We are the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High School. But who are Gary and Jerri-Ann? Why are their names are on the building? What is their role at HTH? And why do we have so many touring visitors? In a recent interview, the Jacobs spoke with 2019 graduating senior Andrew Ferguson to share their HTH history and some surprising answers to these questions and more!
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| Gary & Jerri-Ann Jacobs |
The Jacobs have been an important part of every graduation since the schools opened in 2000. Jerri-Ann attends all the Point Loma high school graduations, while Gary speaks at almost all Point Loma, North and South school ceremonies and shakes over 700 hands every June!
In the very beginning…
The San Diego business community, specifically about 40 local high tech companies, started with a planning group that was looking at ways to attract engineers to the area. Families are always looking for quality education opportunities, and the idea for starting a new school came from a goal to help better prepare young adults with skills they should learn before starting out in the real world.
Gary went to one of the planning group meetings because another Qualcomm representative couldn’t make it, and the rest is history as they say. Qualcomm and the other companies pooled financial resources to get the project started.
A question of money
San Diego Unified is the second largest school district in the state of California and the seventh largest in the US, so if they could positively impact the San Diego system— hopefully—they could show improvements in education overall. The planning group wanted to create a “lab school” and had to make a lot of important decisions, including how the school would be governed.
That is when Larry Rosenstock, our current CEO, came into the picture. Larry was working for the Price Foundation on a pilot school in City Heights and had a lot of experience starting schools. He met with the planning group, and despite a 50/50 chance that the school would actually start, Larry wanted to be the director.
The next logical question was about money. How would they be able to find a building, hire staff and teachers without money? That’s when Gary and Jerri-Ann decided to fund $3 million to get things going. This was their initial gift to the school and how the school got its name, the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High. After adding in Larry’s commitment to direct the project, the odds of the school opening moved up to 90/10.
Danish model
The HTH philosophy was inspired by the Danish system of high schools where they have three types; academic powerhouse (college prep), technical (high academic + applied learning), and traditional (vocational). Kids who did the best in university were the ones who attended the technical high schools because, not only did they have the information, but they knew how to use it and knew what to do if they didn’t. That is what the HTH motto is based on, engaging students in their education.
While HTH was still being designed, the Gates Foundation offered $6 million to build 10 schools around the country even though we did not yet have staff, curriculum, students, or results. They tried to open schools around the country, in Philadelphia, Albuquerque, San Francisco, but too many problems came up that were tough to manage long distance, so it was decided to concentrate efforts in San Diego.
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| Original interior during early construction. |
It took about two years to open— a year for the committee to decide what to do and a year working with Larry to design the school and get ready to open. Gary recently found the original sheet of paper with the objectives for High Tech High and the good news is we are doing what we set out to do. Gary says that although we don’t have numbers for students who have gone to college and come back to work for San Diego companies, all the other goals match up —college acceptance, college going, college finishing, college completion, the types of careers that people go into.
SDSU summer program trial
Business tends to move at a faster pace than education and so the planning group needed to see momentum. HTH folks ran a summer program female 8th grade students at San Diego State University before the first year of the school was open. It was based on the automotive society engineering curriculum so they were building model cars. That was the first cohort of kids who got an idea of what they could expect when they came in as freshmen.
Finding Liberty Station
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| View into Great Room with cubicles |
HTH was built in Building 49, originally a building the Navy used to teach heavy machinery and refrigeration repair. When we took over the building, the interior was rebuilt with the big open space of the great room, classrooms, and the fish bowl (which was originally called the “Not So Great Room”). The great room had classrooms along the perimeter, like it is now, but the common space had cubicles like in an open-style office. It was designed as part of a collaboration space, so for half of the day kids were in the classrooms, and the other half they were in cubicles.
Recruiting and interviews
Gary explained the days before HTH had students, “It was kind of scary because you put so much into a school, into something you think is going to work. We didn’t have any applications, we didn’t know if people would really like it, but for those first 100 spaces, we ended up with 700 applications. In the first few years, not only did you have to fill out a one page application, you had to write a statement about what you wanted to get out of your high school education and your parent had to write a statement about how they were going to support it.”
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| Sup Freshman! No artwork yet! |
First group of students and teachers
In the first year, there were 100 freshmen and 50 sophomores, with 12 faculty members. At the end of year there were 6 faculty members left. It was difficult in those early days because they were working with a different style of education with no textbooks and most teachers were not used to it. As a new school, new teachers couldn’t just come in and “see how we do it”, and decide if our style was good for them. New teachers and new students had to take a leap and come in to try it.
