Frequently Asked Questions
How is SAEL different?
SAEL is a college preparatory public charter high school that uses a project-based, hands on, interdisciplinary approach to learning. We are tuition - free and have the same academic standards and expectations as other public schools, but with a focus on making the learning relevant. Community partnerships and frequent work in the field give students a chance to truly experience their learning with experts. Service learning is not just used as a singular event, but a means of discovering the world and helping to support it to become a more equitable one. Although SAEL will definitely challenge students to think critically, it is a school for all types of learning and thinking styles. Students are given the opportunity to create high quality work that will serve a real purpose in the community to make the world a better, more equitable place. Our foundation of EL Education and the clear results of EL schools across the country adds legitimacy to our dynamic approach to the creation of an engaging, inviting, and rigorous school program. We work together to form a strong school culture that supports equitable achievement for and with all. We are a small school that can offer individualized attention. Character education is woven into how we teach and how we learn. Students are not only pushed to think critically, discuss passionately, and learn deeply, but they are also asked to do this while examining the issues in our world from multiple perspectives. All students are expected to apply to college and will need to complete all a-g level coursework in order to graduate. This does not mean students must choose college after high school, but instead are empowered to engage in the application process with guidance from SAEL staff so they are prepared for the many applications they will be faced with throughout their lives. We believe all doors need to be open to our students when they leave SAEL. We are excited to be able to support students to find their path after high school, whether they choose college, trade school, the military, or a gap year program. Students from SAEL have been accepted to schools like UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Oberlin, Reed, Harvey Mudd, Prescott College, Sac State, Chico State, Humboldt State, Colorado College, Lewis and Clark, Worchester Polytechnical Institute to name a few. In order to make an active choice about next steps, best fits, and bright futures, students are given the chance to explore real work as they interact with the real professions to which their academic subjects are tied. We believe our students can and will succeed and we know we have the means of providing those opportunities to the individuals who trust us with their education. We are CREW not passengers, which means we consistently collaborate with students to flex our growth mindset, to disrupt inequities, and to support one another at SAEL.
Sample Expedition Overviews include:
9th Grade: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
10th Grade: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
11th Grade: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
12th Grade: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
How do I contact SAEL?
Click here to be taken to our CONTACT US page.
Haga clic aquí para ser llevado a nuestra página CONTÁCTENOS.
Can my student go to college if they go to SAEL? And what about UC a-g courses?
SAEL students have been accepted to colleges like UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Oberlin, Reed, Lewis and Clark, Regis, Northern Arizona University, Cal Poly, Prescott College, Warren Wilson, Colorado State, Washington State, Kalamazoo College, Clark College, Sierra College, Humboldt State, Chico State, Butte College, University of Montana, Colorado School of Mines, and Evergreen State (so far!). SAEL uses a standards-based approach which means students will be studying the same state and national skills as any other public school student. We just approach the learning and grading of those skills differently. SAEL is WASC accredited, a part of the nationally recognized Expeditionary Learning network, and a CCSA member school. The majority of our college preparatory classes are a-g certified with a couple more in development. This means SAEL students will be prepared and eligible for the UC/CSU system and for colleges throughout the country. Students are encouraged to take on "extensions" of their learning in the form of teacher and student-designed projects and inquiries to make the learning go deeper individually or in study groups. Students can also take honors level courses for their core academic classes in the 11th and 12th grades. Specific AP classes are offered as well. Expeditionary Learning high schools nationwide work to achieve a 100% college acceptance rate and SAEL plans to do the same with each one of our graduating seniors. Numerous college admissions representatives have spoken with our students, families, and faculty. They have all assured us that a standards or mastery based grading approach is not only welcome, but can often provide more information to colleges about the skills a student may possess in character and academics. You can find more information about the college process and how we support it at our SAEL Guidance Website. You can find a great Edutopia article about how Mastery Based Grading is accepted at colleges and considered positive innovation in schools here.
How does SAEL create an equitable learning environment?
