ST. GEORGE — “There’s magic here.”

Vista School board chair Michelle Walter spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the school’s newly renovated and expanded facility in Ivins Saturday afternoon.

Parents, students and community members gathered in the brand-new Proscenium Theater as Vista School administrators and teachers celebrated the completion of a project that broke ground Jan. 18, 2021.

Walter told the audience that she enrolled two of her children in the school in its first year.

“Vista has been a passion for our family ever since,” Walter said. “There’s a secret about this school. There’s magic here. I know that this may not be the most popular opinion, but Disneyland is not the most magical place in the world. It is Vista School.”

Vista School is a public charter school. Principal Chris Barnum told St. George News that the school’s new home at 585 E. Center Street in Ivins represents the third expansion of the school since it began 14 years ago. He said 1,100 students from kindergarten through ninth grade are enrolled.

“And there’s always room to grow,” Barnum said.

While there is a common perception in St. George that Vista School is a school for the performance arts – and it is, a very good one – the curriculum offers students far more than opportunities to sing, dance and perform.

Barnum told the audience that the school’s three pillars of academics, art and technology are taught to foster one vital attribute in students’ lives.

“Creativity is becoming one of the most highly sought-after skills in the professional world,” Barnum said. “Whether it’s computer programming, medicine, education or business. The ability to be creative allows our students to problem-solve, engineer and come up with real solutions to solve the challenges that they face every day.”

He then went on to quote Albert Einstein.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination,” Barnum said. “Vista stands on that principle. Our students start programming robots, singing, making art and performing on the stage starting in kindergarten. By third grade they’re flying drones, learning the violin, performing in ballets, singing in choirs, writing code for their own video games. Vista School offers more, which is why we needed more space.”

Barnum and other administrators conducted tours of the facility after the ceremony in the theater. Community members were shown the school’s robotics lab, its Makerspace/Scene Shop, a 3D engineering lab, a math lab and two science labs.

There’s also an orchestra room, a choir room and a state-of-the-art dance studio.

Barnum said Hughes General Contractors built the new facility using architectural designs by Method Studio.

Vista School Director of Finance and Information Technologies Troy Bradshaw was in on the ground floor, so to speak, and was a member of the original board that created Vista School.

“What makes a charter school unique is they’re able to do great things with very little,” Bradshaw told St. George News. “We don’t have the same financing as some of the larger school districts, but we’re able to make wonderful programs happen and run great programs with very little. We’re just unique. We’re just blessed to have been in the business long enough as a school that we’re able to get enough funds that now we have a facility that we can do great things with.”

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