> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Second chances for SM students - URL: https://www.smdp.com/second-chances-for-sm-students/ - Published: 2006-10-23T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T21:43:52.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import *CDS offers a new method* OLYMPIC BLVD. — It’s 8:45 a.m. on Friday and high school students are busy learning their square roots and parts of speech. Later, they planned on ordering some lunch, learning a little science and taking in a smattering of fine arts. Sounds like any other day at any other high school, but sounds can be deceiving. In the middle of the lesson plan for essay writing, one student gets up to take a stroll outside because he’s done with his work sheet. Another is busy working on her problems with headphones on. Welcome to the Community Day School, where students are given a second chance at learning, and in some cases, a second chance at life. “We are a high school program for ninth through 12th grade school,” said Community Day School Principal Bill Himelright. “The common thread is they are behind in credits for many reasons.” Students here have come from all across the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for reasons ranging from truancy to a lack of motivation. But their reason to remain is learning. “For whatever reason, they weren’t going to school,” Himelright said. The goal at the Community Day School, now in its second year, is to help students reach the necessary credits to receive a high school diploma and to help them either transition back to a regular high school or graduate from CDS, as it is called by its students. The idea came up two years ago following a summit with Santa Monica Police, city officials, mental health experts and members of the religious community to think of ways to support students who were not performing up to standards. “The district commitment was to think of ways to support students who typically would not be succeeding in a comprehensive high school and think of an alternative way to educate them so they could achieve their potential,” said Laurel Schmidt, director of pupil services. The Santa Monica Police donated, coincidentally, “The Laurel Room”in its Police Activities League facility on Olympic Boulevard to serve as a makeshift campus. The school opened with four students last year and has since expanded to 21. The Community Day School offers students an alternative and less regimented way of learning. Students are provided individualized attention so that if one is ahead of the rest of the class in a certain subject, they will not be held back. Schmidt said the students at CDS are actually bright, they just needed to be exposed to a different approach. Students are also given incentives to perform well through a four-level point system, giving them a chance to win gift certificates, earn off-campus internship privileges and making them eligible to run for officers in the “community.” The “community” comprises of the students, teachers, and principal and serves in the same capacity as a student council. Students can move up the different levels if they earn a certain number of points through good behavior, such as arriving to school on time, meeting individual goals and even controlling anger. Each level has its own benefits. At level one, students are eligible for a daily raffle of gift certificates and other prizes. Level two gives students the chance to work at an off-campus internship, listen to music during class, and makes them eligible to run for secretary or treasurer in the “community.” Students in level three can receive free lunches on Wednesdays, raffle for book and CD gift certificates, and are eligible to run for president and vice president. At level four, the students can have open lunch with a parent or guardian, and most importantly, can transition back to a high school. It can take up to eight weeks to reach the highest level, since a student must spend at least two weeks on one level before they can advance. The “community,”has the final vote in whether a student can move on to the next level. “This whole process is to gear them back into interacting in positive ways and to build self confidence with one another,” Himelright said. GROUP THINKING School begins at 8:15 a.m. and the students start the day broken into two instructional groups — one learns math while the other focuses on English. A movable partition splits the two groups, creating the illusion of two classrooms. After a 15-minute breakfast around 9:15 a.m. the students then switch places. Some days include a special visit from a yoga instructor, other days students stay for an hour after school to study for the high school exit examination. Himelright said students who left regular high school because of truancy problems have found themselves attending Community Day School almost every day. Other students who had a negative attitude toward education have discovered a newfound love for learning and have goals to attend college. Sixteen-year-old Sasha was never a fan of high school. The junior said she would always ditch her classes at Santa Monica High School. She said the vice principal at Samohi called her house during the summer and told her she would have to begin attending CDS. “At the beginning, I wanted to drop out because of what everyone thinks about CDS,” Sasha said.“I didn’t think it was for me.” A meeting with Himelright changed her perception and she decided to give the school a try. “It’s smaller here and you get more one on one attention,”Sasha said.“It seems like they’re trying to work more with you. They don’t tell you ‘this is your assignment, go do it.’” Today, Sasha believes coming to Community Day School changed her life. She said her troubles in school created tension at home. But now, Sasha wants to graduate from high school and attend college to become a counselor for at-risk teenagers because of her own experience. She plans to transition back to Samohi for the second semester of senior year. “I’m basically getting grades that I never thought were possible for me,” said Sasha, vice-president of the “community.” The students at CDS say that alternative learning has given them enthusiasm for school, an enthusiasm that never existed before. “It’s changed my perspective on school and learning,” said 17-year-old Gabriel, a senior who came from SAMOHI. “I want to graduate and I’m going to graduate.” Gabriel came to CDS last year because he was short on credits. The “community”president says he wants to join the military or perhaps begin working immediately after graduation this year. “I feel good,”Gabriel said.“I can graduate from Samohi with my friends.” At least one student plans to transition this school year in January. Another two or three students also hope to move back to a regular high school by June. Angel, a 16-year-old junior from Vista Del Mar, has never attended any of the district’s public high schools. When she transitions back in January, she will get her first taste of high school life. The aspiring lawyer said she has already set up a couple of study groups at Samohi, where she expects to succeed, thanks to the support of friends there. “Even though it’s a small high school, it’s pretty much the same as a regular high school,”Angel said.“We do the same stuff, go on field trips and do the same work.” Administrators are currently focusing on fine-tuning the program and hope it will expand to include more students. Since the school is borrowing just one room from the Santa Monica Police Department, another building is also on the radar. Newly appointed Superintendent Dianne Talarico visited the school last month and asked the students how they wanted to see their school grow. The students told Talarico, who oversaw alternative programs in her hometown of Canton, Ohio, that they did not want to see their school grow too fast. They would like to someday have a space of their own with a computer lab, a gym and field. It was a heartwarming experience for Talarico. The students were reserved and quiet when she first arrived for the visit. By the end of the day, the students had opened up and even made a card thanking her for taking an interest in them. “I don’t want them to think that we don’t care as much about their education as we do about everyone else’s,” Talarico said. “I want them to know that I’m very interested.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/102306-04_02.jpg) New approach: CDS offers a less regimented way of teaching. (Photo: Melody Hanatani/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 23, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)