“Two weeks into the school year, I ditched San Mateo and went to Aragon,” says freshman Danya Sandler, whose transfer request for Aragon was accepted after the school year had already started. Sandler says, “[Starting at Aragon] was really easy. I came in that morning, they gave me all my classes, I went straight to English.”
Students unsatisfied with their zoned school have the option to apply for a transfer to another San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) school. Eighth-graders complete the transfer form online, and current high school students fill out a paper form received from the district office or from a counselor. Regardless of their grade, all students fill out the same form.
Students wish to attend Aragon for a variety of reasons, from academic to social. “I wanted to meet new people, and not stay with the same [people] I’d known through middle school,” says freshman Magali de Sauvage, who transferred from San Mateo High School to Aragon.
Junior Priyam Das, who tried to transfer from San Mateo to Aragon for her freshman year says, “The main reason I wanted to transfer to Aragon was because I wanted to continue studying Japanese, and, aside from Mills, Aragon is the only high school that had a Japanese program. A lot of my friends had come to Aragon so that was kind of an added bonus as well.” Das’s application for freshman year was ultimately denied.
Das says, “I had a friend [who] transferred in the middle of the semester to Aragon…They kept calling the district office until a spot opened up. So I kind of got the idea that if you wanted to transfer here you just had to be really persistent.” Das applied for a transfer to Aragon for sophomore year and was accepted.
Das says, “The day I got my acceptance letter, my letter informing me that I had made the transfer, it was kind of the happiest day of my life.”
Unless students have an unusual circumstance or have a sibling at the school to which they are applying, potential transfer students are entered into a lottery. KindyLee Mackamul, director of alternative programs and attendance and welfare for SMUHSD, says, “If we have exhausted the lottery we may be able to do one-on-one transfers, but that’s done way at the end of the process.”
Mackamul says, “Participation in the open-enrollment intra-district transfer process has to be unbiased and non-arbitrary. You can’t look at grades, you can’t look at discipline…We can’t look at race, gender.”
Hillsdale Junior Albert Chang unsuccessfully tried to transfer to Aragon. He says, “Mainly, I wanted to transfer [to Aragon] because [of] the API [Academic Performance Index] difference, the scoring difference, between our school. Aragon has the better [API]. Aragon also has a better reputation for having harder classes.” Aragon’s API for 2012 was 849, compared to Hillsdale’s score of 810.
Among all the SMUHSD schools, Aragon generally receives the greatest number of transfer applications. For the 2013-2014 school year, 191 students applied to transfer to Aragon. Hillsdale, receiving 89 applications, had the second highest number of requests. The majority of transfer requests are for incoming freshman. Only 13 current high school students applied to Aragon for next year.
Junior Aislinn Oka, who is new to Aragon this year, says, “I wanted to take Japanese, so that was one of the reasons [I transferred to Aragon]…The academics are better here.” Oka was also unhappy with San Mateo High School, her previous school. Oka says, “San Mateo had a lot of drama…. If you weren’t involved in Leadership or [theater] or dance you couldn’t feel important.”
Yet, Oka says, “[When I came to Aragon], I felt like I was being thrown into a shark tank. Everyone here was very prepared…”
Junior Tricia Grant decided to transfer from Aragon to Burlingame High School for freshman year. She says, “[I wanted] a change in scenery. I mean I’ve grown up around Aragon….I’ve known the same people since kindergarten. I kind of wanted to throw myself into something I wasn’t used to.”
Both Grant and Oka are glad that they chose to transfer schools. Grant says, “School hasn’t been perfect, but I’m happy I made the transfer just to challenge myself.”
Oka says, “I love Aragon… I feel like I’m learning a lot in my classes.”
Hello my name is Gloria Miles I have tried to get an Intra-transfer to Aragon High School for my Grandson
Ryan Miles he is African American and is going to his Freshman year he has a good Academia record I am his Grandmother. The San Mateo School District atmosphere is very unfriendly. I have been a resident of Foster city for 22 years I am a property tax payer here in San Mateo County I discovered that Aragon High School has
1,441 students and only 1% is African American my question is why is there such a disparity? I am having a difficult time getting my Grandson Ryan to Attend Aragon. Ryan was given the Aragon packet at his middle school Bowditch which we took the entire evening filling out on March 16th we attended Aragon pre-registration and waited up to 40 minutes for our number to be called, to be told there was no folder for Ryans classes, Dounia Kardosh who works in student services relayed that message to me she was very kind Dounia sent me back to San District to speak to Kindylee Mackamul who was not taking or talking to anyone that day which was the 17th of March I am 64yrs old and this has been very difficult venture. PLEASE HELP