School Profile

Geographical, social, cultural, educational and economic community base

Central Valley is one of five continuation schools in the Kern High School District. Central Valley services the students from the communities of Shafter, Buttonwillow, Bellridge and surrounding rural areas. The school was established in September 1971 and is rich with history and traditions. The economy of the community is based upon agriculture, small industries and diverse sole proprietorships.

 Feeder programs and schools

Central Valley educates students who have been unsuccessful in a comprehensive high school setting. More than 90% of our students are derived from Shafter High School. A significant number of them have been unsuccessful because of poor attendance, personal/social barriers and/or poor behavior. However, it is our belief that every student has the capacity to learn and deserves the opportunity to do so.

Central Valley serves students who have limitations, unusual problems or responsibilities which make it inadvisable for them to attend and succeed in a comprehensive high school program. Our school serves all youth in the community who do not perform satisfactorily in other programs. The objective is to improve and remedy attitudes, skills and knowledge through the use of individualized instruction, smaller school situations and the team approach of our qualified teaching staff.

School staffing

The staff at Central Valley is composed of three teachers, one administrator, one part-time counselor, one office secretary, and one campus supervisor.  A part-time counselor serves the academic, career, and personal needs of our student body as well as dealing with our migrant students and PASS program. We also have access to Shafter High School resources to deal with our students who have been designated as having RSP needs. The site administrator manages the needs of the students, instructional staff and support staff. The school secretary conducts all administrative support functions related to the daily operation of the school. The campus supervisor assists in establishing a clean and safe educational environment for both staff and students.

 School facilities

The school year is composed of 180 days of instruction. The minimum instructional time required for continuation schools is 180 minutes per day or 15 hours a week. Regular scheduled days consist of 325 minutes of instructional times. Our shortest scheduled days include 225 instructional minutes.

             Although Central Valley is adjacent to Shafter High School, students do not have access to the main library. Nevertheless, each teacher has a variety of reading books in their classroom, a personal computer for professional use, and five computers for student use for technology oriented activities. There is also a small variety of books available for student reading in the front office.