10535 E Kay Gartrell Pl
Tucson, AZ 85747

We love Vail Academy and High School! We have had both our children here since kindergarten and they are now in 7th and 5th grades. It is very easy to communicate with teachers, staff, and administration. Having currently around 450 students total for grades k-12, it is easy to get to know each other, spend one on one time with teachers, and enjoy smaller class sizes. Vail Academy has a strong community feel with teachers that continually go above and beyond to ensure their student’s success in and out of the classroom.

It is perfect for my kids who go there

My daughter had a great freshman year. She is in all AP or honors classes. They also have Engineering and Drama as electives, and she is interested in both. Her math skills really took off last year under her Algebra teacher. She is interested in her electives, or she'd have joined the Corvis Academy, which is a serious college prep cohort. It's great for her to be at a school where the focus is not on mindless athletics!

I have two children at this school who are high performers. The curriculum is well-organized and there are many good teachers at the school. The students that aren't engaged are a constant distraction and discipline is poor and ineffective. My children come home everyday complaining about it. It is a mixed culture of kind and respectful students and very disrespectful, undisciplined students. Unfortunately the administration is incredibly ineffective in managing this and it really takes from the experience the teachers and cooperative kids deserve. The students to teacher ratio is closer to 1:30, not 1:20 as they claim.

VDLP is a high rigor online program for students wanting an alternative option for school. It is ideal for students wanting academic challenges and the opportunity to accelerate through classes. VDLP offers full-time options along with students who want to take additional classes to their normal schedule. It is challenging and rigorous yet web based to afford families freedom to travel or have alternative class schedules.

My daughter started 6th grade at RVMS last year and is a current student there. She has said nothing but good things about RVMS and says she loves her school. She has a lot of friends and is friends with everyone. At her previous school in San Antonio, TX, some of the girls bullied her, but she hasn't experienced any bullying here at RVMS. She has mentioned that a couple of her friends transferred schools due to bullying amongst other girls. The only teacher that she has talked negatively about is Mr. Niblo. She said towards the end of the school year, he was kind of mean. Not sure how he is this year. The only negative thing I would say is that they send out email reminders stating adult supervision doesn't start until 7:45am, and that students should not be on campus any earlier. This is unfortunate because as a single parent in the military, my duty hours are 8-4pm and with the construction on Valencia, it takes me 25-30 min to get to the base from Houghton/Irvington so I am usually 10 min late to work every morning. We're in the walking zone so she's not able to ride the bus. I don't feel comfortable with her walking 30 min to school with a heavy backpack on. It's a 10 min bike ride but her backpack is so heavy she can't even ride her bike to school. They don't have lockers at RVMS so she has to carry around everything in her backpack. On top of that, there are two registered offenders less than 1/2 a mile from where we live on the same street she would take if she were to walk or ride her bike. After finding that out, I definitely did not want her walking or riding her bike to school by herself so for peace of mind, I drop her off in the mornings.In Texas, schools started around 7:30am but for some reason in Arizona, most schools start at 8am. The school on base starts at 8:20 but the earliest arrival time is 7:45 (35 min before school starts). It would be beneficial if Rincon Vista started breakfast at 7:30 instead of 7:45 so parents could drop off their kids earlier and not have to rush to get to work especially since being in middle school, they don't offer before and after school care. To alleviate the traffic on Houghton/Irvington, and the amount of people speeding to try to make it to work on time, I think it would help if parents were able to drop off their kids earlier than 7:45am.

This school is so impressive!! I have a sophomore that is in both the auto pathway but is also taking the engineering class. His counselor listened to what his goals after high school are and suggested this route and I am so grateful! We went to an event at the high school called the Halloween Festival that is student run. All I can say is that I wish all the big events I go to were run by Andrada students! What a great turn out and event! The students were so polite and hard working!!