Every class, interaction, and experience at SAEL is an opportunity to disrupt systemic inequities. Our school community is for every student and family. This means we are proactive in working to create an anti-racist and intersectionally inclusive community. We are also responsive to concerns. Crew classes provide opportunities for practicing communication skills and having necessary conversations. Our interdisciplinary curriculum provides opportunities for students to practice making claims with quality evidence, understanding multiple perspectives, and producing work that endeavors to make the world a better place. Our teachers craft curriculum based on California standards while incorporating resources such as those from EL Education, Learning for Justice, Facing History and Ourselves, and The Center for Racial Justice in Education. This means diverse voices, leaders, authors, and examples of changemaking and resilience are highlighted in our classes. For example, students engage with A Place to Call Home Project to build understanding and inspire passionate action to support folks experiencing homelessness in our local community. Our students learn how to create and propose environmental solutions through our engagement with Caring for Our Watersheds and the Bear Yuba Land Trust. In history, for example, our students learn about Japanese Internment, visit the Alabama Hills on fieldwork, and go to the Manzanar Historical Site when learning about World War II and America's and American's decisions and dehumanization efforts during this time. Our students will investigate and then write Op Eds and try to get them published locally to advocate about their chosen topics. Here and here are two Op Ed examples. The support for all students is a part of the work we do every day and we are vigilant about how we all can keep doing better in this work. All students are supported to have access to a college education. All students are supported to bring their identity to school. Our staff is responsive when we get feedback, need to mediate, and when we have to engage in hard conversations with our community. Our school demographics mirror those of the community, and, in some aspects of identity, are more diverse. All of this is to say, we are engaging in the work of creating an equitable learning environment, collecting and disaggregating student data consistently, considering how we can get better, and moving forward with this work.
How do you share school assignments with students and families?
Students all have access to Google Apps for Education and use Google Classroom to access assignments, rubrics, and information about all assignments and information from classes. Each class has its own Google Classroom that students log into and use. Families can ask students to show them their Google Classroom to look at assignments together.
How is SAEL learning about and supporting the local Nisenan people of the Nevada City Rancheria?
SAEL is grateful to be of service to the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP). Our school community is committed to learning from, supporting, and amplifying our local Foothill Nisenan people of the Nevada City Rancheria.
We acknowledge these are the ancestral homelands of the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe.
We acknowledge this land was taken repeatedly with no compensation or regard for the lives and ways of the original people, until they had no land left.
We acknowledge we are settlers here, that we live, love and work on land the Nisenan never ceded.
TOGETHER WE CAN AMEND THE TRAGIC LEGACY OF THE PAST.
We are committed to learning and being of service. We are working to contribute, in partnership, to support with amplification, acknowledgement, and eventually land stewardship by following CHIRP's lead. Thank you to Tribal Spokesperson Shelly Covert for connecting with our school community.
There is an Ancestral Homelands Reciprocity Program (AHRP) where people and businesses can donate. CHIRP's Facebook and CHIRP's Instagram and the AHRP's Facebook pages are great resources. In 2021, as part of EL Education's Better World Day, our school community worked in partnership with the local Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe to create a campaign and short film We Acknowledge: Un-erasing the Nisenan Tribe. You can view this below. Again, we are grateful to be of service and to keep learning.
What information can you provide about COVID-19 and school reopening?
SAEL is open for in person learning. SAEL is keeping in close contact with our authorizing district, the Nevada Joint Union High School District (NJUHSD) and the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools Office (NCSOS). For additional information on the COVID-19 virus please see: https://www.cdph.ca.gov, https://www.cde.ca.gov/, www.mynevadacounty.com/ or call 211.
Nevada County COVID-19 Resources Adolescences - Parents
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Resources
What extracurriculars do you have?
