A signature honor

The designation of the New Mexico School for the Arts as Santa Fe’s first Blue Ribbon School is quite an achievement for an institution not even a decade old.

Housed in a former Catholic elementary school — there are few state-of-the-art facilities — NMSA was designed as a place for talented children from across the state to realize their dreams. Children from some 60 communities attend today. The school’s statement of principles is found in this quote by Joel Fan, one featured on the school’s website and taken to heart by students and faculty: “Talent never exists by itself. Talent only exists because of opportunity.” NMSA is that opportunity.

Combining excellence in academics and art, the state-chartered school was nominated for the top honor by Secretary of Public Education Hanna Skandera. Only three schools in New Mexico were singled out this year by the U.S. Department of Education for the honor, given to schools that make significant progress in closing academic achievement gaps.

NMSA soon will be leaving the old St. Francis Cathedral School Building for its permanent home in the old Sanbusco Market Center building. With only 220 students in grades 9-12, it can’t grow without more room. After the remodeling is complete, the school’s physical facilities will improve — better practice and performing spaces, studios and bathrooms built for teenagers, not small children.

Yet the heart of the school — a commitment to hard work and excellence — won’t change. (Prospective students and their families, by the way, are invited to an open house at the school, 275 E. Alameda St., beginning at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11.)

It is a shame, we have often thought, that the innovations at various charter schools are not more widely shared. NMSA’s 35-minute intervention classes, designed to bring students up to speed in academics, could be implemented anywhere. Perhaps some enterprising teacher or principal will give NMSA a call, or come visit and watch the classes in action. They can take an innovation that works, and use it to help students in other schools. That’s one way charter innovations can make a difference beyond individual schools.

Congratulations to all in the NMSA community — students, faculty, staff, donors, parents and graduates. Now, let’s share more examples of excellence.