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 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the following speech to a group of students in Washington, D.C.:

“Whatever career you may choose for yourself – doctor, lawyer, teacher – let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man.

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”

These words remind me of the great opportunity and privilege we have to make a lasting impact on the lives and futures of all students. As we get ready to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 19 and witness the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama on the following day, I want to thank you for dedicating your careers to making a difference in the lives of children. Have a restful and relaxing holiday weekend.

The Office of College, Career & Technical Education hosted its third annual Business and Education Direct Connect event on Thursday, January 15. The purpose of the event is to “connect” business community members to our students and educators so that together they can develop a strong foundation for the economic future of San Diego. Students from more than 20 high schools and one middle school attended the event. Learn what some of the students had to say. Watch video.

On Thursday, January 8, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell commended the State Board of Education for voting to adopt his recommended draft World Language Content Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve:

“California is home to the most diverse student population in the country, bar none, with well over a hundred languages and dialects spoken by children in our schools,” O’Connell said. “It is important to recognize and appreciate this diversity in our schools by placing an added emphasis on the effective learning of these languages and the cultures from which they are derived. In today’s global economy, it just makes good economic sense to encourage all of our students to effectively learn about the different languages and cultures of people with whom they will be interacting.” Read more.

For more information, please contact the district Office of Language Acquisition at (619) 725-7264 or read State Board of Education Item No. 7 .

The Facilities Planning and Construction Department is gearing up for the first phase of Prop. "S" projects. It's anticipated that the district will award construction contracts for three projects in March, followed by approximately 30 more in 2009-10. Termed the "Fast Start" projects, they include the following 15 Career Technical Education projects: 1. Morse HS Child Development and Family Services; 2. Kearny HS Construction Tech Academy; 3. Garfield HS Culinary Arts Program; 4. Madison HS Automotive Technology; 5. Morse HS Auto Body Program; 6. San Diego HS Multimedia Arts Program; 7. Mission Bay HS Entrepreneurship Program; 8. Clairemont HS Automotive Shop; 9. San Diego HS Finance and Business; 10. Madison HS Arts, Media and Entertainment; 11. Point Loma HS Arts, Media and Entertainment; 12. San Diego HS Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation; 13. Morse Culinary Arts Program; 14. Hoover HS Building Trades and Construction; and 15. Scripps Ranch HS Sustainable Technologies.

Other projects include building permanent classroom buildings to replace portables, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements for high school stadiums, technology upgrades, and heating/ventilation/air-conditioning renovations. The total dollar amount for these Prop. "S" construction projects is estimated to be $120 million. In contrast, during the first year of Prop “MM,” the district only awarded $7 million in construction contracts. For more information, please visit www.sandi.net/PropS or call (858) 637-3607. For more information on the Career Technical Education projects, please call (858) 496-8719.

The local chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants (CALCPA) has endorsed the district's new financial literacy curriculum for twelfth grade economics classes. Members of the organization have also volunteered to help teach the topics in our schools. In 2003, CALCPA became the first state organization to turn its attention to the importance of this subject. Now, American Institute of CPA chapters in all 50 states have followed suit. For more information, please contact Kirk Ankeney, executive director, curriculum and instruction, kankeny@sandi.net or (619) 725-7224.

Through the overwhelming success of the district Breakfast in the Classroom program, other county school districts are requesting to visit the program. On January 29, a group of Lemon Grove School District staff members, including board members, elementary school principals, food-service workers and custodians, will visit the program at the Emerson / Bandini Elementary School sites. Our team will review the program with the Lemon Grove team with the goal to increase the number children who will benefit from getting the right start of their day with a nutritious breakfast. For more information, please call Sally Spero at (858) 627-7306, or Gary Petill, director, food services department, at (858) 627-7301.

