Sonia Flores always knew she belonged in the classroom, but when she taught her first English class in Gilroy, she knew she had found her place.
After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2007, Flores joined Teach for America—a program that aggressively recruits college graduates for placements in schools with underserved populations—and taught English at a high school in South Los Angeles. From there, she was placed at Gilroy High School and fell in love with the area and its students, she said.
This summer, Gilroy Unified School District officials appointed Flores the principal of the Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, known as GECA, where she took over for retiring principal Mary Ann Boylan.
But it’s no average retirement. Boylan, who served as principal since 2008, will mentor Flores for a year through a GUSD program.
“Sonia has been in leadership positions—though she might have been a ‘teacher’—as long as I’ve known her,” Boylan said. “For any administrator, this is a dream come true. It really is.”
Flores joined GECA in 2009, working as an Advanced Placement English teacher for the school’s first-ever junior class. From that point, Flores said she knew she was in the right place.
“I feel like I’ve been part of this school’s beginning since I was the first English teacher to teach the first English 11 class here,” Flores said. “Here at GECA, the students have selected a path for themselves that they want to specifically go on. They have determined who they want to be, and that requires a four-year education, and they want to get there sooner.”
At GECA, the GUSD school partners with Gavilan College to give high school students the opportunity to spend four years on Gavilan’s campus and take up to 11 college units a semester for both college and high school credit. After four years, GECA students can graduate with much more than a high school diploma. Grads can leave with two years’ worth of college credit after accumulating 60 transferable college units or earning an Associate’s degree—in addition to their high school diploma.
“We help students figure out what colleges they want to go to, what careers they want and we help them develop four-year plans,” Flores said. “That’s how the students really get to know what our school is about.”
Flores taught a college readiness course at GECA and she said she would always ask her students what they wanted to be in 10 years.
“Maybe one or two kids would raise their hands and I would say ‘good, I’m with the rest of you,’” she said with a laugh. “That’s just to get them thinking. You don’t necessarily know right away when you’re in high school what you want to be. I thought I wanted to be a doctor and then I fell in love with teaching. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer and I fell in love with teaching. You never really know for sure, but you can always plan.”
The school’s target population is first-generation, low-income students who are the first in their families to go to college. These students, often at risk of not completing their education, might otherwise fall through the cracks, she explained.
“The program does work and the students are very motivated and the small school aspect of GECA helps create a family environment,” Flores added. “I think the choice that they get helps with that motivation because they are allowed to choose some of those classes that align with what the UC and CSU are looking for. Some of that choice, I feel, invests students in their own education because of their idea about what they’re interested in.”
The U.S. News and World Report recently ranked GECA 161 out of 34,000 high schools across the nation, and both Boylan and Flores are confident the school will improve and its students will go on to do great things.
“I’ve known from the get-go that this program was going to go higher and higher and get better and better. There was no doubt in my mind,” Boylan said. “That’s just a testament to the district’s support, Gavilan’s support and the support of students and staff. It’s just the perfect storm coming together. The fact we’re that high is amazing and I predict it’s going to go even higher.”
Five years ago, Boylan and other GECA officials began crafting the school’s design—essentially a mini-campus on Gavilan’s sprawling 150-acre Gilroy campus. This year, students have a communal quad and GECA will soon have its own multipurpose room, likely in January 2015.
“It’s like a little community now. My goal was to structure it so it had a common area to feel more communal, as opposed to spread-out classrooms,” Boylan said.
With the campus organized, Flores said officials are working on developing common core standards and she’s collaborating with teachers to update their curriculums.
“When I see our students, I want to make sure they have the best education and that they can attain their goals even if they started out with slim beginnings,” she said. “I’m just happy to have the opportunity to serve these students, their families and our staff. It’s an honor and I’m very excited about the opportunities ahead. I know I have a lot to learn but I’m glad Mary Ann is here to help me.”
