Weller Elementary School teacher Peter Salazar, above left, details his Growth Mindset lesson Oct. 9 during the second annual C2C conference at Pomeroy Elementary School. ![]() Twenty-eight teacher presenters shared their best practices with dozens of their Milpitas Unified School District’s colleagues at the second annual C2C conference, held October 8 at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. “We want to be the first professional development school district, where teachers from other districts come to Milpitas to learn how to deliver high-quality instruction,” said Norma Rodriguez, MUSD’s Assistant Superintendent of Learning & Development. Each of the 28 presenters, up from eight in C2C’s inaugural conference, set up shop in classrooms throughout the Pomeroy campus. Teachers from each MUSD site were able to stop in and listen to a 10-minute presentation on various approaches to instruction. “These are all MUSD employees who have come to share best practices,” Rodriguez added. “It is challenging to present best practices and skills to colleagues. It takes courage to do that.” Some presented as individuals such as Christina Ojeda, a Resource Specialist at Weller Elementary School, who showcased “Math Fluency Games” in which she has students roll dice or draw from a deck of cards. Ojeda provided a game bag to any teachers who came to watch her presentation. Detailing his “Growth Mindset to Dreams” lesson, which centers around the children’s book “Catching the Moon,” was Weller teacher Peter Salazar. The story follows the life of Marcenia Lyle Stone, who fulfills her childhood dream and becomes one of the first women to play professional baseball. “We get to know most of our students through testing and data. But that really doesn’t allow us to get to know who they are as a person,” Salazar explained. “This exercise helps us to get to know our students better by finding out what their dreams are.” Other presenters teamed up like Rose Elementary instructors Ashley Grilli and Peggy Bowen, who offered insight into Botball-Robotics coding and programming; and Weller teachers Juhi Sharma and Gerald Kervin, who detailed how students navigate through the Summit Learning Platform. Colleagues who also presented at C2C were: Krista Davis (Guided Reading Groups); Debbie Salcedo (Grant Writing); Wendy Lundeen and Jenny Katzen (Technology & Coding); Ken Chiu (Change the Path-Math Prep); Jackie Do (Building Relationships with Families); Samantha Brasil, Naomi Newstrom and Sonia Hingrajia (Number Talks & Math Tasks); Corinne Fedalizo and Kathryn Hutchinson (Teaching Tolerance Resource for Teaching Social Justice Standards); Sappho Chow and Lynn Lafayette (5E Inquiry Lesson); Amanda Montoro (Literacy in Content Areas); McKenzie Macdonald (Integrating Engineering Practices); Vanessa Lorenzana and Lynn Tran (SEAL); Ashley DeOliveira and Jennifer Bick (SEAL Mini Units); Quyen Han and Meera Ramchanfdran (Science Summit Learning); and Snemer Anand (Next Generation Science Standards). Weller Elementary School teachers Juhi Sharma and Gerald Kervin detail the Summit Learning Platform Oct. 9 during the second annual C2C conference at Pomeroy Elementary School.
Attention MUSD Families and Team Members,
UPDATE: All Milpitas Unified School District schools will remain open, are fully staffed and will continue with regular class schedules today. PG&E has informed us this morning October 9, that our Airpoint facility remains the only school site that may potentially be impacted by the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). If the status changes for any of our school sites, we will update everyone as soon as that information becomes available. But rest assured we have specific plans and procedures in place to manage the school day in the event of a prolonged outage should it occur. Sincerely, MUSD Leadership Team Good afternoon MUSD Families and Team Members, We are aware of the potential PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), which may occur starting early Wednesday morning due to high wind weather conditions. Please be assured we have specific plans and procedures in place to prepare for this outage, should it occur. Student and campus safety is of utmost importance to everyone in the Milpitas Unified School District. We will provide further updates from PG&E as they become available. In the meantime, all MUSD schools will remain open and plan to follow their regular school schedule. If necessary, schools will be equipped with lanterns and small wattage generators; students will travel in buddy systems. Currently, the only confirmed MUSD site that may potentially be affected by the PSPS is 3001 E. Calaveras Blvd (Airpoint facility across from Ed Levin Park). However, this is subject to change as new information becomes available. We are staying in contact with PG&E to receive any new updates. Please make sure your child’s Emergency Form includes up-to-date contact information. You can check online by logging into the parent portal. If you have not filled out an Emergency Form or need to update your home address, please notify your child’s school secretary. This is important so that in the event there is an emergency in which you need to be reached, we will have emergency numbers and contact names that will assist us in reaching you. Please remember schools may only release students to those listed on the emergency contact form. PG&E has provided a potential Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) map on its website so residents can enter their home addresses to see if they live in an area that may be a part of the possible shutoff. As part of PSPS preparedness efforts, PG&E has provided the following message:
PSPS information is available in multiple languages on the PG&E website: For additional updates please monitor your Parent Square, www.musd.org, or www.facebook.com/MilpitasUnified. We welcome any suggestions you may have for future planned power outages, and thank you for your support in ensuring a safe school community. Sincerely, Cheryl Jordan Superintendent The district would like to share and make you aware of a public health warning (English / Spanish/ Chinese / Vietnamese ) that we recently received on behalf of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office regarding fatal overdoses due to the ingestion of fake pills laced with Fentanyl. Law enforcement agencies recently seized a large quantity of these fake Fentanyl-containing pills that look like real prescription medication. However, they fear some of these pills may have already been put in circulation. Fentanyl is a powerful Synthetic opioid that can be 80-100 times more powerful than morphine and exposure to even small amounts can result in illness, overdose and/or death. Fortunately, we have had NO reported incidents at our schools regarding Fentanyl use. However, it is critical you are made aware of this information so you can have a discussion with your child to ensure his/her well-being. Talking points should include:
