Kathleen MacDonald High School first opened its doors to SCUSD freshmen in August 2022 and currently educates freshmen, sophomores and juniors, with seniors being welcomed in the 2025-2026 school year. Some SCHS students and staff believe the establishment of MacDonald High School poses some challenges.
Some class sizes are smaller at SCHS due to MacDonald’s opening, which junior Kaleya Garcia finds worrisome. She believes there is a correlation between smaller class sizes and less school spirit. Garcia has observed that there has been a decrease in school participation over the years.
“Not a lot of people dress up or attend events like before,” Garcia says. “As much as I think it’s great for a new high school to open, it’s not fair because it now leads SCHS and Wilcox to struggle with participation, which has a big impact on a real high school experience.”
Some students, like senior Darren Kot, disagree with Garcia and see smaller class sizes as an advantage. Kot thinks smaller class sizes can benefit both himself and his peers.
“If I’m looking at it from a student perspective, then I probably would like it smaller since the teacher would have more time on us and more attention,” Kot said. “From a teenager’s perspective, I prefer to have a bigger (class size) so I can have more friends in the same classes that I have.”
Garcia’s middle school friends, whom she thought she would be spending her high school experience with, are attending MHS because of SCUSD’s boundary lines. The split caused her to feel isolated during her freshman year.
“I barely knew anyone when I started high school. It, unfortunately, impacted my relationship with them (friends who attend MacDonald) since I barely get to see them due to the different work and events we have,” Garcia said.
In addition to Garcia, ASL teacher Aimee Sparell Holcombe also expressed concerns with MacDonald. Holcombe has a split schedule, teaching her first three periods at SCHS and her last three periods at MHS. Holcombe’s schedule has posed challenges for her, as she feels being split both ways may have a negative effect on her students.
“I don’t have the opportunity to put my full efforts into one school or the other right now. I see it affecting the MacDonald students,” Holcombe said. “SCHS is my primary school, so all my energy goes here. All my meetings are here.”
Garcia feels good teachers are vital to any high school ecosystem. She believes changes in faculty, such as teachers transferring to MHS, may have an impact on student and teacher relationships at SCHS.
“Some of these teachers mean a lot to some students so it (teachers leaving) takes away personal connections one may have,” Garcia said.
Although Garcia has seen some of her favorite teachers transfer, she is hopeful for the clean slate MacDonald’s students get to have. She believes the impact teachers once had on her will carry over to MacDonald and touch new students’ lives.
“I was kind of sad that the teachers that I was making relationships with were leaving,” Garcia said. “I know they’ll start and create a new environment with the teachers that taught at our school first.”
While there are doubts, Holcombe is also hopeful for the new high school and believes there is an opportunity to make new connections. Along with SCHS ASL and AVID teacher Talia Orsetti-Ng, Holcombe plans to bridge MacDonald’s and SCHS’s ASL programs to build a stronger community.
“I hope to grow the program. Mrs.Orsetti and I did envision us having (ASL) competitions between the schools ” Holcombe said. “Mrs.Orsetti and I are excited about the opportunities that this presents.”
Community and growth are also important to MHS Spanish teacher Paige Cruz. Cruz previously worked at SCHS as an English teacher and has now moved to MacDonald. She has enjoyed teaching English the last few years at SCHS but is excited about teaching Spanish at her new school.
“Spanish class is fun. It’s your intro to the language. I think it should be fun… so being able to teach it again is bringing me some joy,” Cruz said.
Cruz believes a sense of community is vital for any high school. She expressed that MacDonald’s school spirit is still being established but has been built up through football games and close relationships.
“We don’t have a senior class, and this is our first year with three classes: freshman, sophomore, and junior,” Cruz said. “I think that makes for a very tight-knit community, with that comes a sense of school spirit and pride.”
The establishment of MacDonald High School is still new and hard to grasp for many SCHS students. Cruz is hopeful of growth within SCHS and MacDonald, and a chance to foster new possibilities and intertwine communities.
“It’s (new possibilities) keeping me growing and moving forward because I think that’s really important for teachers to embrace as well, just like you are growing and learning as a student,” Cruz said. “This is a really big way for me to do that for myself and ultimately for the students too.”