A Message to Parents

We at the Mark Twain Academies would like to offer a sincere welcome to any parent who is considering an alternative to one of the other four district schools. We believe we can offer an essential educational component to all of our students: a sense of family and belonging.

We believe that all students should be partners, encouraging one another to succeed together. We believe our campus will be a special place, devoid of the graffiti, litter, and senseless vandalism that plagues most public schools. Since we welcome students as members of our school community, we believe students will want their homes away from home to be special places.

One of the things we want to emphasize about our school is that it is not a vocational school in the popular sense of the term. yes, some students can choose to become carpenters or automotive mechanics if they choose, but in order to do so, they will have to complete the academic program at our school. The academic program is more challenging than the programs at any of the other high schools in the district because every student will be required to fulfill the admission standards for the University of California, even the carpenters. We do this because carpentry is a "carrot" to motivate students in desirable areas, but students change their minds. And we want them to, but we will make sure that no doors are closed in the meantime.

Students will be challenged at our school. Our goal is to ensure that every student wants to achieve at the highest level to which they are capable of achieving. We want students to graduate from our school with real knowledge.

We encourage any parent who has not read the Vision of the school to do so. We believe it will provide a much fuller sense of why our school will be different. We also encourage all parents to become Founder Parents. We believe this participation will change the lives of those who participate forever.