Inspire Shasta, Episode 15: Beyond the Classroom: How Alternative Education Builds Hope and Second Chances

Guests:

• Jill North, Principal, Tri Mountain Academy
• Cheyenne Mizenko, Principal, Excel Academy
  Hosted by Maggie Joyce and Jenn Cobb

🎙️ Episode Summary

In this heartfelt and eye-opening episode of Inspire Shasta, hosts Maggie Joyce and Jenn Cobb sit down with two remarkable leaders from Shasta County Office of Education’s Student Programs—Jill North of Tri Mountain Academy and Cheyenne Mizenko of Excel Academy. Together, they discuss how alternative education is transforming lives, building hope, and redefining success for students who need something different from the traditional classroom.

From juvenile court schools to special education and independent study, Jill and Cheyenne share how their programs focus on relationships, safety, and belonging—and how they’re working to change the stigma around alternative education.

🌟 Topics Covered

• The unique missions of Tri Mountain Academy, Excel Academy, and Independent Study
• How SCOE’s Student Programs serve students with behavioral, academic, or social-emotional needs
• Redefining “alternative education” and dismantling old stereotypes
• Building safe, relationship-centered classrooms where students and families feel seen and supported
• Dual enrollment opportunities that help students earn college credit and envision a brighter future
• Innovative “warm handoffs” that support students as they return to their home districts
• Creative campus design, sensory rooms, and wellness centers that make learning spaces feel like home
• Staff mindfulness and mental wellness as a foundation for student success
• New initiatives in career technical education (CTE) to prepare students for life after school
• Beautification and school pride—how campuses like Tri Mountain and Excel are transforming their environments to reflect care, dignity, and student pride

💬 Memorable Quotes

“You’re not defined by the hardest day of your life. You can grow, change, and thrive.” — Jill North
“Our students are still kids—they just need a little more support. They deserve everything every other student receives.” — Cheyenne Mizenko
“It starts with relationships. When students know we care, they’ll take chances and learn.” — Cheyenne Mizenko
“Sometimes the biggest sign of success is when a student doesn’t come back—because that means they’re thriving in their next chapter.” — Jill North

🌱 Programs Highlighted

• Tri Mountain Academy: SCOE’s juvenile court school serving grades 7–12, where students receive direct instruction, dual enrollment options, and CTE pathways.
• Excel Academy: Serving K–8 students in special education who need intensive behavioral and emotional support in a structured, caring environment.
• Shasta County Independent Study: Offering flexibility and connection for students in grades 6–12, including dual enrollment and mental wellness support.

🧭 Learn More

Discover how SCOE’s Student Programs are helping students and families build resilience, confidence, and connection.
🔗 ShastaCOE.org

❤️ Final Thoughts

Alternative education isn’t a last resort—it’s a launchpad for growth. With compassion, creativity, and high expectations, educators in Shasta County are rewriting the story for students who once felt left behind. Every student deserves a safe space to learn, belong, and believe in what’s possible next.

🎙️ Listen & Subscribe:
Find Inspire Shasta on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

Student Programs

Maggie Joyce: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Inspire Shasta. Today we have Jill North, principal at Tri Mountain Academy, and Cheyenne Mizenko, principal of Excel Academy, both of which are part of the Shasta County Office of Education Student Programs. Welcome 

Cheyenne Mizenko: guys. Thank you. Thank you. 

Maggie Joyce: We're excited 

Cheyenne Mizenko: to have you.

Glad to be here. 

Jenn Cobb: So to start off this fun podcast talking about student programs, we wanna start with our opening question, which is a signature question that we ask all of our guests. So for both of you, if you could go back to any grade in school for a day, which would it be and why?

Jill North: Probably the day I visited the principal's office three times in one day related to throwing rocks. Say more, maybe not that again. 

Maggie Joyce: Okay. What grade? It was fifth grade, so I don't know which one. No, it was vivid. It's a vivid memory. 

Jill North: So 

Cheyenne Mizenko: you're approaching as a redo, but you would not do that again. I wanna 

Jill North: try, I want, I wanna do over.

Yeah. Make my dad proud this time.[00:01:00] 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Um, I would say, uh, kindergarten. I had Mrs. Wertz for a teacher and I was convinced her first name was Wertz, and the magic of being a teacher was mystical to me because I was, she was just a mystical human, and I didn't know what she did after school or who she was or what she did. She was my teacher. She slept there.

She slept there. She lived there. I didn't know her life outside of there until I saw her one time outside and I was amazed that she was grocery shopping. So I, I just loved my kindergarten teacher and she was, she made it very magical for us, we got to play and we, it was a very good structure, but play and learning skills and it's very reminiscent of what I do today.

Maggie Joyce: She laid the foundation for you to go into education. She did. I love that. So we mentioned that you guys are both in programs that are SCOE student programs. Um, and so we would love for you guys to share a little bit about each one of your programs and the students that you serve as [00:02:00] they differ from program to program. 

Jill North: Yeah, so Tri Mountain Academy is our juvenile court school in the county. Um, our students are non-traditional.

Those students are incarcerated, so it's while they are housed within the juvenile rehabilitation center that they are going to school within our program. So, uh, we serve seventh through 12th grade students and, um. Yeah, so, um, very much an Al Ed setting. We have all grade levels in each classroom, so our teachers are teaching to multiple subjects, multiple learners, learning abilities.

