Course Catalog & Master Schedule
The East Mountain course catalog is available to assist students and their families in planning for and requesting class schedules.
Students will receive a class schedule upon completion of registration. Schedule change requests must be made during the first three days of the term.
Every attempt will be made to create a schedule for each student to support their academic success at East Mountain and to further their personal goals.
Graduation Requirements
EM School Meal Program
We are excited to continue our FREE breakfast and lunch program this school year!
Although meals are free for our students, we are still required by the NMPED and National School Lunch Program to collect applications from every family. The application will be sent out during the first week of school and collected through the advocacy class.
EM has partnered with Genuine to provide high-quality, healthy meals.
All students and staff will be issued lanyards with school IDs this year to be worn at all times. ID’s will be required for every meal taken by a student. Please note that there will no longer be a snack bar with food items for sale. The only food options available on campus will be the free meals through our catering company.
Compliance Documents
USDA Nondiscrimination Statement
Honor Code & Handbook
Below you will find the most updated version of the EM Student Handbook. Students and families should familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures included.
To view the student handbook, please click the button below:
Our Academic Philosophy
East Mountain is a college preparatory school that seeks to engage, challenge, and inspire each student to achieve excellence. This simple statement means we are committed to the following philosophical tenets:
- Each student’s academic growth is important and will be measured.
- Each student is capable of attending college and will be prepared for a college of best fit for that student’s wants and needs.
- Each student will receive an education that will prepare him or her for future success.
- Each student will receive the support and encouragement needed to achieve at a high level
- Each teacher plays a role as a teacher, mentor, advocate, tutor, and grader and is concerned that each student succeeds.
- Each course in the curriculum is part of a coherent whole that provides a well-rounded education based on a student’s need to master a core curriculum and apply it to real problems using 21st-century skills.
- We help all students navigate their path to college, career, and beyond. We know that the future poses many complex challenges, but our faculty is committed to instilling a sense of creative problem-solving in all students.
In Our Students’ Words
“My high school partners with a local college and offers dual credit that allows students to get a head start on their college classes. All the teachers are involved and will reach out to help all the students.”
Student, Class of 2018
Academic Honor Code
An essential part of education is developing a sense of honor, responsibility, and ethical principles that extend to all facets of life. Self-esteem and self-respect grow from meeting challenges with honesty and individual effort. Our students can earn respect for themselves and their academic work only through academic integrity and ethical conduct.
All EM students sign the following pledge at the beginning of the school year, accepting full responsibility for upholding the Academic Honor Code and its importance:
As a student citizen of East Mountain:
- I will not lie, cheat, or steal in my academic work.
- I will oppose all forms of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism.
- I will give prompt notification to a faculty member or principal when I observe academic dishonesty in any situation.
- I will give careful attention to crediting sources from books, periodicals, or the internet.
- I will not use technology to represent work as my own when it is not.
- I will not share information from a test, quiz, or essay with other students.
- I will refuse to allow other students to copy my work.
- I will support honesty and responsibility as the foundations of the EM tradition of excellence.
If a student violates the Honor Code, the teacher will make an administrative referral. Additional penalties may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Loss of National Honor Society membership
- Loss of eligibility for admission into National Honor Society
- Loss of Student Government officer position and/or membership
- Loss of Valedictorian or Salutatorian status and medal
- Loss of other privileges, positions, or opportunities requiring trustworthiness and responsibility
Definition of Cheating
Cheating includes any attempt to defraud, deceive, or mislead a teacher in arriving at an accurate assessment of student achievement.
Cheating includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Looking at a test, quiz, or exam of another student while taking an assessment
- Attempting to communicate information in any way during an in-class assessment
- Having cheat sheets, or information written on the body, phone, iPod, or other personal objects
- Using programmed calculators or other electronic devices unless expressly permitted by the teacher
- Looking at quiz, test, or exam materials prior to their administration
- Failing to give credit for the ideas, words, or works of others
- Giving or receiving information regarding an assessment, project, or assignment to another student who is scheduled to take the same or similar evaluation
- Submitting work through the use of technology that is not created by the student, including but not limited to file sharing (submitting the same work (including work previously submitted by the same student but this time for a different class or assignment) with different header), copying files to and from disks and websites, translation websites, problem solving websites, or purchasing solutions or works from others
Homework
Homework is assigned as a means of reinforcing classroom instruction and is often used as an indicator of student comprehension or progress.
