Valley continuation schools recognized by state
IMPERIAL — Richie Rosas admits that a misplaced focus on extracurricular activities were largely to blame for his falling grades as a freshman at Imperial High School.
Today, the 17-year-old Imperial Avenue Holbrook High School junior is hard at work raising his grade point average, grateful for the second chance the continuation school has provided.
“When I first came here I thought it was going to be bad, but the more you get into it the more you realize how much help you have here,” Richie said. “This school really gives you an opportunity.”
On Wednesday, Richie was among a handful of Holbrook students building solar-powered model cars in advance of an upcoming competition against other Valley high school students.
The activity was part of a new hands-on program that the campus recently started offering its students.
“I love hands-on work,” Richie said. “I really love it.”
Aside from the students’ appreciation of such programs, Holbrook High’s revamped academic offerings have also earned it the recognition of the state Department of Education, which recently named it as one of the state’s Model Continuation High Schools of 2017.
Brawley’s Desert Valley High School, which had earned the distinction in 2014, was also among the list of 35 continuation high schools recognized this year.
Holbrook High Principal Victor Torres said that since taking the helm last year, his focus has been on replicating the successes of other model continuation high schools, and in particular those of Desert Valley High.
As a result, Holbrook students can now take advantage of online coursework, community partnerships, additional hands-on project-based learning, as well as an increased level of engagement with curriculum, faculty and staff, Torres said.
“We need to engage them so that they buy into the process,” Torres said, “so that they can feel like they can do the work.”
Joining Torres at the relatively small campus are three teachers, three classified employees and on average, about 60 ninth- to 12th-grade students enrolled in its morning program. Last year the campus had 21 graduates.
Since Torres’ arrival, Holbrook has also seen an explosive growth in the number of individuals enrolled in its adult education classes, which went from 18 to more than 200 this year as a result of increased marketing and recruitment made possible with the help of the newly created Imperial County Adult Education Consortium, he said.
As the former, and first, director of the local Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program, Torres decided to use those close ties to establish a MESA program at Holbrook, making the campus the only local continuation high school to have such a program.
Although a MESA program is not something typically found at a continuation high school, Torres said such project-based learning can go a long way toward enhancing students’ learning experiences.
“When you work with at-risk students, it’s more than the math and science, it’s about the engagement – to try to motivate them to focus on the other academics that they are taking,” Torres said. “It’s really changing the way the students think – that’s what I like about it.”
Torres also credits a close working relationship with DVHS Principal Tony Munguia in helping to bolster Holbrook’s curriculum and academic initiatives.
Munguia was the driving force behind the Brawley campus’ decision to apply for the Model Continuation School designation in 2014, which he said he and his colleagues felt they had a good shot at earning.
Today, the campus of about 180 students enjoys a graduation rate of about 90 percent, which Munguia credits its 2017 Model Continuation School recognition to as well.
“Over the last few years we’ve been getting better and better about what we do,” Munguia said.
Apart from its focus on curriculum, Munguia said that recent efforts to improve the campus’ physical appearance also have gone a long way toward promoting students’ academic success and sense of security.
“Two of the biggest things are how inviting the campus is and how inviting the teaching staff is here,” Munguia said. “We get to know them all because it’s a smaller campus.”
For his part, Torres also seems to have taken that principle to heart. One of the first things he did upon arriving at Holbrook was to get students to create a large mural of a tiger on a modular classroom that faces the adjacent street.
“We wanted it to be something that stood out for the community,” Torres said. “So people saw what was going on and that there was a heartbeat at the school again.”
On Wednesday, as several Holbrook students busied themselves with their solar-powered model cars, a handful of seniors were busy taking an online Imperial Valley College orientation exam as part of their matriculation.
Immediately following the online exam, the students were to meet with Diana Barrios, an IVC counselor with the college’s Student Success and Support Program, to discuss the results of the students’ assessment exam.
In comparison to traditional high school students, Barrios said that local continuation high school students often perform better on the assessment exam, earning priority registration.
“As a matter of fact our students that do attend continuation end up placing at college-level English and math,” Barrios said. “Our continuation students are ready, they are prepared.”