On the eve of a new millennium, Visions In Education was founded to help students better prepare for a world that promised nothing but change. The past twenty five years has seen a technological and cultural boom the likes of which the world has never seen before; one that directly impacts the day-to-day lives of the young people we serve. From the popularization of the internet and the rise of personal computing, through the tumultuous years of the global pandemic, Visions In Education has strived to equip our students to face an ever-changing world.
With a combination of instructional innovation and a firm operations foundation, our school has grown from a program serving 506 students in 1999 to serving over 7,500 TK-12 students in Northern California in 2024. By improving our services 1% better every day, we have pioneered new ways to deliver quality education to students from all walks of life. From students looking to catch up on credits and graduate high school to those bound to succeed in universities across the country, Visions has risen to meet the needs of thousands of students and helped them prepare for life after 12th grade.
Throughout all of this, as we have transitioned from a dependent to independent charter school, we remained committed to being a part of California’s public school system. Through a strong partnership with our authorizing district and under the measured guidance of our Board of Directors, Visions has remained focused on our mission of bettering our students’ lives for twenty five years. I am proud to be the latest in a line of successful superintendents and as we prepare for the next chapter in our school’s history, it is important to reflect on what has made Visions successful.
This report is dedicated to all Visionaries past, present, and future. May we continue to live up to the ideals of our mission and continue to prepare our students to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
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Since achieving independence in 2018, Visions In Education has been overseen by our own Board of Directors. Working with our leadership team and Superintendent’s office, our Board of Directors offers both guidance and oversight to ensure we meet our students’ diverse needs and wisely make use of our funds.
Our Board is an all volunteer board who generously donate both their time and expertise in educational, legal, and business fields for no compensation. Many of the strides Visions has made since achieving Independence have come as a result of our Board’s direction and guidance.
The guidance that our Board provides is critical to the ongoing success of our school. We thank all of our Board Members, current and former, for working to ensure Visions lives up to its mission of serving students.
Mark Holman
Chairperson
Board Term: 7/1/23 – 6/30/26
Learn More about Mark Holman
Terrence Shelton
Vice-Chairperson
Board Term: 7/1/23 – 6/30/26
Learn More about Terrence Shelton
Sandra Morales
Board Member
Board Term: 7/1/24 – 6/30/27
Learn More about Sandra Morales
Clark Shueh
Board Member
Board Term: 7/1/24 – 6/30/27
Learn More about Clark Shueh
Samuel Smalls
Board Member
Board Term: 7/1/22 – 6/30/25
Learn More About Samuel Smalls
Our former Board of Directors members have dutifully served Visions In Education through countless hours of volunteer service, including guiding our school during the turbulent pandemic years and meeting with legislative representatives to represent our school. Visions is grateful for the years of service our former Board Members have provided and is proud that they chose to be part of Visions’ history.
What started as a small collection of teachers and support staff has grown into an organization that can effectively support thousands of students in nine counties. The bedrock of Visions’ success for twenty five years has been the staff that serve our students with everything from instructional support, to technology services, to ensuring our school operates sustainably and ethically.
Our highly qualified, fully credentialed teaching staff is composed of passionate, thoughtful educators who embrace the challenges of teaching in a non-classroom based environment. Students often credit their teachers with their success when asked and value the personal 1:1 relationship that our school structure allows.
Teachers receive two weeks of training prior to the start of each school year to train them on Visions policies and technology as well as set educational goals for the year. This training is reinforced with regular monthly training and personal development opportunities. In 2021, our Instructional Services team embraced the Professional Learning Community (PLC) model that sees teachers in academies work together to better serve their students. Over the course of 2021, Visions paid to send all of our teachers to training so every student had the opportunity to benefit from increased PLC collaboration.
Our classified support staff are likewise made up of dedicated professionals from all sectors that choose to use their skills in service of California’s students. From ensuring our finances are well managed to managing student orders, records, technology, and enrollment to supporting our teachers and administrative staff, our classified staff work in a fast-paced, mission-focused environment where improving service to students is our foremost objective.
What started as a school with less than a $5 million dollar operating budget has grown to serve more than 7,500 students with an operating budget of over $100 million dollars.