So sometimes it can be challenging, but yeah, really resilient kids for sure. Yeah. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: How about you Cheyenne? Sure. So at Excel we serve only special education students that are referred to our program from district schools that have tapped out all the resources, behavior support, academic support, um, and require a more restrictive environment.

So we have 30 on our campus that have been, uh, everything tried on their campus and now are [00:03:00] with us to get behavior support. Um, specifically usually behavior sports. So we have three teachers on our campus and we have two behavior management assistants in each classroom, and two mental health clinicians and school psychologists that really support with behavior intervention plans and safety plans and making sure our students are successful in teaching some executive functioning skills, social skills so we can eventually return them back to their district.

Um, it's a very safe environment structured. That really build some skill for them to return to their home district. 

Maggie Joyce: And what grades does this? K eight. K eight, 

Jill North: yep. And then we also, um, run the independent study program for the county as well, that Carrie Webb is the principal over, but it falls under our student programs.

Uh, so that is sixth through 12th grade. Um, independent study. Our students come twice a week onto campus. We have four teachers, special education slash intervention teacher. Full type school counselor. A lot of really cool, uh, fun activities for them too. [00:04:00] 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. It sounds like you guys have three very different programs, but each program really does wrap around the students that you serve.

Yes. It's amazing. 

Jenn Cobb: Um, Jill, when you were talking about Tri Mountain Academy, you said Alt Ed. Um, and so we know that means alternative education, and I think a lot of people have a different picture in their mind of how that could look. And so we would love to know how does Alt-Ed look on your campuses and what you are all doing, uh, to change the stigma that comes with alternative?

Jill North: It's a good question. So I think a lot of people really, when they think of alternative education, often have this idea of packet work often think of low rigor and um, you know, possibly, you know, they're thinking of kids just working independently on their own. And I think that's where, you know, a lot of the work that we're trying to do in student programs and in the community is really dispel some of those myths of what alternative education is. [00:05:00] So for my school specifically at Tri Mountain, we have three classrooms. It's all direct instruction. So each of the teachers teaches two subjects and they rotate. Um, we do use some online learning for supplemental for students that need, you know, like econ or government. Yeah. Those specific graduation requirements.

For the most part, we want to really hold them to a high standard and get them prepared to return to a district, return to a comprehensive or traditional school site if that's the best fit for them. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: I think for me it's alternative education has been noted as the dumping ground for kids in the past and, and staff as well. Mm-hmm. Not just students, it's where. Districts have sent their staff are the hardest to deal with, or, but they're really the most skilled people. Um, and the kids are the best kids in my opinion. Yeah. But, um, yeah, just the, like the, our kids are safe. They have the ability, they have all the things other kids have, they just need a little bit more support.

And so really shining a [00:06:00] light on our programs and saying, these kids are still kids. These kids still deserve everything every other student receives, um, is kind of our mission just to provide those things for them and every opportunity that they should get everywhere else. Yeah. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. I like that you noted that it can be like a dumping ground for students and adults, and I think sometimes when kids go to alt-ed, you know, it's like those kids that attend and sometimes they need to have that switch.

Like, you're not here because you've done anything. Bad, right? Like you just needed some extra supports and tools to be able to then get you to return to your campus or to graduate, or to just be in a different educational setting. Right. And a lot of educators that go into ED are actually the most passionate educators.

Like sometimes I go into alternative education programs and I'm like, this educator is, can we duplicate them? They are so amazing because they're actually listening to what the student needs. Right. And they're responding to it. Absolutely. Agree. Yeah, I agree with that. [00:07:00] Yeah. And you guys have done a really good job on your sites of creating culture and, and classroom culture and settings, right?

Because your settings are so different. Yeah. So what you can do, Jill, in your classroom is probably very different than what happens at Excel or even student programs. And so how do you guys approach that so our listeners can know? While you're in settings that aren't traditional, but every student has come with past challenges with education, so you're kind of undoing a little bit of that thinking, right?

For the students of like, you can do this, you can exceed your more than maybe what they've been told they were before they got to your campuses. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Yeah. I think for my site, uh, it starts with relationship and rapport. A lot of our students have behavior and they won't do anything unless they respect you and you respect them.

And there's a mutual understanding that I care about you. And if you can get students to see I care about you, you can get them to do anything that they're potentially able to do. So I think for us, it really starts with building the relationship. And then [00:08:00] along with that comes understanding what they need.

And when we can understand what they need, we can communicate with them better and really reach them on a deeper level than just applying a blanket intervention. So that's kind of where I think our culture lies, is the relationship piece. Yeah. 

Maggie Joyce: And we've had several foster youth come out of Excel with so many more tools than they went in with.

Right? Absolutely. Because of that, because of that relationship and the trust that's built.

Jill North: And I think too, like even at Independent Study sometimes we have families and, um, kids that come to us, they were not doing well in their traditional school sites. And so even not just with the students, but with the families rebuilding that relationship so the phone call home from the teachers isn't a scary thing.

You know, it might be to work together too. Wrap around your student to figure out how we can support them and get them back on track. Or even that we're calling to tell you about something cool that happened, you know? We're really working on that as well at Tri Mountain Academy. Trying to have more communication with families and parents and guardians of our students.

