A Concord continuation high school is one of four in the Bay Area and 27 statewide to receive Model Continuation High School recognition for 2021, California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced Thursday.
Olympic Continuation High School on Salvio Street in Concord was among the four Bay Area schools to receive the honor. Delta Continuation High School in Richmond, Del Valle Continuation High School in Livermore, and San Andreas High School in Larkspur were the other three recognized in the region.
“Traditional school settings don’t work for a lot of students and we pride ourselves on providing an alternative approach to school, focusing on relationships, mental health and flexible options,” Olympic principal Lynsie Castellano said.
There are more than 400 continuation high schools serving about 50,000 students ages 16-18 statewide. The California Department of Education describes continuation education as a high school diploma program designed to meet the needs of students who “are not exempt from compulsory school attendance, and are deemed at risk of not completing their education.”
Students who attend continuation high schools must spend at least 15 hours per week at school and also receive guidance and career counseling, with some programs offering independent study, job placement services and concurrent enrollment in community college.
“Student attendance and engagement in distance learning during the school closures has been difficult – especially for students who struggled with attendance issues before the pandemic,” Thurmond said. “These model schools have been able to keep at-risk students on track using social and emotional learning, mentorship programs, restorative justice practices, and other innovative methods.”
Thurmond, who previously served on the Richmond City Council, West Contra Costa Unified School board and in the state Assembly, highlighted Delta Continuation High School for its programs, including a crisis intervention consultant and school psychologist.
According to the state Department of Education, the schools are selected for recognition based on data and assessments including a peer review panel and on-site visit, although this year’s visits were done virtually due to the pandemic.
16 comments
Pre-prison
I believe they call your comment a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.
My daughter graduated from a continuation high school. She was bored stiff and doing poorly in traditional high school. She now has a BA in cellular and molecular biology. One shouldn’t judge without all the facts
Dubious accolades!!
Are the graduated student tracked to see where they end up or are their records are sealed??
One of my children graduated from Olympic and went on to college and a career. Olympic has incredibly dedicated teachers and staff. Every teacher at Olympic has requested to be there.
Fun fact: As of 2008, when my child graduated, there had been two National Teachers of the Year from MDUSD. One was Skip Weinstock from Olympic. The other was Liane Cizmowski (sp?) who was at Concord High but then requested to be at Olympic. She told me that ALL the teachers requested to be there.
Olympic is a fabulous resource for MDUSD and Acalanes HSD (since Del Oro closed) but go ahead and be hateful if you like. It only makes you look small, not Olympic.
Liane Cizmowski was at Olympic when she became Teacher of the year. Then she got promoted to Vice Principal at Mt Diablo High.
That’s odd, that’s not what she told me.
What a bunch of political bull crap. If you can open one you can open them all.Abolish the teachers union fire all the teachers and start over.It’s all about the money.And let’s hope we get rid of useless Nusom he is behind all of this.
I will forever be grateful for my continuation high school. I was not interested in a traditional education and I was failing most classes.At a continuation HS I was able to get connected to a counselor that saw that I was not benefiting from the usual education. He redirected me towards industrial arts and trade school education. I excelled in these endeavors . I now own my own business in the trades, making 6 figures a year. Had I been forced to continue in a traditional HS I probably would have dropped out and had no hope for a future.
Labeling people loosers because they dont march to the beat of a traditional drum is the appitamy of ignorance. Therefore I am not surprised by the previous comments and will not be surprised by anymore ignorant comments that follow.
I agree with you completely. Not everyone fits into traditional school mode of learning. One size does not fit all!
Very similar to my HS days Lovelace…there were quite a bit of troublemakers there but I stayed clear of that crowd. I used the tailored teaching experience to my advantage and have had a good life.
Thank you for sharing. I’m proud of all the kids who are able to succeed outside of the traditional system. There are so many ways to succeed in life. Not everyone fits into the same mold…This sounds like a great program.
My brother was one of the first graduates from Olympic in 1967. He was constantly getting suspended from YVHS due to his inability to follow the many rules in a comprehensive high school. He was tracked in the B track, not college prep, and was bored. When Olympic was opened, he found a place that treated him like an individual. After graduating from Olympic, he volunteered for the Army and later went to SF State graduating with a double major in Economics and Political Science. The school was not always respected from the outside, but the faculty worked hard to find the best in every student who came through.
I graduated from Olympic High School in 1974, came from Ygnacoi Valley HS
I went on to earn a BS and a MS while I was working full time .
Olympic was a great experience for me.
If you can graduate from a four year university, you can graduate from a regular high school. If you don’t cut class and actually try.
That actually compares High School environment to college, which is completely different. Your statement is not sensible, as the many people who commmented the opposite have said that comprehensive high school was not suitable, yet college allowed success. It may be that they matured, or maybe were motivated by a goal that was important to them. sometimes structure in college is more self directed than high school. I once asked a math teacher why a failing student would want to succeed in algebra I, and they answered so that they were ready for algebra II. If the failing student saw now reason to excel in I, why would they care about II? conversly, some students do very well in high school, but cannot succeed in the less structure college environment. Your statement assumes that all square pegs must conform to standard round holes.
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