SAEL offers a variety of clubs and extracurriculars as well as Varsity Sports in Volleyball, Basketball, Cross Country, Track, and Soccer. Crew Council serves as student government and there is also the biocultural leadership opportunity every year for students selected to go to Panama's Mamoní Valley during a Fall Intensive. Clubs at SAEL have included Art, Eco, Gardening, Entrepreneur, Music, Mountain Biking, Cross Fit, Martial Arts, Ski and Snowboarding, Trail Running, Basketball, Weight Lifting, Anime, and Multimedia. SAEL staff and students will be developing and shifting SAEL Clubs and Student Government opportunities based on student interest and teacher expertise.
Where exactly are you located?
SAEL is located in the historic NCE (Nevada City Elementary) building on 505 Main Street in downtown Nevada City. We respectfully acknowledge that SAEL's building is on Nisenan land. Our active classrooms are open with a welcoming entrance to our full campus space. Get more visuals for the inside SAEL space here.
Where can I park? Where should I go for drop off and pick up?
There is street parking available in Nevada City. See below for the map of parking and traffic patterns for drop off and pick up. Although it is not illegal to park in the red portions of the map or to travel against the black arrow path for drop off and pick up, we strongly encourage our Crew to work together to create an effective, conscientious, and careful pick up and drop off routine that honors efficiency and neighbor requests. The Friends of NCE include many of our direct neighbors. This community organization has worked with us on getting the site for SAEL and figuring out how we collaborate on the use of our shared streets.
SAEL Parking and Drop Off : Pick Up Guide
Is the school available to rent for events? How can I rent the NCE space?
Organizations can review the Use of Facility Policy and the Facility Use Application. Organizations can fill out the application and submit it to the main office to be considered. School events and meetings can take priority. SAEL will definitely still be hosting the Wild and Scenic Film Festival with SYRCL every year.
SAEL Use of School Facility and Fees
What transportation do you offer to and from school?
SAEL offers a bus from and to Nevada City every school day from South County. The fee is $300 per year.
How do I get involved as a parent?
Join the PTC! We're always looking for parent volunteers to help with activities, fundraising, baking, supporting, and acting as experts in our classrooms. Contact PTC (Parent / Teacher Crew) President at PTC@sierraacademy.net.
Do you have Homework at SAEL?
We push students to work hard when they are here with us at SAEL. We have one hour and twenty minute block classes which allow students and teachers to dig into the work together. We also offer Office Hours at the end of each school day Monday - Thursday. This allows students to work on Homework, to seek out extra help, or to take their learning further with a teacher of their choice. So, yes, we have homework at SAEL, but it is not assigned for the sake of doing work at home. Work is meaningful and allows students to dig in deeper. All students are working toward mastery and there may be projects that take extra work at home or reflection between classes to make sure students are digesting and discussing their learning. Often students get work done in Office Hours and other times they need to take it home or collaborate with peers after school. Our students and families will tell you that the work they do see come home is not busy work and students are always allowed to bring it back in the next day for support in class or Office Hours if they are struggling.
How do I apply?
Go to our Enrollment page! Download then submit an application via email or in person. We also have paper applications at school.
How many students attend SAEL?
We have about 200 students and can grow to have about 250 students total in grades 9-12. We can have about 60 students per grade, 30 students per class, and about 17 students per Crew.
What awards have your students won?
Students at SAEL have won the Nevada County Bar Association's Legal Essay Contest as well as the Nevada County Reads and Writes Essay Contest. Students have placed in the Caring for our Watersheds statewide contest, the Placer County STEM Expo, and at the local Rotary Club's Speech Competition. SAEL Students have been selected to engage in the Girls in Science program with EarthWatch and the leadership internship program with Experience Mamoní in Panama. The SAEL Robotics team placed 13th in the Northern California State Championship in only their 2nd year as a team, competing with other teams sponsored by companies like Google!
What is Expeditionary Learning or EL Education?
EL Education, formerly Expeditionary Learning, is our school partner and way of approaching teaching and learning at SAEL. It is a whole-school model that includes a national network of schools. There is information about EL Education on our website's Expeditionary Learning page. You can also learn more about EL Education at their website.
What is an Expedition?
