Congratulations to Lincoln High School students Richard Deng and Coral Platt! Both were awarded National Merit Scholarships of $2,500 toward their college studies.

They were chosen from more than 15,000 finalists nationwide. Richard plans to pursue a career in politics and Coral is looking at a future in the legal sector.

Two exceptional PPS educators, Ricardo Barber and Hang Jones, were recently named OnPoint Educators of the Year for 2025.

As part of this prestigious honor, both teachers will have their rent or mortgage paid for an entire year, and their schools also receive a $2,500 donation. 

Ricardo Barber teaches third grade at Faubion, and Hang Jones serves as a social worker at Marysville Elementary. 

The OnPoint Prize for Excellence in Education celebrates educators who embrace innovative teaching techniques that ignite enthusiasm in their students. 

Congratulations to Ricardo Barber and Hang Jones! And thank you both for everything you do to make a difference in the lives our students.

The assignment their teacher gave them was simple – make a short film that begins with a phone call and ends with someone hanging up. Benson first-year students Dylan Martinez-Torres and Dariel Soriano Zamora ran it all the way to a small city populated by two very big and rather iconic monsters – Godzilla and Hedora.

The result, Sorry, Wrong Number, is one of the more than 90 films entered into the annual Best of PPS Film Festival. The festival is a celebration of exceptional student filmmaking that includes a showcase at the historic Hollywood Theatre. 

The fourth annual installment of the festival took place on May 21 and included a screening of 13 standout films. The films came from all over PPS and ran the gamut from Dylan and Dariel’s monster short to documentaries, film noir, and broadcast journalism. 

If you are a passionate student or community member that wants to make a difference at PPS, apply to join the Climate Crisis Response Committee! This is a committee that reports to the PPS Board of Education.

On the committee you will learn about how PPS is making progress towards our climate justice and sustainability policies, provide input and recommendations to the PPS Board on how to better support PPS staff as we advance these policy goals, and connect with other passionate members of our PPS community from diverse backgrounds, knowledge areas, and lived experiences.

No previous professional experience in climate change or sustainability required! Students can apply via this form. Community members can apply here.

Deadline to apply: June 6. 

Last year, our Arleta staff and families collaborated to select “Caring School Community” as our social emotional learning resource. Teachers have done an amazing job implementing the program’s structures in ways that elevate and affirm student’s voices and bring joy, meaning and connection to classroom communities. An important component of the program is called “Community Circle”. Across grade levels, at least 3 days per week, students greet each other by name, practice using a friendly tone of voice and active listening, including paying attention as classmates greet one another and being able to build off each other’s statements. Students are learning more about who they are and how they want to contribute to and engage in community in powerful ways.

In April, our staff used Community Circles to inquire about how students help each other learn. Their valuable voices shared some wonderful insights. Here are a few highlights heard by our school counselors Ms. Aud and Ms. Blei.

• "Sometimes people at my table help me with my math problems." Kindergarten student, Ms. Arias Class

• "Catching you up when you are absent." 5th grader, Ms. Bidney's class

• "Being respectful and being quiet so I can hear the speaker" 2nd grader, Ms Sides class

• "They help me learn when they share their thoughts." Kindergarten, Ms. Hedlund's class

Students have also participated in a weekly class meeting (called a community chat in kindergarten and 1st grade) and Spotlight Student (or Secret Student in Kinder and 1st grade). Class meeting topics include “character building” topics such as kindness, courage and perseverance as well as social issues such as mean behavior, cheating, exclusion and resolving conflicts. It’s always so heartwarming to get to witness and be part of the ways teachers are utilizing and leveraging our new resource.

Another opportunity for community building and empowerment approaches! Ms. Raina and I are pleased and honored to be co-hosting our Arleta screening of the film Counted Out this Saturday at 11:30 in our Arleta Auditorium. Films and stories have the potential to touch lives, create new connections and expand our thinking. Building our shared understanding of the relevance of math and the realization that we’re all math people, can help us discover ways to support our children in building positive math identities. Come re-experience math, re-build your awareness of math to impact your child, and enjoy this community experience. The film is 90 minutes, then we’ll have some short, casual small group or partner conversations. Click here to get your free tickets (as many as you like; bring anyone you’d like to). Childcare and snacks provided.

Warmly, Lisa

Next year Arleta will have a new literacy support: an additional half-time reading support educational assistant! They will provide “high dosage tutoring” to K-2 students identified as needing additional support, 3 times per week for 30 minutes during WIN (What I Need) time. 

Yesterday was the final Early Release Wednesday of this school year. Over the year, our staff have been joining up with Vestal Elementary’s teaching staff each month, learning about literacy instruction and evidence-based best practices, and how to adjust our instructional practices based on our students’ strengths and needs. This week, our focus was supporting language development through “Socratic Seminar”, a structure for evidence-based discussion about texts. As a full group the educators from both schools analyzed the skills, knowledge and scaffolds kindergarten students are expected to demonstrate in their next Socratic Seminar, then grade level groups went through that process. Below is one (of many) highlights generated by each team. Use this to ask your child about what they’re learning during “Wit and Wisdom” (our literacy resource).

Warmly,

Lisa

On behalf of all Arleta Staff, we love our Arleta community! Thank you so much for all your thoughtfulness, generosity and care always, and for making us feel so valued this week especially. The commitment and care our families pour into our community is such a special part of Arleta, and makes such a difference in everyone’s days. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the lovely staff appreciation on all the levels.

Skimming through this week’s Dolphin Digest, my heart fills with gratitude for all the ways our community comes together for our students. Make sure to scroll down to the SSJ65 Arleta News Channel brought to us by our wonderful SUN School! Speaking of SUN School, things are looking good! The mayor's budget website talks about supporting SUN (under parks). Our district RESJ SUN Manager, Marco Matias, is hoping for a final, final decision any day.

A quick note on the classroom placement process for next year: the main thing to know is you don’t need to do anything. Our teacher teams work together to create balanced learning environments, with input from specialists and support staff. We consider academic achievement, race, age (the number of younger students vs. older students within a grade), ELD and Special Education services, learning styles, gender, students who are new to our school, and more. I assign teachers to sections over the summer, and staff finalize class lists during the days teachers are working before school for students begins. For more detail, see the Classroom Placement section in our Arleta Family Handbook.

Warmly,

Lisa