CARLSBAD -- In the 2001-02 school year, Carlsbad Village Academy's first graduating class of three seniors was instructed to walk slowly so that "Pomp and Circumstance" could complete a single refrain.

Now, five years later, the school for kids who don't seem to fit the one-size-fits-all comprehensive high school graduated 62 of 73 seniors. And the nine seniors who did not graduate have committed to returning to complete their coursework as fifth-year seniors, Principal Keith Holley said Friday. In contrast, of the 31 seniors who started the 2001 school year, 12 finished the school year and three graduated.

Holley said struggling seniors tended to drop out throughout the year, but now "virtually everyone is hanging with it -- even through the fifth year," Holley said.

Holley attributed the school's 20-fold increase in graduates during the last five years to ongoing financial support from the school district, an intimate everybody-knows-everybody culture, and a firm insistence on academic rigor.

"They've done so much with so little," trustee Kelli Moors said. "Having built that facility -- a very visual symbol that we believe in them and want them to be successful -- and they now have the same supplies, the same curriculum, and outstanding staff … and lo and behold, they are successful."

The reasons for their struggles are as unique and varied as the students themselves, Holley said. Some students, he said, don't do well with the social pressures of high school, and still others have pressures at home, don't see the point of going to school, or just simply don't go.

"The common trait (among students here) is credit deficiency," Holley said. "I've never had a student here because they couldn't do comprehensive high school work, but school is their 12th priority."

For Lupe Segura, the responsibility of caring for her nieces and her restaurant job competed for her time at school and played into her attitude about school.

"I didn't like to do homework, and I didn't have the time," she said.

The 17-year-old girl was 20 credits behind when she transferred from Carlsbad High to the academy early in her senior year. She made up those 20 units and completed the additional 60 senior-year credits in time to graduate on June 15. She completed her final five credits the day before graduation.

"I knew I was going to make it," Lupe said. "I had my doubts before (transferring) but I knew I would make it here."

No homework and smaller classes made the difference, Lupe said.

A 50-percent retention rate

Prior to Carlsbad Village Academy's opening in 2001, the school district operated a continuation school called La Palma in three 25-year-old portable buildings on what was then the Pine Elementary School campus, said teacher Bob Ingersoll. The district has since closed the school and sold the property -- now a city park -- to the city of Carlsbad.

The teaching program then was "packet-based," meaning that students would get a stapled packet of readings and questions that they would complete for high school credit, said Ingersoll, who started teaching at La Palma in 1981. The 180-minute school day included all ages of high school students in the same class. Direct teacher-to-student teaching was minimal, and teachers taught all subjects, regardless of training and expertise in the subjects. The school had no text books, no counselor, and no principal.

For students who struggled at Carlsbad High because they skipped school, didn't do the work, created problems in the classroom, or simply didn't like school and homework, the packet program put all of the responsibility for learning on them. As a result, about half of all students to attend La Palma dropped out, Holley said.

"It was cheaper," Holley said, both he and Ingersoll shaking their heads. "In a packet-based model you don't need money."

On a mission

So Holley, in his first year with the district as director of alternative programs, set out to change things, backed by district administrators, a school board that included current trustees Nicole Pappas and Kelli Moors, and the teacher's association -- with Ingersoll as the president.

The district built the school five years ago, set a full-day schedule, and committed itself to annual staff spending that began with four teachers trained and tested in the core subjects they teach, a full-time principal, a counselor, a custodian, aides, and a trained special education staff.

"The district is committed with teachers, a custodian and aides who are good at working with these kids and who want to," Holley said.

Holley related the story of a girl who transferred to the academy from a continuation school in Fallbrook.

"After a day she got here she said, 'Hey, this is a real school,"' Holley said.

Located just a few blocks from Carlsbad High, the school offers a full six-period day, class sizes of about 20 students, direct classroom instruction by credentialed teachers, the same texts used in the regular high school, a required 240 credits for graduation -- all on a $3.2 million campus.

"Yeah, we're a real school," Holley said.

Eight teachers now teach there, including Joe Dunn, a graduate of La Palma, and popular teacher Tony Castro, who grew up in the Carlsbad barrio, Holley said.

"That's a lot of money," Holley said in talking about personnel salaries. "It's the personnel money every year that is the biggest cost."

Statewide, 519 continuation schools address the needs of more than 70,000 students who are falling behind in credits, according to Dennis Fisher of the California Department of Education. Of those, 84 are model continuation schools. Local model schools include Alta Vista High School in Vista, Sunset High School in Vista, Twin Oaks High School in San Marcos and Valley High School in Escondido.

"One of the key components is the small student-teacher ratio," Fisher said. A full-day schedule, qualified teachers, counselors and principals, up-to-date textbooks, and multiple teaching strategies that target the different ways students learn are other key components of an effective continuation high school.

School districts that offer a continuation school as one of several options tend to produce better results, Fisher said.

Building relationships

Today, about 150 students start the school year at the academy. As students at Carlsbad High come to understand that they have fallen behind, they transfer to the academy, swelling its population to about 200 by Christmas. Some students work hard with a plan to return to the traditional school when they catch up. Others find they like the continuation school, its informal feel, its personal touch, and decide to stay.

Holley said he walks through every classroom every day. He knows every student by name, and keeps up with each student's progress and problems.

"People know you and care about you here," Holley said. The simple act of greeting his students by name has a profound effect on how they feel about school, he said.

But on the other hand, the academy is like a small town where everybody knows your business, Holley said. If a student ditches school, he's got a half-dozen people asking about him the next day.

"You find that you are really seen here," Holley said. "For the students it's a huge annoyance factor."

But, Holley said, students get the message. Come to school and be recognized and praised, or come and be held accountable. Either way, Holley said, his students are getting attention -- which is what they need most.

And every adult on the campus contributes. On a recent morning, the receptionist vowed to call a chronically tardy boy every morning until he started getting to school on time. The sheepish boy told her he'd do better.

"I'll call you anyway," she said smiling. "I'll call you tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that."

The boy rolled his eyes as he walked away smiling.

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com.