Early in our school’s life, we experienced some missteps. Linda Gatenbein, our second school leader, made the case that Visions can do better and in the last twenty-three years, we have done our best to honor the trust placed in us. Since then, Visions has taken a prudent approach to managing our funds and is careful to set money aside for future investments such as replacing our student’s technology as it ages out. Under the stewardship of our Board of Directors and our Fiscal Services team, our school strives to ensure that the state funds we are entrusted with are used responsibly and for the benefit of our students.
Responsibly managing our finances ensures that Visions has the funds to continue to provide increased opportunities to students. As we emerged from the pandemic, Visions was in a stable position to hire more counselors, social workers, as well as invest in competitive salaries for educators. While other districts struggle with teacher shortages, Visions has been able to start the year with no vacant teaching positions thanks in part to having a stable financial base grown over years of prudent financial decision making.
Visions has strived to provide great options for students that need something different. With the best of intentions we tried various ideas and initiatives to support students, sometimes we were successful and sometimes we took some lumps as we learned what not to do. But we have also learned what to do as well, building on a quarter-century’s experience in the education sector and continuously striving to improve our processes.
Responsibly managing our finances and avoiding debt has allowed us the flexibility and freedom to chart our own course. Over the last twenty-five years, Visions has:
While we have never been (or claimed to be) perfect, we at Visions pride ourselves in learning a little more and doing a little better than we did in the past. As we look to the future, we intend to take the lessons we’ve learned and use them to make a more perfect school for our students.
Visions began as a dependent charter school under the San Juan Unified School District. While much of the day-to-day operations were handled by Visions staff, we still relied on the district for much of the back-office operational things like payroll, student records, CALPADS, technology services, and other key operations. While Visions was and still is grateful for our partnership with San Juan Unified School District, in 2014 we began exploring ways to become an independent charter school to better serve our students.
As Visions grew in experience and started refining our processes, we decided that becoming an independent charter school would give Visions more flexibility to effectively serve students and build structures that would set Visions up for success for years to come. However, independence was not something that was undertaken lightly; between 2013 and 2018 when Visions submitted our petition to SJUSD for independence, Visions took on the work necessary to become an independent charter school while still maintaining our daily responsibilities.
At a high level, this work included:
This work took nearly four years to complete and was done while our school continued to provide service to our students. Leaders at the time compared it to “building a plane mid-flight” as we shifted our school from one way of doing things to another. Going independent also came with an unspoken caveat; with independence came increased responsibility and less support from the district. Thankfully, a dedicated staff, a good relationship with San Juan Unified School District, and strong enrollment trends gave Visions the sturdy base we needed to become independent successfully.
On August 27, 2017, a team of teachers, administrators, and staff members turned out for the SJUSD Board of Directors Meeting as Executive Director (soon to be our first Superintendent) Jody Graf presented our petition for independence. The work that Visions had done to become an independent charter school paid off as SJUSD’s Board of Directors granted Visions the independence we sought.
While the work that went into independence was tricky, it has paid off for the students we serve and the staff and teachers that serve them. As an independent charter school, Visions has had increased control over how we serve our communities, allowing us to innovate and experiment with methods of instruction while accepting full responsibility for our operations. Visions is grateful for our continued partnership with San Juan Unified School District.
Like most charter schools, Visions In Education was founded to serve an unmet need for diversity and individualized learning in public education. For 25 years, our team of teachers, administrators, counselors, and support staff have creatively met our student’s changing needs and grown to effectively serve thousands of Northern California’s students.
Over the years, homeschooling at Visions has become more diverse, both in terms of parent-partner experience and in the demographic makeup of our students. This is partly a reflection of the changing landscape of California’s students but also a shift in how structured homeschooling programs have become more accessible. Digital curriculum and integrated ordering systems allow Visions’ parent-partners to quickly order and acquire curriculum and the support provided by Home School teachers allow families who may have otherwise been hesitant to take on the challenge of home schooling their students to deliver instruction with confidence. Our teachers in the Home School Academy build personal working relationships with the families they serve, providing valuable instructional support to parent-partners and connecting with students on a personal level.
