February News

Happy February! It is my pleasure to present the February newsletter to our Centralia Elementary School District community. I hope you and your family is healthy and well.

Congratulations to all for reaching the 100th day of school! There is a special joy in our elementary schools when our young scholars, our TK and K students, discover the magic of "100!"

February is a relatively short month of school, with only 18 days of school. To help our students maximize instructional learning, we thank you for scheduling all appointments outside of the school day.

Thank you for continuing to be such great partners with our schools, igniting life-long learning habits in all of our students. Our teachers and staff continue to prepare our scholars to reach grade level mastery. We are always grateful for wonderful home/school partnerships.

With Gratitude

Ms. Norma E. Martinez

Superintendent

AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a specialized program that fosters high expectations for students and staff, positive school cultures, and strong collaboration. Centralia ESD is proud to offer an AVID Elementary experience for students who enroll at San Marino School!

AVID Elementary teaches and reinforces behaviors and higher-level thinking at a young age, leading to incredibly strong foundations for students as they transition to Jr. High and High School. At San Marino, there is a strong college-going culture that encourages students to think about and explore college and career plans. An incredible culminating event is the annual AVID pep rally, celebrating students' hard work toward reaching their goals. Go, San Marino Rams!

Centralia Elementary School District has an incredible Expanded Learning program at all of our schools. We often refer to Expanded Learning as ELOP, short for Expanded Learning Opportunity Grant. This grant is due to special funding provided by the State of California to help expand learning and enrichment outside of the school day.

We continue to hire staff to work in our ELOP programs across all schools. The more staff we have, the easier we are able to increase ELOP services. Schools offer a variety of programs for our ELOP student participants.

The program offers hands-on, engaging, student-centered results-driven involving community partners and complements learning activities in the regular school day/year. Below is a sampling of the programming we offer in our ELOP programs:

All Schools:

• Afterschool reading intervention through the AMIRA Learning software program. Amira, an artificial intelligent reading tutor, for all our TK-3rd students in our Expanded Learning program. Amira listens as our students read aloud, providing interactive tutoring and building literacy skills while traveling through personalized “Story Lands”, defeating the Villain, and leveling up to reading mastery. Amira, the AI avatar, provides personalized tutoring for children as they read, to build critical foundational skills. Amira’s support is organized by the Five Pillars of Literacy – (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) the skills identified as critical elements of effective early literacy instruction. Independent research shows that using Amira for 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week, doubles reading growth.
• STEAM sports - For about 45 minutes, once a week, our students have the opportunity to sign up to participate in STEM Sports. Our after-school assistants will use the supplemental curricula that use sports as the real-life application to drive STEM-based, hands-on learning in our after-school programs. This club will expose our students to the game of volleyball, basketball, soccer, and golf.
• Creating Creators - We have contracted with Creating Creators to provide film classes to 4th-6th grade students participating in ELOP. The goal of the class is to introduce filmmaking basics, provide access to opportunities for learning, and offer real world practice of their academics. The classes will explore short form film narrative (3-5min), student voice, ELA standards, professional portfolio marketing, and business aspects for entrepreneurs. Students will also be connected to university and industry networks through guest workshops.
  
  

Additionally, many of our schools host additional enrichment options unique to their sites. Please contact us if interested in more information.

For more information, call (714) 228-3153.

Students across our District participated in California's Great Kindness Week Challenge, held January 23-27, 2023! Congratulations to all schools for promoting such positive school environments.

State Preschool Students: State Preschool is a half day program designed for students ages 3 -4. Enroll now to ensure a spot! In the 2023/24 school year, CESD will offer State Preschool programs at Centralia, Danbrook, San Marino, Raymond Temple and Dysinger Schools. Parents interested in enrolling their children in our State Preschool please click HERE.

Transitional Kindergarten: Transitional Kindergarten is available at Buena Terra, Danbrook, Dysinger, Los Coyotes, Miller, San Marino and Raymond Temple schools. This all day program is available for all children who will turn 5 BETWEEN September 2 and April 30, 2023. For enrollment, please click HERE

Kindergarten: CESD is proud to offer an all day kindergarten experience at all of our schools for all children who were born between September 2, 2017 to September 1, 2018. For enrollment, please click HERE .

Dual Language Immersion (DLI), is offered at Centralia Elementary School. In the 2023-24 school year, DLI will be available to Kindergarten, 1st grade, & 2nd grade students. DLI is a rigorous educational program model that develops students’ abilities to speak, read, and write in two languages while meeting grade-level expectations in all subjects. CESD’s Dual Language Immersion program promotes academic achievement in Spanish and English while helping students to gain the 21st Century skills and social-cultural understandings for a more successful future. If you are interested in learning more about this exciting program, please reach out to DLI staff via phone at (714) 228-3210 or via email at DLI@cesd.us.

TRANSFERS

Open enrollment for students who reside outside of our district and who want to enroll in any of our Award-winning schools are welcome to submit an inter-district application to have your child attend our incredible schools. Applications are available on our website HERE and can be submitted to the District office in person or via email to case@cesd.us starting Tuesday, January 17, 2023.

