For the past nine years, Amanda Rangel attended a one-room
schoolhouse in Paicines.
Class size in recent years has ranged from six to 12 students.
Grade levels range from kindergarten to eighth grade.
For the past nine years, Amanda Rangel attended a one-room schoolhouse in Paicines.
Class size in recent years has ranged from six to 12 students. Grade levels range from kindergarten to eighth grade.
Rangel graduated to San Benito High School, a campus with an enrollment of more than 2,800 students this school year.
“I was nervous my first day because I thought it was going to go bad, like I wouldn’t be able to find my classrooms,” said Rangel, 14. “There’s more kids, more classes that I have to take and more people that I can meet and make friends with.”
While most high school students complain about having to get up early for school, they don’t have the wake-up time or commute that Rangel and her friends do.
Every morning, Rangel wakes up at 5 a.m. so she can carpool with two other girls from the area – daughters of Jefferson School’s sole teacher. They must leave at 6 a.m. so one of the girls can be at school by 7:20 a.m. for her zero-period class.
After school, Rangel gets home around 4 p.m., unless she goes home with her mom, who works in Hollister. Then, she gets home at 7 p.m.
Rangel admits the schedule is tiring. She tries to be in bed by 8 p.m. to get up at 5 a.m., she said.
“They’re long days. It’s kinda hard waking up and going to school,” she said.
Even though Rangel visited SBHS twice as an eighth-grader and took pre-algebra during summer school, she still had to adjust to the sprawling campus and the high volume of students. Assistant Principal Santiago Echaore said Rangel has adjusted a lot since her first visit to campus.
“I was nervous when I first saw the school, but I feel more comfortable now,” she said. “I think I’m prepared, but sometimes I don’t think so. I’m going to work hard and do my best.”
As far as academics are concerned, most students make a successful transition from the county’s one-room schools to bigger campuses, said Tim Foley, county superintendent of schools.
“They have a firm foundation and the basics at the schools. The classes are so small that kids don’t slip through the cracks,” Foley said.
The various teachers at Jefferson School realized the shock of transitioning to San Benito High School, so they paired eighth-graders with former Jefferson students who were at SBHS. Last year’s teacher Katharine Green said she tried to make sure students were prepared academically so they could cope with the social changes without having to cope with academic hardships at the same time.
“By that time, they’re ready to go and be with more children their age,” Green said.
The first few days helped ease Rangel in, she said, because there wasn’t much for students to do and no homework was assigned. That changed Wednesday when she received homework in her advanced pre-algebra class.
Already, Rangel has plans on completing perfect attendance at SBHS, said her mom, Yvonne.
“She’s excited. She doesn’t want to miss a day,” Yvonne said.
An obvious difference between Jefferson and SBHS is the number of students, but Yvonne said Rangel’s noticed others.
“She’s noticed a difference in big-city kids and country kids,” Yvonne said. “Country kids are so innocent and very respectful.”
Rangel also has a choice of what to eat or buy at SBHS’s cafeteria or vending machines, and she can’t wait to attend her first football game.
One of her favorite things about attending SBHS is being with kids her own age.
“It’s easier to have someone my age because they’re not as annoying as other kids,” Rangel said.
Being in the same classroom with such a range in grade levels at Jefferson made it hard to concentrate on schoolwork, she said.
Despite the commute and rural nature of Paicines, Rangel wouldn’t trade living there.
“I like that it’s quiet and that there’s not a whole lot of people around,” she said. “It’s like a little neighborhood.”