As the needs of our students shifted, Visions made some difficult decisions in order to best serve our students. In 2021, Visions made the decision to discontinue our high school program for Home School to provide more effective service to our 9th-12th graders across all academies. With the challenges that come with teaching high school, many parent-partners and teachers felt overwhelmed when it came to supporting high school classes. The decision to make the Home School Academy a TK-8 academy allowed Visions to shore up its offerings in Independent Study and University Prep, providing more comprehensive support for the final years of our students’ education. It also allowed us to provide more resources to our TK-8 Home School students, expanding our live synchronous class offerings and piloting a 7-8th Grade Online Middle School program for students who need an independent study model before high school.
Our Home School Academy has changed with the years, but it remains a program that empowers California’s parent-partners to teach their children with confidence.
In addition to similar support and opportunities offered to our Independent Study Students, students in the University Prep Early College Academy work in small cohorts and with content expert teachers to more closely mimic a university experience. The graduates of this program are equipped with the time-management and self-direction skills to go on to some of the best universities in the country, including Duke, Baylor, and Universities of California.
Students in this academy have historically been driven, with many student-athletes taking to this program to help them balance a full schedule of training with college-prep classes. Higher education has always been the focus of this program, and beginning in the Fall of 2024, University Prep students will have even greater access to college opportunities as part of our new Early College initiative.
This program partners with Los Rios Community College District to offer our students dedicated college classes they can take concurrently as they complete their high school education, with the potential to earn an AA degree and a high school diploma at the same time. This gives students perspective on life after high school and offsets the financial costs of higher education by allowing students to take core classes at no cost.
University education is not the only path available to students, and with more lucrative careers requiring specialized training, Visions shifted to provide students with more hands-on learning opportunities in emerging fields.
Visions has prioritized a steady, thoughtful enrollment philosophy for years founded on the notion of only enrolling as many students as we can effectively support. Starting out with in-person enrollments at our facilities in Carmichael, we quickly realized that a full Enrollment team would be needed to equitably enroll students in all nine counties. By investing in staff to ease the enrollment process for families, we can ensure every family that wants to be in Visions has a chance to learn with us.
While many charter schools do not market their available seats, Visions works to ethically and effectively raise awareness about our programs through targeted ads and marketing efforts. During the recession of 2008, Visions was able to preserve much of its fiscal integrity by growing to serve more students and adding new programs to support the students we took on. Growing through adversity requires thoughtful leadership and the willingness to do the hard work of effectively educating our students. As a public school, we take our responsibility to enroll all students seriously, even if some of these students require additional academic, behavioral, and special educational support.
As we continue to grow over time, we are intent on growing thoughtfully and ensuring that we can support the students we have before taking on more.
Visions has succeeded over the past quarter-century based on providing excellent instructional support backed up by effective operational management. This strong partnership has allowed a core team of support staff to support our teachers and families throughout our service area in a number of different ways.
Learn More About LPAD Here
Throughout the changes in Visions’ history, our counseling team has strived to prepare our students for what comes next in life by connecting them with valuable opportunities for growth and learning. In addition to keeping students on track to graduate, counselors for all of our academies provide sound college and career advice to students, allowing them to explore their passions while in school and supporting them as they chart the next crucial stage of their educational journeys.
16% of Visions students (1000+) have special education needs and 8% of our students are English learners. Ensuring these students reach their full potential requires dedicated teams of support staff in addition to the student’s primary teacher.
Our Special Education department was established early in Visions’ tenure to serve students with different learning needs, starting with a staff of one and growing to become one of our largest departments with over 50 members. Our team supports our students with teachers trained to support both mild/mod and mod/severe students, physical therapists and psychologists, and a dedicated team of special education veterans guiding our work.
Students receive personalized support, physical therapy, access to a school psychologist, and modified education to meet their individual learning goals. Visions prides itself in serving our community with special needs and works to build a comprehensive support network for the whole student, now transitioning to the El Dorado County Office of Education’s Charter SELPA to offer more effective support.
As Visions grew, so did our population of multilingual students. Our Multilingual Learner department was created to support multilingual learners with acquiring English skills, focused on identifying their needs and progressing towards eventual reclassification. At the same time, we recognize that being fluent in multiple languages is a benefit and we approach English-language acquisition from a perspective of adding to our students’ existing language skills rather than replacing them.
