Principal’s letter

As spring approaches and we near the end of the third quarter, we also approach the STAR testing season, which begins on April 27^th, 2010. The importance of the STAR testing results can’t be understated as this assessment system measures the improvement of each student, as well as, each grade level and the school and the district as a whole. Please encourage your child to get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast during the testing week. We are expecting to build on our record-breaking performance of last year, when Cabrillo’s API increased by forty-one points to 756.

The Board of Trustees of the Santa Clara Unified School District recently voted to begin every school year, beginning with the 2010-2011 school year, a week earlier than usual. One of the advantages to this earlier start is that the first semester ends before the winter holiday. In the past, students would return to school in January and still have two weeks left before the second semester began. So, the first day of instruction next school year will be on Monday, August 16^th, 2010. Please plan for your summer trips accordingly.

After spring break, the final phase of remodeling will begin at Cabrillo. It will start with the transformation of the building that houses our cafeteria / multi-purpose room. During this particular phase of construction, our kitchen will be expanded and the area that we fondly refer to as the M-Wing will be transformed into a new art room and weight room. When this phase of remodeling has been completed, the construction will move to the Central Wing that houses our science rooms and library. The science classes will be remodeled with state of the art projection systems, air conditioning and more, but the highlight of all of these improvements will be our new media center, which our librarian Karen Joesten played a major role in designing. Hopefully, all of this construction will be completed by the end of next school year.

Finally, on Tuesday, March 23^rd, Cabrillo will participate in a WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) midterm review. The review team led by former Superintendent Jim Fontana will evaluate Cabrillo’s instructional program and progress toward attaining the ambitious WASC goals established three years ago. We are especially grateful to eighth grade core teacher Mary Pat Phillips for working so hard to prepare the documentation necessary to make this highly anticipated review a success.