Roswell: Highway 285 to Berrendo Road - Education and sports

 

Berrendo Elementary School

I walk by this school two or three days a week. It's the elementary school for the Berrendo district. There is also a middle school east of Main Street and North of East Pine Lodge Road that I haven't seen. 

According to the Roswell City website, Roswell has four high schools, four middle schools and twelve elementary schools. The high schools have options for traditional classes, college bound curricula, or advanced placement. I'll be visiting some of these schools in my explorations (actually, I've already been by Goddard High School to check out their rockets). There are also three Christian schools.

In higher education, there are the New Mexico Military Institute and the Eastern New Mexico University. There is also the Roswell Job Corps Center.

As bad as people talk about New Mexico schools, I have noticed that students and faculty members in these schools seem to enjoy being there. The Roswell schools have more fine art programs than any other schools in the state.

There are far too many sports programs in Roswell,  either in schools and out, sponsored by the community and independent. I will be talking about some as I explore the town. For instance I've already seen two golf courses and more than one big sports complexes.

This is the desert. The nearest sizable towns (Ruidoso and Carlsbad) are 75 miles away. People need something to do. And people are out doing things here. I I never get to ignore car or foot traffic when I walk.

--- Schools along the trail ---

In a way, I've been blogging about education on the Bear Creek Trail the whole time. I started by looking at museums, libraries, and computers (at least my smart phone, which is a pocket computer.) Then I looked at psychology and philosophy using the trail as a "natural laboratory". This year, I have been looking at the sociology and religions of the trail. Along the way, I have taken side-trips into science (for instance, wildflowers and weather), industries, food on the trail, art, and history.

But other people use the trail for educational purposes. I have seen three school field trips on Bear Creek Trail and a group from one of the local colleges at the nearby Morrison Museum of Natural History studying paleontology.

There are several schools along Bear Creek Trail. Most of them are along the eastern part of  the trail, so I hiked from Wadsworth Boulevard to Oxford Station and visited a couple of them: John F. Kennedy High School and Mullen Catholic High School. These are within view of the trail.

It's summer, so I was hoping I could catch staff on campus when students were not around so I would not interrupt their studies. In both cases, that worked.

This is a large town, so the schools tend to be large. Enrollment  in Kennedy High School runs about 1500 students and that for Mullen is about 800-900 students.

The people I talked to did not know of any use of the creek as a resource but said that they thought that the science classes did have field trips to look at things like life in the creek. Kennedy students use the creek as a hangout. I have seen families of graduating students in the park celebrating.

One of the classes I saw at the creek were, indeed, looking at life forms in the creek. One of the others was testing the creek waters for impurities.

                                                     [John F. Kennedy High School]

                                                             [Mullen High School]

Does your local schools use parks and other outdoor sites for educational purposes?

If you see a group on a field trip, you might ask them what their doing and let them teach you something.