O'Farrell Community School


O'Farrell Community School or The O'Farrell Charter School commonly referred to as O'Farrell is a charter school in the Southeast San Diego neighborhood of Encanto serving grades K-12 in the K-12 American education system. The school opened its doors in the San Diego Unified School District in 1959 with its name chosen in 1957 as Mabel E. O'Farrell Jr. High. It was voted to become a charter school in 1994. President Bill Clinton made a visit to San Diego in 1995 to sign the "Goals 2000" education bill and to visit O'Farrell because it was charter. It was also mentioned in Hillary Clinton's book It Takes a Village. It has a code of conduct of how to become a good citizen called The Falcon Way, of Focus, Attitude, Leadership Citizenship, Organization, and Non-Violience, that is indoctrinated per student. Instead of being called principal, faculty and students refer to the educational leader as the Chief Educational Officer. The large conspicuous mural in front of the school on the side of the Theatre was a tribute to a faculty member by the nickname "Animal" who died. The mural was painted by students.
For 2006-2007, the school academic progress place it with an Academic Performance Index of 710 base with 720 growth, where 800 is the California state goal. The school boasted itself as being #1 in API compared to other surrounding schools in its November 2007 edition of its newsletter. For October 2005, the demographic makeup of the student body consisted of 36% Hispanic, 31% Black, 24% Filipino, 3%White.
Hillary Clinton also mentions the O'Farrell way extending beyond these rules that also includes the graduation requirement of time for community service. However, the graduation requirement actually fits under The O'Farrell Standard which is just an award and recognition issued for those who have essentially accomplished good academic performance, portfolio compilation, presentation of the portfolio, 12 hours of community service equally distributed at home, work, school; good citizenship The O'Farrell Way all of which were mentioned in the school's charter proposal.

Family organization and designations

The school originally used a social structure called Educational Families. The faculty of the family taught interdisciplinary subjects. For example, one teacher taught history in combination of biology while another teacher taught Spanish in combination of dance. The family structure was introduced in the 1990s and more connected to newer branded O'Farrell Community School than older O'Farrell Junior High School.
It was organized in such a way one set of families serve the 6th grade then another set of families serve both 7 and 8 grade students simultaneously, especially the first class of the day is called homebase. Associated close with the letters are a name of a broad theme for example: I for Inspirations; E for Exceeders; F for Fantastics; D for Discovery; A for Achievers.
In later years, the school designated its families as Family 1, Family 2,..., Family 6 with newer names such as "Great Force" for Family 5 and "Horizon Explorers" for Family 6.

Schools within a School

The O'Farrell Charter School is now organized into three different schools: elementary, middle, and high school. Each school has a principal and vice principal and has a separate program, teachers, and bell schedules. In 2020 the high school was ranked the #3 high school in San Diego by U.S. News & World Report.

Awards

AVID National Demonstration School by AVID
National Excellence in Urban Education Award by the National Center for Urban School Transformation
Best High Schools in America by U.S. News & World Report, 2018, 2019, 2020.

Notable alumni