Our staff works with students and their families, supporting with translated material, curriculum consultation, and helming the English Language Advisory Committee (ELAC). Our goal is to equip our Multilingual Learners with the necessary language skills to succeed after school and in life.
Emerging from the pandemic, Visions students told us one thing; we’re ready to socialize. One of the challenges of a non-classroom based school is to find ways to provide traditional socialization opportunities to students in a much larger service area. Visions has always strived to provide students with activities like Home School Field Days and high school dances, but recently we have stepped up our efforts to offer a more robust selection of socialization opportunities to all of our students. Our decision to eliminate 9-12 in Home School allowed us to offer more diverse events to high school students, enriching their learning experiences and leading to greater student engagement in their studies.
With a robust selection of social opportunities, Visions students have the same opportunities available to their peers at a seat-based school.
Keeping our school staffed with teachers and staff is a full time profession our Human Resources team tackles with enthusiasm. Managing a staff of over 500 employees, the Human Resources department has grown with our school, onboarding new staff, managing our benefits programs, and creating a culture of inclusivity and support in our school.
Attracting, training, and retaining qualified staff is a challenge that Visions meets in a number of ways. We proactively promote our seasonal hiring fairs using paid advertising to connect to job searchers and actively recruit to fill open positions. Through offering competitive compensation and partnering with our marketing team on teacher recruitment initiatives, our school has remained fully staffed over time even as other schools in the state face shortfalls in staffing.
When COVID-19 struck, our HR team partnered with our facilities team to ensure compliance with safety and testing guidelines and as we emerged back to in-person work, our HR team has taken lead on employee engagement initiatives, including our Visions All-Stars Employee of the Semester Program. By creatively recognizing our team, Human Resources helps create a welcoming environment that our staff is happy to be a part of.
As a school of choice, our students need to first know that they have the option to choose Visions. As our school expanded over the years, the need to have dedicated marketing and communications staff became apparent and in 2015, our formal Marketing & Communications Services Department was created. This team creates informational marketing advertising campaigns using best-practices designed to highlight our programs and provide students and parents with the information they need to make an informed choice.
The team manages digital advertising on Google, Meta, local community groups, creates radio and print ads and more to build awareness about the school. These efforts direct parents and students to our website to learn more about our offerings and help feed enrollment. In 2023/2024, 53% of our new student inquiries and 38% of our applications were influenced to take action after seeing a paid marketing source. We currently contract with Grow Enrollments, an educational and enrollment consulting firm that helps us maximize students recruited per dollar spent.
Additionally, this team has grown from managing our basic communications to assisting leadership with sensitive communications, running our in-house media strategy, and partnering with external consultants to ensure smooth internal and external communication. Like our marketing efforts, our communication strategy is bolstered by help from outside consultants, including Bertelli Public Affairs that has helped our organization with key communication goals. They maintain and use our public marketing website (viedu.org) and intranet service (the WIRE), to manage the daily flow of communications to more than 20,000 students, parents, vendors and staff members to build connections across our sprawling service area. This team also creates our Student Spotlights and staff story content, sharing the good news about our school and students with our communities.
Supporting our Instruction and Business Services team requires a team of talented project managers and analysts to oversee the vital background work that makes our school function. The Operations and Support team helps Visions by overseeing our buildings, managing student records, maintaining relationships with our enrichment vendors, ensuring our systems (LPAD, CALPads, etc) are functional, and supports teachers with workbooks and spreadsheet trackers so our staff can make educated decisions based on concrete data. These tools are critical to ensuring our teachers and instructional administrators have data to back up educational decisions and a strong data-driven approach is crucial to delivering the best results for our students.
Though Visions does not have traditional classrooms, having safe, clean, and well-maintained spaces for our students to visit and our staff to work in is critical. Our Facilities Services team keeps Visions’ HQ in top condition by coordinating daily maintenance work and overseeing safety at our facilities. What began with one facilities technician has expanded to include coordinating off-site facilities requests, working with independent event spaces throughout our nine county service area to source clean, safe, family-friendly venues to host events.
