September 18, 2000San Diego Goes Back To School Celebration With Events For Parents and Community, September 26-28
From outdoor fairs to theme presentations to family dinners, health seminars and book sales, San Diego City Schools is gearing up for a three-day district-wide celebration of teaching and learning next week.
San Diego Goes Back to School will showcase the district’s 181 campuses as the highlight of the city of San Diego’s Education Month for its Millennium Year Celebration.
District schools have planned a variety of teacher, student and community activities to kick off the 2000-01 academic year in a positive manner and to encourage positive relationships between schools, parents and the community.
The following dates and times have been designated for the celebrations:
• Tuesday, September 26, from 3 to 6 p.m. or later at all elementary schools.
• Wednesday, September 27, from 3 to 6 p.m. or later at all middle and junior high schools.
• Thursday, September 28, from 3 to 6 p.m. or later at all high schools.
Here are just a few of the many activities being planned at schools:
• Hardy Elementary in the college area will kick off with a ’50s theme event for family and community friends, including hoola hoop, bubble gum blowing, period dress and dance contests, along with ‘50s-era automobiles displayed by their owners. A soft drink and soda fountain dispenser will provide refreshments. After the fun, the school will move into more formal classroom presentations by teachers about their work with students.
• Rolando Park Elementary will present an outdoor fair that will include many of the community agencies and businesses in the neighborhood which contribute to school activities. Students will present songs and dances every half hour for parents and neighborhood guests while they visit with teachers.
• Marvin Elementary in Allied Gardens will celebrate the school’s new technology program, which includes a weather station, and will later serve dinner in the lunch arbor and sponsor a book fair.
• Florence Elementary in Hillcrest will host the San Diego Youth Opera as part of its festivities, and Sequoia Elementary in Clairemont will hold an art fair in conjunction with classroom visits. Birney Elementary in University Heights will sponsor a community health fair following classroom presentations.
• At Montgomery Middle School in Linda Vista, the event will include the school’s second annual Family Literacy Night, with storytelling, readings and performances by students, along with a two-for-one book fair sale.
• Morse High in the Skyline district will host a millennium tea in the library and offer a parent workshop. Point Loma High will cook up a barbecue for parents after they visit classrooms, talk with student club representatives and preview digital high school plans in the library.
The district’s Parent Involvement and Support Department has prepared special "Student Envelopes," one for elementary grades and one for secondary grades, that will be given to parents to use throughout the year in helping their children academically.
The district, in cooperation with the Business Roundtable for Education of the Greater San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation, has asked all employers to give working parents time off, either unpaid or flextime, to attend their children’s school for the celebration. For employers with 25 or more employees at the same location, the state’s Family School Partnership Act allows the employees with a child in school to take off up to 40 hours each school year (no more than eight hours in a given month) to participate in school activities. Employees must give reasonable advance notice.
San Diego Goes Back to School has been planned by the Education Committee of Mayor Susan Golding’s Millennium celebration. San Diego City Schools trustee Ron Ottinger chairs the committee. Support has also been provided by the San Diego Education Association, the Administrators Association San Diego, the San Diego Unified Council of PTAs, the California School Employees Association school district chapters, San Diego READS, the California Parent Center and the City of San Diego’s 6 to 6 Extended School Day Program.
Significant donations have also been made by Vons, Legoland California, Hershey’s, M&M Candies, SDG&E, Kellogg’s, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Diego Padres and Sycuan Casino.
