Guajome Park Academy

Guajome Park Academy, commonly referred to as Guajome or GPA, is a primary school, middle school and high school in Vista, California. It is a charter school and was founded in 1994. It offers the IB Diploma Programme for eleventh- and twelfth-graders. During the 2004-2005 school year, 1,238 students were enrolled: 530 in the middle school and 708 in the high school.The school is named after nearby Guajome County Park. The name "Guajome" comes from the Luiseño Indian word wakhavumi meaning "frog pond". In the Luiseño story of creation, Wahawut was one of the "First People" who took on the appearance of a frog to cast a spell over the god Oiyot; consequently, the school's mascot is a frog.HistoryGuajome Park Academy was founded in 1994 by a group of parents and educators headed by "C.E.O." (Chief Educational Officer) Sandra Williamson (later Sandra Williamson-Angle). In its first year, Guajome had no campus of its own, and met at a nearby middle school as well as at Vista High School. Although only barely established, Guajome was in fact, one of the first charter schools in California, a distinction it proudly holds to this day. The following year, a campus in northern Vista was opened, featuring temporary buildings, the much-loved "trailers." In 1997, the school opened a secondary campus in downtown Vista called the Vista Village Learning Plaza, which at various times has housed the high school program and an alternative education program called the Expeditionary Learning Center (ELC). In 2004, after nearly ten years of waiting, a permanent campus opened at the main campus site, with two-story buildings, a gymnasium, and an amphitheater, facilities the school had not had in any of its previous locations. Soon after, the Vista Village Learning Plaza was closed and the ELC was relocated to the main campus.