Honor Code Violations of Homework:
- Copying or paraphrasing all or part of another’s homework
- Allowing another to copy or paraphrase your work
- Receiving help on assignments that have been identified by the teacher as work to be done solely by you, including reading
- Using the Internet or purchased summaries of reading assignments instead of reading the assigned homework (Reading does not improve without reading.)
- Reusing assignments turned in for a previous teacher or class
- Using translation websites or problem problem-solving websites, or any or sources that perform work for the student
Tests
Obtaining help or giving help prior to or during a test or quiz is considered cheating.
Honor Code Violations of Tests:
- Passing test questions or answers to students in your class or in another class
- Receiving test questions or answers from students in your class or in another class
- Copying someone else’s answers
- Possessing or using “crib” or cheat sheets on the body or on personal objects
- Obtaining a copy of the test or quiz before it is administered (on paper or electronically)
- Attempting to gain an unfair advantage before or during a test, such as looking at another student’s work, turning around, leaving books or notes open, signaling, deliberately and repeatedly choosing to miss classes through unexcused absences, lateness to school, or early dismissal to avoid taking a test or handing in an assignment. There must be direct communication between the teacher, student, and the parent before a student can reschedule a test that was missed.
- Modifying electronic test materials so they will not score properly
Research Papers, Inquiry Projects, and Essays
Plagiarism is the act of stealing, using, and passing off another person’s ideas or words as your own writing or ideas. Properly document the sources of information used for your research paper and essays so that you will not be guilty of plagiarism. CliffsNotes and Spark Notes, and their look-alikes, are not considered to be scholarly resources of significant merit and should not be quoted or paraphrased in essays or other written assignments. In addition, using materials from these sources (or any others) without proper citation constitutes plagiarism which is an Honor Code offense. If you need extra help in understanding or writing about a work of literature, please see your teacher.
Honor Code Violations of Research Papers, Inquiry Projects, and Essays:
- Copying phrases, sentences, or paragraphs without using quotation marks and without giving proper documentation of the source
- Paraphrasing or summarizing ideas without giving proper documentation of the source
- Asking someone or paying someone to write a research paper for you
- Selling or giving an assignment to students who submit it as their own
- Downloading from the Internet a research paper or article in its entirety or in part to submit as your own
- Submitting another student’s research paper as your own work
- Lab Reports
- While you may work in the lab with a partner and each of you will have the same data, the remaining sections of the lab report should be your own work. This includes any computations, graphs, diagrams, and conclusion questions.
Honor Code Violations of Lab Reports:
- Attempting to corrupt another student’s data
- Presenting another student’s work (computations, graphs, diagrams, answers to conclusion questions) as your own
- Misrepresenting laboratory data
Calculator Use
Calculators may be used in class only with the permission of the instructor.
- Honor Code Violations of Calculator Use
- Sharing a calculator during a test or quiz
- Using any calculator in class not approved by the teacher
- Storing test information in calculators
- Using test information (including formulas and equations) that has been stored in a calculator
Student Responsibilities to Avoid Cheating
- Ask permission to use a cover sheet during quizzes and tests.
- Ask teachers to specify if student work is to be done cooperatively or individually, if there is any doubt.
- Remove all materials fromthe desktop except for test materials.
- Zip book bags closed. Make sure all books are closed. Put away any loose papers.
- Take careful notes when doing research in order to avoid plagiarism. Don’t forget that any idea not your own must be properly documented, even if you are using paraphrased sentences rather than direct quotations.
- Respect yourself. Take pride in your work and your work ethic.
Guidance Office
Our Guidance Office team, located in Building 1, is ready to serve students and families with their college and career planning. Students may seek out Mrs. Marcelain and Mrs. Millea with questions and advice at any time.
The Guidance Office publishes the Weekly Wire, an incredibly informative newsletter that compiles all the best resources on colleges, scholarships, work opportunities, and more!
EM Next Step Plan
The New Mexico Public Education Department requires each student to complete a Next Step Plan each year so that students understand how their course selections, grades, standardized test scores, career interests, and extracurricular activities will affect their aspirations for higher education or career training after high school. At East Mountain, the Next Step Plan is completed through each student’s advocacy. It must be signed by the student, parent/guardian, and advocate and put on file in the Guidance Office before the end of the school year.
