Inspire is a new college preparatory charter high school located in beautiful Chico, California. Beginning in the fall of 2010 Inspire will open its doors to more than 270 students, grades 9-11 (in our second year, we will be expanding to include 12th grade), offering a rigorous academic program, a comprehensive, diverse, and professionally-driven performing and visual arts program, and a science program that emphasizes our relationship with our local and global environment.
Inspire students will enjoy a small, safe community that promotes academic excellence and active participation in the learning process.
Please explore our site and learn more about our school, our staff and our vision.
"The most beautiful experience we can have
is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion
which stands at the cradle of true art and
true science." - Albert Einstein
A Few Spots Have Opened
Our classrooms and labs are ready, our teachers are ready, and we have an amazing group of students and families. Now that the dust of our first week has settled, we can announce that we have room for just a few more students.
But you have to act fast!
If you want to be part of Chico's exciting new school of arts and sciences...
If you're interested in dance, theater arts, musical theater, video or audio production, animation, songwriting, guitar, electronics, robotics, engineering, vocal or instrumental music, piano, rock and roll, fiber arts, student government, ethics, etc...
If you want to be challenged by a rigorous college prep curriculum taught by talented, caring teachers...
If you want tohave the opportunity to learn using new, industry quality equipment...
...then you should enroll in Inspire!
Just click on the "Apply Now" link located on the bottom of this page and follow the directions. Or, drop by the Inspire office (tempoarily located on the west side of the Industrial Technology building on the Chico High campus).
We'll see you at Inspire.
IMPORTANT!!! We have new contact info.
The Inspire office staff has moved into our new office on the Chico High School campus. Our numbers haven't changed, but the contact person has. When you call Inspire, our wonderful office manager, Julie Buck will answer. The contact information is available to you by just clicking on the "Contact" link at the top of this page. For your convenience, here it is again.
Inspire School of Arts and Sciences
Julie Buck - Office Manager
Inspire Office 891- 3090
fax: 891-3089
An Important Message from our Principal
Dear Parents and Students:
Just about three weeks to the first day of school.
Scheduling
Thanks so much for your patience regarding the schedules. We’re making progress. We have the master schedule in place and will now begin entering all of the student information. We will do our best to get everyone their first elective choices, but please understand that there will be cases where students will be receiving their second choices in some elective periods. There will be opportunities in the future to take classes you might not receive in this first semester. Our goal is to have the schedules available in late July/early August. As soon as schedules are ready, we’ll let you know, and you can come pick them up as well as your “beginning of school year” packets in the days preceding school. We’ll be sending a schedule of times for picking up the schedules.
Open House August 4th!!!
Please come for a tour of the Inspire Campus on August 4th from 6:30 pm -8 pm. As per our previous invitation, we will bbq hot dogs and provide drinks; families can bring a main dish, salad, dessert or snack to share with others. Come say hello, get some food and tour the classrooms and labs!!!
Attendance
Many of you are aware that school budgets are dependent upon attendance. It works like this; for every day a student attends school, the school receives a certain amount of $$. Budgets are calculated on the total number of students attending times the “average daily attendance (ADA).” The higher our attendance, the more money Inspire will receive from the state.
Our goal is to have the highest possible attendance rate. This means scheduling dentist and doctor appointments after school hours if possible. Even if that isn’t possible, and a student has a dentist appointment after 1st period and they attend 1st period, we will receive credit for that day because the “intent” was to be in school.
The point here is clear and makes sense, not only in terms of $$, but more importantly, in terms of success in school. The better the attendance, the better the performance.
Algebra Readiness Boot Camp - July 26th – August 5th
We still have some spots open. Call 321-0433 to enroll, or email Julie Buck @ jbuck@chicousd.org This is a great camp to develop necessary skills for Algebra!
Eric Nilsson
Principal
It's Time to Celebrate!
We've been working hard all summer, preparing for Inspire's first school year. Our classrooms and labs are just about ready, our teachers are excited and the hotdogs are on the grill. Come meet the staff, see our labs, classrooms and new equipment, meet Inspire's families and have a dog on us.
Date: Wednesday, August 4th
Time: 6:00 PM to 8 PM
Where: Room IT3 in the Industrial Technology Building (where we held our class meetings earlier this year)
What to bring: You, your families, and a potluck item
Please email us at www.inspirecusd.com to let us know you're coming. (Just say "We're coming." and let us know how many to expect.) There's nothing worse than a barbeque with too few hot dogs.
Orchestra and Pop Band students
Mr. Gimbal has been very busy this summer preparing the music our students will be playing this year.
Pop Band: Check out the song, “Crossroads.” Many artists have covered this blues song over the years. Eric Clapton has several great versions that can be found on You Tube.
Our Pop Band room is nearly set up! We have lots of very cool new equipment ready to go! Musicians: dust off those instruments and get your chops ready – we’re going to have a blast as we get underway!!
Orchestra: Music of the Great Masters has arrived at Inspire!! We will be playing music of some of the world’s greatest composers including Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Smetana, Saint-Saens, and others!
If you would like to listen to some of the music we will be working on, check out the following:
Symphony No. 7, Second Movement, by Beethoven
Hungarian Dance No. 5, by Brahms
The 1812 Overture, by Tchaikovsky
Les Preludes, by Liszt.
These are but a few of the great works we will be working on this fall. We will see you soon!!
Inspire in the Downtown Plaza
Inspire's own Spectrum (students, teachers, and Inspire supporters) played rock, blues and funk for a big crowd in the downtown plaza last Thursday night (May 20th). The band followed an evening of wonderful performances by students from Chico's School of Rock, and played as the guest headliner act. The amazing Vere Lauré sang, students played horns, keyboards and guitar and sang backup, Daryl Smith from Great Scott and Break Away fame provided the beat, Kim Gimbal from Spark and Cinder, Mossy Creek, and many other great bands, and Ron Pope played bass and guitar. Everyone agrees, this band can rock! Inspire teachers and parents "manned" a booth, talking with interested parents and students.
Thanks to Chico's School of Rock. Your kids are amazing!
Looking for Parent Involvement!
Would you like to help create an exciting and rich educational experience for our students? Here is your chance to offer your expertise and energy. Just click on the link below to answer a survey.
Inspire students interested in participating in our great P.E. program with CSUC, click on the link below. Take the survey. That's all it takes to reserve a spot (until all available spots have been filled).
Inspire’s staff is working hard to make our school's first year a great one! Labs are being prepared, equipment is being installed and our teachers are working on exciting and challenging curriculum.We’ve put together the 2010/11 calendar, so we can now officially state that this is going to be a very, very busy year.Concert band/orchestra, dance, drama, concert choir, and pop band concerts have been scheduled. Piano and guitar recitals, poetry readings and exhibitions of all kinds are also now on the calendar.We're even planning a Beatles Sing-Along Night at the downtown plaza featuring our band, orchestra, choir, Spectrum and some wonderful guest artists. The excitement is growing.We can’t wait for the first day of school!
