Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter

February 2023

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Hello Lincoln Cluster Families

Greetings Lincoln Cluster Community,


As we enter into the 2nd half of the school year, it is paramount that we double down on our efforts to have our children attend school regularly and partner with your child’s teacher, principal and school in ways that help us impact your child’s academic performance, as well as support their social and emotional well-being; We are all working hard and collectively we can always work smarter, more efficiently, and more effectively. Please dedicate time to connect with your child’s learning every day, and stay connected to the school activities weekly, and your child’s teachers at least monthly. It is in the consistent communication with one another that we better understand the clarity of learning expectations, the possibilities for partnerships, and the context of one another’s strengths to build our communal tapestry of supports for ALL the children we serve each and every day.


Together we are ALWAYS stronger!



Bruce R. Bivins (He/Him)

Area 1 Superintendent

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Lincoln High School

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Lincoln High School

While we celebrate Black History year around at Lincoln High School, February is a time where we give extra shine to Black History AND Black Excellence. A big shout out to our ASB, Black Girls United and Black Student Union for engaging our campus in weekly activities and daily announcements sharing both the struggles, strengths and achievements of our Black Sisters and Brothers. We also want to honor a special group of students for their activism that led to the creation of a Student-Led Group who will meet weekly during advisory with the support of our on campus team. Our Hornets continue to show their strength, teamwork and determination at the annual Special Olympics. Congrats to our girls and boys soccer, boys and girls wrestling and boys and girls basketball for amazing seasons of growth and continuing the Hornet tradition of excellence! Competing in a different court, our Mock Trial Team is celebrating winning 2 pre-trial motions and 2 verdicts. Our Robotics Team, The Steel Stingers are wrapping up their competition season and growing their team. They are very excited to transition to First Robotics and welcome sponsors like NAVAIR, Vinatech, and Booz-Allen. Check out our online student newspaper, The TAKEOVER, for student perspective on more news at the Hive!

February 9th we hosted our third round of stakeholder workshops with students, family members, teachers, college, community and industry professionals to codify the essential skills we commit to, as a community, developing in all Lincoln High School Graduates. This work will be achieved in collaboration of all stakeholders and especially with the continued rollout of our Industry Themed Pathways and Work-Based Learning Opportunities. If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved, please email Lori Williams, College & Career Pathway Coordinator at lwilliams7@sandi.net. Upcoming opportunities for additional stakeholder collaboration include: Pathway Advisory Councils Meetings (BioMed 3/2; Engineering 3/16; Media Arts Production 4/6) and our first annual Student Resource Fair 3/22 where our district, industry and community partners will promote resources for students as well as Afterschool, Spring Break and Summer programs, internships, and employment opportunities.

Knox Middle School

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Knox Middle

February was a busy month at Knox! Our teachers and paraprofessionals have begun preparations for our annual project-based learning STEM week. Students have a weekly assembly with Vertex Pharmaceuticals where they get to hear presentations from STEM professionals and their work in the lab.


Our 6th grade students got to explore the King Tut exhibit. Our 7th and 8th grade Journalism students took a trip to the 93.3 radio station, where they got to record SHOUT OUTS that were aired on the radio. Thank you to our partners at Positive Movement for this amazing experience.


During February our ASB also hosted a fun Pep Rally to celebrate our student's academic achievement during Semester 1, as well as our Starry Nights Dance.


We have completed ELPAC testing at Knox, and know that our students did a great job giving a tremendous effort on this assessment.


This month our 7th grade students will start their swim lessons at the Jackie Robinson Pool, and our 7/8th grade Health students will take a trip to the local Fire Station.


To learn more about all of the awesome experiences students are having at Knox, follow us on Instagram @knox_middle

Millennial Tech Middle School

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Millennial Tech Middle

"Millennial Tech Middle School is excited to welcome students and families to our campus on the first Saturday of each month for a learning and volunteering opportunity. Families learn about the Climate Safe Neighborhoods program that Groundwork San Diego - Chollas Creek is working on to improve our communities and take action against flooding, heat islands, and pollution. After families learn how they can be Climate Action Leaders in the community, they work, learn and play together in the MTM EarthLab. The MTM EarthLab is a 4-acre Climate Action Park - basically a big outdoor classroom - where families can explore, garden and learn about San Diego's Natural Environment. The next Family Fun Day at EarthLab is March 4th, register here: https://forms.gle/xvFE5XrCjDrbHHj99 or in Spanish here: https://forms.gle/dcuwaQ3sN2iQV9qR6"

All families from the community are welcome!

Valencia Park Elementary School

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Valencia Park Elementary

Our school had a school wide Valentines celebration on the evening of February 9th, hosted by Family Support Services. It was a blast! We had a DJ, a live dance performance by Junk Yard dance crew, a video game truck, photo booth, laser tag, face painting, inflatables, and so much more! It was a great opportunity to bring our community together.

Webster Elementary School

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Webster Elementary

Hello Lincoln Cluster Families, Here at Webster our students and staff had a wonderful STEAM event. This is our second STEAM event this year. This time we had a “Gallery Walk”. All classrooms visited each other’s rooms. Students wrote an “Opinion Piece” with sources and created a piece of art to go along with it. This event is a great way to showcase what other teachers are doing in their classrooms as well as highlight the great writing and artwork our students are doing. (See pictures)

For the past year and a half, Webster has tried to keep a single focus to improve on. Ours is writing. With this year’s new STEAM grant, we needed to add a STEAM component to our learning. So now, we have our writing focus but added STEAM. This has not been easy for our staff or the students but they have risen to the occasion!

