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Recognizing School Service Workers who Provide Meals
Friday, May 1, 2020 was School Lunch Hero Day! Thank you to the SPUSD school nutrition professionals who have served nearly 30,000 meals to students in the past several weeks.
The cafeteria staff switched gears in a matter of hours when schools closed in March. The team filed waivers, created menus, and developed production plans to ensure that families in need were offered breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday. The staff consistently adhere to social distancing and safety measures as they prepare healthy meals for our students, follow strict nutrition standards, and offer service with a smile.
Undaunted by Virus, SkillsUSA Continues to Shine
Although the physical State conference was a casualty of the pandemic, the SkillsUSA organization recently honored the South Pasadena High School SkillsUSA chapter with several awards. The chapter earned a Gold Level of Distinction in the Chapter Excellence Program, which requires members to plan and execute a year of activities based on the SkillsUSA Program of Work using SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals.
Member Tuva-Helene Kateraas’s pin design was chosen to represent the entire state of California at the State conference. Jolene Lee, chapter president, was elected in the Virtual State Delegation session to serve on the SkillsUSA California State Officer Team for 2020-2021.
Henry Balding, Jolene Lee, Luyang Zhang and Andrew Cheung were profiled in the Spring issue of SkillsUSA Champions magazine, currently available on the SkillsUSA website: read.nxtbook.com/mercury/skillsusa/champions_spring_2020/skillsusa_store.html
Congratulations to all the hard-working students and their advisor, SPHS CTE teacher Sandra Matson-Fennell.
SPMS Continues to Connect with Students
South Pasadena Middle School (SPMS) reports that school business is as (almost) usual! This week, ASB hosted a student spirit week to help boost morale.
SPMS is also sharing weekly versions of the school bulletin in Google classrooms to keep students informed and connected. This bulletin recreates what used to be the daily morning announcements. Tiger Cub News adds to the bulletin with online broadcasts about school events. Upstanders, the SPMS peer mediation group, also uses the new bulletin to promote social-emotional wellness events for students.
Inspirational Messages from Teachers at Arroyo Vista
Arroyo Vista teachers added inspirational messages for students to the sidewalk in front of the school on El Centro Street. Knowing that students and families are taking more walks together in the neighborhood, the teachers – who followed social distancing practices while creating the messages — believed that students would benefit from messages of hope and encouragement during this uncertain time.
The messages also were added to teachers Google classrooms so everyone had a chance to feel the love.
Marengo Elementary Does OSS, ‘Quarantine Style’
Last month Marengo Elementary School fifth graders experienced Outdoor Science School (OSS), quarantine style. While students were not able to participate in the originally planned adventure at Colby Ranch in the San Gabriel Mountains, they instead shared online activities including campfire songs, scary stories, science experiments, night hikes, and more.
The teachers planned special activities for each day of the week, including a special performance by second grade teacher Holly Lang who led students in a guitar performance of “The Scat Song,” a very popular camp song. Many students participated, and teachers reported that everyone is healthy and happy after their virtual OSS experience.
Monterey Hills School First Graders are Showering the Community With Love
Letters sent to grandparents, online ‘birthday celebrations’ for classmates, public service announcements recorded on how to stay safe and virus free, are all being shared as a reminder about how thoughtful children have been since the coronavirus outbreak.
Joline Zelenski’s first grade class at Monterey Hills Elementary School has gone the extra mile. The class, led by the thoughtfulness of student Joie Chang, wrote letters to the doctors and nurses at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center for being at the front lines in battling the virus.
For her seventh birthday wish, Chang asked her class to help write letters and also for donations to help those at Union Station, a human services agency in Pasadena that is doing its part to end homelessness in our community.
Go Tigers, Cubs, Lions, Roadrunners, and Wildcats!
