March & April Newsletter
Learning Community P
English Language Acquisition
We were able to join Hinkley’s Culture Festival 2016. This festival celebrated and explored all of the diverse cultures that are at Hinkley High School. It was so powerful to watch students while they shared their culture with the student body and staff in a variety of ways. This is an amazing event and we encourage you to attend this celebration next year to better understand our students and where they come from. Kudos to Hinkley staff and students for celebrating the beautiful diversity that we have in our community!
Exceptional Student Services
ESS has been working hard this time of year to ensure that students with disabilities are making smooth transitions from one level to the next. Elementary, middle school, and high school staff have been working collaboratively, along with parents, to hold transition meetings, share information, and ease any anxiety the kids or parents may have about moving to the next school. Open houses and field trips are in the works, too, so that everyone is ready to welcome the new crop of students for next year!
Additionally, Hinkley student Ashley Rodriguez was recently featured in a People magazine article with The Rock!! Check it out here: http://www.people.com/article/zac-efron-meets-make-a-wish-foundation-kids-following-split
SEA - Engaging Our Students
Our schools continue to think differently on how to engage our students and make sure they are learning. On April 28th, Altura had a Career Day. This was an engaging activity for all our students including our Affective Needs students who struggle with aggressive behaviors. As Altura continues to respond to the needs of their behaviors, mainstreaming and exposing them to engaging activities was extremely beneficial for them. AN students participated and interacted with different professionals. These students showed enthusiasm, joy and engaged behaviors. Not only were these AN students engaged during this career day, but they also had a great opportunity to building trust and genuine relationships with their mentors.
During our EPR day on April 22nd, our schools’ teachers continued to work hard to make sure our students are learning. Teachers were committed and focused on working with the grade level math standards in order to reframe them in the way they are being taught to our students.
Way to go community P schools!
MTSS
Community P MTSS teams have been working tremendously hard all year to build a culture of asset focused, data driven decision making. This mindset is continuing as we begin to plan for the 2016-2017 school year. Below is a picture of the Elkhart MTSS team digging into student data to determine the best supports for their students.