STOCKTON– As the 23-24 school year comes to an end, LHS has some new things in store for the next school year. Our school has a history of 70 years since its founding in 1954. The original campus started at the College of the Pacific and since 1964, the campus has remained at its current location today. While we have started to see the school gradually change this year, next year we will see an even bigger impact from these future plans.
Starting from the Class of 2028, the graduation requirements will be tweaked to adhere to the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) minimum admission requirements. While most of the current requirements follow the UC/CSU pattern, the main change will be that students must take 3 years of math, including Math III. Right now, only 2 years of math are needed to graduate, and it must include Math I. The requirements for English, social sciences, physical education, health, and science will remain unaffected. However, students will also be required to take at least 2 years of a foreign language, and it has to be in the same language for those two years. It cannot be 1 year of Spanish and then 1 year of French. It must be either 2 years of Spanish, 2 years of French, or 2 years of Italian. In addition, students will have to take a year of a visual and performing arts course. Currently, the graduation requirements state that students must complete a year in either a foreign language, visual and performing arts, or career technical education course.
The school’s effort for new graduation requirements will open up the opportunity for more students to apply to the University of California and California State University schools. There have been previous incidents in which seniors have fallen short of the UC/CSU requirements by a class or two, which prevented them from applying. With these new requirements, they hope to resolve the recent decrease in academic performance of students and set them up for success in high school and college.
By now, I am sure everyone has seen the gates installed at the front of the campus. After returning from winter break, those mysterious black poles appeared on our campus. The new fences have been implemented in response to growing security concerns. Although there are gates surrounding the exterior of the campus, these gates add an extra layer of security for people on campus. For the 24-25 school year, digital IDs will begin to be used. I do not know how they will work, but they will be used for students and staff to check in and off campus. Fortunately, I will not have to experience this new development, but it does lead me to wonder how it will play out next school year. Will any new issues develop from this? How will families react to this? It seems like this will make it a lot harder to leave campus, and you may actually not be able to leave those gates until the school day ends. One thing I can surely say is, say goodbye to those old days of skipping class.
In the summer of 2024, the campus is scheduled to have a makeover. Little of this is known to my knowledge. However, the school will receive a new paint job with the idea of more of the main school color, red, on campus.
We have already started seeing changes to school this year with the construction of new classrooms by the Black Box Theater and the new benches placed all over
campus. Lincoln has definitely changed quite a bit since my freshman year up to senior year. From no longer starting school at 7:20am, to experiencing half of high school with one principal and the other half with a different principal, my high school experience was surely something I was not expecting. Although I am barely graduating this year, it seems like this school will become foreign to me in the next few years to come.
