East Mountain High School (EMHS) is a charter public school located in Sandia Park, NM, east of Albuquerque. It is in its sixth year of operation, with freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior classes, and approximately 330 students.
The dream for a community-based high school in the East Mountains has taken years to become a reality. Citizens with common goals came together in the mid 1990s seeking to develop a community-based high school to serve the needs of this rural mountain area. Many of these individuals actively lobbied the NM Legislature to implement the charter school concept in New Mexico. With the passage of the Charter School Act of 1999, the community group worked diligently to develop a charter application that resulted in the approval of the EMHS charter in November 1999.
EMHS successfully completed an in-depth accreditation review by the NM State Department of Education, and received an Exemplary rating. Student Terra Nova test scores for each year have exceeded the district and national averages in every category.The EMHS Foundation, a NM non-profit 501 organization, has been formed to hold the 26 acres donated for the school campus and to obtain and hold the 20-year mortgage secured for financing construction of the facility. EMHS makes a monthly lease payment to service the mortgage debt; the payment comes from the operating budget.
EMHS occupies four new buildings expressly built for the school. As a charter school, EMHS does not benefit from capital funding available to other public schools.
East Mountain High School is not affiliated with AmericanTowns Media
