Peninsula High offers opportunity for students in the district

Contrasted to Aragon’s vast campus and large student body of 1591, Peninsula High School’s student body of roughly 250 students shocked Senior Kevin Birchett. After attending Aragon for his freshman and sophomore year it is understandable why San Mateo Union High School District’s continuation school, Peninsula High School, was such a drastic change for Birchett.

When struggling students are deficient in credits they go to Peninsula for credit recovery. With a small class size containing about 15 students and a large class containing 20-25, Peninsula’s small size is an advantage because of their 8:1 student to staff ratio. This makes it easier for students to get the individual help that they need inside the classroom as well as focusing on and mastering material for the classes that they need to repeat to receive credit for graduation.

Although Peninsula’s goal is to catch up students falling behind academically, Peninsula also helps students grow in other ways.

Senior Brandon Agua, who transferred to Peninsula after his sophomore year for his entire junior year and is now back at Aragon as a senior, says, “[Peninsula] helped me to see things better, my first two years of high school when I messed up I didn’t really care. I changed my life around and want to do better.”

Although most Peninsula students want to stay at Aragon, they do not always have the choice if they want to graduate. Agua spoke to freshman counselor Stacy Becker at the end of his sophomore year and they discussed the possibility of Agua transferring to Peninsula.

Becker says, “Counselors will speak to their students who are credit deficient and map out recovery to see if it is realistic to graduate from Aragon.”

According to Becker the decision mostly relies on the student in question, but sometimes it is not possible to graduate from Aragon after a certain number of failed classes.

Former Aragon student Javier Madero, who currently attends Peninsula, says, “I don’t want to graduate where I barely know anyone. I feel like I’m missing out on my whole high school experience: no prom, no yearbook. Aragon is more lively.” He has met with his counselor to discuss his possible return to Aragon. Madero says, “I hope to come back and graduate with my class.”

Senior Raymont Afuhaamango, who spent his junior year at Peninsula, said that, “Not having homework made classes easier to handle.”

All of the work required at Peninsula is completed in class. Students who might have failed Aragon classes because of incomplete homework have a better chance of getting credit for the class at Peninsula.

Although some students stay at Peninsula after they leave their initial high school, many do end up returning. If a student returns it will most likely be either during senior year once they have collected enough credits.

After the credits have been fulfilled, students have a meeting with their counselor at Peninsula. The counselor will then discuss their progress since arriving at Peninsula and whether or not they think the student will be ready to go back to their usual home school.
A letter from Aragon administration notifies parents when their child may transfer to Peninsula. The parent typically meets with the student and their counselor before the student leaves Aragon to discuss the details.

Although going to Peninsula is not any sort of punishment, Aragon students often are not happy when they must go there and want to come back as soon as they can.

Agua attended Burlingame High School for his first two years and spent the first semester of his junior year at Aragon. He will be returning for his last semester at Aragon as a senior in January. He anticipates when he will come back to Aragon but also said, “teachers at Peninsula are more real and they are straight up with us.”

Afuhaamango got notice that he was coming back to Aragon two weeks before school started and said, “Now that I am back I can graduate with all my friends.” Now that he is back at Aragon, reflecting on the past, Birchett said, “I felt supported and I’m happy that I went there”.