We walk the hallways every day unaware of another school simultaneously in session. Since the beginning of the school year Carlsbad Village Academy, a continuation school, has attended school Carlsbad High School in the portables at the bottom of campus.
CVA used to occupy their own campus at the intersection of Valley and Magnolia streets, but the students left their exclusive campus to join CHS due to financial difficulties and to allow Buena Vista Elementary to remain in session. CVA hopes to add credits to students’ transcripts who may have failed a class or missed an extended period of school.
“CVA is the alternative program for students who are credit deficient,” former CVA guidance counselor Mrs. Redfield said. “It’s the same curriculum as CHS, same textbooks; all of that is exactly the same. It’s just a credit recovery program.”
In addition to her duties as CHS’s new assistant principal, Mrs. Redfield now represents the school as an assistant principal.
They also use a trimester system rather than our traditional semester system, helping students gain more credits in less time.
The CVA schedule slightly varies from Carlsbad’s, but classes are in session in both schools at nearly the same time.
“CVA students have a different bell schedule and a later start and earlier dismissal on Thursdays and a later start and later dismissal every other day,” Mrs. Redfield said.
However, the students of CHS know little about their new peers.
“We’re on the same campus, but we don’t interact,” freshman Justin Oetting said.
Due to this isolation, Carlsbad students have formed misconceptions about who the CVA students are and why they attend the continuation school on the Carlsbad campus.
“The only reason I’m at CVA is because I had family problems” CVA student Sequoya Pinedo said. “That’s why my grades dropped and I needed more credits.”
The CVA students were moved from their exclusive campus to a share an environment full of misinformed peers. In truth, they struggle socially and academically like all Carlsbad students. Even though schedules and classrooms may be different, in the end, all students on this campus share a common goal of success.