We appreciate your attention to this matter. *Translations of the public health warning will be posted as soon as they are provided by County.
![]() It’s electric! Milpitas Unified School District is putting to good use more than $2 million in grant money to help fund a new fleet of all-electric buses to serve local students and schools. The District applied and qualified for two grants simultaneously; one from the California Energy Commission and the other through the Bay Area Quality Management District (BAAQMD). The CEC grant funded two buses while BAAQMD partially funded those two plus four more for a total of six buses, according to Brian Shreve, MUSD’s Director of Maintenance, Operations and Transportation. The District accepted the BAAQMD grant under the ‘Carl Moyer Program’ and also received additional funding through the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) program under California Air Resources Board. “We anticipate to be one of the first school districts in Northern California to receive and place these school buses in service,” said Shreve. The buses are capable of up to 120 miles of range and can be recharged in approximately eight hours using a standard SAE J1772 Level 2 charger, which were recently installed here in Milpitas. The total project cost for the six school buses and infrastructure was $2,282,748, of which $2,075,756 was covered by the grant. The District’s out of pocket expense amounted to $206,992. Along with the grant funds, the District also established a vehicle electrification partnership with Blue Bird Corp. and Cummins Inc. to help with the transition to the new fleet of all-electric buses. That is already under way, with the charging station infrastructure installed at the District’s yard. “We are ready for the arrival of our new MUSD school buses,” Shreve said. In preparation, MUSD and the bus manufacturer are hosting a series of training sessions for school district mechanics throughout the region. The first was about a month ago and a second training class was held at the San Jose City College Extension, using a new small demo bus. “We put it on our lift in our shop at the corporation yard to look at and inspect,” detailed Shreve. “I felt taking advantage of this being in ‘our home’ couldn't be passed up, especially for our employee PD. I'm hopeful there will be more in the future as well.” Blue Bird has been working with electric technology in school buses since 1994 and recently secured the partnership with the Cummins electrified power business segment. Nearly 100 electric school buses powered by a Cummins electric drivetrain have been ordered to date from Blue Bird Corp. The overwhelming majority of the bus orders are from California school districts. Related article: https://www.schoolbusfleet.com/news/735456/blue-bird-cummins-partner-on-electric-school-bus-support-in-california Eight Milpitas High School students were recently selected as Semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are among about 16,000 students nationwide to earn the designation based on results from the Preliminary SAT exam. In February, these eight students will be notified if they have advanced to Finalist standing, which then qualifies them for thousands of dollars in college scholarship monies. Let’s find out a little about each one: Charles Snead, age 17
What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? Being a semifinalist acknowledges my preparedness for college. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? Myself and my parents are always encouraging me to do the best I can. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite subject is foreign language because I like learning new vocabulary and grammar and being able to communicate with a larger population of people. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I would like to go to one of the top UC campuses. Tran Le, age 16 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? Having the honor of being a National Merit Semifinalist is a celebration of my academic achievements in the past few years of high school at MHS. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? My family, teachers, and community are my biggest supporters and motivators. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My interest lies within STEM subjects, and I especially love chemistry and math. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I am currently considering a broad range of colleges from UCs to CSUs to private colleges in and out of state as I know that I will receive a great education and experience at many of the amazing schools. Alden Lau, age 17 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? Being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist feels great since I've made my family proud. It really makes me feel like my efforts in school and studying are helping me succeed. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? I am motivated by my family and my own drive to do the best I can in school. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite subject is math because I enjoy manipulating numbers and figuring out how to solve difficult problems. I also enjoy learning about the many applications of math in life. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I want to attend U.C. Berkeley, since it is a great school and my dad went there. Also, it is nearby, so I can easily visit friends and family. Dania Kirmani, age 17 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? There were plenty of moments throughout high school when I felt like I wasn't really getting much out of my late nights studying, so it feels nice to have something to show for all of that time and effort. