#TeamPUSD

Sharing the Good News and Good Work of Students and Staff

October/November 2016 Edition

Acting Superintendent's Message

Dear TeamPUSD:

How quickly the holidays have come upon us! However you celebrate, there is a lot wrapped up in our traditions – food, family, friends, religion, and history. But for me, the holidays are also an opportunity to serve and think of others. That’s what our staff already does on a daily basis, in the service and education of our children. Take, for example, California Teacher of the Year Megan Gross. Megan is a special education teacher at Del Norte High School. Her classroom is a place where students feel welcome and can access the resources needed to thrive academically and socially in general education settings. Under her leadership, her students launched a school-wide campaign, “Socktober,” to collect socks and blankets to benefit homeless families in their school district as well as created Valentines for senior citizens who lived in a nearby assisted-living facility. As educators, we are on the front lines of shaping our young people’s character, but so often, they are the ones teaching us.

At Oak Valley Middle School, Annie Koshenina’s students walk to nearby Stone Ranch Elementary to work with young autistic students around their reading and communication skills. At Rancho Bernardo High, senior Ava Parisi organized a musical concert “Songs for Shelter” to benefit homeless and at-risk youth. Two Westwood 3rd graders organized a successful costume drive so students at the Monarch School could have a Happy Halloween. The list goes on. I am humbled by the kindness and selflessness that our students are displaying throughout our district.

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OVMS at SRES

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Costume Drive

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Songs for Shelter

This holiday season, my hope is that you embrace the same spirit of service. We are a large organization that can leave a strong, powerful, and positive impression on our communities when we empower our students and staff to better our neighborhoods. Find a way to bring joy to someone else this holiday season.

November 15th was my final board meeting as Acting Superintendent. It has been my pleasure and honor to serve as Acting Superintendent for all these months. The Board has now approved an Interim Superintendent: Dr. Tony Apostle comes to us from Washington State. Dr. Apostle retired in 2012 after 37 years as a teacher, coach, principal, and administrator for schools in Washington, including eight years as Superintendent of Puyallup schools. In 2014 he served as Interim Superintendent for Kent School District. I will work closely with him to ensure a smooth transition, and he will remain in place until the Board selects a permanent Superintendent for our District early next year. Thank you to all of you who provided your input online and in person on what qualities our new Superintendent should possess.

Finally I wanted to extend my warm congratulations to the elected Board members, Ms. Kimberley Beatty and Dr. Darshana Patel, who will be officially sworn in at the December 13th Board meeting. On behalf of District staff, we look forward to working with them on continuing and strengthening our mission of college and career readiness for all students. Thank you to all the candidates who ran for school Board. It shows how much you care about our kids and our schools and that you are invested in the future of this District.

May you all find rest, hope, and healing as we close out 2016. I am confident that when we return in 2017, we will feel refreshed and excited to continue on this wonderful journey that we share as part of #TeamPUSD.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mel Robertson

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A Message from Interim Superintendent, Dr. Tony Apostle:

I am truly honored to have been appointed Interim Superintendent of the Poway Unified School District. As I begin my journey in PUSD, it is my strong desire to meet as many as possible staff, students, and their families and to engage all parties in identifying what the district must do to maintain and improve the quality of education in PUSD. As I visit with school staff, students, and community members, I will ask and listen to the responses to the following 3 questions:

What are your expectations of the Interim Superintendent?

What do you believe needs to change?

What do you believe needs to be protected and preserved?

I am energized and very much looking forward to working with the PUSD students, staff, families, and community over the next several months.

Introducing: "Excellence in Education"

"Excellence in Education" is a video series produced in partnership with CTE, the Communications Department, and Studio 701, a new pilot internship program comprised of advanced high school digital media students. The videos are shot, written, and edited by the students. They showcase how Poway Unified is supporting its mission of career and college readiness. The first episode focuses on foreign language in elementary schools. Enjoy!

School, Student, & Staff Achievements

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CA Teacher of the Year

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson selected Del Norte teacher Megan Gross as one of the 2017 California Teachers of the Year. Megan is an autism spectrum disorder teacher for ninth through twelfth graders. Torlakson also nominated Gross as California’s representative for the National Teacher of the Year competition. Gross will compete against other state nominees, and a 2017 National Teacher of the Year will be named in the spring.

