Principal's Welcome Message

Dear Parents,

Welcome to La Jolla Elementary School! If you are new to our school you will soon find out that we are very proud of our community of learners made up of outstanding students, an expert and dedicated staff of caring professionals, active and involved parents and a supportive community. We are committed to working together toward the success of all of the children at La Jolla Elementary.

We have worked together in our school community to use district and outside resources to continually enhance the educational environment that we provide for our students.  Over the last nine years, there have been many site renovations as a result of Proposition M/M allocations to our site as well as our own fund raising efforts.  Our existing buildings have been renovated from floor to roofing, the site infrastructures have been updated and we have new playground equipment, shade structures and a refurbished athletic field.  At the end of the 2004-2005 school year, we celebrated the grand opening of the Mark B. Wallner Library -- the first new building on our site in over forty years.  The building is located in a central location on the campus and is truly the “hub” of our literacy work.  We extended our library building with an outdoor stage, reading areas and interactive gardens, known as our WordPlay garden.  Our parent architect who designed the reading garden, Steve Pomerenke, won the prestigious “Golden Nugget” award in architecture for his efforts.  We also won the San Diego Home and Garden Award for “Best Garden of the Year for 2006”.  Our parent groups and the community continue to fund site beautification projects to add color, interest and wonderful art to our campus. 

We are proud to be a part of San Diego Unified School District.  The district’s mission of raising student achievement is being achieved through providing a rigorous curriculum to meet California state standards and intensive staff development for our teachers and administrators.  Our efforts in literacy are focused on helping students to understand and think critically about the books that they are reading and to express their thinking orally and in writing.  We work with a variety of rich text in both narrative and expository forms.  We hope that our children will become proficient and enthusiastic readers and writers, as well as lifelong learners.  An important component of our work is the assessment of literacy skills and using these assessments to guide instruction as well as to keep parents informed of the progress of their children. 

The district Mathematics Department has created a framework to guide our instruction in mathematics. Our focus in mathematics is on developing mathematical thinking skills through the exploration of essential math concepts.  We have provided staff development and resources to create exemplary math classrooms for our students. 

Our approach to teaching science is one of inquiry.  We utilize textbooks, trade books, print and media resources and active experimentation using “Foss kits” to explore essential questions.  Each grade level is engaged in six-week units of study in earth science, physical science and life science.  At La Jolla Elementary, we have included an additional three-week life science unit on oceanography designed to bring about an awareness of ocean habitats and an understanding of environmental concerns for our oceans.  Our science units alternate with rich, comprehensive units of social studies at each grade level.

We have state of the art multimedia equipment in all classrooms and have increased the ratio of computers to students through the purchase of shared laptop computers in third, fourth and fifth grade classrooms. All of our classrooms have Internet access. 

La Jolla Elementary School parents contribute greatly to our school community.  They volunteer in classrooms, work behind the scenes to support teachers, and provide fun and enriching activities for our students.  The PTA provides cultural enrichment through a monthly series of “First Friday” assemblies. They host community activities like the Family Dance and provide after school enrichment programs at a reasonable cost for our Wednesday Minimum Days. Friends of La Jolla Elementary, Inc., our fundraising foundation, are continuing their efforts to support the daily instructional needs of our students and to improve our physical facilities. Fundraising efforts have taken many forms, including a very successful Open Aire Market each Sunday on our site (9:00 am - 1:00 pm) and various campaigns and special events, like our annual gala.

Donna S. Tripi, Principal