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? My parents have always made an effort to drop me off for my early morning tests and classes and to stay and watch my late night performances. Anytime I feel like giving up, I remind myself of all of the time and effort they spent to ensure my success in the future. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? I find most life sciences very fascinating, but I really love environmental science and marine biology. Learning about the way nature has perfected interactions between different organisms through billions of years of evolution is something that never gets old to me. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I'm honestly fine with attending any college after graduating. I feel like it shouldn't be the college that defines a student, it should be their own hard work and achievements. Vanessa Cho, age 17 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? Being a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist is honestly kind of amazing. I mean I definitely hoped that I would get to be a semifinalist, but I never really expected it to happen. When I was an underclassman, I felt like all the people who were named semifinalists all seemed so cool and accomplished, and now I'm the one being recognized. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? I always thought that I was pushing myself to be as accomplished as my overachieving older brother, but then I realized that I want to do well for myself. I want to see what I am capable of and to find my limits, so I always try to push myself past my comfort zones. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite class in school is band. Band is love, band is life. Honestly though, I like band because it's a break from all of my other academic classes where we can just sit and play music without having to worry about tests or homework. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I try not to get too emotionally attached to any one college because if I get rejected, it'll hurt less. However, there is a college that I have become interested in, which is UCLA. Besides it being a top college, UCLA is located just far away enough from Milpitas but still close enough that I can come home if I want to. I also just want to experience living in a large city like LA. Melanie Lin, 17 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? To be completely honest, being named National Merit Scholar Semifinalist doesn’t mean much to me. It hasn’t influenced or impacted me in any way. Since I don’t see SAT as a genuine test of academic ability, being recognized for doing well on the PSAT really doesn’t mean much to me other than recognize the fact that I have become fully familiar with how to take the standardized test. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? I personally love academics (especially STEM) and being able to do well in it is a blessing because it’s definitely motivated me to continue to excel in those subjects. However, I do owe an awful lot to my family, especially my parents since they have gone above and beyond to make sure that I can have and lead an amazing life and they continue to motivate me to do well and succeed. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite subject in school so far has been chemistry because I do actually find the classes fun. The connection between what physically happens and the concepts and calculations that explain/correspond to them is really amazing and interesting to me. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? My dream college has always been UCLA because I wanted to stay in California and SoCal is perfect for being JUST the right amount of distance from home. UCLA is also very well-known for their pre-medical program (which I plan to apply for). Neval Mulaomerovic, age 17 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? To me, being a National Merit Semifinalist means that I represent the top of high school test takers in the country. Though, it is important to acknowledge that the SAT and PSAT are not the only measures of academic success that play a role. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? My parents motivate me to succeed at a higher level because their commitment to promoting my education in high school and beyond means a lot to me. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite subject in school is English because it allows room for interpretation and nuanced analysis, rather than just providing a simple correct or incorrect answer. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I would like to attend Georgetown University. Being interested in political science, I would like to study in the center of our nation's government and be taught by leading experts in that field. Ayushi Malhotra, age 16 What does being named a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist mean to you? To me, being a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist means more than just being entered into the scholarship competition. It is an achievement that I am very proud of because it is a testament of how hard I’ve worked over the past few years. What / Who motivates you to succeed at such a high level? My family emigrated to the U.S. when I was 2 years old and my parents have been through a lot to get us where we are now. I’m very proud of them and hope to make them proud as well. I have high expectations for myself and many goals I’d like to achieve: going to college, getting an MBA, living in NYC, and being truly happy. The yearning I have to achieve these goals amalgamate with my hopes to make my family proud and drive me to succeed in each endeavor. What is your favorite subject in school, and why? My favorite subject usually switches between history and math. For this school year, my favorite classes are AP Statistics and AP Calculus AB. I enjoy these classes because the subject itself is fun and I am fortunate enough to have amazing, passionate teachers. What college would you like to attend after graduating MHS, and why? I would like to attend a college that is a great fit for me. My top choices are UCs, Boston University, Purdue, UIUC, and USC. The academic culture, rich history, and overall environment at these schools speak to me and I would be honored to attend these institutions. Carl Stice has started his sixth year as Principal at Calaveras Hills High School.
