Madrone High School

HAGA CLIC AQUI PARA LEER EN ESPANOL

REMINDER: Round two of our February Together 2023 Community Workshops THIS WEEK! Please join us!

We'd like your input on brainstorming high-leverage actions - what makes a difference in our classrooms and schools for students?

These are regional workshops hosted at schools across the District - you are encouraged to attend whichever session is most convenient for you, with all four February sessions being identical. 

All workshops are open to all students, teachers, staff, families, community members and partners. Spanish interpretation will be provided.

Together 2023 Community Workshop #2

All sessions from 6 - 7:30 pm

Bahia Vista event will be offered solely in Spanish. 

All other events will be offered with Spanish translation. 

We hope to see you and look forward to your input! 

If you have any questions, contact communications@srcs.org or 415-492-3233.

Learn More: www.srcs.org/Together2023

SRCS Staff:

As a reminder, this weekend is an “email free” weekend in Outlook.

Please try to refrain from emailing from 6 PM, Friday, February 21 to 6 AM, Monday, February 24 when you will start using Gmail. We will be completing the final migration of all staff email to Gmail over the weekend. 

All SRCS staff will start using Gmail on Monday morning at 6 AM. To access your email go to webmail.srcs.org or www.SRCS.org → Staff Resources -> Staff Webmail Access or log in to www.google.com with your SRCS username and password and go to the G Suite waffle and click on the Gmail icon! 

We are grateful for your support and partnership as we transition to Gmail and Google Calendar!

We are in the midst of our Together 2023 planning process to define our district values, the skills our students need to compete in today's competitive world, the goals for the coming years and the high leverage actions we will take to achieve our goals. We have been reaching out to all of our community members for input into this process, and have met with our certificated and classified staff, parents, students, administrators and community members for your ideas and input. Right now, we are receiving feedback on the kinds of high-impact strategies that we can implement to help us close the opportunity gap and ensure that all of our students are developing the skills needed to be successful adults. On February 25th and 27th, we will be having a second round of community meetings to gather further input from you all and we hope to see you there! More information here! 

Today I would like to take a few moments to write about the three values that we have identified through your input here in San Rafael as the key principles and beliefs that we want to guide our actions. These three values are EQUITY, COMMUNITY and JOY. I hope these values resonate with you-they inspire me and make me proud to work for an organization that holds these dear. You can continue reading or watch the video here where I detail the work we are doing.

In selecting our values, our hope is to make sure that they are unique to our district, that they will guide our actions, and that they will inspire our students, staff and parents. I think we have met these criteria and hope to further explore their significance.

Our first value is EQUITY, which can be defined as "just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper and reach their full potential." Unfortunately, this is not the case for the majority of our Latinx students here in San Rafael today. Racial equity for students in Marin will be achieved when race and ethnicity no longer predict the outcome of a young person's future. We commit to identify and dismantle racial inequalities and to provide equity-based supports so that our most vulnerable children can achieve their full potential. Equity means that we honor and empower individual identity and experience. We are committed to ensuring the success of every San Rafael child and cannot accept the current state of affairs where our Latinx students, who comprise the majority of our student body, are drastically lagging behind their white peers. According to a study by Race Counts, Marin County ranks first among all 58 California counties when it comes to racial disparities, which is not a designation we should be proud of. We can change this, but it will take our total commitment to equity to make the difference. San Rafael City Schools has begun to make strides, and our partnerships with such groups as The Pacific Education Group, 10,000 Degrees, Canal Alliance, Marin Promise Partnership, Not In Our Town and the College of Marin are starting to have an impact.

Our second value is COMMUNITY: we welcome, value and support every member of our District. Inclusion, belonging and participation for all are the cornerstones of community, and we want to ensure that all of our voices are heard. San Rafael City Schools is committed to hearing all of our voices, and I am proud to lead a district where our students are speaking up, learning to advocate on their behalf, and the adults are listening. In the classroom, teachers are working hard to develop personal relationships with students, and this helps them to feel important and that they matter. Parents also matter, and we are thankful to our Heads-Up Foundation and all of our school parent groups for their incredible support. Recently at a Heads-Up retreat, equity was front and center in the discussion as we looked at ways of distributing funds in a fair way to support art, music and PE at every school. Our Spanish speaking parents are included in decisions, and our English Language Advisory Committee meetings ensure that we hear from this important group of parents. One theme that arose from the recent San Pedro Elementary incident and resulting community open house was the slogan "WE ARE ONE" or "TODOS SOMOS UNO" which seems to be a great motto for our entire district. Last month's newsletter refers to this occurrence.

Finally, our last value is JOY: we engage in meaningful learning through energy, enthusiasm and humor. While we are very interested in rigor and having students meet high academic standards, there are key ways to get students motivated and interested in learning. Engaging them in relevant and meaningful work, providing them with choices, involving them in taking ownership of their learning, and ensuring that the work we require is not only challenging but fun and interesting are examples. Kids are naturally curious, and we should take advantage of that to explore and discover all that life has to offer. All of our classrooms and schools should be a positive and happy experience; learning should be joyful!

Our next task is to operationalize these three values across the district, so they don't just end up being words on the wall in the board room. If we truly are living these values, what actions and behaviors would we be exhibiting on a daily basis? This is our next question that we will pose to each school site as well as here in the district office. Making San Rafael schools a great place to learn for every one of our students will take a deep commitment to our beliefs.

What do the values of EQUITY, COMMUNITY, and JOY mean to you, and how will you demonstrate them? Please take a moment to give us your feedback, and let us know how you are living these values in our classrooms, in our schools, and in our homes. We would love to know what you are doing!! Please reply your comments back to me. Or email us at communications@srcs.org. I look forward to hearing from you.

Reminder our Together 2023 Community Workshops are on February 25th and 27th. We hope you can join us!

TOGETHER 2023 COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS (All sessions from 6 - 7:30 pm)
Tuesday, Feb. 25    Venetia Valley Multipurpose Room
Tuesday, Feb. 25    Davidson Middle School Library
Jueves, Feb. 27      Bahia Vista Sala Multiuso*
Thursday, Feb. 27  Terra Linda High School Innovation Lab

*Bahia Vista event will be offered solely in Spanish.
All other events will be offered with Spanish translation.

Enjoy a wonderful mid-winter break!

Sincerely,

Jim