Dear Parents and Guardians,

     As a staff, we have worked hard to make sure that we keep the needs of our students to the fore as we have developed plans for the future.  In our WASC plan, we identified the need for every student to have an individual personal growth plan (PGP).  We have tried to develop the effectiveness of our advisory program to ensure that all students have a caring adult working with them to plan for both academic and post-graduation support. We have a number of programs that provide college visits and college preparation support. We have tried a number of different models for helping students gain experience and information with respect to the world of work with our internship program, job shadowing activities and work experience program.  It is our expectation that all students attending San Andreas will participate in post-graduation prep activities!

     In terms of student welfare, we meet as a staff every two weeks to discuss student needs. We hold student study team meetings for individual students struggling to flourish and we hold SARB hearing (Student Attendance Review Board) meetings to address the most serious issues of attendance and behavior.

     During the course of the last year, across the Tam District, all school sites participated in developing a broad mission statement which would guide the work we do.  At San Andreas all stakeholders, students, parents and staff, worked on a similar goal, but with a view to what we wanted to offer for those students wanting to attend San Andreas.  We recognized early that SA needs to be the school that offers a different approach from the three larger comprehensive high schools within the Tam District.

     As a staff, it is clear to us that many of our students have unique needs and that we need to address these needs -- whether academic, social or emotional -- and to build a program that engages all students in all parts of what we can offer at SA.  In order to provide time for counseling, to develop our school to career internship program, to provide academic support classes that ensure our students have the requisite skills for college or the workplace and to address issues of attendance and the skills necessary to function in a community, we have remodeled our schedule.

     The changes to our schedule address a number of needs.  The later starting time addresses the fact that public transportation would not allow many of our students to be at school at 8:00 AM.  Being here and arriving on time, from our point of view, is a life skill!  Creating a class schedule that allows for students to participate in our internship program without interrupting the core academic program and that provides time for students to get additional academic support in a small group setting, is crucial in meeting our students' needs.  Finally, we wanted to find time to develop courses that would address the social-emotional needs of our students, including an Independent Living class.  We have a lot of support at San Andreas, with respect to substance abuse counseling, and emotional/psychological counseling.  Further, we have students working with probation and juvenile services.  Our new schedule seeks to find time during the support period at the end of the day for our students to access these services.

     As reflected in our mission statement, we want students attending San Andreas confident and prepared to meet whatever path they choose after graduation.  The majority of students attending San Andreas do so by choice.  We want students who select San Andreas to be committed to our program and to know not only what we, as a staff, expect, but more importantly, what they will do to be prepared for life after graduation.  We want to ensure that all stakeholders: parents, students and community members, are aware of what role San Andreas plays in the larger Tam District community.

     The Board of Trustees, the superintendent, and every staff person at San Andreas is committed to changing the misconception that San Andreas is somehow a school of last resort, rather than a positive alternative for those students seeking to follow a different path to high school graduation.