What outdoor adventure and field work can I expect?
All 9th and 10th grade students will participate in a week-long wilderness adventure during the fall in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. As adventure and safety go hand in hand, all VGHS faculty will be trained in wilderness first-aid or as wilderness first responders. Groups will be organized into teams of 2 adults and 15 students. Each group will be led by a trained wilderness professional and transportation will be provided by the school to and from all field experiences.

Our academic program is intertwined with wilderness adventures that support classroom activity. Students learn respect for self, care and compassion for others, social responsibility to the community, and sensitivity for the environment. On an adventure students are placed in challenging situations to teach them about self-discovery, perseverance, developing new skills, teamwork, and leadership.

There will be other opportunities for outdoor adventure which might include:

- Whitewater river rafting on the Rio Grande.
- Hot air ballooning.
- Snow shoeing and cross-country skiing.
- Winter camping.
- Skiing and snowboarding.
- Cross-cultural immersion experiences in Mexico.

Back to Top

---

Will there be sports at Vista Grande?
All Vista Grande High School students will have the opportunity to participate in intramural sports, such as volleyball, basketball, and cycling through afternoon electives. These offerings allow students to participate in multi-day outdoor trips, and allow older students to develop leadership in other avenues that benefit the school. The Vista Grande curriculum includes a rigorous physical education component that consists of outdoor trips and adventures, as well as after school activities such as intramural sports.

Vista Grande will not offer Interscholastic sports, which necessitate student travel and interrupt the theme-based curriculum. State law does allow public charter school students to participate in local school district interscholastic sports teams. However, the time and travel required for participation in interscholastic sports would cause students to miss vital learning experiences with Vista Grande. Therefore, Vista Grande strongly encourages students and families to consider the strain that participation may cause the students, families, and schools involved.

Back to Top

---

Are There Afternoon Electives?
• Vista Grande will provide afternoon electives in three eight-week sessions: Session I (Oct 16-Nov 3, 2007), Session II (Jan 22-March 14, 2008), and Session III (Apr 1-May 2, 2008).
• Each afternoon elective will be held from 2:45-4:15, 2 times per week.
• For a fee, students may participate in additional afternoon electives.
• Students will choose afternoon electives to participate in from the following categories:
• Intramural Sports such as volleyball, cycling, yoga, martial arts, or soccer
• Expressive Arts such as filmmaking, dance, drama, music, ceramics, poetry, woodworking, or photography
• Mind Challenge such as chess, Odyssey of the Mind, languages, or robotics
• Other engaging programs in vocational training or community service
• Participation in 2 sessions of afternoon electives (one academic and one athletic) is required for all Vista Grande students, with exceptions made on a case by case basis.

Back to Top

---

What equipment is provided?
Vista Grande High School will make outdoor gear available for student use. Any Vista Grande High School student participating in a school activity is fully responsible for equipment, outdoor gear, tools, computers and other school gear entrusted to him or her. If equipment used by a given student is not accounted for in a satisfactory manner--for example, in the case of theft, loss or damage-- participation and clearance to participate in other activities will be withheld until satisfactory resolution is achieved. In addition to short-term use of school items, each student may be entrusted with certain items for the entire school year, such as keyboarding machines, art supplies, and outdoor equipment.

These items may be issued to the student at the beginning of the school year, so the student as caretaker has both the freedom and responsibility to use and take care of the items as if they were his/her own. Students are free to use the items responsibly, take them home, maintain them, clean them, use them whenever they want, as long as they care for the items. Expected wear and tear due to normal use is expected; abuse, damage, loss or defacement will require the student to replace or repair the item in question.

Back to Top

---

Are there activity fees?
Vista Grande High School students are involved in many activities far beyond the experience of typical high school students, such as extended outdoor trips, other field experiences, evening activities, and more. Because of these enriching experiences, each year there are costs involved for each family: a small fee for comprehensive student insurance, fees for special supplies, fees for activities specific to that year’s curriculum, food and fuel costs associated with our extended trips. The fee is $250 per student per semester. Fees can be paid in advance at the beginning of the year, or spread out in payments. Also, new opportunities come up throughout the year—performances, museums, etc—that may require additional costs not announced at the beginning of the year. For further information regarding student fees, contact the Director’s office.

Back to Top

---

What Kind of Technology Will Be Used?
• Vista Grande High School students will receive rigorous instruction in the use of technology as a tool.

• School technology resources will reflect those used in workplace settings, and will also reflect the constantly changing landscape of technology.

• The teachers of Vista Grande are committed to integrating technology into the curriculum, and will make class and course information available and accessible online.

• Thematically-linked, project-based, multi-week Learning Expeditions will integrate technology with core subject areas, providing students with experience using Macintosh and IBM computers, GPS navigation units, digital cameras, scanners, and other peripherals, and software for editing music, movies, images, and web content.

