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SCUSD’s classified school employees positively impact our students and our schools every day, from our cafeterias to our classrooms to our playgrounds and beyond.
This week is Classified School Employee Week, and your opportunity to express gratitude to these hard working men and women who do so much to support education.
The Board of Education will honor several employees with our Classified Champions Awards program at its June 13 Board meeting.The Teachers of the Year will be honored on that date as well.
The Rosemont High School winter percussion unit won the Intermediate division championship at the Northern California Band Association’s Tournament of Champions held at Las Plumas High School in Oroville on April 6.
This championship competition pits schools from all over Northern California and western Nevada. It is the culmination of a 10-week long season of competitions.
The works of 65 of Martin Luther King Jr. K-8 School’s young authors are being published by Sacramento Public Library’s I Street Press.
The stories and prose are being compiled into three volumes. Student authors and their families will have an opportunity to see their books rolling off the press in person when they visit the I Street Press at the Central Library today (May 21) at 6:15 p.m.
The Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library will be hosting an Author Celebration event on June 4 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 pm.
Luther Burbank High School celebrated another successful year of its Parent University program with a graduation ceremony.
Principal Ted Appel gave the commencement address during the ceremony, which was organized by Assistant Principal Mai Xi Lee and Parent Advisor Elisa Gonzalez-Hidalgo.
Appel congratulated the graduating parents on their achievement and commitment towards their children’s education.
SCUSD’s Chief of Staff Koua Franz was one of eight school leaders from around the country honored last week by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
Franz received CASEL’s Mary Utne O’Brien Award for advancing social and emotional learning. SCUSD is one of eight districts partnering with CASEL through its Collaborating Districts Initiative to improve the climate and culture of schools through role modeling and instruction in five social and emotional competencies. SCUSD received a three-year grant from the NoVo Foundation to support this work.
Golden Empire Elementary School was the proud recipient of a campus make-over courtesy of First Covenant Church and Rosemont community volunteers.
The congregation chose Golden Empire as a recipient of the “Achieving Community Through Service” (ACTS) Day event. Approximately 25 volunteers made a difference by sprucing up the school.
The cafeteria and quad area is sparkling following a deep-cleaning and polishing by so many helpers.Volunteers were involved with painting projects, including painting character education words around the central quad area.
For the past 12 weeks, the Youth and Family Resource Center at Clayton B. Wire Elementary School has been working to prepare nine girls to participate in a 5K run through its “Girls on the Run program.”
The program teaches life skills through interactive lessons and running games. The goal of the program is to build confidence through accomplishment while establishing an appreciation of health and fitness.
During their training, the girls created a cheer to represent who they are:
Thirty-two teams of students from around the region competed in a Fantasy Baseball tournament earlier this month at Raley Field — an event that tested their math skills in addition to providing a fun day at the ballpark.
The winners were Sophia Du and DeAndre Fitzgerald, two fourth grade students from Golden Empire Elementary, who walked away with the title 2013 Fantasy Baseball Champions.
All year long, these students worked in their after school program with baseball cards to convert player statistics into ratios, decimals, percentages and then degrees to create thei
A trio of Advanced Digital Media students earned an Honorable Mention award (second place) recently at the annual SEVA (Student Educational Video Awards) award night at Sacramento State.
More than 300 videos from students across Sacramento County were submitted for this competition.
“Happy Time Films” produced an instructional video, “How To Make Deep-Fried Oreos” and earned the highest honor ever by a Burbank video crew.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a federal education initiative started by the George W.Bush administration in 2001.The chief component of NCLB is that schools that do not meet specific test score benchmarks are labeled as “failing.” Federal guidelines prescribe how much money must be spent to address the needs of these schools and in what ways districts MUST allocate these resources.Only standardized test scores are taken into consideration, without any emphasis on social emotional learning or promotion of school c
Children and families on the Alhambra Campus of The Salvation Army got a huge gift this week from West Campus High School student, Ben Metlenko and the children of Mark Twain Elementary.
For his Senior Project, Metlenko wanted to “recycle books” and get them into the hands of children and youth who would benefit.
“I figured kids had books they had already read and might not want any more, and there might be other kids who would like to have them.I thought I might get about 200,” Metlenko said.
More than 900 students, teachers, parents and supporters waited to hear those words on May 6 at the Sacramento Educational Video Awards ceremony, held in a Sacramento State University ballroom.
Students from all over the Sacramento area participated in the SEVAs this year and submitted a total of 345 student-produced videos.
For the first time, Fern Bacon Middle School’s Media Production class submitted videos to the SEVAs. To their surprise and delight, two of the video submissions were finalists.
Students from John F. Kennedy High School’s Visual Communications class were recently honored for their illustration work on a children’s storybook.
In a contest hosted by the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, young elementary school authors were tasked with writing a story inspired by agriculture. Eight winners were selected from thousands of submissions by young authors.
