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WINSTON A. BRAHAM DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER 201 S. STECKEL DRIVE, SANTA PAULA CA 93060 (805) 933-8802 OFFICE (805) 525-0546 FAX August 6, 2009 Dear District Staff: As we begin the new school year, I want to reinforce the proposition that you not, in any way attempt to question your choice to be in education during these trying times. Without a doubt, we made a correct and wise decision. It continues to be the perfect path when each day, simply by working in this special environment, you can impact the lives of your students and thus, generations to follow. While the current state of our industry makes it difficult and might cause you to second guess yourself, please don’t be tempted to do so! We celebrate your initiative, work and ongoing commitment to all our community. As we move into the next year, we are bound to move forward with continued focus on our primary goals that follow in no order of importance: Access; we must make every effort to work hard to close the achievement gap for all groups, especially our ELL population. We will strive to promote culturally relevant professional development and create a climate/culture that embraces high expectations, responsibility and accountability. We must ensure the sustainability and viability of our organization through labor peace, renewed pride in our organization and effective leadership. Promotion of continued collaboration; outreach and family literacy remains a most important goal. Assessment and data systems monitoring; remains critical and will continue to be a part of our reach as we move to identify very specific performance deficiencies with targeted solutions. Provide a safe, functional, technologically enhanced learning environment for staff and students. Seek to achieve proficiency or better in English Language Arts, Science, Math, etc. Otherwise, students will be expected to function at grade-level by embedding very specific proven and validated instructional strategies in all our work Secure broad support and buy-in that will seek to infuse confidence to successfully meet the challenges up ahead. It remains clear that our ongoing success is dependent on your unselfish support of our goal to raise performance levels of all our students. So, you will continue to be viewed as a pivotal team player. Respecfully, Winston A. Braham Superintendent & CEO
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