Civic Center Secondary School

Civic Center Secondary School, located at 727 Golden Gate Avenue, serves school students grades 7 through 12. Students from many areas of San Francisco are provided with a middle and high school curriculum aligned with state and district standards. The school offers over 300 instructional minutes per day.

Classes include grade 7-12 language arts; integrated mathematics and algebra; world and US history and government; integrated sciences lab and biology; physical education; English, math and exit exam intervention; Cyber Online High School; arts education; GED preparation; City College transition classes; and a comprehensive career development program including training, placement and job coaching. Special Education is provided for RSP and SDC students in accordance with IEPs written, updated and implemented onsite. Special Education staff includes an SDC teacher, RSP teacher and paraprofessional.

Civic Center Secondary is the site of a unique and comprehensive program for SFUSD: an Integrated Behavior Academic (IBA) School. The program has several critical characteristics specifically tailored for students reentering an academic setting. It creates a professional learning community in which responses to student needs are systematic, timely, and directive. This allows students to be identified as soon as they experience difficulty, allowing the focus to be on intervention rather than remediation.

The IBA program is targeted for the most at-risk students, those with habitual truancy, significant behavior issues, and histories of suspension and expulsion. The program's goal is to change behavior so that these students will stay in school and earn enough credits to graduate.

To achieve this goal, the IBA School program provides a flexible, purposeful, and coordinated system of support for both students and teachers. Students are provided with a 'tool box' for learning, including those tools needed for mastery of basic skills. Special emphasis is placed on programs related to numeracy and literacy. To address students' emotional needs, individual, group counseling and other research-based programs model are implemented.

Working as a team under the direction of the County Psychologist, teachers and counselors develop a plan for intervention, and along with students establish a collective commitment based on student needs. The IBA program also involves student groups, pre-job training and placement; and the Step-to-College Program. Marks of achievement will be a significant reduction in truancy and for students to be working collaboratively on programs such as Student Council and the Model United Nations.

The structure of the program is based on dividing the students into teams of about forty individuals. Each team has a counselor and teachers assigned to it who become the team leaders. The counselors support teachers through training, monitoring student behavior and progress, and facilitating interventions when necessary. Every staff member is affiliated with a team. The teams are overseen by the County Psychologist. A specialized mentoring program utilizing SFUSD Superintendent's Office staff is available for specific students identified by teams.

Civic Center Secondary School at the John Swett Campus proudly houses both San Francisco School Volunteers and our County School, and is consistently undergoing continuous building improvements to better serve its constituents. The beautiful, immaculate building was constructed in 1911, and has been retrofitted to accommodate its new tenants. The facility blacktop and sports yard has been completely renovated and provides a multitude of uses for students and staff.