Verde Valley School recently encountered opposition during a Nov. 10 community meeting regarding the school’s plans to redevelop part of its property, which showed that residents were hostile not only toward the proposed changes but also toward the school itself.

The school canceled a Dec. 22 meeting before the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission, the scheduled and later canceled a community roundtable on Jan. 11. The school is currently scheduled to go before the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday, Feb. 16.

VVS applied for a conditional use permit for its planned upgrades prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, which was put on hold during the pandemic but which the school now intends to pursue. The CUP would permit redevelopment of a portion of land to the east of the school that it leased to the former Camp Soaring Eagle, which went bankrupt in 2007. The land and the three buildings that the camp built have sat empty ever since.

VVS regained the land that it had leased to the camp when the camp went bankrupt and began the process of reintegrating it into the school for the purpose of “education and environmental stewardship,” according to VVS Head of School Paul Amadio.

“We felt that we could easily share what the plan was for the land and [neighbors] could be informed,” Amadio said of VVS’s intentions for the community meeting. “If there were concerns, we could discuss them, but the meeting became contentious.”

Amadio went on to explain that the highly vocal opposition to the plan was based on information that people had read on a social media forum called Next Door.

He described the general sense of the community response, based on rumors and opinion, as very much a “not in my back yard” type of opposition. Some residents also made statements accusing the school of being “cult-like.”

Amadio added that there were supporters of the plan who saw value in it, and that he was grateful to the community members who voiced their approval of the school and its plans.

“We plan on building a small amphitheater, walking paths, equestrian trails, permaculture areas and finishing the buildings Camp Soaring Eagle left,” Amadio said. “We aren’t going to destroy the land; we aren’t bringing in commercial entities.”

The school’s future plans involve creating an area that the community can use not only for recreation but also for community gatherings and engagement. All of the planned uses would be compatible with the school’s mission statement: “Verde Valley School educates students for college and for life by encouraging them to become intellectually curious, academically accomplished and creatively expressive.”

These uses would also support the school’s guiding principles of academic excellence, value of world citizenship, value of physical labor, service to others and environmental stewardship.

“The school feels deeply for the community. We offer lots of community services, and many services use our land for free; this isn’t just for the school, this is also for the community, for the region,” Amadio said. “We are very careful what we do with the land; environmental stewardship is one of our guiding principles.”

The intense focus on community inside and outside of the school is a driving factor in the school’s plans for the redevelopment of the land.

According to the VVS handbook, students are not only required to participate in community service, but also take part in community dinners, where they engage with members of the community.

VVS was set to present its application for the CUP at the upcoming Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 22, but has postponed it until Feb. 16. During that time, VVS hopes to hold another community engagement meeting, a kind of neighbors’ open house, that will allow the community to walk the school grounds in order to gain perspective on the upcoming plan. Plans for this community engagement session are still being formulated, but Amadio believes that a Q&A session will be helpful in helping the community to understand the actual plan based on data rather than rumors and opinions posted on social media.

“Our hope going forward is that the community will say, ‘At least I had the information to make a decision on,’” Amadio said. “One more opportunity with the community; after that, what will happen will happen.”

VVS plans to bring the CUP forward at the February meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Any interested community members will have a further opportunity to voice their opposition or their support at that time.

The original draft Letter of Intent, from January 2022.

Letter from Verde Valley School announcing roundtable meeting

Email canceling Jan. 11 roundtable

A local nonprofit organization reportedly received this email that it released on Jan. 8:

“Verde Valley School is postponing the scheduled neighbors meeting on January 11th. We will provide you all with another date and time as soon as possible. It will be before the Public Hearing with the County on February 16th.

“We decided to postpone any in-person meetings due to a large number of international and domestic students arriving this coming week, and we are committed to keeping everyone healthy and safe.

“Best,
Paul Amadio
Head of Verde Valley School
928-284-2272″