In Central California twenty years ago, a small, rural K-8 school district was told to build a high school or be dissolved. That was the impetus that the Chawanakee Unified School District board and superintendent needed to create what would become the innovative and award-winning Minarets High School / Minarets Charter High School.
The Challenge
The vision began with the desire to create a very different learning experience than the typical high school.
“We needed to create something that the surrounding high schools didn’t offer,” said Board Member Barbara Bigelow. “We wanted to be as digital as possible, while also offering a student-driven, project-based program.”
According to Steven Foster, a retired superintendent, the difficulty arose in bringing a diverse community together to pass a bond and construct their own high school because students already had access to two high school programs. Foster stated, “The board and I believed that we had to offer a clear and unique choice to compete.” “We wanted to design a choice-based school that would truly be a model for the 21st century.”
Early Success, Forward Learning Approaches
Minarets opened in the Fall of 2008 as one of the first all digital, one-to-one laptop public high schools in California. Beginning with just 27 ninth graders, the school grew to over 500 in a few short years and has been recognized more than once as an Apple Distinguished School and as a California School Board Associated Golden Bell winner. Additionally, students, staff and programs have been recognized by diverse entities such as Google, Future Farmers of America, International and California Student Media Festivals, the National Scholastic Press Association, CUE and many others.
Minarets established two primary career pathways – Arts, Media & Entertainment along with Agriculture & Natural Resources.
However, according to school founder Jon Corippo, it was the forward-leaning instructional approach that really set the stage to be different and successful.
“We really aimed to be a student-first school in every way,” said Corippo. “This included making an explicit departure to get away from the lecture/worksheet model that permeated education.”
But Corippo said he and school staff also set out to create a culture that would support the instructional model.
“We wanted to build a place where some kids were not ‘more than’ others – where freshmen could make an immediate impact,” said Corippo. “We loved hearing 9th graders say ‘I made 100 new friends’ at the end of the first week of school.”
In addition to digital learning, Minarets was also an early adopter in innovations that would later become more commonplace. These include, but are not limited to a later start time (closer to 9 am than 8), SmartStart, project showcases, portfolio projects, graduate defense, Community Days (also known now as Lame Duck Days), a Media Lounge instead of a Library, a school farm and unique class offerings.
Personal Brand Equity, Senior Legacy Experience
In an effort to have students share their best work publicly and develop a portfolio program, Minarets established two key foundational culminating learning experiences.
First was the Personal Brand Equity (PBE), which became the year-end portfolio presentation for all 9th, 10th and 11th graders. Students prepared a final presentation that showcased key learning from all eight classes, as well as examples of personal growth, goal setting and career development.
Corippo stated, “The PBE demonstrated what students are doing and where they are going.” “We need to ask students to show how they’ve grown – a report card is not gonna get that done.” See More Here.
The Senior Legacy Experience (SLE) is a individualized, multi-year passion project that gives every student a chance to apply their knowledge, abilities, interests, and objectives to a community-based project. “Early on it became apparent that this project represented the start of the rest of their lives,” said Corippo. They will use spreadsheets, calendars, meetings with stakeholders, sharing on social media, and then telling the story throughout their professional careers. SLEs have now included hundreds of projects aimed at educating and transforming both the campus and community. See Examples Here and Here.
Unique Course Offerings
Minarets created unique elective offerings open to all students. They offer courses like Singer/Songwriter and Show Band, for example, which is known as the “School of Rock” because it allows for the formation of rock bands that perform. Over the years, there were courses such as a Business/Entrepreneur course called Kickstarter or an upgrade to the traditional teacher’s aide called Student Project Coordinator (where advanced students co-facilitated teaching and supported learning in the classroom). Even a math class called “Freakonomics” existed. Corippo stated, “We actively created and adapted courses for maximum student options where many high schools would simply do the same old classes (out of tradition or ease of work).” Student Opinion According to Corippo, Minarets established the Student Bill of Rights in its inaugural year and conducted quarterly surveys of students regarding all of their learning experiences. “If we don’t know what our consumers like…how can we grow? Interestingly, teachers were worried that kids would be rude on their surveys. They (weren’t) not,” he declared. “But this concern led to a talking point: if you are worried about kids being rude…maybe you should treat them with dignity all quarter.”
Current Principal Rhonda Corippo said the school has a well-established open door policy in all offices.
“Students can bring us any of their thoughts while we also continue to survey students as well,” she said.
Looking Ahead According to Principal Corippo, Minarets will not rely solely on the dashboard’s standard metrics in an effort to maintain an emphasis on creativity and innovation. “We will continue to ask ‘why not’? If we can’t come up with a good answer and if it supports post secondary success, we will continue to find a way,” she said. “We will listen to student voices and pay attention to research about the future of careers. Future bold actions may be required for this. She said that she and the staff are constantly pushing back on the inclination of the teacher in front of the classroom.
“It’s the easiest thing to retreat to when things get hard,” said Principal Coriippo.
It’s this collective internal challenge that the staff has embraced.
“We originally housed this philosophy with a general question to all teachers,” said Jon Corippo. “If The NY Times showed up to review our school…what class would we send them to? What’s unique or different they would see?”
