Mountain Vista Governor's School

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The Mountain Vista Governor's School for Science, Math & Technology is one of Virginia's 18 state-initiated magnet Governor's Schools. It is a part-time academic year school program where 11th and 12th grade students take advanced classes in the morning and receive their remaining classes from their home high schools.

[edit] Participating school systems

As of 2006 the school has one hundred and eight students^[1] enrolled from its participating school systems:^[2]

• Clarke County
• Culpeper County
• Fauquier County
• Frederick County
• Rapahannock County
• Warren County
• Winchester

[edit] History

Planning for Mountain Vista began in 2003 because its participating counties were the last in the state not covered by an existing Virginia Governor's school. All the participating school systems surveyed parents and students to gauge interest and the plans were put in motion. A committee was formed and approval had to be granted from the Virginia Department of Education.^[3] A first review of the plan was presented to the Virginia Department of Education at their January 11, 2006 meeting.^[4] The funding for MVGS (a total of $190,544) was first approved in the 2006-2008 Biennial Budget passed by the Virginia House of Delegates.^[5]

On January 11th, the estimated portion of the school budget that the participating counties had to pay was approximately $216,527; it was divided among each of the counties.^[6] Each county's school board was responsible for approving both the funding and a 3 year commitment in order for the project to continue.^{[7] [8][9]}

The number of slots allocated to each jurisdiction at that time was: Frederick & Fauquier (30), Culpeper (24), Winchester (13), Warren & Clark (8) and Rapahannock (4). Each county has to fund its allotted slots itself. For example, Clarke County pays $40,000 for its 8 slots.^[10] The school may add 10th and 9th graders into the program at some point, to complete a 4 year Governors school curriculum, though space and fiscal restraints may delay the addition.

In May of 2006, Dr. Rosanne Williamson, principal of Brumfield Elementary School in Fauquier County, was named director of Mountain Vista. She assumed the post on July 1st.^[11]

[edit] Enrollment

Each participating county has a local committee that decides who attends from that county. Students interested must complete an application and submit transcripts and two written essays.^[12] The applications along with teacher recommendations are reviewed by the local committee and admission decisions are made. ^[13]

Currently Fauquier County Students also have the ability to apply for one of 2 slots to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. They will retain that right until the Fauquier County School board decides to relinquish those slots.^[14]

[edit] Facilities

The School does not have a classroom facility of its own. Instead, students travel to Lord Fairfax Community College to take courses offered by the program, then the students return to their home schools and maintain eligibility for sports and extracurricular activities there.^[15] LFCC was chosen because it has campuses on both ends of the area covered by Mountain Vista. The area served by Mountain Vista is too vast to bus the students to any single location because the travel time would be several hours one way for some students. The two sites are connected via videoconferencing that allow them to interact with each other.^[16]

In addition, all Mountain Vista students are given laptops for their use year round.^[17] The school uses the Blackboard Academic Suite of e-Education software designed to allow the students to submit assignments, get notes and assignments on snow days or other missed days of school and have virtual office hours for instructors. ^[18]

[edit] Academics

The Mountain Vista curriculum was designed to be a college level mathematics and science program providing a solid basis for doing research and making connections between disciplines. The classes are connected in a way that when a topic is being taught in physics, a similar concept is being taught in math and humanities is discussing social applications and ramifications of the subject. Most of the courses have homework assignments assigned during the summer and due on the first day of class making learning a year round activity.^[19] A number of MVGS classes are either Dual Enrollment or AP or both^[20] giving the students the ability to earn college credits while still in high school.

The courses offered are^[21]:

• Science:
  • MVGS Physics I: Mechanics
  • MVGS Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism
  • MVGS Environmental Science
• Mathematics:
  • MVGS Precalculus
  • MVGS First Year Calculus
  • MVGS Second Year Calculus with Topics in Multivariable
  • MVGS Statistics
• Humanities:
  • MVGS Humanities I: The Power of Thought / English 11
  • MVGS Humanities II: Applying the Power of Persuasion to World Issues /Government
• Research:
  • MVGS Research I: Introduction to the Fundamentals of the Research Process
  • MVGS Research II: Exploration of Cutting-Edge Science and Technology Fields (Applied Research)

Along with in class work, classes include projects that allow for hands on problem solving and collaboration with other students like a water balloon launch competition.^[22][23]

[edit] Graduates

The first class graduated in 2007. Almost half of the students will attend Virginia's top 3 schools (College of William and Mary, University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute) according to US News and World Report.^[24] Other notable colleges include Clemson University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Duquesne University, Pennsylvania State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Dayton and the United States Naval Academy. Top Liberal arts colleges^[25] are also represented with students going to Pomona College and the University of Richmond also.

Most of the remainder are going to other local universities like George Mason University, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Mary Washington.^[26]

[edit] See also

• Governor's Schools (Virginia)
• Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mountain Vista Governor's School for Science, Math and Technology