Superintendent Message – March 12, 2018

  • Welcome to Castle Park HS, home of the Trojans, and host to our board meeting. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate the preparation Principal Mitrovich and her team accomplished to help make this happen!
  • Lots of student/staff successes to share tonight:
    • We have several schools who earned CIF Championship banners this winter sports season: ELH Girls Soccer – Open Division, Coach Mark Coziahr; BVH Girls Basketball – Div. I, Coach Tristen Lamb ; OLH Girls Basketball – Div. II, Coach Fred Von Husen; and SoH Boys Basketball – Div. V, Coach Steve Selland.
    • Southwest HS Boys Basketball Team are now headed to the Southern California Regional Semifinals on the road to the State Championship. Kudos to the team and Coach Steve Selland who has been coaching at SoH for 30 years!
    • Two CIF Players of the Year – Shyla Latone – BVH Girls Basketball, Gloriana Hinojosa, ELH Girls Soccer
    • Three CIF Coaches of the Year – Ed Martin – MoH – Boys Basketball; Mark Coziahr – ELH – Girls Soccer; Caroline Talavera – CVH – Roller Hockey
    • We certainly had a banner winter sports season!
    • OLH’s Keionni Thompson was selected as the 2018 Greater San Diego Affiliate Winner of the National Center of Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing!
    • ELH’s Elizabeth Lundgren was notified she is a finalist for the 2018 Military Child of the Year, one of only five finalists for the U. S. Navy.
    • OLH’s Nikole Opeodu won 1st Place in the statewide Creative Writing Contest sponsored by California Association of Teachers of English. Her poem entitled, “#blackprivilege” will be published in the Journal California English. She read it at the CATE Convention this past week here in San Diego.
    • We are very proud of our Sweetwater students and staff!
  • One week ago tonight we hosted a Community Forum on School Safety in collaboration with our Chula Vista Police Department partners. Approximately 300 community members and staff joined us for this discussion about how our schools/district work together with all of our law enforcement agencies to create safe schools. We plan to hold similar forums in National City and in South San Diego/Imperial Beach after Spring break.
    • Our message that evening was and is that we believe physical safety is a priority; but, we want to go beyond student and staff’s physical safety and include social and emotional well-being and support.
    • Our goal in Sweetwater is to create welcoming environments where each student, staff, and family member feels safe, feels valued, and cared for in a way that our communication is meaningful and makes a difference.
    • We believe when students, staff, and families feel safe to communicate, we can learn information to support those who need help.
    • We plan to propose a Resolution 4551 entitled Affirming the Dedication of the District to Provide a Safe School Environment and Positive School Climate for All Students.
    • In order to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of each student in the Sweetwater Union High School district, our Board of Trustees is calling on district staff and California legislators to continue and establish services for maintaining safe and positive learning environments.
    • Resolution 4551 highlights the need to maintain and create comprehensive, coordinated, and collaborative strategies where all stakeholders accept responsibility for their respective roles in establishing a positive environment and climate for teaching and learning.
    • Wednesday is the one-month anniversary of the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The organizers of the “National School Walkout” are calling for students to walk out of school for 17 minutes, one minute for each victim, to show their frustration with the lack of political action taken in response to the many school shootings that have occurred in the United States.
    • We recognize that this is an opportunity to provide guidance to students on how they can be civically engaged and politically active in a safe, respectful and constructive way.
    • As a district, it is important for us to seek opportunities to listen and understand, with respect and empathy, while helping our students to develop their voices.
    • The Parkland school shooting has prompted emotion and student engagement across our nation; however, for safety reasons, we are encouraging students to remain on campus and in school during the scheduled walkouts.
    • We have worked with our administrators and teachers to provide resources that will give students an opportunity to organize and speak out while remaining safe on campus.
    • On our website, we have also posted a message to parents/guardians on the walkouts along with some responses to frequently asked questions.
  • We are stronger and better together!

 

  • Thank you for the opportunity to serve and support each of you!