Kent Awards 2022

Puma Families is a Nesbit School model practice aiming to promote a positive school culture and climate that will facilitate a safe emotional environment so that students may appreciate the diversity in our community, develop trust and connections to their peers and teachers, and contribute proactively to the betterment of our school’s culture. Puma Families provides students with the opportunity to bond with students outside their grade level that they might not otherwise interact with and provides them with an additional caring adult on campus they can turn to for support and guidance. All of this helps to create a connected and safe campus.

Genius Hour integrates knowledge, skill, and purpose for learning through student-centered and student-driven work. In each cycle students identify a personal passion project or problem they want to solve. That becomes their content for the cycle. They research content and create a presentation, display, website, or video to communicate their learning to others. Teachers serve as facilitators of learning by providing direct instruction on procedural concepts, giving feedback and monitoring progress of project design, evaluation, and presentation. In the words of one student, “Genius Hour allows us to discover a self manifested sense of purpose.” That is the true value of the program.

Cabrillo Unified School District has reimagined what it means to teach the whole child. Rather than thinking about the whole child in terms of content areas CUSD has developed robust programs in medical and mental health to fill out teaching the whole child through the three pillars approach to medical and social emotional wellness: Education, Prevention and Intervention. This is done through a combination of professional learning, classroom instruction, direct service, and family engagement. Working together our program coordinators link physical and emotional well being to the foundational health of our entire community paving the way for wonder, exploring and learning.

The North School Climate Constitution is a student-led program that promotes positive discipline, DEI, SEL, and our district's Essential Outcomes,. The Constitution allows students to have a voice in the creation of our rules and expectations. Each year, classrooms elect two delegates who participate in two Constitution Conventions where they collaborate and create the Articles of our Constitution. Annually, a Constitution Assembly is held to share the updated Constitution with the student body, staff, superintendent, Board of Trustees, Chief of Police, and Town Mayor. The Constitution serves as a compass for our school climate to guide us “True North”.

The Student Trauma Open Platform (STOP) of El Camino High School aims to foster a safe space, celebrate an inclusive campus culture, and empower students to acknowledge their own stories so they may choose to use their voices for action. Several student leaders on at ECHS wanted to create a platform and safe space for students to be able to discuss this topic, learn, and heal. This open platform is especially vital as students may not have access to the support they need from home. The purpose is to ensure the El Camino campus is welcoming and safe for every student of every background.

Los Cerritos is working on mitigating the loss of instruction from last year’s distance learning. This year ALL students are participating in intervention or acceleration classes. Students in K-2 are receiving both phonemic awareness and reading instruction classes. Students in grades 3-5 are receiving math classes. Every 4-6 weeks students are reassessed in order to receive optimal instruction. Additionally, students at-risk in reading in grades K-5 receive extra reading instruction from a reading specialist funded by SSFUSD and Los Cerritos.