Alta Vista High School and Murray High School Named CA Model Continuation High Schools

Vista Unified’s Alta Vista High School (AVHS) and Major General Raymond Murray High School (Murray/MGM) have been recognized as Model Continuation Schools (MCHS) by the state of California Department of Education. The VUSD sites were two out of only 60 high schools throughout the state to receive the honor in 2026.

Continuation High Schools provide comprehensive services to students facing academic challenges through innovative instructional practices, flexible scheduling, and guidance and counseling services. State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, congratulated the selected schools, highlighting their “tremendous efforts as alternative campuses of learning.”

In an announcement of the schools, Thurmond said, “The priority of our Model Continuation High Schools is to give students more than a diploma. The teachers and administrators aim to provide students with a student-centered approach that meets their diverse academic, social, and emotional needs and opportunities to explore options beyond high school and prepare students for the future—whether they choose to pursue further education or join the workforce.”

Dr. Joel Miller is the principal of both Alta Vista and Murray High Schools and says of the award, “We’re excited; we have students saying that their lives are being transformed by coming to the school. Recognition like this really affirms our belief that we are headed in the right direction.”

The award is similar to an accreditation process, where each school is visited by a panel of experts, including fellow continuation school staff, to see the schools in action and meet students and community members. The schools were evaluated on a variety of factors, including the programs offered to students, the continual improvement of the schools, and the demographics of students.

Internships, CTE Pathways, and Evening Opportunities
The school’s internship and work-based learning program enables students to apply their education in the community to build confidence and important connections. The program gives students opportunities to gain paid internships aligned with their interests with a one-on-one mentor off-campus.

Miller and the teams at AVHS and MGM have been expanding hands-on, real-world pathways for students for several years, including utilizing the facilities at Vista’s comprehensive high school sites for classes in Welding and Construction. On their own campuses, Murray hosts Cosmetology classes while Alta Vista hosts an Emergency Medical Response (EMR) course.

Miller says the ability to host classes and access other district facilities provides flexibility for students. Some attend school to specifically work on credit recovery, while others focus on their interests and potential future career paths.

A third option offering both structure and support is guided internships in hands-on subjects. “These are great for students who are not ready to fully go out in the labor community,” says Miller. “They are still on campus with the safety of an instructor but also work hands-on with a subject that interests them and aligns with their future.”

He also attributes the unique ‘PM Program’ at each school to securing the Model School award. The program runs at Alta Vista every Tuesday evening, and at Murray on Thursday evenings; classes in the PM Program are also open to community members not attending either school.

Attendees can choose from classes in physical fitness/training, parenting, music, steel drums, bilingual interpretation training classes, and more. Attendance in the program has doubled in the past year, and developing the schools into broader hub spaces for the community has been a great success.

District Support a Factor in Award
Miller emphasizes the support he gets from VUSD, which he says helped the award’s visiting committee understand the variety of supports that enable students to receive such a comprehensive experience.

“We get many, many yeses for our ideas [from the district]. And that’s because the district is very invested in these students, who face pretty significant educational barriers. We're very grateful, and it's really paying off in terms of how students are resonating. Many students and their parents have called the Programs at MGM and AVHS life-changing.”

Back to the Model School award, Miller says: “It’s proof that we’re leaning into students' interests and strengths to give them experiences they may not have otherwise been exposed to. It takes a lot of time, energy, and resources to take a group of students out to canvas businesses to host them in an internship, but our staff is engaged, and the district supports us.

“We don't want our goal to just be a diploma. We set our sights farther down the road. This helps students realize the relevance of what we're teaching in high school, which can help engage them in a way that perhaps a comprehensive, large site couldn't do.

“We have students saying their lives are being transformed by coming to our school, so we know that we're going in the right direction.”