Additionally, our Facilities team oversees safety at our main campus by keeping safety information current and regularly hosting lockdown and evacuation drills. These drills help staff keep safety top-of-mind and give our communities the opportunities to practice life-saving processes.
Visions In Education has succeeded over the years thanks in no small part to the well-respected organizations, businesses, and community leaders who work with us in our nine-county service area to support the mission of educating our students.
Click Here to learn more about our enrichment vendors!
See more case studies here!
As we take part in these frank and fruitful conversations with the California Department of Education and members of the state legislature, we hope to dispel some common myths around charter schools like Visions and show the value a school like ours brings to our communities. Visions contracts with consultants and lobbyists to help represent our school and our students in public and political spheres. In 2023, Visions met with both the CDE and the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) to discuss non-classroom based schools and how Visions effectively and responsibly manages our organization.
As attitudes towards charter schools shift, Visions plans to be part of the conversation, speaking out against excess and abuses of power and standing up for responsible charter school practices. Visions has Sponsored SB 593 (2021) and SB 1477 (2024) in an attempt to proactively influence the charter school space.
In order to “prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing world,” Visions needs to have one eye on the future. We carefully consider the forces influencing and impacting the students we serve and ensure our staff is ready to meet the challenges of educating youth in a world that never stops changing.
In addition to developing hard-skills, Visions also takes the time to help employees develop soft-skills like collaboration, conflict management, and mindset training. We partner with leadership coaches, including former Board Chairperson Katie McCleary, to train our leadership team on best-practices to strengthen team cohesion. We have also worked with organizations like Project Optimism and CliftonStrengths to bring developmental opportunities to staff and connect them with their strengths.
Our leadership team employs a variety of consultants to help us make the best decisions to support our staff and our students. As a school that embraces a growth mindset, we realize that we don’t always have all the answers and are willing to hire experts with more experience to provide valuable insight. Visions’ commitment to listening to feedback and using it to get better has been recognized by many of our educational partners, including Studer Education who Visions partners with to conduct leadership surveys. Recently, Visions leadership was invited to present at the 2024 What’s Right in Education Conference (WRIE) to share how we use feedback to make informed leadership decisions.
Coming out of COVID, our students and parents expressed a desire for more socialization opportunities and socialization was frequently listed as a reason for student withdrawal on exit surveys. Since then, Visions has ramped up our socialization efforts, offering regular regional events in all counties and large events such as prom, bowling trips, and more. We also launched a clubs program that sees nearly 1300 students participating in club activities, including multiple sports clubs.
A concentrated effort to encourage students who were one or more grades behind in Math and ELA to take the Middle of the Year (MOY) exams. Our organization set a goal of 95% which we fell short of our first year by only getting 89% of students in this category to test. We redoubled our efforts, working with teachers and assessments staff to overcome barriers to testing and in SY 2023-2024, 93% of our students participated in the Reading portion of the i-Ready exam, and 94% participated in the math portion.
Our Career Technical Education (CTE) program began as a series of internships that unfortunately stopped due to the 2020 lockdowns. Emerging from the pandemic, Visions hired a dedicated CTE Coordinator to build a robust program that all students could take advantage of. As of the 2023/2024 school year, this program had 133 students (up from the original enrollment of 70) with 13 students completing a full CTE Pathway, and 22 becoming First Aid Certified. Our program also grew to encompass three full pathways for our students.
As part of our surveys, our staff expressed the desire for more powerful technology to keep pace with the technologically demanding nature of their work. After weighing some options, Visions made a nearly $5,000,000 investment in new laptops designed to meet teacher and student needs in an effective and cost-effective manner.
As our school grows, we were faced with the challenge of how to honor all of our graduates in a timely and effective manner. To allow all of our students the opportunity to graduate at the historic Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Visions will be implementing a Fall graduation for the first time in February 2025.