[00:09:00] So it's not this extreme disconnect when they're with us in there, which can sometimes feel, you know, scary. Sometimes parents don't even know who to reach out to. Mm-hmm. You know that culture is starting in the classroom, but it's really extending beyond that too. So we are making sure the families also feel like they're part of the team.

They can reach out to us and kind of work together to support their students. So, 

Maggie Joyce: sounds like you guys are really providing hope for the whole family unit, right? Because when you're used to getting a negative phone call home, you don't want to answer that. But when it starts to be positive, it really changes that whole relationship with the school system and staff. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You guys are also setting the bar for your students as well. So you'd mentioned earlier packet work, which is like what people think when they think of alternative education as like, oh, here you get a credit, you get a credit, and you guys have really changed that.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you guys even have, um, some dual enrollment options with Tri Mountain Academy as well as student programs. 

Jill North: Yeah, so our Independent Study and Tri Mountain Academy, we offer dual enrollment. We started [00:10:00] dual enrollment with independent study. I think it was in 2021.

It was after COVID, uh, offering English 1A, uh, when I was a teacher there. And then also a student success course taught by our school counselor. Really seeing a lot of opportunity for students to, you know, kind of reconnect with school and us raising that bar for them and saying, Hey, we really believe that you are capable of doing these things.

You know, an English 1A class, if you've ever taken it. I taught English. I love English. Multiple degrees in English. My least favorite class in college, 

Maggie Joyce: it's a hard class. 1C was it for me? Or 1B? Sorry. The Romeo and the Juliet. Yeah, the literature class. It's not my favorite. Wherefore art thou. But it can be a 

Jill North: barrier.

And so to be able to like tell these kids, Hey, here's a class that is often difficult for people to pass and we expect you to do it and do it with flying colors and we're gonna provide some extra support, but really seeing kids more bought into this idea of continuing their education after high school.

And then [00:11:00] when we brought it into Tri Mountain Academy, um, which I think was about a year, almost two years ago now. Yeah. Two years. Yeah. Um, we started hearing a shift in language of students talking about their future. Mm. And one kid one day said to me. You know, I'm in coll, I'm a college student now.

I gotta, I gotta do X, Y, Z because I'm in college now. You know? So proud of themselves. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wow. And so those talking more about what they wanna do when they older, seeing they have a future older Yeah. Yeah. Instead of just when they leave our school. Mm-hmm. You know, or they leave the facility. And so, um, you know, providing the students with more of those post-secondary success experiences mm-hmm. Has been really, really awesome for our kids 

Maggie Joyce: and for some, maybe the first time they've college has ever even been part of the conversation. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. 

Jenn Cobb: For students, you know, transitioning back into their community or schools or into the next phase of life, like we talked about with college, what other supports have you put in place to have that [00:12:00] process go smooth?

Set them up well, and as they, you know, exit from you. 

Jill North: That's your passion project right now. I know it is. Yeah. But you have some really good success from last year. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Well, let's see. Um, so we had about 10 students go back to district last year from Excel, which is a third of our student population. Wow.

So we decided that's a lot of kids going back into district. And so what we've been doing is actually Mr. Shaq, our clinician, will meet them at their site, their first day. Be a person that they know. The warm handoff. Yes. Like I know him. He's a safe place. I'm safe here. Um, he'll hang out, he'll like walk him with their schedule.

He'll go on a tour with family and student prior to going back. Wow. Um, so, and then he waits a couple weeks. He touches base with principal or teacher and then he goes and shows up again and does lunch or a visit and takes a picture and it's kind of like a, Hey, I'm really proud of you, you're doing amazing.

[00:13:00] And just kind of that check-in. Um, we also have really good touch with our special ed directors, so if there's something that's not working, we can jump in and provide support to that team that's working with the student and be like, here's what worked here. Um, we also send like, here's all the things that the student was using in Excel, here's how you could possibly implement them in your classroom.

It's really more of a suggestion and a support. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, but that will really help them, like this is familiar to them. This is a tool they know how to use. This is something they're already doing. And so it really kind of helps district out 'cause it's really hard to, we don't wanna see them come back, but we also do hold a space for them if that is something they need.

Like, hey, they're not ready. Is Excel still open? And we do reserve a hold for them for at least six weeks until they're acclimated in their, in their space. 

Maggie Joyce: Wow, that's really fantastic because you're, you, you think like, wow, that's above and beyond, but it should be the norm. Right? Right. Like that we, we should walk alongside and do that warm handoff because oftentimes when you have [00:14:00] all the support and then no support is where there's more failure.

Right? And so you guys have said, we don't want that to happen. We want to come in the gap. Right. Um, and really. Be that for our students and families. 'cause they are part of your school family. Absolutely. 

Jill North: Yeah. And your past 

Maggie Joyce: and yeah, it's incredible. 

Jill North: And I always joke that we had like two of our three schools, were the only schools in county we don't want our kids to come back to.

Right. Uh, 'cause that equals success for us if they do not return. 

I think it's exactly what Cheyenne was saying, like talking to that next school district where they're going to, how can we support you in supporting them when they return? And then even for our independent study program, sometimes they come to us just in a transition phase, right? They're behind on credits or something's happening in their life that they, you know, need that alternative education setting.

