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About SVA » Mission and Vision

Mission and Vision

 
 
 
South Valley Academy's Mission
We prepare young people to become independent, lifelong learners who are ready for college, career, and civic engagement.
 
 
South Valley Academy's Vision consists of five pillars:
  • Academic Excellence and Love of Learning:
    • We nurture a love of learning to prepare students for post-secondary success through inclusive and engaging, high quality instruction and support.

  • Creating Trusting, Enduring Relationships:
    • We build authentic, nurturing relationships with students, families, alumni, and staff that encourage curiosity, innovation, and excitement about learning and life.

  • Embracing and Celebrating Diversity:
    • We value and respect individuals, as well as multiple perspectives and experiences from our school and world, knowing these differences enrich our lives and impact the local and global community.

  • Empowering People:
    • We cultivate self-awareness, voice, and confidence in our students, families, alumni, and staff to impact the world around us positively.

  • Transforming Lives and Community:
    • We explore and utilize social justice concepts through active civic engagement to provide and improve education, resources, and opportunities for students, families, alumni, and staff.
 
Guiding Principles

South Valley Academy staff believe:
  1. Less is More – Real learning requires depth of understanding more than breadth.  Its attributes include the ability to see complexities in issues, to analyze media carefully, and to argue logically and with good support.

  2. Integrated Curriculum – Students learn well when what they learn in one class is connected to their learning in another, when the issues they study involve several overlapping subject areas rather than one.

  3. Relevance – Student learning should be based on a real-world context.

  4. Personalization – Students are unique individuals who have different abilities, needs, and learning styles.

  5. Independence – Students learn better when they take more responsibility for their learning.

  6. Community/Family Support – Students learn better within a culture of community with strong family and community participation in the school.

  7. Teacher Collaboration in Whole School Agenda – Teachers are not just specialists in their field, but mentors, advisors, and collaborators with a sense of commitment to the entire school.
Serving a community with greater needs and inequities than most, SVA strives to be more than simply a public school. Strongly committed to the community school model, SVA offers a variety of student, family, and neighborhood courses, events, and informational meetings. These include a widening scope of student before/after school programs in subjects such as Music and MESA, seasonal community-wide fairs and celebrations, and information outreach sessions on changes to immigration policy and enforcement. The school works extensively with community partners in crafting and executing these community school functions, illustrating SVA’s de facto function as a community center and hub of action, ideas, and equity.