Celebrating Academic Successes

Thank you to all our staff for your hard work this school year.  There are so many end-of-year demonstrations, celebrations, and ceremonies that are the culmination of the discipline and investment of our students, families, and staff.  You are the heart of Cajon Valley.

It is in this spirit of gratitude that I want to share about just a glimpse of some growth occurring in the District.  I was invited this spring to visit Johnson Elementary with Principal Christine Sphar.  We thoroughly discussed Language Arts instruction and observed a plethora of primary grade classrooms.  While we reviewed multiple supplemental curricula, our focus was on University of Florida’s Literacy Institute, known as UFLI, used in kindergarten through third grade to teach phonics.  Even though I am saddened that our core curriculum is insufficient in these areas, at the same I am so grateful that our staff are committed to utilize the best research-based practices to support efficient instruction.  The highlight (and perhaps real purpose) of the visit was to share about resources for families that support academics, particularly in regards to the UFLI phonics program.  In addition to a UFLI page sent home at the beginning of each week, ELA Program Facilitator Stephanie Ibrahim has begun producing videos posted to families every section (about 3 weeks) to introduce the skills taught in UFLI, but also demonstrate how students are being taught in the classroom so parents can reiterate those strategies at home. I am passionate about providing our families with the tools they need to support their students academically, so this is work that deserves to be championed.

Not only did this visit spotlight efforts to give families the tools to academically support students, but it dovetails into a request made by a community member at our LCAP Recap in April. That request was for Public Relations focused on our District's academic successes.  Currently our PR is laser-focused on our vision statement: "to develop happy kids, living in healthy relationships on a path to gainful employment."  Outside of our Board LCAP updates, the public hears almost exclusively about WoW, TedEd, CTE, & SEL, but there is a glaring oversight of academics, although it might seem to be implied in our vision statement.  With so much District PR, we shouldn’t need to spend LCAP funds on the foundational focus of academics.  In addition to striving to offer consistent academic supports for our families, for years our staff has sought out professional development in both core curriculum & integration of "modern" curriculum into Core content and worked hard to grow in these areas, as evidenced at Johnson.  In highlighting our academic accomplishments to the public, we have the opportunity to honor not only our staff's commitment and effort but also encourage our students and families in the core purpose of public education.