And for some of our students, the right move is to go back to their district. And some of our kids get there and realize, this is where I belong. Mm-hmm. And that's amazing. And so same with our Tri Mountain students. Like Excel is, you know, the [00:15:00] goal is we want them to return to their districts, you know, and I think the hardest part is oftentimes, you know, because of the setting they're coming out of, they're very stigmatized.

And so it's hard to sometimes get them back to a traditional school setting. And some of those students don't need to be in a, it shouldn't be in a traditional school setting. Yeah. They may be, you know, forever an alternative education student, depending on the needs that they have and the support that they need.

But I think it's really just working with the districts and the other educators to come up with a plan of what's the best fit for that kid and not just placing them somewhere because that's where they go, you know? So, 

Maggie Joyce: yeah. You had mentioned a passion project. Can you say more about that? 

Jill North: So, um, is it passion project or obsession?

I don't know. I don't know. It's turning into a doctorate TBD, so. Okay. So that's maybe a positive obsession? Yes. Yeah. So it's a positive obsession, Dr. North in four years. Um, but yeah, really working on [00:16:00] de-stigmatizing our students, especially our students who are attached to probation. Mm-hmm. In returning to other schools outside of the one that is housed within the juvenile rehabilitation center and how to really, you know, kind of tie or get students to connect to community and then the community connecting to them as well. So, you know, figuring out ways give them opportunities that sometimes students in alternative education don't have.

So for example, the dual enrollment, you know, um. That's not often seen at a lot of alt-ed sites. Yeah. And so, um, the other thing is we're gonna be developing a, um, career technical education program, so a CTE program so students can learn a skill or trade and hopefully leave with job ready skills and a certificate that they can exit our facility with and hopefully gaining some interest and mentorship through the community to be able to connect students to somebody within that field or that trade upon their release and upon their exit from our [00:17:00] school. So, um, yeah. Really the goal is to kinda reshape the mindset around who and what people think our kids are capable of. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. So really just, it's a time period, right? It's not their path, it's just as little time period in their journey.

And it sounds like you guys are just really intentional about. Providing hope for the student. Like if I am incarcerated youth and I can learn a skill and I can come out and I can say like, I actually have skills that can transfer into something for me to do as a career. Mm-hmm. That's gonna change the way I see myself, which will impact the choices that I make.

Right. And so that passion project is creating that in our youth, in our community. Mm-hmm. And then connecting them back to the community. Then they might make a choice of not choosing to do something again because they want to be a community member that is upstanding and that gives back to the community instead of takes from it. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: It's providing self-worth 

Maggie Joyce: for, yeah. Yeah. I love that. 

Jill North: And I often think about [00:18:00] how many graduation ceremonies you've gone to where the principal or whoever's leading it is looking at the valedictorian and saying. Please come back to your community once you go off to college.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. To make a positive impact. But we have a lot of kids, especially in our Alt Ed programs, that are not gonna leave our community. They may go to Shasta College. Yeah. Even if they pursue a four year university degree at maybe at Chico State in their community, commuting. So, you know, they're members of this community and they're not leaving our community.

And what's the message we're sending them about being attached and being a member of this community. Yeah. And what that looks like to be connected to and be a productive member. 

Maggie Joyce: Love it. Yeah. You're changing that, the moving away from that deficit mindset and saying like, let's play into the strengths.

Right? Yeah.

You guys have already mentioned a few times about staff intentionality and building relationships and creating this sense on safety on campus, but can you share a little bit more about, because I, I feel like it's you do more than what you've mentioned so far. Can you dive a little bit deeper into what that looks like specifically on each [00:19:00] campus?

Jill North: I think oftentimes people think of safety and they just think of, you know, like physical safety, right? But I think it, it's mental safety 

Maggie Joyce: is a real thing. 

Jill North: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think safety has been a big concern. Education. Um, and I don't think that's wrong. I just think it's also thinking about like all of the safety parts.

And I think for us, we've really been trying to not only make our classrooms more safe, meaning that there's not, you know, physical student blowouts, but also that the students feel safe to try new things. You know, take risks. Right. Um, feel safe to share. And I think a lot of it for our students, especially, you know, a lot of routine and a lot of, um, really support from the adults in the room.

And so I'm seeing more and more, um, with some of the changes we've made with having expectations that we go over, we model, we ask for students to show them, like, can you please demonstrate that for the rest of the class? And things like that. And, and kinda reinforcing these behaviors day to day and what [00:20:00] participation looks like has led to more student safety that even the other day I was in a observation and I overheard, the reading, that things fall apart, which if you've ever read it, the, it's about a tribe in Africa. So there's a lot of names and words that are not familiar to our students, and I watched multiple kids volunteer to read. And stumble over these names and these words.

Yeah. And nobody, like they felt safe to do it. None of the other kids said anything. If anything, they were helping each other out. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jill North: And I was like, what a cool thing that you've got all these kids in here stumbling over words that I'd stumble over too, but mm-hmm. You know, I've got emotional intelligence to say, I don't care if you make fun of me for that.

You know, and they're developing taking chance, a chance for a lot of our 

Maggie Joyce: kids. Right. They're taking a chance. Exactly. Are their peers gonna make fun of them? Are they gonna feel like they're mm-hmm. Not good enough? That's, that must've been amazing to 

Jill North: observe. It was 

Maggie Joyce: really cool to watch. 

Jill North: Yeah. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: I think at our site, it's the safety and relationship.