Research shows that when parents and schools work together, students are more likely to have higher grades and test scores, attend school regularly, have better social skills, and show improved behavior. Here are some ways that you can help your child at home:

• Ask your child what he or she learned/did during the school day

• Create a consistent after school routine that includes providing your child with time and space to do homework and checking that it has been completed

• Encourage your child to read to you each night or take turns reading along with your child

• Take your child to the local library to check out books/other resources or to participate in scheduled library events

• Limit the amount of time your child spends watching TV, playing video games, or online

• Have your child log into his or her Clever account to make use of academic online programs during the weekend or longer break

• Ensure that your child gets a good night’s sleep so that he or she is rested and ready to be successful each school day

• Have your child pack up his or her backpack and set out school clothes the night before to help with quicker morning routines

• Schedule appointments for your child after school or minimize the amount of school time that is missed if he or she has to attend an appointment during the school day

There are various online programs available for your child to use at home. These programs can support the learning being done during the school day and help to ensure that students don’t forget information over longer breaks. Students can access these resources using their Clever account, which all students use on a daily basis. If you need assistance logging in to Clever, please go to www.cesd.us/CLEVER. Once logged in, students will have access to multiple programs, including ST Math, myON, and I-Ready. Please encourage your child to take advantage of these fantastic resources – we are confident that these fun and engaging resources will help to boost your child’s skills and better prepare them for future learning!

Congratulations to Mrs. Dawn Spangenberg, our Teacher of the Year for the 2023/24 school year! Mrs. Spangenberg is a Transitional Kindergarten (TK) teacher at Buena Terra School. Most recently, she was also a TK teacher at Raymond Temple School. Mrs. Spangenberg is a District trailblazer, having helped launch our TK program one decade ago! She is an innovator, a model teacher and is so mindful of the needs of her students. As she was receiving her award, one student was overheard to say, "She is the best teacher because she is the kindest teacher!"

Mrs. Spangenberg represents the high quality teachers that are the norm here in Centralia. We are all excited and proud for Mrs. Spangenberg to represent our District at this year's Teacher of the Year program!

We are thrilled to share that Los Coyotes was selected as a California Distinguished School for 2023.

From the press release from California Department of Education "The exceptional elementary schools recognized this year are illustrative of the hard work, dedication, and resilience shown by educators and schools across the state after communities struggled for multiple years with urgent effects to physical and mental health and unprecedented challenges to delivering education."

We are so proud of our Coyotes and look forward to celebrating their achievement at a ceremony this month in Anaheim with California state officials.

Topic: Active Parenting, classes presented in Spanish

Presented by Olive Crest

Where: Danbrook Elementary School, 320 Danbrook Street, Anaheim

Date: Thursday, February 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, March 2nd, 9th

Time: 8:30-10:30 am

Contact: Cecilia_Hinojosa@cesd.us, (714) 228-3235

Topic: Active Parenting, classes presented in Spanish

Presented by Olive Crest

Where: Centralia Elementary School, 195 N. Western Avenue, Anaheim

Date: Wednesdays, February 1, 8, 15, 22, March 1, 8

Time: 5-7 pm

Contact: Cecilia_Hinojosa@cesd.us, (714) 228-3235

Topic: Community Advisory Committee Meetings

Presented by GASELPA

Where: GASELPA Office, 5816 Corporate Ave. Suite 210, Cypress

Date: March 21

Time: 11:45 am

Topic: Adult ESL Classes

Presented by: North Orange Continuing Education

Day: Mondays from now until May 22, 2023

Time: 6:30-8:50 pm

Registration required: 714-808-4638 or email ESL4ALL@NOCE.EDU for more information

Topic: Dual Language Immersion DLI-Spanish Parent Information Meeting

Date: 2/15/23

Virtual at 5:30 pm

Please visit www.cesd.us/DLI for meeting link

02/13, All Day - Lincoln's Birthday Holiday, Schools Closed

02/15, 3:30PM - Superintendent's Forum via ZOOM

02/20, All Day - President's Day Holiday, Schools Closed

02/24, 9:00AM - DELAC Meeting via ZOOM and in person at the Walter Knott Education Center

The student calendar can be found on our website HERE

The OC Navigator is a new weblink from the Orange County Health Care Agency. They provide connections for any member of the public who needs mental health support, addition support, and a host of other living supporting.

https://ocnavigator.org/m/ocn

While supplies last - Free PCR COVID-19 tests are still available. Please ask in your school office today!

The District has FREE hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes available for all families at all school sites. These can only be distributed to adults, so stop by your office and pick some up!

The Neighborhood Resource Center (NRC), is a safe and friendly place where all CESD families can access support and numerous community resources. This special resource is available to all families in our district and is located at Danbrook School.

The NRC provides support with all sorts of services and referrals including

• Health insurance and wellness assistance (Medi-Cal and Medi-Cal for families to Covered California, Kaiser Child Health Plan
• Referrals and application support for preschool, Head Start, childcare, parenting classes, kids' classes and after school programs
• Legal aid supports, educational opportunities, food, clothing, and housing support

When families and community members need support completing applications and finding resources, count on the NRC to lend a helping hand!

In addition, our NRC hosts a district Boutique for our families. The CESD Boutique is a FREE "thrift shop" that is open to our community. The NRC Boutique supports families with dignity, care and kindness.

To make a donation or to make an appointment for the CESD Boutique or the Neighborhood Resource Center, contact the NRC staff at 714-228-3235. Email cecilia_hinojosa@cesd.us