Board Highlights
from the May 28, 2019 meeting
Lori Nuño named Assistant Principal of Rancho Middle School
In Closed Session, the Board approved Superintendent Cheryl Jordan's recommendation for Assistant Principal of Rancho Milpitas Middle School, effective July 1. In Open Session, she introduced and recognized Lori Nuño, currently Assistant Principal of Rose Elementary School.

"Something she said about how she plans to focus on our Strategic Goal around pathways was looking at it from the viewpoint of social emotional intelligence, and how building a culture for students to really hone in on those skills would greatly benefit both their academic success as well as their career," Jordan said.

After she was recognized, Nuño came forward to say a few words.

"First, I would like to thank my current principal, Nanci Pass, for giving me the guidance, encouragement, and space to grow as an elementary administrator in this district," Nuño said. "I have enjoyed working with the Rose staff and community, and am very grateful for my time there. I am however very enthusiastic and excited to go back to Rancho, where I started my MUSD career as a science teacher."

At Rancho, she will serve alongside Principal Casey McMurray (pictured with Nuño). Nuño has been with Milpitas Unified School District since 2013, and taught at Rancho for two years. In 2015, she became Assistant Principal at Rose Elementary School.

  
RECOGNITIONS
MHS Speech and Debate team members honored for earning good marks at debates
Trustees alongside Superintendent Jordan honored members of the Milpitas High School Speech and Debate team who have earned good marks at recent debates.

They include Sana Jaffery, two-time Santa Clara University Champion, current team leader in NSDA honor society points, and World School's debate qualifier to NSDA tournament in Dallas in June for our all-district team; Josephine Tai and Oishika Barat, MHS' first team to qualify for the state tournament in public forum; Rachel Wu and Brandon Schletzbaum, qualifiers for the Tournament of Champions in Public Forum Debate; and Disha Yadav, runner up in JV Lincoln Douglas debate at University of California at Berkeley out of 147 from across America.

Superintendent Jordan also shared her gratefulness to their coach Charles Schletzbaum. He dedicates many hours and weekends throughout the school year, and has made it an institution with his wife helping and son competing.

"I am very pleased at the work that you do on behalf of our kids, because without you working they wouldn't have this opportunity which is a pathway for them to discover their speech and communication, so thank you," Jordan said.
Winners in SCCOE student art contests acknowledged for placing
Superintendent Jordan and Board Members recognized w inners in the Santa Clara County Office of Education's  My Name, My Identity Student Artwork Contest : Mattos Elementary School first graders Vera So for All About Me!; Vedant Chadha for Vedant 787; Olivia Chu for My Name is Zhi Tóng; Aria Gowdish for Aria the Traveler; and Zanker Elementary School sixth grader Samantha Lopez Urzua for Dia de los Muertos.

This one-day student artwork exhibit was held as part of the National Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month Showcase and in support of March's Youth Art Month. The theme was "My Name, My Identity: Celebrating Language and Culture." The task was for students to use art in order to depict their ethnic origins.

They also recognized Rancho eighth grader Mia Liu for being selected in the  SCCOE's Young Artist Showcase  for her piece Designing Dreams. Every year, the SCCOE invites public and charter school students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade to highlight their talents and participate in the event.
Big crowd of students, staff applaud the efforts of Rancho English teacher Brenna Dimas
Success is often measured by the number of lives you touch for the better. Proof of this was overwhelmingly on display for Brenna Dimas, a seventh grade English language arts teacher at Rancho Milpitas Middle School, with the amount of past and current students and staff who came out (many of them with congratulatory posters) to celebrate her at the Board Meeting.

She was chosen as the May certificated winner in the District's #WEareMUSDChampions program. Dimas was chosen for the award after being nominated by colleague Beth Kohn. She said Dimas has demonstrated her work with the following Strategic Goal: "Build a Culture of We that engages parents, staff, and community partners in supporting student success."
REPORTS
Local Control and Accountability Plan study session outlines highlights, actions, and services in MUSD
Norma Rodriguez, Assistant Superintendent of Learning and Development, led a Study Session about the District's progress with the Local Control and Accountability Plan. She invited team members from her department to introduce themselves because they have been "instrumental" in carrying out some of the actions that are on the LCAP. Rodriguez than credited the LCAP Committee members, some of whom were also in attendance at the meeting.

"The LCAP is our plan, and it is a tool for us to identify the students needs, capture them, and then set goals, plan actions, so that we can utilize and maximize the resources that we have to address the needs that we've identified," Rodriguez said.

The Study Session identified the LCAP highlights, the greatest progress and greatest needs, and performance gaps. It was structured by laying out Goals, one by one, sharing the highlights, actions, and services. Goal 1, for example, has 18 actions aligned to state priorities. Of these include increased rigor and relevance through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and personalized pathways and computer science standards.

Of the highlights is the district's graduation rate, which comes in at 95.3 percent. English language arts is also strong with 48 points above the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) standard. And the reclassification rate for English language learners improved from 12 percent to 15.6 percent.

ACTION ITEMS
Resolution declares MUSD a "Computer Science for All" district
“With more than 74,000 open computing jobs in the state of California and less than half of its schools offering this fundamental subject, there’s a clear gap that needs to be addressed".  code.org Sept. 6, 2018  

The State Board of Education has adopted K-12 Computer Science (CS) Standards, and on May 8, 2019 it approved the  California Department of Education’s CS Implementation Plan . At the May 28 meeting, the Board adopted a resolution declaring MUSD a Computer Science for All district, and resolving to implement the standards for all students.

"As we know, computer science is an essential understanding that our students need to have if they're going to be producers and creators as they graduate from their K-12 experience," Jordan said. "Without at least the knowledge and understanding of how computers work, they will be at an extreme disadvantage which will then contribute even more greatly to widening the opportunity gap. ... I'm really excited to bring (the resolution) to the board to both adopt the standards and to make Milpitas Unified a Computer Science for All district."

This coming year, the District will focus on awareness, piloting, and getting to know the standards, Jordan added, aligned with the Strategic Goal of developing educational pathways.

She then asked Milpitas High School senior Luke Ren, founder of One-Up Coding , to say a few words about himself and the cause before reading the resolution into the record. One-Up Coding aims to teach practical coding skills to middle school and high school students of all levels of coding experience. The program will run every Wednesday from 3-5 p.m. during the summer starting June 12 at Calaveras Hills High School Room 310.

"Computer science is the future," Ren said. "It is a language we all must learn to communicate, not only with computers, but each other in a whole new way. I think it's so important because, not only are we in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, the hub of all computer science itself, but we are in the hub of innovation. I think it's so important that our schools provide such an education."