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Excitement greets students, parents at Albuquerque's Volcano Vista High School registration

By Susie Gran
Thursday, August 9, 2007

Too many desks, a pencil sharpener and cabinets galore are luxuries for second-year history teacher Delynn Kaufman.

In her second-floor classroom — with a panoramic view, no less — she shared the pulse of new Volcano Vista High School on Aug. 8 with excited students and parents.

Registration continued this morning at the West Side school. Classes begin on Aug. 15.

Students got IDs, lockers, textbooks, class schedules and a chance to make history as the first graduating class, the class of 2011.

"Everybody's so upbeat," said Kaufman, who will teach New Mexico history and coach tennis when the courts are finished late next month. "It's bouncing off on the kids and the parents."

The positives far outnumbered the negatives as families swarmed Albuquerque's newest high school, which was built to relieve crowding at nearby Cibola High School.

"I had students sitting on the floor last year" at Cibola, Kaufman said. "Here I have more desks than I need."

Kaufman transferred from Cibola along with 500-plus freshmen reassigned to the new $100 million Volcano Vista, 8100 Rainbow Drive N.W.

Out front, families were greeted by Hank the Hawk, a man-sized black bird with a platinum beak.

Students wanted to know who was inside the hot suit, but Hank wouldn't tell. He just kept slapping hands and sweating.

"I'm glad I'm in the first graduating class from here," said freshman Jimmy Madrid, who hurried to registration from football practice at LBJ Middle School. The Volcano Vista team doesn't have its own practice field yet, but Jimmy wasn't complaining.

"This school looks nice," he said as he picked up his textbooks.

His mother, Sandra Cardosa, said she'd never been to an organized registration at Albuquerque Public Schools.

"This is very efficient," she said. "I'm very surprised. I'm impressed, and I keep saying that. This is the only registration that didn't have problems."

Even though she wanted Jimmy to go to Cibola because his brother is there, she was beginning to like the new school.

"I'm pumped because it's going to be beneficial to start out small with fewer students and get a jump on a ninth-grade education," she said.

Jimmy's brother is a sophomore at Cibola. His sister is a 2007 Cibola grad.

"It'll be a little inconvenient having them at different schools," their mother said. "But everything is new here and everybody loves new stuff."