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A Message from the Board

To Our Alt. Ed. Community,

Welcome back to the start of the 2024-2025 school year! We hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating summer, and are ready to embark on another year filled with positive and impactful opportunities. At CCEA Plus, we’re excited to continue supporting you and your schools as we work together to make a difference in the lives of our students.

This year brings with it a tremendous opportunity for our Community Day Schools (CDS). We encourage all eligible schools to apply to be recognized as Model Schools. This is a unique chance to showcase the incredible work happening in your school and to share best practices with educators across the state. Becoming a Model School is not only a prestigious honor but also an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing improvement of alternative education in California. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity and submit your letter of intent (due Aug. 30th) and application (due Sept. 12th). For more information and to access the aforementioned docs visit our Model School App and Resources page.

In addition, we are thrilled to announce the Model School Readings will take place on October 4th in Fresno and Oct. 18th in Anaheim. Evaluating applications and identifying potential model schools is a cornerstone of our commitment to recognizing excellence in alternative education, and we invite both new and seasoned readers to sign up. Whether you’ve participated before or are considering joining for the first time, your involvement is vital to ensuring that we continue to uphold the high standards of our Model Schools program. To sign up click the link: Model School Reader Sign Up

Thank you for your continued dedication to your students and communities. We look forward to another year of collaboration, growth, and success. Let’s make the 2024-2025 school year one of our best yet!

Sincerely,
CCEA Plus Board | Meet the Officers

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Save the Date

Upcoming Dates for the Model School Applications, as part of the MCHS (continuation) program and the MCDS (community day) program:

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This Month’s Spotlight is On…

Orange Grove High School

Owls Fly Through Innovative Partnerships

At Orange Grove High School, Corona-Norco Unified School District’s only continuation school, teachers are seeding innovative early–career experiences for students through unique collaborative partnerships. These programs are in addition to growing CTE programs in Construction and Business, and are largely driven by student and teacher interest.

One such initiative is the Behavior Analysis & Life Skills partnership between Andrew Edwards’s Psychology and Wendy Quintana’s Adult Transition classes in which high school students learn and apply various psychology principles, such as the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) model to help adults with special needs develop and practice life skills such as social conversations and money sense.

Through this program, many Orange Grove students have honed their interest in human behavior, and are exploring careers in the fields of education and therapy. Tania Fabian, a graduating senior and recent UNITY community award recipient says the program has helped her identify positive psychology as her future major. Her plan is to eventually open a wellness center in the community that emphasizes healing and consciousness for youth who have experienced trauma.

Similarly, Orange Grove science teacher Kelle Ray has teamed up with special education teacher Rob Solis to expand Orange Grove’s existing gardening beds to include an aquaponics system that funnels nutrients produced by fish into planters full of salad greens, radishes, and tomatoes. Students worked with Mr. Solis and Ms. Ray to design and construct the PVC piping for the system. They are also responsible for feeding the koi fish every morning and making sure everything is functioning properly.

Orange Grove teachers have also developed inroads with local business partners to foster a stronger workforce readiness outcomes. Adult Transition program teachers Wendy Quintana and James “JJ” Hayward have both partnered with Los Compas Coffee, a local youth entrepreneurship and employment social enterprise, to provide lessons on the business of coffee for its students. The business also sponsors the monthly OG Coffee Bar for staff on campus and The Rolling Beans, a student-led mobile coffee business that pops up at district offices every Monday morning. Through this program, students have developed vital customer service and retail skills that have helped them develop confidence as they pursue local jobs and contemplate starting small businesses.

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Watch: The Rolling Beans Grand Opening

Next Steps

As unique programs grow at Orange Grove, the leadership team aspires to introduce more data-driven practices to monitor and measure their success, such as qualitative surveys that capture student reflections and voice, as well as instruments that measure the effect of programs on attendance and other vital metrics. This will allow the campus to continue to grow in efficacy, and invest in work that both inspires students and has a deep impact on the school community.

