More School City

• Suspect beef called back from schools
• Measure requiring high school proficiency test awaits New Mexico governor's signature
• Albuquerque's Lenore Wolf has dedicated her life to kids

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Through all the changes that 20 years can bring, there are a few things that have stayed the same at La Cueva and a few things that have kept journalism teacher Pat Graff passionate about her job since the city's youngest flagship high school opened in 1986.

"In terms of setting really high standards, expecting a lot, strong parent community, teacher effort way beyond the minimum - that's been part of this school's culture since it opened," says Graff, seated at her desk in the journalism classroom she helped design. "That's why I'm still here."

Graff describes La Cueva students as well-prepared academically, involved with their school and "as good as ever." They're also, she says, coming from increasingly diverse economic and racial backgrounds.

Principal Jo Ann Coffee points out the number of Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians and blacks have all grown while the number of Anglos - making up 73.2 percent of the student body - has shrunk.

There are also more students taking lunches for free or at reduced prices.

A reach for diversity also applies to the school's extracurricular options. About half the students participate in activities focused on topics ranging from Harry Potter to the United Nations, and Coffee wants more options and more participation.

"When I talk about success, I talk about attendance rate, our graduation rate, our academic programs, our test scores, our athletic programs, our performing arts programs and our activities programs," she says. "We have been extremely successful as a high school."

After all, this is the place that has produced more than 150 National Merit Scholarship Finalists. This is the school with 77 state championships under its belt. This is the only Albuquerque Public Schools high school to make adequate yearly progress - the "AYP" outlined in federal and state law - in 2006.

It's also the school with students who have been stereotyped as rich and spoiled by outsiders, says Rob James, an 18-year-old La Cueva senior.

"Also part of that stereotype is we're all white kids," he says. "But that's not really what it is."

What it is, he says, is a school where he enjoys hearing words he learned in Spanish class as conversations in that language pop into the hallway hubbub. It's a place where students face the challenges common to all students: tests, homework, finals.

"We're real kids, like everybody else," he says. "We still experience everything - maybe not to the degree of some people, maybe to an even higher degree than other people."

Here's what La Cueva is, in the words of those who live it.

Name: Nicole Golliher

Age: 15

Year: Freshman; member of the junior varsity and varsity swim team.

On attending La Cueva: "My parents wanted me to go to Academy, but I fought for La Cueva because of their sports program. When you look up on their gym wall, there's this whole list of district winners and they go on forever. Their academics are good, too. I like it a lot. It's so much better than middle school. Middle school is just so contained, and then when you get to high school, it's more open and you can meet a whole bunch of different people."

On race: "I know we have a lot of exchange students. I have a lot of different friends from different types of races, but I don't really notice it that much. I don't really walk down the halls and go, `Look at everybody!' "

On economic class: "People classify us as a rich school, but I don't agree that everybody here is like a billionaire and gets a Corvette for their 14th birthday or anything. I really don't see the whole `just rich kids.' I know we have groups and stuff, but I don't think they're separated as far as money. It's more like soccer group sits together, then you have like a choir group and my group is kind of mixed. I have orchestra kids, choir kids, kids who don't feel like doing anything. I think they're pretty much mixed with interest, not money."

Name: Khadijah Fox

Age: 14

Year: Junior

On attending La Cueva: "I love going to La Cueva. I like being around a lot of people, and this has a lot of people."

On race: "It's pretty diverse . . . but there's a lot of white people compared to black people. When we have Black Student Union, there's two black people and 14 white people."

On economic class: "The stereotype kind of fits it. I won't lie. I'm not rich or anything, but I know people who get everything they want, and I guess it can be a bit annoying at times that they don't work for anything. It's not really preparing them for when they get out. I know people who don't have as much as I do who still go here, which I think is good, because no matter how rich you are, or what level you're at, you still deserve a good education."

On academics: "I love astronomy and being able to be in that class. It's a big thing to me, because it's what I want to do with my life. I want to be an astrobiologist, so I have to major in astrophysics and go back and specialize in astrobiology."

Name: Dmitry Kotlovsky

Age: 16

Year: Junior

On attending La Cueva: "It's interesting in its own right. It's high school. Any high school on balance . . . there is a lot of things that happen here that won't happen anywhere else. Just being young and being a teenager and all that."

On race: "I don't even think about that stuff. I don't consciously think about it."

On economic class: "A lot of rich kids, a lot of just middle-class people primarily, that's what it's made of. You see these kids with Mustangs or Corvettes and all that, but they haven't actually worked a day in their life. In the end, it's going to hurt them more. With me, I bought my own car with my own money."

On academics: "In any school I think you can succeed, but here, the teachers definitely help you with that. They give their time to you if you need help. We have classes like psychology and philosophy. That can be something that some schools might not have, because it's kind of intense in there and you are dealing with religion and politics, so you can create tension and some schools just want to avoid that. Our principal is very good about our newspaper. She doesn't censor it or anything. That's something this school got right. They let you do and say whatever you want, within reason, of course."

Name: Ashley Funkhouser

Age: 16

Year: Junior; member of the girls varsity soccer team

On attending La Cueva: "I feel like I do so much at this school and this school does a lot for me. There's something for everyone here, and I think everybody does get involved one way or another."

On race: "I'm definitely friends with a lot of people who are very diverse. The area I live in is mostly just other people a lot like me, but I know a lot of people who speak different languages. I have a friend whose family is from India. She's one of my best friends, and she can speak a little bit of Hindi. Yesterday, we ate lunch at a table where the other group there was speaking completely in Spanish."

On academics: "I've had some really great teachers here. I've had some bad teachers here. I've had some bad teachers at other schools. I'm taking an AP biology class right now, and a lot of people who have taken the class before and are in college now have said their class in college wasn't nearly as hard."

What she'll remember most about La Cueva: "The experiences I've had with my friends."