Principal Matters

Wow, what a wonderful year! I can’t believe I’m writing the final newsletter for the 2010-11 school year. I want to dedicate this issue to all the students who have achieved beyond anyone’s expectations. I want to dedicate this issue to the teachers who have preserved and continue to nurture their passion for teaching and helping students. I want to dedicate this issue to all the staff that help make our school function. To all the parents, we truly appreciate the support you give our school and we thank you for being your child’s first teacher. And finally to my amazing administration team, thank you, I couldn’t do it without you!

In this issue you will also find information related to end of the year activities including graduation and senior award nights. We are also reconnecting with our freshman families and invite you to a year-end social hosted by the Capuchino Administration team on May 3rd at 6:30pm. We just want to close the year on a positive note and provide an opportunity to celebrate our freshman and their families.
 
We trust that you have enjoyed your experience at Capuchino this year, we only look to get better!

Graduation

The Class of 2012 commencement ceremony will be held on Friday, June 1, 2012 on our football field. The ceremony will commence at 12 noon and conclude at 1:30pm, followed by a reception hosted by our Junior parents. This year’s graduation is going to be a wonderful experience and we are excited about allowing more family members to attend and celebrate their student’s high school graduation. Congratulations to the Class of 2012 and their families!  They made it!

Faculty and Staff Appreciation

One can never say thank you enough to all the people who make our school such a wonderful place to go and work. It is with this spirit of gratitude that our PTO annually puts on a Staff and Faculty Appreciation Brunch and this year's festivities will be held on Tuesday May 8 in the Community Conference Room. All are welcome to attend and enjoy one another’s company. Also in recognition of everyone’s efforts, the administration will have special gift for all employees.

Preview 2012-13

As quickly as the year ends, there is so much in place for the start of the new year, below captures some of the high points:

• 2012-13 will start with a slightly adjusted bell schedule that builds in an Academic Support Time into the school day once a week on Wednesdays. See schoolloop.com for exact bell schedule.
• We are happy to announce that we will offer Biotech again for 2012-13!
• In addition to our Freshman Team program, we will pilot a 10th Grade Team.
• Dress Code will still be in effect, so shop smart and do not purchase red, blue, over-sized clothes or black hoodies. We want to dress for success!
• Technology on the move! Strategic plan includes, Wi-Fi on the entire campus, new laptops for teachers, and bring your own device policies that allow students to integrate their tech tools into the classroom.
• We are excited to welcome back Phyllis Goldsmith, literacy coach, from UC Berkeley to continue to provide professional development to our faculty.
• Our new Humanities wing and Main Gym are set for a Fall opening.

Principal Matters

Welcome back from Spring Break. I hope you had a much needed break and had time to enjoy your friends and families! The month of April marks the end to college acceptances and many of our seniors got accepted into esteemed universities and colleges and we want to say congratulations! It is also during this time, that some of our seniors realize that they did not get into their top choices, but I think it should be noted, that their college preparatory experiences at Capuchino will pay off in the long run.  Success in life has more to do with the ability to persevere than the name of your college, so it is my hope that our seniors take the good and bad news all in stride and pursue their dreams.

Next, we will begin STAR testing next week and we want to encourage all of our students to take this test seriously. Last year we jumped 39 points, when the federal government only requires a 5 point gain. I believe we made this leap due to targeted efforts of our faculty and our student body. For a detailed schedule please check Schoolloop.

And finally, with 8 weeks of school to go, you will notice several activities on the horizon. School activities include: Lockdown Safety Drill, Visit to St. Roberts to showcase our school, Latinos Unidos Dance, Spring Concert, and Dance Show. We hope to see you in the near future and we thank you for helping to bring this year to a smooth end. And as always, if you have questions and/or are in need of support, the administration, counseling staff, and teachers are available and can be contacted directly over the phone or emailed through Schoolloop.

Best,
Mrs. Shanks

STAR Schedule

The STAR Test measures what students know in English, History, Science and Math and you should have received a parent letter at this time discussing this in great detail.  Below is a the general schedule for 9th-11th grade students:

April 9-13: Grade 10– Life Science CST in Chemistry classes
April 17: English CST, Student minimum day

April 19: History CST
April 24: Science CST
April 26: Math CST, Student minimum day

12th graders are expected to attend school and will participate in senior activities.

