If this email is clipped—or photos are not displayed—click the "View entire message" link at the bottom of the email. School LIFE is the newsletter of the Milpitas Unified School District. If you have stories for our next issue, please send them to Scott Forstner.

The essentials to meaningful learning accelerate success

3 R's essential to meaningful learning that accelerates success are recognition, relationship, and resilience. 

School communities such as ours are ecosystems for recognizing historic leaders, celebrating significant cultural events, and assuring that our collective histories are retold and experienced by our learners. Our students and educators provide context about key leaders from Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to Fred Korematsu in MUSD Board resolutions for the community, and curriculum in the classroom. Our local, state, national and world leaders provide examples of how we are connected by common interests and oftentimes a desire to become better for the future of our children. 

Knowing one another through our cultural celebrations such as Dia de los Muertos, Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Mardi Gras provides us with experience that expands our ability to collaborate and communicate (two skills that are needed for career and life success) with others who are different from ourselves. Recognizing story as it relates to months such as Black History Month broadens our understanding of our own collective history.  MUSD educator Henry Robinson illustrated the tapestry of history through his years as a teacher citing local leaders such as Chief Jared Hernandez and MUSD Trustee Chris Norwood who shared his classroom and model what it means to be connected to one’s community through historic and personal story. Our histories provide us with rudders to the past that can steer us through the present and into the future. The MUSD Innovation Campus is being built on the foundation of Samuel Ayer High School — evolution is so much more when history is fully recognized by our learners.

A Mother Teresa quote shared recently at La Raza by San Jose Judge Katherine Lucero speaks to the importance of knowing our history in relationship with one another, “Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” In this issue of School Life, there are many stories of achievement, celebration, and connection. In particular, our MUSD leaders of African ancestry who share why our complete collective history is essential to our resilience as learners in this extraordinary community we call Milpitas. 

In community,

MUSD Alumni Profile Series, Special BHM Edition:

'54 Producers Donnie Eiland and David Mosqueda

Two Milpitas High School alumni and good friends Donnie Eiland and David Mosqueda joined forces to produce the now iconic documentary, ‘54: The Story Of Sunnyhills, the First Planned Integrated Community in the Nation.” (Click to watch the special producer’s cut)

To kick off Black History Month, these two talented producers shared a little bit about their upbringing and special moments that define who they are today. Let’s hear what they had to say:

Donnie Eiland, 61, a 1980 Milpitas HS graduate who attended Pomeroy Elementary and Russell Middle School, is now retired after working at Apple Inc. for 33 years, the last 20 as a Logistics Lead in Apple’s Maps Division and an IT Asset Analyst in Apple’s Marketing Division.

“MUSD schools helped instill in me the confidence to dream big and to always know that I matter,” Eiland shared. “Also, growing up in a culturally diverse neighborhood/city helped prepare me to be comfortable in any work setting that I found myself in.”

Click to read more about Eiland and Mosqueda

Amazing African Ancestry Women of MUSD

Name: Angela Holmes

Occupation: Transition Specialist for Milpitas Adult Education

Years with MUSD: 3 years

How/Why is Black History Month important to celebrate throughout our district? 

Celebrating Black History Month educates people about the struggles, triumphs, and resilience of the black community throughout history. It helps dispel stereotypes and promotes a more inclusive and accurate understanding of history.

Click to read more on

Angela Holmes

Name: Dr. Latisha Roberts

Occupation: Middle School Counselor at TRMS

Years with MUSD: 17 years

Who is a famous female leader of African Ancestry that inspires you and why? 

Sojourner Truth is a famous female leader of African Ancestry that inspires me. I admire her bravery and courage to be an outspoken advocate for abolition and civil rights in an era filled with many racial inequalities. 

Click to read more on

Dr. Latisha Roberts

Name: Cyd Mathias

Occupation: 2nd/3rd Grades

Years with MUSD: 25 years

What are some of your keys to success for younger black females?

Go the extra mile to make sure your work product is impactful; create a pleasant classroom; learn from your own mistakes and successes and learn from others. Keep refining and expanding your methods and skills.

Click to read more on

Cyd Mathias

Name: Deanna Elzey

Occupation: Principal at Weller Elementary School

Years with MUSD: 17 years

Who is a famous female leader of African Ancestry that inspires you and why? 

Currently, I am very inspired by Stacey Abrams. I am inspired by her drive to make the world a more equitable place, especially for the Black community, combating voter suppression. She puts her words into action and understands the importance of making your voice count through voting and beyond.

Click to read more on

Deanna Elzey

Name: Tana Rainer 

Occupation: Principal Secretary at Spangler

Years with MUSD: 5 years

What are some of your keys to success for younger black females?

Know your value, Prioritize education as a foundation for success. Surround yourself with people that you can evolve with. Foster a supportive community where you can find a mentor, peers, and resources to navigate challenges and celebrate successes. The company you keep can make or break you.