Over the years, Visions In Education has operated out of a variety of locations in the Sacramento area and (prior to state legislation changing the rules around charter school facilities), operated learning centers in South Lake Tahoe, Amador, and Yolo counties to meet the needs of our students. As our school continued to grow, we continued to move into progressively larger facilities, culminating with our upcoming move to Gold River which we hope to make our permanent operating center. This new facility will have training space and offices for our growing staff as well as expanded amenities for our students when they come to visit. At the time of writing, construction on this facility is underway and we hope to be in our new facility in Spring 2025.
A core factor of Visions’ success has been our school’s willingness to learn from our past as we look to the future. Preparing students for a world that consistently changes requires foresight and as we turn the page on our twenty-fifth year of service, we would like to take a moment to have a conversation with our Superintendent (Dr. Steve Olmos), Board of Directors Chairperson Mark Holman, Chief Academic Officer (Dr. Micah Studer), Chief Operations Officer (Tom Tafoya), and long-serving Director of Independent Study and University Prep Instruction Sarah McFarland to get their perspective on where Visions has been, how far we’ve come as a school, and where they see Visions going in the future.
The relationships that our staff builds with students and families is our greatest strength. Our staffs’ willingness to make improvements and evolve our practices and offerings is also an extraordinary strength. We are able to work with students on an individual basis so that they find success, however they define success.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
One of our biggest strengths is being able to meet students where they are and provide students what they need when they need it. This individualized, personal, standards-based approach to education allows for greater partnership with students and their families to meet their needs. We keep the student at the center of our program design.
Dr. Micah Studer
Chief Academic Officer
I think the organization has continued to be willing to evolve to meet the needs of the times. From moving from a dependent to an independent charter school, to the expansion of technology, to new services and new programs to meet the needs of a more diverse group of students and families, we don’t take the easy road; we do the right thing no matter the effort. Being able to evolve and get returns on previous investments allow us to compound our knowledge, skills, and increase our impact for students.
Tom Tafoya
Chief Operations Officer
The greatest strength of Visions–which MUST be preserved–is its commitment to innovation in public education. We are based in Sacramento where we can affect legislative perspectives on the charter movement. Rather than being adversarial with the traditional public education system, we are their servants looking to lead them into the new world as it rapidly changes. We are fast, nimble, experimental while also being deeply law abiding and respectful of the role that public education plays for all students in all communities for the benefit of a civil society.
Mark Holman
Board of Directors Chairperson
Visions’ greatest strengths are our people—the teachers, staff, students, and families who are at the hearts of our school. Over the years, we have built a culture based on relationships, where educators work closely with students, families and each other. We are deeply committed to meeting students where they are in their personal journey. Whether a student is recovering credits, preparing for college, earning a CTE certification, or pursuing a homeschool education, Visions has teachers to provide support. As a team, we provide individualized support to ensure that every student succeeds, always putting relationships at the heart of everything we do.
Sarah McFarland
Director of Instruction: Independent Study & University Prep
Unfortunately, I’m not sure that education has changed much in the past 25 years. 25 years ago I was a middle school teacher; my youngest son is now in 9th grade. Not much has changed in education in that time span.
However, everything around education and with kids has changed tremendously. Students are now having to deal with a rapidly changing world, social media, artificial intelligence, mental health, anxiety, etc.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
What hasn’t changed? 25 years ago I was graduating high school as part of the first class of a new millennium. I went to school with scantron tests, backpacks that weighed 800 pounds and cemetery seating. Email was new and innovative and cell phones weren’t yet the powerful pocket computers we have today. Technology is evolving in ways we still need to come to grips with; as AI becomes more sophisticated, our students will need to learn how to responsibly and ethically interact with it. Information literacy is also more important now that there’s so much of it available. In this environment, there is less emphasis on memorization and more on application and skill building. Technology assists us with that is ways we couldn’t even dream of in ‘99. Our ability to assess every student and get individual results to customize their education program was once thought impossible. In ‘99 we demanded that every student fit our model of “school.” Now we have the tools to make school fit the needs of our students.
But beyond technology, the way we educate students is changing. Equipping students for life after graduation is becoming increasingly important through robust CTE opportunities (a far cry from the Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) that used to exist). We are empowering students to take control of their education in new ways and giving them more authorship over their education. Education can happen anywhere; you don’t need to be locked into one option any more and both of my students are also charter school students.
