masthead updated
Issue: #10November 2010
In This Issue
Teacher of the Year
Election News
Resource Parent Council
Shanghai Principals Visit
Shanghai principals
Featured Article
Principals from Shanghai visit San Mateo County schools.
New Plaque Honors Teachers of the Year 

 

Rachel Andres, a mathematics teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School in the Sequoia Union High School District, was recently selected as the 2010 San Mateo County Teacher of the Year. 

Teachers of the Year
(l.to r.) Anne Campbell, Gene Mullin and Rachel Andres with the newly installed Teacher of the Year Plaque.

 She joins a distinguished group of teachers who have received this honor. Their names are now proudly displayed on a new plaque at the San Mateo County Office of Education, honoring the Teachers of the Year from 1982 to the present.

In early November, Andres joined with Gene Mullin, former state assemblyman and Teacher of the Year in 1991, and County School Superintendent Anne Campbell, to check out the plaque on display. Both Andres and Mullin noted some familiar names. Ashley Gray, the 2007 Teacher of the Year, was Mullin's student teacher in 1999. Greg Whitnah, the 2001 Teacher of the Year, was Andres' department head at Menlo-Atherton High. Jack West, the 2008 Teacher of the Year, served as her Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) teacher trainer.

"Being selected as Teacher of the Year was a distinctive honor for me," notes Mullin. "It also gave status to the South San Francisco Unified School District and North County schools that don't often get a lot of attention."

Of her role as a math teacher Andres says, "I love it. I can't imagine doing anything else. I like making math fun and I try to make it non-threatening for my students."

Learn more about the Teacher of the Year award here.
County Voters Approve Most School Ballot Measures in November Election 

 

On November 2, 2010, voters in San Mateo County and throughout California approved local school bonds, elected school district trustees and chose Tom Torlakson as their new State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The election results brought good news for several San Mateo County school districts where voters approved four out of five school-related ballot measures.

Students in the San Mateo Union High School District, South San Francisco Unified School District, and the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District will all benefit from the passage of school bonds that will allow the districts to complete such projects as renovating buildings, replacing portables with permanent classrooms and upgrading science labs.

The one local school measure that failed to pass--Jefferson Union High School District's parcel tax, Measure P--came very close to receiving the necessary two-thirds majority with 65.7 % of the votes. Had it passed, the district would have been able to restore some of the positions and programs, such as school counselors and summer school, that had been cut due to recent budget reductions.

See the details about the November 2 election here.

New SMCOE Resource for Parents of Children With Special Needs
 

For San Mateo County parents who have children with special needs, there's now a new avenue of information, advice and advocacy, thanks to the formation of the Resource Parent Council. A committee of the San Mateo County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), the Resource Parent Council was formed to provide a vehicle for parents to work with special education directors in their districts and to work with other parents who may be new to special education.

"The Resource Parent Council was created to bring parent involvement into the 21st century," says Jane Van Epps, Program Coordinator for the SELPA at the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE). "We want to educate and empower parents to navigate special ed with good information."

Learn more about the Resource Parent Council here.  

  

No Ordinary Tour for Visiting Principals from Shanghai

In early October, three school principals from Shanghai arrived in San Mateo County and were welcomed by local school principals Diana Hallock (San Mateo-Foster City), Cherie Ho, Linda McDaniel and Maria Lang-Gavidia (Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary).

Shanghai principals
College Park Elementary principal Diana Hallock is flanked by visiting principals Vivian Heh and Lily Yao of Shanghai.

They've stayed at their host principals' homes, shadowed them as they held meetings with staff and performed yard duty. They've even gotten a taste of American culture at its height -- catching baseball fever and cheering on the San Francisco Giants as they won the World Series, and trick-or-treating on Halloween.

During the week of October 18, 2010 the principals toured local public and private preschools, including the Child Development Center at the College of San Mateo, Families Forward in the Redwood City School District, the state-funded preschool at College Park Elementary School in San Mateo and the private preschool program at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Foster City. San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) early childhood staff Maryanne Patterson, Soodie Ansari and Jeanie McLoughlin facilitated the visits.

The principals were most intrigued by the U.S. patchwork system of public and private, full and half-day preschools, which is very different from the mostly full-day system in Shanghai, where all parents pay a fee and children ages 3-6 attend schools that offer preschool and kindergarten in one school setting. They also had the opportunity to meet with Gary Waddell, Associate Superintendent of the Instructional Services Division at SMCOE, to learn about curriculum, and they attended a meeting of the First 5 Commission, where they learned about state support for preschool.

The principals from both countries agreed on two key points, notes Patterson: "No matter what country they are in, they all work very hard and have a lot to do."

Learn more about the Shanghai principal exchange here. 


About the San Mateo County Office of Education
 
The San Mateo County Office of Education provides a variety of instructional, business and consulting services to the County's twenty-three public school districts, charter schools, the Community College District, and County Office of Education staff.

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