What is Preuss School?

I learned about the Preuss School when I went to an Osher lecture on the history of jazz.  The Socal Jazz Society has programs in place in elementary, middle and high schools in the San Diego area, to bring a love of music, and specifically jazz, to our youth.  Preuss School is one of the schools teaching the jazz unit to students, which motivated me investigate the Preuss School.  Here's what I found out about the school voted "Number 1 transformative high school in America."

The Preuss School began when a group of UCSD professors began planning the best way to increase the number of low income or under-represented groups of students to the university.  Under the leadership of Cecil Lytle, provost of Thurgood Marshall College at the time, the group approached Robert Dynes, then chancellor, and requested they start a charter school for grades 6-12 to be built and run by the university.

The first and most significant $5 million gift toward building the school came from Peter and Peggy Preuss and their family foundation.  Other significant gifts were given by John Moores, the Walton Family Foundation, the Copley Family, Douglas Manchester and the Coors family.  The school opened in 1999 in portable buildings on UCSD's Thurgood Marshall campus with 150 students in grades 6-8.  The current state of the art facility is on the university's East Campus off of Genesee Ave.

The student population at Preuss is mostly children from low income families who strive to become the first in their family to graducate from college.  The environment at Preuss encourages risk taking while offering an array of academic supports.  With a more than 90% rate of graduates accepted to four year universities, the program seems to be working.  More importantly, Preuss provides students with the skills necessary to effect change in society and help transform communities.  The Socal Jazz Society's music program is just one of many innovative programs in place to broaden the horizons of the students.