To Our Alt. Ed. Community,

We hope this message finds you well. The Board would like to take a moment to extend our deepest appreciation to all of you who volunteered as readers for the Model School Program this year. Thanks to your dedication and hard work, we successfully completed two impactful events—one in Fresno on October 4th and another in Anaheim on October 18th. Your time, effort, and insights were truly invaluable, and we could not have achieved the level of success we did without you.

A special thank you to Vic Whitaker, Executive Director of CCEA Plus, for his incredible coordination of both events. His organizational skills and commitment ensured everything ran smoothly and that everyone who attended had a meaningful and enjoyable experience. We’re so fortunate to have such a dedicated individual helping bring our vision to life.

The Board would also like to extend a sincere thank you to our wonderful partners from the California Department of Education. Dan Sackheim and Darice Barefield, your expertise, professionalism, and ongoing support are cornerstones of the success of the Model School Program. Your contributions ensure that this program continues to thrive and make a real difference for students and educators alike.

Once again, thank you to everyone involved. Your collective efforts make a world of difference, and we look forward to continuing this great work together.

Sincerely,

CCEA Plus Board

Students at Frontier HS have the opportunity to be involved in a class entitled, “Leadership”. This class is offered every quarter of the school year. Not only do students receive academic (elective) credit for taking the class, but they experience leadership and character building lessons, plan activities for the students at Frontier and represent Frontier at various district and community events. Some of the activities our leadership students coordinate include lunchtime music, classroom presentations about upcoming school events, 3 Red Cross Blood Drives per year, content creation for our school’s social media (Instagram) page, and the planning of monthly events with our school social worker to promote student wellness. A student from the Leadership class serves on the Superintendent’s council, while another one participates in our local student chamber of commerce committee. Frontier students may take this class for multiple quarters and students are recommended for the class. The Leadership class provides an incentive for students who are on target with credits and they must remain in good standing, both academically and behaviorally to participate. We emphasize the importance of positive behavior and expect our Leadership students to set the example.

Frontier High School recently completed a WASC accreditation, and one of our areas of growth was to formalize the post secondary plans of our graduating students. Our goal is to balance the school wide focus on accelerated credit recovery and diploma completion with helping them obtain greater workforce readiness and better preparation for their post secondary pathways. We would like to formalize the after high school plans of our students by increasing their access to: Vocational programs within our district adult school, enrollment into our local community colleges and increased partnership with AJCC (America’s Job Center of California) satellite office located on our campus. We plan to develop a tool to help students navigate their high school diploma requirements while concurrently engaging them with career and college pathways, assessments and vital life and workforce readiness skills. We realize there are many tools out there to help guide our work, but will focus on district initiatives such as CCGI (California College Guidance Initiative) as well as those offered by our award winning Whittier Union Adult School programs to pave the way for this very important work.

Golden Ticket - Attendance incentive

Every Friday, students who arrive at school before the first tardy bell rings, receive a “golden ticket”. Students redeem the Golden Ticket at nutrition, right outside of our school office. Tickets can be redeemed for special snacks, drinks, items not available for purchase through the cafeteria/snack shack. Our office staff, counselors and security team all take turns greeting students as they redeem their tickets and affirm students for getting to school on time.

The Whittier Union High School District’s motto is “demographics do not determine destiny” and nowhere is this more true than at Frontier High School. We have a long history of working with educational experts and their teachings are valuable at our traditional high schools. They often require restructuring at Frontier. Rick DuFour writes about the importance of rigor, relevance, and relationships. At Frontier, teachers first need to build relationships with students, then sell students on the relevance of the curriculum before increasing the academic rigor. Our students can succeed in rigorous classes, they just need different support structures to be successful. Finally, as I say at graduation every year, education is a reciprocal process: our students learn from us while we, in turn, learn from them. Our lives are enriched through this joint experience leaving us better for having known them.

Location: Whittier

District: Whittier Union High School District

District Population: 10,000

Feeder Schools: 5

School Population: 245

Certificated Staff: 16

Total Staff: 28

Model School Since: 2014

Through the collection of data on matriculation of students from Lloyde to El Camino College, enlistment in the military, and direct entry to the workforce, it was clear students were in need of specified action plans to guide them in meeting their goals for “Life after Lloyde.” The "Success at Lloyde" class was first offered in 2018 as "New Student Seminar." "Lloyde Blueprints" has been offered for over 10 years and "Success after Lloyde" was a new addition to the pathway of courses in the past year. Using classes already in existence and feedback from students and parents, a new course pathway was creating including the following courses:

Success at Lloyde: This entry level course taken by students in their first quarter on campus is focused on goal-setting, inter- and intra-personal skills, growth mindset, SEL and basic skills to be successful at Lloyde High School.

Lloyde Blueprints: This course is taken as a bridge between the other two courses and has two main takeaways, a completed resume and interview skills. Students also begin identifying career pathways, are introduced to basic financial literacy, and continue lessons on SEL topics.

Success after Lloyde: This capstone course is taken in the spring by graduating seniors. Students create an action plan for “Life after Lloyde,” while also taking a deep dive into financial literacy and continuing SEL topics relevant to adult life.

"Life after Lloyde" is focused on preparing our students for the day after graduation. As much as our focus on earning a diploma drives our daily work in the classroom, the energy towards their life plan provides purpose for their work on graduation requirements.