Superintendent Message – Board Meeting September 23, 2019

  • Welcome staff, students, families, and community to our board meeting. Thank you for attending, even during our Fall break!
  • Let’s start with some recognitions and accomplishments:
  • In this year’s Solar Sprint competition, we had 254 student participants from all SUHSD middle and Junior High Schools spread across 77 teams. The biggest turnout thus far!
  • Category: SPEED “The Race”
  • 1st MOM Team #76 (Teacher Mr. Valencia)
  • 2nd MOM Team #77 (Teacher Mr. Valencia)
  • 3rd MOM Team #72 (Teacher Mr. Macias)

 

      • Category: ENGINEERING “Best Design”
      • 1st ELM Team #6 (Teacher Ms. Taylor)
      • 2nd RDM Team #34 (Teacher Ms. Chavez)
      • 3rd NCM Team #42 (Teacher Mr. Valles)
      • Category: CREATIVITY “Most Innovative”
      • 1st CPM Team #16 (Teacher Ms. Rains)
      • 2nd ELM Team #6 (Teacher Ms. Taylor)
      • 3rd RDM Team #34 (Teacher Ms. Chavez)
      • Engineering and Creativity awards were decided by Eastlake High School’ robotics team members from TitanBOT with advisor Mr. Joel Foust
      • Thank you ELM administrators – Principal Easter Finley, AP Ms. Chris Adams and custodial staff, and STEAM Coord. Dr. Leo Ulloa
      • Much appreciation to MOM/MOH AP Mr. Jose Vargas, event coordinator
      • Grateful to Trustee Segura and IBEW for donating solar car kits, t-shirts, and sweatshirts and being there all day to help!
    • The following SUHI students were chosen by the Design AHEAD Program and will have their art displayed at the San Diego Airport in November. Congratulations Esteban Ibarra Acevado, Stephanie Marmolejo, Zayra Maldonado, Lluvia Aguilar, Danlyn Villarente, Yesenia Santos, Daniel Gonzalez, Airyl Van Flores Dayrit and Tatsuya Yamanaka! Kudos to their Art of Animation teacher Ms. Malini Ranganath for guiding and working with her students on this fantastic opportunity.
    • Congratulations to BVH teacher Ms. Kalie Espinoza who was mentioned in Issue 63, Fall 2019, Teaching Tolerance magazine’s article entitled, “#USvsHATE. You can find the article here.  Ms. Espinoza was part of a development team, in conjunction with UCSD CREATE, that piloted the #USvsHATE curriculum and initiative that invites student voice and artwork into issues of our time. The goal of this initiative is to “support teachers and students in resisting hate – at school and beyond – by offering an easy-to-implement curricular option that resulted in authentic, sharable, student-driven work.” We thank Ms. Espinoza and her students for taking a proactive position to improve relationships between and among all of us.
    • As we know, ELH Senior Brenna Pangelinan is on the CA State Board of Education as a voting member representing 6M students across the state. I traveled to Sacramento on September 11th to support and recognize her official swearing ceremony and her first day on the Board. She carefully studied the agenda and made valuable comments and contributions throughout the day. Additionally, Brenna and our own student Board representative Ethan Collier, are working collaboratively with the California Association of Student Councils (CASC) to increase and expand access to student voice across the state. Ethan is CASC President of Region 12 and serves with these other Sweetwater students:
    • Diane Escarieses – SUHI -Region 12 VP;
    • Erick Sanchez – HH – R12 Secretary
    • Ashley Escamilla – BVH -R12 Outreach Director
    • Jin Woo Park – OLH – R12 Governmental Affairs/Policy (GAP) Director
    • Xiomara Alejandre – CVH – R12 Research/Resource Director
    • Judith Morales – HH – R12 Outreach Committee
    • Moises Bernal – HH – R12 Outreach Committee
    • Mercedes Rockin – CVH – R12 Development Committee
    • Milana Rodriguez – OLH – R12 GAP Committee
    • Michelle Bastidas – CVH – R12 Research/Resource Committee

Congratulations and thank you for your involvement!

    • At several of the schools I have visited during my Listening/Communication Tour, employees have made a point to share that staff sincerely and deeply appreciate the work and care provided by the Cafeteria and Custodial Staff. I couldn’t agree more! We all know our schools need each and every staff member to create the kind of environment where students thrive and grow!
  • Thank you for your support and collaboration!