To all students who are returning to schools on the traditional calendar, welcome back! And to those who are brand new to the Irvine Unified School District, welcome!

Today, of course, marks the first day of classes for most IUSD students, who will be streaming en masse to campuses all over Irvine. (Those attending the district’s four year-round schools started back up in late July.) Because the morning routines may be less familiar than they will be in a week or two, families escorting younger children may want to get an earlier start this morning. Moreover, local motorists are advised to practice a little extra vigilance to ensure neighborhood streets are safe for pedestrians, pint-size and otherwise.

For additional details, check out your school’s website. And good luck!

The IUSD Board of Education will hold its final meeting of the summer at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24.

As per ususal, the meeting will be held in the Board Room at the District Office, located at 5050 Barranca Parkway.

To access the agenda, click here.

The California Department of Education has released the latest results of its annual Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program, and, once again, students in the Irvine Unified School District continue to post impressive stats in core subjects.

“We are extremely pleased to see the percentages of students deemed proficient or advanced on the California Standards Tests continue to rise,” said IUSD Superintendent of Schools Gwen E. Gross.

“Test scores do not define a district, nor do they reflect all of the great things that happen in a classroom,” Dr. Gross said. “Nevertheless, our staff, parents and students should be tremendously proud of these results.”

The California Standards Tests (CSTs), which measure student knowledge of the state’s rigorous content standards in grades two through 11, are considered the cornerstone of the STAR program, which assessed approximately 4.73 million students in the spring of 2010. CST scores are divided into five levels of achievement: advanced, proficient, basic, below basic and far below basic.

In English/language arts, the rate of IUSD students deemed proficient or advanced in 2010 varied by grade level, from 66 percent of 11^th-graders to 89 percent of fourth-graders. By comparison, 52 percent of Orange County’s 11^th-graders rated proficient or advanced in English/language arts, as did 70 percent of the county’s fourth-graders.

Comparing this year’s English/language arts proficiency rates to figures from the previous year, the largest gains were made in the eighth grade, which jumped by five percentage points, as well as the second grade, which increased by 2 percentage points. The largest year-to-year decline, a 3 percentage-point drop, occurred in the third grade. (See the chart below for a five-year look at IUSD’s progress.)

Seventh-grade students also wrote essays as part of a writing test that was included in the English/language arts assessment, and each was later assigned one of four scores –  8, 6, 4 or 2. According to the state results, the percentage of IUSD fourth-graders who demonstrated proficiency by scoring a 6 or 8 spiked from 78 percent in 2009 to 91 percent in 2010. (The fourth-grade writing test was suspended this year as a result of the state budget crisis.)

In math, grade-level CSTs were given to all pupils in grades two through six. The percentage of students considered proficient or advanced ranged from 85 percent of fifth-graders to 88 percent of students in grade four. All lower grades outperformed their 2009 counterparts with the exception of grades two, three and four, which held steady.

In grades seven through 11, students took end-of-course math exams in subjects including algebra I, geometry, algebra II and general math. When averaged together, scores again ranged. Eighty-five percent of seventh-graders were deemed proficient or advanced, as were 51 percent of 11th-graders. The largest one-year gains were in the tenth and 11^th grades, where the percentage of students in the proficient/advanced performance levels rose by 2 percentage points.

CST scores weigh heavily in the state’s annual accountability index and in the federal No Child Left Behind requirements. For school-level reports or to access specific STAR results from districts and counties around the state, log on to the California Department of Education’s website at http://star.cde.ca.gov.

 ***

California Standards Tests: A Five-Year Look at IUSD’s Proficient and Advanced Percentages

ENGLISH / LANGUAGE ARTS

MATH

* Scores include algebra I and the seventh-grade math test for the years indicated.

** Scores are averaged based on all tests offered at that grade level.

The Irvine Public Schools Foundation says tickets for its inaugural gala are selling briskly, and corporate sponsorships for the event are still available. 

