Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter
February 2022
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families
Following the successful launch of the "Level Up" program in 2021, San Diego Unified will once again offer all students a summer of learning and joy with free classes, free camps, and free enrichment programs.
We are excited to be hosting the "Level Up" program in many of our Lincoln cluster schools. The following sites will be hosting the Summer program this year:
- Lincoln
- Knox
- MTM
- Encanto
- Balboa
- Webster
- Porter
- Valencia Park
- Chollas/Mead
Last year, more than 30,000 students took part in Level Up SD - the largest summer education initiative in San Diego history - and registration is now open for this year's academic portion of the program and will close on February 28th.
Level Up academic classes are taught by highly qualified and trained San Diego Unified educators, providing a great chance for your student(s) to continue learning over the summer and extend their education.
To compliment these rewarding learning experiences, the district will again partner with the San Diego Foundation and dozens of local nonprofits to provide students with afternoon enrichment opportunities throughout the city. Enrollment and information about these programs will be made available to families mid-April.
Level Up academic and enrichment opportunities are only available to San Diego Unified students, and all programs are offered at no cost to families.
With continued partnership,
Bruce R. Bivins
Area 1 Superintendent
Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School students are moving beyond the classroom in preparation and next step towards both college and career. We are celebrating 69 semester one early graduates for the class of 2022. On February 2nd we celebrated eight student athletes from our football team who signed their commitment letters on National Signing Day, bringing the total athletic scholarships to 43 in the last four years, more than any other school in the county. Check out the abc10News article for more information. With the support of CalSOAP and our counseling team, we currently have the highest percentage in the district of students completing FAFSA, the federal application for financial aid, with a goal of 100% completion by June. On February 17th, two busses with 11th and 12th grade students attended the Black College Expo where students received immediate college acceptance and awarded college scholarships. Congratulations to our ASB President, T'Ari Jones, who was accepted to seven colleges and awarded $30,000 at the Expo! In addition to college readiness, 36 student of the 55 11th grade students who applied were selected to be a part of the first ever Junior Achievement Fellowship Program which includes one semester of career exploration and financial literacy, one week of a paid internship in the summer and a semester long internship class in the fall of their senior year where students will also learn about entrepreneurship through the Junior Achievement Company Program. Students will be paid $15 an hour while working in their internships. We are so excited to take learning outside of the classroom in his manner! These students are pictured here on their first field trip to Hawthorne CAT where they toured the dealership grounds, met with the company and department leadership to learn how business works. San Diego City College will bring Workforce Wednesday presentations so that students in all grade levels can sign up to learn more about local career training programs. Freshmen students are taking their next step in their own college and career preparation journey as they submit their requests for one of our four industry themed college and career pathways, BioMedical Sciences, Engineering, Fire Protection Technology or Media Arts Production. To learn more about our pathways or college and career preparation programs, contact College & Career Pathway Coordinator, Lori Williams at lwilliams7@sandi.net.
Preparations are beginning for next year's cheer and majorettes drill team. Eighth to eleventh grade students who are interested in trying out to participate in their freshmen year and would like information should use this INFO FORM LINK to sign up for more information.
Knox Middle School
Knox Middle
Knox 6th grade science students participated in a BE GREAT DNA lab with scientists from Illumina. Students were excited to extract DNA from strawberries. The goals of these workshops and partnerships was to provide hands-on exposure and access to STEM programs, in hopes of encouraging children to explore an opportunity in the Biotech industry and foster their sense of belonging in the STEM community.
This partnership kicks off our pathway to STEM Month at Knox. During the month of March, students will participate in multiple Zoom assemblies with scientists from Vertex. During the week of March 21st, all Knox students will participate in i2 STEM week.
A video from our previous i2 STEM week can be found here
Check out more of the fun activities going on at Knox here: https://www.smore.com/6fxn4
Millennial Tech Middle School
MTM
MTM Junior Scientists partner up with UCSD CREATE and Illumina to explore genomics, rocket science and biology!
MTM students have the fortunate opportunity to work alongside real scientists from Illumina and UCSD Create through partnerships that support the mission and vision of MTM: Creating equitable access to STEM education for all, with the goal of empowering students to envision themselves as future scientists, innovators, and trailblazers. We believe that by providing our MTM students access to relevant and real STEM experiences, we can make a difference in their lives today, so they can make a difference in the lives of others tomorrow. MTM students even got an inside scoop on on what a genomics scientist day-to-day looks like. They also learned what they work on, who they work with, how much money they earn, and just how varied the wide world of genomics really is.
