Next week, students from Lake Forest High School in Illinois will be the first group to enjoy accommodations at the Valles Caldera Trust's new science and education center in Jemez Springs.

They'll stay in the center's 25 bedrooms, eat in the large dining hall and make use of the equipment in the 1,200-square-foot, state-of-the-art laboratory.

The 15,000-square-foot center realizes a long goal of Bob Parmenter, lead scientist with the Trust, which manages the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve. It is a place where students, researchers and other groups will be able to study in the vast outdoor classroom of the preserve and enjoy a few comforts at the same time, like wireless Internet connections, a bed and the nearby hot springs.

The center was once a retirement home for Catholic priests and is owned by the Servants of the Paraclete. The Trust signed a long-term lease with the organization for the property. "The building has been completely renovated," Parmenter said. "It has a new roof, new flooring, a new high-efficiency heating system and it is (American with Disabilities Act) compliant. We basically emptied out the building and started from scratch."

Groups who stay at the center, located in San Diego Canyon, will arrange menus with the center's chef and the food will be cooked at the industrial-size kitchen. The Trust will charge only the cost of the food and the chef's time. "So it will be a little more if groups have filet mignon and lobster than if they're having tuna salad and hamburgers," Parmenter joked.

The lab contains eight two-student stations. Each station is equipped with laptop computers, a digital dissecting microscope and a compound microscope. The lab has a fume hood for chemical analysis, balances and a centrifuge for spinning down water samples, plus drying ovens and soil sieves.

The lab also houses an extensive herbarium and insect collection gathered from across the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera. "We have a huge amount of intellectual and logistical resources to support classes," said Parmenter.

At the preserve, the students will find a wide array of geologic, biological and cultural resources to study.

Education programs offered at the center will build on work Parmenter and other scientists have conducted since shortly after the preserve was purchased by Congress in 2000. Ongoing research is conducted in geology, ecology, wildlife and fisheries management, range management, livestock husbandry, climate change and archaeology. Educational programs also will include art, photography, history, literature, poetry and music, according to the Trust.

When they aren't collecting samples at the preserve or studying them at the center, students and researchers can enjoy existing amenities such as tennis and basketball courts and fishing in the one quarter mile of the Jemez River running through the property.

The $640,000 required to renovate the center and operate it for this first year is coming from revenues generated by preserve activities such as hunting, fishing and skiing. "No tax dollars went into this," Parmenter said. "All the people who paid to participate in outdoor activities at the Valles Caldera, some of their dollars went to the establishment of this new science facility."

The rooms will rent for $35 a night. Up to 50 people at a time can stay at the center. Parmenter said the Trust estimates it will cost about $300,000 a year to operate the center. "If we are at 50 percent capacity in a year, we think the facility will recover all its costs," he said.

Groups began calling to reserve space at the center last fall, long before it was finished. Nine groups have already reserved space, including a Socorro middle school and two out-of-state universities. Parmenter said the center will greatly expand Valles Caldera access to students living more than 90 minutes away. "It should open it up to really be a national reserve," Parmenter said.

The science and education center is a 15 minute drive from Banco Bonito in the Valles Caldera and 25 minutes from the preserve's Valles Grande. It will be open all year.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.