A new high school that puts a worldly spin on traditional education is preparing to welcome its first class of ninth-graders.

SkyView Academy high school continues to enroll students ahead of the 2011-2012 school year and is collecting an impressive and diverse group of teachers to lead them into the future. Slightly less than half of the slots remain for SkyView’s 100-student ninth-grade class, which will eventually become the first graduating class.

The charter school, on Business Center Drive near C-470 and Quebec Street, will expand its educational program by adding a grade to the middle and high school every year until capacity is reached and the school is Pre-12. SkyView’s incoming sixth-grade class has the distinction of being the first middle school students. The Douglas County School District-sanctioned charter opened last year with 535 students in grades Pre-5.

Lorrie Grove, a founding board member, said the school has added more than 20 teachers for the high school, many with interesting educational and cultural backgrounds. One taught extensively in New Zealand and Spain, while another educator has been teaching in Kuwait. A third has taught and coached soccer in São Paulo, Brazil. More than 700 resumes were submitted for only 20 positions. Officials are “fortunate to be able to pick teachers that we think fit with the school and our programs,” Grove said, adding a mentoring initiative helps acclimate new faculty members.

SkyView attempts to open up the world to its pupils, teaching Spanish to elementary students and making “service learning” an integral part of the curriculum. “Service learning” is a piece that’s especially important to administrators. It takes a philanthropic educational approach to build a well-rounded individual, Grove said.

“We want them to be able to look beyond themselves and give back to the community,” she said. “We’re delivering on what we told our parents we are all about.”

Renee Anderson, a Highlands Ranch resident since 1991, enrolled her two daughters in SkyView because of the response her children had to the curriculum at Northstar Academy in Parker. Parents and leaders from that school helped create SkyView Academy because of the demand for charter education in Highlands Ranch. Roughly 1,000 children are on the wait list for the elementary school charter.

Anderson says her kids were interested in the subjects and challenged by the CORE Knowledge curriculum used by both Northstar and SkyView. One of her daughters came home from school and spoke about the historical significance of Mesopotamia. Anderson was struck by not only the types of topics, but how much they had learned at such a young age. Teachers use age-appropriate concepts to help students soak up the material and think critically about it.

“They teach the general concepts of being socially and culturally aware in this day and age,” Anderson said “They learn things you wouldn’t think they would be learning about.”

SkyView uses “flexible skills grouping,” which means those on the same reading or math level are put into groups. It ensures that no one is left behind in their class, or left unchallenged, in some cases. One second-grader has excelled into higher math groups.

Smaller class sizes for the high school students also make it easier for teachers to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each child, enabling the former to craft an approach to help the latter better understand the material.

“Even at build-out, we will be smaller than the normal high school,” Grove said.

The first class of high school students has a rare opportunity to create programs and formulate ideas that could impact students several years down the road. One goal for 2011-2012 is to perform a school-wide service project instead of having each grade level focus on a different effort.

As the board members look back, they know they have accomplished a lot during first year, including nabbing third in the district for third-grade CSAP reading scores. Their sights are now set on fine-tuning what they have started and building a stronger reputation as a top-notch charter school.

“The board is looking forward to making sure our vision and mission plays out,” Grove said.

For more information on enrollment, visit www.skyviewacademy.org.