October 2012  Letter from our Principal 

Dear Muirlands Families,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to find an escape from the heat. The warm weather is expected to continue so please send bottled water with your student. Physical activity will be modified in physical education classes until there is a change in weather. It's critical that students drink plenty of liquids throughout the day.

As I shared in an earlier e-Splash article, Muirlands enrollment was unevenly distributed throughout the grades. This is the first time in ten years that enrollment was significantly higher in the eighth grade than in sixth and seventh grades which necessitated several schedule changes.

Ideally, we would have made the schedule changes before Back to School Night or rescheduled this event until after the changes were made. The date for Back to School Night is identified late in May because elementary and high schools are also scheduling their events during this same time period. Elementary schools schedule two to three dates for this event to accommodate parents who have more than one child on a campus which leaves us with very few open dates to schedule our event.

Another factor that prevented us from making schedule changes prior to Thursday was the fact that we did not receive the final teacher allocation until Friday, September 21^st. In the spring, each school receives a temporary allocation based on enrollment history. When that projection doesn't match actual enrollment then a school site may gain or lose a teacher or teachers. I was concerned that our enrollment would not support the original teacher allocation and we would lose one teaching position. Hence, there would be a possibility that a student's schedule may change twice. Our site tech worked diligently to make the changes by Wednesday but with the magnitude of changes, it just wasn't humanly possible.

It is rarely in the best interest for students to change their schedules after they have become accustomed to their teachers and comfortable with their classmates-which is why we avoid making any changes unless it's absolutely necessary. I appreciate your understanding in this situation and please know that we care deeply about your child and their success in school.

Now, I'd like to share the good news with you. The state will soon release the Academic Performance Index (API) for schools in California. The API is a state mandated report that measures the progress schools make towards meeting growth targets. Additionally, each significant subgroup is assigned a growth target that they are required to meet as well. The projected API for Muirlands shows that all our students are making progress towards reaching and exceeding proficiency in Language Arts, Math, History, and Science.  Each school is expected to achieve at least an overall score of 800. Our base score was 897 and we gained 16 points which gives us a score of 913. Our Hispanic/Latino population improved from 789 to 814 points which means a gain of 25 points. Similarly, our Socioeconomically Disadvantaged group also made significant improvement by increasing 20 points. Their overall score improved from 774 to 794. English learners, another significant subgroup showed growth by improving by 9 points from 737 to 746. Our school-wide goal is to have each of our subgroups attain an overall score of 800. We're not there yet, but we're making progress towards closing the achievement gap and accelerating learning for all students.

I applaud and celebrate the hard work of our teachers and students. Muirlands educators plan standards-based instruction, align instruction to best practice and student needs, and collaborate on planning and assessments across all disciplines to ensure our students are learning and achieving.

Kindest regards,

Chris Hargrave