Be a part of education in San Diego: get involved in district committees

Advisory committees provide important public input to the Board of Education, Superintendent, Principals and other staff on issues facing the school district. The meetings are open to the public. Here is a list of some of the committees serving the San Diego Unified School District.

District English Learning Advisory Committee (DELAC)

The District English Learning Advisory Committee (DELAC) is made of up representatives from each school’s English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC), required if there are more than 21 English learners in that school. The school committee advises the principal and staff on programs and services for English learners.

The DELAC’s role is to advise the district on the programs and services that the district provides to English learners.

This year, for the first time, there will be a student representative in on the District English Learning Advisory Committee Executive Board.
Contact Valentina Hernandez, 2013-14 DELAC Chairperson, at Valentinahs@aol.com or call (619) 366-0379.

The upcoming DELAC general meetings are on Oct. 3, Nov. 7., Dec. 5, 2013; Jan. 23, Feb. 20, March 20, May 15 and June 12, 2014 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Ballard Parent Center at 2375 Congress Street (92110) in Old Town. Parents, teachers, administrators and community members are welcomed.

Gifted And Talented Education District Advisory Committee (GATE DAC)

The goals and objectives of the GATE DAC are to advise district leadership on gifted program development, planning and implementation as required by state law, act as regional liaison to school sites for development of gifted programs, act as resource persons for district-wide parent meetings, channel community questions concerning district-wide programs for follow-up and action, set DAC priorities for program review, discussion and explanation during monthly meetings, and review district program objectives, activities, budget timelines and annual evaluation.

Contact Katie Anderson, GATE DAC co chair, at parentsofgate@gmail.com or (858) 663-6808. Also find information at www.sandi.net/gate.

The first meeting is from 6:30-8 p.m. Monday, Sept., 9, at the Ballard Parent Center, 2375 Congress Street, (92110).

Community Advisory Committee For Special Education (CAC)

The Community Advisory Committee For Special Education (CAC) advises the Board of Education and Special Education Program staff about the Special Education Local Plan (SELPA), annual priorities, parent education and other special education-related activities. California Education Code mandates that each SELPA must have a CAC and that a majority of members be parents.

General meetings are normally held on the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.; see  www.sandi.net/cac for locations. These meetings are open to the public.

For more information, contact Christy Scadden, CAC chairperson, at cscadden@cox.net or (619) 725-7650. Information is also available at www.sandi.net/cac.

The first meeting is at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 12, at the Ballard Parent Center, 2375 Congress Street (92110).

District Advisory Council For Compensatory Education (DAC)

The District Advisory Council For Compensatory Education (DAC) focuses on the funding that flows into San Diego Unified from the state and federal government for students that are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
The DAC is a parent-led district advisory group that provides training, data, and budget information concerning funds that are meant to target to socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Participants are prepared to discuss and offer advice to a school site council, district staff, the Superintendent and the Board of Education. Each School Site Council that participates in state and federally funded programs and sends a representative to each DAC meeting to vote on funding priorities for this money and to relay important district information to the school’s SSC. Contact Amy Redding, DAC chairperson at dac.sdusd@gmail.com or see www.sandi.net/dac for more information.
The meetings are generally scheduled at 6:30 p.m. the third Wednesday of the month at Ballard Parent Center, 2375 Congress Street (92110). The first meeting is Wednesday, Sept. 18.

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District employees' giving honored by Salvation Army

The Salvation Army Kroc Center honored San Diego Unified's employee charitable arm, the Community Services Association, as Partner In Education Donor of the Year at their dinner to recognize volunteers and donors.

The Community Services Association of San Diego Unified School District was founded in 1956 as the employee charitable association for classified and certificated employees. It supports educational, health and human services in San Diego County.

Since 1982, the association has provided more than $60,000 in charitable contributions to various Salvation Army Programs in San Diego. The Kroc Center Free Family Arts and Literacy Program has received $6,000 in grant funding from the association since 2004. The program includes monthly events that engage the whole family in arts and literacy, and each child leaves with a free book! The grant funding has provided 2,400 books to children in the community, building their home libraries and promoting a love for reading. For many, this was the first brand new book they have ever received.

Michele Fettig, CSA Secretary/Treasurer, accepted the award on behalf of the association's Board of Directors.

