About SkyView

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Welcome!
On behalf of our amazing community of students, educators, faculty, and families, it is our pleasure to welcome you to SkyView Academy, Douglas County’s only PK-12th grade public charter school.

We are honored to lead and be part of this fantastic school as we strive to build a better tomorrow for our children. All of us here at SkyView are committed to a vision of preparing students to be life-long learners and honorable leaders. We live by a creed in doing and being our best, and believe this results in positive outcomes for our students both in and out of the classroom.

At SkyView, our students are our first priority and we honor that in all we do from strategic, school-wide decisions to individual student support. We strive to create a welcoming environment for our families and model behavior which shows diligent, hard work is the right thing to do and the key to success.

We love being part of the SkyView team and encourage families and students to get to know us better by delving into our website, joining a school tour, scheduling a “shadow day”, asking questions, and attending our athletic events and school plays.

We have a talented group of individuals who work hard to do and be their best and we look forward to meeting you.

Vision & Mission

Vision: SkyView Academy is committed to preparing students to be life-long learners and honorable leaders of tomorrow.

Mission: SkyView Academy offers a research-based, content-rich liberal arts program with a commitment to world language studies and community service. Staff, parents, and students are actively involved in a culture of expectation and support where individuals are respected, valued, and known by the content of their character.

Founding Principles

The vision for SkyView Academy began in 2004 when a group of Highlands Ranch parents came together to create a more challenging and meaningful educational program for their children and the community at large. Our founding team spent two years turning this dream into reality, opening their first school in Parker in 2006. SkyView Academy followed four years later, serving preschool – 5th grade initially and growing annually grade-by-grade with our first graduating class of seniors honored in 2015.

Our founding team was comprised of many qualified and dedicated parents, teachers, and community members with diverse backgrounds who shared a common educational vision for the school. Today, SkyView Academy continues to offer a program deeply rooted in the foundation created by our founding team as outlined by the following principles:

• To foster a joy of learning and a passion for knowledge in each student by offering a rigorous, research-based, and content-rich curriculum that challenges each student to achieve at their highest potential.
• To teach children to be more aware and respectful of other cultures, languages, and traditions through an integrated world language program that begins in preschool.
• To encourage children to actively participate in their local community and to help them gain an appreciation and increased sense of compassion for others regardless of ability or circumstance.
• To create independent, well-rounded, and confident students through a program that effectively balances academics, physical education, and general wellness.
• To provide a school culture where students, parents, and educators are welcomed, valued, and actively engaged in the learning process.
• To hire staff members that are committed to the mission of our school and provide opportunities for them to learn from each other and to learn from other educational professionals.
• To provide a student learning environment that increases academic achievement and fosters the development of social skills through effective classroom management strategies and a clear and consistent school-wide discipline policy.
• To recognize that not all students start at the same level, learn in the same way or master skills at the same pace and to provide a variety of teaching strategies and instructional methods that recognize these differences to make learning accessible to every student.
• To increase awareness and support for parental choice in education by creating a community of advocates that are actively involved in the charter school industry.

5 Pillars of the best schools

As with any sound structure, a solid foundation must be poured and pillars constructed to hold up to the test of time. The same is true for the students of SkyView Academy. Our foundation rests in the principles defined by our founding team and our 5 pillars represent what we teach our students so they can stand the test of time and enter the world as honorable leaders and life-long learners. You will hear the phrase “AS ONE” around SkyView. This means our entire PK-12 program provides building blocks for our youngest students in preschool through our graduating seniors. Students will find consistency, support, and rigor along their academic journey which progresses in our five differentiators, our pillars: Core Knowledge, Classical College Prep, Character Education, Service Learning, and World Languages.

Core Knowledge (grades PK-8)

The basis of Core Knowledge is simple and powerful: knowledge builds on knowledge. The more you know, the more you are able to learn. This seemingly logical insight, well-established by cognitive science, has profound implications for both teaching and learning. Nearly all of our most important goals for education – greater reading comprehension, the ability to think critically and solve problems, even higher test scores – are a function of the depth and breadth of our knowledge.

By outlining the precise content that every child should learn in language arts and literature, history and geography, mathematics, science, music, and the visual arts, the Core Knowledge curriculum represents a first-of-its kind effort to identify the foundational knowledge every child needs to reach these goals, and to teach it, grade-by-grade, year-by-year, in a coherent, age-appropriate sequence. Learn more about Core Knowledge.

Classical College Prep (grades 9-12)

SkyView’s high school program aligns classical content and pedagogy with current college preparation standards emphasizing critical thinking and analysis, depth of knowledge, and the development of value-centered human beings. Our high school values the important balance between providing engaging content-expert teachers and empowering students to drive their learning.

At the same time, we are committed to preparing students for the very best colleges in the country. It follows that the rigorous classical course content taught in class will address state, college board, and SAT standards as necessary. Technology is used as a tool, needed to prepare students for the modern world and collegiate experience. This integrated approach helps ensure students are exposed to the standards and skills that drive assessment and college entrance.

Character

Character Education is a hallmark of SkyView Academy and one of our primary differentiators. As such, we have implemented the Capturing Kids’ Hearts program reinforced within the content of our curriculum to develop healthy relationships between members of our school’s educational community. The program uses a universal language to teach children to self-manage and handle conflict when it occurs with the belief that “if you reach a child’s heart you will reach their mind.”

Through our character education program, our students learn to do and be their best through responsible and intelligent choices. The five character traits we model and teach are: respect, integrity, excellence, responsibility, and citizenship. When children learn to make good choices, they are more committed to learning and they develop habits that make them life-long readers and writers, build student’s self-esteem, help them learn to resolve conflicts, appreciate and respect diversity, manage aggressive behaviors, and promote integrity allowing students to become successful and develop into strong, competent, caring, and responsible citizens.

Service

Service learning is another differentiator touching our students at every level, PK-12th grade. Hands-on opportunities for students to contribute to SkyView, our local community, and/or global communities result in long-lasting partnerships while teaching the importance of giving back. Service projects are teacher-led in PK-8, coordinated across grade levels, and scheduled thoughtfully to ensure manageability, while students in grades 9-12 are required to complete 40 hours of service per school year to graduate.

Our SkyView community has supported many organizations over the years, including Lighthouse Assisted Living, Extreme Community Makeover, The Action Center, Warm Coats, Warm Hearts, Junior Achievement, and Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.

World Languages

As our society grows more global in nature, foreign language studies becomes an important foundational element in a child’s educational program. SkyView offers PK-8 students daily Spanish language instruction, while high school students have the option of taking American Sign Language, French, Latin or Spanish. Our goal is for students to acquire proficiency in interpersonal communication, interpretive communication, and presentational communication through the four integrative skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.