Public Safety Academy: Full Guide

Location: Fairfield, CA

Are you a student or parent at Public Safety Academy? Want to understand how to get the most out of high school?

We've written the best guide to Public Safety Academy available. Here we'll cover:

Breakdowns of student ethnicity, gender, and family income
How safe Public Safety Academy is to attend
SAT/ACT/AP scores earned by Public Safety Academy students
Which AP/IB classes you can take at Public Safety Academy
Every sports team you can join at Public Safety Academy

Let's get started!

Basic Information

Public Safety Academy is a public school, supporting grades 5 to 9 . It's located in Fairfield, CA in Solano County.

Based on its location, Public Safety Academy is classified as a school in a midsized city. Here's the location on a map:

Contact Information

Mailing address:

Public Safety Academy
230 Atlantic Ave.
Fairfield, CA 94533-1539

Phone number: 7073995099

Public Safety Academy homepage: https://www.facebook.com/PSA.Fairfield/

Principal: Laurie Halcomb
Email the principal: [email protected]

Student Demographics

Student Enrollment

The total enrollment at Public Safety Academy is 491 students, making it a somewhat large high school, in the top half of all California high schools by size.

As a mid-sized high school, Public Safety Academy strikes the balance between size and comfort. There will be enough students to provide a diversity of experiences, like clubs and sports, for you to join. But it'll be small enough that you'll likely get to know most people in your class.

Growth in Student Body Size

Is Public Safety Academy growing or shrinking? This will help you see trends in where the school is headed.

From our calculations, the enrollment at Public Safety Academy has increased over the past few years. We calculate this by comparing enrollment in grades 9 to 12.

	Male Students	Female Students	All Students
9^th grade	32	23	55
10^th grade	0	0	0
11^th grade	0	0	0
12^th grade	0	0	0

Gender Split

Are there more boys or girls at Public Safety Academy?

From our statistics, Public Safety Academy has a 59:41 split between male and female students in the high school grades.

There is a large male majority at Public Safety Academy, and much more than you would expect from the general population in Solano County. As a result, it'll feel like there are a lot more girls than boys in your classes.

Sometimes this imbalance can result from random chance and may not suggest anything about Public Safety Academy. In other cases, the school might preferentially select for males. For example, in our data we find that continuation high schools unfortunately seem to be male-dominated. In yet other cases, other neighboring schools might attract female students, drawing them away from Public Safety Academy.

If the male majority is concerning to you, we suggest contacting Public Safety Academy administration and asking if they have any thoughts about why there's a gender imbalance. Their phone number is 7073995099.

Ethnicity Breakdown

What's the racial diversity at Public Safety Academy? Does one ethnicity make up most of the student body, or is it fairly balanced?

From our statistics, Public Safety Academy has a diverse student body. No single ethnicity composes more than 50% of all students, which means you'll be surrounded by a diverse set of students in class. Only a third of California schools show this much diversity.

The most common ethnicity at Public Safety Academy is Hispanic. In California, 51.5% of all students are Hispanic, making it the most common ethnicity. Even though Public Safety Academy is relatively diverse, students of Hispanic descent are the most common ethnicity here.

	Percentage	Number
American Indian/Alaska Native	1.0%	5
Asian	13.4%	66
Hispanic	40.9%	201
Black	14.0%	69
White	21.5%	106
Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander	1.4%	7
Two or more races	7.5%	37

High schools usually reflect the population in the surrounding area, so the ethnicities of students likely resembles those of Fairfield. If you'd like to see how other nearby schools look in diversity, just google "[name of school] prepscholar" to find our guide to that specific school.

Income Level of Public Safety Academy Families

What are the family incomes of students at Public Safety Academy? To determine this, we look at the number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunches, a classification by the US federal government.

To qualify for a reduced price meal, family income needs to be below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $45,000 or below.

To qualify for a free meal, family income needs to be below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. For a family of 4, this means an income of around $32,000 or below.

The lower the percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced price meals, the higher the income levels are likely to be.

