Balboa City School was founded in 1991 in San Diego, California by Dr. Stephen Parker, PHD, and Michelle Parker, MFCC, with the vision of creating a dynamic, creative secondary school for children who were wanting a more exciting structured program with small classes, in an urban setting where field trips could be a simple as a "walk in the park". The Parker's believe that the dumbing down or expectations and curriculum in response to children's lack of accomplishment is not appropriate with regard to the long term expectations of graduation and college. The original name was Balboa Secondary School.
The Parker’s have a long history of working with children and adolescents. Dr. Parker has a Masters Degree in Theological Studies and a Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology. He has over thirty years of experience working with students with ADD and ADHD. In his practice he has worked with a broad range of students including those who are highly gifted and those who are gifted and unmotivated or even self described as "lazy". He and has written numerous articles on education, nutrition and behavior, developing social skills, SAT preparation and is a frequent speaker on special and gifted education topics. Michelle Parker holds a Masters degree in marriage and family counseling from USD, and is an alumnus of University of Michigan and has worked with children in both one-on-one tutoring settings, through establishing Balboa City School and most recently as director of the Honey-Bear Preschool and Child Care Center in Point Loma.
Dr. Parker had the idea for Balboa City School (BCS) after working as an educational therapist and tutor, including several years working at the Winston School in San Diego as their lead psychologist. He reasoned that there needed to be a better way to help children reach their true potential even if they didn’t fit into the school structure “box.” In 1991, Balboa Secondary School opened in La Jolla with just 2 kids. Each family said that their children were learning more in the Parker's tutoring program than they were at school. The Parker’s background in individual work with students and tutoring, influenced the creation of BCS curriculum and the emphasis on rapid acceleration of learning. After opening the school, the Parker’s quickly moved the program into the conceptual framework of mentoring and high accomplishment through unleashing of individual talent in the context of school. Parents enthusiastically supported the idea of aiming high even when it seemed to others that such students could not do so. They include in their definition of gifted a variety of talents which do not show up in standardized tests or intelligences tests. These include prodigal musical talent, artist talent, acting talent, etc.
In 2000 the school merged with The City School, an elementary school, founded by Judy Cohen and Betty Slaughter, in 1980. Judy Cohen was the first educator in San Diego to use direct instruction. So the two schools; Balboa Secondary School and the City School were combined. Hence the amalgam name, Balboa City School. This has presented a bit a difficulty in that sometimes people call us when they are seeking the wonderful school called, The Parker School. Judy Cohen has been a highly positive and productive force in moving the education community to embrace students with learning disabilities and to inspire us to aim high in our aspirations for our students. The elementary program has grown beyond the City School’s original framework but embraces its original vision at the same time. Thank you Betty Slaughter and Judy Cohen.
Having outgrown two campuses since its inception in La Jolla, Balboa City School is now in its permanent location across the street from Balboa Park in Bankers Hill, near downtown San Diego. The school services approximately 120 students from Kindergarten through the twelfth grade and is considered one of San Diego’s premier private schools. In addition, BCS is designated by the State Department of Education as a Non Public School. This means that even though we are a private school, we are certified to embrace the public/private partnership with numerous public school districts. BCS also welcomes foreign students of all ages from kindergarten to grade twelve and is approved by the federal government to issue foreign student visas.
While working at Winston School doctor Parker became more familiar with Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill is one of the many men and women in history who stand out for us as a model and exemplar for our students and for ourselves. He was certainly not afraid to “aim high”. And the capacity to aim high is certainly one of the prerequisites for success. Like many of our students who have often felt like “giving up” Churchill faced many dark days as leader of Britain in World War II. Winston Churchill’s speeches in particular serve as inspiration. But this is not our only connection with British culture and history.
BCS has made it a point to take advantage of its proximity to the Old Globe Theatre. Our students attend the Shakespeare festival each year. They also attend many of the ongoing theatrical events at the Old Globe and participate in many of the educational activities through the Old Globe. The elementary school program participates in the Old Globe readers program too. We would like to take a moment to officially thank the board and the directors of the Old Globe for their inspiring leadership and community outreach. And of course, Winston Churchill, along with Shakespeare is also among our greatest inspirations. Our Old Globe Connection and our location adjacent to Balboa Park has made it very easy to take advantage of the wonderful theatre program a the San Diego Junior Theatre.
The elementary program makes it a point to attend as many San Diego Junior Theatre productions as possible. And here our students find inspiration to try their hand at acting in the larger community. The junior theatre, too, is a large part of our elementary school program.
The school has recently joined the English Speakers Union, which enables them to participate in many other educational activities. These include annual theatrical contests and art contests.
Our connection with England goes beyond Winston Churchill and even beyond Shakespeare. Our school mascot is a dragon. Our school sports teams are the “Balboa Dragons” and while many people associate dragons only with oriental mythology. The oldest English poem, Beowulf, has a dragon as one of its main characters. The dragon has came to symbolize many things to many different people during medieval times but it is certainly associated with a challenge that needs to be overcome. Remember Sir George slaying the dragon in English medieval fantasy? And of course we are all familiar with the knight’s challenge to the dragon just before he charges he cries out, “Excelsior”. Even the modern quirky writer illustrator, Edward Gorey, uses excelsior in one of his alphabet books and he pictures a knight attacking a dragon. Excelsior has come to be a call of victory in the face of extreme challenge.
And excelsior is a word we want all our students and parents to be familiar with because it signifies how we would like our students to face their own challenges when they are growing up. It signifies how all us should aim high in our aspirations and hopes not just for ourselves but also for our family, community and nation. Winston Churchill’s accomplishments and those of so many other great leaders signify this. And because we aim high our students succeed. They aim high in our school and succeed. They aim high in college and they succeed. And they aim high in life. And our battle cry when we are playing basketball is excelsior. Just kidding. It’s really more mundane. Something like, “Go out there and win!” And we do.