Clairemont High School junior Arthur De Costa is joining fellow Eisenhower Foundation People-to-People Student Leaders on a five-day trip that includes attending the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. The student leaders will be in direct view of the ceremony between the Capitol steps and the National Mall. The primary focus of the trip is to learn first-hand about the historical and present-day workings of the Office of the President of the United States. College credit is awarded. The itinerary includes:

January 18: Visits to Mt. Vernon; The Korean War, World War II, and Vietnam Veterans’ Memorials; and Arlington National Cemetery during the day. In the evening, an examination of the 2008 Presidential Election with U.S. News and World reporter Ken Walsh and insights on President Eisenhower from his granddaughter, Mary Eisenhower.
January 19: Visits to the Smithsonian American History Museum; International Spy Museum; National Portraits Gallery – American Presidents exhibition; Ford’s Theater and the Peterson House; and the Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant Memorials, and the Washington Monument
January 20: Presidential Inauguration and People-to-People Inauguration Ball;
January 21: Visits to the U. S. Capitol, National Archives, The White House, and a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

For information, call Chief School Improvement Officer Nellie Meyer at (619) 725-7237.

The Education Development Center is conducting a field study to inform and enhance efforts to improve the success of ELLs in middle grades mathematics. Central office mathematics resource teachers will use the Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit to help teachers understand middle school students’ thinking in geometry and measurement, and to guide them in engaging students’ thinking productively. Middle school math teachers would participate during either the 2009-2010 or the 2010-2011 school years. Participants are paid a $600 stipend. Interested teachers should contact Kim Hall, director, middle school instructional support, at khall@sandi.net or (619) 725-7300.

The Mingei International Museum, in partnership with the district Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Department , presents a visit to the museum for our sixth grade students. This free, unique opportunity is part of the VAPA Grade Level Arts Education (GLAE) Project, which is designed to provide K-8 students with a variety of standards-based, age-appropriate, engaging, professional arts experiences. For more information, please contact Karen Childress-Evans, director, VAPA, at kchildressevans@sandi.net or (858) 539-5349.

Leading author, speaker and educational consultant Sandra Rief, M.A., will present “Strategies for Managing AD/HD Related Behavior in the K-8 Classroom” to staff and parents on Wednesday, January 28, from 3-4:45 p.m., at Monroe Clark Middle School. The presentation is being offered by the district Nursing & Wellness program as part of the Project for Attention Related Disorders (PARD). Spanish translation will be available. Rief is the author of several popular books including The ADD/ADHD Checklist, How to Reach and Teach Children with ADD/ADHD and How to Reach & Teach All Children through Balanced Literacy, co-authored with Julie Heimburge. For more information about Rief, visit her website at www.sandrarief.com. For information about the presentation or PARD, please contact Eileen Griffiths at egriffiths@sandi.net.

Transportation replaced its aging analog phone system over the winter break with the digital Vodavi system that is also installed at many school sites. In addition to the system’s standard features, such as voicemail, an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) was also installed to better route phone calls that come into Transportation’s operations center. The new ACD system queues incoming calls and distributes them to phone agents as they become available. While in the queue, the system plays music and relays messages to the caller regarding their call status along with transportation information. Callers also are given the choice to switch from the main queue to a Spanish language queue where they will be redirected to the next available Spanish speaking phone agent. The system also provides management tools to track various statistics such as wait length, call length and the number of calls coming in. Transportation management will be better able to determine staffing levels and peak periods to better handle future calls. For more information, please contact Alexandra Robinson, transportation director, at arobinson@sandi.net .

Physical Plant Operations (PPO) took advantage of an opportunity to save money during the recent winter break. Energy/Utility staff joined forces with EDCO Disposal Corporation in matching our anticipated rubbish needs with our current service schedules to create a modified winter version. A savings of $32,000 was realized for the time period. Similar plans will be implemented for the spring and summer recess periods to continue savings throughout the school year. The PPO staff is keenly aware of the importance of saving money in times of fiscal crisis. Savings in one department or program can support shortages in another. For more information please contact William Causee, custodial operations supervisor, at bcausee@sandi.net or (858) 637-6268, or J. William Naish, energy/utility management supervisor, at jnaish@sandi.net or (858) 627-7217.

The 18-member Pershing Middle School Seventh Grade String Orchestra, under the direction of teacher Mark Anderson, was selected to play for the opening ceremony of the California School Nutrition Association 56th Annual Conference held in San Diego on January 9. The 2,000 members of the California School Nutrition Association support quality school nutrition programs and services as partners in academic achievement. The students were later invited to tour the exhibits and food show. For more information, please contact Sally Spero at (858) 627-7306 or Gary Petill at (858) 627-7301.

