Santa Fe Schools & Education

Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Santa Fe Public Schools system is the third largest district in the state of New Mexico. It is administered by a five-member, nonpartisan board of education that establishes educational policies and appoints a superintendent.

The public schools in Santa Fe are operated by Santa Fe Public Schools, with two major high schools, Santa Fe High School and Capital High School. The city has two private liberal arts colleges: St. John's College, U.S. and the College of Santa Fe and a community college, Santa Fe Community College. The city has five private college preparatory high schools, St. Michael's High School, The New Mexico Academy for Science and Math, Desert Academy, New Mexico School For The Deaf, and Santa Fe Preparatory School. It is also home to Santa Fe Indian School, an off the reservation school for Native Americans. There are also several charter schools, including Monte Del Sol charter school, Academy for Technology and the Classics and Charter School 37. There are numerous private elementary schools, Rio Grande School, Desert Montessori School, La Mariposa Montessori, Santa Fe School for the Arts, and The Tara School.

Additionally, Santa Fe has a large network of private schools, consisting of 32 schools ranging from pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade, one of which?the Santa Fe Indian School?is a federally funded boarding school for Native Americans, run by the All Indian Pueblo Council.

Public Schools Information: Santa Fe Public Schools, 610 Alta Vista Street, Santa Fe, NM 87505; telephone (505)467-2000; fax (505)995-3302

Colleges and Universities

Santa Fe has several institutes of higher learning, all of which have an enrollment of less than 2,000. The College of Santa Fe is a private college offering associate and baccalaureate degrees; it is particularly known for its programs in the performing, visual, moving image, and creative writing arts, and also has strong programs in the humanities, education, business, conservation science, and social science. St. John's College, which has a campus in Annapolis, Maryland as well as in Santa Fe, offers baccalaureate and advanced degrees. St. John's is distinctive for its "great books" curriculum; learning is based upon the study of books and no textbooks are used. The Institute of American Indian Arts, a fine arts college, offers associate and baccalaureate degrees in creative writing, studio arts, visual communications, and museum studies. Southwestern College, devoted to the study of mental health, offers master's degrees in counseling, counseling with a concentration in grief and loss, and art therapy. Southwest Acupuncture College offers a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine. Santa Fe Community College serves area residents with two-year college preparatory and technical and vocational curricula.

Libraries and Research Centers

The Santa Fe Public Library operates two branches in addition to its main facility downtown. Holdings include nearly 300,000 volumes, as well as periodical subscriptions, records, films, maps, and special collections on the Southwest and New Mexico. The New Mexico State Library, with more than 300,000 volumes and 700 periodical subscriptions, is a federal and state documents depository. Research libraries located in Santa Fe house special collections pertaining to such diverse topics as Southwestern culture, comparative religion, and Sherlock Holmes; other libraries are affiliated with local colleges and government agencies. The Santa Fe Institute conducts research activities in the physical, biological, computational, and social sciences, in areas such as cognitive neuroscience, computation in physical and biological systems, economic and social interactions, evolutionary dynamics, network dynamics, and robustness. The National Center for Genome Resources examines the influence of genetic variability on infectious disease progression.

Public Library Information: Santa Fe Public Library, 145 Washington Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501; telephone (505)955-6780; fax (505)955-6676