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Music Educators Awards

Joanne Lichtenberg, Elementary Music Teacher, and Jeri Webb, Westview High School Music Teacher, were recognized by the California Music Educators Association – Southern Border Section (CMEA-SBS) as recipients of the Elementary and High School Outstanding Music Educator Award. They are pictured here with Duane Otani, RBHS Instrumental Music Teacher and CMEA-SBS Executive Board Secretary, who presented their award. Todd Cassen, Westview High School Principal, was also recognized with an Outstanding Administrator Award. Their awards were presented at the 2016 CMEA-SBS Fortissimo Awards Ceremony held in San Diego on October 13th.

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Grammy Semifinalist

Ulli Reiner, Orchestra Director at Bernardo Heights and Twin Peaks Middle Schools, has been selected as a top 25 semi-finalist for the 2017 Grammy Education Award. The award was created by the Recording Academy and Grammy Foundation to recognize “current educators who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education.” As a semifinalist, Ms. Reiner will receive a $500 honorarium with a matching school grant. The list of 10 finalists will be announced in December.

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No Excuses Doctorate

Los Peñasquitos Elementary School was awarded No Excuses University’s first-ever “Doctorate Award,” the highest membership distinction. As the flagship school in the no Excuses University (NEU) Network, Los Peñasquitos was selected based on their application demonstrating how NEU has fundamentally changed their school and community. The school has created a culture of universal achievement, due to the belief that each student is capable of meeting academic standards in reading, writing, and math.

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Creekside Blue Ribbon

Creekside Elementary School was selected as a 2016 National Blue Ribbon School. U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King recognizes schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. These schools demonstrate that all students can achieve to high levels. Creekside Elementary is one of only 29 schools chosen in California and 329 in the country. Principal Christine Donnelly, Administrative Assistant Lisa Nakutin, and Teacher Sarah Crittenden traveled to Washington, D. C. this month to receive the award.

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Zonar Grant

PUSD Transportation has been awarded a $50,000 grant by Zonar. Zonar is the District's GPS and Z-pass (electronic bus bass) hardware and software provider. Much of PUSD's vehicle statistical data and fleet is electronically tracked and transmitted through this software. The grant will allow Transportation to move to an electronic tablet device in buses whereby routes are electronically displayed.

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Siemens Competition

Del Norte Senior Rose Hong has been named a National Finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. The Competition is the nation's premier science research competition for high school students and seeks to promote excellence by encouraging students to undertake individual or team research projects. She is now moving on to the final phase of the Siemens Competition to present her work at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., December 5-6, 2016.

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Jr. Amateur Golf Champ

Steve Sugimoto, a senior at Rancho Bernardo High, won the Southern California Junior Amateur Golf Championship, one of the most competitive junior amateur golf tournaments in the country. This championship is held every October by the Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) to determine the best junior golfers in Southern California. Steve has earned a spot in the 2017 SCGA Amateur Championship, which will be held at Mission Hills Country Club in July.

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Student of the Month

Ethan Tsui, a senior at Del Norte High, was selected as San Diego County Office of Education's Inspirational Student of the Month. Ethan started Smiles for Seniors, a new club on campus that has grown to about 50 members. The students visit senior citizens to lift them out of their loneliness through talking, listening, and laughing with them. Ethan's episode will air on NBC7 next month.

The PUSD "Everyday Heroes" Classified Recognition Program honors classified employees who demonstrate excellence in work performance, school and community involvement, and leadership and commitment to our District and students.

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Aaron Davis

Lead Custodian, Midland Elementary School

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Carlos Huerta

Lead Custodian, Creekside Elementary School

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Evelyn Hupp

Instructional Assistant Special Education II, Abraxas High School

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Kathy Lynch

Career/Life Skills Technician, Abraxas High School

The Team PUSD Award is designed to recognize an admirable team of employees, who together accomplish an exceptional task or project. The recognition is for a group of two or more classified and/or certificated individuals who have made a significant contribution to the benefit of PUSD, an individual, his or her work site, the community or other volunteer or service organization.

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Garden Road

Garden Road Elementary School Staff

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Rolling Hills

Rolling Hills Elementary School Teachers

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Transportation Department

Tyler Buquet, Assistant Mechanic; Eric Horne, Bus Driver; Christine Tibbitts, Driver Instructor

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Meadowbrook

Melissa Yu and Jim Valenzuela (not pictured), Teachers at Meadowbrook Middle School

Character Counts & Red Ribbon Week

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Rancho Bernardo

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Mt. Carmel

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Deer Canyon

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Adobe Bluffs

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Poway High

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Turtleback

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Mesa Verde

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Del Norte

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Stone Ranch

Fun Photo Gallery

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Diner Night

Garden Road Elementary's 10th Annual All You Can READ Diner Night! Students and staff dressed up in 50s-themed costumes to serve up books to families who ordered them at their tables.

