Central Coast High School

There's a saying in writing that when you're done, you've really just begun. Writing is never really finished. There's always a better word. A stronger idea. A different way to say it.

There’s another part of writing we don’t talk about as much. The margins. The white space. The part people don’t always notice, but quietly makes everything else work. It gives the reader room to breathe. Without it, even the best writing feels overwhelming.

At CCHS, that idea isn’t just about writing. It’s how we’ve approached this entire year. What’s made the biggest difference hasn’t just been what we added, it’s what we made space for. In schools, when everything is packed in, there’s no room. No room for connection. No room for curiosity. No room for relevance.

So we made space and that changed things. You can see and feel the difference in what’s happening across our campus.

By 9:00am on Monday mornings, our students weren’t walking into a classroom. They were tying aprons, prepping ingredients, and getting ready for the lunch rush. This quarter, our advanced culinary students spent time working in a real kitchen through an internship at Meals on Wheels. They even went through the entire process. They applied, interviewed, and worked in a fast paced kitchen environment.

The goal? Give students real experience with mass food production, food prep, and customer service skills in an authentic setting. The internship is designed differently. It happens during the school day and students are paid, removing barriers that often prevent access to opportunities like this.

Then something else happened...

Our students weren’t just learning how to cook. They were being mentored. Chef Chase and Chef Adolfo created an environment where students felt part of a team. After the first day, students were already asking to come back.

You can feel why our students wanted to go back the moment you walk into the Meals on Wheels kitchen. There’s an energy. A sense of pride. Staff light up and say, “The high schoolers are here,” because our students aren’t just visitors, they belong there. When a student was sick one day, people noticed. They ask where he is, by name.

This is partnership at CCHS. Thank you Jacob, Chase and Adolfo for making this happen! Watch the short video to see our students in action.

Fades. Tapers. Lineups. You’ll see them in action at CCHS through our new barbering course. Many of our students already cut hair or have thought about turning it into something more. This course gives them the chance to take that interest seriously.

Through our Boss Up program, we brought Anthony Torres from Infinity Cuts onto campus to work directly with students. They’re learning real barbering skills from someone who lives this work every day. If they want to keep going, we help them take the next step, whether that’s launching a small business or enrolling in cosmetology school.

Barbering is one of those spaces where interest does a lot of the heavy lifting. When students care about something, they lean in. They take ownership. The impact is real. From there, their confidence grows. They take pride in their work. They begin to see themselves differently. They see themselves as creators, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

This is where the margins start to matter. It’s invisible until it isn’t. Once you see it, it’s undeniable because it changes what comes next.

Thank you, Anthony, for showing up for our students and teaching them your craft. Watch the 40 second video to see our barbering class in action.

“Can we learn how to do things… like change a tire or fix a car?” That’s how this class started. Students asked for it. So we brought it. But what started as a basic mechanics class quickly turned into something more.

Students started asking bigger questions. “Can we build an engine?” So David brought one in, along with tools and an ability to connect with our students that can’t be taught. Starting this Friday, our greenhouse will begin transforming into a working car shop filled with engine parts, tools, and students working side by side. In just a few weeks, students will be working to get that engine inside a Jeep.

Students are already engaged. Asking questions. Learning new skills. Solving problems together. For many of our students, this is bigger than learning how to build an engine. It’s about rewriting a story that hasn’t always included them. Students who have been pushed to the margins are now experiencing what it feels like to be capable. To figure something out. To succeed. To enjoy school. This class creates that space.

Thank you to David Pineda for taking a vision and making it a reality.

Remember our coffee shop? Well, it has a name. Our students named it Nepantla. Students didn’t just pick a word. They thought deeply about what this space should represent and chose a name that reflects exactly where they are.

Nepantla is a Spanish word that describes being in an in between space. Not where you started, not fully where you’re going, but in the middle of becoming. It can feel uncertain. Messy. It's also necessary because it’s where transformation happens. That’s where many of our students are.

Nepantla represents that space for our school. It’s a place where students are rewriting parts of their story, trying on new versions of who they might become, and starting to see themselves differently. At CCHS, we are creating that space. A place to land. A place to connect. A place where belonging is built intentionally because belonging doesn’t just happen. It’s designed. Created. Curated. Protected.

Yes, it’s a coffee shop, but it’s also designed to change the feel of a school day. A reason students come to campus earlier. A place they choose to be. A space where conversations happen naturally and students build ownership over something that belongs to them. Nepantla isn’t just a coffee shop. It’s a signal of what we’re building at Central Coast. A school where students aren’t just attending, they’re connecting and contributing.

