More than 7,700 students, families and community members participated at the 31st Annual Dinosaur Dash in support of the Tustin Public Schools Foundation. The success of this event was made possible through the dedicated work of more than 500 volunteers. And their efforts over the last few months paid off as this year's Dash exceeded goals for sponsorships, registrations and overall income! In addition, this year more than 700 students were able to participate in the Dash due to the generosity of sponsorships/runnerships. With more than 10,000 in attendance, it was a record breaking morning in support of TPSF and all of our schools!

Elementary music liaison Vici Cope, and teachers Amy Augustine, Wei Fang, Jamie Garrett, Davina Leung, Richard Lueras, Susan Martin, Sarah Sebourn, and Tim Thomas were happy to be the recipients of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County's Strike Up the Band Grant. TUSD elementary music was one of only five music programs out of over 80 applicants to be awarded a $10,000 grant to purchase percussion instruments and ukuleles for third through fifth grade music. This week, Sarah Little from the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Jason Squire from the Music and Arts Center joined staff at Nelson Elementary to present some of the instruments to students. We look forward to students enjoying these new instruments through our elementary music program soon!

As we celebrate our fifty-year legacy of excellence with the golden anniversary of TUSD, we are excited to share photos from our past. In this week's video, we shared the garden at Heritage Elementary, made possible by the efforts of the third grade classes. Gardens like this have long been a part of our history, as students at Utt Middle School are seen tending to plants in 1971.

We look forward to sharing additional photos from our rich history in the coming weeks. If you have a photo to share, please email our Communications Team.