Tip of the Month

A key driver of innovation at Orange Grove has been the Teacher Tools weekly PLC spearheaded by CNUSD district teacher of the year, Mr. Andrew Edwards. This highly structured collaboration time has helped acculturate and equip teachers new to Orange Grove with a pedagogy mindset and practical strategies that work in the continuation setting. Moreover, it has served as a vibrant forum for veteran and newer teachers to build relationships, bounce ideas off of one another, and form interdisciplinary partnerships that elevate students and increase staff morale.

Principal’s Message

Our vision as a school is to create a dynamic community where students feel supported and empowered in their journey. In order for this to happen our approach is to foster the same environment for all adults on this campus, one in which they are empowered to tap into their own creativity and passion in support of the students. This approach has resulted in the organic development of highly innovative initiatives that are resulting in exponential benefits to the kids we serve. This is especially important in a setting where raising the morale of our students is pivotal, and finding new ways to help them experience success in some instances is life saving. The result is a highly engaged group of adults working creatively and dreaming big.

– Carlos Guillen, Principal

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Spotlighting Exemplary Programs

2024 Exemplary Award Winner: Cambridge High School – Men’s & Women’s Alliance

The Cambridge High School Men and Women’s Alliance program, inspired by our school district’s Alliance program, is dedicated to cultivating Alliance teachers with a growth mindset. These teacher leaders exhibit exemplary personal behavior and academic leadership, fostering success in their students’ academic and personal lives during their transition to adulthood. The daily Alliance class is a key component, focusing on goal setting, character development, and interpersonal skills. Here, students practice through language and interactions with peers and adults, complemented by motivational guest speakers, including former Alliance students, business owners, and community leaders.

During the fall, students attend a job fair, securing internship offers from notable establishments like Zoomies, CVS, or Walgreens. Many students receive permanent job offers post-internship. Additionally, a field trip to Fresno State Campus strengthens bonds through campus visits, bowling, and group activities.

Students express gratitude for the class, valuing the social skills, job experiences, and opportunities it provides. They describe classmates as more than friends, akin to brothers and sisters. Practical skills, such as tying a tie, are appreciated, along with the maintained confidentiality during circle time.

Mr. Vega, a six-year Men’s Alliance teacher, stresses the class’s importance in meeting immediate needs and educating the whole child. Mrs. Waller, a seven-year Women’s Alliance teacher, notes the development of a “Can Do” attitude and clear understanding of strengths by the end of the Alliance class.

Our program, initiated ten years ago by our newly appointed principal, was the first Alliance program in alternative education in our school district. Since then, it has positively impacted 60 to 70 students annually. Remarkably, about 90% of at-promise students from the Alliance program graduate from high school, and all are employable. Since its 2014 launch, over 200 Alliance students have secured paid internships, and 600 have explored Fresno State as a potential college pathway. Furthermore, our students actively engage in community service, providing homeless packages to Fresno Rescue Mission and collaborating with Marjorie Mason Center on awareness campaigns.

Lifelong mentorship by teachers is integral to students’ success. They seek advice even after graduation, creating a supportive network that goes beyond their time in the program. In a recent tragedy, former Alliance classmates supported each other and family members at a funeral, highlighting the profound relationships cultivated through the Alliance program. As one teacher aptly stated, the Alliance program is all about the “relationship.”

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Recent News & Resources

Grow Kinder Podcast
The Economic Value of Social & Emotional Learning
CA lags behind other states in bilingual education for ELs
Implementing PBIS in High Schools
Integrating Academic, Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health Supports for Student Need
Scaling California’s School-Based Mental and Behavioral Health Infrastructures
The Science of Reading: The Importance of Comprehension

Upcoming Opportunities

Apply to be a Model School | Apply Now
Sign Up to be a Model School Reader | Sign-up
Volunteer at the 2025 Conference | Google sign-up form
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Contribute to The Spotlight newsletter | Sign-up
Sign Up | Want to be a Volunteer? — Let Us Know

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