The Spirit of Excellence Gala and Auction, which will be held on Friday, Sept. 10, at the KIA Motors America headquarters in Irvine, aims to celebrate the achievements of five accomplished IUSD alumni while generating much-needed funding for local schools. 

“We are delighted with the support we have received from the local business community and Irvine families for this event and we’re looking to make this gala the biggest event for supporting education in Irvine’s history,” said IPSF chief Neda Zaengle.

“Great schools make it easier for local employers to attract exceptional professionals,” Zaengle said. “We’re looking for additional corporate sponsors to help us help them make Irvine a great place to live and send your kids to great schools. We’re grateful for the support we have so far and there’s still room to join us.”

The five honorees to be recognized at the gala are: Nasim Pedrad (University High), an actress and comedienne who recently joined the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”; Jeremy Siskind (Irvine High), a pianist for Eastman Jazz of New York City; Dr. Richard Baick (University High), a physician with the Irvine Family Practice Medical Group; Garrett Atkins (University High), a three-time All-American baseball player at UCLA who went on to play with the Colorado Rockies and Baltimore Orioles; and Adam Keefe (Woodbridge High), a former member of the NBA’s Utah Jazz and the fifth all-team leading scorer in the PAC-10 for Stanford.

For tickets, or to learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact IPSF at (949) 265-6409. Or visit www.ipsf.net.

President Obama signed into law an emergency bill from Congress this week designed to preserve jobs, including those of approximately 160,000 teachers who have been laid off or who might have been laid off this year. The Los Angeles Times has the story here.

School districts including Irvine are closely monitoring this legislation and hoping the bill will provide some much-needed relief. However, it has not yet been determined at the federal and state levels how or when these dollars will be allocated.

It’s also worth noting that California is still without a budget for 2010-11, and lawmakers in Sacramento are struggling to close a gap of approximately $20 billion. Whether these factors play a role in the distribution of the federal funds remains to be seen.

For more information on IUSD’s finances, visit the district’s Budget Watch page.

A few weeks back, we posted an update about IUSD’s newest principals, as well as some familiar faces taking on new roles. Well, here’s one more from the latter category.

It’s been announced that Irvine High School’s Mark Miller will take the reins as IUSD’s director of alternative education and principal at Creekside High School beginning later this month.

Miller succeeds the retiring Paul Mills, who worked in IUSD for 36 years – including nearly a quarter-century as this district’s outstanding alternative ed director. In a fitting tribute, Mills earned Administrator of the Year honors in 2010 from the Association of California School Administrators.

Miller has an impressive résumé of his own. Following eight years as a special education teacher at San Clemente and La Costa Canyon high schools, he helped open San Juan Hills High School, serving as athletic director and assistant principal. In 2008, he joined IUSD as Irvine High’s assistant principal.

“Mark is a perfect match as director of alternative education, and our team is very fortunate to have a leader of his caliber in this important role,” said IUSD Superintendent Gwen Gross. “His unique administrative and instructional leadership experiences – including opening a new high school and developing and implementing core curriculum for special needs students – and his appreciation for Creekside’s students and programs will be tremendous assets to the Creekside Education Center community.”

This is it – the end of the line.

Friday marks the final day to purchase a ticket for the Irvine Public Schools Foundation’s 7th annual Irvine Dream Stakes Home Raffle, which is offering up a $700,000 condo – or $500,000 in cash – as the grand prize.

IPSF has already given away a bunch of early-bird goodies, including $10,000 in cash, a new BMW, a vacation package for six oceanfront resorts and free rent for a year.

But there’s still the matter of handing over a high-rise luxury home at 3000 The Plaza. The winner will be announced at 10 a.m. on Aug. 21 at Woodbury Elementary School, and it could be you – but only if you buy a ticket by Friday.

Raffle tickets are $150 each, and the proceeds benefit schools in the Irvine Unified School District.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to www.irvinedreamstakes.com or call (949) 734-6873. To read more in the Orange County Register, click here.

