Check out Mission High School–A Great SFUSD Public School!
Our district has changed so much since I first became an educator roughly fifteen years ago. Many folks I speak with still have out-dated ideas of our public schools and are unaware of some of amazing programs we currently have going on in our schools. There are so many amazing schools in SFUSD!
With this in mind, I’ve decided to highlight some of the amazing High School options for San Francisco families. (If YOU are a parent and want to highlight a GREAT public high school, please post in the comments below and I’ll consider highlighting YOUR school!)
This post comes from María Aldaz a proud Mission High School parent. She wants you to know why she couldn’t be happier!
María and her daughters LOVE Mission High!
María says here daughter joined Mission High School in her sophomore year, and couldn’t be happier. She and her daughter had been looking for a school which would provide a good continuation for her language skills. In their search they found that most high school language programs were focused around meeting the needs of language learners, not someone whose been in an immersion program since Kindergarten.
Originally, her daughter was accepted to Lowell High School which didn’t turn out to be a good fit. María and her daughter decided to look for a school with a more personalized environment and more support for students and parents.
Here’s what she had to say about her daughter’s move to Mission:
“Since my daughter has moved to Mission (from day one!) she felt welcomed and at home. Everybody knew her, and I mean EVERYBODY knew her at Mission. She excelled in so many things there and because her teachers knew her so well, they were able to push her to do things she might not have attempted without their support. They literally wrote tons of recommendations for her for various things she was doing/applying for that I was told later were the reasons she was accepted to the program, college, scholarship, etc.
I have lots of friends whose kids were at Lowell, Lincoln, Washington, Balboa, and others and they had to navigate the college process on their own with their students. Mission does an incredible job with the students during the entire college process, I had no worries at all while my friends were pulling their hair out with research and work trying to help their kids with their applications. And, they have a ton of community support from so many organizations that this helps them provide the fabulous support to the staff and students. They do an amazing job!
My girls are in 4th grade right now, so high school still seems a long way off. Even so, it’s good to know there are so many great high school options in our district.
Here are a couple of additional highlights:
Scott D. Kennedy Mission High School Athletic Director was named the 2015 California High School Athletic Director of the Year. There are over 3,523 High Schools and 952 private schools with athletic programs, but our program has been recognized as the best. Their ASAP-Athletic Scholars Advancement Program is the only one of its kind in SF. All MHS student athletes have GPA’s over a 3.3.
Eric Guthertz Mission High School Principal was named Principal of the year for 2014 by The Association of California School Administrators of Region 5 which contains over a 1,000 High Schools. Over 85% of MHS Graduating students attending College after graduation.
Mission has an amazing music program–including Mariachi! The music program is lead by Cuban/Bay Area musician and performer Osvaldo Carvajal. Mission High’s program has both choirs, a world music and modern music bands – and students from all levels are welcome. This year Mission added a Mariachi program which had it’s first annual Mariachi night last month — it was a resounding success!
SF Gate did a story about it. In the story it said:
…few of the 12 students sitting in the small theater at Mission High School had ever picked up a guitar until January, when they walked into the district’s first mariachi class in 30 years. Seven weeks later, the students strummed the chords to “Volver, Volver,” a classic mariachi song about lost love and yearning, a real tear-jerker. Some of the teens struggled to keep up with chord changes, but the melody was unmistakable.
See what our Superintendent, Richard Carranza has to say about the Mariachi Music program in this video below:
Reasons to Consider Mission as a TOP CHOICE High School!
María says these are her top three reasons to consider choosing Mission High:
- Not only does the school literally hold each and every students hand through the entire college application process, they also help them look for and obtain scholarships. As a parent, this is a huge help to be guided through this process by such knowledgeable staff. Students also receive “real” recommendations from teachers/staff who really know your child and their abilities. Recommendations from staff helped my daughter get a coveted and selective summer science internship with UCSF, get into a prestigious musical program where she was able to do a concert tour of Europe and finally get into her top college choices.
- Students feel safe, nurtured and cared for at Mission and they are driven to excel by the strong relationships they form with the adults at the school who push them to do their best and go outside of their comfort zone to try new things.
- At Mission, students don’t just survive high school, they thrive!
Want to learn more about this great SFUSD High School? Visit their website to find out about some of great events!
