El Monte High showcases student engagement, English‑learner supports in board presentation

Principal Eddie Cuevas and El Monte High School staff presented an instructional update to the Al Monte Union High School District Board of Trustees on March 19, describing a combined student‑engagement and instructional program focused on collaboration, language acquisition and student well‑being.

Cuevas opened by framing the school's priorities around students "finding their roar," then introduced a student engagement segment featuring student leaders who described rallies, cultural events and ASB activities. "Al Monte High School truly is our second home," student MCs said, noting activities intended to build belonging and school spirit.

Assistant Principal for Instruction Brian Covey described the school's instructional framework: teacher collaboration through professional learning communities, instructional rounds, and explicit content and language objectives. Covey asked trustees to participate in a short discussion and said the site is using data protocols to target interventions and scale successful practices.

Instructional coach Sean Maher highlighted strategies to boost academic discussions and to shift learning ownership to students. He said the school has focused on academic language and moved staff toward consistent data use and walkthroughs: "By doing that, we're hoping that from the school level down to the individual course level, we are getting people looking at data, thinking about the data, and then taking action on the data," Maher said.

The presentation placed particular emphasis on English learners. The school's EL coordinator (introduced in the presentation) described a set of supports: an EL counselor assigned to campus, a ROAR recognition program for small improvements, a new designated ELD elective (college and career prep that is A–G approved), EL boot camps, and outreach to parents including "madres' luncheons." The presenter said the school began the year with roughly 300 English learners and estimated about 28% were newcomers; the staff said reclassification rates and the number of students earning the California State Seal of Biliteracy were points of pride.

Cuevas and staff gave high‑level outcome figures: improvements in SBAC ELA by about 16 percentage points and in SBAC math by about 9 points since 2018, and a statement that 56 students were reclassified as English learners (presenters offered to provide detailed data in the Friday memo). Trustees responded with praise and asked the board to continue supporting programs for English learners. Trustee Padilla said the presentation "hit it out of the ballpark" and thanked teachers, counselors and the EL counselor by name.

The board did not take action on the presentation but several trustees asked staff what additional board support would be useful. Cuevas asked the board to "please support the programs that we have at El Monte High School to continue to support our English language learners."