La Jolla public schools celebrate their Teachers of the Year
The La Jolla public school Teachers of the Year for 2021 are (from left): Andrea Carlson, Heather Chiaro, Tori Geyer, Carole LeCren and Stephani McCabe-Halloran.
(Courtesy of Andrea Carlson, Heather Chiaro, Tori Geyer, Carole LeCren and Rory Halloran)
May 3, 2021 10 AM PT
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In a school year characterized by unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the five public schools in La Jolla have chosen their Teachers of the Year for 2021.
The five will receive a gift basket of personalized items including a tote bag, mask and shirt from their principals and San Diego Unified School District Area 5 Superintendent Mitzi Merino during National Teacher Appreciation Week this week. SDUSD also will honor them and the rest of the district’s Teachers of the Year, along with the 2020 winners, in a virtual celebration Tuesday, May 4.
After over a year of distance learning and more than seven months into the current school year, La Jolla’s five public schools in the San Diego Unified School District welcomed most of their students back to campus April 12 as the district reopened from closures triggered by COVID-19.
In La Jolla, 2,237 students chose to return to campuses in the hybrid model, Merino said at the April 15 meeting of the La Jolla Cluster Association, which is composed of parent and staff representatives from each cluster school.
The district’s hybrid system offers students two or four days a week of in-person learning, depending on the school.
“We’re on track” to reopen April 12, San Diego Unified School District Area 5 Superintendent Mitzi Merino told the La Jolla Cluster Association during its March 18 meeting, referring to the district’s plan to have students return to campuses for up to four days a week of in-person instruction in a hybrid model with online learning.
At La Jolla High School which had 1,338 students enrolled as of Feb. 21 56 percent of families chose the onsite option. Those students were split into two groups by last name to attend classes in person two days a week, Principal Chuck Podhorsky said. One group goes to campus Mondays and Tuesdays, the other on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
La Jolla Cluster hears ways schools are supporting students’ social and emotional learning
Members of the La Jolla Cluster Association hear feedback and actions addressing students’ social-emotional learning at the group’s Jan. 21 meeting.
(Elisabeth Frausto)
Jan. 26, 2021 8 AM PT
As the first half of the school year was drawing to a close, the La Jolla Cluster Association, a nonprofit organization formed to promote and advocate for the five La Jolla public schools in the San Diego Unified School District, heard the various ways in which the schools are addressing the social and emotional needs of their students.
At the cluster’s Jan. 21 meeting, principals and counselors discussed the resources and methods being used to support social-emotional learning, or SEL, which parents have cited as a concern while students are learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If 2020 has proved anything, it’s that La Jollans don’t lose their fighting spirit.
As the world battled the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, locals hopped online or otherwise did what they could for various causes whether it be neighborhood character, racial justice or adapting to ever-changing public health restrictions to keep their businesses open. All of this without in-person entertainment, meetings and events and while staying masked and socially distanced.
Through Dec. 26, residents of La Jolla’s 92037 ZIP code had registered 833 cases of the virus. San Diego County’s cumulative cases stood at 145,779 as of Dec. 27, with more than 1,400 related deaths.