Somerset High School
9242 E. Laurel Street
Bellflower, CA 90706
562-804-6548

Patrick Dixon, Principal

The mission of Somerset High School is to provide the kind of environment and teaching that is engaging, collaborative, and is the most appropriate in meeting the needs of continuation high school students. This includes an individualized and prescriptive approach to learning and the delivery of instruction. Students learn at their own speed and ability level in a teaching environment that is nurturing, stimulating, and motivating in each subject area. It also includes the expectation that students who are enrolled at Somerset are here to learn and receive an education, as well as a diploma.

Somerset High School, the continuation school for the Bellflower Unified School District, is located in the City of Bellflower, but serves the entire district. Somerset High School serves 320 students in grades ten through twelve with the minimum age for enrollment being sixteen. Students are referred from Bellflower and Mayfair High Schools and each school accounts for approximately one half the school population. The most frequent reasons for referral are "lack of attendance" and "behind in credits earned." Somerset operates on a four-week “BLOC” system with new students attending an orientation program to assess skills, conduct interest inventories, and review study skills to improve classroom success before being scheduled into regular classes. 

Somerset High School is now thirty-seven years old. The original school consisted of the present office area and rooms one through six. Other classrooms were added over the years with the additions of rooms 15 and 16 being the most recent construction (1988). Somerset received a grant from the State Department of Education to provide a new facility for the Infant Care Center which was completed during the 1989-1990 school year. The present facilities include 16 classrooms, a guidance center, and an Infant Care Center. The exterior of the school was painted in 1999 and the office area received a complete renovation a few years ago, as well as, a new roofing system for the entire school.

In addition to the teaching and support staff provided by the district, there is staff available through various community agencies such as the Regional Occupational Center, (ROP), and community counseling agencies. Various services, such as Community Family Guidance, Caring Connections, and HelpLine Youth Counseling assist in providing support services and individual and group counseling. The school is further assisted by the support of a school-based probation officer and a community service worker.

CLASS SIZE AND SCHOOL STAFF

The staffing ratio at Somerset High School is 1:25 and the maximum teaching load for each teacher is 125 students. The school has 12.5 regular education teachers, one resource specialist for special education support, one principal, one assistant principal/counselor and two guidance technicians. The school also has a nurse assistant on campus three hours daily, a school psychologist available one-half day a week, and the availability of district resources for speech and language disabilities. All teaching staff met the credential requirements of the State of California and 40 percent have earned advanced degrees.

Teachers and students are further supported by a classified staff made up of one secretary, two clerical assistant II, an attendance clerk, a campus security person, a technology technician, a day custodian and a night custodian, four instructional aides, and three infant care aides.