The Mission Bay High School Alumni Association began a new Excellence Awards Series with a presentation by Dr. Richard Schrock, MBHS Class of 1963 and 2005 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, on January 15. The event was a special school assembly for MBHS honor students, parents and alumni. The MBHS Excellence Award Series is designed to honor past students or administrators that have achieved special or outstanding professional accomplishments or, through personal achievements, brought honor and recognition to Mission Bay High School. For more information, please contact mbhsaa@earthlink.net or visit www.missionbayhighalumni.com .

On February 3, Patrick Henry High's Academic Boosters will sponsor "AP is for Everyone!”, a program to encourage students to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes. The program will include AP teacher presentations about their classes along with student presentations about their experiences taking AP and other honors courses as they prepare for college. Ninth- and tenth-grade students will learn about the importance of planning for college; how University of California A-G college requirements meet graduation requirements; and about the Engineering Academy, Teaching Academy, medical science classes, Spanish for Spanish Speakers classes and AVID to help them make course decisions in planning their future. For more information, please contact Pat Crowder, principal, at pcrowder@sandi.net .

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.

• Inauguration Resources for Teachers
  Publicschoolinsights.org has drawn up a compilation of educational resources about the upcoming inauguration (and inaugurations past) that includes resources from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and PBS among others. See http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/inauguration and http://www.nea.org/home/ns/29554.htm.
  
  
• Duncan Confirmation Gets Under Way
  Arne Duncan, who has been Chicago Public Schools chief since 2001, goes before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today for his confirmation hearing to be the next U.S. Secretary of Education. In the eight years since he became superintendent of Chicago schools, student proficiency in reading and math has grown, and Duncan has shut down 61 failing schools. Read more.
  
  
• Literacy Study: One in Seven U.S. Adults Can’t Read This Article
  An estimated 32 million adults, or one in seven, are unable to read anything more than a simple children’s picture book, according to a new federal study. The findings indicate that from 1999 to 2003, an additional 3.6 million adults joined the ranks of low literacy. While some states showed improvement, the number of adults with low literacy rose in larger states such as California, New York, Florida, and Nevada. USA Today
  
  
• The Importance of Middle School
  The level of academic achievement students reach by eighth grade has a greater impact on their college- and work-readiness than anything that happens academically in high school. Unfortunately, most eighth graders are not on track to be college- and work-ready upon graduation, according to “The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness before High School,” a new report from ACT. Read the report 
  
  
• Milwaukee district may close some small high schools
  Two small Milwaukee high schools, which were among the more than three dozen that were opened in the last six years, are slated for closure upon school board approval due to low enrollment and other problems. "If they're not good places for children, we close them down," said Milwaukee superintendent William Andrekopoulos. "We really are looking for quality for our children." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  
  
• First-Grade Academics May Cause Later Self-Esteem, Depression Issues
  Students, especially girls, who struggle with reading and math in the first grade are more likely to develop poor self-perception and depression symptoms in middle school, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Missouri. "Children's individual differences will always exist in basic academic skills, so it is necessary to explore and emphasize other assets in students, especially those with lower academic skill relative to their peers," said Keith Herman, an associate professor in the university's education college. Science Daily
  
  
• Report: Keep Advanced Teachers in Classrooms with Better Pay, Status
  Alabama teachers would be able to earn higher pay and status without moving out of the classroom under a proposal recommended by the Commission on Quality Teaching, which was appointed by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. The commission's report recommended five levels: apprentice teacher, classroom teacher, professional teacher, master teacher and learning designer. Montgomery Advertiser (Ala.)/The Associated Press
  
  
• Report Shows NYC-Based Group for Dropouts has Helped Youth Make Large Gains
  Community Education Pathways to Success, a program that serves youth who have dropped out of high school with low academic skills, is sharply increasing reading and math skill levels among these youth, according to a recent evaluation, preparing them for work and further education. Read the report .