EM Scholarships
Letter of Recommendation
Discovery Projects
East Mountain embraces the importance of experiential learning as a key to achieving excellence. Students become more engaged in their learning when they have opportunities to apply classroom skills to real-world situations. Discovery Projects, two-week units of in-depth experiential learning that take place each May once traditional classes are completed, are a cornerstone of this principle. Each freshman, sophomore, and junior completes a Discovery Project annually.
In previous years, students have worked with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter to rehabilitate a home in the East Mountains, built a peace garden on the East Mountain campus, studied human physiology while earning their scuba diving certification, traveled to Spain to immerse themselves in a foreign culture and language, designed their own video games and wrote and illustrated their own children’s books. Recent graduates cite Discovery Projects as among the most valuable and challenging components of their East Mountain education.
Timberwolves Athletics
East Mountain is one of the few charter high schools in the state of New Mexico that offers students the opportunity to participate in New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) sanctioned varsity athletics. EM competes at the AAA level and fields teams for both girls and boys in the following sports and activities:
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Cross Country
- Golf
- Soccer
- Softball
- Track & Field
- Volleyball
In addition, if a student wishes to compete in a sport not offered at EM, such as wrestling, swimming, or football, state law allows for that student to compete at his or her district school.
EM is working diligently to bring all of our programs to be competitive on the New Mexico Athletics Association Division AAA level, while continuing to emphasize that academics come first. All students must be enrolled in and passing (70% or higher) a minimum of 3 classes each grading period, a term, and have a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher. Being an athlete at EMHS is a privilege, and students must get their schoolwork done before being an athlete.
Before joining a sport (tryouts, practice, or games), all students must be academically eligible, have a doctor’s physical on file, turn in a completed version of all required paperwork, and pay their athletic fee. If you have questions, please use this email.
To keep up on schedules and scores, follow us at our Max Preps Website.
How to Participate
What do you need to be ready to compete in athletics at East Mountain?
Complete the sports physical and waiver form. Forms are available at the EM office or can be downloaded and printed from the links below and are to be handed in to your coach before you can practice.
- Have a physical done by a doctor.
- Fill out and sign the physical/waiver form.
- Sign off on the substance abuse policy form and code of conduct.
- Complete the emergency contact form.
Be academically eligible! This means that you passed 3 classes (C or better) and had a GPA of 2.0 or higher last grading period. If you are a transfer student (not an incoming freshman), please talk to the Principal as soon as possible so that you can gain your eligibility through the NMAA. There may be a 90 – 180 school day waiting period for transfer students.
Be a current full-time student at EM. This means being enrolled and passing 3 or more classes (being a teacher’s aide does not count as a class). Dual credit classes through CNM do count; please visit the Student Guidance Center for more information.
Pay the athletic fee. This fee needs to be paid before participation in the first game and can be submitted to the Front Office.
Read the EM athletics handbook and fill out the emergency contact sheet, code of conduct, and substance abuse policy before the first game.
Show up to the mandatory pre-season meetings and practice with a smile on your face!
All student-athletes are required to complete the NFHS (National Federation of High School Sports) Learn Concussion for Students Course before participating in a contest. Information for that course can be found at these links:
- NMAA Information on Senate Bill 38 – https://www.nmact.org/file/Concussion_Info_ADs.pdf
- NFHS Learn Concussion for Students Course – https://nfhslearn.com/courses/61059/concussion-for-students
Student-athletes should print the certificate of completion and turn it into their coach before the first contest.
Forms and Resources
Fall Sports
Girls Soccer
Email: hgsoccercoach@eastmountainhigh.net
Click here for Schedule and Scores on MaxPreps.
Boys Soccer
Coach: Colton Oord
Cell: 505-999-8827
Email Colton Oord
Click here for Schedule and Scores on MaxPreps.
Girls Volleyball
Coach: Kasi Giovenco
Cell: 301-471-9904
Email Kasi Giovenco
Click here for Schedule and Scores on MaxPreps.
