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Community Matters Quarterly
May 2018
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World Class. Community Funded.
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The Community Newsletter
of
your
Menlo Park City School District
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It's
Survey Time! We value your opinion. We are a community-funded district, which makes our relationship with you a true partnership. At MPCSD we continually strive to do better, and your input helps us prioritize where we can improve. We invite you to take our ten minute
community survey here before June 1. We ask the community's thoughts on everything from how we can better engage with you, to your perceptions of our schools. Please take a little time to share your thoughts - and tell a friend, too!
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I've enjoyed meeting so many of you at our Farmers Market table. We've met everyone from recent alums home from college, young families with children just starting kindergarten, to school board members from generations past who have watched the district change and grow. Thanks for stopping by and letting us know
your story. And catch up on topics of interest like violence in video games, the student-led protests in March, the importance of summer camp, and more in my
Sup'sOn blog. One of the best parts of being superintendent is connecting with you and meeting the amazing neighbors in our district!
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Dates to Note
Ongoing - Student Art Show @ Burgess Library
May 2, 6:30p.m. -
Speaker Series featuring Erik Burmeister @ Hillview PAC
May 8, 6:00p.m. Regular School Board meeting @ TERC, 181 Encinal Ave
May 22, 6:00p.m. - School Board Candidate Info Night @ TERC, 181 Encinal Ave
May 24, 6:30-8:30p.m. - Hillview Open House
May 31, 5:30-7:30p.m. - Laurel Upper Campus Open House
May 31, 6:30-7:30p.m. - Oak Knoll Portfolio Night (Open House)
June 1, 8:00-9:00a.m. - Laurel Lower Campus Open House
June 5, 6:00p.m. Regular School Board meeting @ TERC, 181 Encinal Ave
June 7, 6:00-8:00p.m. - Encinal Open House
June 7, 6:30-7:30p.m. - Oak Knoll Portfolio Night (Open House)
June 10, 9:00a.m.-1:00p.m. - MPCSD at Farmers Market
June 12, 6:00p.m. Regular School Board meeting @ TERC, 181 Encinal Ave
June 15 - Last Day of School; Hillview promotion ceremony & party 5:00-10:00p.m.
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School Board Candidate Info Session
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On Tuesday,
May 22
at 6:00p.m. in the District Office TERC building at 181 Encinal Avenue in Atherton, representatives from the MPCSD Board of Education will conduct a Candidate Information Night for individuals who may be interested in running for the Menlo Park City School District Board of Education. The election is scheduled for November 6, 2018 and there will be three Board seats open.
Board Members David Ackerman and Joan Lambert will present the roles and responsibilities of School Board Members, discuss District initiatives and challenges, provide details on filing as candidates with San Mateo County, and respond to questions from citizens who are considering their candidacy.
The filing period to become a candidate for the Board of Education is July through August 2018 (exact dates not yet available), and may be achieved by submitting candidate filing documents to County of San Mateo, Registration and Elections Division, 40 Tower Road, San Mateo, CA 94402. For candidate information please visit
www.smcacre.org/elections
.
The San Mateo County Registration & Elections Office will be holding two Candidate Seminars in July, and the League of Women Voters of South San Mateo County will hold a Candidate Forum in August. Dates are not yet available. For more information, please contact the Menlo Park City School District Office at (650) 321-7140 or email
district@mpcsd.org
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Early Learning Center Preschool
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Our new Early Learning Center preschool will be ready to launch in late August on the campus of Lower Laurel at 95 Edge Road in Atherton. We are in the exciting process of hiring gifted staff who will welcome and inspire your children. We have openings in our afternoon and full-day classes for children born between September 1, 2013 and December 1, 2015. The mission of the ELC is to
nurture young children’s curiosity, sense of wonder, belonging, and deep engagement with the world around them, preparing them to develop the critical skills needed to enter kindergarten and reach their full potential.
For more information, please
email ELC Director Jessica Mihaly
or call (650) 321-7140 ext. 8900
or you can register
online
now!
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Undoubtedly, the most important factor in making MPCSD the excellent district that it is, is our phenomenal staff. Our talented and highly respected teachers, principals, psychologists and counselors, and specialists not only use their expertise to make our classrooms, campuses, and social emotional services the best in the business, but they extend their knowledge to their peers by frequently sharing at conferences and by seeking special certifications in their fields. We are proud of the work our staff does here at home, and grateful for their opportunities to improve education far beyond our district by being resources and leaders for other educators. We proudly share some recent examples of exemplary leadership here. Click on the photos below to read more about each contribution.
