‘Devastated:’ Students mourn loss of high school diploma lifeline

The student lounge at Gateway to College hummed as giddy high school seniors arrived to pick up their graduation caps and gowns wrapped in neat bundles. But for those not walking the stage this year, the future is uncertain. 

After 12 years of helping West Contra Costa Unified School District students at risk of not finishing high school, the Contra Costa College-based Gateway program held its final graduation on June 1. It is one of many district programs that were part of a $19.7 million 2024-25 budget reduction approved in January. Gateway helped students who had dropped out of high school, or who were in danger of not graduating, to earn high school diplomas as well as college credits. This year Gateway supported about 80 students, according to program director Charles Ramirez. The majority of its enrollees over the years — 70% — had Richmond addresses, he said. 

Parents and staff say the program has been a lifeline for some of the district’s most vulnerable students and that it inspired them to later earn their college degrees. 

“We watched the shy kid come in and leave here able to talk to people,” said resource specialist Kerry Sciacqua (“Ms. Kerry” to her students). “We watched the kid that maybe got into trouble a lot everywhere else, leave here with straight As in college classes.”

Gateway’s graduation rate is 37% — excluding 2024 graduates — and about 415 have graduated from the program since it opened in 2012, Ramirez said. 

But, on Jan. 24, the WCCUSD School Board voted unanimously to eliminate the Gateway program as part of the nearly $20 million budget cut.

Left in the lurch, student advocates against closure

Sophomore Jamie Liu, who is 16, is one of about 30 students who have been left in the lurch. When she started at Gateway in January, she felt lucky. Gateway was going to give her an opportunity to catch up after falling behind at Pinole Valley High School. 

But just weeks after Liu arrived on campus, she and the rest of Gateway’s staff and students abruptly learned that the spring semester would be their last.

“It was devastating,” Liu said. She started a petition to save Gateway, collecting 399 signatures to date.

Karl Redman, who lives in Central Richmond, also started in January. 

“Everyone was welcoming,” he said. Soon after he arrived he said he was “having real conversations and really growing as a person.” 

Redman turns 17 this month and crammed four online courses into three weeks so he could join the last class of Gateway graduates. 

WCCUSD faces takeover by county office of education

WCCUSD has faced increasing pressure from the Contra Costa County Office of Education to implement its fiscal solvency plan, especially as $139 million that it received in pandemic funding will expire in September. 

Interim Associate Superintendent Kim Moses noted at the Jan. 24 school board meeting that, if cuts were not made, the Contra Costa County Office of Education had said it would take over the district.  

“This year was the hardest year ever, ever, in terms of decisions,” WCCUSD board member Leslie Reckler told Richmondside, referring to budget cuts. Her area includes El Cerrito, Kensington, East Richmond Heights, Richmond Annex, Marina Bay and Point Richmond. “And it also tells you how unbelievably fiscally unstable the district is. I mean, I would not be doing this — and I am very sure that the superintendent would not be proposing this — unless there were serious fiscal concerns. And there are,” she said. 

District officials did not respond to Richmondside’s request for comment. 

Since January, the community has made its opposition to the closure known. In addition to signing Liu’s petition, several local residents spoke about the issue at a Feb. 7 school board meeting, and 40 students and family members submitted letters of support for the program that were shared with the board.

Students wrote about how the program enabled them to graduate, to go to four-year colleges and to believe in their own intrinsic value and potential. 

Gateway administrative assistant Linda Johnson said the letters are still pouring into her inbox.

Gateway staff said they didn’t know the program’s future was on the chopping block until the Jan. 24 vote. “This decision came as a surprise to us,” said Ramirez.

The program was not specifically discussed that day. Instead it was cut, along with a list of “non-salary reductions” items. The board also cut $14.1 million in salaries that day.

“We were listed with things like copy machine contracts and food budgets and travel budgets,” said Sciacqua. “As if we didn’t have direct student contact. And as if we’re an expense that doesn’t also have revenue.”

Like other WCCUSD schools, Gateway is funded in large part by the state as determined by student attendance.

Ramirez says that attendance was high in the fall semester, resulting in full funding (about $450,000), but dropped in the spring following the closure announcement.

Gateway supporters say WCCUSD is unlikely to recoup some of this state money next school year, since some Gateway students won’t be enrolled at an in-district school. They also have attendance concerns for those who do stay in the district. 

Attendance is down 8.3% in WCCUSD compared to pre-pandemic levels, which means fewer incoming state dollars. This is a trend in school districts statewide.

In a phone call, Moses said she estimated that the district will bring in roughly $250 million in attendance-based state funding next school year, assuming this year’s rate. If attendance were to bounce back to a pre-pandemic level, she says that number would be about $17 million higher. 

Where the rubber hits the road is who shows up in classrooms,” said Reckler. “That’s how you get paid.”

El Cerrito parent Laura Andrews is frustrated by the district’s emphasis on attendance. “To me her mental health was more important than making sure she got to school,” said Andrews of her daughter. 

Once her daughter started at Gateway, “she just blossomed,” Andrews said. “She went from the shy, quiet kid to the kid that had all the answers. She was that kid.” She was excited to go to class and her attendance improved, Andrews said. 

39 Gateway students graduated this month. A dozen more are working to complete graduation requirements before June 30, said Ramirez. 

Redman walked the stage on June 1. “It’s a very, very strong sense of pride,” he said. He also led his classmates and their families in the pledge of allegiance.

Sciacqua was the one who called him to ask if he was ready for the role at the ceremony. Karl said, “Well, if you’re calling me, you must think I deserve it. So I think I deserve it too.”

The roughly 30 students who still need help have a few choices: return to their original high school; transfer to Sylvester Greenwood Academy, an alternative high school in Richmond, or — for those over 18 — enroll at a local adult school.

Liu doesn’t know where she’ll go in the fall, likely Greenwood or back to Pinole, she said.

“I’m a little nervous because, to be completely honest. I’m not sure if I really have any hope left for it,” she said. “Especially losing this chance.”

Back in the Gateway student lounge, Sciacqua scans the walls, which are papered with students’ art, photographs of beaming graduates holding their diplomas and letters from Gateway alumni. 

“We brought them here, told them we’d help them get to graduation, and then had to let them down,” said Sciacqua. “We’re just another place that disappointed these students.”