We know that laying the foundation for genomic literacy starts early, and resources tailored specifically to students remain limited. So, MTM is making the effort to partner with the best Scientists in the world to provide experiences that bring relevant science into the classroom. Students at MTM are pushed to discover answers to life’s biggest questions. Like what causes a cancer cell to mutate? What’s the origin of a puzzling disease? Is it possible to prevent the next outbreak? Or safeguard the world’s food supply? These challenges inspire us to push the boundaries of what’s possible, and connect more people to the technology and insights changing the world. Illumina brings the study of genomics to MTM students because they believe genomics will change everything—from how we diagnose and treat cancer to how we feed the world’s population—and we know igniting genomic curiosity in students is a critical first step to achieving our mission. UCSD Create is also exposing our students to enriching activities through their local opportunities to learn (LOTL) program where students learn about themselves a scientist while engaging in hands on, real life science lab experiments.
MTM is building their Junior Scientist Program with many more partners to come such SALK, UCSD Climate Action Park and Groundwork.
Porter Elementary School
Porter Elem.
At Porter Elementary, we are so proud to have such an amazing Upper Grade Mod/Severe Teacher, Mr. Torres, who was selected as our school's Teacher of the Year. This is Mr. Torres's third year at Porter supporting our students. He is a teacher who always puts his students' needs first. He knows his students very well as learners and gives them the support that is targeted for their growth. He also continues to push them so that they reach their fullest potential. Mr. Torres makes it a top priority to make sure he is in constant communication with his students' families so that they can all work together as a team to ensure each child gets what they need. He knows how important it is to work as a team at our school and has made sure that he is at every 3rd grade PLC to be there as a thought partner and to gain guidance and support from the other third grade teachers. He is also a member of our Instructional Leadership team supporting our Special Education team to ensure that they always have a voice when making the best decisions for our school. We are proud of his work and our students are very lucky to have him.
Baker Elementary School
Baker Elem.
Valencia Park Elementary School
Valencia Park Elementary
February has been a fun and busy month at Valencia Park Elementary School. We started off the month with an after school community resource fair on Tuesday February 8th, providing parents and community members with resource bags filled with flyers, brochures, and goodies from local community organizations and programs. On Thursday February 10th, Valencia Park Elementary School, in collaboration with SAY San Diego and the Malcolm X Library, hosted the virtual Elementary School Workshop in the 4th annual Family Date Night Event! The annual Family Date Night Event is put on by the San Diego Youth Partnership Collaborative. This event provides educational workshops and resources for kids of all ages and parents on healthy relationships, consent, and sexual health. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, 13 classrooms, a total of 253 students, received a classroom based SEL lesson on healthy relationships from SAY San Diego. In addition, students and teachers started practicing habit #3 from Leader in Me - Put First Things First! This semester, our students and teachers are planning to work first and play later. We recognize that the school year is quickly winding down and yet there is so much to learn. Thank you Leader in Me for reminding us to prioritize tasks, minimize distractions, and focus!
Coming soon - UPAC will be starting a Girl Empowerment group on February 25th for a select number of 4th and 5th grade students at Valencia Park and the Malcolm X Library is returning on Monday February 28th to support our school's library by providing in person library support for all of our students from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (story times, crafts, and digital literacy instruction)! We are looking forward to having our wonderful Malcolm X librarians back on our campus.
On Tuesday February 22nd @ 6:00 p.m., San Diego Youth Services, in collaboration with SAY San Diego and Valencia Park Elementary School, will be hosting an information session on CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children). This event is geared towards parents of K-12 students and community members looking to learn more about the prevalence of CSEC within San Diego, warning signs, how to speak with your children about it, and resources. Please join us on Tuesday by clicking here: https://sandiegounified.zoom.us/j/83339489656#success
Horton Elementary School
Horton Elem. -
During the months of January and February, the Horton Hawks have spent time engaging in outdoor garden education that focuses on science, nutrition, and the environment. Thanks to community partners (Leah’s Pantry, Co-Harvest, Barrio Botany, and San Diego ag in the Classroom), and donations from sponsors, Horton’s school garden has been rebuilt and revitalized to provide garden-based instruction for all of our students. Research shows that garden-based instruction augments healthy food intake, boosts academic achievement and facilitates cognitive and emotional development. Experiential learning activities improve social emotional and behavioral skills and increase resilience against stress. Classes have engaged in planting, irrigating, and tending to our garden. Over the winter break, the squirrels ate everything that grew and so 3rd-5th grade students and our science teacher, Mr. Jimenez, designed and built squirrel abatement cages as part of an engineering project. Our TK and kindergarten classes learned how worms provide organic soil fertilizer and aeration to support plant growth.
