The end of the school year is upon us, and some of our scholars have already started enjoying their summer break! It is a very busy time for Compass Charter Schools (CCS) as we prepare for the end of the year. Scholars are finishing their final assignments, teachers are completing their final round of grading, and staff are planning for the next school year. To top it all off, we have graduation and promotion ceremonies happening during the next couple of days across the state!
Before we look ahead to our exciting summer plans, or our plans for the next school year, I want to take a moment to reflect on some of the amazing things that happened at CCS this past year:
At the beginning of the year, CCS launched the new Options program, which supports families that choose homeschooling for their scholars. I am so proud that CCS now facilitates the homeschool learning experience for families in California. A special thank you to our Options staff for welcoming our new homeschool scholars and their families into the program and supporting their educational journey.
Throughout the year, CCS made an effort to improve the structure and support of our academic programs and improve communication with scholars and their families. Some important milestones include receiving NCAA accreditation, participating in our first Science Olympiad, being awarded reaccreditation from WASC for our San Diego Charter, and continuing to celebrate our scholars through Honor Roll and Scholar of the Month recognition. I recently reviewed the results from our most recent planning survey, which encouraged all scholars, learning coaches, staff and stakeholders to share honest feedback about CCS’ academic programs, activities and more. We saw a sharp positive increase (25%) in how our stakeholders view our commitment to scholar success, as well as an increase (15%) in how our stakeholders view our ability to prepare scholars for their future success. . The survey results were very encouraging and they reflect true results in CCS’ ongoing effort to enhance the educational experience for scholars and their families.
Of course, I want to discuss what is probably the most significant change we had this year, and that is our school’s re-branding. At the beginning of March, CCS launched its new name, colors, website, mascot and much more. It was such an exciting time and a true symbol of a fresh start in an effort to continue moving onward and upward. The rebrand included the launch of an online school spirit store where everyone can purchase CCS apparel and accessories (a parent suggestion from our 2016-17 survey). It also included the launch of new, active social media accounts (are you following our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts?) and a blog to further engage our scholars and their families.
As the 2016-17 school year comes to a close, I look forward to leading our inaugural 8th grade promotion ceremonies to congratulate each scholar on their achievements thus far, and welcome them into high school. I am also looking forward to leading our high school graduation ceremonies to send off our senior scholars and wish them well as they begin their next chapter in life.
For the upcoming 2017-18 school year, we will implement a few more impressive changes to continue improving our academic programs, activities and more. We will launch our partnership with StrongMind, a robust online curriculum provider for our middle school and high school scholars, which I am really looking forward to. We are also launching an AVID program for our 9th grade scholars, one of a few virtual public schools to have such a program to support scholar learning. In addition to the existing curriculum options, we will be offering our elementary scholars more curriculum choices to choose from. We also have plans to launch a Scholar Leadership Council to further engage with our scholars and encourage them to become peer representatives. And prior to the start of the school year (which is Tuesday, September 5), we will host Welcome Back Nights to introduce our staff to our scholars and share our vision on how to be successful during the school year
Stay connected with CCS over the summer through our social media channels, especially as a fun summer contest will be announced for our scholars. Keep an eye out for some fun summer events as well. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your educational journey. Best of luck as this year comes to a close, enjoy your summer break, and get excited for what is shaping to be a terrific 2017-18 school year!
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Have a question about Compass Charter Schools? Explore our website, or feel free to contact me directly at jlewis@compasscharters.org or (818) 824-6233.