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12 OUR YUCAIPA | SEPTEMBER 2015 Principal Kirkland's Second Year At YHS: Changes Ahead By Natalie Palmer The 2015-16 school year is gearing up to be the best yet at Yucaipa High School and new Principal Shad Kirkland (photo inset) couldn't be happier. "Yucaipa has some of the nicest kids I've ever been around," said Kirkland. "And I was immediately impressed at how welcoming the staff was." It's Kirkland's second year at YHS. He took the reigns in October, 2014, replacing Principal Sherry Smith. Kirkland comes from the Redlands Unified District, where he had been in administration for 14 years. He's a 1992 graduate of Yucaipa High School himself, and attended Yucaipa Elementary and Yucaipa Intermediate schools. His first year at YHS was more about acclimation, he said, but this year he's off and running, and implementing a few changes. "Not massive overhauls," said Kirkland. "Just a few tweaks and updates." First on Kirkland's list is transitioning away from direct instruction where a teacher lectures and then there is a test at the end of the week. Instead, he'd like teachers to focus on the "Four C's" that the colleges and employers of today are looking for, he said: Collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication. "Today's kids have all the information in the world at their fingertips," he said. "Employers today don't need the guy that knows everything, because everyone has access to facts. They need employees who have the skills to think critically, know how to find information, and know what to do with it." He said students will learn how to come up with ideas, predict outcomes, form solutions, and defend those solutions with other students. "Sometimes kids are the best teachers of other kids," Kirkland said. A big change that incoming students at YHS saw this year was the implementation of honors classes giving weighted credit for completion. Other schools in the area have been offering weighted credit for years, and Kirkland said that although colleges don't count weighted honors GPAs, scholarship opportunities do. "It will help us be as competitive as other schools," he said. Another change for students who enjoy extra rigor is the addition of AP Chemistry and AP Human Geography classes. Kirkland said the classes are instrumental for college preparedness, but haven't been able to be offered at the school for years. "We really have to thank our district leadership for demonstrating a progressive attitude toward technology and academics," he said. Kirkland is also proud to welcome in an intensive intervention program for students learning English. Teacher Jamie Crawford will run a full program that helps ESL (English as a Second Language) students learn English with an academic language, said Kirkland. He pointed out that outgoing English Language Teacher Amanda Wade, who moved to the district office, did a great job. The school just didn't have the proper amount of support, he said. Also in its second year under Kirkland is the online credit recovery program. He said students who need to make up failed classes can now do so online right on campus at YHS instead of going to evening adult school. "This is a great option for students to be able to fix problems in house and during the school day." Kirkland said with this year's enrollment topping 2,800, YHS is a busy campus full of many involved students. One third are involved in athletics, Kirkland said, and hundreds more are active in clubs and in the school's academy programs. "I said it in my speech at graduation last year, but I don't know if people really heard it. Yucaipa High School has been deemed the number one athletic program in the citrus belt league by all ranking systems," Kirkland said. "We really saw that with the softball team championship and I'm looking forward to seeing what our athletic program brings." With any large school population also comes problems, but Kirkland said drugs and other security issues have decreased since the second semester of the last school year when he came on board. "It's important to note that drug use is not necessarily a school problem, but a realistic reflection of the community as a whole," Kirkland said. "Just as in any community there are drugs, but we are working more closely than ever with the sheriff 's department and our school security team to increase visibility in locker rooms and in rest rooms where problems are more likely to occur." He said an officer is on campus four days a week and has been proactive in investigations of welfare and attendance checks that can stop problems before they happen. "We've really tried to bring parents into the picture so they know what their kids are doing," said Kirkland. "And our 'Every 15 Minutes' anti-drug program has had tremendous success and has had an impact on a large scale." Kirkland said the school is also working toward an increased social media presence, and is updating its webite regularly. "This is the first year we have had online registration up and running," he said. "We had over 900 parents take advantage of it so that's 900 parents who are online and can also check grades, attendance and update information," he said. The community also reads the electronic marquee on Yucaipa Boulevard, and Kirkland said the staff has been outstanding at keeping it updated. Adding to the changes, 12 new teachers are on staff this year. "I was very impressed with the pool of teachers. We really got the best of the best," said Kirkland. "I'm excited to see what they can do. We are starting the school year with a lot of positive energy and we are going to ride that wave as long as we can."

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