Rural, Remote, and Resourceful: Student connections thrive at Southern Trinity High School

Getting to Southern Trinity High School, located in Mad River, CA, isn’t easy. From Redding, far northern California's largest city, the two-and-a-half hour drive involves climbing over and around snow-capped mountains, crossing steep valleys bisected by roaring rivers, and keeping a close eye out for crossing black-tailed deer. For the students at Southern Trinity, these same barriers to entry can be just as imposing for getting out and experiencing educational, recreation, and vocational opportunities off of the mountain.

Principal Andy Felt, school counselor and CTE teacher Cindy Dixon, and the rest of the staff at Southern Trinity work hard to foster opportunities for their students outside of the proverbial four walls of the classroom, bringing in specialized teachers when their small staff lacks the expertise, attending career fairs at nearby Shasta College, and maximizing field trips that help students understand the unique history, ecology, and economy of their scenic region.

Four years ago, Cindy spearheaded Southern Trinity joining the GRAD Partnership alongside nine other rural California schools. The GRAD Partnership is a nationwide initiative dedicated to scaling student success systems—frameworks designed to align school communities around academic achievement, career readiness, and student well-being. Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC) manages the partnership’s rural cohort, working alongside regional intermediaries like North State Together (NST) to provide direct, localized support to rural schools. Onica Mello, Program Director at NST, serves as Northern California Hub Contact & GRAD Partnership Northern California Lead.

The GRAD Partnership came about in part because of the pandemic’s impact on chronic absenteeism, course completion, and graduation rates, and Southern Trinity in particular struggled to keep students on campus after distance learning became an option for students in the isolated mountain towns of Trinity County. They currently have four in-person high school students (and two who learn from home)-- three freshmen, and one junior. This presents unique challenges for educators, but also opportunities for more personalized learning, immersive experiences, and strong relationships.

“These kids really are like a family. . . They grew up together. . . they are becoming a family out here. So it makes it really nice,” describes Cindy. When deciding to join the GRAD Partnership, Cindy wanted to develop those same tight-knit relationships between students and staff. She hoped that strong relationships to staff would help attract, and keep, students on campus: “So really connecting with the teachers and connecting with each other and connecting with the school. That was my original thought, is to get these guys connected back to the school and back to the staff.”

Since joining the GRAD Partnership in 2022, Cindy has prioritized getting all staff to lead field trips and special experiences with the students, noting that time spent traveling in the van and engaging together outside of the classroom does wonders to develop those connections. After the students asked for cooking classes, one teacher, Jonathan Castellano, stepped up and created a culinary class. Now, he is taking them to his family’s restaurant, Casa De Castellanos, to connect their learning and interest to both a real-world setting and to see a part of his background.

Andy Felt, the principal, has taken the students on numerous backpacking trips, exploring the mountains they call home from a historical perspective. Andy, a 2022 Grants in Place recipient, and Amy Raschein, a 2025 Grants in Place recipient, have used funds to build up a strong gear closet at Southern Trinity that empowers students to be well-equipped when adventuring in their backyard, the mountains. They connected the trips to studying the history of homesteads and Native American settlement in the area: “We visited a lot of those old sites, a lot of Native American settlements out here as well. And so we did multiple day trips, and then we did a big, overnight trip.”

The ability to be responsive and action-oriented when students express an interest in something has become a hallmark of Southern Trinity. One student, Jeremiah, is interested in a career that keeps him in the mountains while working outside, such as serving as a game warden. The staff at Southern Trinity have connected him to an EMT class, Forest Service internships, and he has participated in multiple field training sessions in the mountains as part of his applied studies. Another student, Jaden, is interested in welding, and so Cindy and Andy have brought in an instructor to help meet those needs.

Fewer students also means that when in the classroom, instructors are able to deliver personalized learning. While students note that for some learners not being able to blend in might be a challenge, but they find the individualized instruction an asset. Jeremiah shares that at Southern Trinity, it is “easier to navigate through things, [rather] than just having a whole bunch of people where you don't get to ask the questions you want to ask during classes. You actually get that one-on-one talk with teachers.”

Some students choose a bigger school in Trinity County, because Southern Trinity is usually too small to field sports teams. That doesn’t mean the staff doesn’t try their best, including coaching Jeremiah when he was the only student who wanted to do cross-country: “I really appreciate these guys a lot. Because when there were students here to do sports like track and cross country and stuff, and we didn't have somebody to drive us, they would pitch in and help us out with that. They would take us on trips out, and if we didn’t have a driver, they would pitch in and help, [stay and] watch us, and all that sort of stuff. It was pretty nice.”

Over the last few years, enrollment has stabilized, and Cindy and Andy see growth on the horizon for high school enrollment. With a student-body so small, one individual student’s departure can be seen as losing 20% of your enrollment, making analyzing data nearly impossible. Still, Cindy works to assess the students and see if their efforts are making an impact: “The data that I'm seeing versus all the things that we're doing, on connectedness and everything. So the data I'm seeing is that kids are wanting to stay here now. Versus [previously] they weren't.”

Rural Schools Collaborative would like to thank Onica Mello of North State Together for her leadership as a GRAD Partnership Intermediary, and for facilitating RSC’s visit to Southern Trinity.