Colton, CA– The Whitmer Auditorium was decorated with ornate balloon decorations for the official Revalidation Ceremony held on the morning of March 7th. AVID students from all grades, students who were evaluated by RIMS AVID, AVID teachers, and District officials filled the seats in anticipation of the banner reveal.
On February 6th it was already confirmed that CHS had earned the title. All that had to be done were two final conferences held this morning. One with AVID students and another with teachers across campus who have worked together implementing AVID strategies into their everyday learning.
Both conferences had a long table filled with people on both sides. Teachers and Non-teachers. If you weren’t told otherwise, you wouldn’t think that this team was very big in the first place. But considering what CHS has had in the past, AVID truly has built a community at CHS.
“So the ones [teachers] that were in the meeting today, we’re kind of a subgroup of the big team meeting,” AVID team member Ms. Elder explains, “I’m really proud of our teachers, but even if they’re not on the team, we still do our professional development, and I still think we’re all a big team. Like, the librarian, she’s part of the team. It’s not just teachers, and that’s so important. It’s like a community. We’re a family. We’re the AVID family here at Colton High School.”
Along with building a healthy AVID environment across campus, other elements of the Revalidation required some hard work.
The journey to get to this milestone was a lengthy and arduous one for our AVID staff and students. The process to get revalidated as an AVID National Demonstration School has taken months; Multiple visits, conferences, and presentations.
“It first started with a really big presentation that was going on for at least 30 minutes. We had to manage our time the best we could.” AVID Club President Isaac Ornelas explains, “We were doing it in front of the school board, the board of education. We had to do it with Avid administrators from ROA like just [convince them] to go here, and we had to make sure that we were ready.”
Students not in leadership positions like Isaac’s also had to put in some work themselves. As they were observed in the classroom, they had to properly and actively demonstrate AVID strategies in their learning, and not succumb to the pressure to impress as they were observed and conversed with by RIMS AVID officials.
Of course, in the end, all the work everyone put in has definitely paid off.
AVID Coordinator Ms. Montiel expresses her utmost gratitude. “It was a sense of happiness and excitement and relief that finally we were able to accomplish this tremendous recognition. To be an AVID National Demonstration school is a great honor and so many people have been a part of it and they’ve worked really, really hard to get us to this place.”
CHS will hold the title of National Demonstration School guaranteed until our next reevaluation in 3 years. AVID hopes to continue growing as it has since Montiel took the reigns.
Montiel is sure that when the time comes, we’ll be ready for the challenge. “By the time that that third year comes around, we will be ready to be revalidated again. That’s my hope for the future. In three years to achieve this again, again, and again”