Project-based learning
Jerri-Ann went to high school in Brooklyn which used the project-based philosophy. She had pass-fail classes, 40 minute block classes and every 6 weeks the students had a day off to do something service related, like clean kennels for dogs. While Gary remembers sitting in his traditional high school in La Jolla thinking, “I’m doing this worksheet, someone sat in my seat last year doing the exact same thing and someone else will do in next year. What does this relate to, what am I going to do with this? It certainly made me think about how to change that experience into something more.”
Although the Jacobs are asked often about the Project-Based Learning (PBL) philosophy, they try to impart that PBL is a tool, HTH is not PBL, “It’s the culture, the environment, the respect, the social equity we’re all about and we use PBL as a tool to get there.” By working in groups, students get thrown in with people they wouldn’t normally associate with since they live in different neighborhoods, or with people they may not like; it offers real-world challenges and problems to solve.
The village grows
When HTH originally opened, the HTM building was being used by the Natural History Museum as off-site storage and even held a stuffed grizzly bear! Of course the design philosophy was a bit more evolved for HTM and they specifically designed separate common spaces for each grade – 6th, 7th and 8th, with the 6th grade area just a bit bigger to accommodate a larger bubble of kids.
HTHI was next, a building that was used as the Navy foundry where they made propellers and cast stuff for ships. Because the buildings are historical, they could not make exterior changes, but they could change the inside. Although with HTHI, they kept the original open space inside.
At HTHMA and HTMMA, the walkway on the third floor was originally where the Navy base commander would give out the orders of the day. The Media Arts/Explorer building was always intended to be used for education by the developer. Originally it was to include Explorer and Junior Achievement, but Junior Achievement dropped out and High Tech High Media Arts and Middle Media Arts moved in.
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| Media Arts grand staircase |
The Media Arts building needed work and was allowed some changes on the outside. The outside staircase was Gary’s idea, a grand staircase as a point of entry, but during construction the hole they dug outside kept filling with water because Liberty Station is built on landfill. They eventually pumped out enough of the water to let the concrete set.
The High Tech Elementary building was an old Navy gym with a gym space on each far end and a pool in the middle. The Navy trained recruits how to swim and it had portholes underwater so you could see how they were doing. Rock Church originally had that building but decided not to use it. The pool was filled and they built the elementary school on top of it. For this construction, they kept the original barrel roof. The two gyms were also renovated, one stayed as a gym space and the other became the Forum.
High Tech Chula Vista was built after the City of Chula Vista invited them to lease the land. They designed the school but had the buildings built off-site and then put all the pieces together at the school site. It was designed with a wind corridor to cool itself; it’s a very green design. North County in San Marcos was next, and in 2019 a new High, Middle and Elementary school will open in Clairemont.
The Jacobs present day role at HTH
When HTH originally started, each school had their own board of directors, their own trustees. Gary chaired all of them. It made for a long day of board meetings! We now have a single board called the High Tech High School Board with oversight of all the schools. Gary also chairs the HTH Foundation and HTH Learning board which hold all the real estate. The one board he does not chair is the HTH Graduate School of Education.
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| High Tech High Mesa in Clairemont |
Gary is also very involved with community connections and helping to set up new schools. The board discusses design, strategies and structures. For example, in North County, the high school was built first, but there was a big discussion about whether to open a middle school which is now a feeder school for the high school. With the North County elementary school, they are a complete set.
It’s important to the Jacobs that they don’t just give financial support, they try to give emotional and physical support too. Jerri-Ann is very involved volunteering, tutoring and mentoring and works at different schools each year. While their two oldest kids did not attend HTH, their two youngest graduated from the High Tech Village. While they were in school, Jerri-Ann was on the Parent Association board and helped with fundraising. She set up a big annual gala fundraiser called Catwalk that kept her very busy, in addition to the other school committees she supported.
Jerri-Ann explains, “I was more at the kid and parent level—hands-on, while Gary was at the higher level—an overview. When my last child, Mara, graduated it was bittersweet. I knew I wouldn’t have to work as hard and drive down here every day, but I didn’t want to lose touch with the school which is why I still volunteer, so I can get to know the teachers and directors and everybody. Graduation wasn’t goodbye for me because I didn’t let it, but for most parents, it is.”
A little graduation history
In 2011, HTHI was in the final pick for President Obama to speak at graduation. The school entered the “Race to the Top Commencement Challenge”, a nationwide challenge for schools to demonstrate how they equip students academically and empower them to graduate college. Although the Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, Tennessee received the presidential commencement speech, the White House sent former astronaut and Administrator of NASA, Charles F. Bolden Jr., to the HTHI graduation that year.
