Why this matters
Surfside High is a continuation school that serves students who may be at risk of not graduating, with nearly all of its 160 students considered socioeconomically disadvantaged this year.
For Miguel Macias, graduating was hard to picture as a junior at El Camino High School in Oceanside.
He was failing several classes, struggling to get along with teachers and felt lost and depressed when it came to his education, he said. That all changed after his counselor suggested Macias transfer to Surfside High, a continuation school in his district.
“Ever since I got transferred here I was able to start seeing more success and start seeing more of what I want to do with my future,” he said.
Surfside is among 74 public campuses in California recognized this year as a “model” continuation high school — a site that offers comprehensive services to at-risk youth, including flexible scheduling, guidance, counseling services and instruction that enhances student learning and engagement. These schools aim to give students more than a diploma, addressing their diverse needs and providing opportunities to explore career options through a student-centered approach.
Ivy High School in Fallbrook also was recognized by the state.
Nearly all students at Surfside are socioeconomically disadvantaged. They come to the school trying to make up credits or seeking a different learning environment — sometimes both.
Much like a college schedule, students can choose times throughout the day to take three to five classes in a quarter. Learning modules in several industries, including nursing, construction, criminology, electrical and more allow students to gain hands-on experience and exposure to several careers.
A dual enrollment partnership with MiraCosta College also allows students to obtain hospitality certificates. Surfside plans to add more career pathways it offers once construction of its new campus is completed.
The school also provides tutoring, counseling, mentorship, family services and free on-site child care.
“(Students) get to explore and they really get to see what they like… even if they don’t, they can at least still say that they try,” Macias said.
But students’ academic breakthroughs are not solely because of Surfside’s unique offerings. It’s the result of a tight knit community that fosters relationship-building with teachers, several students told inewsource.
Students and staff say the small campus creates an opportunity for these relationships to happen, and it means most teachers get to know everyone with an enrollment of 160 this year and average class sizes ranging from 10-15 seats.
“You get to really learn the teachers and how their personalities are and really interact with them a lot more,” Macias said. “It feels like a nice, tight, compact family.”
For some students, how a teacher interacts with them can be among the factors that impact their ability to learn, ultimately determining whether they pass or fail a class.
Madison Robertson said she struggled to focus in school and fell behind before coming to Surfside. Feeling like a burden to teachers who seemed annoyed if you didn’t learn the lesson right away only made things worse, she said.
Robertson said she knows it can be “tiring” for teachers to check in individually with students when they work with large class sizes.
But for her, those check-ins made a difference.
“At the end of the day, yeah, it’s about the education, it’s about making sure that they get their grades in and assignments turned in,” said Robertson, now a senior. “But you also have to make sure that the student is well.”
Those relationships don’t often happen overnight.
Sometimes students attend for a year before they’re comfortable enough at the school and accept that teachers and staff care for them, especially if they come from “difficult backgrounds,” said Surfside Principal Eric Frandsen.
After they adjust, that’s when they take off academically, he said, adding that the school’s graduation rate isn’t where staff would like it to be and efforts are underway to improve it, from making home visits to even distributing bus passes to get kids to school.
Fewer than half of Surfside seniors graduated last year, state data shows. Enrollment has fluctuated over the last decade, ranging as high as 209 to as low as 111 students.
“Sometimes it’s just time and love — that’s what people need,” said Frandsen.
That was the case with Macias, who said he kept to himself when he first transferred to Surfside last year. He allowed his guard to come down as he began bonding with his Spanish teacher — now one of his favorite instructors who helped him connect with more teachers at the school, Macias said.
“He was super accepting, he kind of made me feel a little bit more fine with where I was,” he said.
Those relationships encouraged Macias to look to his future. Now 40 credits away from graduating, an improvement from missing roughly 100 credits in August, he said he plans to join the Marines in June. He’ll be a vehicle mechanic, a career he can take beyond the military.
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Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
