Welcome to the LVUSD Ed Services Blog!

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Welcome to the 2014/15 school year. As I visit your schools and classrooms I am thrilled to see and experience the amazing Common Core lessons and projects already in full swing! This promises to be an exciting year of change and growth for all of us.

The Educational Services Department is launching this Newsletter & Blog to increase our communication with all district staff, as well as share timelines, committee plans, curriculum changes, and assessment information. In this issue, you will see the overarching goals and plans in the areas of curriculum / instruction (including English Learner initiatives) with Evan Bartelheim, Director of Instruction, technology integration with Jim Klein, Chief Technology Officer, and Special Education goals with our new Director of Special Education, Derek Ihori. In addition, I will let you know about board policy changes, the Curriculum Council agenda topics, and any other projects that will support your work in your schools and classrooms.

Last year, I set a goal of 25% implementation in LVUSD classrooms of the California Common Core State Standards. You not only met that goal, but far exceeded it! Bravo! While curriculum adoptions are still being reviewed for several subjects at the state level, LVUSD teachers have not let that hinder the development of exciting and rigorous innovative common core lessons. While the work has just begun, you have demonstrated great capacity and creativity and I am confident that using the supports and resources planned this year, LVUSD will successfully implement the new state standards. Thanks to everyone for this effort!

We will continue to keep parents and the community informed about the Common Core State Standards and the resulting instructional shifts in your classrooms. As homework activities begin to look different, we will be front loading parents to support your expectations. I encourage you to continue to partner closely with your students' parents to help them understand the new rigor of the activities you are doing. Parent volunteers, updates on your class websites, and information flyers sent home to parents are all good ways to promote your work as a team.

As you develop this year's goals for student achievement at your school, (through your Single Plan for Student Achievement or SPSA), you will be identifying actions and activities to further support your implementation of Common Core. In addition, each school will be planning the interventions for your student populations who are lower achieving including your English Learners and Special Education Students. Be creative and flexible in developing interventions while also supporting access to the rigor of the classroom curriculum. Your SPSA Plan will be the guiding document for your school's programs and interventions this year. Please provide your input into it's development to make it a relevant and meaningful document to support the rigorous instructional program at your school.

Watch for our future Blog posts as well as the next issue of our Quarterly Newsletter. I look forward to seeing you as I visit your school and classrooms.




Mary Schillinger

Assistant Superintendent Education