Lincoln Cluster Schools Newsletter
April/May 2022
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families
Greetings Lincoln Cluster Families,
I would personally like to take a moment to thank each of you for all the support you have given to our Lincoln Cluster Schools over the course of this school year. Returning to school amidst a pandemic with many COVID protocols was no easy task to say the least. Your support of and partnership with our staff teams at each school site demonstrated grace and patience, along with your guidance and input as we collectively navigated these unchartered waters to ensure a safe return to school with successful outcomes for all children. You continued to remain flexible as protocols changed, sometime daily, and we learned more about ways to keep our campuses healthy and well, where all students felt a sense of belonging, cared for, and strongly valued. As we move on to summer, I hope that our families are able to take time to celebrate all that your students have accomplished on their journey this year. It is truly remarkable what a committed group of individuals can achieve when we work together toward a common vision with common goals. We have overcome many challenges together with your partnership. Your commitment to our cluster is incredibly welcomed, appreciated, and rejoiced. We hope that this summer your student will join us for our Level Up summer programs offered across our campuses within our cluster. Have a blessed and beautiful end of year celebrations, summer of learning, and family fun!
Sincerely,
Bruce R. Bivins
Area 1 Superintendent
Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School
May was just the start of our celebration season at Lincoln High School. Here are a few highlights:
- Thank you to our community partners who helped raise the final money needed to help our class of 2022 have a beautiful prom at the Hyatt Regency at Mission Bay. Ms. Cornwell and her team put on a beautiful event and our Hornets celebrated in style!
- May 18, we celebrated over 500 of our Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors who earned their name on the Honor Roll List. The auditorium was filled to standing room only with our wonderful Lincoln families! Check out the photos on our Facebook Page.
- May 19, sophomores from the Engineering, Biomedical, Video Production and Technical Theater pathway programs presented their learning to our community of industry partners and to our freshman who just received their Pathway Admissions Letter.
- Friday, May 20th, City College President, Dr. Shabazz and faculty visited with our seniors who plan to attend City College. Students completed their Promise Program application. City awarded $10,000 in scholarships!
- Saturday, May 21st Lincoln High School hosted all High School JROTC cadets at the district’s Pass and Review
Congratulations to our Baseball Team who won their first two rounds for playoffs. We wish them luck as they take on Pacific Ridge High School on Tuesday!
Graduation Ceremony
Graduation will take place on Tuesday June 14 at 2:00 p.m. on Lincoln High School’s Football Field. Each student will be given 6 free tickets. Additional tickets can be purchased in the finance office or online for $10 using the following link https://sdusd.schoolcashonline.com/.
ALL students interested in playing Lincoln Football are invited to voluntary summer football workouts which will begin June 20 at 4pm - 6pm.
Knox Middle School
Knox Middle
Porter Elementary School
Porter Elem.
Valencia Park Elementary School
Valencia Park Elementary
Our upper grade girls love our SciTech program! On May 7th, our SciTech students went to the Ruben Fleet Science Center to participate in the SciTech Tech Challenge, in which students used their problem-solving and creativity to respond to various challenge prompts involving technology. At the end of the event, the girls asked for more challenges!
Our Girls On the Run program has also been a huge hit! Our students in Girls on the Run participated in the 5k run at Mission Bay on May 15. This program has helped our students build community, collaborate, develop perseverance, and look forward to exercise!
Horton Elementary School
Horton Elem. -
At the end of April, the Horton Hawks celebrated Earth Day. Earth Day is all about educating people about conservation, protesting against climate change and global warming and encouraging volunteering for the good of the planet. Throughout Earth Week, students engaged in reading and learning about ways to protect and take care of the environment. Our student council hosted a series of activities and events that week such as a recycling contest and clean up day. We held a school wide Earth Day parade to commemorate Earth Day on April 22nd.
In May, our 3rd-5th grade students take the state CAASPP assessment. This is the first time our students will take this assessment, and our TK-2nd grade students gave our upper grade students a “pep talk” and wished them good luck on the testing days. Each 3rd-5th grade classroom had a TK-2 buddy classroom that shared positive messages and gave small “good luck” motivational treats or letters each day. Our student council sold “good luck grams” prior to the testing weeks for students and families to write a motivational message for students. We’re confident that our students will do their best and show what they know. They’ve worked hard this year.
A finales de abril, los Horton Hawks celebraron el Día de la Tierra. El Día de la Tierra trata de educar a las personas sobre la conservación, llamar la atención al cambio climático y el calentamiento global y alentar el voluntariado por el bien del planeta. A lo largo de la Semana de la Tierra, los estudiantes participaron en actividades sobre las formas de proteger y cuidar el medio ambiente. Nuestro concilio estudiantil organizó una serie de actividades y eventos esta semana, como un concurso de reciclaje y un día de limpieza. Llevamos a cabo un desfile del Día de la Tierra en toda la escuela para conmemorar el Día de la Tierra el 22 de abril.
