Academic Counseling

Welcome to the MacDonald High School Academic Counseling webpage. Here you will find information related to academics, college and career planning,  graduation requirements, and more.

Meet Your Academic Counselor

Juan Gonzalez

Juan Gonzalez is incredibly excited to be a part of the founding team at MacDonald High School. He will be the Academic Counselor for our first class of incoming freshmen. He’ll be working with all students with the last names A-L. Prior to MHS, Mr. Gonzalez served as a Dean of Students and an Assistant Principal at Del Mar High School. During his 16 years at Del Mar, Mr. Gonzalez’s empathy-driven approach to discipline and behavior management, including staff-student mediation, and restorative practices had a tremendous positive impact on the culture of the school. He hopes to build on those same strategies to develop a caring, collaborative community at MHS. Prior to Del Mar, Mr. Gonzalez served as a counselor at Yerba Buena, San Jose High, Willow Glen, and Westmont High Schools.

A first-generation student, Mr. Gonzalez looks back to the many educators who guided and supported him throughout his youth and hopes to provide the same kind of nurturing experiences and inspiration to the youth at MHS to reach their full potential and contribute positively to our society.

An East San Jose native who is happily married to Haydee Gonzalez, Mr. Gonzalez enjoys spending time with his three children and extended family.

Richard Mendoza

Richard Mendoza recently joined our team at MacDonald High School this year.  He’ll be working with all students with the last names M-Z.  Mr. Mendoza is coming to us from Central Continuation High School in Morgan Hill, CA.  Prior to this, he worked at Del Mar High School for the past 16 years.  He also has several years of middle school experience and several years of high school counseling from Andrew Hill High School. 

Mr. Mendoza’s passion is helping all students reach their full potential.  He likes building relationships with students and getting to know them on an individual basis so that he can better serve them.  Over the years, he’s helped many students with college and career planning and has seen many of his former students go on to successful careers after college and/or job training. 

Mr. Mendoza grew up in East San Jose but moved after middle school, and he attended Santa Teresa High School.  Mr. Mendoza attended San Jose City College and transferred to San Jose State.  Mr. Mendoza and his family live in Gilroy, CA.