Welcome to Gonzales Community School

A K-8 Santa Fe Public School in the Casa Solana neighborhood

Parent Involvement

We strongly believe that a child’s education is a partnership between parents and teachers, and parent involvement is the key to academic success.  We provide parents many opportunities to support student success, therefore a high-level of parent involvement is expected at Gonzales Community School.  Parent Teacher conferences are scheduled throughout the school year and parents may schedule meetings at any time with teachers.  We have an active Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that supports engaging, educational family events throughout the year. Our quarterly School Advisory Committee (SAC) is open to parents, teachers, and community members who are interested in guiding the school’s goals and objectives.

Please visit our school calendar for schedule of events.

Our Students

Average of 430 students in K-8 grades plus self-contained special education classrooms

Average grade level = 40 students

Average class size = 20 students

We offer several Special Education Services including pull-out programs for SAGE (Services for Advanced and Gifted Education) and Reading and Math Intervention.  We also offer  self-contained Special Education classrooms.   Please contact the school to learn more about the special education services we offer and to help determine if Gonzales would be a good fit for your student.

Our Teachers and Staff

Mr. Christopher Lopez, Principal

Mrs. Melissa Kovac, Assistant Principal

Average of 60 faculty and staff members, consisting of classroom teachers, related arts teachers, special education teachers, educational support staff, administrative support staff, custodial and cafeteria staff.

Curriculum 

While our curriculum follows the New Mexico Common Core State Standards for each grade level, our experienced and savvy teachers incorporate enhanced and creative teaching methods to ensure student engagement and high-academic achievement. More information on the New  Mexico Common Core State Standards may be found online.

Student academic progress is periodically measured with short-cycle assessments for all grades. In addition to short-cycle assessments, students in grades 3-8 participate in New Mexico’s Measures of Student Success & Achievement (NM-MSSA) to determine how well our students are performing, academically.

We strive to keep parents informed of their child’s academic progress by providing quarterly report cards and the results of short-cycle assessments.

These tools enable both teachers and parents to identify opportunities for improvement and advancement and take action, in real-time.

We incorporate small learning groups, which are small groups of students learning at the same academic level, into our everyday curriculum.

Outdoor recess is scheduled twice per day for K-6 grades.  Our kindergarten students enjoy a private playground.

Related Arts

Gonzales, along with all other Santa Fe public schools, provide students with robust music (general music, choir, orchestra, and band), physical education, art, and library programs.

Students participate in each related art aka "special" each week with a dedicated teacher, includinga certified librarian teacher.

Enriching Programs

• Cooking with Kids

• Student Clubs

• Experiential field trips - in addition to experiencing surrounding areas, our proximity to downtown Santa Fe enables students to walk to museums and performing arts venues.  Field trips are a great reinforcement to grade-level academic standards taught in the classroom.  

• School Garden

• National Dance Institute (NDI) for third and fourth graders.

• Athletics: Grades three through six participate in independent sport leagues for basketball, wrestling, cheer and swim teams. Grades seven and eighth compete in Santa Fe Public Schools athletics, including football, basketball, track, and volleyball, which are governed by the New Mexico Athletics Association.

• National Junior Honor Society

• Annual Events: STEM Expo and Spelling Bee

• Bi-annual trip to Washington DC and New York City for seventh and eighth grade students