My message to you today is to “Look Up”.  

For those of you with sixth graders and eighth graders transitioning to new settings, congratulations for creating their transition out of the nest.  Take a look at the photo.  Two weeks ago, the nest was full of young birds, and I was profoundly disappointed last week when I peered in and realized those chicks had flown the coop.  This week, I took another look and five new eggs were just starting their journey with the mama bird vigilantly watching them in the branches above.

To all of our mama and papa birds, you did good.  Be proud of your kids at this moment.  Thank you for being supportive.  Thank you for being partners with us.  Thank you for letting them have consequences when they failed and not being a helicopter parent that excused bad behavior.

I will be real with you, with my mama, if I stepped out of line at school, I knew I WAS TOAST.  I have been in districts, not so much here except with just a couple of exceptions, where parents didn’t acknowledge the kid’s accountability.  That can work for a while, but pretty soon permissive excuses enable bad behavior instead of excuse it, and sometimes, that can end up in terrible consequences, like the DUI deaths from my last district this past Spring.

I want to THANK YOU AND CELEBRATE YOU for walking side by side with us.  I ask you to send your kids to Saturday School and 90 percent of you make sure your kid is there. I ask you to talk to your kid and 90 percent of you DO IT.  I ask you to set a standard of expectation, pride, and accountability with your students, and you do it.  YOU ARE TEACHING YOUR BABY BIRDS TO FLY.

It was tremendous to see so many families at the Spring Sing at Copper. Truly a testament to your investment in your students' education and that show was FANTASTIC.

Many thanks to all of the volunteers and staff for the end of the year events that have been ongoing. Putting on things like a field day, pancake breakfast, graduation ceremonies, and special dances, takes a commitment from everybody to make a special memory for kids. I thank you for your efforts in that.

I just want to remind you about the schedule for summer school. Extended School Year starts on June 3 for special education. For our students in general education, it starts on June 4. Please make sure you look at the bus routes for general education summer school. Reminder please for our Copper families, we have busing available in the morning and after lunch. If you want your student to stay full day, please know that they need to be picked up at Mark Twain by 5 PM. I had hoped to have a full summer school at Copperopolis, but we did not have the staffing commitment to support it.

We are continuing to work on the middle school reconfiguration. There will be a meeting on June 10 at the district office at 6 PM if anybody would like to join the roundtable and discuss the plan. I will bring in light refreshments. If you can give me a call at 650-996-3290 if you would like to participate, that would be great so I can plan for enough food.

I hope you enjoy the last few days of school and we look forward to another great year ahead. To our families of graduates, leaving the nest is exciting and hard.  May you marvel at their progress as they take flight and know that you have nurtured and supported them. We look forward to seeing all that they can become.  LOOK UP...and see them take flight.

I'll see you at your baby bird’s graduation.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson

Superintendent

650-996-3290