About
A Letter From Our Principal
“I am committed to the best educational experience possible and I look forward to working with our families and community members. School and home can work together to build skills and knowledge to reinforce values, and to develop a strong sense of self-confidence. We must invest our time and energies in our nation’s most valuable resource – our children.”
– Dr. Vargas
Mission
Our mission is to provide an excellent neighborhood based and college preparatory education for the middle and high school students who reside in City Heights.
Our Vision
Our vision is to see our graduates succeed in the college or university of their choice and become community leaders who work for positive change in our world
We represent over 17 countries and 28 languages
Keeping with our mission of being a walkable neighborhood-based school, we serve a high proportion of students who have arrived to City Heights from various countries around the world. Our students come from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, The Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Uganda, The United States, and Vietnam.
Here, we prepare students for collegiate success
We offer a variety of Academic Courses & After School Clubs
and recognize that every student has a unique set of talents, dreams, and interests. Because of that, in addition to our rigorous academic courses, we provide a wide range of after school clubs for students to choose from.
English
ELA, Reading, Language Intervention
Science
Environmental Science, AP Psychology, Bio-Med
AVID
Study & Life Skills
Foreign Language
French, Spanish, and German
Sports
Soccer, Volleyball, Cross-Country, Basketball, Cheer
Math
Algebra I & II, Algebra Intervention, Geometry
History
US History, World History, Social Studies, Government & Economics, Humanities
Art
Ethnic Studies Art, Film Studies, Digital Art, Middle School Art
Electives & Afterschool Clubs
ASB, Arts & Crafts, Anime, Cyber Security, Computer Science, Magic & Card Games, Project Lead the Way
Individual Online Learning
Each of our students has access to their own computer
This allows us to provide them with the best possible resources for their academic development. In addition, computer access is provided in Tutoring after school so that our students always have a quiet place to finish up homework and to receive extra help from teachers.
Avid & Restorative Practices
Each student attends an AVID Class, aimed at equipping them with skills that will ensure their collegiate success
We know that rigorous academics can only go so far if they aren’t accompanied by the right life skills and emotional development. That’s why we incorporate AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination), which provides students with organizational skills such as tracking academic progress, managing calendars, and keeping materials organized. In addition, we use restorative practices to grow skills such a conflict management, handling stress, and community building. This moves our school from being punitive, to restorative, allowing everyone to be heard and feel safe.
Small Class Sizes
A typical classroom has a 16:1 student to instructional staff ratio
In this way, students have access to help whenver they need it. In addition, our schedule creates a situation in which teachers and students spend more time together consistently and teachers are spread less thin in terms of the number of different students they work with each day. This model optimizes the relational aspect of the student teacher interaction.
Project Lead the Way
Students have the opportunity to explore computer science concepts and skills through Project Lead the Way
This is done by allowing students to create personally relevant, tangible, and shareable projects. Throughout the experience, they learn about programming for the physical world by blending hardware design and software development. Some learners are visual, some are auditory, and some are hands on – each student learns information in a unique way, and this approach gives them the ability to merge these learning styles and bring their physical designs to life, cultivating learning on a whole new level.