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Encinal school psychologist
Jana Parker was invited as a panelist at the National Association of School Psychologists annual meeting in Chicago.
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Oak Knoll Principal
Kristen Gracia joined a panel at SXSW Edu, sharing Oak Knoll's commitment to social emotional learning and why it is such a crucial part of educating children.
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Encinal's
Sharon Burns was one of five principals in the county invited to share at San Mateo County Office of Education's Zap the Gap conference about major achievement in making success possible for all learners.
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Hillview French and Yearbook teacher,
Amy Ridlehuber Kingsley
, just completed the 10-month
MERIT program
, Making Education Relevant and Interactive through Technology, at the Krause Center for Innovation.
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The Oak Knoll team of
Gwen Solomon
,
Nicole Scott
,
Caryl Brewbaker
,
Mary Kelly
received a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Environmental Education Leadership from Menlo Park Mayor Peter Ohtaki for their environmental leadership and achievement.
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Principal
Willy Haug and the staff at Hillview Middle School have created a culture that values and listens to student voice, as demonstrated in the March 14 student-led protest event. Read Superintendent Burmeister's reaction in "
Voice Lessons," his March Sup'sOn blog.
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Encinal Elementary’s reading specialist,
Susan Blanco, has completed her
certification to become a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader and will train a new group of Reading Recovery
teachers in the Menlo Park City School District.
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Laurel School Principal
Linda Creighton and Assistant Principal
Ellen Kraska hosted the mayors of Menlo Park and Galway, Ireland, for a friendship and tree-planting ceremony.
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Join the Fun & Celebrate our Schools
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Are you Ready to Rock?
Schoolhouse Rocks
5k RUN & Festival
Sunday, May 20 @ 9am
Hillview Middle School
Join 1,500 parents, kids, teachers, students, neighbors, runners, and non-runners for the Schoolhouse Rocks 5k Run or 1 mile Fun Run. To see details of the race course, please click the map below.
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Register Today!
After the race, rock out at the Festival featuring bouncy houses, games, music and more! Enjoy delicious food from:
We need YOU to help make this event rock! Run and Festival volunteers receive free entry to the post-run festival! Become a Rockin' volunteer or course monitor!
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Talk of the Town: MPCSD's Take
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MPCSD is affected by many factors. You may have heard or read about some issues in the recent news and various local government council and committee meetings. Here's our take on current topics.
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Facebook's Willow Village
While the proposed housing development called Willow Village doesn't directly affect MPCSD, we share the concern of our partners at Menlo Atherton High School about how this new housing will impact MA's enrollment. Ideally, a strategy could be worked out allowing Facebook to help mitigate the effects of the potentially major enrollment increase the Willow Village's 1500 housing units could create. We all have a stake in maintaining our community's history of strong schools, including Menlo Atherton, where most of our students spend their high school years.
We join the Sequoia Union High School District in encouraging Menlo Park residents to share their thoughts about Willow Village and Menlo Atherton with the City of Menlo Park leadership.
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Ravenswood Rail Crossing
The Caltrain crossing near downtown Menlo Park at Ravenswood Avenue has long been a project under discussion by the City of Menlo Park. Recently, the City has restarted the process of finding a solution for that crossing. More information can be found at the
City of Menlo Park's website.
A group of concerned parents within MPCSD has formed
Parents for Safe Routes to advocate for safer walking and biking routes between home and our five school campuses. Parents for Safe Routes encourages community members to remain informed about the potential new crossings under consideration.
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Attracting, Developing & Retaining the Best Educators
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It's no secret that we live in one of the most expensive communities in the country, and that making a living as a teacher is tough. As everyone says, "teachers don't go into the profession for the money." Yet teachers are highly educated professionals charged with arguably the most important and impactful job that exists - preparing the next generation of leaders for our companies, organizations, and government. Students today need to emerge into the world as flexible thinkers and collaborative partners, with the knowledge and skills to ask the right questions and find the relevant information for solving problems and performing jobs that don't even exist yet. In the information and technology rich world of the 21st century, we are asking teachers to do so much more than drill facts; they must impart soft skills that require nuance and creative thinking. Teachers today must stay current on the rapidly changing landscape of not only the professions their students will someday fulfill, but the best ways to teach the skills that really matter. Yet the conversation around teacher pay has not evolved in decades.
