Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter

📢 Welcome to the Lincoln Network School Community, and greetings as we embark on the exciting journey of the 2023-2024 school year! I am excited to share that we have 3 Area Superintendents serving our Lincoln Community. Dr. Steve Dorsey, Area E Elementary, Michelle Irwin, Middle School Area Superintendent and Dr. Erin Richison, High School Area Superintendent and Senior Executive Director for the Office of Graduation.

📚 This academic year, we are thrilled to spotlight the incredible assets of our students. Every child brings unique talents, perspectives, and passions to our community, and we are committed to nurturing and celebrating these qualities.

📖 In the realm of literacy for our youngest learners (K-3), we're proud to announce our deep partnerships with the DEEP program and our dedicated LAP (Literacy Achievement Program). These initiatives ensure that each child has the tools and support needed to excel in reading and writing, setting a strong foundation for their academic journey.

➕ Additionally, we're excited to share our commitment to math professional learning, with a special focus on teaching black students. Our educators are engaging in ongoing training to better understand and address the specific needs of this student demographic, fostering an inclusive and equitable learning environment.

🌟 As we embark on this new school year, let us remember the words of James Baldwin: "The world is yours to shape, and education is your most powerful tool." With this guiding principle, we look forward to an inspiring and transformative year ahead.

Thank you for being a part of our Lincoln Network School Community. Together, we'll empower our students to thrive, learn, and achieve their dreams. 📚🌟 #LincolnPride #EducationForAll #AreaE

Peace Love and Soul Train,

Dr. Steven A. Dorsey

Area E Superintendent

San Diego Unified School District

Lincoln High School students start the 23-24 school year off strong in and out of the classroom! The Class of 2024 Junior Achievement Fellows just finished interviews for paid internships, thanks to all of our community partners for opening your businesses for the opportunity to make real world applications in their learning. Also pictured are 10th grade students in the Introduction to Engineering & Design class are building and testing carnival games, collecting data and refining their designs. New to Lincoln class offerings this year is Forensic Science, juniors and seniors take what they learned in the lab to the Lincoln High School Moot Courtroom to present their claims, evidence and reasoning as to who they think is responsible for the crime they investigated. We welcome Adam Armas to Lincoln High School as the Community Schools Site Coordinator, who is conducting listening sessions as a part of a strengths and needs assessment for our school. Please reach out to toAdam via email to share thoughts, ideas and/or concerns as we work together to build upon our history cornerstone of our community. Mr. Armas can be reached at aarmas@sandi.net.

September was an amazing month at Knox. Students had the opportunity to engage in so many fun activities at school. Here are a few of them:

• 6th grade students began their swim lessons at the Jackie Robinson YMCA
• Students had the chance to sign up for clubs. We have 16 clubs on campus. A few of them include: Circle Leaders, Ballet Folklorico, Animae, Art, Crochet and Knitting, Musical Theater, Cheerleading, GSA, Bulldog Buddies, Chess, and many more
• Knox students got CPR certified during Saturday School
• Students have been clearing their absences at Saturday School
• Knox students are engaging in private music lessons lead by the SD Youth Symphony. This is part of our Knox VAPA grant.
• Students in musical theater are rehearsing for our musical Aladdin Jr.

Our Knox teachers are engaged in Action Research Cycles based around Marzano Level 4 Standards-based Grading. Teams will try on different strategies to support: student self monitoring of learning progress, accessibility of the proficiency scales, parent awareness of standards-based grading and teacher feedback for standards-based grading.

Follow us on Instagram! @knox_middle to learn more about the great things happening at Knox

"Millenial Tech Middle School and UCSD's joint collaboration "Bending the Curve" is off to an amazing start here on our middle school campus. Sixth grade students are learning about the water cycle and local water issues as both scientists and engineers. Recently, our sixth grade STEAM students have analyzed water issues facing our region, designed, tested and evaluated aqueducts given limited resources. In the future, engineers will work directly with UCSD's HKN Engineering team to incorporate coding into these hands-on STEAM activities which blend and integrate subject matter."

The Horton Hawks are off to a strong start of the school year. This year, one of the site’s goals is to significantly reduce chronic absenteeism. We kicked off the year with spirit week the second week of school, before the holiday weekend. As part of spirit week we had daily dress up themes, and an attendance challenge. The classes that had the highest attendance during spirit week received a slime party on Tuesday September 5th. Three classes had perfect attendance that week and got to slime the counselors! (check out the pictures below!) Overall, attendance has increased at Horton, and we will continue to support families, engage students, and increase daily attendance. Horton also held its annual Back-to-School Night and Resource Fair on Wednesday September 13th. Families met their student’s teachers, learned about what their student will be learning this year, and explored their student’s classroom. There were also our community partners who shared important resource information and some swag with our students and families. Thanks to our community and school district partners: Elementary Institute of Science (EIS), Malcolm X Library, Food Corp, Robotics Club, SDUSD Math Department, SDUSD Family Engagement, Southeastern Early Prevention (SEEP), Access Youth Academy, Earthlab, HHSA, SDUSD Children and Youth in Transition, and San Diego Family Health Centers. Overall, it was a great evening for our students, families, and staff.