So a lot of times you'll see. Like [00:21:00] your child misbehaves more with you 'cause they're safe. That's how our students are. So like, I know you are gonna keep me safe and this is why I'm having behavior and it's all communication. Right? Right. It's not, the behavior is not about me, has nothing to do with me.

I'm just happen to be around them. Mm-hmm. But they feel safe enough to have that behavior around me and then deescalate, let's teach the skill and come back. And that's where we see the improvement. I think another place we focused, and I think as a team, not just at Excel, is our staff safety 'cause that is something that came out as a concern.

And we've really wrapped around the fact of like, are we CPI, which is our crisis deescalation training, all of our staff, not just those that do hands-on or holds. It's everybody knows how to verbally call it verbal judo. We all know how to use those verbal deescalation and we know how to talk to every student.

I just had a staff meeting yesterday where we talked about calm, consistent, how we're approaching students who are escalated, how we're regulating ourselves and we're [00:22:00] making sure ourselves feel safe when we're approaching those students. And what's, what's our plan in the moment? Like someone goes through their grocery list, I think about what I'm having for dinner.

It's just to keep ourselves regulated and safe, emotionally, mentally, physically. And it helps our kids can feel our safeness as well. Yeah. Co-regulation Don't feel safe. Yeah. They don't feel safe. Yeah. So just really focusing in the moment how we're making the kids feel, how we're feeling. Um, and just kind of shifting the culture of like, kids aren't the reason we're feeling unsafe.

Like we have to manage ourselves mm-hmm. And bring that together to help our kids feel safe. And just on campus we are safe, our kids are safe. It is just us having to manage. Behaviors in the campus. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Yeah. Equipping staff and students with the right tools and then continuing to probably, um, sounds like you guys have a culture of making sure that everybody also has good mental wellness within themselves.

Because we can't deescalate a student if we're regulated ourselves. Right, right. And so keeping that as a [00:23:00] priority of staff is really, really important. Yeah. 

Jenn Cobb: And so speaking of like student wellness, I know you've done a lot of work with. Wellness centers and sensory spaces. And I even went into a room that had a book vending machine.

Oh. And I don't know if that would be part of, have conversation. Yeah. But I would love to hear more about how you've created those spaces for students. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Yeah. So at Excel we have a, um, we have a sensory room. Classroom three is completely devoted to sensory space. And so it has like little plushy building blocks and a thing you, it's called a jumperoo.

You can jump on it. There's whiteboards to color, there's uh, fidget walls, there's Lego walls, there's sand, there's all kinds of things in there. And the goal is that this place is used during dysregulation and regulation. So they go in every day, at least for 30 minutes. Every classroom has a space in there.

They start by jumping on yoga balls to metronome to get regulated, and then the staff dismiss them to go pick their station or their area, and that's what they play [00:24:00] with. So when they are dysregulated, they come in and they're like, I know Legos is my thing. They teach '

Maggie Joyce: em how to use it when they're regulated so they can use it.

And so 

Cheyenne Mizenko: it doesn't look like we're tearing up the sensory room. Very rarely the sensory room gets like tossed or thrown. It's because when they go in, they know exactly like pY tools, Legos, and they go straight to Legos and they're playing. Wow. It's kind of amazing to watch, but they know there's a routine.

They go in and they take care of that space. Like there is rarely anything broken in there. They know like this is our, and they, they play in there like kids, which is cool to see because that's also a relationship builder. They play with their friends and they build stuff. They play restaurant. Like I had a great pizza from the drive-thru they built the other day and it was, it's all pretend, but they're playing and so it's kind of a cool space to just see growth, play, learn skills, and then they use them later. 

Jill North: Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. And then, for Tri Mountain, the sensory room is a dream. We'll get there. It's coming, I promise. Um, but really one of the things that we've done [00:25:00] is trying to make our classrooms feel more classroom like. Mm-hmm. Um, because for a while there they felt very institutionalized.

And we can't escape the cinder block building. Yeah. So how can we make it feel more inviting? All of the classrooms other than one that just by design doesn't have a window facing the other two classrooms. The students are growing plants, like house plants and they're in charge of taking care of 'em.

I have to go track down my watering can all the time to water my plants and my office. 'cause the kids have it. They take 'em seriously. Yeah. Very serious. They're like, they somehow found a bean one day and they're now growing a bean in the window. Yeah, sorry. A bean made its way in. Exactly. I think they were using 'em for bingo.

Oh. Oh. The beans were for bingo. Smart. So they started cultivating one. But I mean, you know, just being in charge of something and nurturing something and then, you know, they're taking more pride in their space and I notice when I walk into a classroom, if it's kind of messy and I say, Hey, do you guys wanna clean this up real quick?

Oh yeah, miss North, let get on that. And they're, [00:26:00] I mean, instead of just walking out and saying, yeah, I don't care. It's kind of dirty in here. Let me go pick up these papers and yeah, rearrange the desk for you. And um, so just more pride in their space. And then independent study, we've had a wellness center for.

A couple of five, four or five years. Yeah, I was gonna say it's moved a couple times. Yeah. That's why I'm just trying to remember where it was before. Right. But um, you know, so it's a space that the kids can go into. They can do their work in there. It's a little quieter. Low lighting. Yeah, lighting. I've been in that room before.