On a different note just a few weeks ago, we celebrated our 100th day of school. Many staff and students had fun with this by dressing up as a centenarian. (See pictures)

Encanto Elementary School

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Encanto Elementary

Encanto Elementary’s youngest learners have been engaged in parent-child science workshops facilitated by Fleet Science Center through our partnership with Diamond Educational Excellence Partnership (DEEP). During the five-week session, our Universal Transitional Kindergarten students and families are enjoying hands-on exploration as they learn about weather, engineering and life sciences. Students had the opportunity to create clouds with cotton balls, draw and decorate snowflakes and create fake snow. Our little engineers built structures with pipe cleaners, sponges, styrofoam peanuts, and blocks. They have begun to explore life science with animals such as sea life and what they eat to survive. Most importantly students and families came together on campus to learn together and strengthen our learning community through strong relationships between school and home. Our community partnerships allow us to offer enrichment opportunities for students and families. Encanto looks forward to building more partnerships to bring even more opportunities to our learning community.

Chollas-Mead Elementary School

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Chollas-Mead Elem.

This month at Chollas Mead 4th graders began learning about Brazilian Jazz thanks to the Center for World Music. We also held grade level assemblies for students to learn how to safely walk to school and address transportation problems in the community. Carlisle and the team at Circulate did a wonderful job engaging our students in activities that will promote safety and advocacy for the entire community.

Johnson Elementary School

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Johnson Elem.

Hello Lincoln Cluster Community!

Johnson staff is supporting increasing the knowledge of the benefits of attending an Historically Black College or University. Lincoln High had an HBCU Day and Johnson Staff of whole many have attended HBCU’s joined in!

In addition, Johnson Staff celebrated the hard work we have put in to reducing the chronic absenteeism and suspension rate. Our efforts have paid off as our school site has been removed from the Comprehensive School Improvement list for next year! Go Tigers!!

Baker Elementary School

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Baker Elem.

Porter Elementary School

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Porter Elem.

Hello Lincoln Cluster Families!


At Porter Elementary we have been celebrating Black History Month. Our amazing teachers have been engaging our students in learning that honor the amazing contributions Black and African American people have had on our world.


Most notably we held the African American Speech meet. Students from grade TK through 5th grade participated in presenting a speech to the Porter Community. We had an amazing turnout and are extremely proud of our students.


We are also in the middle of our basketball season. We are a brand new program, but our students continue to persevere and develop their skills everyday!


Porter elementary is also a part of the Clean Mobility in Schools pilot program. This is through our partnership with Circulate San Diego. Our students participated in an interactive pedestrian safety demonstration known as Walk This Way.


Our students took part in a small "Safety Town" and went over why walking is good for us, basic vocabulary, rules for safely crossing the street, and then engaged students with a series of prompts to act out and practice with. This activity was enjoyed by all students who participated!


We always are welcoming community partners! Please contact our front office if you are interested in partnering with us! Take care!

Balboa Elementary

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Balboa Elem.

Balboa was a recipient of the Rob Machado Foundation water bottles. Over 450 students received a water bottle to support proper hydration.

Horton Elementary

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Horton Elem.

Horton is one of the thirteen schools in San Diego Unified that is piloting a new mathematics curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics, and is participating in the district’s San Diego Enhanced Mathematics Initiative. Our belief is that all students see themselves as mathematicians who are knowledgeable, can apply their thinking when making sense of the world, and can communicate their reasoning as active critical thinkers and problem solvers. We do this by fostering:
  • Students engage in meaningful mathematical discourse every day.
  • Students think critically about cognitively demanding mathematical tasks every day.
  • Making thinking visible: students revise and share feedback on multiple representations, and communicating both orally and in writing about mathematics
  • Students experience the wonder, joy, and beauty of mathematics every day.
  • Students' identities and agency are positively cultivated every day within mathematics.

Our staff has been engaged in professional learning, lesson studies, instructional walks, data analysis, and co-planning so that we engage ALL learners with mathematics and create the conditions for ALL learners to be successful with mathematics.

Lincoln Community Council Meeting

Lincoln Community Council Meeting on 3/16/23 at 5:00

Malcolm X LIbrary 5148 Market Street San Diego, CA 92114

A note from the district:

San Diego Unified is excited to announce a variety of summer learning opportunities so you and your family can create the best summer experience. The window to enroll in the Summer Academic Program, Extended School Year (ESY), and PrimeTime Summer is now open. Participation in summer programs is not required, however we encourage families to take advantage of these fun and educational summer enrichment opportunities available only to current San Diego Unified students. The summer learning opportunities are no cost to San Diego Unified families.

Families can choose from the following program options:

Summer Academic Program

Extended School Year (ESY)

PrimeTime Summer Program

Level Up Enrichment

To learn more about each of the programs being offered this summer and access applications/enrollment forms, visit our Extended Learning Opportunities website.

We hope you and your student(s) have a wonderful rest of the school year!

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