- Welcome everyone! Thank you for joining us tonight.
- There are literally thousands of activities that happen throughout the year at all of our school sites. In addition to these site events, we also host district-wide events that expand the site experience. Some are co-curricular, those activities that support the academics or curriculum; others are extra-curricular, those activities that extend beyond the core curriculum, but are activities that help connect our students to their overall educational experience. All activities involve a staff member’s time, expertise, passion, and their dedication to support student’s personal and academic success. Let me share a few of our recent student/staff achievements:
- Our Sweetwater STEM Research Science Fair (formerly known as our Science Fair) was hosted at Otay Ranch HS last week. There were 210 students who participated (165 middle school/55 high school); 167 projects were submitted, 124 Junior Division/43 Senior Division. This couldn’t happen without our middle and high school teachers at BVM, CPM, CVM, ELM, MoM, NCM, RDR, SoM, BVH, ELH, OLH, SUHI.
- Sweepstakes Winners Junior Division: Life Sciences: Samantha Noriega, CVM – Teacher Tina Tom. Physical Sciences: Eric Guizar, CVM –Teacher Gina Saclauso-Caro.
- Sweepstakes Winners Senior Division: Life Sciences: Mary Jasmine Lara, OLH – Teacher Michael Tony Claudio. Physcial Sciences: Issac Broudy, BVH – Teacher Michelle Mardahl-Dumesnil
- The top three places in all categories move on to the 2019 Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair for sure; all other projects are encouraged to enter as well. Thanks to all students and staff on a job well done!
- The 2nd Annual Sweetwater Underwater (Seaperch) Robotics competition is scheduled for March 16 at the MVH Pool.
- The 3rd Annual UAS-Drone Challenge is coming in May, location TBD.
- Remember, VEX Robotics State Championships March 2 and 9 at MoH!
- South Bay STEM in your Backyard is again hosted by CPH, with Teacher Robert Manroe, on March 8 during the school day.
- Congratulations to Kelly Leon – BVH for being selected as the CA Council for Social Studies Outstanding Teacher of the Year!
- Congratulations to Mariana Hughes – ELH for being selected by the CA Association of Teachers of English Award for Classroom Excellence!
- We’re heading into CIF playoffs for Winter Sports – Best of Luck to the following schools: Boys BB – MoH, OLH, ORH, BVH, SYH, SUHI, HH, MVH Girls BB –BVH, OLH, ELH, ORH, MoH, CVH, HH, CPH, SYH Girls Soccer – ELH, BVH, OLH, CVH, MOH, HH Boys Soccer – ELH, SOH, SYH, BVH, ORH, CVH, HH Girls Water Polo – MVH, ELH
- Girls Wrestling CIF Finals – Congratulations to the following winners in their weight class who now advance to State Finals: 1st Place (106) Yesenia Marin DeGuire OLH, 2nd Place (111) Ana Mercado ELH, 2nd Place (160) Brooke Klomp ELH, 2nd Place (131) Nahdia Barrientos HH, 2nd Place (170) Jasmin Ballesteros MoH, 3rd Place (137) Leilani Pompa MoH, 2nd Place (189) Aylin Salas ORH, 3rd Place (121) Anya Rodriquez MVH, 3rd Place (111) Sandy Luevano SYH, 3rd Place (116) Alexa Rosales SYH, 3rd Place (126) Desirae Ferguson SYH.
- Each school typically hosts several VAPA performances each year. In addition to site performances, we host district-wide events like the District play, band pageant, Holiday Sing, and this past weekend CVH hosted the District Honor Concert Band and Honor Symphonic Band. One hundred fifteen musicians (115) from across the district come together under the direction of two university guest conductors. This year the Concert Honor Band practiced with SDSU Professor and Director of Bands Dr. Shannon Kitelinger, while the Symphonic Honor Band practiced with UCLA Professor and Wind Ensemble Conductor Travis J. Cross. These students spent approximately 12 hours learning and perfecting four complex pieces of music. Truly, we have some incredibly talented young musicians as well as talented and dedicated music directors who help make this happen: Amy Cruz – BVM, Tamara Frazier – CPM, James Llamas – CVM, John Academia – ELM, Brett McCarty – GJ, Christian Tordahl – HM, Danielle Bruce – RDR, Keith Ballard – SoM, Mark McCann – BVH, Richard Kellis – CPH, Patrick Doerr – CVH, Randy McCray – ELH, Michael Gray – HH, Maren Glover – MVH, Gabriela Urdaz – MoM/MoH, Eric Mabrey – OLH, Shafer Burnett – ORH, Tony Sacco – SYH, Alisa Van Ginkel – SUHI.
- Our Sweetwater STEM Research Science Fair (formerly known as our Science Fair) was hosted at Otay Ranch HS last week. There were 210 students who participated (165 middle school/55 high school); 167 projects were submitted, 124 Junior Division/43 Senior Division. This couldn’t happen without our middle and high school teachers at BVM, CPM, CVM, ELM, MoM, NCM, RDR, SoM, BVH, ELH, OLH, SUHI.
- Here’s a quick Budget Update: our Board of Trustees met for their second workshop on February 4th to continue to clarify their priorities and provide direction as we develop the 2019-20 district budget. The finance team continues to focus on position control in collaboration with HR, payroll, district departments, and school sites. The district leadership team and two board members met with all labor partners to answer questions related to the current year budget as well as the upcoming 2019-20 budget. The entire Sweetwater staff are committed to collaborating and working together to find equitable budget solutions.
- Tonight, I want to briefly mention the topic of resilience. Over 100 years ago, the great African American educator Booker T. Washington spoke about resilience, “ I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed.” Resilience is not a genetic trait, it is derived from the ways that students learn to think and act when faced with obstacles large and small. The road to resilience comes first and foremost from supportive relationships with parents, teachers, and other caring adults. These relationships become sources of strength when our students work through stressful situations and painful emotions. When we assist adolescents and young adults to develop an approach to life that views obstacles as a critical part of success, we help them cultivate resilience.
- It is equally important to cultivate resilience in educators, those who care for our students. Elena Aguilar, author of “The Art of Coaching”, a book about coaching teachers, just published a book called, “Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators.” Aguilar says, “resilience is how we weather the storms in our lives and rebound after something difficult.” She also says, the most important thing to know is that we can increase our resilience, “it’s a set of adaptive behaviors.”
- Why is focusing on resilience so important? Schools/districts are stressful places. Teaching is emotional work and therefore, is characteristically stressful. Partly this is the nature of being in a helping profession and serving young people as part of very complex organizations. In this book Aguilar says “healthy stress can be okay; it can challenge us and help us develop.” She warns educators, though, about potential toxic stress that can occur when demands consistently outpace our ability to cope. In the same way we want our teachers/educators to focus on developing resilience in our students, we must also make sure we are focusing on increasing staff resilience, too. In Sweetwater, we want our staff and community to know that we understand the importance of social and emotional learning needs of both our students and adults. The first step our Board took to make this a reality is when they approved us moving forward as a Restorative District where students and staff thrive, not just survive. More info to come on this topic of resilience!
- Tonight I want to close with a video our Communications created for CPH! Click here to see it.