{"id":235485,"date":"2012-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/monarch-school-breaks-ground\/"},"modified":"2012-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T08:00:00","slug":"monarch-school-breaks-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/monarch-school-breaks-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarch School breaks ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new East Village facility will more than double student capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Monarch
(l to r) Bennet Greenwald, Scott Kaats, Mark McLaren, Ronne Froman, Ric Davy, Jessica Gonzales, Jim McMillan, Jennifer Robinson and Rosalie Merks. (Photo by Paul Nestor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Loralee Olejnik | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Monarch School, San Diego\u2019s nationally recognized school serving the needs of homeless students, will be moving to a new location upon completion of its renovation.\u00a0In front of a standing room-only crowd, the school held a groundbreaking ceremony Feb. 16 for their new campus in Downtown\u2019s East Village.<\/p>\n

The new school will be a complete remodel of the 51,000-square-foot warehouse at 1625 Newton Ave. near Petco Park and the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) hub. It will allow Monarch School to more than double enrollment and expand the programs they offer to San Diego students.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is about helping children take flight,\u201d said Monarch School CEO Ronne Froman, a retired Navy Admiral and former Chief Operating Officer for the city of San Diego.\u00a0 \u201cThis is the future of children\u2019s education that are impacted by homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Froman said the expansion process has taken approximately eight years. About $10 million of the roughly $15 million capital campaign has been raised through a combination of private and corporate donations. BYCOR General Contractors is overseeing the renovation.<\/p>\n

In the still unfinished building with concrete floors and sheet rock, hundreds of students, staff, volunteers and philanthropists crowded into the planned multi-purpose room, which is the size of the current entire Monarch School located in Little Italy.<\/p>\n

\"Monarch<\/a>
(Photo by Paul Nestor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThink of this building as a cocoon,\u201d said Greg Cox of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, whose district borders the new school location. \u201cWe\u2019ll come back in the fall and it will be a beautiful butterfly.\u201d The new location is expected to be complete by October 2012.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1988, the Monarch School is currently located at 808 W. Cedar St. across from the County Administration building. It serves students in Kindergarten through 12th grades, and they are currently at capacity\u00a0with approximately 150 students at a time in a 10,000-square-foot building. The new building will have the capacity for 350 students, doubling the current number.<\/p>\n

In addition, the school provides students access to health and dental care, food, clothing and transportation. It has broad community support, ranging from a large contingent of volunteers who do everything from tutor students as well as drive them to doctor\u2019s appointments, to support from local businesses like Specialty Produce. The produce company donates fresh fruits and vegetables every day for the students to eat.<\/p>\n

The Monarch School is unique, not only in regard to the extensive community support it receives, but also in the relationships it develops.\u00a0\u201cYes, it\u2019s great to have a quality building, but what\u2019s most important [are] these children and adults and the quality of interaction between them every day,\u201d said Dr. Randolph Ward, superintendent of the San Diego County Office of Education.<\/p>\n

Ward addressed a group of\u00a0Monarch students at the groundbreaking, saying, \u201cLook around you and look at the people who care about you. You\u2019ve heard that overused phrase, \u2018It takes a village.\u2019 This is it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Jerry Sanders attended the groundbreaking and said, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me, but the Monarch School is the only one of its kind in the country.\u201d Sanders said the Monarch template should be replicated across the country.<\/p>\n

In a report provided by the foster youth and homeless services department at the San Diego County Office of Education, the County had 15,870 homeless students in the 2010 – 2011 school year. This number is approximately 2,000 more than the prior year. Because of their unstable living situations, frequent absences and need to move between different schools often, these students quickly fall behind and lose access to educational opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new campus is about leveling the playing field for our students,\u201d said Joel Garcia, principal of the Monarch School. \u201cThe one thing that will not change is the climate, the feel of the school\u2026 [which is] a high academic and social experience in an environment that is nurturing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia said the school will offer high school students the basic academic courses that are required to attend public universities.\u00a0About 71 percent of students that graduate from Monarch School enroll in some form of post-secondary education.<\/p>\n

In statistics provided by the Monarch School, the average student arrives nearly three years behind standard grade levels, yet the students progress approximately one academic year for every six months they are in attendance.<\/p>\n

Fabian San Elias, a senior, came to Monarch in November 2010 after his family found themselves homeless after losing their home in the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I came to Monarch, my dreams and goals were gone,\u201d San Elias said. \u201cI started to believe I was going to be a high school dropout based on the way things were going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearing graduation, San Elias said he now wants to be a teacher and counselor so he can \u201cinspire young minds like [I] was inspired at Monarch.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new East Village facility will more than double student capacity By Loralee Olejnik | Downtown News The Monarch School, San Diego\u2019s nationally recognized school serving the needs of homeless students, will be moving to a new location upon completion of its renovation.\u00a0In front of a standing room-only crowd, the school held a groundbreaking ceremony […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Monarch School breaks ground","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}