Click to read more on

Tana Rainer

Name: Gina Sainten

Occupation: Elementary Assistant Principal at Sinnott

Years with MUSD:12 years

How/Why is Black History Month important to celebrate throughout our district? Black History month is important to celebrate throughout the district to bring awareness of all the greatness that our African American community has accomplished and is still doing. It is a month that gives special time to highlight and dig deeper in learning more about all that has been accomplished.

Click to read more on

Gina Sainten

Name: Shanae Morley

Occupation: Secretary at Milpitas Adult Education

Years with MUSD: <1 year

Why is Black History Month important to celebrate throughout our district?

Black History Month is important to recognize and celebrate because it provides a platform to educate everyone on African Americans' history, cultures, and achievements. African American history is crucial to the foundations of America, allowing us to see the bigger picture of how this wonderful country came to be.

Click to read more on Shanae Morley

Name: Dr. Hanna Asrat

Occupation: Principal at Burnett

Years with MUSD: 7 years

What are some of your keys to success for younger black women? You don't owe anyone anything. You have value and worth just as you are and your ideas and thoughts are worth sharing. Your impostor syndrome is lying to you. You don't have to be exceptional to be awesome. Find your people and lean on them hard!

Click to read more on

Dr. Hanna Asrat

Name: Jillian Valdez

Occupation: Program Manager - Special Education

Years with MUSD: 2 years

Who is a famous female leader of African Ancestry that inspires you and why? Dr. Bettina L. Love is an incredibly inspiring figure for me as a Black educator. Her unwavering commitment to transforming education through a lens of cultural responsiveness and abolitionist teaching resonates deeply with my own experiences and aspirations.

Click to read more about Jillian Valdez

Enjoy the food & fun times with MHS Culinary HEROes

By ASHA BALU

Club Treasurer

Culinary HEROes sprang to life around 2018 when a bunch of MHS alumni decided to bond over their mutual love for cooking. It all started casually, with just a group of friends coming together to share recipes and tips, but it quickly snowballed into something much bigger—a community fueled by our collective passion for the culinary arts.

Our latest adventure was a Thanksgiving workshop that was nothing short of fun and delicious food! Starting off with the appetizer, we made garlic bread with tons of garlic! For our entrees, we had two types of pasta, making sure to accommodate each other's dietary preferences! For dessert, we made some delicious apple crisp along with some store-bought ice cream–shhh don’t tell anyone!

This Thanksgiving workshop was much more than just a cooking session; it was a get-together of friends and students who normally would not have met to share a wonderful meal that we all collaborated on.

As our club continues to grow, we plan on extending our reach not only into cooking but into our community, too! We recently participated in Pomeroy’s Trunk-or-Treat, where we passed out candy to the elementary students with a little cooking skit! In the future, we plan on hosting bake sales, cooking competitions, and hopefully some food drives to give back to the wonderful community around us!

It is not only our club that continues to grow, so do our dreams. We are not content with just sticking around in the kitchen; we wish to connect with fellow students who share our passion for food, explore new cuisines and cultures, and leave a lasting impression on new members! If you wish to join, don’t be shy! If you are not sure whether to fully commit to Culinary HEROes, stop by one of our meetings and/or workshops, we promise to not leave you hungry–or disappointed.

MUSD Awarded $1.5M Funding for Innovation Campus

Milpitas Unified School District secured a $1.5 million grant from the California Department of Public School Construction to help offset construction costs of the MUSD Innovation Campus, as announced by Chief Business Officer Wendy Zhang at the January 9, 2024 Board of Education meeting.

Zhang connected with state representatives prior to the Winter Break and received confirmation of the grant funds on the same day that MUSD’s Innovation team outlined course programming and scheduling for the 2024-25 school year.

“It turned out that they had a grant available and were waiting to give it out, so I immediately scheduled a meeting with them,” said Zhang. “During that meeting, they committed $1.5 million to help offset the construction costs of our Innovation Campus. We will receive the $1.5 million in the next couple of weeks.”

This additional funding comes on the heels of Assemblymember Alex Lee’s District 24 Office allocating $1.5 million to the Innovation Campus, which includes funding from the voter-approved Measure AA general obligations bond as well as a $750,000 investment from global technology leader KLA that has branded the KLA STEAM Lab on the E. Calaveras Campus.

Click to read more about Innovation Campus

Meet our 2024 MUSD Board

of Education Governance Team

Each year, January is recognized as School Board Recognition Month, where we salute our Milpitas Unified School District Board of Education Trustees who aid in supporting student success by establishing our mission, vision, policy priorities, budget and benchmarks.

This year we are highlighting each of our trustees in a special Q&A series.

