San Diego Workforce Innovation High School - Lemon Grove - Celebrates their TREC Organizational Accreditation

A joyous TREC Accreditation celebration on Thursday, August 15, 2024 honoring the leadership of Area Superintendent Lindsay Reese, Principal Lisa Youngflesh, Assistant Principal Anthony (Coach) Johnson and all staff members and students with San Diego Workforce Innovation High School Lemon Grove!

The school received a TREC Accreditation banner, too, to proudly display their historical accomplishment in the front lobby.

Coach A.J. welcomed everyone to SDWIHS Lemon Grove TREC Accreditation and shared highlights of the TREC Self-Study Group and staff members responses to the anonymous Strengths & Needs Assessment.

Coach A.J. reflected during his interview, “TREC has been an integral part of my leadership skills in all four schools that Lisa Youngflesh runs. We have people at every site that do TREC resiliency through breathing, check-ins, etc. Daily, we do a LG Connect where we’ll stop and have a pause for five-minutes and give a topic and at each pod the teachers will discuss with students. The topics will be anything, like “how are you doing today?”. We do Wellness Wednesdays where we take a group of students and go into a room, such as, Day of the Dead and talking about death and how you cope with it, especially when they’re doing artwork. Having teacher - students relationships and being TREC Accredited, they know their relationships only makes our students come to school more, turn in more credits, and have relationships outside of their family, that they have someone they can trust here. Our teachers and our staff really take that to heart. That being said, I’m also there for our staff. My door is always open for our staff if there’s issues. We all know the TREC Model so we try to model it not only at work but at home so it’s part of our day to day. The most rewarding part is when you can help somebody. What I get out of it is knowing that I’m there to help somebody and they would pay that forward so it’s like a domino effect. If I can help them, they can help someone else. Some of the positive effects that I see in our students is that they show up every single day as willing participants, going to our groups, our SGI classes, sitting at the pods and being more engaged. Some other positives are when they feel they’re getting to that breaking point, they take it upon themselves by taking deep breaths or asking to be excused to get a drink or something to eat.”

TREC’s Self-Study Chair, Katelin Swan, and SDWIHS Lead Education Specialist and Wellness Coordinator shared content from additional slides in the PowerPoint and highlighted myriad aspects of the entire staff’s heart-centered work. Katelin reflected in her interview, “We take the TREC Model to heart in our interactions with students every day and how we treat them very individually and work with them more wherever they’re at and whatever they need. We do this pretty seamlessly with a lot of students given the nature of our learning center. I’m known as the TREC person at our site so I feel like I have really implemented a lot of the TREC Model in my own life but also very much so at our learning center. And, I’ve been able to utilize my understanding of it as well as my desire to continue learning more and understanding more about TREC and understanding more about building resilience and supporting students and staff through their trauma. I’ve naturally become one of the people that students and staff tend to gravitate to. I have utilized a lot of what I’ve learned through TREC within my own personal life, with my friends, with my family, and also with myself being able to reflect on what I need and being okay with those things, too, and sharing that with others. I’m teaching a SOURCE SGI class and all new students experience SOURCE where I’m able to talk very candidly about trauma and how every person you meet has stuff that is happening in their lives that they have to work through and explain what resiliency is and working through that as well. I’ve received so much positive feedback from multiple students of them feeling like they can express themselves now. It’s beautiful to hear students say “Oh, I actually feel like I can do things now and have more ownership with my life!”. The TREC Model supports every person and gives so many strategies and supports and tools which is a testament to TREC and our school. It’s been really impactful for students especially to be able to work on their well-being and realize it’s actually really important that they can take ownership of and take control of.”

Dana Brown, PACEs Science Statewide Facilitator, with TREC, reflected on the best practice with having students celebrate the TREC Accreditation, too, and hear all the equity-focused and heart-centered work of every staff member on campus.

Excitedly, SDWIHS Lemon Grove is the 2nd TREC Accreditation celebration which included students. The first one was Diego Valley East Charter School.

Craig Beswick, Vice-President, School Development Division welcomed and congratulated everyone in attendance for their hard work, dedication, and steadfast commitment with bringing TREC to life individually and organizationally. Sharing the journey of TREC’s evolution, Mr. Beswick celebrated SDWIHS Lemon Grove’s staff for bringing their Accreditation to fruition.

Principal Lisa Youngflesh shared her gratitude for her entire staff and how inspired she is for their leadership throughout the TREC Accreditation. Expressing her heart, Mrs. Youngflesh is exceptionally proud of the groundbreaking momentum nurtured by everyone in attendance.

Accepting the TREC Accreditation Awards was Principal Lisa Youngflesh, Assistant Principal Coach A.J. Johnson, and TREC Self-Study Chair, Katelin Swan.

Here’s one artifact of Lemon Grove’s Sustainability Action Plan, their Wellness Room.

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