Madison Robotics a Hit at Lindbergh-Schweitzer

Lindbergh Schweitzer is part of the Madison Community of Schools, and that was evident on at the elementary school's recent Fall Festival when the Madison High School Robotics Team amazed the crowds with its "basketball shooting" robot. The robotics team, the Devil Duckies, were wonderful representatives of their high school and have participated for the last few years in this popular Clairemont family-friendly day for play.

The Robotics Team is connected with the Design and Technology Academy (DATA) at Madison High and supported through the Office of College, Career and Technical Education. The students completely build their robot each year based on the parameters of the FIRST competition over a period of six weeks. Madison’s team is sponsored by Motorola Solutions Foundation and Qualcomm. In last year’s competition, they won the chairman’s award in a Southern California competition. This earned them the privilege of attending the world competition in St. Louis where they won the imagery award.

Building on community involvement and school awareness is one of the major goals of the Madison Community of Schools coalition, and this event is the perfect example of how our cluster schools are working together for the success of all our students and families!

For additional information contact Media Production Assistant Julie Harris at jharris2@sandi.net or 858-496-8400.

School Minimum Day Schedules May Change to Accommodate Lunch

Minimum day schedules at 36 schools are slated to change over the next few weeks as the schools will be including time for lunch in minimum day schedules.

Under state law, all California school children must have the opportunity for a meal during the school day, during the instructional minutes of the school day. The schools changing their schedule had omitted lunch on minimum days. Students will not be allowed to leave campus until every student has had the opportunity for a meal.

The schools involved are: Dailiard, Grant, Hancock, Language Academy, Sandburg, Torrey Pines elementary schools or K-8s; Bell, Challenger, Clark, Correia, Dana, DePortola, Farb, Innovation, Lewis, Mann, Marshall, Marston, Memorial Prep, Millennial Tech, Muirlands, Pacific Beach Middle, Pershing, Roosevelt, Standley and Wangenheim middle schools; Patrick Henry, Kearny, La Jolla High, Lincoln, Mira Mesa, Mission Bay, Morse, Pt. Loma, Scripps Ranch and University City high schools.

"The district wants to ensure that every child is given the time and opportunity for a healthy and nutritious meal each and every school day," Phil Stover, Deputy Superintendent Business, said in a letter to parents at the affected schools. "This adjustment may resut in extending the school day on early release and minimum days by up to 35 minutes."

Schedule changes can be disruptive but this change is necessary to bring the district into compliance with the State law and, more importantly, to provide a healthy meal for all students, he added.
Specific schedule changes and the effective date will be provided by the school site administration in the next few weeks.

For more information, contact: your principal; Drew Rowlands, Executive Director, Auxiliary Services at (858) 627-7121; or Gary Petill, Director of Food Services (858) 627-7301.

Dixieland Jazz Festival Experiencing a Youth Movement

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Run Club Brings Early Risers to La Jolla Elementary

How do you get 75 percent of your elementary school to arrive 20 minutes early in order to run laps before class? Start a Run Club!

La Jolla Elementary opens its gates each morning to a horde of eager runners. Students, parents and teachers head purposefully up to the field, pick up their scan cards and begin running or walking laps. After each lap they slow down to have their cards scanned by parent volunteers using the new Student Lap Tracker System. It automatically tracks each runner’s daily and cumulative laps, and it has contributed to the popularity boom of the Run Club at the public school this year.

"This automated Run Club system is really motivating our students to get more exercise every day, which helps their overall health and their ability to concentrate in class," said Principal Donna Tripi. "We also have noticed fewer tardies in the morning. We have nearly 100 percent participation, with more than 500 runners in grades 1-5."

"I always want to be at school in time for Run Club," said 4th grader Lauren Nitahara, who is proud to report to her family each evening the number of laps she ran that morning.Parent volunteers, too, are gratified.

"Volunteering for the Run Club scanning is really rewarding. I truly enjoy getting to know students from all grades, and the Lap Tracker is also a conversation piece at dinner," said Bjorn Backlund, parent volunteer.

"Approximately 75 percent of our student population runs each day. It's a great way for the students to start their day. I thank our excellent PE Teacher, Kelly Wiskus, and our parent volunteers for making it happen," said Tripi.

Coach Wiskus has been working toward this degree of success since she started Run Club three years ago. At the end of each year, she holds an awards ceremony to honor the runners and their miles.
"It is so great to see the students and parents out there every morning exercising and building healthy habits that will last a lifetime!"
 For more information on the program, contact Tripi at dtripi@sandi.net.

Fusion of art, mind results in palpable successes

IN THE NEWS: San Diego can boast complete music programs in every elementary school, more than 60 active community partnerships and also an ever-expanding wealth of integrated programs that serve 131,000 students districtwide.  Read more from the San Diego Community Newspaper Group»

State Legislative Staff Members Conduct Fact-Finding

Legislative staff members at Kearny DMD.

The California State Legislative Staff Institute selected San Diego Unified for this year's annual visit by 20 Sacramento legislative staff members who work on education issues.

The group included staff members from the Assembly and Senate Education Committees and several other legislative offices who were able to learn firsthand about the programs and operations of California's second largest school district. They met with teachers, administrators and parents directly to ask questions and to get input on legislative issues that they face in Sacramento.

The group visited several schools: Lindbergh/Schweitzer, Central, Cherokee Point and Sherman elementary schools; iMiddle School, Kearny High DMD and iHIgh Virtual Academy.

Following their three-day visit, the group met with Supt. Bill Kowba to share their reactions.

"I was pleased to hear that this influential group of legislative staffers had such a positive impression from their school visits," said Supt. Kowba, "and want to thank all of the participating principals and staff for highlighting the great work being done in our district to advance our students."

The visits were just prior to the start of the Thanksgiving break. For more information, contact Bernie Rhinerson, Chief of Staff, at brhinerson@sandi.net.

Dogs Playing Role in Local Learning

Dogs are playing a more active role in the way some students are learning in some San Diego schools. For one hour, once a month, fourth- and fifth-grade students with special needs at Lafayette Elementary School in Clairemont get a visit from dogs with the K9 Friendly Visitors Program. Watch story from 10 News»