• Through the school’s local area network, students will work on interconnected curricular projects where they will access and participate in shared folders, chats, and forums.

• Students will be “information literate” by learning a systematic process to conduct Internet research. They will learn how to find, use, apply, evaluate, and present information to specific academic needs and tasks.

• Technology applications will support higher-order thinking by engaging students in authentic, complex tasks within collaborative learning contexts. Additionally, technology and the arts will be combined in digital photography and video projects.

• Students will design a personal website and develop and maintain a digital portfolio, a compilation of their best academic work. Digital student portfolios and teacher narratives will describe individualized progress over time and will be online and accessible for students, parents, and teachers from school and home.

• Students will use industry-standard software such as Microsoft Office Suite 2004; AutoCAD; Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, PageMaker, Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver, Premiere, iMovie, iPhoto, Garage Band, among others.

• Vista Grande aims to provide each student with a laptop computer.

• Vista Grande upper-grade students will have the opportunity to concurrently enroll in UNM Taos technology courses, and pursue select IT (Information Technology) certifications.

Back to Top

---

Where is the school located?

Vista Grande is located at 125 La Posta in Taos, across from Wired Internet Cafe next to Living Design Group. Our permanent campus will be located on Paseo del Canon West in the building currently occupied by Healthshoes.

Back to Top

---

What is the yearly, weekly and daily schedule?

• Vista Grande High School will operate on a semester system with a calendar year similar to other public schools in Taos County in order to accommodate families with siblings in those schools. There will be some differences in the schedule to allow for additional teacher in-service, extended wilderness trips and fieldwork out of the classroom.

• The first day of school is August 21, 2007.

• Daily schedule is 7:40am and end at 2:40pm.

• Afternoon Electives are scheduled from 2:45pm – 4:15pm. Students will need to choose two eight-week afternoon Electives across the school year. The first elective sesion begins on Tuesday October 16.

• Lunch time is staggered with crew time, and runs from either 10:35-11:15 or 11:15-11:55.

• Vista Grande High School operates on a modified block schedule with 100-minute blocks for integrated courses such as Humanities and Math/Science. Other courses will meet daily for 50 minutes.

• Flexible block scheduling supports fieldwork and project-based learning. At VGHS our scheduling policies reflect what is best for learning, rather than what is most efficient or cost-effective.

• Anticipated length of school year for 2007 -08 will be 171 school days. Several of these days will include extended afternoons, evenings or nights. The length of future school years may be variable, due to extended field research and overnight trips, but will always exceed the state required amount of 1080 hours per year for high school.

• Out-of-class curricular experiences are regular occurrences in the Vista Grande High School calendar year. Some of these are research and fieldwork that is scheduled during normal school hours, while some are overnight, multi-day educational experiences in wilderness or urban locations. Mountain, canyon and river travel are integral parts of some Learning Expeditions, as well as trips to larger urban centers such as Denver or Albuquerque.

Back to Top

---

What sort of bus service is provided?

• Busing is aligned with existing high school routes and times. Taos District and existing providers supply appropriate bus services and routes so that children of all socioeconomic levels can receive free school transportation to and from school, as is their educational and legal right in New Mexico.

• Because Taos County is geographically large yet in places sparsely populated, TMS relies on student transportation to consist of outlying parent feeder routes that would feed in to the bus routes located more centrally to the main traffic corridors of Taos County.

• Transportation for Field Work is arranged with a contracted transportation service at no cost to students.

• Students participating in Afternoon Electives will be responsible for making arrangements for their own transportation after the activity.

Back to Top

---

Where Does Funding Come From?

Vista Grande High School is a public charter school. There is no tuition, although, like other public schools, an activity fee is required each semester.

VGHS receives funding for its annual operations just like any other public school, from the New Mexico state government through the Student Equalization Guarantee (SEG). In the 2007-2008 school year, VGHS expects its SEG funding to be approximately $940,000. Additional government monies for special education, technology, bilingual education and facilities may also be received.

Vista Grande also receives federal funding and private grants. Start up funds in the amount of $450,000 is provided, over a three-year period, from the Planning & Implementation Federal Stimulus Grant. During its planning year, VGHS also received $20,000 from the Walton Family Foundation, a private nonprofit organization.

Back to Top

---

How Does the Enrollment Lottery Work?

Enrollment opens and is advertised in the spring. 60 students are admitted to each grade, 9 and 10. If the number of applications received is less than this number, then every student is admitted and enrollment is open again.

If the number of applications received is greater than the number of actual spaces the following lottery design will be held in accordance with the 1999 Charter Schools Act within two weeks of enrollment closing.

• Each applicant is assigned a number.
• The number is written on a card and put in a box.
• Numbers are pulled by a person not associated with VGHS.
• The first 60 numbers/names picked are admitted to VGHS.
• Numbers/names picked after the first 60 are put on the admissions wait-list.

Back to Top