They. Are. Becoming.

Nepantla is almost here. We’re hoping to officially open our student run coffee shop on Tuesday, 5/19, alongside the community partners who helped bring it to life. Smooth Coffee will be joining us with a pop up pour over station and helping launch our own CCHS coffee blend, something that now belongs to our students and our story.

You can feel the change happening at CCHS. In the spaces being created. In the partnerships forming. In the way students connect to school and to each other. When we asked our staff about our school culture this year, they felt it too.

Last newsletter, we looked at belonging through our students’ eyes. As we close out the year, we turned to our staff and asked what they’ve been noticing and whether things feel different after our first year as a Community School. Here’s what they shared:

• “CCHS feels more warm, welcoming, and helpful… now a space where students come early and stay late as they engage with the people, activities, and experiences offered.”

• “Our students feel genuinely heard and valued here… the opportunities for leadership have been transformative and given them a belief in themselves.”

• "There have been so many added opportunities for students. I've heard students say that they think its so "cool" having all the different opportunities on campus like hvac, car detailing, equine therapy, etc that they wouldn't be getting otherwise. Students are engaged and it is helping with student culture and belonging."

• "I think about one of my students who has been pushed to speak up and out, hosting community partners, events and participating in podcasts. She wasn't doing so well in first semester history and was hard to convince to put in any further work. As her confidence has grown so has her commitment to her work and her grades are improving. Its the kind of change that impacts everyone as they feel a sense of belonging"

• Students who have expressed that ‘school is not for them’ have found motivation to attend more often.

When we look at the numbers, we see the same story. The chart below shows 94% of staff, 16 out of 17, agree or strongly agree that our school culture has improved since becoming a Community School. One person felt neutral.

1 = Strongly Disagree
2 = Disagree
3 = Neutral
4 = Agree
5 = Strongly Agree

That kind of alignment doesn’t happen on its own. It's built. Intentionally. It’s belonging taking hold as a system, not just a moment. When nearly every adult in a building feels it, you know this isn’t just a new program or a set of activities. We’re designing a school where belonging is the starting point, not the outcome.

And that one neutral response matters too. It reminds us this work isn’t finished. We’re still building. Just like writing, it’s never really done. It’s about continuing to move in the right direction, together.

Amanda Nizza doesn’t just see potential in students, she creates opportunities and puts the right supports in place to help them succeed. She has this ability to see the big picture and then zoom all the way in to the details. She can take something like Boss Up, that at first feels like what are we even doing, and turn it into something that makes complete sense.

What makes her work stand out is what she does next. She connects it. To AVID standards. To individual student goals. To real skills students can actually use beyond the classroom. She sees the pattern before the rest of us even know there is one, like someone solving a Rubik’s Cube while the rest of us are still turning it in our hands trying to figure out how it works.

More importantly, Amanda is the kind of person who cares deeply about her students. She advocates for them. She knows them by their stories, their strengths, and the kind of push they need to move forward.

She doesn’t wait for opportunities to come to our students. She goes out and creates them, like our Boss Up program. Then, she saw a CPR course and made it happen for our students. Amanda makes sure those opportunities turn into something real for our students. That’s the difference. Amanda is the difference.

Behind every opportunity our students experience, there’s someone helping to connect the dots. For us, that’s Kimberly Moir.

Kimberly does more than organize events. She builds pathways. She helps students with resumes, job applications, and college and scholarship support, while also coordinating career fairs and field trips. She’s constantly working to expand what students see as possible. She doesn’t just create opportunities, she makes sure students can step into them. Exposure becomes belief. It’s realizing, that could be me.

One of the highlights this quarter was when Kimberly took our student baristas on tours of local coffee shops. Not just to observe, but to experience it. She bought them coffee at every shop so they could think about menu design, customer experience, and what they wanted their own space to feel like. Then they came back and used those ideas to help shape Nepantla.

You don't always see this work, but that’s what this looks like behind the scenes here at CCHS. Not just planning, but building real connections between school and the world students are stepping into. People like Kimberly are the ones that push this forward. And this work wouldn't be possible without her.

At the beginning of the year, Alexis Bollin from MPC had a vision, bring horticulture and drip irrigation to our students.

We talked about it. Planned around it. Kept coming back to it. But we couldn’t quite find the right person to bring it to life.

Until we did ....

