Castle View High School Offering Arapahoe Community College Classes
arapahoe community college, castle rock players, castle view high school, college, education, principal lisle gates,
Think that Castle Rock doesn’t have higher education opportunities? Think again: Arapahoe Community College is beginning to offer night classes at Castle View High School.
In several ways‚ that’s a testament to the quality of the new high school itself. Castle View High School is a progressive public school dedicated to giving students real-world learning opportunities within the context of a traditional high school experience. The school itself is broken out into four concentrated “small learning communities” or academies. The academies offer specialized curriculums in visual and performing arts; math‚ science and engineering; entrepreneurship (business‚ finance‚ information technology and communications); and humanities‚ world languages‚ and social sciences. The world languages department offers classes in several foreign languages including Chinese‚ Japanese‚ Arabic and Spanish.
By teaching to student interests‚ the faculty hopes to keep pupils excited and dedicated to their schooling. They also give them practical tools that will benefit their future career and educational goals. And‚ of course‚ extracurricular activities such as cheer‚ basketball and other sports‚ as well as hobby and activity clubs‚ are offered.
The high school opened in August 2006 to freshman and sophomores‚ and enrollment will extend to juniors in fall of 2007 and seniors in fall of 2008.
“We’re doing a lot of things outside the box‚” says Principal Lisle Gates. “We’re creating a community school and so we’re excited to bring partnerships with community resources like Arapahoe.”
Gates‚ who has been working in education for 39 years‚ says that a partnership between Castle View High School and Arapahoe Community College makes good sense for students and their parents.
“Arapahoe Community College is coming on board looking at our academics and looking at the courses that they’re presently offering‚” he says. “This way a student will get high school credit and college credit at the same time.”
The college will also offer training to the faculty at the high school. Evening classes are currently available in a variety of subjects including Spanish‚ art‚ writing and small business.
“We are a very fast-growing community‚” Gates says. “But we do not have access to any higher education opportunities. So we’re bringing the community college here.”
Gates says that the school has already opened up its multimillion-dollar facilities to other agencies and organizations‚ including the Castle Rock Players theater group and Castle Rock’s Park and Recreation Department. Students are also given a Douglas County Public Library bar code on the back of their student identification cards‚ so they can use that facility.
Story by Dawn Friedman
Photo by Antony Boshier