Name: Minh Ngo

Current School Board Title: Board President

Years on School Board: 4 and counting

Professional Occupation: Director of Agency Standards of the San Francisco Office in the nation’s largest mutual life insurance company. 

"When it came to my children’s educational journey, I wanted to invest my time in building a learning community that provides successful pathways for their generation."

Read more about

Board President Ngo

Name: Kelly Yip-Chuan

Current School Board Title: Board Vice President

Years on School Board: 5+

Professional Occupation: Real Estate/Mortgage Broker & Notary Public

"Having served in various PTAs, School Site Council, CBAC and being a substitute teacher for many years motivated me to do more. Being an involved parent gave me some insights into what's going on at the school. Being a teacher in the classroom gave me a different perspective. ..."

Read more about

Board VP Yip-Chuan

Name: Dr. Anu Nakka

Current School Board Title: Board Clerk

Years on School Board: 1

Professional Occupation: Entrepreneur

"Working with various PTA/PTSAs helped me to understand parents, students and teachers issues, potential solutions and opportunities at Micro level....Being part of the MUSD Board of Education provides me that opportunity to facilitate and help all schools and students."

Read more about

Board Clerk Dr. Nakka

Name: Chris Norwood

Current School Board Title: Milpitas Unified School District Governing Board Trustee

Years on School Board: 10

Professional Occupation: Educational Services

"I have always been motivated to serve my community. Nelson Mandela said, 'Education is the Most Powerful Weapon in the World.' Milpitas raised me to have a unique, faith-based, multicultural and inclusive lens."

Read more about Senior Board Trustee Norwood

Name: Robert Jung

Current School Board Title: Trustee

Years on School Board: 3

Professional Occupation: Retired, previously engineer, manager, private investor, social entrepreneur

"My successes to date are due to the educational opportunities that I received. It is clear to me that education is the “ true equalizer” and I want to give back to the community by helping to create those opportunities for our future generation."

Read more about

Trustee Jung

Students learn about architecture and landscape design

Thirty-five of our Milpitas Unified School District students from 7th-12th grades visited our MUSD Innovation Campus as part of our continued Student Learning Opportunities Series, where students gain a hands-on experience in the trades and discover potential career pathways.

This time, industry professionals from architectural and landscape architectural firms, QKA and ANLA, showed students the process involved in designing a building and the steps necessary to take a concept, mold it into a design, and produce construction documents for contractors to build.

Students participated in engaging discussions about architectural and landscape design and they were excited to hear about the learning opportunities at our Innovation Campus.

Speech and Debate shines in multiple competitions

Milpitas High School’s Speech and Debate Competition Season is in full swing, with middle school and high school students competing against some of the top school individuals and teams throughout the western United States.

Under the guidance of advisor Charles Schletzbaum, individual debaters have been racking up the hardware at an array of competitions this season.

In December 2023, Thomas Russell MS 8th graders Swara Mishra and Ege Tuncer finished as Octofinalists (among 16 best competitors after preliminary rounds), while Milpitas HS freshman Kavish Shah took second in Novice Impromptu Speaking 2nd place in finals, 9th grader Sanjana Krishnan was a semifinalist, while freshmen Ranvir Sakhalkar and Vikram Partha were finalist runner-up in Novice Public Forum.

At Arizona State in January MHS 9th grader Vikram Partha reached the Quarterfinals (1st speaker) in Novice Lincoln Douglas debate and fellow freshman Sanjana Krishnan was 3rd speaker.

Click to read more about Speech and Debate

Milpitas HS raises $11k for Maui's Lahainaluna HS

Milpitas High School's Maui Fundraiser, a benefit concert featuring performances by MHS' Manava and O'ahu's very own Crossing Rain, announced that more than $11,000 was raised through donations. In total, $11,278.29 was raised. It was then mailed January 10, 2024 to Lahainaluna High School, Maui, Hawaii.

"The High School there will be using the funds to support the well-being of students and staff  as they continue to persevere through the challenges after the fires," said MHS Principal Greg Wohlman. "Our goal was to raise money and send it directly to a school. Our goal was accomplished because of our generous students, staff, parents, and community members."

After receiving the funds, Lahainaluna HS Principal Richard Carosso sent a thank you letter to MHS thanking them for their efforts.

"We are so very fortunate and grateful to have such supportive organizations and caring members who are a part of the community," Carosso wrote. "Your generosity and thoughtfulness is truly appreciated."

Buy A Brick - Leave A Legacy at MUSD Innovation Campus

Become a permanent part of Milpitas Unified School District history by purchasing a personalized, engraved paver brick for the MUSD Innovation Campus. Individuals, as well as groups and organizations, may purchase a brick that will be engraved with a personalized message. These commemorative bricks will be installed on campus and be a permanent part of the Innovation Campus. All proceeds go directly to the development of the MUSD Innovation Campus! Click to order.