by Oskar Schugg- Supervisor of Residential Programs

Inquiry minds are wondering what do the residential students do every night after dinner.

On Mondays and Tuesdays for an hour they mingle in the High School Activity Center with different activities such as table pool, shuffleboard, ping pong, foosball, and air hockey. They can just sit and chat, watch TV, and buy snacks from aerie. You need to come and see our brand new aerie!

On Wednesdays they vent out their energies at the gym by playing basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, or capture the flag. During beautiful evenings, they can go out and play games such as kickball, softball, 4-squares. Sometimes a surprise game could be given by our bright minds, cottage staff.

Partying is on Thursday by classes, organizations, or clubs. Once a month there is a night out event such as open captioned movie at the theater, Boomers, shopping at the mall, or whatever the students wish to address.

Sometimes we just go with any events that are out there such as… on Tuesday evening, February 28th, fifteen students along with three staff had an opportunity to watch San Jose Sharks playing Montreal Canadians at SAP Center. We stopped by In-n-Out for our burgers dinner on the way. Surprisingly, it was almost everyone's first time attending an NHL match. Most of us would be more than happy to come back for another game if an opportunity arises. Unfortunately, the Sharks may have scored first but they lost the game, 3-1.

Of course, the students need to make sure that their school work are completed before they can go and have all those fun!

by Elly Swartzmeyer, ILS Counselor



The Independent Living Skills Department (ILS) are working on an innovative approach when it comes to students making menu plans and grocery lists.

Currently, the students write manually on the ILS Menu and Shopping List form. This form does not include the visual aids and budget. Each apartment has received an allocated budget (based on number of students per apartment) to spend on groceries.

With an innovative approach, we like to see students make menu plans and list the groceries on the Safeway app on the ILS’ iPads.

What is cool about Safeway app? It does have visual aids! With visual aids, we see the delicious meal- it comes with a list of ingredients where we can list the groceries automatically. It also tracks the grocery prices on the app. We will be able to see the balance for each apartment’s allocated budget on the app. This approach is streamlined where we see visual aids, grocery prices, and budget.

This will give our students the confidence they get when they shop as we are preparing them before they spread their wings after their graduation.

International Studies 2023: Dinner at Sala Thai!

by Stacy Eilbert

Do you know what "pad" in Pad Thai means? Students in CSD International Studies 2023: Thailand & Cambodia went on a field trip on March 2nd to a Thai restaurant called SalaThai. Prior to the field trip, students learned some Thai vocabulary with words that would be found on a Thai menu. Pad actually is the Thai word for "stir-fry" so Pad Thai actually means Thai Stir-fry. Khao means rice. Gai means chicken and goong means shrimp. Everyone agreed that the lunch was "aroy"!!! (Thai for delicious). 

CSD Academic Bowl Team Wins the West Regional Championship

by Andrew Phillips

In February, the CSD Academic Bowl team traveled to the Gallaudet University West Regional Academic Bowl competition in Salem, Oregon. A total of 20 schools and programs competed answering questions related to math, social studies, language, literature, science, technology, current events, art, entertainment, popular culture, leisure, and sports. Our CSD Eagles defeated the New Mexico School for the Deaf 82-66 in the championship match and won the West for the fourth straight year. In April the team will travel to Washington, DC and compete in the Nationals. We wish them our best!

Key Dates:

March

• March 13^th - 24^th - CAA English and Math/ 3^rd subtest of CAA Science
• March 21^st - SBAC English
• March 22^nd - SBAC Math
• March 23^rd - CAST

April

• April 10-14: Spring Break
• April 24^th - 25^th - MAP Reading
• April 26^th - 27^th - MAP Math

May

• May 1^st - 2^nd - MAP Language
• May 3^rd - 4^th - MAP Science
• May 3^rd - AP LIterature Exam
• May 9^th - AP Lang & Comp Exam
• May 10^th - d'Estrella ASL Media Festival/ CTE Expo

CTE Expo is coming back this year after taking a break for a few years. It's an event where students in the Career Technical Education department can display their projects and achievements. The Expo will take place on May 10th from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM. If you're interested in seeing what students in CTE have been working on, you should definitely check it out!

CTE Instructors James O’Brien and Michelle Aguilar believe that CSD students learn best through project based learning. They arranged two field trips to Business Hubs and observed all business operations, proper trainings, Food Safety and Handling certification and other industrial-related experiences.

In November, the class met 5 different staff at Cheesecake Factory’s in Pleasanton including restaurant and kitchen managers, servers, backroom workers. We learned that one staff who happened to graduated from CSD in Berkeley. Each is gifted with our gratitude “CSD” keychain designed by CTE Instructor Jason Kulinchsky.

In December at Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steakhouse, our students grasped the concept on how to communicate with servers who brought in endless choices of meat. They practiced to either accept or wait for next meat. This whole experience is new ball game especially with table manners, wearing nice casual clothes, and meeting/greeting everyone inside kitchen. Everybody truly appreciated each minute of the staff’s commitment in making their restaurant atmosphere the most pleasant one.

Surprisingly, some students were recommended to apply and employ at those restaurants!