Los Horton Hawks han tenido un buen comienzo de año escolar. Este año, uno de los objetivos de la escuela es reducir significativamente el ausentismo crónico. Comenzamos el año con la semana de espíritu escolar la segunda semana de clases, antes del fin de semana festivo Labor Day. Como parte de la semana de espíritu escolar, tuvimos días de disfraz diarios y un desafío de asistencia. Las clases que tuvieron mayor asistencia durante la semana de espíritu escolar recibieron una fiesta de slime el martes 5 de septiembre. ¡Tres clases tuvieron una asistencia perfecta esa semana y lograron echar slime a los consejeros! (¡Mire las imágenes a continuación!) En general, la asistencia ha aumentado en Horton y continuaremos apoyando a las familias, involucrando a los estudiantes y aumentando la asistencia diaria. Horton también celebró la Noche de Regreso a Clases y Feria de Recursos anual el miércoles 13 de septiembre. Las familias conocieron a los maestros de sus estudiantes, aprendieron sobre lo que sus estudiantes aprenderán este año y exploraron el salón de clases de sus estudiantes. También estuvieron nuestros socios de la comunidad que compartieron información importante sobre recursos y algunos regalos con nuestros estudiantes y familias. Gracias a nuestros socios comunitarios y del distrito escolar:

Instituto Elemental de Ciencias (EIS), Biblioteca Malcolm X, Food Corp, Club de Robótica, Departamento de Matemáticas del SDUSD, Participación Familiar del SDUSD, Prevención Temprana del Sureste (SEEP), Academia Juvenil Access, Earthlab, HHSA, Niños y Jóvenes en Transición del SDUSD y Centros de Salud Familiar San Diego. En general, fue una gran noche para nuestros estudiantes, familias y personal.

The first month of school has been filled with amazing stories of students stepping up into leadership! All of our 4th and 5th grade students contributed to their grade-level expectation assemblies, and our Student Lighthouse Leadership Team (comprised of over thirty 4th and 5th graders) jumped right in to help us kick off the year. We love the way our students are stepping up!

Encanto Elementary Eagles are ready to SOAR as Leaders this year! Staff and campus were all set to welcome our Eagle Leaders back for another amazing year of Learning and Leading this year.

Staff participated in professional learning in The Leader in Me before students returned in August. Teachers collaborated and planned for whole site implementation of Leader in Me to ensure all students have the tools, skills, and the 7 Habits to be successful leaners and leaders this year and in the future.

Parent volunteers prepared campus with bulleting boards highlighting the 7 Habits of Happy Kids. All staff welcomed back students wearing their new 2023-24 staff shirts letting students know ENCANTO sees the Leader in Me.

Future plans include parent workshops on the 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

We look forward to great success from all students through our shared work on the 7 Habits this year.

Baker Bobcats are Off and Running!

Baker began the 2023-24 school year by launching our school wide RUNNING CLUB! All students in UTK-5th grade participate along with their teachers and parents. So far this year our school has run more than 2000 miles! We have a wonderful group of parents who scan each runner’s name tag as they complete their laps. It is a fantastic way to begin our day, sharing both fun and fitness! In classrooms, teachers and students have all worked together to co-create their classroom community agreements. This ensures we all do our part to keep our school safe so everyone can learn! Our school-wide focus is to elevate and empower student voice and identity and we are getting started by celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month! We have a big celebration coming up on October 4th and our door decorating contest teaches us about important Hispanic heroes in History! We are grateful to our amazing Baker Parents for spearheading these festivities!

This month Chollas Mead has welcomed students back with great attendance success! We are holding steady at 93% and really pushing for our goal of 95% come December 1! With the invaluable support of our Community Schools Coordinator, we had the largest turnout to a Back to School Night we have ever had. Students and their families were able to enjoy a pasta dinner and attend a resource fair to meet with and learn what some of our community partners have to offer before attending classroom presentations.

Johnson students had an AMAZING first month of school! We celebrated and welcomed new staff and students and had a great Back to School Night event! Over 96% of our families attended Back to School Night, where we participated in a community fair and line dancing! With this great start, we look forward to what the rest of 2023-2024 will bring!

Hello from Porter Elementary!

We are wishing you all an amazing start to the 2023-2024 school year! At Porter, we are excited to continue our work on literacy, improving attendance, and ensuring an equitable educational experience for all students.

Our school has decided to also focus on developing the innate leadership qualities of each one of our students. We believe that every child has a voice that should be heard and valued. To support this core belief we have adopted the Leader In Me program. We are committed to lifting leadership qualities in all of our students. Staff received training in the 7 Habits and have been incorporating them into their own personal lives. This year students are receiving daily lessons and will also learn about the 7 Habits. Please refer to this link to learn more about the Leader In Me program https://www.leaderinme.org/what-is-leader-in-me/.

Porter also joined the Improving Chronic Absenteeism Network (ICAN). This work is in partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education. Our team has made decreasing chronic absenteeism a priority. We are focused on supporting our wonderful families in having their students come to school everyday and on time. We are excited to share that our chronic absenteeism decreased 20% last year. Our goal is to decrease chronic absenteeism by an additional 20% in the 2023-2024 school year. Please support us in this incredibly important work as we strive to provide the best educational experience for our children!

To better communicate with our school community, we just launched our Instagram account! Please follow @Porterelemschool to see the events, announcements, and updates from Porter Elementary. Go Panthers!