It is with great excitement that we are announcing the location of our new campus! Beginning in the 2010-11 school year, and lasting far into the future (we hope!), REALMS charter school will make its home on a beautiful 6 acre property located at 63175 OB Riley Road, just north of Empire Avenue.

We appreciate all the patience our families have shown over this year in trusting us with this process. While we are still in the very final stages of negotiating our lease, we have been given every confidence by the owner that our work will culminate in a mutually satisfactory lease in the coming weeks. It is now possible for us to formally and finally share our location!

Our nine year journey as a charter school in Bend will take a wonderful new turn as we move onto this remarkable campus. The 8000 square feet of classroom space is made all the more sweet by the towering ponderosa pines, open play spaces, interesting rock outcrops and garden site, all of which will help us bring to life a key element in mission of our school: to make academic learning real, relevant, and meaningful through a connection to the natural world around us.

This property is no stranger to the sounds of children’s laughter or the feel of children’s feet as they run, play and learn. As some of you may know, this campus has been the home of the Waldorf School of Bend for many years. The Waldorf will be moving out this summer and we wish them the best of luck. It is clear that the students and staff of The Waldorf School of Bend have poured lots of love into this property over the years, and we feel fortunate to be the caretakers of this land into the future. We are committed to fostering the same ethic of connection and care amongst our students and families, and we suspect that with one tour of the property you will fall in love with it as we have!

It is with great excitement that we begin planning for ways to make our campus a laboratory for learning and stewardship that will extend and enhance our classroom studies. Our 6th grade students just returned from a powerful fieldwork trip in Portland where they focused on environmental sustainability. These students are inspired to bring some of the features of campuses we visited to our new campus. Imagine a “food loop” where a school garden, a composting system, and healthy lunches are connected in a cycle that involves REALMS students in planting, harvesting, recycling and helping cook! Imagine REALMS students designing and building a rain catchment system, raising chickens or helping install solar panels! At the same time, our 7th graders are now experts in “xeriscape” landscape design and will be well poised to help us improve the environmentally friendly landscaping on our new campus.

Now that the campus acquisition process is complete, we can get to work on many of the projects that will need to be finished in order to be ready for school in September. There is much to do, and we could use your help! On the sidebar of this page are some links to frequently asked questions and a map of the campus location. Please take some time to read through this information and let us know if you can help, or if you have further questions!