering over the coming weeks, so stay tuned! ✨️

The 5280 silent auction closes in FOUR HOURS! Don't miss your chance to win some truly outstanding art by our talented community. Place your bids now at bit.ly/2026art.

Don't miss out on these stunning pieces—and many others! The 5280 silent auction ends on FRIDAY at 7:20 PM.

Check it out now: bit.ly/2026art

What's an Art Gala without the ART?

We don't know either!

Whether you plan on joining us at Moss Denver on Friday or you had to RSVP no, you can still win one (or more) beautiful pieces of art made by 5280 staff, students, and community members.

The auction closes at 7:20 PM Mountain time on Friday. Better get bidding!

Link in comments.

Please join us in welcoming the incredible Brittany Kitchens as our new Director of Recovery!

Over the past several months, Brittany has served as Interim Co-Director of Recovery, and she has already demonstrated tremendous leadership skills and trust. She leads with inquiry, compassion, humanity, and a true desire to seek understanding. We have full confidence that she will be a phenomenal leader as we continue to strengthen and grow as a community.

Brittany shared, As the longest-tenured member of the recovery team, this community means a great deal to me. I’m grateful for the foundation Keith built and look forward to building on that work. I care deeply about creating spaces where students feel seen, supported, and connected each day. I’m also excited to keep building a program where recovery and academics come together in a way that truly supports each student’s growth."

We know, you've been meaning to buy your tickets to the 5280 Art Gala and life keeps getting in the way. This is a reminder to RSVP ✨️ right now✨️ , before it's too late!

Purchase your tickets today at the link in the comments.

There's just ONE WEEK left to RSVP to 5280's first-ever Art Gala! Make sure to reserve your tickets today (link in comments).

The Art Gala is made possible by our friends at Central Bank, who believe in 5280's mission and wanted to help us come together as a community to celebrate our students. Baxter Fain, president and CEO of Central Bank's Colorado operations, shared a bit about why they chose to invest in our students. He shared:

"My family became familiar with 5280 through our involvement with FullCircle. We toured the school about a year ago for our daughter Collyn [now a 5280 student] and were just blown away by it. It had been a difficult few years. Seeing what 5280 could do for Collyn and all these other kids was very impactful.

"Central Bank needs to get involved because the community needs to know about this. These are special kids who want to be and do better. The school needs to grow. Raising awareness for this and supporting it financially is what banks should be doing in the community. It’s not about what we get from it, it’s just for doing it. We’re thrilled to be spreading the word."

Read more of our Q&A with Baxter at the link in the comments.