With the 2023-24 school year winding down, now is a good time to take a look back at some of its highlights.

Among them:

New Construction – The large construction projects on campus (new academic support building and kitchen) were completed on time and look great. We enjoyed celebrating the new state of the art facilities with the community at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Awards – Helix’s Performing Arts Department won the Best communities in Music Award from the NAMM Foundation, Kristine McKenna won GUHSD’s Special Education Teacher of the Year, James Cook won Golden Apple Teacher of the Year and Katie Pipes won Performing Arts Teacher of the Year from Friends of East County Arts.

Career Fair & Trades Day – We started the tradition of offering two career fairs on campus each year, to help expand students’ knowledge of post-secondary options. In the fall, we host a Career Fair, inclusive to all industries. In our first annual event last October, we hosted 45 career vendors in our gym. Students took a personality test ahead of time to see which industries they’d fit best in. In the spring, we host a Trades Day, which is specific to careers that do not require a college degree. In our second annual event this April, we had over 25 vendors representing construction trades, cosmetology, military and more.

Dogs & Cats – Duchess, Helix’s facility dog, had a great first year on campus. She brightens the days of so many students and staff. Pommet the cat also occasionally saunters in as the unofficial campus cat. He lives nearby and is well cared for, but prefers to hang out at Helix in the evenings. He roams the campus, riding on the facilities cart and joining sports practices. Duchess and Pommet aren’t exactly friends but have agreed to coexist peacefully.

Annual Fundraising Breakfast – After a seven-year hiatus, we brought back the annual fundraising breakfast for our C4Me College Tour program. We loved gathering with over 250 Helix parents and community members for this event in our gym.

ASPIRE Programs & Clubs – The ASPIRE fitness and dance programs were among the most popular clubs this year with strong attendance and special communities. The new wall ball club led by Sara Young became one our most popular new clubs and culminated in a few epic staff versus student competitions.

Student Office of Sustainability – Thanks to the charter board approval and administrative support, Helix had a successful year building capacity for systemic campus changes, even earning recognition from the Center for Green Schools. Kevin Myron, science teacher, was appointed the sustainability coordinator. To ensure student voices remained at the heart of the action plan, the Student Office of Sustainability (SOS) was created. This team of 16 student-leaders are each focused on writing a specific portion of the action plan (i.e. Food & Compost, Energy & Water Reduction, and more). The SOS organization is on track to present their drafted Helix Sustainability Action Plan at the Helix Charter Board Meeting in June 2024. Also, thanks to the support of I Love A Clean San Diego and our facilities team, 7 waste sorting stations (liquids, compost, recycling, landfill) are located across campus during meal times. New “No-Idling/Clean Air Zone” signage is located at student drop off areas aiming to improve air quality on the campus. It’s clear there is still much room for improvement as a campus. The Helix Sustainability Action Plan by SOS, charts a course toward a healthier, greener learning environment and a more sustainable campus. It goes beyond simply minimizing our environmental impact; SOS aims to improve environmental health for all while increasing the number of graduates at Helix that graduate environmentally literate. We’re on our way to making a greener Helix.

Family First Events – Almost every Thursday night, we hosted events for families. We love these events not only because they are educational, but because it’s a time to get together and meet other families. 

A few highlights were:

• Tree planting and education with Tree San Diego & the City of La Mesa. We walked the campus with an arborist and they gifted us a Chinese Pistache tree that we planted by the new buildings.
• Screenagers movie showing in the PAC
• Teenage brain development info night with Julie Damschen
• English learner family mixer & awards night

Campus Visits – We welcomed many groups to tour the campus and see our special programs, including Congresswomen Sara Jacobs, SD County Office of Education, and several school districts from all over California.

Blood Drives – Helix hosted two blood drives this year and students and community members donated 134 units of blood to the San Diego Blood Bank. One unit of blood can touch the lives of three people, so we will help save up to 402 lives.

Every 15 Minutes – See article in this issue by Rhys McElroy for more on this impactful program.

Sports highlights:

• CIF D1 Boys Track Championships
• Anthony Gash – CIF Champ in Shot Put and Discus
• Shon Martin – CIF Champ in 110 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles, and Long Jump
• Spencer Gray – CIF runner up in the 200M
• Boys Golf – League Champs – Daniel Ho and Ian Kim CIF Championship Qualifiers
• Daniel Ho – State Golf Championship Qualifier
• Girls Track DI Track – Fourth Place
• Riley Hull – CIF 500M Freestyle – Second Place and qualified for the CIF State Championships in Clovis.
• Jacob Drake – Qualified for CIF State Para-Swim 50 and 100M freestyle

And now for a few highlights from our staff:

Lenelle Wylie: Taking Riley Hull to the CIF State Meet in Fresno and sending 50 kids off to take their AP Biology exam.

Paula Ann Trevino: Working with the Patient Care Career Pathway to establish an internship partnership with Sharp Healthcare.

Barbara Dagman: Working with my brilliant student teacher Kate Sayre, whose grace and talents are inspiring and witnessing my English 122 students perform a reading of their pieces through a program with the Moxie Theater. It was powerful.

Emily Lareau & Deborah Naranjo: The first annual College Rejection Party (Alondra Lopez-Barajas’ idea and Gillian Morgan’s execution)! It was such a fun way to reframe rejection as a normal part of the college application process. The students had a great time and embraced rejection! It was wonderful to see more smiles and less worry this year when students made their post secondary choices.

Yolanda Street: Going on the C4Me week-long college tour trip was the highlight of my year. I loved making connections and seeing them fall in love with colleges.

Yuchiao Nancy Wu-Walden: Cheering on and celebrating my students’ accomplishments as they competed in their MESA STEM competitions.

Brianna Wuensch: The expansion of the Helix dance program. I had the honor of running Helix’s first competitive contemporary dance team where they won first place in their division at the Sharp International Dance Competition.

Colleen Robinson: Returning to work in January after a nine-month leave of absence to care for my husband. Helix students and staff are amazing and getting back to the job I love has been a gift

Michelle Tolvo Chan: ​Favorite highlight was Helix (HLX group) coming in first place at the “San Diego Sings” show choir competition hosted by Bonita Vista.

Kate Diaz: The best part of this year was having Kathy Gunion, Renee Milburn, Joan Urich and Linda Brown still here. Happy retirement, ladies.