Culture of Encouragement

 “We encourage to build courage for today and the future.”

Life shrinks or expands in proportion with one’s courage.  Never escape the reality that the people you lead look to you for courage that comes from your encouragement! 

More than ever, all of us need to be encouraged because we live in a world where courage is in demand.  We vow this year to build a theme of developing courage for all of us to infuse this same courage and strength in young people in order for them to fulfill their purpose and plans for their lives.

One way to build courage is to celebrate the courageous acts and results we have already accomplished in the middle of naysaying circumstances that tried to take away our confidence faith in what we can achieve and even over achieve!

I am reminded of the incredible success over the summer break when our 23 senior graduates earned their Certified Nursing Assistance Licenses!!

I am reminded of the 25 middle school students who worked hard for over eight weeks in preparing for a UC Merced sponsored Math 1 class to be taken this upcoming school year!

I am reminded of the courage of our seven brave Women's Basketball Team who ended up winning the Southern California Regional Championship this past Summer!  The first time in school history!!

I am reminded of the incredible growth of our high school English Language Arts CAASPP scores.  With less than half of the students available for in person instruction for 2020-21, the scores grew 22%!

We are more encouraged than ever with the reality that nothing can stop us from going beyond and far what we could have ever imagined.  

No need to look far for more of this because we have it already within us - let it spill over this year to do great things for kids!!

Built to Surpass

This year's theme for Corcoran Unified means is relevant for us more than at any time.  We are "Built to Surpass!"

Surpass: “to go beyond in amount, extent, or degree; be greater than; exceed. to go beyond in excellence or achievement; be superior to; excel: to be beyond the range or capacity of; transcend:”

Here is our challenge:

Are we going to complain, add to the confusion, despair and negativity?

Or?

Are we going to be on the right side of history and take and make the opportunity to make incredible inroads into educational growth and change in the right direction for kids?

We have a great opportunity that defines us as a district as educators, as employees, as leaders, as influencers and as people who did the right thing and made a difference for our kids.  We can look back on this moment in our history and look back with pride and note, 

"We did the right thing, we did the harder thing, and our staff, our kids and our community are better off for it!"

We already see the heroism (yes I used the "H" word because that truly describes the people that work in our district) exhibited and demonstrated by support staff, food service workers, secretaries, administrators, teachers, custodians, grounds staff, nurses - everyone.  And, do you know what all of these heroes have in common?  Attitude.  

They are among the people in life who understand that life is 10% what happens to them and 90% of how they respond to what happens around them.  In other words, they keep on working and stay focused on their mission and are not dissuaded by circumstance, fear, rumor, negativity, etc.  

They stay on task and stay positive not moved by the naysayers that say we can't - they know better because not only we can, but we are and we will!

Up Close and Personal

Even though our district teaching staff is involved in “Distance Learning”, they and all of our support staff is up close and personal!

Our teachers come to their classrooms every day, preparing a learning environment that is much more than a laptop with a screen. Our teachers are doing everything possible to create a learning environment

that is engaging and interactive. They are using multiple devices, multiple cameras, and various screens to take advantage of all of the tools necessary to give our students the best learning opportunities under our current constraints.

Our support staff comes to work every day with open offices that continue to engage and communicate with our parents and community to make sure our student and parent-school experience are effective and positive. We have staff members who also safely visit homes to help verify students are online and registered.

Our grounds department continues to do a great job of keeping our grounds aesthetically attractive and clean, especially during a heat wave.

Many of our support staff continues to come to work every day to garner all the supplies and resources to ensure that we all work in a sanitized, clean, and safe work environment. We cannot take for granted everything that has been done to ensure this on all of our campuses and facilities. We can confidently say we have a safe work environment.

These people are not at a "distance" but are up close and personal to do their work to prepare for the time when students are no longer learning exclusively from a distance. The good news is the State has just recently allowed our staff to begin to work with small sets of students to receive in-person targeted, specialized support and services on campus under specific safe conditions. 