Every Friday morning at Bret Harte Elementary School, students, teachers, parents and staff gather on the blacktop to participate in the “Fit Friday” fitness program piloted by Liz Sterba, Coordinator of Bret Harte’s Youth & Family Resource Center and Rebecca Fabyan, CSUS Social Work Intern.
Participants walk, run or skip laps around the blacktop to earn incentives. Each Fit Friday begins with fun music and lasts 15 minutes.To date, 213 students, parents and teachers have participated, completing a collective 4,906 laps (approximately 49 miles)!
Rosemont High School students continue to serve the community, building a strong sense of civic responsibility among the teens. Here, students are visited by Assemblyman Ken Cooley while manning a recycling booth at an Earth Day event.
Oak Ridge Elementary School teacher Stephanie Smith’s passion for building relationships with her students goes far beyond her classroom walls.
Since 2009, Smith has participated in SCUSD’s Parent Teacher Home Visit Project (PTHVP). She writes eloquently about her commitment to visiting families at their homes in “Would You Walk Through My Door?”, an article published in this month’s Educational Leadership.The magazine’s May 2013 issue focuses on “The Faces of Poverty.”
Almost everyone has a story about a special teacher that made a difference in their lives. This is the week to share it and express gratitude to the men and women who work hard to positively influence the next generation.
A C.K. McClatchy High School debate team has won the national Tournament of Champions, becoming the first team ever from a California public high school to win the nation’s top high school debate competition.
McClatchy seniors John Spurlock and Keenan Harris took first place in the policy debate division at the University of Kentucky tournament. In the 42-year history of the Tournament of Champions, no team from a California public high school has ever won.
Ninth grade English teacher Christine Baker at Sacramento New Technology High School has posted with DonorsChoose in hopes of receiving 120 copies of Ishmael Beah’s memoir “A Long Way Gone,” in which he details his experiences as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.
“We find that students are able to write, discuss and think about current global issues — becoming more active and engaged global citizens — when they have read novels and personal accounts that open up discussion in ways that textbooks cannot,” Baker wrote on her donation page.
West Campus High School students Elaine Romano and Meghan Nealon won first place in the Biological Sciences division of the the Sacramento Regional Science & Engineering Fair held in March. Congratulations!
Susan B. Anthony Elementary School parents, students and school employees spent a weekend preparing the campus for a school garden.
The families worked hard in high heat to prepare the soil, resolve irrigation issues and plant corn, sunflowers and cucumbers.
Says Principal Lee Yang: “Excitement is in the air and we cannot wait to see the future progress of the garden. Way to go students, parents and school employees for a great start!”
Phoebe Hearst Elementary School’s Jog-for-the-Arts will be held on Friday, May 31, at the East Sacramento campus, 1410 60th Street.
This annual jog-a-thon keeps the art program alive at Phoebe and promotes fitness.
The PTO hopes to raise $25,000 to help support its art program. Every student will participate throughout the day. Children are currently in training with Phoebe Hearst’s own Coach Bryan Moreno.
Each child that raises at least $20 gets a beautiful T-shirt. Other prizes are also available.
The Burbank Environmental Action Service Team (BEAST) is sponsoring a fundraising rummage sale from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on May 25 at the school, 3500 Florin Road.
Those interested in selling items may purchase a space in the school parking lot for $10. No drinks or food may be sold. Contact the school for more information.
Students in Mark Hopkins Elementary School’s after-school MASTERS (Making After School Time Enriching, Rewarding and Successful) program were visited last week by Jason “JT” Thompson of the Sacramento Kings, who encouraged the kids to do their best on state standardized testing.
Thompson also signed autographs and played a little one-on-one basketball with the students. Former Sacramento Monarchs coach Monique Ambers (“Coach Mo”) also dropped by the school to inspire students.
The students were excited and enjoyed their surprise visitors.
John F. Kennedy High School student Nancy Barrera has won the CVS Pharmacy and WorkAbility 1 Program’s “Student Award of Excellence.”
Ms. Barrera has been participating in work experience through WorkAbility, at the Rush River CVS Pharmacy all year and is in the process of being hired by the pharmacy. She has won for WorkAbility’s Region 4 which encompasses most of Northern California.
Included in her award is a $200 check, which she will receive at an event on May 22. Congratulations!
During John Cabrillo Elementary School’s Open House, parents got the chance to experience the California Standards Test first hand.
As part of the school’s preparation for the California Standards Tests (CSTs), parents were invited to complete a test of second through sixth grade math and language arts questions compiled using real STAR questions released by the state.
Parents were given 20 minutes to complete the assessment.Student proctors monitored parents to ensure that electronic devices were not used and that there was no sharing of answers.
Members of the Assistance League of Sacramento visited John Bidwell, John Sloat and Caroline Wenzel elementary schools this spring to provide their “History in a Trunk” presentation.
Dressed in heritage school teacher costumes, the Assistance League engaged the fourth graders in a hands-on lesson about California history through the lens of the old Governor’s Mansion, now a museum.
Following the presentation, each fourth grade class participated in the California Heritage Essay Contest.
