Public education should provide every student with a quality core foundation in academics, challenging performance standards, a motivating and supportive environment, the opportunity to excel in areas of individual aptitude and interest including athletics, the arts, music, technology, and career/vocational.

Educating a child is a series of incremental steps- taken day-by day; most are small, but some are larger and occasionally they are joyful leaps of discovery. The path requires an educational approach which is thoughtful, systematic, and disciplined; it must be logically developed over the span of a child’s years. A sturdy foundation provides the base upon which creativity and individual expression can stand strong.  It provides the essentials which permit a student to advance to the next level.  But beyond this foundation, one needs to engage the heart and the soul of a student so that the joy of learning, the fun in discovery and the satisfaction in gaining mastery leads a child to his/her own personal best. 

The breadth that we need to provide is that which will help a young adolescent make future choices and find directions which are of personal interest.  The depth that we provide in curriculum is the opportunity for a child to gain expertise, to acquire a passion for a subject, as well as provide for career, college/university opportunities or the workforce and give him/her competitive advantages. 

How do we as an institution, i.e., a school district fulfull our mission of educating each and every one of our 3500 children?

We must recognize that we are a people business- we must support our teachers, our staff and our administrators and provide them with the means by which they can accomplish their tasks.  Beyond that, we must set out specific and concrete goals on a systematic and regular basis and provide the means to achieving these goals. We must have the data to understand our strengths and weaknesses. We must be willing to let intelligent and thoughtful feedback guide us.  And we must be willing to evolve.

Over the past 8 years our district has challenged itself repeatedly.  It has implemented new standards and in 2004 initiated its first ever Strategic Planning process.  

Let’s look at some of our accomplishments:

Academics, Programs 2002-2006

-  Curriculum

Adopted and aligned California Standards in

Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies

Established new SM Community College classes at HMBHS

Expanded Middle College alternative

Added on-line course option, UCCP for HMBHS students

-  Achievement

Annual district-wide increases in Math and Language Arts STAR test scores

Narrowed the Achievement Gap for Second Language Learners

-  Staff Development

Provided Beginning Teacher Support Assessment Program

Rolled-out Every Child a Reader-Writer to Every Elementary School

Columbia University Staff Training for Elementary Teachers

Hosted Columbia University Summer Conference

Implemented a new teacher evaluation process aligned with California standard for the Teaching Profession

-  Technology

New database applications to analyze standardized test data (groups, disaggregated, and individuals)

Implemented Scholastic Reader program

Revamped Computer class at Cunha Intermediate School

-  Communications

Implemented School-Loop, a daily email report system for parents and students at Cunha and HMBHS

Hired new Spanish Speaking Liasons at every school

New web pages, multimedia CDs and DVDs

Grants and Revenue Enhancements (partial list)

1) Every Child a Reader-Writer- $200,000 per year; 4 years funding from Peninsula Community Foundation & Noyce Foundation

2) FLAP- $525,000 Federal grant.  Project Elevarse will be to expand and enhance the sequential study of a foreign language for students in grades K-12 through the Two-Way Immersion Program. In order to achieve this goal, a cohesive, integrated curriculum will be established from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

3) Compass Program - for at-risk students at HMBHS

4) Worked with Back-to-Basics to enhance program revenues

5) Hired a part-time grant writer at HMBHS

Communications

To bring additional funding resources to this district for programs, reduced teaching loads, enrichment programs, books & technology

To honestly weigh what our test scores tell us and using standards, best practices, TIMMS studies, and expert review build a strong curriculum both horizontally (between elementary schools) and vertically (elementary-middle-high school)

To build a communications framework which permits healthy dialogue between parents, teachers, staff, administration and the Board.

Specifically,

1) We must support our teachers…They are the brains, the heart and the soul of the classroom. We must find supportive ways to keep the teaching environment vigorous and vibrant. We must find revenues to pay teachers salaries commensurate with their talents and with the cost of living in this area. We must keep class sizes low. We must reduce teaching loads in the middle and high school and/or find department support technicians/personnel. 

2) We must support our administrators and support services which are the backbone which keeps the total system strong, interconnected, and working together as one.  Without our district office and our principals, counselors, school-linked services and computer staff, the horizontal communication between classrooms and schools, and the vertical transition (articulation) between schools would not exist.

3)  We must also find the means to good.. no even… great home-school-home communications.  There is a classic statement which says that the greatest predictor of a child’s success is who his parents/family are…. You can take this to mean many different things… but what I believe is important to us, as a school is that we harness the power implicit to the parental-child-familial relationship to provide the best for each of our students.