What It's All About

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the celebration at the Santa Clara County Office of Education, where Ruskin Elementary School was one of 35 schools in Santa Clara County to be honored as a Distinguished School in 2010. This is the third time in the past four years one of our schools has been so honored.

This week, I want to change pace and rather than focus on our budgetary challenges, I will review some of the great things going on in our schools. After all, these are the reasons we are all involved in the school district, to provide more opportunities for our children to learn and grow.

At the Distinguished School celebration, each honoree school is asked to present a best practice. Ruskin showed off their RuskinFit program. They have made a concerted effort to add physical fitness as an integral part of their educational programs. Ruskin's data shows that fitness correlates with better attendance and improved performance. And this year, Ruskin is a finalist for the Governor's statewide physical fitness challenge. We'll find out next month if they win the grand prize, which comes with $100,000 towards a school fitness center.

Academically, the district continues to show great growth. Eleven of our thirteen schools surpassed the target 800 level on the API in 2009. Noble and Northwood Elementary Schools have climbed above 850. Ruskin scored over 900 for the second straight year.

Toyon Elementary was one of just 8 schools in the state that exited "needs improvement" status in its first year. Toyon has been a leader in using Mind Institute's STMath self-paced program to improve math performance. All the school's classes participate, and by May 1, 12 classes representing over 85% of the student body had achieved progress scores of 75% or better. Toyon was also 1 of 2 schools in San Jose selected to be part of Comcast's national day of service.

It has been a great year for Piedmont Middle School. Last month, their music department participated in the California Heritage Festival in Southern California and was recognized as one of the best music programs in the state. Advanced Choir received a Gold Rating and an invitation to sing at Heritage Festivals Gold Series of concerts at Carnegie Hall next year. Piedmont also took home the biggest award at the festivals, the sweepstakes award, given to the school with the highest score in choir, band, and orchestra.

Piedmont sent 27 students to the Synopsis County Science Fair and 11 came home with prizes. Students from Morrill and Sierramont also participated in the Science Fair. Science starts early in the district, and both Ruskin and Northwood Elementary Schools hosted wonderful science fairs to showcase the work of their students.

Piedmont's AVID program is one of the best in the County. 8 students from that program won spots to attend the 9th Annual AVID Writers Conference held at Stanford University. Piedmont also was recognized as a middle school finalist for the Governor's Physical Fitness Challenge.

This is just a small subset of the great things happening in Berryessa schools. The district's accomplishments in a broad cross section of disciplines are why I am proud to live in the Berryessa School District and even prouder that my daughter is a student in the district. These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work of the dedicated staff at each of our 13 schools and the support of our community for education.