The Irvine Unified School District’s four year-round campuses are gearing up to welcome students back for the first day of the 2010-11 school year.

Plaza Vista, Vista Verde, Westpark Elementary and Woodbury Elementary are back in session on Wednesday, July 28, with their fall recesses spanning Sept. 27 through Oct. 15.

Note that the first day for IUSD students who attend schools on the traditional calendar is Thursday, Sept. 2. For more information, or to access a 2010-11 district calendar, click here.

Talk about tough acts to follow.

In June, Principal Robin Beacham of Bonita Canyon Elementary School retired after 26 remarkable years in IUSD. Ken Horner similarly put the final touches on a stellar career as principal of Alderwood Basics Plus. And Creekside High’s Paul Mills, who spent 25 years in the field of adult and alternative ed, also decided to hang ’em up.

In fact, it seems this district bids farewell to at least one legendary principal every summer, either by way of retirement or the call of new pursuits. While it’s always tough to see the good ones go, there is this silver lining: Principal vacancies in Irvine tend to draw some pretty high-caliber applicants, meaning IUSD gets to pick from the best of the best.

This year’s pool of candidates was particularly deep, and when all was said and done, five IUSD campuses are getting topflight leaders. Without further ado, here they are:

Bob Curley, Bonita Canyon Elementary School. A familiar face has been tapped to replace Robin Beacham, who recently retired after 12 years as Bonita Canyon’s top administrator.

Bob Curley will take over at B.C. after serving as principal of IUSD’s Springbrook Elementary for the past seven years, which followed his nine years at South Lake Middle School.

Curley, who taught math and science before joining the administrative ranks in 1999, undoubtedly has some big shoes to fill at B.C. Yet the same could be said for his successor at Springbrook. 

Elaine Keeley, Springbrook Elementary School. With Curley transitioning to Bonita Canyon, Elaine Keeley was picked to be Springbrook’s next leader.

Keeley comes to Irvine from the Orange County Department of Education, where she served as an administrator of instructional services for four years, leading a team of curriculum and instruction coordinators who delivered professional development training in core curricular areas. 

Keeley attended UCLA and received her master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach, and her doctorate in education from USC. Before arriving at the county, Keeley was an elementary principal in the Huntington Beach City School District. She also taught for 13 years and served as an assistant principal in Santa Ana.

Cindy Chaffee, Alderwood Basics Plus. Cindy Chaffee takes over at Alderwood for Mr. Horner, who retired in June after a long and illustrious career in Irvine.

Chaffee stepped into her first administrative assignment in 1988 as an assistant principal and director of student services after serving as a mathematics and music teacher in Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach.  For the past 18 years, she has worked at two different schools in the Centralia School District while also serving as the visual and performing arts coordinator. In the latter role, she has worked with both county and IUSD personnel. 

A graduate of the University of Vermont, Chaffee received her master’s degree from Cal State Long Beach and her doctorate from the University of LaVerne.

Aaron Jetzer, Culverdale Elementary School. After starting his career as a technology teacher in Los Angeles Unified, Aaron Jetzer headed south to Tustin Unified in 2003, continuing his technology leadership while teaching mathematics. 

In 2006, Jetzer joined the Ocean View School District as an assistant principal before being named principal of Village View Elementary. He is well versed in many of IUSD’s current initiatives, including Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), Response to Instruction (RtI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

Jetzer completed his undergraduate work at the University of Arkansas before heading back to California to earn his master’s degree from National University.

Craig Hauke, Venado Middle School. Veteran educator Craig Hauke was hired to replace Keith Tuominen, who is moving to the District Office as the new director of secondary education.

Hauke served in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District for 19 years, the first 10 as a teacher of primary and secondary grades and adult education. In 2001, he moved into the administrative ranks as assistant principal of Benton Middle School. He was appointed principal of the campus in 2004.

Hauke received his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and his master’s degree from National University.