Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter
September 2021
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families
Greetings Lincoln Cluster Families,
As we close out the month of September of school for our students, staff and families, we have never been more tested as a community to come together, partner in innovative ways, solve complex and challenging problems, and continue to provide a warm, welcoming, and safe environment for our students to thrive and experience joy in their learning spaces. I am incredibly proud of our leaders, teachers, support staff, families, and community partners and volunteers working in unprecedented times to strengthen our collective focus on our learners feeling seen, heard and valued every day. I have personally experienced all of our schools and many of our classrooms throughout our Lincoln Cluster this year, and we have exceptional staff, brilliant children, and amazing leaders that are working and learning together, and responding in ways that speak to our collective humanity as a whole community. You are all an inspiration, and with much gratitude, I appreciate each and every one of you with my full heart and self.
With deep appreciation,
Bruce R. Bivins
Area 1 Superintendent
Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School
Knox Middle School
Knox Middle
Our Knox Pillars can be found here.
Millennial Tech Middle School
MTM
MTM starts the year by practicing Kindness and Peace to Build Community and Belonging.
Building Community and belonging was a focus of our first two weeks of school at MTM. Students participated in a kindness challenge and painted rocks with inspirational kindness messages that will enter the new MTM Kindness Rock Garden, titled "MTM ROCKS"!. Students also pledged to Kindness and Peace by signing our school wide poster that has been hanging in our center courtyard. MTM aims to mobilize our community through transformative acts of kindness. Our aim is to create a positive culture of kindness and peace in which every young person's selfless act matters! Kindness is not defined by lofty stories, it exists all around us and needs to be celebrated at every moment of life because we believe #KindnessMatters every day at MTM.
Our focus is to celebrate: kindness for self, others and nature everyday.
Porter Elementary School
Porter Elem.
Baker Elementary School
Baker Elem.
Baker Students Return to JOYFUL Learning!
Baker teachers and staff are committed to empowering student voice and identity across the entire curriculum. Our partnership with SouthEast Early Prevention (SEEP) guarantees access to social-emotional learning and our Illustrative Math (IM) Pilot ensures teachers have the skills and pedagogy to teach mathematics in ways that foster meaning and connections. Baker salutes our teachers, staff, and parents who support JOYFUL learning for all of our Baker Bobcats!
Nye Elementary School
Nye Elem.
Nye celebrate its students!
In an effort to restore some sort of normalcy to their school site, Nye elementary school decided to continue its monthly awards ceremony! Dr. Thompson and fifth grade student Faith planned a safe ceremony where all students were celebrated in their classrooms. In order to allow parents to participate they were asked to stand outside the school while names were called on the intercom system. Students who received awards were recorded in their classrooms and pictures posted on Class Dojo!
Valencia Park Elementary School
Valencia Park Elementary
Balboa Elementary School
Balboa Elem.
Dear Balboa Families,
Balboa's goal this year is towards customer service. We will aim at transparency in teaching, services, care and love for our students. This is the beginning where we open our doors to success!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19lW_XcaT1l-PDKvpwmdf239Wgcyzg4niUYaZhb5UuPw/edit?usp=sharing
Chavez Elementary School
Chavez Elem.
Our first back to school night took place via Zoom and I am happy to report that it was a huge SUCCESS! It shows how much parents are committed to their child’s education.
Our puppet show in the library is up and running and this month we started with the Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The Kindergarteners and the Second graders puppeteers were a bit hesitant and at the end they totally enjoyed participating. The audience showed their respect and gratitude to the puppeteers.
Senator Ben Hueso visited Chavez Elementary to co-present the Barona Education Check to support the 5th graders in attending camp this year at Cuyamaca. Students were excited to meet the senator and the chair from Barona.
