Monte del Sol
I have no kids in school and no grandkids on a school schedule. But I am acutely tuned in to the rhythms of the academic year, because --- cars.
Today a steady stream of traffic right outside our front door paraded up the hill from 8 in the morning til 8:45. Vrooom. First day of school. Then, after that, nothing. All quiet.
Four houses away from us, up the hill but hidden over the crest, is Monte del Sol charter school, one of the better regarded and competitive schools in the state. Originally a music and arts charter school (we called them "magnet" schools back east), it now has a more general academic focus.
It has 360 students, grades 7 through 12, and 25 teachers, and apparently every one of them arrives by car. I've never seen a school bus, but it may be that buses must use the other road, Dancing Ground, which leads into the school from another direction.
The school is a small stucco building, looking like a larger version of all the houses around it. There is an open courtyard in the center with trees and tables that feels like a college quadrangle for gathering and criss crossing to classes. However, there are four metal trailers, decoratively graffiti'd, to the side of the building that apparently hold classrooms too. Space issues.
A few walkers and bikers and skateboarders pass by on school mornings, but mostly it's cars. I like to watch the 7th graders in winter when they zip by on their bikes in their thin t shirts and shorts, while I'm inside my house with the heat on, bundled in a sweatshirt and slippers against the high desert cold.
Sometimes mid morning there's a field trip and we see groups of gangly teenagers shamble past the house on their way to . . where? I'm not sure what they're going to see that they can walk to. It's entertaining to watch, though. The dynamics of teen age social structure are so evident as they clomp and giggle and shuffle by.
The school is where our homeowners association holds its large meetings. In summer there's a Shakespeare production in the courtyard on several weekends. The school promotes its community gardens and teaching water conservation, a good thing for kids in this city.
The traffic is only heavy for 45 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon, then it's completely quiet all day. I don't mind it. It's over quickly.
The rest of the day there are long stretches of absolutely nothing happening on the road outside our house except the random person pulling up to the mailbox cluster next to our driveway to get their mail.
All in all, despite the traffic, the school is a good neighbor.
Today a steady stream of traffic right outside our front door paraded up the hill from 8 in the morning til 8:45. Vrooom. First day of school. Then, after that, nothing. All quiet.
Four houses away from us, up the hill but hidden over the crest, is Monte del Sol charter school, one of the better regarded and competitive schools in the state. Originally a music and arts charter school (we called them "magnet" schools back east), it now has a more general academic focus.
It has 360 students, grades 7 through 12, and 25 teachers, and apparently every one of them arrives by car. I've never seen a school bus, but it may be that buses must use the other road, Dancing Ground, which leads into the school from another direction.
The school is a small stucco building, looking like a larger version of all the houses around it. There is an open courtyard in the center with trees and tables that feels like a college quadrangle for gathering and criss crossing to classes. However, there are four metal trailers, decoratively graffiti'd, to the side of the building that apparently hold classrooms too. Space issues.
A few walkers and bikers and skateboarders pass by on school mornings, but mostly it's cars. I like to watch the 7th graders in winter when they zip by on their bikes in their thin t shirts and shorts, while I'm inside my house with the heat on, bundled in a sweatshirt and slippers against the high desert cold.
Sometimes mid morning there's a field trip and we see groups of gangly teenagers shamble past the house on their way to . . where? I'm not sure what they're going to see that they can walk to. It's entertaining to watch, though. The dynamics of teen age social structure are so evident as they clomp and giggle and shuffle by.
The school is where our homeowners association holds its large meetings. In summer there's a Shakespeare production in the courtyard on several weekends. The school promotes its community gardens and teaching water conservation, a good thing for kids in this city.
The traffic is only heavy for 45 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon, then it's completely quiet all day. I don't mind it. It's over quickly.
The rest of the day there are long stretches of absolutely nothing happening on the road outside our house except the random person pulling up to the mailbox cluster next to our driveway to get their mail.
All in all, despite the traffic, the school is a good neighbor.
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