Dear MTUESD Community,
The Mark Twain Badger Den (the gym!) was packed to the max as families from throughout the county enjoyed a stellar tournament of girls basketball staged by Chelsie McDaniel, Kacy Barnett, Jordan Gomez, the sports management students, and AMA volunteers. A huge thank you to all the volunteers that made this happen. What a fantastic showcase for girls' athletics. The tournament was topped off with a celebration of retiring Board Member Jenny Eltringham before the final game. I am grateful to all involved. Congratulations to our 8th grade girls' team that took the championship and to the strong play of our Badger girls in the other grades who displayed amazing skill and sportsmanship and created very exciting and close games!
Another highlight of the week was several families that have made huge food donations to Sierra Hope or to the school sites. The love and care of sharing with others that are suffering right now truly is a gift from the heart. Even if you can just spare one can that will be an important and meaningful gift for one family that doesn’t have one. Boxes are set up in the school offices and district offices. We are also working with Sierra Hope to send home bags of food as well. If your family needs help, please give me a call at 650–996–3290 and we will see what we can do. Refuge Church is partnering with us for 10 Thanksgiving Meal Bags and Vine and Branch is organizing their annual Blessing Tree. Truly, AMAZING.
Last Friday, we had a speaker visit with the staff named Chris Simning. Chris is a powerful speaker on full inclusion for students with disabilities and differences. He’s in his mid 50s and has a very rare nerve disease and Cerebral Palsy and his moving message about disability awareness brought tears to the eyes of many, who were there sharing his message of empathy, understanding, and most importantly, we are more alike than different.
You may have seen T. J. Jemison, our math coach, roaming about both sites. He partnered with a number of teachers to host demo lessons in their rooms and then debrief with them on the strategies and techniques that he was implementing to create greater student discussion and critical thinking around math. This has been a great journey so far and will help align us as we have to pilot a new math curriculum next year to comply with the newly adopted state standards. I am hopeful that in the spring, we might be able to have TJ lead a math night for our parents.
I do want to just take a moment to respond to the bus incident that happened last week on the Copperopolis run. Safety is our number one priority. To those parents who walked side-by-side with us when the call was made that their student was out of line and worked with us on the consequences, I really appreciate it. We had a couple parents who emphatically said, “That’s not my kid”, when we have a film that shows that it clearly is your kid. I just want to stress that we don’t take these discipline matters lightly, but safety is the primary factor. When one of our administrators calls and shares hard news, it isn’t done without first making sure that we have our facts. There will be various levels of discipline, including school and bus suspensions and sports ineligibility. Students need to be accountable and safe on the bus. Riding the bus is a privilege not a right, and if your student can’t be appropriate, please make arrangements to bring them to school. I appreciate the work of Principals Tuthill and Handgis and Transportation Manager Bill Sundling in responding to this event and continue to thank our amazing bus drivers for their work. It takes a special person to drive a bus and be entrusted with a bunch of kids to get them to school and home safely.
I was surprised to see we had more than 100 students out on Monday. Bret Harte was out, but MTUESD was in session. Those absences cost the district $10,000 IN ONE DAY. Please help us by having your student enrolled in attendance recovery so we can make up the funding.
Just a reminder that all programs are closed for Thanksgiving week.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend ahead.
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson
Superintendent
650-996-3290