Meet Chand from Stillwater Landscape! She came out to campus, walked our garden, and immediately started seeing possibilities. What began as a walkthrough quickly turned into a plan. From there, it became a true partnership. Chand teamed up with Tracy Niewenhous, and together they created lessons to teach our students how to design and install an irrigation system in our own garden.

Now, a few weeks into the class, students are mapping irrigation lines, thinking through design challenges, and slowly transforming the garden one step at a time.

This is partnership at CCHS. Not a one time visit, but co-creating something that lives on our campus and in our students’ hands. This work was made possible by two incredible partners who turned a vision into something real. Thank you, Alexis and Chand!

In December, we partnered with Valley Health Associates to bring a Resource Fair to our campus where we had over 30 community partners attend. Support was right here on our campus and easily accessible for our students and families.

Watch this 40 second video of our Resource Fair

This spring, we partnered with the Adult School to offer FREE computer and cell phone classes for our families. Johnny Gutierrez taught our families basic technology skills they can use daily. This was a direct ask from our families because we’re focused on offering what our families want, not what we think they need.

And, most importantly, this is about equity and access. When families have access to technology and know how to use it, it strengthens them. And when we strengthen our families, we strengthen our students.

We offered a CPR Certification course for our students and opened it up to our families. The certification lasts two years and builds real skills for safety and future opportunities. Thank you Amanda Nizza for making this happen!

Watch Catching Up With The Wildcats to see our CPR class in action!

Celeste Pineda - Ever wonder where all these great ideas come from? Ever wonder where we find all these great people? All of this is because of Celeste, she’s the person welcoming you as you walk onto campus. Celeste doesn’t just have ideas, she makes them happen. When logistics aren’t quite smooth, she sees it and helps tweak it. She’s the kind of person you can laugh and still get stuff done. Things wouldn't have been possible without her this year!

Johnstone Supply - Roy and Eric from Johnstone Supply worked alongside our students and administered the EPA 608 certification exam, a challenging test grounded in math and science. We’re proud that two of our students passed. Roy and Eric took the time to connect, answer questions, laugh with students, and build real relationships. It doesn't stop there. Roy is now mentoring one of our students to help him get into the field. And they’ll be back with us next school year!

Lindsay Brown- Lindsay has been leading our data collection from the community to better understand their perspectives on Central Coast. What stood out in the data was how often people mentioned our students. Visitors described students as welcoming, engaged, respectful, and involved. Many community members had a positive impression of CCHS, pointing to the school culture, student leadership, and sense of connection they experienced during the Resource Fair. Want to see the data for yourself? Click here to read the full report. Thank you, Lindsay!

Noelle Raneses - Noelle launched our Instagram page to capture the day to day at CCHS. If something looks professional and polished, it’s Noelle. If you check out CCHS_community, you’re seeing Noelle’s creativity and eye for design all over it. One thing Noelle shared was, “It makes me wish I was a CCHS student too,” after learning more about the opportunities available to our students. That says a lot about what we’re building here. Thank you, Noelle!

Victor Granados -Victor launched Catching Up with the Wildcats, which helped tell the story of CCHS through student voice. When working with our students, Victor just naturally jumped in. It felt like he was part of the team. After completing his service hours, he kept showing up and helping because he saw there was more work to do. One thing Victor shared was how much he appreciated the care students receive at CCHS, and that meant a lot coming from someone who experienced our school from the inside. Thank you, Victor!

Our students' stories don’t live in a data point or a single program or the black ink in a bloated curriculum. They live in the moments that changed something for a student.

The two students who passed their EPA 608 certification and are now heading into an HVAC career. The student who didn’t think college was for him, and is now attending MPC. The student who discovered her love for cooking and is attending a culinary program in the Fall.

Those moments? They live in the margins. In the confidence that was built. In the connections that were made. That’s what makes CCHS feel different. It’s what makes our students show up. This didn’t just happen. It came from intentionally creating space for students to feel seen. Seen and valued. When students have a reason to belong, they find a reason to show up. Once they’re there, everything else starts to move.

We made space this year and what grew from that space goes beyond programs or outcomes. It’s a school where students feel like they belong. As we close out this school year, it would be easy to think this is where the story ends. But just like writing, we’re not finished. We are just beginning. We are transforming. Like our students, we are becoming.

We're not done making space. We'd love you to be part of what comes next ...

We’re working to expand access to:

• medical, dental, and vision services
• career connected learning opportunities
• have a different idea? We're all ears

We’d love to partner with you!

Let's Connect!
Want to visit? Scan the QR code, or just click here

Let's be friends on Instagram: cchs_community