Dear MTUESD Community,
In your life, you meet remarkable people that are always there, just at the right time. I want to share one of my mentors with you. Beverly Dutra, a whip, smart lady in her retirement in Mendocino County, sends me weekly letters. She was a pioneer in Family Life Education Department, at the community colleges and viewed preschool education and literacy as a foundation for success for all kids. I was having a solidly challenging week and what arrived was a package with a framed poster that said “What I do today is very important because I’m giving up a day of my life for it”. She shared she hung it in her community college office for years. It made me reflect on our staff that works so hard with some really challenging kids. Kids have challenges for a lot of reasons that don’t always have everything to do with school. The more we can work together to wrap those kids that need more help around in our community structures, the better off we are for everybody in our community. If you want a definition of sensible and fierce, talk to Beverly Dutra. We need more of her in the world. There are many days I simply say, “What would Beverly do…”
Fall is in the air with the beauty of the color of the turning leaves and cooler mornings. Mark those calendars for the Trunk or Treat celebrations that will soon be upon us. Mark Twain‘s is on October 24 and Copperopolis Carnival is scheduled for October 26. Those are both joyful times. If you haven’t gotten your ticket for the Steak and Shrimp feast, talk to Nicole at the Copper school office. This is a beautiful evening by the Parent Teacher Club and the proceeds continue to do amazing things for the kids at the site. Even if you’re a Mark Twain family, go and have a great date night of good food, good friends, and lots of wonderful auction items.
The MT Badger Boosters are hard at work too and are now holding their monthly meetings in the morning after drop off. Even if you just have an hour or two a month to give, join this mighty crew and see what your talents can do for kids. Mark your calendar for “Are you smarter than a sixth grader?” at the Murphys Pour House on October 8 at 5:00 p.m. This fun evening will challenge your knowledge, but the friendship and fellowship and a glass of tasty beer or wine will make the event a fun one that raises funds for science camp.
Please be sure to attend your parent teacher conference. Time is precious in this world, and we don’t get to spend enough of it together talking about your kids. We appreciate your participation in these important meetings. The district has really developed some strong structures on measuring growth through i-Ready Assessments, and we are prepared to share how your students are doing. We saw some great progress from students that attended our summer school sessions and that reversal of the “summer slide” loss trend is so important.
Middle school had their first dance last Friday. The kids had a great time. I always enjoy attending these events as the connection these students have with each other and the middle school staff who invest in them are truly remarkable. It’s one of the benefits of small school attendance. When I was in middle school, the boys stood on one side of the gym and the girls on the other and only the one or two highly popular kids danced. That’s not the way it is here– everybody’s dancing and dancing and the leadership class under the direction of Michelle Whittear does a great job incorporating props and themes into the evening to make sure all kids are participating. The theme for this event was black and white, and the elegance was quite stunning.
I want to call out the work of our school counselors and psychologists this week. We are so lucky that we have two full-time Psychologists, Corrina Lindblom and Anatoliy Daniliouk, and our two counselors Lori Oliver and Shaune Brady plus our support from the County Wellness Team. This team not only handles our special education assessments and caseload, but is also integral to supporting teachers and staff on how to manage behaviors. It used to be that school counselors in the old days were for high school and they helped you with academic placements for college. Now the work is so focused on mental health, awareness, and problem-solving skills. They really help create a safe and happy campus. I was able to see a lesson by Miss Oliver introducing what a school counselor does and the kids in third grade had a wonderful time participating, and I learned some really great information.
We had our Bond Oversight Committee meeting last week. We appreciate the time of the members and Shortie Gutierrez was elected chairman for that committee as Dr. Bill Redford is now working for the district, so he cannot serve. The Bond Oversight committee meets a couple times a year and just reviews the expenses the district has incurred as we spend down the last of the Facilities funds from Measure K. The next meeting is March 17. If you would like to join, please contact me.
We had a great coaching session in math last week and one of the things that we learned was about number conversations. T.J., our coach, shared some engaging examples and the staff was invested and should be introducing those fun activities that start the shift in conversations about math and thinking about math into the classrooms. I’ll be passing out Starbucks cards as I see those items in action, because getting kids to shift out of just “solving problems” into thinking about different ways to approach ideas is super key.
Girls' basketball is in full swing, and the teams are doing great. I always appreciate the high levels of sportsmanship that our students exhibit. Skill and class are an unbeatable combination!
I will close that I recently was privileged to hear a person speak that had a profound life challenge/blessing of a multiple disability of Cerebral Palsy and a rare nerve disease. Now in his mid-life, he has come to learn that all of the negative self-perceptions he had about himself and his disability (he called them sticky notes) were not who he was, but defined his work as he moved forward in joy to show everyone, he wasn’t limited by those perceptions but emboldened by the possibilities. No matter what your “sticky note” is, use it for good in the world and show people and your kids all you can do… Don’t let your sticky note define you, let it INSPIRE YOU.
I hope you have a safe and happy weekend ahead. So good to celebrate all that is so right in this community. Enjoy the homecoming parade...
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson
Superintendent
650-996-3290