In other CSA news, the winning sites of the contest for the highest percentage increase in new CSA members this school year are: Balboa for elementary schools; Muirlands, middle schools; and SCPA, atypical schools.  Mental Health Resource Center is the winner in the central office category. Each school  received a check from CSA in the amount of $100 made payable to their ASB accounts; Mental Health Resource Center augmented its training budget with the $100.

For more information about CSA, please visit its website.

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Energy Challenge raises $26,500 for middle schools

Albert Einstein Charter, Pacific Beach Middle, and the Creative, Performing and Media Arts middle schools were the big winners in the San Diego Energy Challenge. The contest from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Simple Energy gave SDG&E customers in the San Diego Unified School District boundaries the chance to compete on behalf of their chosen middle school to win cash grants. Participating customers earned points for their school of choice by saving energy on Reduce Your Use days and getting members of their community to sign up and support their team.

The grand prize winner was Albert Einstein Middle School, which was successful in enrolling the equivalent of 69 percent of its student population to compete on its team by saving energy, and received a $15,000 grant. Pacific Beach Middle School won first prize and received $5,000, and second prize went to Creative Performing Media Arts, receiving $3,000.

“We are grateful to SDG&E and Simple Energy for supporting our middle schools with such a unique and innovative program,” said San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Bill Kowba. “The San Diego Energy Challenge school competition provided not only the opportunity for schools to earn much-needed funding, it also provided students with the opportunity to promote the importance of saving energy. Congratulations to the winning schools.”

Other schools participating and receiving $500 were DePortola, Dana, Mann, Farb and Lewis middle schools. The utility donated $26,500 to San Diego's middle schools.

"We’re proud that by saving energy in a fun and interactive competition, participating customers were able to reduce their energy use on Reduce Your Use days," said Caroline Winn, SDG&E’s vice president of customer services and chief customer privacy officer. “Because of the smart meters now in place, we’re continuing to find creative new ways for our customers to engage with their energy usage data and save money.”

The San Diego Energy Challenge uses Simple Energy’s “Social, Fun, and Simple”™ online game platform to encourage customers to save energy through friendly competition with their friends and neighbors. This innovative program earned backing from the Department of Energy (DOE), and SDG&E was awarded DOE funding to run the program.

“The San Diego Energy Challenge shows that by framing energy savings as a competition we can motivate people to save a lot of energy,” said Yoav Lurie, CEO of Simple Energy. “Layering on rewards and the opportunity to help a local school makes it even more effective. We’re inspired by how much energy San Diegans are saving.”

In addition to SDG&E giving away approximately $26,500 in prizes to San Diego area middle schools, participating customers that live within the SDUSD boundary were able to win individual prizes such as a tablet computer or gift cards through a drawing for being one of the day’s top savers.

Now moving into its next phase, the San Diego Energy Challenge will continue to engage customers with their energy data and incentivize energy savings with individual prizes through February 2013.
SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 840,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility’s area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help our customers save energy and money every day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.

Simple Energy uses social game mechanics to change how people save energy and how utilities engage their customers. Simple Energy’s customer engagement platform and applications combine leading behavioral science research and social game mechanics that encourage energy efficiency. Participants in Simple Energy programs compare their real energy usage with their friends and neighbors, making energy efficiency social, fun, and simple.

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Joint-use facilities upgraded at ALBA Community Day School

San Diego Unified School District Board Member Richard Barrera, San Diego Council President Todd Gloria, and ALBA Community Day School Principal Vernon Moore joined students, school staff, city and school district leaders, as well as community members on Dec. 6 for the official dedication and ceremonial ribbon cutting for the newly upgraded joint-use facilities adjacent to San Diego Unified School District’s ALBA Community Day School.

Improvements included a new basketball court, new 30-foot light poles at joint-use playing field, new matting around the horizontal bars, a resurfaced ALBA ribbon-cutting ceremony joint-use play field, newly repaired concrete sidewalk areas, new signage and new fencing around joint-use play field.

The cost of this project was approximately $400,000, which was funded by school district’s Proposition S bond program. Construction began in July 2012, and was completed in early November 2012. Project partners were IBI Group (architectural) and GEM Industrial Inc. (construction).

The City of San Diego and the school district have a long-standing agreement to maximize shared use of schools and/or park land to mutually benefit the city and the school district. The facilities shared by the city and the school district include multipurpose turf fields, lighted athletic fields, tennis courts, gymnasiums, parking facilities and libraries. In total, the school district and the city currently have nearly 80 joint-use agreements.

For more information, call 619-725-7252 or e-mail SDUSDFacilitiesInfo@sandi.net.

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