Turlock Unified pioneers university class at continuation high

Eight students will graduate from Roselawn High in Turlock with three college credits already on their transcripts, thanks to what organizers believe is a first for the state: a university course taught at a continuation high school.

The pilot project is one of several forward-thinking steps the modest campus southeast of town is taking with an eye toward turning around lives.

For this first semester, students focused on writing, weaving research about educational systems into a narrative of their own lives, said instructor Jennifer Wittman of California State University, Stanislaus.

“These students always feel (how they got here) is all on me. This is all my fault. But if you look at it systemically, we know that’s not the case,” Wittman said. However kids end up in alternative schools, she said, “Your life is not over because you messed up when you were 13.”

All but three of her students will walk the stage in deep-red gowns next week, joining the 92 percent of Roselawn students graduating this year, a remarkable number for a continuation campus.

Other unusual numbers at 200-student Roselawn High: an average daily attendance rate of 92 percent; serious discipline numbers that have dropped by about two-thirds over the last two years. About 25 percent of the juniors and seniors sent to the school return to their home campus after one semester.

“Every single kid here did not make it in regular high school,” noted Principal Felipe Meraz. “We need to actually provide opportunities for the spectrum,” he said, explaining every student comes with a different story and a variety of educational gaps.

For sisters Cynthia Varela, 18, and Miranda Varela, 16, the challenge was to make up a sophomore year spent traveling with family. Both had straight-A grades before they left but were sent to Roselawn to make up the lost year in the school’s double-time courses. Even though she covered a yearlong course in each semester, the work was a lot easier, Miranda Varela said.

The school uses family meetings, home visits, phone calls after every absence and incentives to keep kids on track and in school. It instituted an advisory period and brought in extra counseling to help teens focus on their future.

“When I first came here, we heard it was a bad school. Kids were sent here for bad behavior. But it was nothing like its reputation,” said senior Ignacio Gonzalez, who hopes to go to a private college next year.

Standard college prep courses are not practical for Roselawn’s nine-classroom campus, with its half-day option schedules and condensed courses, Meraz said. But he hopes to add Advanced Placement courses in a year or two.

He also is working with UC Merced to bring informational sessions for parents – a program he has seen work at other schools – to get them thinking about college for their kids.

“This was my first experience with an alternative school,” said Meraz, in his fourth year at Roselawn. An immigrant from Mexico at age 11, he said he “went to college by accident,” because a teacher and a football coach believed in him.

“I never imagined I would get a B.A. I certainly never imagined I’d be sitting here. A lot of it is about exposure, creating those opportunities,” Meraz said.

The partnership with CSU Stanislaus was all about opportunities.

“When I first came here, I wasn’t sure who my students were going to be,” said Wittman, who at one point recruited teens from the lunch room to help fill seats this first semester.

“All my students in the class are first generation (to go to college),” Wittman said, adding much of the course was spent helping the 11 teens in the class figure out the mechanics of getting into programs beyond high school.

Things like SAT test fee waivers and help with filling out college financial aid forms – standard at full-service high schools – are not customary at continuation campuses that serve struggling students.

“Everyone was so stressed about Cal Grants. I turned it in a day before it was due,” said junior Patricia Pires, who is graduating next week at age 16. Quite a turnaround for a girl who ended up at Roselawn because as a freshman she “made bad friends,” ditched school and got in fights – “doing stupid stuff,” as she put it.

Pires plans to go to junior college, as does the majority of the class. Without the requisite pre-college courses, that is the students’ best option.

Senior Lamont Spellman, however, beat the odds and will move into the Stanislaus State dorms this summer and start classes under a special admissions program.

“I was actually planning on going to junior college, until (Wittman) steered me on to the path of a four-year college,” said Spellman, who a year ago was a homeless youth in Stockton. An avid reader, he spent his time hanging out in libraries reading books. Spellman is chronicling his chaotic childhood and hopes to publish it as a book.

“It was a way to cope,” he said. Though uncertain of his major, Spellman said he plans to become a teacher.

Turlock Unified allocated funding to start the college-on-campus program from new funding meant to serve high-needs students, Wittman said. After a semester working out the kinks, her takeaway is that it should not take a visiting professor to help teens understand they have options and know the dates and deadlines to apply to a four-year university.

“For students from Roselawn, the No. 1 goal is junior college. But I don’t think we can stop there,” Wittman said. “We started talking about community college is a bridge. Always my big goal in talking to them is, ‘We don’t stop.’ ”

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Turlock Unified pioneers university class at continuation high."