Gilroy
– Mount Madonna High School was named one of 11 model
continuation schools in the state by the Department of Education’s
Continuation Education program this month. There are 521
continuation high schools in California and after a rigorous
application process – Mt. Madonna came out on top.
Gilroy – Mount Madonna High School was named one of 11 model continuation schools in the state by the Department of Education’s Continuation Education program this month. There are 521 continuation high schools in California and after a rigorous application process – Mt. Madonna came out on top.
School officials contacted the DOE in September and in January two investigators came to evaluate the school.
“There’s a lot you have to do to just get a site visit,” Principal John Perales said. Factors considered for recognition are attendance rates, test scores and overall culture of the school, he said.
Mt. Madonna is where lost children go to survive. Perales serves as a Peter Pan figure, refusing to wear a tie because of the barrier it creates between him and the students. They find a home in their small community and survive alongside each other.
“We’re a family. Whether you’re green, gray, lesbian, confused – we love you,” he said.
There has not been a fight on school grounds in more than two and half years, which counters the stigma often attached to continuation schools: That they are a place where bad kids go to learn.
Mt. Madonna students often come from highly mobile, unstable families, single parent and no parent homes, with backgrounds including physical and substance abuse – kids who failed everywhere else, Perales said. Only 12 are there because of behavioral problems.
Currently, 180 students attend Mt. Madonna, of which 66 percent are male and 75 percent are Hispanic. According to Perales, in past years the population has swelled to 250 because of high rate of mobility in the student body.
Perales considers the staff at Mt. Madonna to be the key difference between their school and all the others.
“I really attribute the success to the staff and their ability to build a relationship with the students, who for the most part have never had a relationship with anyone,” Perales said.
Students graduate throughout the year upon completion of their credits and right before they leave, Perales sits down with them and asks: “What changed your life?”
They always say a teacher.
“This is the utopia of the teaching profession,” said Marina Campos, a journalism teacher at Mt. Madonna. “The teachers are here by choice.”
She taught for 22 years at Gilroy High School before coming to Mt. Madonna two years ago.
“In the past, these students have been thought of as disposable children – and they’re not,” Campos said. “Here you find the gifts of the kids. They are highly intelligent. There’s a seed of knowledge that hasn’t been tapped in yet. It’s about finding the student inside.”
Finding out who each student is comes with the territory of working at Mt. Madonna.
Perales know every student’s name. He knows their histories. “It freaks them out at first,” he said. “When kids know that an adult cares about them, it makes a world of difference.”
In the past, Mt. Madonna was notorious for its high gang population and teenage pregnancy rate. Both have dropped significantly over the years. Now it has the second highest Academic Performance Index of the 11 schools honored. The curriculum is aligned with state standards and is almost identical to GHS’s.
“The main difference is these classes are not college prep,” Perales said.
Students attend class from 8am to 1:20pm, almost two and half hours more than state requirements for continuation schools. They also keep portfolios of their work throughout the year to track their progress.
The school has made strides in improving attendance. During the fall, almost 100 percent of Mt. Madonna’s students were represented in the California Achievement Test. Of the 145 students eligible for testing, 144 took the exam.
The staff created an incentive program for students to participate in the testing. They threw a barbecue, brought music to the campus, made an obstacle course – even offered the hair off its principal’s head to get the students to test.
“And the students got here,” he said. Perales shaved his head for the occasion.
That feat exemplifies the staff’s commitment to the student’s success. They key, he said, is “getting the kids to buy back into system.”
And the students notice.
“I was told by my former teachers (at previous schools) that I was going to work at McDonalds for the rest of my life,” said senior Rigo Berto Munoz, who is the school president. “I hardly ever went to school before – now I come everyday.”
For many students at Mt. Madonna – the small environment better serves their needs.
“This school’s a lot more friendly than GHS,” said Sam Burks, 17. “At first, I was worried about coming here. But I’ve been here since October and I have not been harassed one time.”
Attending Mt. Madonna has allowed him to consider his future and think about college.
“It really made me just calm down,” Burks said. “Because there’s always going to be an alternative solution, there’s always going to be an alternative way to get by.”
Mt. Madonna’s recognition as a model school can only help foster this sentiment.
“It’s cool that we have this award,” Perales said. “The kids that come here feel like they’re second class citizens because they failed somewhere else, but now that we’ve been recognized they feel they have chance.”