Dr. Micah Studer
Chief Academic Officer
I believe technology is leveling the playing field and enabling schools like ours to provide great instructional opportunities in ways that simply were not possible when I first started here some 21 years ago. Technology is more ubiquitous than ever and the costs have dropped dramatically. From bulky desktop systems with CRT monitors and dial up, to state of the art Chromebooks with MiFi, the technology our students are now receiving is state of the art at a fraction of the cost.
Tom Tafoya
Chief Operations Officer
The role that technology plays has certainly come to enable new techniques and tools. At the same time, the problems with technology have also become just as apparent. One of the key challenges for the next 25 years is to embrace the limits of technology as well as its possibilities. There is also a massive cultural breakdown in American society. The fractionalization of our communities pits the goals, objectives, and traditions of public education against some of the strongest critics of freedom on both the left and right of the political spectrum. So, another key challenge for the next 25 years is finding our role as a public school in rebuilding civil society and the midst of a breakdown of civility among our political leadership.
Mark Holman
Board of Directors Chairperson
Over the past 25 years what education looks like at Visions has evolved significantly with technology becoming a key tool to support student learning. In 1999 we relied on traditional materials like textbooks and workbooks. Today we have shifted to include Zoom classes, digital curriculum, and Chromebooks that allow students to stay connected and engaged. While technology opens doors to personalized learning, it also brings challenges like managing screen time, ensuring online safety, and navigating the pressures of social media. At Visions, we remain focused on meeting each student’s unique needs, blending the benefits of technology with the personalized support and 1:1 relationships that are at the heart of our learning community.
Sarah McFarland
Director of Instruction: Independent Study & University Prep
There are many things I am excited about. Our new Online Middle School program will be a game changer for many students and families. Our new Credit Recovery program will be life changing for many students who have been told they will never have a high school diploma. University Prep offering students the ability to graduate with a high school diploma and an Associates Degree from a community college will make higher ed much more attainable for many students.
I am excited as we develop our Career Technical Pathways and look to add pathways into the trades with pre-apprenticeship programs. The addition of student clubs and athletics is also very exciting. Our students are able to connect with other students and adults that share the same interests and passions as they do.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
Our biggest focus is on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), which have helped us grow as educators by working together to answer four essential questions: (1) What do we want students to learn? (2) How will we know if they’ve learned it? (3) What will we do if they haven’t learned it? (4) What are the next steps for those who have? This framework allows us to refine our teaching strategies, provide targeted support, and offer enrichment opportunities so that every student can succeed.
We’re also serving students at a higher level through the incredible work of our Student Services team, who have developed and implemented a comprehensive ‘System of Support.’ This approach addresses the needs of the whole student, providing vital social-emotional and behavioral supports. From organizing dances, clubs, and sports to offering various opportunities for students to connect with staff and each other, we are building a strong, inclusive community. Our counseling and social work teams have been nothing short of extraordinary, stepping in to support students and families, especially in moments of crisis. There have been instances where, without the valiant efforts of our staff, students might not be here today. We don’t just change lives—we save them.
Finally, there is so much to look forward to as we expand our Career Technical Education (CTE) and Dual Enrollment offerings. These programs play a pivotal role in preparing our students for life beyond graduation, offering them hands-on experience and real-world skills that align with today’s workforce demands. Through CTE, students can explore career pathways in fields such as healthcare, technology, and business, gaining industry-recognized certifications and skills that give them a competitive edge in the job market. At the same time, Dual Enrollment allows students to earn college credits while still in high school, setting them up for academic success and reducing the time and cost it takes to earn a degree. By equipping our students with both practical skills and academic advancement, we are ensuring they are better prepared to thrive in their chosen careers and higher education pursuits after they graduate from Visions
Dr. Micah Studer
Chief Academic Officer
I am excited for the potential of our Online Middle School (OMS) program which has the potential to attract new families who are looking for distance learning rather than traditional homeschooling. I believe this is an untapped opportunity for families concerned with keeping their students safe and unable to provide an appropriate homeschool experience.
In addition, I believe our current work of looking for ways to support our Independent Study high schoolers is an area of continued growth; I believe we can give hope to students who, due to circumstances beyond their control, need a more flexible program to help them move forward in life.
