New principal and associate principal, Eric L. Brown, Ph.D., and Ali West, respectfully, are leaving their own educational mark on Mission Bay High School.
The new MBHS administrators are both native San Diegans. Brown, a La Jolla High School graduate, played prep football as both a defensive end and fullback.
“We were the largest backfield in San Diego County,” he joked, adding he was also a math teacher and a principal at Mountain Empire High School in rural East County. “I was also in the Army for 15 years,” Brown added.
West is an alumna of Scripps Ranch High School and went to Cal Poly where she earned a degree in biology. She also graduated from San Diego State University with a master’s degree in education leadership.
“I’ve been a science teacher at different charter schools all around San Diego,” West said. “My last job was at a K-12 school where I served as an advisor to families that were fully or partially homeschooled. I also took on additional leadership roles at the school.”
A mom of three who has twins, West left education for a while to take care of her children before realizing that “I was dying to get back in the classroom.” She also served a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia in Africa.
Brown said the high school is back to full-time, in-person instruction. Discussing his school’s uniqueness, Brown noted: “We have students coming here from all over the county as part of our open choice program. We also have our International Baccalaureate focus. A large percentage of our students, in the upper 80th percentile, move on to the next level of education at either a two- or four-year school.”
Asked about her role as associate principal at MBHS, West said: “It’s a mixture of responding to the needs of the teachers, and supporting teachers and students.” She added her role also involves some diplomacy.
“I do a lot of mediation work between kids having trouble getting along with each other,” she said. “We really try to bring in restorative practices and have kids mend that relationship and come together.”
Brown said his role is as diverse as it is clear-cut. “There’s a lot of hats that are worn,” he pointed out. “My job is to make sure that our teachers have everything they need to serve our students. I figure out how to mix that all up and deliver it back to them in a positive manner. My job is also to make sure the community is being served by our (school) site.”
Brown noted that MBHS has been an IB school for eight years. “We’re the fourth largest IB program in the state,” he said adding the IB curriculum “is more rigorous than AP (advanced placement) classes.”
The principal said new changes at the high school include a later 8:45 a.m. start time to allow busy students extra time to get proper sleep. He joked that the later starting time seems to be working.
“We’ve got 90% of our kids that are supposed to be here and they’re here and in class,” he said. “I know. I just checked.”
Of the high school’s feel, West noted, “There is a sense of community pride here at this school. So many of the teachers have graduated from here, or have had kids who’ve gone through here or are going through here. You can just feel there is real love for the community.”
Former MBHS principal Ernest Remillard moved on to the Poway Unified School District.
Mission Bay High School at 2475 Grand Ave. is a public high school that is a magnet school with an emphasis on academic studies. Built in 1953, the school sits on a 55-acre site with 84 classrooms, a gymnasium and newly remodeled weight room, a library with two new computer labs, a small theater, a 790-seat auditorium, landscaped green areas, and student and faculty parking lots.
A new artificial turf football with synthetic track stadium and other athletic fields were completed under Prop. S construction in April 2015.
In 2006, Mission Bay introduced International Baccalaureate courses that students could take to help them get their IB diploma.
The Mission Bay High jazz program is home to the award-winning and touring Mission Bay Preservationists, as well as the Mission Bay Mambo Orchestra, the only youth-Latin big band in California. The music program has been taught by Jean-Paul Balmat, an MBHS alum, since 2006.
People of note who’ve graduated from MBHS include Skip Frye, legendary surfboard shaper and world-class professional surfer; late musician Frank Zappa (attended, but did not graduate); and Arian Foster, collegiate football star for the Tennessee Volunteers, and a running back in the NFL for the Houston Texans.
