Greetings and Happy December Lincoln Cluster Families, Community Members, Staff and Students;

I am incredibly grateful for the welcoming, caring, kind, loving classrooms that our Lincoln Cluster students experience everyday across our 14 schools of UTK – 12th grade classrooms This year as a district we have lifted the critical importance of creating the conditions for all students and staff to embrace psychological safety and a sense of belonging for all. Especially now, coming out of multiple years with COVID, belonging and safety are paramount to creating the conditions that value each and every student and staff on our school campuses. We know, from research, that Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs must be met first before we can actualize our fullest potential and capacity for learning and growth. A sense of inclusion places us all on a pathway toward innovation, fueled by curiosity, creative thinking, critical dialogue, and collaborative teaming. With our partnerships both at home and in our community, it is essential for our young people to realize their brilliance each day in their respective learning environments. We aspire first and foremost, that every child experiences inclusionary safety by being fully accepted for who they uniquely are. Additionally, each and every student must feel learner safety, meaning they are able to learn and grow in ways that allows them to take risks, make mistakes, accept feedback, and grow from any learning experience. We also aspire our students and staff to all feel they have contributor safety, as they feel safe to meaningfully contribute their ideas to make a difference, and ultimately, feel safe to challenge the status quo, especially as we look more deeply at our current conditions, practices, procedures or policies that perpetuate systemic oppression and inequitable outcomes for anyone, child or adult. It is our collective responsibility to build these safety conditions collaboratively and in partnership both at school, in our community, and in our homes, so our students can flourish and grow in ways beyond our collective imagination.

Have a blessed and beautiful holiday season and happy new year.

Bruce R. Bivins

Area 1 Superintendent

Lincoln High School students are enjoying giving and receiving blessings on campus and in our community this holiday season. Our ASB is working to honor Rady Children’s Hospital Staff with hundreds of thank you and holiday letters this season. Our BioMedical Sciences students were delighted to be able to spend two days at Vertex, a San Diego Biotechnology company, doing hands-on experiments specifically learning about Sickle Cell disease, testing and treatment. BioMed students are so dedicated to pursuing their dreams they attended a field trip on a Saturday to be a part of the UCSD Medical Center’s Doc for a Day program where they did dissections and experiments, learning about patient care, as well as their own anatomy and physiology. Engineering students have been exploring the impact of pollution in our community and writing children’s stories to illustrate the urgency of the problems. Our 10th grade Engineering students will plan to visit with our Porter Elementary School students to read their stories and share the machines they designed and built that will be capable of sorting recyclable materials. And our Media Arts Production students are producing an online newspaper, the Takeover, and preparing to share their first news show. We had hundreds of students participate in College Application Days supported by our counseling department, CalSOAP, WAHUPA, and SD City College and are supporting students as they move now into applying for the many scholarships available to our students. Lincoln High School’s partnership with SD City College in our Workforce Wednesday program was recognized at the annual Counselor’s Conference. Our students, pictured here, shared as a part of the presentation that they valued the flexibility and accessibility that community college provides as they start their own journey through college.

A special shout out to all of our athletes, but especially to our football team who won the SD CIF OPEN Division Championship at Snapdragon Stadium, won the Regional Championship and is now playing for the State Title!! While the wins are great, as our coaches say, it's bigger than football and that is why we celebrate that our players collectively have over 100 scholarship offers - opening even more doors to continue their education and football careers at the next level. Thank you to all of our community who have supported our athletes! Keep an eye on our website and the marquee for dates and times for our Winter Concert, Dance Performance and Student Exhibitions. Times will be posted on our marquee and website. To celebrate your future, current or former Hornet, please visit the ASB Online Store to purchase the latest LINCOLN GEAR. Proceeds from these sales directly support student activities.

We have so many awesome opportunities happening for our students here at Knox. It has been a very busy last few weeks, with so many exciting programs.

Here are a few of our amazing events for students and families!

• Knox Journalism students visited the Journalism program at SDSU
• Our Math Counts club students competed in the winter math competition at Qualcomm
• We have opened our Sunday School program for students to clear absences. Last weekend we had over 120 students at Saturday school and over 50 students at Sunday school
• Our Knox teachers visited the Veba wellness center for sound healing and chair yoga
• Over 30 students passed the LOTE exam earning foreign language credit for High School!
• 25 Knox parents graduated from the PIQE program!
• 8th grade History students visited the San Diego Courthouse Downtown

Learn more about our Knox events here in our newsletters:

https://www.smore.com/kznhs

It's been an exciting time with lots of celebrations at Valencia Park!

Turkey Trot: Our school held a Turkey Trot on November 17 as a fundraiser. We exceeded our goal of raising $10,000! We will be using the funds toward field trips and our garden. Thank you so much to everyone who donated!

UTK Movie Stars: The UTK classroom at Valencia Park is going to be part of a film series for the State of California on how to launch and maintain a successful UTK program. This project will help educators across California as they start UTK programs in multiple cities. We are so proud of the boys, girls, and teachers in our UTK classroom! Way to go!

Girls on the Run: Congratulations Girls on the Run and families for finishing the Girls on the Run 5K on Sunday, December 4th @ Mission Bay!
A big thank you to Ms. Tran, Ms. Miller, and Ms. Reed for running alongside our girls and cheering them on.Every girl ran their best and made it across the finish line, we are so proud of you!

