By Maria L. Lopez Four Sacramento City Unified School District campuses are among 238 California schools announced today as recipients of the 2009-10 Title 1 Academic Achievement Award. The SCUSD sites are David Lubin, Earl Warren, Isador Cohen and Theodore Judah elementary schools. Aspire Capitol Heights Academy and St. HOPE Public School 7, both independent charter schools located in the district, are also among the award winners. “This recognition is a testament to the great work of students, teachers and parents occurring at these schools,” SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond said. “The recognition is especially appreciated because progress towards closing the achievement gap i

 These surveys mark the beginning of a new commitment by SCUSD to listening to our community, consulting the community on important decisions and providing the public open access to our work in leading the district. We thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation in these historic surveys. The data will be accumulated and we will report on the results of the surveys as soon as possible. We also will contact those community members who provided us email addresses when the survey results are tabulated.  

 Hmong Women’s Heritage Association helps boost participation in district surveys By Maria L. LopezIn an effort to ensure the greatest participation possible in two historic surveys, the Sacramento City Unified School District is teaming up with the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) to assist parents and students in completing questionnaires about the district’s budget and strategic plan from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Association’s offices, 2245 Florin Rd. The first-of-its-kind endeavor to involve Sacramento residents in improving their public schools involves a pair of surveys on school improvements and the district’s budget. Every Sacramento community member

 SCUSD superintendent urges community to weigh in before surveys close one week from today The Sacramento school district’s historic public surveys on its budget and strategic planning have drawn more than 11,000 responses so far, and Superintendent Jonathan Raymond Tuesday urged parents, teachers and students to take the surveys before the Feb. 9 deadline in one week.  This first-of-its-kind effort to involve Sacramento residents in the improvement of their public schools involves a pair of surveys on school improvements and the district’s budget. Every Sacramento community member—including parents, teachers and other employees of the district—is being asked to respond to the surveys t

It was confirmed last week California Montessori Project's Capitol Campus will move from the Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in the College Glen neighborhood. Since August, CMP leased the Marshall School building from the Sacramento City Unified School District, which also oversees its charter. Next Thursday and Friday, the school will be closed for the move and will resume at the new campus on Nov. 16. SCUSD superintendent Jonathan Raymond met with CMP board members, students and parents Tuesday night at the campus' new location. After stating reasons for the move, he answered questions from parents. "The old Marshall School, although a very beautiful facility and

On Monday, October 19th, parents of the charter school California Montessori Project (CMP)-Capitol Campus where surprised to learn through a letter from CMP Director, Gary Bowman, that Mr. Raymond, the new Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), was requesting that the Capitol Campus be relocated from the Old Marshall School (2718 G Street), a facility the school had moved into only 3 months prior, because the building was now deemed unsafe. The Capitol Campus is to be relocated in the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (in the College Glen area) far from the current location forcing hundreds of families on the roads. Moreover the campus has to leave the prem

The sudden directive by Sacramento City Unified School District that California Montessori Project must abandon the Old Marshall Elementary School has done more than disrupt the lives of the students, parents and faculty. It has the potential to strike a major blow to the renaissance of the central city. One of the primary reasons families choose where they live is what schools are available. CMP had operated successfully out of the Pioneer Church for eight years. The site did limit the size of the enrollment. When SCUSD deemed Old Marshall School safe for charter school and offered it to CMP, after careful consideration they accepted the offer. CMP was thrilled to have a beautiful buildin

A five-hour board meeting on the fate of California Montessori Project's Capitol Campus ended around 10:45 p.m. Monday night with a resolution: If an assessment says the Marshall School building in which the school resides is not compliant with state building codes, the school must move "expeditiously." If the assessment, which has still not been made public, says the building does meet minimum state codes, the board will reconvene to decide if the school will move or not. Nearly 100 people - parents, elementary school students and the California Montessori Project's nine board members, superintendent and a legal advisor - filled a multipurpose room at the Marshall School in Midtown to s

With members of the Sacramento arts community, the local education establishment and a representative of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at his side, Mayor Kevin Johnson Friday morning announced a major new arts education initiative in Sacramento. Sacramento has been chosen from 27 cities to be the Kennedy Center's first civic partner for the "Any Given Child" program, an effort to match arts groups, school districts and the Kennedy Center itself in the promotion of arts programs in the city's schools. After being developed in Sacramento over the next two years, the program will be rolled out nationwide. "We need to redefine how we look at the arts," said Johnson, stan

The members of Facilities Re-use/7-11 Committee left their three-hour meeting having reached enough consensuses to fill a PowerPoint presentation for the Sacramento City Unified School District’s Board of Education. On Wednesday, June 17, 11 community members met for the third time at the Serna Center to discuss potential re-uses for six school sites within the Sacramento City District that have been closed due to dilapidated enrollment and budget shortfalls. The meeting was facilitated by Sacramento Mediation Center Director Ellen Taylor and UC Davis Mediator and Facilitator Mary Madison. The committee was founded with the intent of advising the Board of Education’s decision based on a