Mission Statement: All San Diego students will graduate with the skills, motivation, curiosity and resilience to succeed in their choice of college and career in order to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow.

In 2006, San Diego Unified School District and the City of San Diego entered into a 25-year joint use agreement to improve approximately 1.5 acres of playfield at Carson Elementary School in the Linda Vista area. The construction that began May 12 will transform the existing decomposed granite field into a multipurpose turf play field. Additional improvements include planting trees, adding game tables and installing seat walls inset with tiles customized by Carson students. School staff applied for, and received, a $30,000 grant from the San Diego Chargers, which will be applied to the approximately $750,000 price tag for the project. Students and the community should be playing on the new joint-use field in early 2009. For more information, please contact Randy White, real estate specialist, at (858) 637-3687.

On Tuesday, July 22, nine additional locations will be offering free lunches and snacks to children ages 2 – 18 years. The free summer lunch program is sponsored by San Diego Unified School District in partnership with San Diego Park and Recreation Centers. For a complete list of locations and hours of operation, please see the Free Summer Lunches for Kids flyer on the district website at www.sandi.net/food. For additional information, please contact Sally Spero, food services food management supervisor, at (858) 627-7306.

The district has reached agreements with the San Diego Education Association involving situations that may have occurred as a result of teacher layoffs due to the district reduction in force. General guidelines related to the agreements are posted in the News section of www.sandi.net.

The Child Development Department saved more than $1,200 in printing costs by using the district Printing Services Department rather than an outside vendor. Using its state-of-the-art digital copying technology, Printing Services produced child development teacher manuals with full color covers, full color binder spines and tabs. For more information about the district’s Printing Services Department, please contact Bob Leyba, printing services supervisor at (619) 725-7447 or Arthur Hanby, business support services director, at (858) 522-5808.

Newsweek magazine recently published an essay by Daniel Walker Howe, the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in History. Professor Howe will lead presentations for district students and teachers at Serra High School on August 28. For more information, please contact Kirk Ankeney, History/Social Studies Department, at (619) 725-7253. Read the essay.

Schools can now book field trips online. This service, which was unveiled at year-end, is available by logging on to the Transportation website at www.sandi.net/transportation and clicking on “Field Trip Info” in the Quick Links section. Schools will have pricing and scheduling tools right at their finger-tips. In addition, the Transportation website now has parent links and information regarding schedules, services, policies and procedures. For more information, please contact Alex Robinson, director of transportation, at (858) 496-8710 or arobinson@sandi.net.

Summer is the busiest time of the year for Physical Plant Operations. Each year, a plan is developed to execute the “Summer Work” needed to keep sites in top operational condition. New or expanded educational programs require facility changes with a short timeline for implementation. Over 300 projects are in progress this summer representing an estimated value of more than $15 million. Physical Plant Operations works hard to plan and perform this work on the facilities that support teaching and learning, and to make sure the district’s capital assets are well-maintained and cared for. For more information, please contact Tom Wright, manager, physical plant operations, support services, at (858) 627-7442.

Discover all the exciting events happening around the district. A complete list of San Diego Unified School District Upcoming Events is posted on www.sandi.net.

• Disrupting Class May Offer Best Hope for U.S. Schools
  Surprise No. 1: America's public schools are actually improving, average scores inching upward despite increased numbers of immigrant and often poorly prepared children. But we're still losing -- failing to inspire and fully prepare -- roughly half our children. Most are bright and curious, and can be taught. Just check how many, even from the poorest neighborhoods, “digital natives.” are All are needed in the new global economy. ... Prediction: In 10 years, computer-based, student-centric learning will account for 50 percent of the "seat miles" in U.S. schools. By 2024, roughly 80 percent of courses will be taught this way. So who says all this? The answer is Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School's famed expert on how "disruptive technologies" challenge and displace long-dominant industries. Read more.
  
  
• Fuel Prices Force School Transportation Officials to Get Creative
  Schools across the country are consolidating bus stops, banning bus idling and increasing student walking distances in a bid to limit fuel consumption as diesel prices skyrocket. "This is completely unprecedented," said Michael J. Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. "I don't think it was on anyone's radar screen." Read more.
  
  
• Educational Accountability in California: Whose Job?
  Examining a controversy over mandatory algebra for eighth-graders in California, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters says it is emblematic of a larger issue. "Is it wise to set educational standards that apply to all students," he asks, "even though they have an astonishing and ever-widening array of innate abilities and cultural, economic, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds?" Walters says the conflict echoes a debate over compulsory exit exams for high school seniors. Advocates maintain that such a requirement can bring curricula into closer alignment with federal guidelines. Read more.
  
  
• Mission Possible Successfully Retaining Effective Teachers
  Several years ago, the Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, NC implemented a program that pays math and reading teachers an annual bonus for teaching in impacted, hard-to-staff schools. The program, Mission Possible, has just closed out its second year of recruiting and retaining effective faculty for Guilford County Schools. A recent review of the program demonstrates that Mission Possible is retaining teachers in the district’s hardest to staff schools. Some of the many program successes for this past school year include:
  • Total attrition rate for Mission Possible Schools decreased by 13% from 2006-07
  • Elementary School attrition rate decreased by 18% from 2006-07
  • Middle School attrition rate decreased by 14% from 2006-07
  • High School attrition rate decreased by 23% from 2006-07
  • Mission Possible faculty transferring out to non-Mission Possible Schools decreased by 23%
  • Mission Possible faculty transferring to non-Mission Possible positions decreased 39%
  • Mission Possible faculty leaving GCS to teach in another system decreased by 57%
  • Non-Mission Possible faculty transferring into Mission Possible roles increased 15%
  • Participating faculty have increased from 348 to 639 with the addition of 8 new schools in the 2007-08 school year
  • 74% of eligible math teachers received incentives this year for 2006-07 performance
  • 79% of eligible language arts and English teachers received incentives this year for 2006-07 performance
  For more information about Mission Possible, please contact Dr. Amy Holcombe, executive director of talent development, at (336) 335-3294 or holcoma@gcsnc.com.
  
  
• Debating the Cost of Firing Bad Teachers
  In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent teacher, the Associated Press reports, and some teachers remain on the payroll even after a felony conviction, requiring districts to hold disciplinary hearings in prison. Such situations illustrate a persistent problem in school districts around the country, and are part of an ongoing debate over education reform and the role of tenure. Argues one foe of tenure, B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability: "Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system." But Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: "Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty." Read more.
  
  
• Competent Teaching Equals Successful Schools
  Competent teaching is at the core of successful schools, writes Ray Fisman, a professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, who points to New York City principal Anthony Lombardi's turnaround of a Queens public school by weeding out educators who weren't performing well in the classroom. Read more.
  
  
• Book May Help Educators Better Understand Racial Issues
  Virginia high school teacher Mary Tedrow, who is white, ponders the racial achievement gap and black students' view of the school system in general. After reading "Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students," she felt she had a better grasp on the complexity of the issues confronting this student demographic. Teacher Magazine
  
  
• How Merit Pay Played Out in a Colorado School District
  National Public Radio, Morning Edition
  When Republican John McCain addressed the NAACP in Cincinnati on Wednesday, he focused on education. One of the strategies that McCain endorsed in his speech is that effective teachers should earn more money. That proposal also has the backing of Democrat Barack Obama. Teachers have long resisted this idea, but they are gradually warming up to it. Still, many questions surround the issue of merit pay ... One school district in Colorado already has tackled the problem. Eagle County, which has had one of the most radical compensation systems for teachers, also has a lot of new immigrants. Read more.