[BHS Etree] BUSD: Letter from Co-Superintendents

[BHS etree]

Letter from Co-Superintendents
Dear Families of High School Students,

This is a great time for the Berkeley Public Schools despite the challenges to public education, and we are excited to be leading them for a number of reasons, including the following:

The highest quality teachers and staff come to Berkeley to teach and work.  (They stay because of the students, their families, and colleagues, the positive work environment, and our commitment to educate the whole child.)
Our school principals and administrators are skilled instructional leaders and managers who help make our job easier.
Students and families in every school are engaged in their school’s success whether it’s building a welcoming community, focusing on academics, or having courageous conversations about change.
 We are not in this alone.  We have an unprecedented commitment from all corners of Berkeley to the 2020 Vision that demands equitable achievement outcomes for all students regardless of race or ethnicity - and we are making progress.
Last year we committed to improving communications to you, striving to make information more easily accessible so you are better informed about our programs and services that help your children succeed.  We have worked on improving our customer service and on quicker response times to your questions and concerns. Our website and biweekly email newsletters are also intended to give you regular updates.

This year we are focusing our energies on furthering the momentum of the last few years by:

Making the transition to the use of the new national K-12 Common Core Standards that raise the bar of student achievement at every grade level so students are college and career ready when they complete high school.
Utilizing strategies, such as explicit instruction in academic language, targeted intervention services, and student engagement to improve attendance, in order to accelerate the performance of students who have not demonstrated grade level proficiency and ensure all students succeed.
Examining instructional practices in mathematics and collaborating on common assessments to inform teaching and learning.
As you are aware, budgets are very tight and future funding projections for our schools are difficult to make at this time.  We will know more about the budget situation ahead after the November 6th election when voters will weigh in on a guaranteed increase in funding streams for our public schools under Propositions 30 and 38.

It is an honor for us to be serving as Co-Superintendents for this school year, and we intend to further our district’s mission of excellence, equity, engagement, and enrichment in every Berkeley school during our tenure.  Please let us know how we are doing along the way.

Sincerely,                                                                                                           

 
Javetta Cleveland                                                                 Neil Smith

Co-Superintendent                                                               Co-Superintendent


-- 
Jana Jandra
Executive Assistant
Office of the Superintendent
510-644-6206





_____________________

Diane Douglas, Marguerite Fa-Kaji and Lisa Sibony are the parent-volunteer facilitators of the etree; please direct any questions to them at bhs-owner at lmi.net. To post a message, send to: bhs at lmi.net; BHS etree archives: http://lists.lmi.net/pipermail/bhs/
To unsubscribe from the etree, send an email to bhs-request at lmi.net with one word only in the subject line: 'unsubscribe'; To subscribe to the etree, send an email to bhs-request at lmi.net with one word only in the subject line: 'subscribe'

http://bhs.berkeleyschools.net/





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lmi.net/pipermail/bhs/attachments/20121101/6a4b34b6/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: FallBilingualLetterHIGHSCHOOLfamilies2012-1.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 243778 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.lmi.net/pipermail/bhs/attachments/20121101/6a4b34b6/attachment.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lmi.net/pipermail/bhs/attachments/20121101/6a4b34b6/attachment-0001.html>