There’s a high school inside Fresno’s Manchester Mall that caters to dropouts.
Crescent View West is a charter school where kids get a second chance to earn their diploma.
All students at the central Fresno school have one thing in common, they are former dropouts.
After time away from the classroom and being homeless Alberto Ramirez Jr. is excited about learning.
“Life was not right for me. I’ve always wanted to succeed in life and I believe I will be the first to graduate out of my family. I plan to graduate and go to college.”
Crescent View West welcomes students ranging in age from 14 to 24. Schedules are flexible and there are plenty of snacks from hungry tummies.
Students and teachers are never strangers. Amy Martin is a math and supervising teacher at Crescent View West.
“One on one with teenagers, maybe students that didn’t fit in to the traditional school, they’re amazing . They’ll talk to you, they’ll ask questions because it’s one on one.”
There are nearly 600,000 high school dropouts in California. That’s more than the population of Fresno. The average cost to educate a student in Fresno County is $14,000.
It’s estimated each high school dropout over their lifetime will cost taxpayers nearly $300,000 in public assistance.
Magdalena Ruiz is set to graduate in December. “It’s like scary knowing that I’m gonna be done with it but at the same time relief because I’ll be doing what I always wanted
to do, graduate from school.
Like all public high schools Crescent View West is tuition free and it’s giving students flexibility they need to succeed.
The charter school has an enrollment of 1100 students.