Julian Curtiss

On Wednesday, October 7, JC families and scholars celebrated Walk, Roll, and Bike to School Day! Families got on their bikes, moved their feet, or jumped on scooters to show their support for healthy habits and a cleaner, greener environment.

It was a wonderful start to our day as everyone gathered on the blacktop and scholars tallied how they typically travel to school. Our scholars also modeled important safety practices by wearing helmets while riding their bikes and scooters.

Thank you to everyone who participated! Together, we are making healthy choices and working toward a better Earth—one step, pedal, and roll at a time!

Soaring like Eagles,

Eduardo Calderón

Principal

The Eagles crushed their Zero Waste Schools training this week! Students learned how simple cafeteria habits can make a big difference for our planet. Through interactive activities, including an instructive video, the "Ready, Set, Sort" video game and a live worm encounter, students mastered the sorting routine - emptying liquids, scraping food scraps into compost, placing unwanted and unopened foods in the share fridge, and recycling right.

Thanks to everyone's hard work, we diverted a whopping 81% of trash to higher use and sent 22 lbs of food scraps daily to be processed at Quantum Biopower, an anaerobic digester that turns food scraps into energy and nutrient-rich digestate. Food and liquid make up more than half the majority of the cafeteria waste! But through composting, donation and liquid separation, our school can significantly reduce waste.

You can keep the momentum going at home by watching our Zero Waste Video, playing the "Ready, Set, Sort" game together, or checking out the GPS Sustainability page to see how our efforts add up.

At Julian Curtiss, we believe that every Eagle deserves to feel safe, valued, respected, and that they belong. October is Bullying Prevention Month, giving us another opportunity to reinforce the kindness, inclusion, and care for others that we work to build throughout the year.

We will recognize two important days as a JC community:

💙Monday, October 5 – World Day of Bullying Prevention
Scholars and staff are encouraged to wear BLUE and #BlueUp as we stand together against bullying and cyberbullying and show our commitment to creating a safe and supportive school community.

🧡 Wednesday, October 21 – Unity Day
Our JC community is encouraged to wear ORANGE as a visible sign that we stand together for kindness, acceptance, inclusion, and belonging.

These days connect directly to the values we strive to live each day at JC, especially Be Safe, Care for Self and Others, and Let Go and Move On. Together, we will continue to make Julian Curtiss a place where every scholar knows they belong, every voice matters, and we take care of one another.

This October, as we celebrate UN Week at JC, our community is exploring UN Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger through the lens of sustainable agriculture and community gardens. Our Book of the Month, Our School Garden by Rick Swann, illustrated by Christy Hale, invites readers to discover how a school garden can bring people together to grow, learn, share, and care for the world around them.

Across our specials, students will explore this theme in different ways- from creating art with recycled materials, to singing about the wonder of growing food, to getting outdoors and connecting movement with vegetables and gardening. These experiences will complement our library exploration and connect to our very own JC Community Garden.

Throughout the month, we'll consider our big question:

How do community gardens support sustainable agriculture and improve nutrition?

As we celebrate global connections during our UN Day Parade, we hope Our School Garden helps our scholars see that caring for our community, our food, and our planet are all connected, and that even something as small as planting a seed can help us grow a healthier, more sustainable world together. 🌎🌱

October:

October 9th: School Photo Day

October 19th -23rd: UN Week

October 22nd: UN Parade @ 1pm

October 23rd: International Food Tasting @ 5:30pm

October 30th: Halloween Parade