HUNTINGTON BEACH : Designing a Curriculum for the 21st Century

Educator Donna Connelly’s dream was to start a private academy.

With just five students, Connelly opened her own school in September, 1975, in a Sunday schoolroom at an Anaheim church.

Twenty years and four moves later, Claremont High School in Huntington Beach has 156 pupils in grades seven through 12 and a staff of 30 teachers, administrators, clerks and maintenance workers.

And the founder’s new vision is to focus the curriculum so that students will be ready to succeed in the next century.

Claremont, she said, has evolved into “the school of the future.”

“We promote creativity,” said Connelly, whose father was an inventor. “We want to offer robotics . . . to get kids excited about learning science. Maybe we’ll have some future scientists.”

Connelly, 61, who taught in Anaheim and Fullerton public schools before starting Claremont, said that the private school offers classes not typically available at the secondary level.

For instance, students can take a ground school course to learn the basics of flying an airplane and can also pick up more down-to-earth skills, such as how to repair cars.

Word-processing classes are a staple, but courses such as Italian and German, photography, drama and art are also available.

As the school adds electronics courses, Connelly said, her goal is to have computers in every classroom.

In addition, the school recently began offering night and Saturday courses, such as advanced algebra, computer-aided drawing and Spanish, to students in public schools, as well as adults.

Although she foresees the school continuing to grow, Connelly said, class sizes remain relatively small--at just 10 to 15 students.

That is a key to Claremont’s success, she and her students agree.

“You get one-on-one attention with the teachers,” said Rick Shelton, 17, Student Council president.

“If you don’t understand something, they spend the time with you to help you understand.”