On Tuesday, February 24th, The Governing Board voted 3-2 to approve a plan to open a Language Academy for the students of CVUSD. Over the last 16 months, district staff and the Learning Environment Task Force (LETF) invested countless hours into research, studies, projections, and planning to identify a site and prepare a timeline to add “World Languages” to the current magnet programs Cajon Valley offers (International Baccalaureate – Montgomery, 21st Century Learning – Madison, Fine Arts Magnet Education- Flying Hills, STEAM – Emerald).

Fine tuning the details about next steps and communication to staff and community will be the district’s priority over the next several weeks. In anticipation of this transition, Madison Elementary School and WD Hall Elementary School prepared short videos welcoming families affected by this change who are currently attending Bostonia Elementary.

CVUSD School Board Members Suzanne Mullins and Justin Slagle join CVEA leaders Dave Szymanski and Chris Prokop at the CTA school board brunch at Yom Ham’s Lighthouse. Education Leaders and Governing Board Members networked, discussed and problem solved issues facing public education in California.

“Integrity first, service before self, excellence in all we do .”

Chris Prokop, President
Cajon Valley Educators Association

The students and staff at Fuerte Elementary continue to build capacity by developing strong grade level teams that provide our students with high level rigorous learning opportunities. As Falcon’s we are soaring to new heights by implementing blended learning into our routine that allows students the opportunity to integrate their learning with the use of our chrome books and tablets. We continue to gain deeper understanding of how we can use tools like google classroom, ST math, and other sites to give our students opportunities to interact with one another and deepen their understanding. By knowing that the best learning comes form making mistakes and persevering our students are developing a love of learning new information. It’s a great time to be a Fuerte Falcon!

Bryan Schultz
Proud Principal of Fuerte Elementary.

Rancho San Diego Elementary School welcomed Superintendent Dr. David Miyashiro, Board President Justin Slagle and Board Member Jo Alegria for a tour of our beautiful campus on Tuesday, 2/17. In their visit to all classrooms, the team saw just how much the RSD community believes in education for the whole child. The day started with a visit to our science lab where students engaged in hands-on science classifying plants, then moved on to see students writing across the curriculum, and using their Chromebook as a learning tool. Students were busy conducting research, writing narratives and informative pieces, and used apps like Google Classroom and Edmodo to collaborate on their work. Students also posted feedback on student presentation videos, created Google Presentations, and practiced their computer coding skills. Lastly, 5th graders shared their pledge to represent RSD and CVUSD proudly as they prepare for the ultimate hands-on field trip at BizTown!

Cherie Wall, Principal

Rancho San Diego Elementary School

The staff and students at Meridian enjoyed showing off their work to Dr. Miyashiro during his visit on Friday. Among the red shirts, hearts and fun Valentines headbands, students showed Dr. Miyashiro how they collaborate and seek feedback through Google Docs, voice their opinions on topics in Edmodo and Google Classroom, use Google presentations and Movenote to present their work, access links to differentiated tasks as well as brag about their progress in ST Math. It was fabulous to see the students so excited about sharing their work and all the wonderful new tools they can access with their Chromebooks. One student reached out to Dr. Miyashiro, touched his arm and said, “Thank you for letting us have the Chromebooks.” It melted my heart on this almost Valentine’s Day!

Anza 3rd graders actually worked in the garden this week… our first students to hands-on the area! Here are a few pictures. I also posted about it on EDI’s Facebook page. (We confirmed with the teachers that photos were OK.) The kids were really excited and they taught us to say ‘dirt’ in Chaldean and Arabic! It was wonderful.

Cathy Chadwick, Earth Discovery Institute

EmSTEAM Magnet Middle School, a.k.a. Emerald Middle School, has embarked on its journey to becoming a San Diego Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math (STEAM) Magnet to watch! We are celebrating the 2nd week of our 1:1 Chromebooks! We have witnessed a dramatic transformation on our campus since then. Our EmSTEAM Team members have worked diligently to make this shift happen with aplomb. The integration of technology, STEAM education and Design Thinking into daily lessons has been more seamless since the shift to 1:1. Our Team is dedicated to collaborating with each other to deliberately identify and spread instructional practices that are most effective for meeting the individual learning goals for each student.

We are having a soft opening of our two Coding Studio’s on February 7, 2015 and on February 28, 2015. Check our website for details. Mrs. Mansfield is piloting Project Lead the Way’s first middle school Computer Science program and was gifted 28 Verizon Tablets for “app” creation. Our 6-8th grades Humanities will be hosting a STEAM Symposium on March 26th. Details to come.

Unequivocally, the strength of EmSTEAM resides in our team. We are committed to work together in order to be a dynamic and inclusive destination school.

Mr. Bailey | Principal, Emerald STEAM Magnet Middle School | Cajon Valley Union School District

EmSTEAM’s soft launch of the Hour of Code Saturday has allowed us to establish the systems for an extremely high quality program. Students are eager to return and parents are grateful for providing this opportunity for their children at no cost. One parent said, “How can you possibly have this event for free?”. Another parent who stayed all day with his two children said, “I am so blessed to have this opportunity for my children” as he played a game of chess with a third grader.

We are happy to announce that, beginning on Saturday, February, 28th, all CVUSD elementary and middle school students 1st grade through 8th will have the opportunity to attend Hour of Code Saturdays. We will be distributing flyers to each site next week. Sign up online at www.CodeToTheFuture.com as soon as possible since this event will fill up quickly!

Sincerely,

Steven Bailey – Principal EmSTEAM
Andrew Svehaug – CEO Code to the Future