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Cardboard Challenge

Students across the District, from elementary to high school participated in the annual Global Cardboard Challenge. The Cardboard Challenge was inspired by Caine's Arcade, to make something awesome out of cardboard, recycled materials, and imagination.

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Community of Kindness

Meadowbrook Middle School practices a Community of Kindness, with lessons built into the curriculum on topics like self awareness, responsibility and self management. The students are challenged to be "upstanders" not bystanders.

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Socktober

These two young ladies at Tierra Bonita, inspired by Kid President's Socktober movement, managed to collect over 1,000 pairs of socks for local homeless families.

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Unity Days

During Westview's Unity Days, the sophomore class listens to motivational speaker, Keith Hawkins, on a range of topics with the intention of bringing unique perspectives together, breaking down barriers, and building unity among our diverse population.

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Finance Park

PHS AVID sophomores had a great visit to Junior Achievement Finance Park. The students used iPads to make a budget according to their assigned life situation, which included a monthly income, credit card debt, student loan payment, and any children.

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College Fair

Over 100 colleges and vendors attended the PUSD College & Career Fair, held at Rancho Bernardo High. Parents and students learned about financial aid, higher education options, the military, and more.

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STEM Workshop

Sometimes our older students have an opportunity to step in to teach our younger students. Westview Robotics Team "Option 16" and coach Dawn Hester hosted a day of free STEM workshops for 3rd through 8th graders. They learned concepts from electromagnetism to Java basics.

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Great Shakeout

Ms. Glady's 1st grade class at Chaparral Elementary practiced an earthquake drill as part of the Great Shakout on October 20th. The students were featured in a news story on Fox5 with Sharon Chen.

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Blood Drive

Abraxas High students and staff partnered with the San Diego County Blood Bank to host a schoolwide blood drive. Abraxas is among the top donors in the county.

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D39C Vote

TK/K/1 students at Design39Campus participated in the electoral process by voting for a new lunchtime song. They filled out their ballots and cast their votes for "Can't Stop the Feeling."

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Veterans Day

Many schools across the District, including Sunset HIlls, honored members of the military and veterans with assemblies, luncheons, and other events.

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X-Ploration

X-Ploration teachers can't contain their excitement as they model a drama technique known as tableaux, where participants make still images with their bodies to represent a scene.

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Dia de los Muertos

Valley Elementary School students showed off their "Day of the Dead" or Dia de los Muertos projects, in honor of loved ones who have passed on. The school incorporates language and culture lessons in its Spanish immersion program.

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NASA Speaker

Students across the District were captivated by a presentation from former astronaut Mike Massimino. The professor at Columbia spoke about his career as a NASA astronaut and inspired students to pursue STEM careers.

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25th Anniversary

Midland Elementary celebrated PUSD's longest employed crossing guard, Mrs. Pat Farrell, who has been a parent, PTA President, Reading Aide, RSP Aide, AND Crossing Guard for 25 years at Midland! She has trained many kids over the years for the Safety Patrol position and is well known around Poway as Mrs. Farrell by the many kids past and present from Midland.

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GRES TV

Garden Road 4th and 5th graders, ready to take on their monthly newscasts. The students were trained by Rob Kaechele's advanced digital media students on video shooting and editing skills.

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Tech Fair

PUSD educators attended the Tech Fair, put on by SDCUE, whose mission is to inspire innovative learners by fostering community, personalizing learning, infusing technology, developing leadership, and advocating educational opportunities for all.

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Maxed Out

Thanks to Mission Fed and MaxFM for more "Maxed out" classrooms! Michelle Hobbs' class at Morning Creek Elementary and Ed Sandstrom's class at Los Peñasquitos will each get $200 for classroom supplies.

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SSAC Input

Members of the Superintendent's Student Advisory Committee (representatives from all high schools) met with the search firm to provide input on what qualities PUSD's new Superintendent should possess.

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Make Change Count

Rolling Hills Elementary partnered with Make Change Count for Schools to install a donation meter in front of the campus to collect spare change and credit card donations. Similar meters have been installed at Canyon View and Los Peñasquitos Elementary Schools.