Learning expeditions are semester-long, interdisciplinary "units" of study. Instead of studying each subject separately by using small units that often coincide with the chapters in a text book, learning expeditions involve a long-term investigation of a major topic that has real world connections. Students become the researchers, they engage in fieldwork, meet with experts, and work with complex texts that encourage critical thinking and discussing. Expeditions are standards-based and developed with the end product in mind. This product is authentic and serves a true purpose in the community. Through the use of continual, strategic, student-drive assessment practices, we know learning expeditions are a vehicle for student achievement and motivation in academics and character. In addition, expeditions are not just trips into the woods, although students will engage in outdoor adventure-based learning experiences. Our relationship with the natural world is an essential part of the Design Principles of EL, and will be incorporated into our learning expeditions and Adventure classes. Below you can watch a PBS report on an expedition at King Middle School, one of the most successful EL schools in the country. This video offers the perspective of the students along with how an expedition leads directly to student achievement in academics and character.
What is your course scope and sequence?
Which Math curriculum do you use?
SAEL has adopted CPM or College Prep Math Curriculum in school year 17-18. After thoughtful investigation by our Math Department that considered general student, parent, and teacher feedback, with support from our Guidance and Admin team, we made the choice to use this project-based, group work-based, Common Core aligned set of texts that comes from a great non-profit organization. We've spent time in our classes explaining how this shift provides more structure, but fulfills the same mission of having meaningful math curriculum that takes the learning deeper while also developing essential skills.
Parent Guides for CPM (College Prep Math) curriculum can be found on the CPM website. This can help you learn more about the program and possibly provide more practice for your student (even if you're not sure about how to do the math yourself yet!):
Integrated Math I: Most 9th Graders: http://cpm.org/int1-parent-guide
Integrated Math II: Most 10th Graders: http://cpm.org/int2-parent-guide
Integrated Math III: Most 11th Graders: http://cpm.org/int3-parent-guide
The Parent Guides for Pre-Calculus and Calculus are being developed, but you can find information about the coursework by clicking on the books on this page: http://cpm.org/textbooks/
How do you integrate technology into teaching and learning at SAEL?
We believe, along with the creators of the Common Core State Standards, that students must learn how to strategically use technology in order to be tech literate and capable of wielding tech tools effectively. Each student will receive a Chromebook for use at school and at home. We will have a Technology Education class where students can plan, make, and create using the latest technology. Teachers will use engaging instructional strategies that push all students to think critically and computers, projected interactive media, Elmos, and online resources will act as tools to support some of these strategies. Students will use innovative technology to support learning, present, organize resources, and as academic reference tools. Although students will have access to a variety of technology resources, these will be introduced and manipulated with care and only to enhance student learning when appropriate. Our students create e-portfolios and present them twice a year at Student Led Conferences. They also reflect on their goals with their family and Crew Advisor.
FieldWORK vs Field Trips?
In Expeditionary Learning, students are actively engaged in real investigations while in the field. Students are expected to do actual academic and adventure work by being researchers of topics they are studying. Fieldwork is a privilege that can be affected by character performance at SAEL, but all students have access to gear and fieldwork regardless of ability to donate to fieldwork at SAEL. A "field trip" can often be seen as a passive experience for the students who are asked to receive, instead of construct, knowledge. At SAEL, students will be expected to go on fieldwork regularly as a part of their semester-long Expeditions. This fieldwork will be connected to what students are studying and will be an essential part of their academic achievement. Students are continually asked to be CREW, not passengers, and fieldwork is one example of how that idea comes to life at SAEL.
What are Intensives?
Intensives are courses lasting two weeks at the end of each semester at SAEL. Students who are passing all courses required for graduation (and therefore have demonstrated mastery in all courses required for graduation) can select from a menu of enrichment intensive opportunities. If a student is failing one or more class, he or she will be enrolled in an academic support intensive where the same learning targets or goals will be approached using a different array of instructional strategies.