Girls & Boys Golf
Coach: Josh Luna
Phone: 719-368-9527
Email Josh Luna
Girls & Boys Cross Country
Joe Komensky
Phone: 505-615-1851
Email Joe Komensky
Winter Sports
Boys Basketball
Head Coach: Josh Mattox
Email Josh Mattox
Click here for Schedule and Scores on MaxPreps.
Girls Basketball
Head Coach: Ron Drake
Email: Ron Drake
Bowling
Head Coach: Clayton Severs
Phone: 505-977-8337
Email Clayton Severs
Spring Sports
Baseball
Coach: TBD
Phone:
Email hbaseballcoach@eastmountainhigh.net
Softball
Coach: Dawn Saunders
Phone: 505-507-0909
Email Dawn Saunders
Track and Field
Head Coach: Aaron Caton
Phone: 505-379-6173
Email Aaron Caton
Golf Team
Coach: Josh Luna
Phone: 719-368-9527
Email Josh Luna
Click here for Schedule and Scores on MaxPreps Website
Boys’ Volleyball
Coach: Rikki Garma
Phone: 808-639-8370
Email Rikki Garma
Facilities & Fitness Center
Facilities
EM is fortunate to be located adjacent to Vista Grande Community Center, a Bernalillo County Parks & Recreation facility. Due to a joint use agreement with the county, EM has used the existing soccer field and softball and baseball fields for practice and home games since we opened in 2000.
In September 2008, EM and Bernalillo County celebrated the completion of the Fisher and Smith Memorial Gymnasium. This $5 million addition to the existing Vista Grande Community Center is a groundbreaking collaboration between the school and the county. Working under a joint-use agreement, the school and the community center share the use of the gym, ensuring that students have access for physical education and athletics and the community has access for recreation and physical fitness. We believe this is the only such partnership in the state of New Mexico.
The Fisher and Smith Memorial Gymnasium is a reality due in large part of the vision of State Senator Sue Wilson Beffort, who helped the County and EM secure the funding needed to build the gym. Many other local legislators and Bernalillo County officials also contributed to the effort.
Phase 2 added a fitness center, an aerobics / martial arts room and more storage space to the existing facility. Phase 2 was completed and opened to the public in the fall of 2011.
Fitness Center
Construction of a new fitness center at Vista Grande Community Center was completed in the fall of 2011 and the facility is now open to the public. Use of the 5,100 square-foot addition will be shared with East Mountain High School through a joint use agreement.
The fitness center includes brand-new, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, including treadmills, stationary bikes and weightlifting machines. There is also a multi-purpose room that will host classes in aerobics, yoga, zumba, karate, jazzercise and gymnastics. Funding for the fitness center was secured with the help of legislators, including Senator Sue Wilson Beffort, and Bernalillo County. The entire cost of the project was just over one million dollars and includes the fitness equipment. East Mountain is proud to be pointing the way to a solution for charter school facilities and demonstrating how we can better use public monies to serve the wider community.
For East Mountain, the addition of a fitness center means that physical education classes can provide students with more options for lifelong fitness. For athletes, there are now more options for cross-training and strength conditioning. The school will also use the space to offer martial arts programs.
For the community, the fitness center offers an extremely affordable way to get in shape or stay in shape. Adults will be charged $25.00 for a punch card good for 20 visits. Fees for classes will be paid directly to the instructor and won’t count again the punchcard total. For veterans and individuals over 55, use of the fitness center is free.
EM encourages parents and community members to take advantage of this resource – the paperwork to sign up is available on this page. Hours of operation for the fitness center are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 8 pm. On Tuesdays, the fitness center will open at 6 am. On Saturdays, the fitness center will be open on Saturdays from 10 am to 6 pm and on Sundays from 8 am to noon. For more information, please call 468-7500 or visit www.bernco.gov/vgcc.
Clubs & Activities
At EM, we believe that joining clubs is one of the best ways to develop leadership skills. It’s a great way to expand your social circle, learn new abilities, and impress colleges and employers.
If you do not find a club that you are looking for, you can always start your own club! Talk to Mr. Smith to find out more!
Some of our clubs include:
- Anime Club
- Chess Club
- Diversity Club
- English Expo
- FRC
- Girls Who Code
- Interact Club
- MESA
- Model UN
- National Honor Society
- National STEM Honor Society
- SAGA
- The Howl Writing Club
- Speech & Debate
- Student Council
- Youth & Government