Tom Tafoya
Chief Operations Officer
I am most excited about bringing the Visions model to as many students as possible in as many communities as desire it through whatever partnerships made sense. I am very enthusiastic about our embrace of vocational pathways as equal to college pathways.
Mark Holman
Board of Directors Chairperson
At Visions, the Professional Learning Communities process is one of our biggest initiatives supporting all 7,500 students. Our teachers, staff and Administrators come together regularly to share insights, analyze student progress, and develop strategies to help students succeed. This teamwork has been a key part of our success, especially in programs like Credit Recovery, Summer School, CTE, and the University Prep Early College Academy, which have helped boost our graduation rate by 10%. I’m also excited about our Online Middle School program. This new program provides great virtual instruction to prepare 7th & 8th graders for high school. Finally, we’re incredibly proud of the 150+ events we offer to Tk-12th graders including field trips, dances, clubs, and sports teams, allowing students in all nine counties to connect, learn, and have fun.
Sarah McFarland
Director of Instruction: Independent Study & University Prep
I believe the future is bright for schools like Visions. We are able to meet students where they are, provide individual attention, and work with them to find success. I believe the silver lining of covid was students and families realizing that they now have options. They do not have to be sitting in a traditional classroom setting for 6 periods a day when it does not work for them. They can look for options that are a better fit. Schools like Visions can lead the way in disrupting the traditional educational system that really hasn’t changed in the past 25 years.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
We have the opportunity to create academic social-emotional learning programs that our students and our communities need. We can respond to the changing world of education as it evolves; we are not locked in one model. We can try and learn different things to create systems to help our kids.
Dr. Micah Studer
Chief Academic Officer
In our current structure, the combination of having the resources to take strategic risks and our ability to refocus and improve our services, practices, and programs to serve unmet needs in service of ALL students will be our strategic advantage over other schools that choose to do the easy work. The specific direction will depend upon the changing needs of our students, an objective assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, and where we leverage these strengths to scale up to make the greatest impact.
Tom Tafoya
Chief Operations Officer
One word: INNOVATION!
Mark Holman
Board of Directors Chairperson
Schools like Visions, including Home School, independent study, charter, and non-classroom-based programs, have a tremendous opportunity to support students who need a choice in pathways to graduation. Many high school students do well when they have options that fit their individual needs, such as catching up on credits, balancing school with a job, or managing family responsibilities. Schools like Visions offer the opportunity for students to take community college courses while still in high school. This gives them a head start on their careers or college education. Independent Study schools can truly help students stay on track in a way that works for their lives so they can take control of their education and futures.
Sarah McFarland
Director of Instruction: Independent Study & University Prep
Never forget that at the core of what we do is serving our students and families. We’re people helping people, making sure they get what they need when they need it. That’s what education is really about. When our students have the right support, they can grow, thrive, and become the best versions of themselves. When our students become their best selves, they will make the world better, too.
Dr. Micah Studer
Chief Academic Officer
My hope is that the leaders and staff will have leveraged the resources, technology and know-how to provide industry-leading educational services and generate industry leading educational outcomes for all students, but especially for students from underserved communities. So, I would say, don’t do the easy work of status quo, do the hard work of improving and creating better services, supports and systems to support our students, families and staff.
Tom Tafoya
Chief Operations Officer
[To Visions Students]: You received your education the way you did because people built a solid foundation for you. Giving back generously and holding firmly and courageously to the values that made Visions what it is can be part of your expression of gratitude, helping to preserve what you received for others.
Mark Holman
Board of Directors Chairperson
To the students of 2034: Always remember, your education is more than just getting through assignments—it’s about finding your path. Everyone at Visions believes in you and your ability to take control of your future. This is your journey, and you have the power to shape it into something incredible. So go for it, make it yours, and don’t forget—we’re here with you every step of the way!
Sarah McFarland
Director of Instruction: Independent Study & University Prep
Thank you for making Visions such a special place to learn, work and grow.
Dr. Steve Olmos
Superintendent/Executive Director
Ben Drahmann Marketing and Communications Analyst Visionary Since 2017
