Thank you to all of our schools for submitting their 2020-2021 PSD Stats @ a Glance. We've compiled the information into the 2020-2021 PSD School Statistical Information. In addition, click here for the 2020-2021 LCMS school statistics.

Thank you to the 85+ administrators and administrative teams who attended the PSD Administrators Leadership Conference! We were blessed with worship led by Pastor Drew Ross and his Music Ministry Team from Christ, Costa Mesa, on the opening day, and led in Bible Study by Dr. Mary Scott, Executive Director at Orange Lutheran High School. Our featured presenter, Andrew McPeak from Growing Leaders (Atlanta), gave us great insight into Generation Z, and he encouraged us as we head into a new school year out of a very unique 2020-2021. We also had wonderful fellowship and networking opportunities! For those in attendance, please watch for a conference evaluation to be emailed to you this week. If you weren’t there this year, PLEASE mark your 2022 calendar for our next Administrators Leadership Conference – July 20-22, 2022, again at the Hyatt Resort in Indian Wells, CA! 

The TLC Grant is an educational grant on behalf of the Trinity Lutheran Church Educational Endowment Fund (Reseda, CA). This grant has been established as a gift to the Church for the continuation of excellent Lutheran education in the Pacific Southwest District. This is a competitive grant based on the strength of the application and is open to all schools, K-12. Since the inception of this grant in January 2016, $276,842 has been granted to 45 different schools in the district. You are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to enhance the education of your students!

There are only three days left to submit your grant applications. Your requests should be innovative and have an impact on your school community. Please click here to be directed to the application form. The deadline to submit your application is THIS SATURDAY, July 31. Recipients will be notified of grant awards in mid-August.

We would like to make you aware of a website called MinistryFOCUS. This is a grassroots volunteer organization within the LCMS that strives to alleviate the burdensome educational debt of pastors and other called workers. Since 2015, they have provided nearly 200 grants totaling nearly $500,000 to Lutheran called workers, helping them focus less on money and more on ministry, so that faith is strengthened and more people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. On this site you have the opportunity to request support for your educational debt or provide financial support to help MinistryFOCUS offer assistance to those in need. 

This November, LEC will be held on-site at the JW Marriott Desert Springs! We are super excited about this! Our theme this year is Limitless from Ephesians 3:20-21. We look forward to a time of Spiritual Nurture, Professional Growth, and Fellowship. Your LEC Committee is focusing this year’s speakers and sessions into three specific topics: Mental Health, Digital Awareness, and Racial Relationships. Our mental health sessions will focus on caring for yourself and your students as we move forward. The screen time awareness sessions will focus on healthy ways to work with your students regarding screen time, setting healthy boundaries, and creative ways to work with necessary screen time. These session times will be geared toward early childhood through high school teachers and administrators. We are excited to welcome Karen Merritt to speak about mental health. Many of you may remember Karen from a Zoom webinar she presented earlier this year. Karen brings a background of counseling and support for Lutheran educators and will have great things to share! Your LEC Committee is working hard to create a wonderful experience as we come back together to celebrate being Lutheran educators! You won’t want to miss this year’s conference!

The cost for LEC this year will be $150 per person and hotel rooms will be $104 per night. Be sure to mark your school calendars for November 21-23 to allow for all of your staff to be able to attend and participate in the conference this year! It will be an extra special gathering to be sure!

The Making Jesus Real curriculum for Early Childhood centers is now complete! Rachel Klitzing sends her sincere thanks to Felix Rivera from Bethany Lutheran Church, Long Beach, CA, for producing this series, and to Pastor Seth Moorman from Bethany and Mary Wolfinbarger from Abiding Savior Lutheran Preschool, Lake Forest, CA, for their starring roles and behind the scenes work to complete this wonderful series! The Making Jesus Real series was designed to support early childhood through second grade teachers who do not come from a Lutheran background, Lutheran training, or haven’t taken a course in teaching faith to children, so that they can understand and learn more about the doctrine of the LCMS and be confident as they teach Bible stories in their classrooms. We strongly encourage all of our preschool through second grade teachers and directors to go through this free training prior to starting their school year! You will find the complete course hosted on the School Ministries website using this link. 

Jr/Sr High School Educator      

Each week, prayers of thanksgiving and prayers for teachers, administrators, support staff, pastors, students, and families of the Lutheran schools, early childhood centers, and churches of the Pacific Southwest District are listed. To include names on the list, please send information to [email protected] by noon on Tuesday of each week.