This month Horton Elementary honors and celebrates Black History Month with must-read books that celebrate cultural icons, historical figures, pivotal moments in African American history, and much more. Our students have engaged in various activities that share the stories and honor the contributions of Black Americans. All classrooms have read about, engaged in discussion around the legacy and impact of people such Amanda Gorman, activist and first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate; John Lewis, civil rights leader and activist and one of the 13 original Freedom Riders and organizer of the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery March; and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination of the US presidency, among others.
Webster Elementary School
Webster Elementary
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families, I just have to say we made it through January. As it turned out after coming back from winter break it was all hands on deck to keep the school open due to the over whelming crush of the Omicron variant of COVID. We had many students, family members and staff get hit hard with this disease. Thank goodness, we believe we are through the worst of it. I do hope all of you are safe and healthy. Even though we were hit hard, teaching and learning continued on our campus. We extended the deadline for our January writing prompt. All students were to write a narrative with the use of sources. This looks different in different grade levels. In 5th grade, they had to read from multiple sources gathering information and then put it together in a narrative essay. In UTK the teachers use read alouds or pictures to spark the conversation, then the students use their new information to write their narrative. The one thing we are seeing across all grade levels is the amount of writing and the content is improving. Our goal is to improve on this year CAASPP exam in May, from where we were in May of 2019.
Two big things happened in February. Our 100th day of school, which was celebrated in many classrooms. We even had some staff members dress as 100 year olds, and all of our classrooms are honoring Black History month in different ways. Some classes are researching different ways the black community has helped shape our society and improve the world. Others are learning about the accomplishment of Black Americans through read alouds and whole group discussions. As a school, we have created a special bulletin board to display information and student work. We wish everyone a healthy and wonderful February/March. Be well everyone.
Encanto Elementary School
Encanto Elementary
Encanto Elementary opened their new SOARing Readers Room funded by the The Ben Carson Reading Project, the second initiative of the Carson Scholars Fund.The primary purpose of the program is to provide funding and support to local schools so that they can create a literacy-enriched, nurturing environment for children to feel safe and secure as they develop their reading skills. The Reading Project is dedicated to combating illiteracy and promoting leisure reading as a key to unlocking a child’s potential.
Encanto’s reading room features the school’s eagle mascot and theme of SOARing. Our beautiful mural was created and painted by world famous comic-book colorist Alex Sinclair, most known for his work with DC and Marvel comics.
Staff donated time to procuring diverse, high readability texts and comfortable furnishings. The room is filled with hundreds of books for students to explore from a variety of authors, topics, and genres. The cozy environment encourages students to come together to recognize the importance of reading. Classrooms visit the room to build a love of reading and books through independent reading for fun, partner reading to build vocabulary and knowledge, and teacher read alouds.
Chollas-Mead Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elem.
Chollas Mead students are 100 days smarter. Staff and students celebrated the 100th day of school this month. Some of them are really wearing their age (Ms. Grandma Jones and Grandma Nelson.) We had a lot of fun counting to 100, reading 100 site words, and much more.
Shout out to Coach B and Coach K for creating and facilitating Club Dolphin. Club Dolphin allows student at each grade level to have full inclusion during adaptive PE. Through this effort students have built meaningful and compassionate friendships.
Johnson Elementary School
Johnson Elem.
Balboa Elementary School
Chavez Elementary School
Chavez Elem.
Chavez Elementary had many celebrations this month! During the pandemic, we are constantly work hard on keeping our school community safe and emotionally connected. In the last two years, it has been clear how essential it is to address the social and emotional needs of our students and staff. The hundredth day put a smile on the students and staff; we are all in this together! Another celebration was our school wide “Caring Rainbow” to embrace diversity at Chavez. Last was our reclassification ceremony that showcased our students that mastered and demonstrated proficiency on the ELPAC, Si Se Puede!! Chavez Elementary also grained two partners, Matters Athletic (focuses on both skills and self-confidence) and Sherman Gardens (developing school gardens with an educational experience for students).