Besides Berke, athletic director Susie Morris, activities director Diane Jones and guidance counselor Sue Flowers are stepping down this month. Berke says the Branham experience has been both frustrating and empowering for her and her staff.

"We can do anything," she adds. "Give us any problem, and we can solve it."

Berke says restarting a school from scratch required a high level of cooperation among administrators. "Anything really important, you can't do alone," she adds. "We clicked as a team. We may agree to disagree, but then you have to move forward."

And Morris adds, "We've developed very good friendships working together." When Morris began her tenure at Branham, which is part of the Campbell Union High School district, the school's teams had no equipment and no gym access, because Valley Christian High School was still renting the facility. As Branham's athletic programs grew, Morris hired all the coaches, bought all the uniforms, reconditioned all the fields and started a booster club for the department.

"I must have been stupid" to take it all on, Morris says half-jokingly. "It was just a matter of getting it done. It was a lot at one time."

When Branham reopened its doors in 1999, the plan was to gradually rebuild the grades. The initial year enrollment was open only to freshmen and sophomores. All the school's athletic teams, with the exception of girls' volleyball, played at the junior varsity level. But the next year, league officials insisted that Branham have a varsity football squad.

"Sophomores had to play varsity," Morris recalls. "They got beat up a little."

For the most part, Berke says, the 150 sophomores and 450 freshmen who enrolled that first year could be divided into two distinct groups.

"We got the highest-end students who wanted to take a chance on an unproven school. And these families thought it would be a leadership opportunity for their kids," Berke says. "The other group came here for a fresh start."

Students in both groups got what they were looking for. Sophomores served as yearbook editors and student body officers. And for those who needed a little extra help, Branham's smaller size made it easier.

"By the time the sophomores were seniors, they were well-seasoned in leadership," Morris says.

And having a smaller school at the beginning helped teens get more personal attention, counselor Flowers says.

Berke says Branham's pioneer spirit began to wane as enrollment increased. "If the faculty had remained constant, we'd have kept that," she adds. "The newer people aren't as vested in the initial goals."

Berke adds, "We've done a pretty good job, but we're not where we'd like to be."

Yet as programs develop and spread people out more, collaboration time is diluted, Morris says.

To facilitate this collaboration, Branham operates on a "block schedule" consisting of six 90-minute classes on an "A" or "B" day. Students needing extra help can add a half-hour tutorial to their schedules. Teachers integrate their curriculum to help students make connections between subjects.

"We want success for all students," Berke says. "We define that very broadly."

Even under a more rigid definition, Branham's success rate looks good. According to Flowers, "Forty percent of our students go on to four-year colleges. Those are the best stats I've seen in my counseling days."

Berke says Flowers deserves a lot of credit for this statistic.

"The counselors meet with kids many times each year," adds the principal. "They emphasize taking the most rigorous academic courses. They put lots of effort into making information about college and advanced placement courses available."

The Campbell Union High School District initially reopened Branham to ease increasing enrollment at several other campuses. Since then Branham's enrollment has held steady at about 1,450, which has been a mixed blessing for Berke and crew when it comes to hiring faculty. When the district cut $1.3 million from its budget last spring, Berke was worried about having to hand out pink slips.

"We were concerned that because we had a fairly young faculty, we'd have a disproportionate share of layoffs," she says.

That didn't happen, in part because of Branham's nonfluctuating enrollment. But more students hasn't always meant more teachers, and the resulting increase in class sizes has been problematic on several levels.

"We started this year with the teachers in the Campbell Union High School District threatening to strike," Berke says, adding that labor negotiations have been a major challenge throughout her tenure.

Given the effort they've expended to get Branham up and running again, it's no surprise that the administrators' retirement plans include plenty of relaxation. But Berke admits she'll have some trouble letting go.

"I hope to stay involved somehow," she says. "It's hard when you've spent so much time and effort. I kind of wish there was a way of going part time."

Reflective of her decision to retire, Morris also says, "When you have our energy level, you don't do part time. We've put our heart and soul into this school, but it's time to move on."