- Welcome to our second to the last board meeting of the 2017-18 school year!
- Let’s start with student/staff recognitions – Congratulations to:
- CIF Athlete of the Year Gloriana Hinojosa – ELH – she played Field Hockey, Soccer, and Lacrosse.
- CIF Female Coach of the Year Debbie Isaia, MoH Boys Volleyball.
- An error was found in Girls CIF Track & Field calculations – that means OLH is now CIF Co-Champions – Congrats Coach Michael Adkins and OLH Girls!
- Last weekend, Dr. Glover and Dr. Winters finished the Rock n’ Roll Half-Marathon – that’s just great…but, apparently they finished way behind SUHI AP Alex Salazar. Way to go! It’s not when you finish, rather if you finish and they did! So proud of you all!
- We had a strong finish to the year with high school graduation ceremonies and middle school promotions. Thank you for your planning that resulted in happy celebrations!
- Today we started summer school at almost all our schools. The only exception is MoH and MoM because they are getting a new paint job this summer.
- Here’s a short list of what we accomplished this year – remember, it takes a team to make this happen:
- We updated our Mission and Beliefs to align with our Board and LCAP goals
- Increased our A-G completion rate to 55%
- Increased CTE Sports Medicine Pathway in all high schools
- Increased our Compact for Success applications from 2190 to 2246
- HVAC in all classrooms and other learning spaces
- Bond Sale 3 that netted us $28M for school facility improvements
- We received an $8.5M grant from the National Science and Math Institute to train AP teachers and provide regional student study sessions
- We established a middle school Robotics League
- We completed our English Learner Master Plan
- Increased AVID Excel from 13 sections to 34 sections
- We increased VAPA enrollment from 19,067 to 22,585
- Teacher Induction Program worked with 253 1st/2nd year teachers with 140 graduates this year
- Hosted three School Safety Forums in collaboration with our law enforcement partners
- Because we are the first “Unified Games District” in southern California
- Opened our Wellness/Athletic Center (grand opening in August) in collaboration with Southwest Sports Wellness Foundation, SDSU, UCSD
- Provided transportation for 5,997 trips for athletics and extracurricular activities
- We had a 50% increase in middle school athletics with over 1,200 participants
- We just got word that our “Sweetwater Cares” Foundation just received our EIN and we are official
- We hosted a Joint School Boards meeting with all south county school districts including Southwestern Community College
- Since we live stream our Board meetings in November, we have had 2,264 views
- Hosted our 2nd Annual State of the District Event
- Provided Equity/Culture trainings as part of Year 2 – Leading and Working Toward Equity
- Increased our Mental Health clinicians to 13 staff
- Hired our first RISE teacher
- Conducted 12 Master Planning meetings
- Added CFD 19 and 20
- New Data Center installed and operational
- Adopted a 3-year student/staff calendar in collaboration with SEA/CSEA
- Increased our social media presence growing from 5,500 followers to 7,388 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
- Created a Fraud Hotline soon to be launched
- We had positive budget certification at first and second interim
- Much thanks and appreciation to our leadership team – Moises Aguirre, Ana Maria Alvarez, Dianna Carberry, Jennie Carbuccia, David Delacalzada, Joe Fulcher, Tom Glover, Karen Michel, Manny Rubio, Dan Winters, and our Board of Trustees! We push each other’s thinking; and, there is no other team as strong intellectually or has the emotional intelligence as this Sweetwater team, especially in collaboration with our administrators, teachers, counselors, and support staff.
- We are Sweetwater Strong!
- On a final and sad note, yesterday Elisabeth Cogdill, longtime educator/administrator in Sweetwater passed away peacefully. Ms. Cogdill was a teacher, counselor, assistant principal and principal in SUHSD over a 26-year period. She worked at NCJ, GJ, MoJ, SoH, CPH. Even after she retired she remained engaged as our Academic Decathlon Coordinator until just about 3 years ago.
- She will be remembered fondly by so many of us. Rest in Peace Liz Cogdill!
- Thank you for the opportunity to serve and support each of you!