Helix Tour of Excellence Ends with Proof of Success: Sqy Ferguson

Principal Kevin Osborn was an expert and enthusiastic tour guide Tuesday at Helix Charter High School, briefing seven visitors on the secrets of the school's academic prowess and progress.

But the real star didn't show up until the last scene.

Sqy Ferguson, a 2003 Helix graduate who earned a social science degree from San Diego State in 2008, told visitors to the "Excellence in Education" tour how the school put her on a path to career success and even encouraged her Australian-born mother to advance academically.

"Helix didn't give me [a] choice about going to college," said Ferguson, 25. The school expected her to attend college.

Speaking in the library meeting room as current students went about their studies, Ferguson told how a dyslexic girl was "shown what to do, how to succeed" in high school—starting with Highlander Camp in the mountains, a 10-day introduction to college prep work and collaboration. The program was offered for more than 15 years before it was halted last summer as a budget cut.

Ferguson, now a paid tutor at Helix, said she got into her school of choice—San Diego State—thanks to a 4.0 grade-point average at Helix. She wants to be a U.S. history teacher.

At San Diego State, she was shocked at how advanced she was compared with her fellow students, who didn't go through the rigorous preparation Helix demands, she said. She recalled how a fellow student expressed fear about having to make a speech.

Ferguson recalls saying, "Speech? We can do a speech. This is nothing," since all Helix graduates are expected to make an oral presentation as part of a senior project. "I never saw anything lower than a B in college."

Now Ferguson's mother is studying kinesiology, motivated by her daughter's progress and Helix's example, she said.

Helix tutors like Ferguson are a key to success for a new generation of Highlanders, said Osborn, one of four grade-level principals at Helix who stay with their class all four years. He likened Helix tutors to the Peace Corps.

"It's not Study Hall the way you're used to it," he said.

Sixty tutors at Helix make $13.07 an hour to start, and mostly work Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday, said Judy Kirk, program supervisor. Students being tutored are a diverse lot with different needs.

"This is not what the student body at La Jolla High School looks like," said Kirk, who attends college fairs to recruit mainly college students as tutors whose career goals are education.

Said Osborn: "These teachers [to be] are going to be awesome."

The first in his family to attend college and a Helix educator for 20 years, Osborn began the tour by describing the school's journey to charter status in the late 1990s. He said he helped write the original charter along with current Helix board Chairman Brian Kick.

Showing chart after chart of improved student performance, Osborn told how "course level teams" and other staff groups tracked students within a single grade over four years, getting to know kids by name and making sure they got the tutoring and social services needed to keep them on track to graduation and college advancement.

"Success starts with attendance," Osborn said. He screened charts showing Helix attendance overall and by ethnic group, always climbing over the years. It's now over 97 percent as a school, and school truancies of three or more days are about half that of Valhalla High School, considered an academic leader in the Grossmont Union High School District.

Helix's results in the state-mandated high school exit exam also easily surpass state averages, and in 2009 Helix students passed 500 Advanced Placement tests—meaning students had 500 fewer classes to take in college.

The school's most recent API  score—a measure of academic performance—was an impressive 795, and Osborn said the goal is the mid-800s. Helix's dropout rate after four years was 30 percent—compared with 32 percent for the state and 41 percent for the school district. And that, he said, is "with [Helix's] outrageous [high] standards."

After the morning talk and quick campus tour, which included visits to a classroom in the new science building and a tutoring session, Osborn noted another means of getting students to shoot high: a spring break "College4Kids" road trip.

In their junior year, Helix students are invited to travel to 16 mostly public California colleges and universities in six days. A photo collage showed groups of Highlanders posing at Stanford University, UC Berkeley and several California State University campuses.

Under the school's charter, "anyone in the state can attend Helix," Osborn said, but preference goes to students in its La Mesa and Lemon Grove attendance areas. A random drawing allows 100-150 outside students into the freshman class each year.

The school's tour will be given four more times this year: Nov. 5, twice on Nov. 18 and finally Dec. 2.  To RSVP, call Linda Sullivan at 619-644-1940, ext. 152.