In the early years, guest speakers were often brought in to give words of wisdom at graduation, but they decided it was actually more impactful to have the students tell their stories. Now we only have student speakers, and they always deliver inspirational stories that you’ll never forget.
There was another memorable graduation tradition…the “Point Loma Pause”. Until recently, all ceremonies were held outside so every speaker had to pause several times during their speech. Even with a microphone, planes from the airport are so loud you have to wait for them to pass before you can continue talking.
Student stories and speeches
Gary has heard every student’s story at every graduation. The stories he remembers most tell of experiences that describe great change. He shared a particularly memorable story from High Tech High many years ago, “The student said he and his family live in the maintenance shack on a golf course because his dad is the assistant groundskeeper. So the fact that his parents could get him in to this school changed the whole outlook on their life and going forward for him. Going from that kind of environment, living in a maintenance shack to being able to get a college education changes everything.”
Another remarkable speech was about a student’s brother who was in jail, a member of a gang. The student told his brother that he wanted to be just like him, but his brother told him he was crazy. He encouraged him to stay in high school and get an education because otherwise he feared he would end up dead. He was able to finish school in a safe environment, where learning is respected.
Gary typically speaks at all the high school ceremonies, and sometimes the middle schools. He usually speaks last to close the ceremony with a reflection on what the students have said, and to remind graduates that they haven’t done it alone. Gary explains, “I like to say that parents, teachers and friends have been there for you, many have supported you, so when you go off to college, find someone to support, pay it forward because you’re going to need it too. And my favorite conclusion, to paraphrase the Eagles, you can graduate but you can never leave.”
Meeting graduates in strange places
The Jacobs are amazed at all the places they are lucky enough to meet graduates of High Tech High, or parents of students, even in other countries when they travel. It worked out to Gary’s advantage one time when he was running late to the airport and needed to check a bag. The desk agent started to say “no, sorry you are too late”, then said, “wait – you started High Tech High, my kid went there…let me check your bag”.
New developments at HTH
Some of the growth in the village was not planned at all. The HTH Graduate School of Education began organically, it started with the teachers. They wanted to be able to move up in their careers by getting another degree, so through the Graduate School, they can offer a master’s degree program. The school offers a very different Education School model, it features an embedded school system that uses Kindergarten through 12th grade classes as a lab space so to speak. They teach using project-based learning and those philosophies with a respect of student to teacher and teacher to student rather than just putting up lesson plans and talking at kids. The model is based on social equality and social justice—how to get people access to quality education to help create a better society.
Visitors and modeling HTH
We have about 5,000 visitors every year come through our schools to see how we do it. They try to replicate what’s done here all over the world. The Jacobs are working with the Ministry of Education in Israel to bring the High Tech High system to their education system.
Gary and Jerri-Ann shared, “We’ve visited the schools they’ve been trying to change over, and there is a huge difference. In traditional schools, where teachers own a room with students moving from class to class, students don’t respect teachers and it can be a tough place to learn. In our model, the students own the room and the teachers go around. Now, the students are more respectful of the teachers because they aren’t being taught at, they are working with, like here at HTH, so it’s a whole different philosophy for kids in Israel.“
Although Israeli kids traditionally experience a very different model of education, a new school built in Sha’ar HaNegev in southern Israel by the Gaza border, was started by the San Diego Jewish community. They used the HTH design philosophy to build the building, which meant more open rooms and project based learning. It’s feels like a great accomplishment to introduce change in the school culture and philosophy in Israel because it means kids get new learning opportunities.
Risks have paid off
The HTH founders are long past the worries of their first year when they didn’t know if anyone would apply. Last year we had 7,200 applicants for 1,200 spots and we are fortunate to have opportunities to expand in San Diego.
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| First class on first day of school |
The Jacobs acknowledge that it’s always hard to introduce a new teaching style. Parents worry about the unknown for their children. With a new school, using a new educational philosophy, are parents are willing to take a risk with their child? In a traditional school, you can go in and see what the pattern has been, how their graduates do in certain universities, or if they go straight into the workforce, there is history to consider. At HTH, we don’t have text books and bring home very little homework because they want students to do the work in school, and learn how to do it on their own.
The business community that started this venture opened with a high school because they wanted results, even waiting four years was going to be hard. But the success at HTH has turned one school into many, and with the Clairemont addition we will soon have 6 high schools, 5 middle and 5 elementary schools.
For the Jacobs, education is important because it can provide opportunities for children to be exposed to many different experiences so they can figure out—or at least narrow down—what they want to do in the future, with their life. With great options and choices, a good education is empowering.
