Dear MTUESD Community,
We made it! Summer is here and I am super proud of your kids this year. A heartfelt thank you to the staff who worked so hard to create tremendous growth in achievement!
Last week was packed with events. I’ll start with the Senior Walk Down Memory Lane, which will be a new tradition at Mark Twain. The idea was borne with Bret Harte Senior Mia Miro. Seniors came back and walked a pathway of the years while all our little ones cheered them on. Thanks to Carrie Penafiel and Natasha Arbulich for their work on making this happen. Natasha's artwork was out of the park!
The sixth grade at Copper had a magnificent waterslides trip to the Great Wolf. Our thanks to the PTC for their partnership on that. That’s a unique experience for Copper students as they leave their school behind and embrace joining our Mark Twain sixth graders as newly minted middle schoolers. It’s an experience worth celebrating for sure.
We also saw our eighth graders graduate as Badgers and begin their career as Bret Harte Bullfrogs in a touching ceremony at the fairgrounds on Tuesday night. Our thanks to all the parents that worked tirelessly to create an evening for them to remember and to Jeff Airola for his leadership in that process.
Jennifer Landry was at the Brett Hart graduation passing out Sierra K-16 tutor stoles to our peer tutors who are moving on to their next chapter in life. All around great stuff.
Summer school starts this Monday, June 9. Drop off is no earlier than 7:45 a.m. please. We have trips planned to the pool, but we cannot take anyone that does not have an assigned permission slip so please make sure you have those on file. Other fun events include Wild Things Conservancy which is an educational, interactive animal display, and other events throughout the weeks. This is also our chance to use that state money and pour in an amazing amount of help in reading and math to your kids. Class sizes will be tiny and it’s almost like your student having a semi private tutor for the month. Mrs. Bottomley is teaching p.e. to all students and Ms. Barnett is leading art activities. If you are not signed up, please do so. They can come for the morning sessions or morning and afternoon.
Our test scores are looking so much improved. We don’t get official results until well into the Fall, but we made some significant movement in moving kids up to proficient in language arts. That is huge. As we look at the numbers, the students that increased from proficient in ELA at Copper moved from 30% at or above standard to 37%. Math, while lower than ELA, did have students show significant growth in this category as well, up 8% to 27%. At Mark Twain, the students proficient in ELA moved from 21% to 35%. Students posting as at standard in math is up from 5% to 13% (still low, but we are on our way up!). That is a great improvement at both sites! This is in one year and we showed this TERRIFIC growth. Other students made progress in moving up a grade band as well. Intentional and steady wins the race and we are targeting foundational skills to equip our students to be successful. Thank you to all of the staff and students who poured into changing this public face of our district and to the parents that held the line for their kids to take the test and do their best. These scores MATTER when people think about buying a property in an area or consider a transfer to the school. We are on our way…
Class configurations have been developed with teachers and administrators. I want to tell you we will have numerous split classes next year. Sometimes, people hear about a split class and are concerned. Split classes are very effective for creating achievement if they are well organized and taught, which I know the staff will ensure happens. The teachers take into account very seriously which students belong where. Please do not request a change in placement. We look at the needs of the whole class as we develop those placements.
Over the summer, we will be re-carpeting approximately seven rooms, touching up paint, deep cleaning, and overall readying the campus for the school year start. This is always challenging when we run 30 extra days of school in the summer. In the old days schools used to just shut completely, and you had a couple months to get all this work done. We appreciate everyone working together on this.
To our Copper family students who are attending summer school, the bus transportation is scheduled. Here is the route. If your student is staying for the PM session, please come pick them up no later than 5 o’clock. Please keep in mind there is no LATE BUS.
General Education Bus:
6:45am Pool Station Rd/Riata Way (Circle XX)
7:05am Cheyenne Rd/Beaver
7:15am Feather@mailboxes
7:30am Copper School
7:45am Mark Twain
12:35pm Leave Mark Twain
12:55pm Pool Station/Riata
1:15pm Cheyenne/Beaver
1:25pm Feather Drive@mailboxes
1:40pm Copper School
(Special Education students have had their route communicated to them). Any questions, please email bsundling@mtwain.k12.ca.us.
I would like to close with thanks to the Copper Parent Teachers Club and Mark Twain Badger Boosters for the amazing field days and all the other activities they create throughout the year. It’s important that you be a part of those organizations and don’t leave the heavy lifting to just a few families. All of our kids benefit and your help on one or two events is an important part of creating those experiences for our kids. Too often in schools, a very few people do a lot of the work on the volunteer side and even just helping for a couple of hours can make the difference. We appreciate the hard work of these two groups and are so grateful for all they do for our kids.
Vaccination reminder! Some grade levels require boosters or new immunizations. Please make sure your student has received them all. Students cannot attend school without being current. (The only exception is if they have the first series of shots and are awaiting the required number of weeks for the second series). Let me know if you have any questions.
For those families and students not attending summer school, I thank you for your collaboration and I would wish you a safe and happy summer. See you on August 13!
May you have lazy days by the river, a bicycle ride to town, catch a big old fish in the creek, and marvel in the wonder that you get to live in every day. Be safe.
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson
Superintendent
650-996-3290
Every Student. Every Day. Every Possibility.