It's 

Maggie Joyce: nice 

Jill North: lighting, really cool. Comfortable chairs. We just got some sound bath bowls. Mm-hmm. That they're gonna learn to do bowls. Yeah. This may or may not have played with us. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I know. I, that's my favorite place to hang out too. So, you know, but there's always like some sort of like kind of lo-fi beats going on in there and just really comfortable space if the students need to go and relax and kind of chill out, it's kind of just known for that.

So, um, yeah. Which I think is, you know, really important for providing to students, but. Another thing, like you were mentioning [00:27:00] earlier about being regulated as adults is, um, for Tri Mountain Academy we realized we were having a hard time. We work in a very, um, difficult environment, you know, uh, there's a lot of secondary trauma Yeah.

And what our students are dealing with. And so we've, um, started doing a morning meeting every day that starts with mindfulness. So the adults are getting regulated before we go in the class. And then they do a morning meeting with their students. Mm-hmm. And they do some sort 

Maggie Joyce: of, you guys do it and then they do it with their students.

Mm-hmm. That's great. Mm-hmm. Love that. Yeah. That's amazing. You guys have talked a lot about your students, um, Excel. You have them for a, a period of time, whatever that time is, and then they transition back to their home district. Right. Students at Tri Mountain, once they are released, they transition back to either the school they came from or the one that's more appropriate to them.

Mm-hmm. And then, um, student programs, SCIS, they may stay for the duration of their schooling or they may return. Mm-hmm. Um, once they're ready to that comprehensive site. And so how do you guys keep the curriculum alignment consistent [00:28:00] with what the students are learning when they're going from your schools to so many other schools in the county, which might look very different than what's happening with the curriculum you're working on?

Yeah. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Yeah. That's a good question. Because it's difficult, especially when you get students who have holes in their background or, yeah. I haven't attended school in three years and they have to catch up. And so I think, um, we worked with the ESS department and did the science improvement and our focus was a curriculum pacing guide.

And that looks very different at all three sites. I can speak to my site, it looks like my teachers got together and were like, we can't teach, I can't teach kindergarten through fourth grade every day, every grade level. So my K-4 teacher picked second grade. That's about where all of her students are.

And my, uh, middle teacher picked fourth grade, and my middle schooler teacher picked sixth grade. And so we focused on those areas and those skills and lined them with the standards to teach from just that curriculum. [00:29:00] A lot of times it's really hard because we wanna run before we can walk, and our kids really have to regulate and be safe before they can learn.

Yeah. 

Maggie Joyce: I mean they, they can't access their thinking brain Exactly. If they're dysregulated, right? Yeah. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: So when we're dysregulated, there's no learning happening anyway. So really it focuses on like routine structure and then we see learning happening, which is really amazing, but our districts are very gracious when they tell us we just need them to be safe and we will catch them up when we get them here. So we're still teaching them, we're still focusing on our curriculum and our pacing guide and how we're instructing. But when they're regulated and safe and they go back to district, that's where they turn up the rigor.

Jill North: And for Tri Mountain and Independent study, usually it's looking more at like the high school graduation requirements, right? So what we've always done is made sure that we try to keep in line with the larger districts in the county. So for instance, like what science are they teaching at ninth grade versus 10th grade?

So that way if a student leaves us in 10th [00:30:00] grade, they've already completed the ninth grade science, so they're not off track, right? So it's easy for them to reintegrate back into their, district high school and pick up where they left off. Um, similar to Cheyenne site is at Tri Mountain, we've got multiple grade levels, right?

So it's hard when you're doing direct instruction, how do you, you know, really teach multiple grade levels? And I think it's really just going to the standards and seeing where's there alignment across the grade levels, for instance, English, right? Um, teaching, uh, a book and maybe making, you know, some, um, a little more rigorous for our 12th graders than we would for our ninth graders through the same curriculum and through the same book so we're all following along, we're all learning the same things, and we're talking, having the same discussions. But really aligning it to those standards that are grade level. So, 

Speaker 4: yeah. 

Jill North: Yeah. And just really, like I said, making sure that we are aware of what the other districts are doing, so that way it supports the students to transition 'cause that can often be a huge gap and a huge barrier for students that go [00:31:00] into alternative education for multiple reasons. Is that when they come out, their transcripts look like a mess. Yeah, yeah. Point 

Maggie Joyce: five credits here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So 

Jill North: we've spent a lot of time over the years at both sites really figuring out how can we best set up our grading practices and our credit attainment to be equitable for our students, but also to help align to the district so that way it, you know, kinda keeps everybody on track.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Um, one of the things that I always enjoyed when I worked in Alt Ed was making sure you're meeting the standards, but the creativity that's, that you're able to do within that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, and how it isn't so, you know, pigeonholed into like this is what you have to do. Mm-hmm. But you can kind of adapt things to students' learning styles.

Mm-hmm. And maybe even their interests. Yes. Yeah. And so I think that, that sounds like you guys are doing all of those things, but I just I commend you for doing that. 'cause it takes a lot more thought and intention, right. Than just, here's this book, we're gonna [00:32:00] do science the way we, we've always done science, but no, we're gonna actually make it to where you wanna learn and be in class.

Yeah, yeah. And it's relevant to you, right?

