Rancho Solano Preparatory School is a candidate school* for the Diploma Program. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Rancho Solano Preparatory Shool believes is important for our students. *Only schools authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) as IB World Schools can offer any of its three academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), or the Diploma Programme. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IBO and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org.

Rancho Solano Preparatory is proud to introduce Mr. Matthew Harris as the newest member of the Rancho Solano family. Matt will be serving as the new Executive Athletic Director overseeing athletics for all of Rancho Solano. He earned his BA degree in English Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and his Master’s degree in Education Leadership from Northern Arizona University. He has over 15 years of high school and middle school teaching and coaching experience. He has been an integral part of Cross-Country, Track, and Basketball state championship coaching staffs. Recently, Matt Harris served as Head Boys Basketball Coach at Notre Dame Preparatory in Scottsdale. After reaching the state-semifinals in 2006, Coach Harris guided the 2007 Saints to the 4AII State Championship and a 27-5 record earning him Arizona Coaches Associate 4AII Coach of the Year and Wells Fargo Region Coach of the Year.

The President of the National Science Teachers Association has invited RSPS Hillcrest Campus Middle School Administrator Lisa Reid to accompany an NSTA team to South Africa during the month of October. At the request of the South African government, the team will be travelling to the country in an effort to boost the scope of national science standards. This will be Ms. Reid’s second trip to Africa in a year following a trip last October with “Hope 4 Kids” as part of a project to build a well for a remote village lacking a source of clean drinking water.

This past week, six middle school students traveled from each of the Meritas schools to Boston to participate in the annual international Meritas Academic Olympiad (MAO). As part of the MAO, Rancho students competed in contests in the areas of oration, declamation, math, chess, Chinese geography, spelling, and problem-solving. Rancho Solano, who finished second overall last year, returns this year having been crowned as MAO champions. The championship is based on a point system which ascribes to each earned medal a designated number of points. The fact that Rancho won the title also means that our individual Olympians did very well:

For the final event of the MAO, the Prep Bowl, RSPS was neck and neck with the Village School in Houston. Both teams advanced, after INTENSE competition within preliminary rounds, to the finals. As the final round proceeded, RSPS found itself with as much as a 30 point deficit. But, the team never lost heart and, in the final third of the competition, stormed back from the brink to earn the gold medal for Prep Bowl! Congratulations to our MAO champions!