Even though our students are at a distance, our staff's hearts are closer to the hearts of our students and parents more than meets the eye.

We Owned It!

Who could have predicted we would end up owning a challenge that none of us could have ever dreamed of? Our theme for this school year has been "We Own it!" And, we ended up owning something much bigger than we expected.

When we discussed the theme for the 2019-2020 school year, we recognized the importance of our Personalized Learning Vision for the District:

We will partner with our students to own their learning, pursue their ambitions and achieve their goals.  

The words "Own Their Learning" stood out. When students take responsibility and own their learning, and as professionals own our responsibility to make sure every student learns and grows in their education, we have achieved what we set out to do. That is, we have created life-long learners who become bold to achieve and succeed in life.

With the pandemic crisis that forced our kids and staff to their homes to continue school, all of us did not have a choice. We had to own the challenges that come with a forced Distance Learning environment. What is so encouraging for our schools and community is our staff and students were ready for the challenge. We have already owned the challenge to make sure every child in our District has access to the technology need to learn anywhere in the world, let alone in their own home.

• Almost 100% of our students K-12 have had a state of the art device at home with Internet access.
• A vast majority of our staff has been trained to use technology that personalizes and leverages our students' learning.
• A vast majority of our staff are trained professionals to use technology for learning for all students in dynamic and different ways.
• Many of our staff members have been relentless to keep track of our kids and make sure they are caught up in their learning.
• Many staff members have been diligent in reaching out to students who have social, emotional needs and have been there for them even though distance and the virus have been a challenge.

The following words were written in describing our theme this school year and are almost prophetic in how we explain how we have "owned" this crisis:

We see the ownership that takes responsibility for the good, the bad and the indifferent and refuses to blame others.  We own the failures and reject excuses and faultfinding.  Problems are owned to be solve, and solutions are owned by all and shared to implement, succeed and celebrate!

If we own the story, then we can write the ending.

- Brene Brown

Looking back, we are proud of students and staff for taking ownership of the solution of doing everything possible to make sure our kids are safe and still learn, albeit from a distance.

This year is a year when we emphasize and promote our ability to "own our story" and thereby create the road and destiny built on our mission, vision, values, and lofty goals. When we own it, we call the shots and help everyone finish strong!

We Own it!

When we discussed the theme for the 2019-2020 school year we recognized the importance of our Personalized Learning Vision for the District:

We will partner with our students to own their learning, pursue their ambitions and achieve their goals.  

The words "Own Their Learning" stood out.  When students take responsibility and own their own learning, we have achieved what we set out to do.  That is, we have created life long learners who become bold to achieve and succeed in life.

There is something about ownership that sets our behaviors and attitudes apart from situations, conditions and choices contrasted from where and when we have little to no investment in ownership and possession.  When we own something, we are much more likely to take pride in its substance, show much more respect and appreciation for what we own.  We are much more willing to maintain, improve and provide solutions to problems, and we become much more willing to take initiative in involving energy and time in making sure what we own is quality, appealing, and effective in its purpose and design.

We see ownership in our district as a means of describing a mindset and an approach where we as a team are willing to take the risk of ownership on multiple levels.  We decide and commit to owning our students - their successes, challenges, idiosyncrasies and most importantly, our relationships with each and every child.

We see ownership that takes responsibility for the good, the bad and the indifferent and refuses to blame others.  We take ownership and refuse to put down and/or denigrate another peer, employee, parent or student.  We own the failures and reject excuses and fault finding.  Problems are owned to be solved, and solutions are owned by all and shared to implement, succeed and celebrate!

If we own the story, then we can write the ending.  

Brene Brown

This year is a year when we emphasize and promote our ability to "own our story" and thereby create the road and destiny built on our mission, vision, values and lofty goals.  When we own it, we call the shots and help everyone finish strong!  Have a great school year.

Year of the Climber

This is the year of the climber because it fits so well with our mission and earnest desire to see if every student and adult involved in their learning continue to "climb" improve, grow, achieve and fulfill our goals and dreams!