Horton Elementary School
Horton Elem. -
Horton Hawks are off to a strong start of the school year. Staff welcomed students on August 30th and began to build our learning community. To foster a safe, inclusive, welcoming school environment, each classroom at Horton Elementary engages in daily community circles. Implementing community circles as a class routine helps build community within the classroom and school by teaching students to be an active participant, a problem solver, and a collaborator. By implementing community circles school wide, we are working towards creating a common culture that values collaboration, risk-taking, respect, openness and honesty. Circles are not a “special” activity but are integrated into our regular daily routine. Circle norms, are developed together, to create a sense of shared responsibility for the classroom at all times (not just during circles). Check out some of our Community Circle artifacts!
Los Horton Hawks han tenido un buen comienzo del año escolar. El personal dio la bienvenida a los estudiantes el 30 de agosto y comenzamos a establecer nuestra comunidad de aprendizaje. Para fomentar un ambiente escolar seguro, inclusivo y acogedor, cada salón de la Primaria Horton participa en los círculos comunitarios diarios. La implementación de los círculos comunitarios como una rutina de clase ayuda a fomentar una comunidad dentro del aula y la escuela al enseñar a los estudiantes a ser un participante activo, buscar soluciones de problemas y ser un colaborador. Al implementar círculos comunitarios en toda la escuela, estamos trabajando para crear una cultura común que valore la colaboración, estar abierto a nuevas cosas, el respeto, la apertura y la honestidad. Los círculos no son una actividad "especial", sino que están integrados en nuestra rutina diaria habitual. Las normas del círculo, se desarrollan juntas, para crear un sentido de responsabilidad compartida en el aula en todo momento (no solo durante los círculos). ¡Echa un vistazo a algunos de los artefactos de nuestros Círculos Comunitarios!
Webster Elementary School
Webster Elementary
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year. We opened our year just one month ago and already so much has happened. Our new Literacy teacher/coach has been working closely with our primary staff building their capacity around teaching reading with fidelity. Our goal is to have all students reading at grade level by the end of the year. With Mrs. Bernitz guidance, I know we are on the right road to meet this goal. Webster is continuing with our partnership with the DEEP nonprofit, which supports the instruction in grades UTK to 3rd. As well, as parent support and instructional classes. We have two new teachers to Webster both are fabulous. Webster really was fortunate to hire these two teachers before others schools grabbed them up.
I also want to remind the community that Webster has been awarded a multimillion-dollar Federal grant to improve our STEAM instruction as well as to grow our school population. This grant is just starting and will be with Webster over the next five years. We are in the process of hiring a Resource teacher to manage and run the grant. We are excited.
Encanto Elementary School
Encanto Elementary
Encanto Eagles are SOARing into the new school year! As staff prepared to welcome our new and existing students, they prepared lessons, tasks and collaborative activities that work students’ minds, bodies, and hearts. Teachers connected learning to the students’ lives and interests outside of the classroom in order to learn about their students and build strong positive relationships. Our youngest learners began our new Universal Transitional Kindergarten class eager to learn how to read and write. Our 2nd grade students worked on building their language, communication and social skills. Our 5th graders collaborated on creating the learning environment they need in order to SOAR. Our Eagles are ready to spread their wings, SOAR high and have the best year ever.
Chollas-Mead Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elem.
Welcome back Chollas Mead Family. We are so thrilled to have our students and staff back on campus. Students are so excited each day to participate in on site learning. This month we celebrated Hispanic Heritage month with read alouds with Ms. Scott. Students read “Separate is Never Equal” with their classmates and participated in discussions about the book.
Teachers are working hard to incorporate social and emotional strategies to allow students to adapt being back on campus. Daily breaks are built into the school day. We have also kicked off the Running Club in the morning and many students have earned their first toe token…. WAY to GO!!
Johnson Elementary School
Johnson Elem.
Johnson students are readers and writers! Teaching and learning is focused on literacy across the curriculum. Whether it is in math, science, social science or the literacy block, teachers are planning for the reading needed to understand the content topics, we are also planning for the learning opportunities in each content area to point out the reading and writing strategies students will be using throughout the day. We look forward to the accomplishments our students will achieve as readers, writers, listeners and speakers this school year!