A school district such as ours, in the hub of the most dynamic and leading edge thinking in the world, must be willing and able to change its approach when solving tough problems, like attracting and retaining the best teachers to keep us delivering the world class education our community expects. To this end, the Board has instructed Superintendent Burmeister to begin drafting a
Compensation Philosophy document that will guide the district's hiring and paying its professional employees in the future. This document, presented to the Board and the public on April 3, is the beginning of a months long conversation with the intent of having a robust, actionable compensation philosophy in place by the fall.
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Science, Science, Science!
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MPCSD's kindergarten through fifth grade students had fabulous science opportunities all around the district on April 26-27. Each elementary campus hosted a wonderful science event, from hands-on experiments to a judged fair of student projects. Coincidentally, two of our Hillview students were also recognized with success at the California State Science and Engineering Fair. The time and support young students have to practice scientific thinking and building lead to success in many ways.
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Encinal hosted its Annual Science Fair on April 27 featuring robotics, electricity, Lawrence Hall of Science, students from MA AP Biology conducting an oobleck table, and more. Dozens of student experiments were on display with projects from carnivorous plants, to animal kingdoms to maglev to how paper color affects reading speed. Parents, teachers, and high school student volunteers did a wonderful job coordinating and running this event for the whole family.
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Laurel School students participated in everything from laser mazes, hoverboards, and pulleys (even Principal Creighton took a turn on the pulley) to lemonade and ice cream science at the annual STEAM Fair. Over 235 volunteers led 60 interactive workshops in the all-day event that took place on both Laurel campuses Friday, April 27. Laurel thanks the PTO for its leadership and all the parents who come out year after year to make this memorable event happen.
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Our Students and Schools Making a Difference
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When our schools and students have a chance to give back to the community or be recognized for their accomplishments, we are glad to share it with you. Here are some recent examples from across the district. We hope you share in our pride of our amazing neighborhood schools!
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Encinal Elementary School
is among the honorees of this year's California Distinguished Schools Award from the California Department of Education. Encinal is recognized for its site specific, comprehensive, multi-tiered model program that meets ALL students’ diverse academic and social emotional needs. Encinal's program, informed by data, ensures all students are supported in a strategic manner through the innovative design of its master schedule, multi-tiered systems of academic support, deployment of social emotional researched based Tier 1 and 2 programs, and meaningful parent engagement opportunities. The Encinal team will be honored at the California School Recognition Program Awards Ceremony on May 3. Additionally, Encinal is one of only 12 schools in the state to receive an Exemplary Program Award for Visual and Performing Arts.
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MPCSD offers a robust music program to all students, with music offered in grades K-3 as a weekly specialist class, the opportunity to learn a band or orchestra instrument in grades 4-5, and many choices for deeper music exploration at Hillview, including chorus, orchestra, band, and jazz.
Laurel Elementary School's Chorus, made up of 4th and 5th grade students and led by Music Teacher Rachel Bergeron, will sing the National Anthem before the San Jose Earthquakes match on Saturday, May 19, 7:15p.m. at Avaya Stadium. We are thrilled to have our young singers selected for this honor. Come out and enjoy a soccer game and support music in our district. Purchase tickets here:
https://tinyurl.com/LaurelSchool18
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Oak Knoll Elementary School
has been awarded a 2018 Kent Award for its Embracing Our Differences Month. The J. Russell Kent Awards, sponsored by the San Mateo County School Boards Association, are "
designed to spotlight outstanding programs in San Mateo County public schools
." Oak Knoll's goal with Embracing Our Differences Month is to build awareness around students who are differently abled and to expand the spirit of inclusiveness at the school, emphasizing a message of "difference not deficit." This year's program included a puppet show about Tourette Syndrome (pictured), a performance by the Urban Jazz Dance Company (a dance company that happens to be deaf), classroom discussions and more. It explored ways in which we are all more alike than different and challenged students to look at how our society can be more accessible to those with special needs. The Oak Knoll team will be recognized at the 2018 Kent Awards Ceremony on May 18.
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Every year
Hillview Middle School
Art Teacher Anna Kogan works with
The Memory Project
to participate in a portrait drawing program with her advanced art students. The project pairs Hillview students with children, who are often orphans, from around the world. This year, Ms. Kogan's students received photographs of children in Syria and then spent about two weeks drawing the children. The organization flies the portraits over to Syria to hand deliver them to the children. The children are thrilled to receive such a personalized gift that they will most likely cherish for a very long time.
