E.O. Smith High School @ the Depot Campus provides a non-traditional educational experience for students who have demonstrated the need for a smaller and more personalized instructional setting.  Founded in 2008 in collaboration with Big Picture Learning (www.bigpicture.org), "The Depot" offer students an educational experience that is grounded in authenic "real world" internship experiences and individualized learning plans derived from students’ interests. The school is organized around an “advisory” model in which students stay with the same teacher/advisor for the entirety of their high school experience.   Students are expected to spend at least two full days a week participating in an off-campus internship with a site mentor.

In addition to a faculty advisor, each student’s “educational team” includes a community mentor, their parents/guardians, the director of the Depot Campus, and the support of the other students in their advisory group.

Students do not receive traditional grades nor do they follow a traditional curriculum.  Instead, students are expected to demonstrate their mastery of specific learning goals through quarterly exhibitions, portfolios and public presentations.  Students are evaluated on their work by their entire educational team, and the advisor writes an in-depth narrative report each quarter.

The Depot Campus School has been designed to serve up to 40 students who have demonstrated the need for a different educational approach.  Although every type of learner is likely to benefit from the type of educational opportunities offered at the Depot, the current mission of the Depot is to serve a population that is in jeopardy of not graduating on time from E.O. Smith, or has demonstrated through previous academic performance that the traditional model is not working.  It is expected that such students will gain newfound success at the Depot Campus as a direct result of the school’s philosophy of educating “one student at time.”