A New School Year is Upon Us

By Scott Turnbull, Superintendent Soquel Union Elementary School District

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”

— Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

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August is here and with it comes a new school year. The students in Soquel Union Elementary School District (SUESD) start their new year on Wednesday, August 23, 2017. The beginning of a new school year is always exciting.

Does anybody else remember laboring over what you were going to wear the night before the first day of school? Our Kindergarten students start a whole new world, and our sixth-graders make the rousing transition from elementary to middle school.

These children will be in excellent hands. The staff in SUESD is committed to supporting our students in every step of the way of their academic journey. Most importantly, SUESD has teachers that inspire our students to learn through engaging and creative instruction.

I am very pleased and proud to tell you that all of our outstanding principals are returning to their respective sites for another year of distinguished leadership:

• Annette Bitter, Principal, Main Street Elementary School
• Gerri Fippin, Principal, Soquel Elementary School
• Kerry le Roux, Principal, Santa Cruz Gardens Elementary School & Opal Cliffs TK
• Craig Broadhurst, Principal, New Brighton Middle School
• Andy Wright, Assistant Principal, New Brighton Middle School

SUESD has a new Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Michelle Kennedy. She was most recently the Director of Fiscal Services here in SUESD and did a stellar job in that role, hence her promotion.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you, in writing at least, to some of SUESD’s brand-new employees for the 2017-18 school year:

• Main Street: Teachers Laura Bender, Aubrie Polito, Jane Grassandonia-Crump and Administrative Specialist, Laura Struckmeyer
• Santa Cruz Gardens: Teachers Sara Edwards-Marsh, Monica Einaudi, Alish Johnson, and Lindsay Rodgers
• Opal Cliffs: Teacher Kelly Liebenthal
• Soquel Elementary: Teachers Brooke Igarta, Jessica Pitsch, and Speech & Language Specialist Emily Obermeier.
• New Brighton Middle School: Teachers Emily Maddox, Gordon Barratt, and Speech & Language Specialist Rachel Landry
• District Office: Alison Warner takes over as Director of Fiscal Services, and Melissa Volo comes on board as a School Psychologist.

School facilities will be a major focus for SUESD in the 2017-18 school year. Thanks to our amazing community and the passage of Measure C, we anticipate having new play structures at our elementary schools by the time school starts. Children should be thrilled to have modern equipment for playing and exercising. We’ll also be preparing sites for new classrooms.

We moved SUESD’s “Restructured Days” from Wednesdays to Fridays for the 2017-18 school year. These are the early dismissal days on which the student day is shortened to allow teachers focused time for collaboration and professional development (while still ensuring the correct number of weekly instructional minutes). Knowing about the change from Wednesdays to Fridays may help if you are trying to avoid dismissal traffic.

Our schools will continue their high-quality instruction based on state standards. Our teachers have done an exceptional job these past few years implementing the new state standards.

Especially impressive has been the work they have done using Cognitively Guided Instruction as a framework to implement the new math standards. An instructional focus this year will be the Next Generation Science Standards.

Additionally, the district will continue to strengthen our efforts regarding social-emotional learning and supporting student behavior. We will be in a crucial study year for a model called Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS).

We will target student attendance as a growth opportunity. Improvement in this area has a multitude of positive impacts. Chief among them, students learn more when they attend class. Our district-wide goal for annual attendance rate is 96%. Last year we were at 94.9%, up just slightly from the previous year (94.77%).

We value communication. We want you, the community, to know what is happening in your schools. Throughout the year, I will use this space to keep you updated on all the great activities taking place at SUESD. Our website (http://www.soqueldo.santacruz.k12.ca.us/) is always a good way to keep up on current affairs in SUESD.

If interested in learning even more about our district, please consider our Facebook Page (@SoquelUESD). Facebook has proven an effective way to offer real time updates on Measure C projects among other news.

Please mark your calendars for the SUESD Community Forum which will take place at New Brighton Middle School Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, @ 6:30.

Our Board of Trustees meets regularly on the first and third Wednesdays throughout the school year at 6:30, usually in the Board Room at the District Office (check website for details and updates on those meetings). A practice we initiated last year was to discuss a section of our Local Control & Accountability Plan (LCAP) at every board meeting. The LCAP is the driving force of school programs and budget in California public schools, so this is an ongoing way the community can learn about, and have input on, our most important and influential document.

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Of course, if you have questions or suggestions you can always email me directly (sturnbull@suesd.org).