Student Nathalie Auslander said, "I love how I got to make someone from across the world happy and connect with them." Simone McCreary added, "This project was amazing because our art made an impact. Everyone tried their hardest to make their drawing look nice because they wanted the child to like their portrait. Even though the project was challenging, all our work paid off when we saw the joy of the children receiving their portraits." Hillview students are practicing empathy and making a difference thousands of miles away!
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PE in 2018 - Better Than Ever
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We like to keep the community informed about how our school district prepares children in many learning areas that make up the rich and broad curriculum that we are fortunate to provide with your support. We
introduced you to art in our last issue. Today we bring you what's going on with PE. We hope these articles make you wish you were a kid in school again!
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For many parents, memories of school PE include rope climbing nightmares, waiting interminably for a turn at kickball, and fears of being picked last for steal the bacon. Fortunately for the children of MPCSD, today’s physical education classes and teachers are specially trained, based on brain and movement science, and designed to teach all students - at their own pace and mastery - skills that lead to a lifetime of healthy exercise. Every MPCSD school has full time physical education-credentialed teachers who create programs that offer choice, age-appropriate skills-based lessons, and a fun, supportive, and inclusive environment. The focus of PE is building physical literacy, confidence, self esteem, love of movement, and a life-long habit of exercise. Every student has access to the PE equipment and works at their own pace. Skills that build hand-eye coordination, balance, and crossing the midline also build brain development. PE has become more skills based over the years and now focuses on teaching motor skills that can be used in a variety of settings, providing children a solid foundation in various types of movement and skills and the confidence to participate in sports. In addition to these district-wide goals for the physical education curriculum, each school adds its own unique flair that makes PE exciting for our students.
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Reimagining the Classroom
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MPCSD has three foundational - and very simple - beliefs at its core: every child achieves academic excellence; every child becomes emotionally and physically stronger; every child discovers and grows their talents. The district believes that until all students are achieving and meaningfully engaged in their learning, we have not accomplished this purpose. MPCSD, with its gifted staff, supportive community, and creative culture, is well situated to redesign the learning experience to include new models that enable more students to become meaningfully engaged and achieving at their potential.
MPCSD is fortunate to have a climate of thought leadership and possibility that enables it to become a model of how a public school district can re-think school. In this vein, MPCSD is creating the i3 (imagine+inspire+innovate) program to support teachers who opt in to reimagine their classrooms around five fundamental elements: learning personalization; competency-based learning and evidence-based grading; meaningful work; student wellness and agency; and collaboration for learning.
Beginning in Fall 2018, some classrooms at each school will be part of i3. These classrooms will incorporate innovative use of teaching and learning time, 1:1 student: teacher mentoring, project-based learning, redesigned homework, powerful professional development, and collaboration with support staff and specialists. An interactive learning management system will be used to plan instruction, collect evidence of students' learning, monitor progress, and share progress with parents, all guided by student ownership of their learning. Throughout the year, feedback will be sought from teachers, students, and parents to ensure that i3 is delivering on its goal of pioneering new ways for students to achieve and engage with school. I3 is just one example of the many ways MPCSD seeks to live out its vision of success and growth for
every child
. Stay tuned for more information and updates about what we are learning and experiencing.
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Community Outreach - Engage with Us
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We invite you to connect with MPCSD in person at School Board input sessions, our
Speaker Series, Farmers Market, student art show at the Menlo Park Burgess Library, and via our
Facebook and
Twitter pages: @goMPCSD.
MPCSD is also part of the larger community of the San Mateo County Office of Education, as is our high school district that includes Menlo Atherton High School. For a regional perspective, read news from
SMCOE here.
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Hillview Hawks, Laurel Squirrels, Encinal Eagels, Oak Knoll Otters. These mascots represent MPCSD's four award-winning schools that are the hearts of their neighborhoods and the pride of our community. We invite you to find out as much as you can about our amazing campuses. As partners in educating the future of our society, we welcome your interest, questions, and feedback at any time. Use the links below to access each school's website, or email
hello@mpcsd.org
.
School websites:
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Erik Burmeister,
Superintendent
Jammie Behrendt,
Assistant Superintendent
Board of Trustees
Terry Thygesen
,
President
David Ackerman
,
Vice President
Stacey Jones
Joan Lambert
Caroline Lucas
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