Below are some of the Intensives we have offered at SAEL so far:
Local Watersheds
Climbing
The Science of Art
Backpacking the American River
Latin Dance
Coding and Gaming
BioCultural Leadership in Panama with Experience Mamoní
The California College Road Trip
Music: The Soul of SAEL Band
Cars and Mechanical Systems
Culinary
Sci Fi Filmmaking
Drama Performance
Planning Your Own Adventures
Gardening
Textiles and Fashion Creation
Backpacking the Yuba River
The Tahoe Rim Trail 100 Mile Challenge
SAEL Ambassadors to our new home in Nevada City
Strength and Conditioning
Who are SAEL's community partners?
SAEL is proud of the community partnerships we have cultivated. Our students have engaged in meaningful work with the Bear Yuba Land Trust (BYLT), South Yuba River Citizen's League (SYRCL), Sierra Streams Institute (SSI), Prescott College, Gold Crush Climbing Gym, and Common Vision. In addition, students have work closely with local experts from Sierra Harvest, Cal Fire, Youth Bicyclists of Nevada County (YBONC), the local Native Plant Society, The Union newspaper, Nevada Irrigation District (NID), UC Davis Bee Lab, Sierra College, and Sierra Watch. SAEL students have engaged in service learning with fellow EL Education schools Vallejo Charter School and Grass Valley Charter School. We are lucky to share a site with the team at Silver Springs High School and work closely with them as neighbors and partners in education as part of our partnership with the Nevada Joint Union High School District (NJUHSD).
What is the Charter Petition and what does it mean for SAEL?
You can read our Charter to learn more about the vision and mission of the school. Our latest Charter was approved unanimously by the NJUHSD Board in the 20-21 school year and is up for renewal in the 2025-2026 school year. The original petition was written by SAEL community members in order to gain funding and support for the creation of our school. As the teachers, staff, students, and community engage in the dynamic, difficult, and joyous work of creating a school, some of the elements of this petition can change. The soul of the petition and the spirit of the vision and mission of the school will remain.
What is your relationship to the Nevada Joint Union High School District (NJUHSD)?
The NJUHSD is the authorizing district for our charter school. NJUHSD holds SAEL accountable to fulfilling the promises made in SAEL's charter. The NJUHSD also oversees our Special Education program as we are a school of the district for Special Education. There is also a representative from NJUHSD on our Board of Directors. We work closely with NJUHSD to be considered another solid choice for students in the community.
What type of information will we receive at a Community Information Session?
Community Information Sessions provide you with more background about SAEL in order to understand our mission and the vision for our students. Interested students, families, and community members are invited. Please attend to gain a greater understanding how and what students will be learning and to meet our incredible teaching and administrative staff.
Who started SAEL?
When local parents, community members, and educators decided they wanted to create a new Expeditionary Learning high school option in the area, they came together to form the SAEL Board of Directors. These trailblazers wanted to offer another choice for high schoolers, especially one that believes in supporting 100% college acceptance for all students. All of the founding and current board members have a connection to Grass Valley Charter School, a successful, K-8 EL mentor school. Similarly to how GVCS works within the public school system to be seen as another solid option for students within the district, SAEL works closely with the Nevada Joint Union High School District. You can read about the founding board members and their backgrounds on our Board Archive page here. You can also see bios and pictures of current board members here.
SAEL in the news!
SAEL on KNCO’s Educationally Speaking with Nevada County Superintendent Scott Lay
CCSA: New Public Charter School Shows Power of Hands On Learning!
The Union: Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning Open for Enrollment
If you have connections to local media outlets, please let us know!
How can I help spread the word?
If you would like to help us share information and spread word to families and young people about SAEL, please call us with ideas at 530-268-2200 or reach out to Principal Erica Crane at Ecrane@sierraacademy.net. We always welcome SAEL ambassadors and appreciate the creation of partnerships in our community. Liking our Facebook page, sharing our posts, and encouraging other folks to spread the word through social media is also very helpful.
¿Qué pasa si mi familia habla español? / What if my family speaks Spanish?
Contacta con nosotras: SAELinfo@sierraacademy.net or 530-268-2200.