Jenn Cobb: I think something that I've noticed from everything that you've talked about is you've created a space where students belong and they, like you're talking about students playing in those places and you can't play unless you have safety. You know, all of those wonderful things. And so before we wrap this up, I wanted to talk about kind of the campus initiatives and beautification efforts that you've put into the school, because even though you have students that are coming through there sometimes for a short time, you still, I know that you've still put a lot of intentionality in how you've built up the school, even with a circulating clientele.

So would love to know some of the things that you've done at your school. Well, 

Jill North: I think it's extremely fitting that I'm literally staring at the building that our independent study used to be [00:33:00] housed in, in the modular, in the parking lot of Magnolia. Much smaller building, very small. So when I started teaching for independent study, that's where we were.

And it was four teachers and a para. 

Maggie Joyce: For the listeners, it's a portable with classroom 

Jill North: one 

Maggie Joyce: office 

Jill North: door. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So one bathroom and now 

Maggie Joyce: several cubicles. Yes. 

Jill North: So very small. Um. And Carie's office was in Magnolia as well as our executive director's office was in Magnolia. So a little disconnect there. Um, and so the following year in 2019 20, we moved up to Oasis to the site where it is now. And it was interesting. Um, my dad was an educator for years and I had to get rides to school for a month because I had broken my leg. Oh. And so on the way to school, one day I was talking to my dad and I said, you know something about how that move really changed the culture at our school, not just with our students, but with our staff.

And he said, well, what do you think [00:34:00] changed first? Do you think it was the culture or the system? I was like, that's such a good question. Yeah. I was like, dang, you're blow my brain. I already got a leg broken. You're like, lemme get back to you. You know? And so, um, and it, you know, it really dawned on me, it was like, you know, the system had to change.

Mm-hmm. You know, meaning like the physical space, right? Yeah. Of just moving the building or moving to a new building. But then the culture really came in, like all the things we did with it, the making the classrooms feel like classrooms. Right. Adding the wellness center, and I realized in that, that you needed both to sustain Mm.

The whole picture, right? Yeah. Because you can't have one without the other environment is so 

Maggie Joyce: important. Mm-hmm. I mean, you walk into the doors of SCIS and mm-hmm. It feels cozy. 

Jill North: Yeah. And even to, you know, our last big, big project was our courtyard. 

Jenn Cobb: Yeah. 

Jill North: When we first moved up there, that was a marsh. 

Jenn Cobb: Mm-hmm.

Jill North: It was just a grassy area that in the winter was really soggy. [00:35:00] And full of bees and during the summer was really dry. Mm-hmm. And, and so it wasn't a useful space. And so developing that into more of an outdoor learning space where you've got kids out there working on their Chromebooks, we're exploding pumpkins during, you know, Halloween out there.

We have our back to school nights or spring fling award ceremonies and families come and gather there. So it's really shifted, kind of that feeling. And it feels like a school. Yeah. It doesn't feel like just the modular that was forgotten about that's in the back of Magnolia, which is a great place to start, don't get me wrong.

But now it's just evolved so much that there's that pride, right? Like we're, we're the ravens, you know, we have a mascot. So, and then I think, um, you know, with Tri Mountain Academy, one of the biggest things was, like I said before, painting the classrooms, you know, decorating, things like that. But also we went through a name change this year.

Mm-hmm. So instead of Shasta County Juvenile Court School, we're now Tri Mountain Academy. Yeah. And the kids voted on our mascot, which is the [00:36:00] goats. They said it's Tri Mountain Goats. Love this. Great idea. She gave, gave them choice, which is fantastic. I love that. We, we were gonna go with Mountaineers, Ryan Miller was really pushing it on me, and we went to the kids and we said, what do you think about the mascot, the mountaineers?

They said, what's that? I said, what is that? Nevermind Billy goat. No, that's now it's greatest of all time. It is, exactly. So, mm-hmm. Yeah. And then you wanna talk about your, uh, sure. Yeah. There's a 

Cheyenne Mizenko: lot of beautification that have in Excel. There's a lot of beautification in Excel. So Excel, um, before, 'cause I've, this is my third year at Excel.

The first year we were there, um, just the walking on the campus, it didn't feel, it didn't feel like it was for kids. It felt very drab. The buildings were different colors in our other site right next door, and so it felt very, um, didn't feel like a place you wanted kids [00:37:00] to be.

Yeah. Um, parents would come and be like, this feels like a prison. And I'm like, God, I promise it's not. We love our kids, but the way it looked didn't reflect how we felt about our students. And so I think that was one big thing for me is, when I was teaching, like my kids respected their classroom 'cause it was their classroom, it was their space.

They felt safe there. And I wanted to put that on a bigger scale. Not just my classroom, but being in charge of a campus. Like this is our campus, we take care of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, and so just really, and my teachers really mirror that as well. Hey, we're not gonna rip our stuff down. We're gonna take care of the space.

This is your work. This is our home. We take care of it. And just really in, in my personal life and in my work life, your space really mirrors your mental health mm-hmm. And how you feel. And so when you're working in a cluttered space or your working in a drab space, that's, that reflects on your mental health.

Yeah. So I want my kids to feel an open space, happy space, great colors, and it's very, um, even our [00:38:00] office. Banks of filing cabinets, we took all those out, like opened up the space. I forgot about filing cabinets. Oh my gosh. The filing cabinets. It was just, it was like a complete overhaul.