Our District Mission:

We are improvement driven - Mind, Character, and Body

We focus on the characteristics of the climber who is fearless, committed, focused, determined, constant, confident, ascending, brave, goal oriented, driven, striving, moving, confident, dedicated, etc.  (See word cloud created by our admin team below).




This metaphor makes so much sense to all of us when it comes to achieving BHAG's (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) as described by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great.  What people see as impossible to achieve, climbers see reaching a goal as one step at a time.  When students enter our preschool or kindergarten, the top of the mountain in 12th grade to be college and career ready may look impossible especially if those students are not school ready.

How do prepare every student to be skillful readers, writers, thinkers and citizens who can lead and achieve in an ever changing and challenging world?  We do this by setting and tracking goals one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at at time, one quiz at a time, one test at a time, one report at a time, one year at a time!

The definition of a Climber put together from Dictionary.Com (2010) is someone who to ascends or rises; someone who rises slowly by or as if by continued effort.

This is how we ascend and rise as professionals and motivators and encouragers who ascend and rise on a constant, consistent, determined and focused basis.  We succeed if we stay focused and determined if we do not quit!

“Every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing.” 

Barry Finlay

Climb. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/climb

17-18 CUSD Year in Review

We have had another successful school year with a great deal to be thankful for in many ways. We are graduating the most graduates (close to 170) we have had at the high school in years, and we are promoting the most students at John Muir (194) we have had in decades!

The high school continues to lead the way in Central California with high percentages of students taking and passing college courses that are offered in the regular high school day. The onsite college offerings have increased from 8 to 15!  Seventy one of our college seniors took college classes with a 98% pass rate.  These classes included English 251, English 1, English 2, American Sign Language 1, American Sign Language 2, Counseling 100, Human Development, Spanish 1, and Communications.

This does not include courses students chose to take in an online only setting. Most of these academics took more than one college course. These seniors were responsible for taking 171 college courses. Many did this while also being involved in clubs, sports and community service. Some did this while working part time jobs or caring for siblings.

Due to the positive environment and the relationships our staff has with our students, student behavior continues to improve dramatically with decreases student suspensions by 36% and expulsions are reduced by 25% from last year. We have had the most number of students place in the County Spelling Bee that we can remember, and Fremont and Mark Twain Schools have won a prestigious National Beacon School Award from Imagine Learning (only 150 schools receive this award nationwide).

Our School Board just recently approved the implementation of The California Cadet Corp at John Muir Middle School, and John Muir is one of only 30 plus schools in the whole nation to be involved in The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, (one of the few schools that involved experimentation across the whole student body!).

The high school is in its second year of conducting highly successful Senior Exit Interviews and the

athletic program once again boasts of several league championships:

• Girls Cross Country (1st Valley Championship in school history) 
• Boys' Cross Country
• Wrestling
• Boys' and Girls' Track
• Girls' Tennis team earned Back to Back Valley Champions (Division IV and now III) 
  

And, our FFA Program produced two State Finalists and one State Champion for student projects.

We are also seeing positive changes and improvements throughout the District with the purchase of new property, the addition of new buildings and improvements at the Ag Farm, an award of a $3 million Career Technical Education building grant, new classroom furniture, and the District partnered with CAST (Community and Schools Together) for new RAC and baseball field score boards, and a new state of the art batting cage. New playgrounds have been installed at Fremont, Mark Twain and the new playground for Bret Harte preschool is on order.

All of our school buses have new cameras and GPS tracking is on every bus, and our parents and staff have now have access to a new Digital Menu to help track calories and types of foods students are served daily. Speaking of food, this last year was the first year in decades the high school had a closed campus for freshmen. This reduced the number of students tardy for class after lunch and the food service department was able to feed many more students with a greater variety of foods. This is not to mention our campuses were recognized as Apple Distinguished Schools and Gold PBIS Award winners!

Congratulations to every one for an outstanding 2017-18 School Year!