December 18, 2008

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

ACS students raise money to donate warm clothes to nonprofits

Almaden Country School is not staying tucked away in Almaden Valley this holiday season insulated from the tough economic climate and difficult conditions facing our community.

Instead this private school, preschool through eighth grade, is finding avenues to help those less fortunate in our community through three innovative programs.

For the eighth year, the seventh graders at Almaden Country School adopted Advent House, a home for foster kids in Santa Clara County. This year they had 46 foster teens to buy for, a record number for the school.

The students motivated the entire school to get involved and raise more than $3,400 that provided each foster teen at least one substantial gift from their wish list.

“We are proud that our seventh graders reached out like this once again this year. Service is one of our ideals at ACS,” said Dr. Olaf Jorgenson, ACS head of schools. “We are so blessed with privileges as Americans and Californians and with privilege comes the obligation to give back. These are the lessons that last a lifetime.”

The best part is that instead of just asking families and students for money, the students were encouraged to do chores to raise money. Students made beds, helped with pets and washed extra dishes for the cause.

The foster kids received giftcards, slippers, iPod shuffles, cameras, video games, clothes, jackets, blankets, make-up, perfume, cologne and shoes. Teams of seventh graders went out and personally purchased all the items.

But the giving certainly didn’t stop there.

The Almaden Country School Community Helpers participated in a national coat drive, “One Warm Coat.” This caring community collected nearly 60 coats and plans to deliver them to Westfield’s Oakridge Mall this Friday, Dec. 19.

ACS parent Katy Meister created Community Helpers to help young children understand community service and how their small efforts can make a big difference. The group meets once a month and the meetings are open to all ACS first graders.

This year the group made “anonymous” thank you packs for ACS employees, made holiday cards for service people and decorated and posted flyers encouraging the ACS community to donate coats. In the coming months the children will make decorations for IVs and send them to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and promote the Prom Dress Collection in the spring.

Each month a different community service project is completed. During the “meetings” the children do their homework, have a snack, then talk about how the project will help the ACS community, the San Jose community and the larger global community.

The middle school Community Service Class organized another drive for winter clothing. The kids gathered donations for three days on campus and collected 23 garbage bags worth of winter clothes. They separated them into kids and adult clothes. The children’s clothing will be donated to the San Jose Children’s Shelter and the adult clothing to InnVision.

Another part of this clothing drive was that several students went to JoAnn Fabrics, which offered the students a special discount on fleece used to make blankets. Each child in the class made at least one fleece blanket to donate along with the children’s winter clothing. There are 10 students in the class who made a total of 12 blankets. With the leftover material, dog toys were made by the students and will be given to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The Community Service class is an elective offered to sixth, seventh and eighth graders. The winter clothing drive was the first project this class completed during the winter trimester. All aspects of the project were chosen, organized and carried out by the students in the class.

Since 1982, the mission of Almaden Country School has been to discover the gifts in every child. In the journey from beginning kindergarten through middle school at ACS, students experience a traditional liberal arts and sciences curriculum taught in a developmentally appropriate sequence. Almaden Country School’s pledge is to fulfill this mission with every family we serve, providing strong academics, continuity and integration of curriculum, broad enrichment programs and a dedicated partnership between home and school.

Pioneer High wins Christmas in the
Park competition

The Pioneer High School National Art Honor Society won first place in the Christmas in the Park tree-decoration competition. The 16 students worked about 350 volunteer hours over the past two months to create this spectacular Dr. Seuss-inspired tree. It was quite an accomplishment. Some of the winning decorators pose with their winning tree, from the left are teacher Laurie Kirk, Sahar Mozaffari, Melisa Farro, Michael Chen, Judy Kim and teacher Jeanne Aikman. The students plan to purchase art supplies for children at a local shelter with their $400 prize money.

Three Union elementary schools receive CBEE awards

Union School District recently announced that Alta Vista, Carlton Avenue and Guadalupe Elementary Schools have been selected by the California Business for Education Excellence (CBEE) Foundation and Just for the Kids-California (JFK-CA) as three of 911 public schools in California to receive the title of 2008 Honor Role school.

Schools receiving this distinction from California’s business community have demonstrated consistent high student academic achievement and have made significant progress toward closing achievement gaps among all their students. The CBEE Foundation/JFK-CA Honor Roll is made up of two different awards, the Star Schools Award (214 schools) and Scholar Schools Award (697 schools).

“We are thrilled that three of our schools have been selected as Honor Roll Schools and recognized by California’s business community,” said Dr. Jacqueline Horejs, Union District superintendent. “Our teachers and administrators are dedicated professionals who have worked tirelessly to ensure the focus is on student academic achievement and reaching grade-level proficiency. We hold all our students, no matter what their background, to the same high standards because we believe they can all reach grade level proficiency.”

Seeking School News

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