ARTS SATELLITE NOW OPEN

The time has finally come and we are happy to announce that the Arts Satellite is officially open! We also want to take this time to recognize the efforts of our very own Maria Sky, who is responsible for writing a grant back in 2007 and seeing this building come to fruition. As you can see in the pictures, the building is beautiful and is equipped with state the art technology. The Arts Satellite will be home to our Ceramics program, led by Suzanne Truman and home to our Arts and Multimedia program, led by Ms. Sky. Again, we couldn’t be more excited to have this new facility for our students and school community.

Bell Schedule: The Final Results In

After a lengthy bell schedule process, the student leadership class took over the process and helped the faculty and the SLT make a final decision. So for 2012-13, we will have the Drop Schedule with Study Hall mid-day (attached to 4th period). The SLT also advised that an evaluation tool be created so that students and faculty can provide feedback about the schedule throughout the year. In addition, the SLT advised that some teacher training be established for the Study Hall time prior to the year ending. And as always, we endeavor to best serve our students, so we thank everyone for their patience and efforts to make this work for next year!

Principal Matters

We are in full swing of 2nd semester and with that movement, there are several upcoming events that you should be aware of. First, I am happy to announce that the month of February is “Have a Heart” month and our ASB and administration will be facilitating events that bring awareness to issues like anti-bullying and providing blood to those in need during our annual Blood Drive. Please continue to check schoolloop.com for additional details.

It is this same heart that goes into our student athletes who participate in Spring sports including basketball, softball, soccer, baseball, swimming, wrestling, cheer and track. Our students continue to demonstrate their commitment to our school and to their own personal development. And now after a long wait, our community will finally be able to get a sneak peek of the new main gym as we will host the final 2 basketball games in that facility.  We also enter a season of high stakes testing as, our 10th graders will take the High School Exit Exam on Feb.7-8, followed by STAR tests coming after Spring Break.

In efforts to continue to promote our IB program, we are hosting two spring IB Parent Tours coming Feb. 1st and Feb.13th. Please RSVP with Rosa Ortiz at rortiz@smuhsd.org. And finally, our Spring program-ming is set to begin with our current 11th graders and they will register for classes for next year at the end of February. The counselors will meet with each student to ensure they are signed up for college preparatory classes, so please anticipate the course sheet at home and discuss this with your child. Clearly, there is a lot going on, so please stay connected and I look forward to seeing you soon!

-Mrs. Shanks

Course Preview Day, Feb. 15th

In preparation for Spring Programming, students will have an opportunity to learn more about the classes they are signing up for on February 15th at lunch time. We will extend lunch to 40 minutes and students will visit tables to learn about our wonderful course offerings. Both teachers, current students and counselors will be available to answer any questions.

Course Programming for 2012-2013

Spring is just a few short months away and believe it or not it's already time to start planning for next year. Starting on February 27th counselors will meet with students to choose courses for next year. They will begin with Juniors the week of the 27th, Sophomores the next week and so on, culminating in visits to Park-side and Taylor Middle School beginning the week of March 20th.

There are several important things to be aware of during programming:

1. The course request sheets ask for a parent signature, so please sure to take a look at your students' course request sheets and discuss the best choices for your son and daughter. Course request sheets are handed out to the students the week before they meet with the counselor.
2. We are an open access district, which means students can enroll in honors or IB classes without having to satisfy specific prerequisites. For example, students can take IB English even if they didn't take advanced standing English the year before. With that said, please keep in mind that students and parents will be asked to sign an IB contract which acknowledges that the student has carefully considered the rigor of the IB curriculum and will commit to the class for at least a semester. We need students to honor their commitments because the school builds the master schedule and makes staffing decisions based on student course requests.
3. We will ask teachers to complete a Google doc with student course recommendations, which will inform student placement.

Students are strongly encouraged to talk to their current teachers to see what course makes the most sense for the student next year. The current teachers are an important re-source in determining proper student placement, so students should talk with their teachers to help determine the best fit. We have many exciting course offerings and we all want to work together to make sure all students have the most beneficial schedule possible for next year.