En mayo, nuestros estudiantes de 3.° a 5.° grado toman la prueba estatal CAASPP. Esta es la primera vez que nuestros estudiantes toman esta evaluación, y nuestros estudiantes de TK-2do grado dieron a nuestros estudiantes de grado superior una "charla de ánimo" y les desearon buena suerte en los días de prueba. Cada salón de clases de 3.° a 5.° grado tenía un salón “buddy” de TK-2 que compartía mensajes positivos y daba pequeños regalitos o cartas motivacionales de "buena suerte" todos los días. Nuestro concilio estudiantil vendió "tarjetas de buena suerte" la semana anterior del exámen para que los estudiantes y las familias escriban un mensaje de motivación para los estudiantes. Estamos seguros de que nuestros estudiantes darán lo mejor de sí mismos y demostrarán lo que saben. Han trabajado mucho este año.
Webster Elementary School
Webster Elementary
Hello Lincoln Cluster Families, I am so happy to report we held our Spring Open House with parents and families invited to be on campus! It was wonderful having the school open to families for the first time in two years. We had a wonderful turn out. Classrooms displayed the writing process from thinking maps, to outlines to completed published writing. This took place in all grade levels.
As we enter the home stretch for the school year, we are focused on our California State Testing also known as CAASPP Testing. All 3rd thru 5th graders are taking this exam now. We set aside two plus weeks to complete the exam. With our writing focus this year, we are predicting improvements with our writing scores. We will know more about our results in late June or early July.
With Webster’s Magnet STEAM grant, we have begun the process of adding more of the Arts to our instruction. All Webster students had the opportunity to work with an Art teacher from Art Reach, a local Arts education nonprofit. See photos.
Webster’s 5th graders are on the cusp of Middle School. You can feel the excitement. We have four big events planned. A Tee-Shirt signing and Ice Cream Sundae Party, an Egg Toss and Pizza Party, a Staff vs the students kickball game, and our promotion assembly to wrap up the year on June 14th. It is a wonderful time of year but one that is also filled with sadness because the end is coming and having to say goodbye. Have a safe and delightful summer.
Encanto Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elementary School
Chollas-Mead Elem.
Chollas Mead has been full of activities and events since our return from Spring Break. Mr. Tom Courtney and Officer Lujan have joined forces to get a new club, the League of Extraordinary and Amazing Kids (LEAP) up and running. Throughout their four meetings, the number of students AND parents has grown exponentially. Some of the LEAP events in April include a visit from additional officers and a police K-9 to demonstrate what leadership qualities a law enforcement office must have, a coordinated hike with families and police officers, and a fire engine crew visit!
The San Diego Humane Society visited 3rd grade. Students heard about the benefits of adopting animals instead of buying them - including small pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters. Students also learned about compassion for animals and all the components of proper animal care.
A community member and Earthlab partner, Patrice Baker, brought a variety of electric vehicles to our parking lot for classes to view and learn about riding electric bikes and driving Teslas. We have also hosted our second Resource Fair at Chollas Mead. Families were able to meet with several community partners offering a variety of services including financial classes to prepare adults to purchase a home, health care, free library cards, opportunities to learn how to conserve energy and spend less on electricity/gas bills, and extracurricular enrichment for students.
Johnson Elementary School
Johnson Elem.
Why was the Principal on the roof?
Johnson's Attendance Challenge! In the months of April, May and June, the Johnson Staff challenged the students to an attendance goal. The magic number is 95%! Each classroom calculated how many people it would take to have a 95% attendance rate for their classroom.
Every week, the school has met the goal! To hold up our end of the bargain, the principal did the morning announcements from the roof of the school, the staff switched classrooms and taught a different grade for part of the school day and the staff dressed in Johnson's blue and white uniform while the students got teacher free dress.
What will the Johnson Staff do next? Students will need to reach their milestone every week in order to find out!
Baker Elementary School
Baker Elem.
Baker students were proud to present at the San Diego Unified School District Board Meeting on Tuesday, May 10, 2022! ASB President Jayden Clincy and ASB Vice president, Destinee Garcia, served as Masters of Ceremony and highlighted our school’s purpose. At Baker Elementary, our school motto is DREAM, BELIEVE, ACHIEVE. We have to have a dream for our future in order to have a purpose for our education. Our teachers work really hard to make sure we feel joy when learning in the classroom. It is important that we see kids like ourselves in the books we read and the problems we solve. While we learn a lot about math and literacy, we are also learning what it means to be passionate about something. In addition to our regular classroom lessons, we have lots of opportunities to explore our passions. We have enrichment classes and clubs every week that give us experiences that help us learn about future careers we might love. At the board meeting club members shared their passions for Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Art, Dance, Athletics, Leadership, Chess, Gardening, and more! Our amazing Dream Team performed a carefully choreographed dance and we proudly shared our school song!