Principal's Message
Welcome to New Vista!
The Vision of New Vista High School is to create a better world by inspiring students to become lifelong learners who actively participate in their education and community, while passionately pursuing their individual paths. We work to realize this vision by partnering with students to create a school on a human scale with a focus on authentic education in a community setting. We embrace the differences, the challenges and the unique gifts that our students all contribute to our school. Through our advisory program we’re able to provide a mixed grade level setting where students can focus on inter- and intra-personal growth. The inclusion of our school-wide equity curriculum into advisory helps students focus on understanding diverse perspectives and cultivating a sense of empathy for others.
New Vista was founded to “break the mold of public education” From the ground up, each aspect of school was examined and purposefully constructed to allow for innovation at every turn. Our schedule, class offerings, start times, community involvement, graduation requirements, and classroom instruction all provide innovative alternatives to the traditional comprehensive high school model.
In an overt way to foster empathy in our community, we have developed a comprehensive equity program at NVHS. Each year our community looks at privilege, power, oppression and allyship. We begin with an “equity basics” curriculum for all our newcomers, students and staff alike. Parallel to equity basics, other students are watching films that focus on an aspect of equity and engaging in thoughtful issue-based discussions. Later in the year all students participate in interest-based groups that more deeply examine the issues. Throughout each year, students participate in “equity check-ins” in their advisory group where students discuss equity issues that they observe in the media and their communities.
The New Vista community has created a set of seven core values which are the lenses by which we evaluate our successes and communicate our expectations. While each student and staff member is a unique member of our community, we all agree that we can carry these core values in our hearts throughout our time at New Vista.
The Colorado Department of Education’s School Accountability Report consistently identifies New Vista as a “high” performing school.
Best regards,
Kirk Quitter
Principal
kirk.quitter@bvsd.org
