My Priorities · Academic Excellence

The graduate who already had a college degree

Real excellence isn’t just for the university-bound. It’s what happens when you refuse to write off a single kid.

At last year’s graduation, I watched one of our students walk across the stage to collect a diploma he had more than earned — because that same spring, he had also completed an associate degree. A full college degree, finished before he finished high school. I’ll be honest: I was a little envious my own five kids never had that chance.

For a long time, our district did an excellent job with one kind of student — the university-bound student headed for a four-year school, with strong International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement programs to match. That is worth protecting, and we have protected it. But when my own oldest kids were in high school, I barely knew what dual enrollment or career technical education even were, because there wasn’t much of it. So I set out to widen the definition of excellence — to make it serve every student, not just the ones on the Ivy League track.

College credit, earned in high school

We grew dual enrollment from a handful of courses into offerings on every one of our campuses: real, transferable community-college units, taught right at the high school by teachers with master’s degrees, under a shared agreement with Sierra College. This isn’t an Advanced Placement class, where the credit only counts if you pass an exam and your college chooses to accept it. These are actual college units, in hand, on a transcript. That’s how a student like the one I watched last spring can walk the graduation stage with an associate degree already earned — and a real head start on tuition and time.

Career, not just college

We built career technical education up to the same level, designed hand-in-hand with Sierra College and regional employers so the programs actually connect to careers: the Health Academy at Oakmont with hospital and medical-office internships, a mechatronics pathway aligned to Sierra College and advanced-manufacturing employers like Bosch, construction technology sponsored by the local trades, and environmental resources built with the City of Roseville. We also brought two campuses together as Roseville Pathways — including a Middle College partnership with Sierra College — so students who learn differently graduate with real opportunity and none of the old stigma. Educators from across the state have asked us how we did it.

None of it works without great teachers

So I treat our teachers and staff as part of this very same priority. Because our district stays fiscally healthy while many around us struggle, we can pay at the top of our peer districts, honor the full years of service of the experienced teachers we recruit, and share unexpected state dollars back with our staff — as we did this year, adding a raise and a $2,000 stipend when the state budget came in stronger than expected, rather than pocket the difference. The results show: our principals and administrators have been honored as regional leaders of the year, Antelope earned recognition as a 2026 California Distinguished School, and teachers move toward this district, not away from it. The adult standing in front of a student is the single biggest in-school factor in that student’s success, and we work hard to attract and keep the best.

“Excellence isn’t one path. It’s making sure every student — college-bound, career-bound, or finding their own way — leaves us ready for what’s next.”

That is what a great district does. It refuses to decide, at fourteen, which kids are worth investing in. It keeps the doors to college wide open and builds new doors to careers right beside them. That’s the work I’m proudest of — and it’s the work I intend to keep building.

Pete Constant is a parent of five Oakmont graduates, a university professor and department chair, and RJUHSD’s Trustee for Area 2. See the full Academic Excellence record →