Vista Verde School

Elementary and middle school in Irvine, California

Vista Verde School

Address

6 Federation Way Irvine , California 92603
Information
School type	Elementary and Middle
Founded	1974
School board	Irvine Unified School District
Superintendent	Terry Walker
Principal	Jerry Vlasic
Grades	K-5 (Elementary), 6-8 (Middle)year round
Enrollment	1048
Language	English
Area	Turtle Ridge
Color(s)	Green, white, and yellow
Mascot	Viking
Team name	Vista Verde Vikings
Website	Vista Verde School Website

Vista Verde School is a year-round, K-8 school located in the Turtle Ridge neighborhood of Irvine, California, United States. Vista Verde belongs to the Irvine Unified School District but is not a neighborhood school; rather, it is open to all Irvine residents with a preference for Turtle Ridge residents, and is one of four year-round schools in the Irvine district.^[1]

Academic distinctions

In 1992, Vista Verde was the highest-scoring school in Orange County, California in the CAP tests.^[2] Vista Verde has been recognized multiple times as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.^[3]^[4]^[5]

The school was a pioneer in teaching computer literacy; it bought its first computers for student use as early as 1978, and was introducing students to the internet by 1994.^[6]

History

Vista Verde opened in 1974 as an elementary school and later became a magnet school. It was originally located in the University Park neighborhood of Irvine. Rosa Drew Lane, a street in Irvine that passes the former campus site in University Park, is named after Rosa Drew, who had been a teacher at Vista Verde for 30 years.^[7]

The University Park campus closed and the school moved to the Turtle Ridge campus in 2006.^[8]^[9]^[10] In 2012, the old Vista Verde School site and buildings were sold to a home builder for $17 million. The company subsequently demolished the old school in late 2012 to make room for new homes.^[11]^[12]

References

^ "First bell sounds for year-round: Four schools start year Wednesday", Orange County Register, July 29, 2004.
^ Gewertz, Catherine (December 16, 1992), "O.C. Students Outscore State on CAP Test", Los Angeles Times.
^ Nguyen, Tina (May 28, 1997), "Eight Local Schools Awarded National Blue Ribbon Status", Los Angeles Times.
^ "Irvine schools sweep blue ribbon awards – again", Orange County Register, May 27, 1999
^ "Blue Ribbon schools", Orange County Register, September 28, 2006.
^ Takahashi, Dean (May 14, 1994). "A Tale of Four Schools : At Vista Verde, on the Internet 'It's More Fun Than Playing Nintendo'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
^ Gallardo, Miguel E. (2013), Developing Cultural Humility: Embracing Race, Privilege and Power, SAGE Publications, pp. 103–104, ISBN 9781483310480.
^ "Irvine school gets new start", Orange County Register, May 31, 2005
^ "New campus", Orange County Register, September 15, 2006
^ "From Vista Verde to Turtle Ridge", Orange County Register, October 9, 2006.
^ Peters, Sara (March 3, 2012), "Irvine council approves new housing project", Daily Pilot.
^ Schaefer, Samantha (August 21, 2013) [March 8, 2012], "Former Irvine school site sold for $17 million", Orange County Register.