Students urge district to add onboarding supports for transfers and to reconsider block schedule

Three Redondo Union High School and middle school students told the board on April 30 that the district should expand programs that help incoming students integrate academically.

Makana Hicardo, a senior, said she was homeschooled through most of her childhood and arrived at RBUSD with little academic guidance: she said she didn’t know who her counselor was for the first two years and that transfer and homeschool students lack placement assessments and structured supports. Hicardo proposed beginning placement tests for incoming students, regular check-ins with counselors and peer supports to ensure students are placed at appropriate course levels.

Joseph Olin, a senior, described his civic action research on a change to the California Education Code that had previously lowered a 12th-grade enrollment requirement from five to four classes and is reverting to five. Olin suggested district strategies to mitigate the reintroduced fifth-class requirement — including volunteer credit options, dual-enrollment with El Camino College that could appear on transcripts, and case-by-case independent study — and said staff counselors had differing views on implementation.

Stewart Pragnell, a sixth grader from Paris Middle School, urged the board to reconsider a planned block schedule next year, arguing that longer class periods (up to 90 minutes) make it harder for some students to maintain focus and that a petition signed by about 400 students showed broad opposition.

Board members thanked the speakers and noted Brown Act rules prevented substantive discussion on non-agendized items at the meeting; the superintendent requested written copies of students’ remarks and asked for email submissions to compile follow-up information.