By Lori Bledsoe
For The Alpine Sun
     ALPINE — Mountain View Learning Academy has been a stellar educational opportunity in Alpine for over 14 years. The high standard of teaching at Mountain View Learning Academy is reflected by the high API scores that were achieved by the home schoolers last year. As a school, Mountain View scored 896, higher than any other school in the Alpine Union School District. Although, up until recently, MVLA has been exclusively a home schooling entity, the district, last year, added the Alpine Natural Science Academy to its campus. Mountain View Learning Academy offers three very distinctly different avenues in education. 
     The first educational option MVLA offers is the home-schooling facility that has accommodated home-schooling families since its inception in 1991. Barbara Miller started this school, known only at the time as Alpine Alternative Education, in response to the needs of the community. Parents who wanted to teach their children could be offered a way to do it and ful support in teaching to state standards curriculum, and she was responsible for rallying district support when she founded this school.
     Because the home-schooling aspect of this program could accommodate a wide area of student attendance, due to the nature of home schooling, the Alpine Alternative Education program, in 1992, became a consortium with Mountain Empire Unified School District and services the needs of that district’s home-schooling student body as well as Alpine’s home-schoolers.
     Barbara Miller, who lost her battle with cancer last year, was a respected teacher and Alpine community member. People who knew her, remember her gracious but no-nonsense nature. She was the kind of person who was needed to get this program on its feet, and was honored last year with the dedication of the Shadow Hills Library in her name.
Many people do not understand the whole concept behind home schooling, and there are many misconceptions regarding this option in education. Among these is a belief by some that home-schooled students can’t make it in a “regular” classroom, and that they are not properly “socialized.” This is not true. Home schooled children have been socialized in the very best environment — their homes and their communities.
Socializing in a peer group, such as a classroom, does not always bring the best results. If proper socialization is to take place, children must look to people who react appropriately in social situations. A classroom is often not the best place for this, as it often fosters a sense of false reality and social competition rather than of social responsibility.
     Better options include family social events, local community activities and services, and church gatherings.
As Alpine Independent Study grew and attracted more and more students, it organized a school site council, and in 1999 it opted to change its name to Mountain View Learning Academy. The school site council wanted Alpine residents to know that this school was more than just an independent study program.

On-site classes
     Over the years, it has grown to encompass much more. The school not only caters to the strictly home schooled, but it also offers on-site classes that enhance learning and moves MVLA to another option in education.
     The on-site classes offered at Mountain View Learning Academy allow a second option to parents who wish to have a hand in their child’s education but need help in certain areas. These classes include an excellent math and writing program, offered by Diana Whyte and Phyllis Murton. Both of these ladies have been mentor teachers in our district and have the best to offer our students. 
     Diana Whyte started her teaching career at Alpine Elementary, and made a move to Joan McQueen Middle School. After 13 years of teaching in traditional classrooms, she brought her skills to Mountain View Learning Academy twelve years ago. Because of her vast experience with both elementary and middle school students, she is very intuitive in the area of individualized teaching plans.
     Phyllis Murton started in Alpine Union School District in 1979 teaching seventh grade English. Her experience includes not only seventh grade English and social studies but eighth grade English and social studies as well.
Ms. Murton came to Mountain View Learning Academy two years ago and offers an advanced writing course that enables the students to reach further creative levels than just standard grammatical sentence structure. She also shared her skills with the Viejas Indian school, teaching writing there one day a week. 
     Other on-site classes include: art on Tuesday afternoons, taught by Lori Bledsoe, and Spanish language on Thursday, taught by Lori Miller. On Fridays, MVLA offers enrichment classes that include physical education, drama, and science.
     Along with the teachers and classes offered, there is a full range of field trips that are arranged by the teachers and designed to include families. In the past, the students have enjoyed a wide variety of what San Diego County has to offer in culture and science.
     The MVLA students have visited Julian, learning about the history of that little town as well as the apple orchards. They have also experienced whale watching in the bay with a marine floating lab. This year they have visited the Wild Animal Park, experienced “The Mystery of the Nile” at The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, learned about the how community services work by visiting Waste Management and touring the facility.
     The students have also had the pleasure of a California History Day in Old Town San Diego, where they learned how the settlers built with natural clay, painting them with white wash, and how they survived without any real conveniences. They watched a candle maker make candles, heard a blacksmith explain his trade, and visited an early American one-room school house. And yet, there is still more to come with scheduled field trips to include a trip to the Natural History Museum where the students will see “Ocean Oasis” as well as learning about genomes and the secret of how life works.
     Other planned trips are scheduled to visit San Juan Capistrano, Mission Trails, and an opportunity to see a live production of Alice in Wonderland.

Alpine Natural Science Academy
     The third option in education that is offered by Mountain View Learning Academy is ANSA, or Alpine Natural Science Academy. This is a new program that the district has started this year to help inspire sixth and seventh graders who are interested and excited by science and technology, learn in an environment that is infused with those elements.
     Bob Bordelon, who has 15 years experience in teaching, was offered the opportunity to take on the task of creating this pilot program, which is a charter-like school and taught in a self-contained environment. It offers classes Monday through Friday for sixth and seventh graders. 
     Bordelon began his teaching career in Happy Valley, California, and taught in Oregon and Alaska before coming to Alpine to begin teaching at the AUSD Community Day School.
     ANSA has a completely different atmosphere than the home school side of MVLA. The students proudly wear uniforms that identify them as ANSA enrollees. The parents are excited by the educational opportunities that are offered and are generous with their time and support of the program.
     Since adding ANSA to the Mountain View campus, the school has grown to include fifteen more students, as well as a very active PTSA.
     Because of the active nature of parents in this program, Mountain View Learning Academy is also able to be involved in the Shadow Hills Fall Festival and is enjoying fund-raising opportunities that were never possible before.
     Both programs at Mountain View Learning Academy made presentations at the December board meeting, to demonstrate how truly versatile this school is, and how competitively productive they are at presenting education to the students of Alpine. This is not to say that the programs have not experienced growing pains, but with time, this school is blossoming into Alpine’s unseen jewel in its crown of schools.

     Lori Bledsoe is a regular contributor to The Alpine Sun and homeschools her children.

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