Another year has flown by, this one a very special one. Our students have grown so much over the past 10 months, academically and social-emotionally, with the support and involvement of our wonderful District community —our teachers and support staff, our students’ families, and our caring Sunnyvale community at large. Between students’ progress through another challenging year and our District’s advancement toward its own goals, we have much to celebrate as we head into summer and continue to emerge from the pandemic.

You may have noticed one of our most visible signs of progress — our Ellis building project. Construction is well underway for this modern two-story facility, which will provide flexible learning space and technology infrastructure to help us meet the evolving needs of our students.

We also implemented our District-wide equity plan, deploying specialists at every school site who are trained to continually assess students’ progress and help us correct course if needed, and our training of staff in the important concepts of the social, emotional, and cultural aspects of teaching and learning is ongoing.  It’s an exciting time to be a part of this District, as we work together to apply deep and effective support to make sure every child can flourish.

Another exciting highlight of the year was the expansion of our Juntos Dual-Immersion Spanish-English Language program into the middle grades at Columbia School. In Juntos, students start school in kindergarten usually speaking only one language, and gain verbal and written fluency in both Spanish and English over their years with us.  Our first cohort of Juntos students graduated from San Miguel in June 2021 and are now paving the way through middle school. Maravilloso! Wonderful!

We are thrilled with these and other District accomplishments, but the real measure of success is the growth we see in our children, both during the school year and throughout their time with us. We begin celebrating their milestones in that very first year in school, as they master circle time, build friendships, and learn new skills that we hope will inspire a love for learning. If we do right by them, they graduate years later as critical consumers of information able to research, analyze, draw conclusions, and share their findings and opinions with confidence.

We know this transformation doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it feels like a long time to students. But as adults, parents, and teachers, we know better. Time flies when it comes to children.  We are grateful you have chosen to share these precious moments with us.

I wish you a warm and peaceful summer.

See you in August!

Michael Gallagher