It’s time once again to welcome the Morgan Hill Unified School
District community to the 2007-08 school year.
It’s time once again to welcome the Morgan Hill Unified School District community to the 2007-08 school year. As we reflect over the accomplishments of the past two years, we believe this year will be a crucial year to build upon the foundations that have been set. We have set high standards for all students. We have coordinated our curriculum from school to school and from one grade level to the next. We are focusing on staff development for all employees and building a culture of educational excellence in Morgan Hill Unified.
Some recent highlights are:
- The district is partnering with the American Institute of Mathematics (founded by John Fry, Fry’s Electronics). The facility will be a world-renowned research center where our students will have access to the greatest math minds of the world. In the meantime, Executive Director Dr. Brian Conrey has been working with one of our parents and a group of students who get together to solve mathematics problems and who are doing very well in math competitions. This is an exciting opportunity for Morgan Hill students to expand and maximize their mathematical potential.
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This past summer, we offered another academic challenge for students through the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Summer Academy that was offered at Ann Sobrato High School. This joint effort of SVEC, Santa Clara University, San Jose State University and the Santa Clara County Office of Education provided our middle school students with access to higher level math skills and exposure to the idea of engineering as a career choice.
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We have initiated two Internet-based technology programs as additional options for student remediation and enrichment: Advanced Academics, which is a secondary electronic curriculum, provides students access to a variety of classes to advance their educational experience; and Compass Learning, a K-8 electronic curriculum, which allows students access both in the classroom and at home to curriculum selected by their teacher to reinforce classroom instruction.
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Another technology that we now use in the district is an automated calling system Connect Ed. This is a program by which we can call and or e-mail the home of every student in the district within a few minutes. Principals use this technology to communicate student absences, as well as important events and safety messages to their students’ parents. The district office uses the system as well to send messages to all staff and to parents. This system has helped us with our goal to increase communication not only with our parents but with the community.
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We have made gains in student access to challenging course work as well. This past school year, we raised the bar and increased the number of students taking advanced placement classes by 24 percent, raised the number of students taking algebra in the 7th grade by 148 percent and in 8th grade by 12 percent, and lastly, raised the number of students taking biology in the 9th grade by 109 percent. These classes are gateways for students to college, and increasing the number of students who will now have the opportunity to extend their education beyond the 12th grade is significant.
As we all know, when any organization changes from one set of criteria to another, there is sometimes what is termed in the sporting vernacular as “game slippage” that occurs where skills may not be as good initially but over the long haul will improve with practice. We may see some of this “slippage” in test scores as we adjust to new curriculum, and new ways of working together. However, I am confident that students will be the winners in the end with expanded opportunities for their futures.
This year we are honored and privileged to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell address our employees at our Welcome Back staff gathering. He will bring us up to date on the salient issues facing education today. We are extremely fortunate to be a district out of over 1,000 in the state where we can have access to the top educational leader in the state.
Our entire staff of 800-plus will be together for a day of welcome and celebration for the 2007-08 school year. We will be welcoming many new teachers, classified employees and administrators to the MHUSD family and know that they will be great additions as we move toward our vision of improving academic achievement for all students as well as closing the ever elusive achievement gap.
We are all looking forward to the school year and know that we all share in the vision and excitement of watching our students become even better and more productive as we gear our resources, attitudes and skills to focus on that goal.
