HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM PUTS STUDENTS IN HEART OF COLLEGE ALTERNATIVE IDEA SUITS SOME WELL.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

MOORPARK - Students who do not feel their conventional high schools challenge them enough and want a more mature academic setting should consider the High School at Moorpark College.

On Thursday evening, the college will host an information night to give students and their parents a look at the alternative education offered at the high school.

``Sometimes really bright students in high school are hearing a different drummer,'' said Victoria Bortolussi, dean of student learning, who helped establish the program after watching her own gifted son struggle in a conventional school.

Some of the Moorpark students said they were bored at their regular schools where they were unable to find classes that challenged them, and one compared himself to a square peg trying to fit into round holes.

The Moorpark program gives its students a chance to just be themselves, Bortolussi said.

Clint Harper, a physics professor at Moorpark College and a member of the Moorpark City Council, advises students at the college high school who are now building a solar-powered boat for a contest next month sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District.

Thousands of high school students across the nation take college courses at community colleges, including 500 to 600 every semester at Moorpark College, Harper said.

But in the High School at Moorpark College, the students are taking both college classes and taking high school courses for their high school diplomas. Many of them wind up having a year of college education under their belts by the time they graduate from high school.

``These students are very bright and very motivated, but a lot of them just don't like the regimentation of high schools,'' said Harper. ``A lot of them are iconoclasts. They are generally very good at expressing themselves verbally, and if they don't like how things are going they tell you about it. A lot of them absolutely flourish when they come here.''

Principal Daniel Arterburn said he is trying to recruit about 65 more students for the 2005-06 school year, which starts in August. The school is open to juniors and seniors, and some spots are open to students who want to go there for only their senior years.

``It's a phenomenal opportunity for students to accelerate their education,'' he said.

``Our students come from more than 30 different high schools as far away as Malibu and Woodland Hills. They get a chance to explore in ways that would never be possible at a conventional high school.''

Amir Goodarzi, 17, of Simi Valley said his parents always encouraged him to learn at an accelerated pace and set high standards, but when he went to Simi Valley High School in 2003 he found classes geared to slower students.

``The homework was absolutely boring - it made no sense,'' he said. ``I was looking for something more out of life.''

When he transferred to the High School at Moorpark College in 2004 he began taking college classes. ``I'm learning things I never learned before. It's become a haven for me,'' said Goodarzi, who plans to go on to the University of California and then law school with the goal of becoming a federal judge.

Katie Ion, 20, said she had no goals when she was a student at a conventional high school in Moorpark back in 2001.

Now she has two associate's degrees from Moorpark College and plans to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the fall with a double major in cultural anthropology and psychology and a minor in philosophy.

In the meantime she is working in the Moorpark College Career Center helping other students establish goals.

Conventional high schools just didn't provide classes she wanted and the student social life seemed immature, she said.

``People were extremely judgmental over a lot of petty things. I had a friend who was going here to Moorpark College and she raved about it - it was more challenging, the kids were really dedicated.

``Everyone was radically different from each other, and we all appreciated our differences. We all knew what it felt like to be alienated.''

Joshua McDermott, 20, said he was getting poor grades in classes at Thousand Oaks High School, where he found the material boring.

In 2001 he went to the High School at Moorpark College and began immediately getting B grades taking college math, biology and business.

Then he became interested in a firefighting career, and took fire science classes at Oxnard Community College, got certified as an emergency medical technician, and helped make a video documentary on life at a Los Angeles City fire station.

Now he is a junior studying communications at Azusa Pacific University and a paid intern in the public affairs section of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

``I love it when they tell me no, because I just keep trying,'' said McDermott, reflecting on his past frustrations. ``The High School at Moorpark College gave me respect in an educational setting so I could obtain the tools I needed to pursue my dreams in life.''

Rob Collins, a member of the Simi Valley Unified School District's board of education and a former teacher, said the High School at Moorpark College appears to offer a good alternative for some students.

``My philosophy is we need to offer as many alternative programs as possible, because kids have different needs and different learning styles. I think this is an alternative that may work really well.''

Jeanne Brown, a spokeswoman for the college, said some teenagers are just more emotionally mature than others and not interested in the typical high school social scene, the cliques and the need to fit in.

``They just need other kinds of challenges, more intellectual interaction,'' she said.

``There's a term in the educational community called 'gifted at risk.' I think some of these students fall into this category. They have all the talent and aptitude, but they sometimes fail in the one-size-fits-all high school. Here they are meeting all of their high school requirements, but they are doing it with a cohort of 150 students, rather than thousands.''

``If you don't fit in or feel good in another high school, here you can really shine,'' she said.

``The interview process is fairly extensive. If we're right for someone, we're really right,'' she said, adding that the program is not for everyone.

Judy Gould counsels students on career possibilities in the High School at Moorpark College and is advising students on the Metropolitan Water District's solar-powered boat project.

``We try to get them thinking about their future careers, what's their passion, their focus. That is what we're about - to determine what they love and help guide them.''

``I love working with these students,'' she said. ``It's these bright students who somehow become disengaged from high school education. If they graduate from our high school they usually have one year of college, so they keep going.

``Pretty close to 100 percent go on with their college education,'' Gould said. ``Some go into the military, most stay a while here at Moorpark College, and about 25 percent go immediately to four-year colleges.''

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Students in the High School at Moorpark College are building a solar- powered boat for a contest next month sponsored by the Metropolitan Water District.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News