-Mr. Montgomery

Construction Update

We are happy to announce that the Boys’ Locker Room is finally open and ready for use. The Boys’ PE Program was able to move in to the new facility over the winter break and the 9th and 10th grade boys have been dressing in a beautiful new locker room. The teachers and students are happy with the new space which is large and includes new lockers, bathrooms, showers and other amenities. Site administration took time in the first weeks of the semester to talk to the students about appropriate use of the new facilities. Students heard how it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that these new facilities remain in good shape for the generations to come.

Another exciting note is that the last basketball games of the season will be played in the new Main Gym with the special permission of the district. Tuesday, February 7th is a FS double-header against Sequoia HS. Girls’ FS will play at 4:30 and Boys’ FS will play at 6pm. Wednesday, February 8th is Senior Night, which is a double-header with both Varsity teams against Sequoia HS. Girls’ Varsity plays at 4:30 and Boys’ Varsity plays at 6pm. Senior Basketball players and their families will be recognized on this night. Both nights will allow us to preview the new gym before it is officially turned over to the school later this spring.

The Satellite Arts Building that will house our Ceramics and Arts classes is on schedule and we look forward to seeing it’s completion in the spring. Lastly, it is with great regret to announce that the theater will not be completed in time for graduation on Friday, June 1st. We will be holding graduation on campus and we are looking to the senior class and parents to provide feedback on the location of the ceremony. We have a unique opportunity to hold the ceremony at the stadium or in the new Main Gym. To provide feedback, please take this short survey:

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDVHMnlOdXBSOGw1M24yYmI2a3VfOVE6MQ

Principal Matters

It’s a new year and we are moving from good to great at Capuchino High School! We are proud to know that we offer an experience that prepares students for college and career. As the only IB World School in the San Mateo Union High School District, these guiding principles allow us to create courses that give students the essential skills to be successful in both high school and beyond. Our courses are rigorous and students learn by doing. They also learn how to research, write, critically think and demonstrate their knowledge of subject content.

We are extremely aware of the necessity to attain a college education and/or post-secondary training and this knowledge has shifted how we educate our students.
 

Moving into 2nd semester, students are one step closer to attaining a greater degree of knowledge and skills. With your continued support at home, we form the perfect partnership to see students meet their goals. As we shift from the holiday season, I encourage you to make sure your children continue to establish healthy study habits and form open lines of communication with their teachers. Most students have learned the ropes by now and should be off to a strong start in this new year. If you have any concerns about your child’s academic or social progress at school, please inform their teacher, counselor or administrator.

Citizenship Talks: 2nd Semester

Starting the 2nd week of the second semester the dean and administration will be going into class-rooms to remind students of our behavioral and academic expectations. We will review the following:

• Academic Integrity/Violations
• Bullying
• Dress Code
• New Facilities
• Pride of Ownership

These topics are timely and relevant and our goal is to ensure that our students continue to demonstrate respectable behavior as we get one step closer to the end of the academic school year.

CAHSEE News

Second semester is off and running and with it comes the testing season. The first big test is the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) on February 7th and 8th. All 10th graders will take the test, as will all 12th graders who still need to pass the test for graduation. In addition to being a graduation requirement for students, this is the test that is primarily used to determine the school's program improvement status. For Capuchino to continue to increase our API scores, it is important that all 10th graders take the test and do their best. Both the CAHSEE scores and the STAR scores are combined to help inform our API scores. Remember, our school jumped 39 points this last year and much of that jump is due to a stronger performance on the CAHSEE exam.

We know that this test is one measure of what students know, but Teachers and students continue to work hard to prepare students for the test. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call.

-Mr. Montgomery

School Action Plan: WASC Wrapping Up

After months of parents, students, staff and faculty participating in the school self-study as outlined in the WASC process, several categories emerged for us to continue to work on as a school. Below is a general overview of the areas and action items to put into motion:

• Examine department/school-wide grading practices to ensure equity and accurate measures of student knowledge.
• Provide additional staffing to help properly place students in academic interventions.
• Tweak bell schedule to include academic support time within the school day.
• Expand freshman teams and pilot 10th grade team.
• Train co-teachers to assist special education students in mainstream classes.
• Continue to backwards map to the IB curriculum and assessments.
• Infuse academic literacy strategies across the curriculum.
• Identify common practices as a school.
• Continue outreach efforts to families.
• Continue to examine data related to college eligibility and retention rates.

The months of January and February will be used to finalize the WASC document in preparation for the committee visit March 5-7.