District News

“The Innovation Grant program encourages students to take ownership of their education and school experience,” said District Superintendent Shelly Viramontez.

Through the grant program, 10 student teams are using the design-thinking process to generate, test and implement ideas for two areas identified in our student survey data as needs: campus cleanliness and building a sense of belonging at their schools. 

“When we provide students with real-world challenges, they see the connections to what they learn in school and recognize they have the ability to make a difference in their everyday lives,” Viramontez added. 

Here are stories of progress at two schools.

Capri School: Using the idea of prevention, not punishment, the Capri Innovation Team set about promoting positive behavior focused on three challenges: campus cleanliness, maintaining play equipment, and reducing conflicts at recess..  

“Our student leadership team has taken the initiative to build community across grade levels through PE Buddies, Recess Buddies, Leadership Club, Design Challenges, and Teacher Green Team (campus clean-up),” said Gloria McGriff. “The students create, collaborate, communicate, and are empathetic.”

The Green Team is a group of students who choose to check out buckets, gloves and “garbage grabbers” to collect litter. “Before, the Green Team was being used for consequences instead of a fun activity to do,” said student Saveh. “We changed it so students and classes that participate earn rewards like a popsicle party, or extra STEAM Lab time.”

The PE Leaders are trained 4th and 5th grade students who join the students in grades K-2 at recess to lead games, resolve conflicts, and reinforce positive behavior among the younger students. The Innovation Grant helped to pay for training student leaders in conflict resolution with Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and in the use and care of STEAM Lab and playground equipment.

The students and staff are noticing the difference. The office is seeing fewer students being sent there for making poor choices, and students are more aware of how individual behaviors, like not playing fair or not returning equipment, impact others at the school. 

Monroe Middle School: “The challenge was to try to find a way to communicate with people who don’t speak English so they can learn better and feel welcome,” said Gabriel, one of Monroe's Innovation Team members. The team’s solution: Newcomer Ambassadors. 

Schools across the U.S. have experienced increasing numbers of students arriving from other countries, such as Ukraine and Afghanistan, who have little or no English skills. The Ambassadors help the new students access translation applications on a school iPad.  

“It helps our students continue to be successful in school, by accessing content-specific material in their home language,” said Teacher Cheryl Lee. The project does more than assist students with their studies. It also builds a sense of belonging as communication between all peers increases. “It also helps students know that they can help themselves,” said student Mobasher.

We will know that this project is successful by analyzing student work production and engagement along with student surveys & interviews.

Our teachers are committed to ensuring that every student becomes a proficient reader. Parents can help by encouraging your child to read every day–even when schools close for summer. In-person or online access is easier for all CUSD students, because the Campbell public library accounts they have during the school year are good even while schools are closed for summer break. 

Following is information about Santa Clara County’s public library summer programs.

SCCLD’s Summer Reading Program Find Your Voice

Our voices have power. We use our voices to share stories, express ourselves, and spark change. Our voices include not only the sounds we make, but the words we write, the art we create, the movements we perform, and the actions we take each day to impact our world.

 Join us for an exciting array of programs for children, teens, and adults. Read a book and find your voice this summer with SCCLD!  All are invited to join June 1st through July 31st.  It’s free and fun for all ages!

How to Join

• It’s easy to get started. Beginning June 1st, sign up (or log in) online on Beanstack (link to pre-register will be available May 1st), or print a reading log.  You can also download the Beanstack app for your mobile device.
• Earn badges by reading and completing activities. This year, SCCLD’s Summer Reading Program runs June 1st through July 31st.

Look forward to:

• Programs for kids, teens, and adults including performers, book clubs, and more!
• Earn badges throughout the summer in Beanstack by logging your reading and activities.

Earn a prize* for reading 5 books and completing one activity this summer!

*Completion prizes will be available starting August 1st while supplies last.

Calendars list many different appreciation dates for many different people and professions. In an effort to acknowledge all of our employees, our district recognizes them together during one special week. We know that it takes all of us working together to safely educate students to their highest potential.

While we encourage you to acknowledge groups during their designated days, we invite you to join us during Employee Appreciation Week, May 22-26, 2023, to recognize and acknowledge the many people in our district who work hard every day to make your child’s school a great place to learn and a great place to work.

The volume of work needing to be done in education can seem insurmountable. What makes the work manageable is focusing on a specific challenge, taking one or two actions aimed at improvement, assessing for effectiveness, scaling what works, and abandoning what doesn’t. This concept is at the core of Campbell Union School Districts’ continuous improvement work. 

“Continual Improvement makes system change do-able. It simplifies the process and prioritizes what matters most,” said Superintendent Shelly Viramontez. “Improving the student’s educational experience is key. It’s better this week than last week, better this month than last month, and so on.  We are getting better, not perfect.”

Since the 2021-22 school year, district leaders have trained to use improvement practices to tackle barriers to learning—language differences, socioeconomic disadvantages, and others—and close achievement gaps. Training is expanding this year to include school-level staff.

Improvement practices speeds up learning-by-doing, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. It is a user-centered and problem-centered approach to improving teaching and learning. It applies small, measurable, and individualized changes to address specific issues and uncover the root cause of problems.

Using surveys, assessments, and other data sources, staff can identify one or two ‘pain points’ in the system, test a solution, study the outcomes, and adjust or continue the practice based on the data. Then, they move on to the next one.

“Systems get what they’re designed to get,” said Viramontez. “To change what we get, we need to be intentional about adjusting the system.”