And the things we brought out, like dumpsters of things that no one wanted, no one needed, and kids were just looking at things they didn't need to look at. So this is a space for, this is a kid space. All spaces are kids spaces at Excel. They're not adult spaces. And so when we had kind of had that mind shift and we went for that mind shift and we were able to make it just for students, mm-hmm.

It felt so much better. And when you walk on campus, it's the best campus. It's cute, it's four little classrooms and a cafeteria and it's the best space to be, in my opinion. But I also have a swamp. And so we're working on that too, in the middle, the grassy swamp. But I mean, it's, it's all a work in progress and it takes, it takes way longer than a year to build all these things.

But when I have people walk on my campus, I want them to be like, [00:39:00] wow, this is where Excel students learn. This is amazing. And so that's our goal 

Maggie Joyce: overall. Yeah. Environment is like, you guys have mentioned so important Yes. Right. For your mental health and also your ability to be able to see the future Yes.

Or learn or feel safe. Like it plays a huge part in all of that. 

Jill North: And I think it translates to students what we think of them. Yes. Right. It represents them. It's a great point. Feel about them. And if we are taking pride in this, that means we're proud of them and we are proud to, you know, we, we expect good things outta them because we're, we're providing this amazing space for them to learn in.

And I think that's now I think it's definitely felt, I think it's one of those things, those culture shifts at all three sites that you see it in the adults, the way they carry themselves, the way they interact with students, the way they interact with parents. And you see it in the kids as well. So, 

Maggie Joyce: yeah.

And some of it can be done with, with on a shoestring budget. Mm-hmm. Right? Like a can of paint is not that much, but it's the intention and the effort behind it. Right. That changes the whole campus culture, for [00:40:00] the adults and the students. Absolutely. You guys, don't you guys have a garden at one of your spaces as well?

We, 

Cheyenne Mizenko: we both have gardens. Uh, well she has a huge garden at juvenile hall. Yeah. Like their facility is a beautiful garden. If you can ever go see it, it's amazing. 

Jill North: And we have five goats chicken 

Cheyenne Mizenko: and five 

Jill North: goats and chickens. Which is why you're the goats. Exactly. I mean, I did say there's, here's my public forum to say I did not name the mascot 'cause I too own goats. And I was like, everyone's gonna think I named it. No, 

Cheyenne Mizenko: it's not about the owning goats. You love goats. I do love goats. Goats and dogs. Goats and dogs. You didn't choose it, you couldn't find on it. 

Jill North: One of my staff threw out St. Bernard's, 'cause they thought I would bite and I was like, Hmm, it's tempting, but I'm gonna leave it up to the kids.

I prefer goats. Yeah, 

Cheyenne Mizenko: yeah. No we, I mean we all have a garden space, which is cool. Independent Study has a greenhouse and an outdoor garden and we're building big garden beds. I have two staff that are very passionate about gardening and do a gardening elective every Friday, and so watching kids grow their [00:41:00] own plants and take 'em home at the end of the year and plant their own was really cool to see.

But yeah, we do have a, we have all have garden spaces actually. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Well there's a lot of healing working in the soil, right? Like you can process through a lot of stuff There's also a lot of critical thinking with gardening because it can be tough, right? Like the soil's not right. Right. If you planted the plant and it died, like we have to work through all of that.

And so the skill that you're providing by having that is it's a life skill. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. And it's hard to get things to grow sometimes in Shasta County, so 

Jill North: Yes. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jill North: I have a brown thumb, which is why she has goats. That's 

Jenn Cobb: no plants. She has fake plants. Well, to close out this episode of Inspire Shasta, uh, we always end with a signature closing question. The signature closing question is, as you both know, one of our core values. So, what is your hope for the next generation and who is [00:42:00] someone that has been particularly helpful to you in your journey?

Jill North: So mine's gonna go back to the idea of de-stigmatizing students who, you know, that idea of not being defined by maybe one of the dumbest decisions you've made at a young age. And going back to my opening answer to your signature question, if I was defined by my three times in the principal's office one day, uh, I probably wouldn't be sitting here.

You know, I may even sitting somewhere else. So, I really think just my hope is really for our next generations have more understanding and empathy from community that, you know, teenagers can change and they can grow and learn from, from hard things. So that's probably my hope.

Cheyenne Mizenko: I love that. That's good. Oh, I think my hope is that the students that we work with know that. Growing past their experience similar to [00:43:00] Jill is like, this is not your only piece of your journey. Mm-hmm. This is a growth moment for you. And that the people that were in the yuck with you cared about you.

And that when you look back you're like, wow, that person really cared. And how can I pay that forward in my life and be a person for somebody else? 'cause I think every. For somebody's person. It doesn't matter if they're a student or your spouse or, but everyone connects with somebody. And so just for me being that person on a campus, I want them to pay that forward later and be a person for somebody and be a support.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Yeah. 

Maggie Joyce: Everybody needs their person. Everybody needs their person. And sometimes you don't even know you're someone's person. Right. Like with a lot of our students, we're not even aware of the impact that we've made on them until we see them in the market 10 years later with their own children. Yes.

And they say like, you know, thank you so much for everything that you do for me. And so, thank you guys for everything that you do for our students in Shasta County. I'm grateful that we have the programs that we have and the staff that [00:44:00] is changing the narrative for our alternative education kids.

So it's really important work. Thanks for coming guys. 

Cheyenne Mizenko: Thank you guys. Thanks for letting us share.