Principal Urtnowski recently led me on a tour of not only Jamacha Elementary School, but also the two unique homeschool programs the campus houses: Design Learning Academy and Virtual Learning Program. We connected with two dedicated teachers from Design Learning Academy, where K-8 parents oversee daily instruction after receiving assignments and checking in with their teacher digitally.  As a homeschooling parent myself, I believe the families in this program must value and

You might notice I don't post pictures from my school site visits.  Taking photos during instruction seems invasive to me (and distracting to students), but also is a distraction from being fully engaged myself.  The truth is I am a wordsmith: I am more interested in the message than the image.  And my message might reach less followers in this day and age, but clearly you are my target audience if you are reading this.   But it goes deeper than that - images document events,

This Tuesday the Board is revising Policy 1330: Use of School Facilities, a change that may affect many students and community members.  The proposed wording eliminates the portion that allows youth nonprofits (that charge less than $60 / month) to use school facilities free of charge, and instead updates the fees to an amount "not to exceed direct costs".  This would apply to many organizations, but the most widespread in our area are nonprofit youth sports leagues.  If this

Bonds are a big issue right now at CVUSD.  Our schools are aging and there are many facilities to maintain.  You know how it is if you've ever owned an older home (mine was built in the 50's) - there is always something to fix!  Our district funds and staff are currently able to keep up with repairs, but we know that "modernization" can be a motivator for some residents.  With that in mind, I would agree to put a bond proposal before the residents if the lifespan is 10 years

At our most recent Board meeting, we updated our District-wide Parent and Family Engagement Policy.  Changes based on family feedback include flexible scheduling, streamline communication, two weeks advance notice of major events, translation and interpretation services, increased academic support for families, and a promise to provide timely responses to parent input and concerns.  After an update on the policy at our LCAP meeting today, parents shared their insight on half

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Invested Stakeholders: there are two vacancies on the COC at Cajon Valley  -one member active in a senior citizen organization -one...

Good teaching strategies haven't actually changed much in the past 25 years.  And even though we use technologically-produced data to...

Yesterday I had a wonderful visit with Principal Delgallego at Avocado Elementary.  If you've ever been there, you know that Avocado has...

I finished the Keenan HR trainings, and this year the trustees had to take a state-mandated two-hour course on Ethics for School Board...

It's easy to find reasons to celebrate Cajon Valley USD, but one mark of a trustee should be our eagerness to connect with our...

Today our Board will be doing the First Reading of some policy updates at a Board Workshop. While no action will be taken, come and make...

Last week Dr. Miyashiro and I visited Magnolia Elementary School and Greenfield Middle School to celebrate our back-to-school routines....

Cajon Valley's Parental Bill of Rights (Resolution 08-25-1474 DM) Subsection A mandates the "Creation of an advisory committee or...

The state of California designed the LCAP to be "a tool for local educational agencies to set goals, plan actions, and leverage resources...

Charter Schools have been a hot button topic here in CVUSD as of late.   I have made my convictions known multiple times, but some have...

There has a been a lot of community input about the value of innovation surrounding our agendized "Chief Innovation and Engagement...

Our most recent special meeting on June 17th was ill-timed for public participation, and I am truly sorry for that.  We were so rushed in...

In honor of Certificated Employee Appreciation Week, I would like to thank our educators: your wisdom, passion, and dedication truly mean...

Today's topics included HR, especially hiring and evaluating a superintendent, as well as hiring and evaluation procedures for other...