Carmenita Middle School

 

Website: Carmenita

Principal: Robert Castillo

13435 E. 166th St. Cerritos 90703 562-229-7775 FAX * 404-7807

Carmenita Middle School (CMS) is an award-winning middle school that continues to serve an important role in our community.  CMS staff and support belive that all students can and will make progress academically, social-emotionally, and in other aspects of their lives.  Our belief and supports for systems are rooted in the idea that we can “Accelerate Excellence” and “...ensure successful progress for all.” CMS has been recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School, California Distinguished School, California Business for Education Excellence Honor Roll recipient, the California School Board Association’s Golden Bell Award recipient for our Distinguished Scholars Program, California Gold Ribbon School and a National and California Schools to Watch to serve as a national model of a high achieving middle school.  This year, CMS was once again re-designated as a California and National Schools to Watch for 2020 and named a California Business for Education Excellence Scholar School for the tenth year in a row!

 

As stated in our mission statement, CMS students also understand that their successful progress is the most important goal we have here at CMS.  In addition to the support our students receive from their teachers, their parents, and our staff, CMS students are taught to take ownership of their own progress.  Our students read their own assessment data, chart their individual progress, and set goals based on data.  Our teachers have started an innovative program that is only available at Carmenita Middle School in ABCUSD and called it “FLEX.”  The FLEX program allows for a flexible schedule on select Tuesdays and Thursdays to provide enrichment, intervention and study hall support for students based on their assessment and benchmark results.  Teachers work together to analyze their students’ progress and make recommendations for the upcoming FLEX sessions.   

 

 

In addition to our core academic course offerings, CMS offers a wealth of extra-curricular, elective, college, and career pathway courses.  We offer courses in art, music, band, computers, Spanish, yearbook, broadcasting, and engineering.  We are in our sixth year of offering the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) course in both 7^th and 8^th grades.  We also offer our newest courses in PLTW (Project Lead the Way), which consists of two courses in engineering and robotics.  Our electives teachers take pride in providing students access to enrichment opportunities that help students discover learning outside of the core curriculum.  

 

 

Along with “FLEX,” CMS is proud to have a successful and unique program called the Distinguished Scholars Program (DSP). Our DSP was awarded the Golden Bell Award in 2011 as a model middle school program.  All 7^th and 8^thgrade students have the opportunity to apply and be part of our innovative and successful DSP.  The Program has three overarching goals in support of our school’s mission.