Hello Lincoln Cluster Families, A lot has been going on at Webster! So much, I can only share some. On the evening of November 9th we held our first ever STEAM Night. All students were asked to create a trifold board for display. On the board, we requested students to have a narrative piece of writing with their “thinking map”, some form of art, and some type of computer program, engineering, or science link. Many had “Q: codes for families to link up to and see even more. The evening turned out to be a great success. We had over 100 families show up. There were hands on activities, and a raffle of STEAM activities for the house. UCSD’s CREATE came out with a display, and there was pizza. Check out the pictures.

Also during the month of November, Webster students participated in the American Heart Associations “Kid Heart Challenge”. This is a fundraiser for the Heart Association while teaching students about heart health. Any student that raised $5.00 or more was awarded the opportunity to pour a cup of slime on the principal’s head. The student that raised the most money got to pour a whole bucket of slime on my head. Check out the pictures. Everyone had a great time! Even the principal.

From all of us at Webster, we wish you a wonderful, healthy Holiday Season. Happy New Year!

Encanto Elementary welcomed students and families together in November to celebrate the accomplishments of our 3rd through 5th grade students. This was our first in-person Honor Roll Assembly since February 2020. Our 4th and 5th grade students were recognized for their achievement on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress state test for English Language Arts and Mathematics. The 3rd through 5th grade students were honored for their first trimester academic achievements in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Students were recognized for meeting proficiency in CA standards taught as well as students showing high levels of improvement. In addition, students in grades UTK through 5th grade were celebrated for having perfect attendance for the first trimester of the 2022-23 school year. As an additional recognition, parents were invited on stage to accept the Perfect Attendance Award alongside their student. We look forward to recognizing even more students in March for their second trimester achievements.

Check out the amazing Chollas Mead “Love is Love'' Diversity Mural, which was funded by the CTA Guy DeRosa LBGTQ Safety in Schools Grant. CME was one of the first SDUSD schools to offer a Rainbow Group in order to increase feelings of safety, belonging and inclusivity of all genders and identities. Kindergarten students are having a blast learning how to program the Ozobots that came with the STEAM curriculum - we are seeing focused collaboration and smiles from ALL students!

Nye Alumni - Now Mathnasium Owners - Giving Back to Their Community

Kristi Eugenio and Brea Lee met at Nye Elementary when they were eight years old and are going on 20+ years of friendship. With their previous experience as Mathnasium instructors, the pair decided to open their own center in the community they grew up in to help local students better understand and enjoy math education.

“Growing up with Kristi from elementary through high school to now being her business partner gives us another chapter in life together while giving back to our alma maters – Nye Elementary, O’Farrell Charter, and Morse High -- and to the community that gave us so much over the years,” says Lee.

Starting with a math assessment to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in math, a customized learning plan is then created for each student. They work one-on-one in a group setting with Mathnasium’s highly skilled and trained instructors. Mathnasium transforms frustrations into welcomed challenges by building students’ skills and confidence!

To support the science curriculum here at Johnson Elementary, preschoolers went on a field trip to the San Diego Zoo last month. This experience allowed them to visualize animals in their habitats and better understand that they all have certain needs to survive. With staff and parent volunteers accompanying them, they were able to tour the park, visit and interact in different activities at the Wildlife Explorers’ Basecamp, and enjoy a picnic lunch. We could not be more thankful to the zoo’s education department, as well as everyone else that made this trip possible.

The families at BAKER are going OVER THE TOP in supporting children’s learning at our school! They have launched our FACEBOOK PAGE to ensure all families have access to all of our fabulous events. We had 97% or families participate in parent conferences! We had over 150 students represented at Workshop Wednesdays where families learn specific grade level strategies for learning side-by-side with their children. We had an amazing group come to Baker last Saturday to paint all of our outside rainbow tables! Hats off to Superstar organizer, Maria Beltran and THANK YOU to David Santiago, President and CEO of Finest CIty Construction for their generous donation of time, effort, materials, and expertise!

Hello Lincoln Cluster Families!

Here at Porter Elementary we have had many events to engage our students in their academics and extracurricular activities.

In October, Porter Elementary School celebrated Red Ribbon Week. We focused on age appropriate curriculum to encourage and support students in making healthy and positive lifelong choices. Additionally, the Drug Enforcement Agency held an extremely informative assembly to educate our students about being drug free. The assembly also included a helicopter landing on our field for all students TK-5 to see! We saw the DEA mobile lab, protective equipment, and even got to meet the canine officers! It was a very cool, exciting, and informative opportunity for our Porter Panthers!

At the end of October we held a Halloween Parade for our students. After our all school assembly, students had the opportunity to participate in a parade while wearing their costumes. After the parade, students returned to their classrooms to continue learning for the day.

The Burn Institute and Station 12 held an assembly for UTK-2. Porter Elementary teachers coordinated an assembly from the Burn Institute and Fire Station 12 for all UTK-2nd grade students. Both the Burn Institute and Fire Station 12 provided important tips and information to keep our Porter Panthers and their families safe and healthy in the event of a fire or other emergency.

Through our partnership with AthLEAD Advantage, Porter Elementary students have been able to participate in athletics. Students have been able to develop basic skills and plays. Our students continue to compete against other schools. Our Porter Panthers have been playing flag football or soccer. Our amazing teachers have volunteered and have been doing a great job coaching our students!

Lastly, our students participated in a robotics course in our school library. Students and their families were able to use kits to build robots and program them to move within a course.

We are excited to continue to provide extracurricular opportunities for our students! Please stay tuned for additional information regarding community events at Porter! We are wishing you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season!