Teenagers across the Valley can benefit from an upcoming change in the status of the school that will partner Lemoore Union High School District and West Hills College. Lemoore Middle College High School -- where high school students concurrently take high school and college courses on the West Hills College Lemoore campus -- is in the process of changing its status to a charter school. The Lemoore high school district trustees approved the charter in 2008, and the paperwork has been submitted to state officials for a charter number.

Dr. Victor Rosa, principal of Lemoore Middle College High School, said the school will begin to operate as a charter school in the 2009-2010 school year. The charter status will allow for flexibility in the number of hours spent in class per day -- though it will operate the same hours annually as a traditional high school -- and will allow students from outside the Lemoore high school district to enroll without needing an inter-district transfer. Students from Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties are already enrolled at the school, but much more paperwork was involved before charter status could be approved.

Rosa said the main motivation behind changing to a charter school is to be able to manipulate the school day, which becomes especially beneficial to students who aim to earn their associate degree at the same time they earn their high school diploma. Four of the school's 145 students are on track to graduate with both diploma and degree this year, though an associate degree is not the expectation of all students.

"We let it be the parents' and the students' decision as to whether they want to push for that associate degree," Rosa said.

But all students are required to enroll in at least one college course per semester as freshmen and sophomores, and at least two per semester as juniors and seniors. Enrollment in the high school waives all student costs for the college course tuition and books. Students take college courses in place of where a traditional high school student would have electives like wood shop or band.

"It becomes much more academically rigorous," Rosa said.

Students don't have the option of participating in athletics, though they can be on the school's Academic Decathlon team or student leadership.

 To earn a diploma from the high school, students must also complete all of the courses required for entrance to the University of California system -- a more stringent requirement than that at traditional public high schools.

"Oftentimes the high school students have the highest grades in the college classes," Rosa said. "Though there are some who struggle, too. We don't want a strictly honors school.

"The target is really that kid who can go to college but that kid that traditionally wouldn't go to college."

But students do have to meet some qualifications to enroll at the school. The school's first enrollment window for the 2009-2010 school year lasts through the end of February, during which time only applicants who earned proficient or advanced marks on their 2008 state standardized tests will be admitted. If after the window closes there are still student spots remaining, applicants who earned at least basic marks on their state standardized tests will be admitted through a lottery, Rosa said. The school is expected to have 200 students in 2009-2010.

"We're anticipating we'll have enough applications to fill up in the first window of enrollment," Rosa said.

To apply for enrollment, call 925-3552 or visit www.luhsd.k12.ca.us and click on the link to Lemoore Middle College High School.

Leigh Bass, a senior at Lemoore Middle College High School, said the school has helped her toward her goal of attending University of California, Davis, and becoming a psychiatrist.

"It's good for a student that does want to go to college and that is very academically oriented."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(Feb. 10, 2009)