January 22, 2009

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

SJUSD teachers, board vote to take furlough days

San Jose Unified School District teachers and administrators have agreed to take two work furlough days off to save the district more than $1 million.

The school’s workforce, including teachers and administrators, agreed to take two days off without pay. The two days selected, Jan. 20 and March 6, were on the books as teacher-in service days so that students were not due to come in anyway.

“This vote signifies the passion, faith and hope we have in our students and belief in their future and the respect we have for each other in the knowledge we may be helping to save each other’s position,” said SJUSD spokesperson Karen Fuqua in a release.

The revenue savings will have a positive impact of about $1.8 million. Under Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Early Release Budget, the district will have a budget deficit of $8 million to $10 million for 2008-09 and $13 million in 2009-10.

Church youth to stage ‘Thirty Hour Famine’

Joint Youth Ministry is a group of sixth through 12th graders attending church at Almaden Hills, Cambrian Park and Willow Glen United Methodist Churches who will be participating in World Vision’s “Thirty Hour Famine” in the effort to save lives from the chronic hunger that devastates residents of Third World countries. During these 30 hours, participants will fast to better understand what it is like to be hungry. Each pledges $30, one per hour, in order to support one child for an entire month.

Under the direction of Lisa Jacobs, the JYM group has grown from 30 to more than 150 active members. Jacobs put together an organization to create a safe place for young people to grow in knowledge of who they are and who God is. She built a community of love, respect, compassion and faith allowing the students to play crazy games, make lifelong friends and discover a deep and passionate faith, according to Rachel Davis, a 15-year-old member who also is a sophomore at Pioneer High School

The event is being planned by six JYM youth, including Davis, and overseen by Jacobs. It will take place Jan. 31 beginning at 7 a.m. and go through Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. During this time the group will serve food at Sacred Heart before returning to Cambrian Park United Methodist Church for the remaining hours playing survival games, walking a mile for water, watching documentaries and movies “Invisible Children,” “Hotel Rwanda” and others and building shelters outside to sleep under.

With an average of 15 events per month, these young people are constantly busy helping the community, from serving at Glide Memorial Church during the annual San Francisco trip to working on an Apache Reservation in the summer, to adopting two little girls from Third World countries through World Vision. As active members of the community, they seek to understand many world problems and to accomplish as much as possible to help in the effort to solve them.

SVEF provides pointers for fundraising

A group of visiting educators from China got an up-close-and-personal lesson on the inner workings of school foundations during a visit on Jan. 14 to the Silicon Valley Education Foundation in San Jose.

The delegation of elementary school principals and college professors from Beijing wanted to visit the foundation to learn how to create and grow similar foundations in China to raise funds for public schools. The group also learned about SVEF’s many programs that support student achievement and classroom projects, such as its algebra readiness program and special funding for teacher innovation projects.

Chen Juan, an official with Beijing Normal University who was part of the delegation, said government funding of education in China is declining, just as it is in the U.S., and educators are looking to other means to supplement school programs.

“It was very helpful to learn about the foundation’s model building relationships with big companies to raise money,’’ Chen said. “In China we are starting to do that, but we would like to do it more.”

SVEF president and CEO Muhammed Chaudhry emphasized the importance of partnerships the foundation has forged with companies such as Cisco, Flextronics and National Semiconductor, which enables SVEF to deliver academic programs that enrich regular school-year programs. SVEF provides the programs during summer to Silicon Valley schools.

“The role we play linking people and programs with big business is pivotal in a way that’s never been done before,” Chaudhry told the visiting educators. “We are the only foundation doing work that reaches across all 34 school districts in Santa Clara County.”

Among the programs SVEF sponsors is its $3 million STEM Initiative, which provides courses that focus on improving student performance in science, technology, engineering and math. SVEF last summer launched a math initiative, “Stepping Up to Algebra,” to increase middle school students’ skills in algebra. The initiative hopes to narrow the student achievement gap in math and science in Silicon Valley.

SVEF also sponsors the open-source Web site Lessonopoly that allows teachers to load lesson plans and share them with other teachers.

The Beijing delegation, called China K-12 Education Management and Innovative Talent Education Delegation, spent the week visiting schools and universities in Silicon Valley and the East Bay. The tour is sponsored by the U.S. China Exchange Council, based in Hayward.

SVEF is a nonprofit organization that delivers literacy and academic enrichment programs to public school students in partnership with the private sector and the education community. It focuses on the needs of its constituents: students, families, teachers, community and education leaders and listens to their needs and approaches their challenges with innovative solutions. For more information, log on to the SVEF Web site at www.SVEFoundation.org.

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