His affinity for alternative education has kept him in the field for the past 20 years. Prior to Cal Hills, he was an alternative education Principal in Kern County. “I’m excited to be in this field, and to be working with at-promise students who are finding their voice in their lives…and also helping them identify themselves as successful students. Even if they haven’t been in the past, they can still be successful,” said Carl. Already several weeks into the school year, things have been busy over at Cal Hills. This year, the Cal Hills team is putting a lot of attention toward increasing academic rigor. They’re currently implementing some new AVID strategies centered around presentation skills, where students are getting up in front of the class and presenting their research. A series of vocabulary exercises have also been added to develop academic vocabulary. And finally, they’ve been using what’s called Philosophical Chairs, which is based in inquiry and answering critical thinking questions. Students are able to debate on topics, and share their opinions, research, and ideas. Throughout the debate, students physically move to different sides of the room to show where they stand on certain issues; and they’re able to keep changing their minds and moving throughout. "We also have an Engineering program here, which is not common in continuation schools. We just added a third section this year,” said Carl. “We have Intro to Engineering, Computer Aided Design (CAD), and also Environmental Sustainability, which looks at how engineers can impact the environment in positive ways and make things more sustainable in the future.” Cal Hills has welcomed in a new counselor, who is already making a huge impact on students. “He has an ability to relate to students really well,” said Carl. "He also really follows up and checks up on them consistently, to make sure they’re taking advantantage of all opportunities.” There’s also a new math teacher, who is bilingual in Spanish and English. “He’s doing a great job of relating to the students also, and really working on relationships,” said Carl. (Relationships are a key focus of what the Cal Hills culture is all about!) Throughout the year, Cal Hills has between 120-140 students. At the beginning of the year, that number is toward the lower end. And as the year moves forward, it goes to the higher end, sometimes increasing to 150 students. Building partnerships with businesses has recently been a big focus for Cal Hills. This past summer, one of their students, Daniel Hoady, did a paid internship at View, and had an amazing experience. Carl hopes to continue supporting students with experiences like these, so that they’re better prepared for the future. "This district has been very supportive of the alternative education program. Which is not true in all districts. But in this district, we’ve been able to really close the achievement gap. Because these kids are getting what they need. It’s a very powerful thing, because you don’t see that everywhere,” said Carl. "A lot of times, these kids are the afterthought, or may not be the priority...But not here. It’s almost the opposite here. It’s great to work in a district that’s so supportive of this program. It’s not a sink or swim mentality here. We’re all in this together. We’re a team and will do whatever we can to help students on that path toward graduation, and career and college readiness.” As the very first co-principals ever to have served in the Milpitas Unified School District, Olivia Contreras and Kristan Prolo are making history this year over at Randall Elementary School.
Schools and school nutrition programs remain unaffected by recent changes to a federal regulation, known as the “Public Charge” rule, regarding an individual’s immigration status, according to a September 16, 2019 announcement from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
The National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Seamless Summer Option, Afterschool Meal Supplement, Special Milk Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program are not considered public benefits that could impact an individual’s immigration status. The “Public Charge” rule, which goes into effect in mid-October, penalizes immigrants who receive certain public benefits, according to the CDE press release. Public education is not a public benefit covered by the rule. Resources are available at the California Immigrant Guide web page at https://immigrantguide.ca.gov/en/publiccharge/. Additional resources and information that you may use to communicate with families in your district are available on the California Department of Education’s Safe Havens Initiative web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/safehavens.asp. In teacher Megan Bence’s credit recovery class September 3, her students are hard at work on their Chromebooks. On their desks right next to the laptops, each student has a gray Yondr pocket sleeve. Magnetically locked inside are their cell phones.
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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING:
The governing board of Milpitas Unified School District will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Media ResourcesArchives
July 2024
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