Indian Peaks Elementary School is located in an established neighborhood in southwest Longmont, but its attendance boundaries extend to the west, east and south to include several additional neighborhoods. The name was selected to represent a geographical connection to the Indian Peaks Mountain range in the Front Range. The school’s mascot is a Moose.
Mission
To afford every student the ability to achieve at high levels in order to have every opportunity for success.
Focus
Indian Peaks has an instructional focus of Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) along with Early Transitional Bilingual Instruction. The STEM Instructional Focus is the foundation of the high-quality research based instructional programming that is offered to all students PreK through grade five. The natural convergence of the sciences, partnered with literacy, provides students with an outstanding foundation of essential skills while integrating the development of problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills and the ability to collaborate to enhance learning.
Our Early Transitional Bilingual Instruction offers Spanish literacy instruction K-3rd grade to students whose dominant native language is Spanish. Students receive literacy instruction in Spanish, which includes reading and writing instruction. They also receive 60 minutes daily of English literacy instruction, affording them the necessary skills to be successfully bi-literate in Grade Three. Math, Science, and Social Studies are taught in English with Spanish support as necessary. Our goal for our bilingual instruction students is that they will be successfully bi-literate by third grade. Teachers provide differentiated, rigorous instruction to all students in order to prepare them for continued academic success.
School Leadership
Awards and Achievements
The Race to the Top-District 2012 competition sponsored by the United States Department of Education is a grant opportunity for districts demonstrating how they can personalize education for all students in their schools. The Race to the Top-District program is aimed squarely at classrooms and the all-important relationship between educators and students. The Race to the Top-District grantees will receive four-year awards that range from $10 million to $40 million, depending on the number of students served through their plan. The winning applicants were the top scorers among the 372 applications the Department received in November, which were evaluated and scored by independent peer reviewers.
St. Vrain Valley Schools was selected for a Race to the Top-District award for $16,589,553.00 in December 2012. We are focusing on the Skyline feeder with an emphasis on STEM integration at all of the Skyline feeder schools, an augmented school year, and the development of an Innovation Center for high school students to be used as a pipeline for application of STEM learning in an environment that encourages creative thinking and entrepreneurial skill development. The Race to the Top schools in St. Vrain will provide teachers the information, tools, and supports that enable them to meet the needs of each student and substantially accelerate and deepen each student’s learning. This initiative will create opportunities for students to identify and pursue areas of personal academic interest—all while ensuring that each student masters critical areas identified in college- and career-ready standards or college- and career-ready high school graduation requirements. The goal of the SVVSD Race to the Top plan is to replicate what we learn in other district feeders freeing up resources district wide for additional innovative programming to be developed and implemented.