At Public Safety Academy, 11.4% of students qualify for reduced-price lunches, and 45.2% qualify for free lunches.

This means Public Safety Academy has a below average level of poverty. With most students not qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, Public Safety Academy is below average among California schools in poverty level. The income level of families in Fairfield is thus likely to be relatively high.

	Number	Percent
Reduced-price lunches	56	11.4%
Free lunches	222	45.2%
Do not qualify for reduced-price or free lunches	213	43.3%

As with ethnicity, this likely reflects the surrounding community in Fairfield and doesn't speak much about the school itself.

Public Safety Academy is in the middle 50% of schools by income level. Generally, higher income level schools are better-funded and have a higher quality range of classes and activities. Public Safety Academy is likely in the middle of the pack in this regard and will give you a good set of options to try.

If you have any interests that Public Safety Academy doesn't cover, look to your local community for activities, or to the Internet for self-study AP classes.

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School Safety

How safe is Public Safety Academy to attend? Can you expect a lot of conflict as a student here?

To study this, we look at disciplinary data for two types of incidents at Public Safety Academy: referrals to law enforcement (when incidents are reported to police), and arrests.

These are the most serious disciplinary actions available to school administration and are more severe than suspensions or expulsions. Suspensions are often discretionary and can be given just for being disruptive in class. In contrast, law enforcement referrals and arrests often indicate incidents that put the safety of other Public Safety Academy students at risk.

Compare this school with other high schools in the same school district, using the following table:

Fairfield-suisun Unified School District Safety

School Name	Total Referred	Total Arrests	Enrollment
Armijo High	0	0	2242
Fairfield High	14	14	1441
Sem Yeto Continuation High	8	10	526
Angelo Rodriguez High	0	0	2155
H. Glenn Richardson	2	2	19
Matt Garcia Learning Center	0	0	142

Academic Offerings

In addition to the standard high school curriculum, many high schools like Public Safety Academy offer advanced coursework as part of the Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.

Brief Intro to AP/IB

AP and IB courses are designed at the difficulty level of college introductory classes. There are several important benefits to taking advanced coursework at Public Safety Academy. First, taking more advanced classes shows colleges that you're committed to challenging yourself academically, and that you're one of the more advanced students at Public Safety Academy. Taking AP/IB classes also raises your weighted GPA and makes you a stronger college applicant.

Furthermore, many colleges will accept your Public Safety Academy AP/IB coursework as college coursework. In some cases, you'll be able to skip introductory-level classes and move to more advanced classes. In other cases, you'll be able to avoid having to take required courses and might even be able to graduate earlier than the standard 4 years. Often this will require you to pass the AP test, getting a score of 3 or above.

So what advanced courses does Public Safety Academy offer?

AP Courses

Public Safety Academy offers AP courses in 2 subjects.

This is a low number of AP subjects, putting Public Safety Academy in the bottom 25% of California schools offering AP courses. You'll be very limited in your ability to explore your interests in math, science, humanities, or social sciences at Public Safety Academy.

Take a look at every AP subject offered. If you want to take any AP courses not being offered at Public Safety Academy, ask your counselor for ideas on how to cover the gap. If you're a strong student and not feeling adequately challenged, you might consider transferring to another high school to access a more advanced curriculum.

Of course, keep in mind that even though Public Safety Academy doesn't offer many AP courses, it might teach the few it does offer quite well. You can see student performance in the AP score analysis section above.

The following AP courses were offered at Public Safety Academy during 2015-2016:

Course Title
Calculus AB
United States History

Sports Teams

What’s Next?

Want to get more useful information about high school classes and preparing for colleges? Our blog has a ton of articles and advice on topics ranging from coursework and GPA to letters of recommendation, extracurriculars, and much more!

Ready to bulk up your schedule and maximize your college preparedness? Read all about the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.

Not quite in high school yet, but eager to get started? We've also got information for younger students interested in advanced learning opportunities, both in and out of school.

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