Role of High Schools Changing, El Toro and Trabuco Hills Principals Say

The college admissions game is changing, and students and high schools need to adapt, two principals said Friday.

Speaking at a weekly Kiwanis Club meeting in Lake Forest, Trabuco Hills High School Principal Craig Collins and El Toro High Principal Allan Mucerino outlined some of the challenges and solutions they see, including a stronger emphasis on vocational programs.

It's getting tougher to gain admission to top California colleges, the principals said.

“We had a student who earned a 4.68 GPA and wasn’t admitted into UCLA,” Collins said.

Mucerino agreed: “Students can do all the right things, but with the state budget cuts, many UC schools are beginning to admit more students from out of state because they pay a higher tuition."

Taking advanced placement classes is one way for students to improve their admission chances, the principals said. But educators need to rethink the role of high schools, they said. What's really important are the lifelong friendships students develop and the experiences they have, the principals said.

Parents and students also should take another look at vocational programs, Collins said.

“We send a message to students that they are failures if they don’t go to a four-year college straight out of high school,” said Collins, whose own teenage son aspires to be a mechanic. “I have a neighbor from New Zealand who has the equivalent of an MBA in auto mechanics here.”

Collins said high school Regional Occupational Program classes offer valuable career training. THHS, for example, has an engineering course in which students learn to conceptualize and produce three-dimensional objects using a 3D printer.

“These trades are highly valuable in other parts of the world,” he said.

Both principals stressed the importance of boosting school funding with the help of local businesses and parents – as well as recognizing that short-term investments in education pay off down the road.

“People talk about the cost of education, but not the cost of not having education,” Collins said. “It costs [society] about $5 million to support a high school dropout [because] they will be more likely to get involved in alcohol or drug abuse.”

The school chiefs also talked about budgeting resources for classes with students with disabilities and for English Learner students – as well the need for parental involvement.

“Parents of EL students think teachers and principals are infallible and they don’t understand they need to be a part of helping their children progress in school,” said Mucerino, whose parents came from Italy and didn’t speak English very well.

“My parents would’ve been happy if I had only finished high school,” Mucerino said. “With luck, I found a mentor in my math teacher that changed my mind about school and I was able to finish my doctorate degree.”

Margie Matsil, vice president of the Lake Forest Kiwanis Club, said club members wanted to have both principals speak because the Kiwanis support students at both schools.

“Both principals are so in tune with their students,” Matsil said. “It was a fantastic meeting with two men who are great educators and are passionate about the well being of their students.”