Senator Honors IB Principal at State Capitol

Senator Ben Hueso recognized Imperial Beach SIATech Principal Sally Cohenour on the floor of the California State Senate Thursday morning.

“It is important to recognize the tremendous accomplishments of SIATech which provides significant social, economic and academic benefits to their pupils and to California's population as a whole,” said Senator Hueso.

SIATech is a dropout recovery public high school that exclusively serves dropouts in partnership with Job Corps and Workforce Investment Act agencies across California. 

Cohenour, who has served as the school principal since 2007, was presented with a certificate of recognition for SIATech’s recent awards earned. 

First, the Imperial Beach school was identified by the Gallup Student Poll as one of 9 High Hope High Schools. It was the only dropout recovery school to earn that honor.

The second honor bestowed on the dropout recovery school was the nomination of one of its teachers as one of the four Most Hopeful Teachers in America.  

Sapna Iyer, a dropout recovery English teacher, was the only high school teacher to receive this honor. The third honor was bestowed on all of the SIATech campuses.  SIATech was awarded the 2013 California Distinguished School Award by the California Department of Education. 

The Dropout Recovery Resolution approved Thursday by the legislature, declares the week of August 4 to August 10, 2013, to be Dropout Recovery Week, in honor of the schools and staff who work to reengage pupils who have previously dropped out of school, and in honor of the pupils who have overcome significant personal challenges to reengage in high school and become transformed learners who will continue to pursue education to prepare for college and career in their futures.

–Press release from the office of State Senator Ben Hueso.