The first day of school this year will be met with new teachers, old friends and, for the students at Miramar Ranch Elementary School, a new welcome mural.

The 14 Girl Scouts of Troop 2067 spent eight months bringing their Bronze Award mural project from concept to completion. The Bronze Award in Girl Scouts is needed in order to become a Junior Girl Scout.

“We wanted to do something special for Miramar Ranch Elementary because the school has been gracious enough to provide our meeting space since the girls were in Daisies,” said Diane Hunter, troop leader.

The wall selected for renovation had chipping paint and was a dull, khaki color painted many years ago. It was also the last remaining large wall without a mural at the school.

A group of Miramar Ranch teachers selected the final design after the scouts presented multiple concept ideas to them.

The scouts learned invaluable lessons on developing plans, presenting to adults and working together to reach their goal.

Troop member, Gracie Hass, 11, said she enjoyed participating in every stage of the project as they cleaned, scraped, sanded, sketched and finally painted the mural.

“We could see what was ahead, and it was fun to bring our design to life,” Hass said.

Hunter said this project fulfilled the Girl Scout mission to build girls of courage, confidence and character. It also encouraged the girls to be sustainable and work toward bettering their communities.  

“We are excited to present this mural to the school as they welcome the students for a new year. We hope it will bring joy to all students for years to come,” Hunter said.

Troop 2067 will participate in more service projects this year including volunteering at a senior center.

(StatePoint) Parenthood is a demanding and busy job, particularly during back-to-school season. With lunches to pack, homework to check, projects to oversee and activities to drive the kids to and from, it’s no wonder many parents find it challenging to squeeze in time for self-care.

But, if you want to keep up with your kids, it’s important to carve out time for healthy eating and exercise. Here are some ways to make more time for your own health, according to Courtney McCormick, dietitian for Nutrisystem.

Be an early riser: Relish early morning peace by getting moving an hour or two before the kids start stirring. Work in your morning fitness routine, meditate to mentally prepare for the day, do yoga and prepare a healthy breakfast. The earlier you rise, the more such daily habits you can adapt.

Schedule it: Schedule exercise the same you would a trip to the doctor’s office. If it’s on a daily task list or calendar, you’re more likely to follow through.

Get prepped: Nothing makes mornings more chaotic than having to pack lunches while trying to get everyone out the door. Packing lunch in a pinch can leave you susceptible to making hasty choices. Take about 10 minutes in the evening to prepare the next day’s lunches; you will thank yourself in the morning when you have healthy meals and snacks packed and ready to roll for yourself and your kiddos.

Other meal prep ideas:
• Put together a bunch of meals on Sunday to simply pull out of the fridge and heat for quick, yet wholesome dinners on busy week nights.

• Boil a dozen eggs for an easy protein-rich snack. Create baggie-sized portions of nuts and fruit. Prepping nourishing grab-and-go snacks for the afternoon crunch will help you stay on track.

Walk on your lunch break: If you find yourself really strapped for workout time, try taking a 30-minute walk before eating your lunch. Even doing light cardiovascular exercise for a half hour can help you stay in shape and shed some pounds.

Get the kids moving: If you weren’t able to squeeze in a sweat session sans kids, round up the family and take a long, after-dinner stroll. Encourage your children to keep up a moderate pace, while sharing stories and highlights from the day and playing games like “I Spy.” More health and wellness tips can be found at leaf.nutrisystem.com.

First grade teacher Amy Boelzle is making education fun and interactive for students at Dingeman Elementary School while also working to support the environment.

Voted Teacher of the Year in 2017-2018 at Dingeman Elementary, she manages a butterfly garden at the school that she incorporates in to her life science lessons, and she has taken it a step further to expand the effort to the Scripps Ranch community.

Boelzle inherited the garden from Sara Church, a former third grade teacher at Dingeman, who initiated many science and conservation activities at the school prior to her retirement. Among her contributions were creation of the Green Team – a group of third graders responsible for recycling at the school – as well as building a butterfly habitat, and installing vegetable planters around the school. Given her love of nature and passion for gardening at home, Boelzle partnered with Church when the project first began, picking out most of the plants that would be included in the garden.

“When my husband and I did the landscaping for our home, I knew I wanted a butterfly and hummingbird garden, so milkweed and other perennials became staples,” Boelzle said. “When Sara (Church) retired a few years ago, I took on the management of the (school) garden.”

Boelzle selected milkweed as a plant of choice for the school garden, as well, because it has a low water requirement and attracts monarch butterflies. She explained that the monarch only lays its eggs on milkweed, and the caterpillars exclusively eat this plant before creating their chrysalis.

“This spring, we had an abundance of monarch caterpillars on the plant,” Boelzle said. “Students were very excited to observe them as they ate their way through the plants, and sometimes we had to transplant the caterpillars to other areas to have enough food.”

At the end of last school year, Boelzle gave milkweed seeds to her students in hopes that they would plant a garden at home, helping the monarchs to continue to thrive beyond the school’s campus. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the population of monarch butterflies has plummeted by 90 percent in the past 20 years due primarily to climate change and pesticides, which threaten their sole host plant. The organization filed a petition to protect monarchs as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, and a decision is expected by June 2019.

Abraham Eusebio is a second grader at Dingeman who was in Boelzle’s class last year. His family planted the seeds received from his teacher and they have enjoyed the experience this summer.

“We had four successful monarch butterflies that we raised,” Eusebio said. “I even got to keep the empty chrysalis; it’s very fragile.”

Eusebio’s parents have also found the process rewarding. “It’s been neat to see butterflies coming to our garden, caterpillars eating milkweed, butterflies laying eggs and thriving,” said Marian Eusebio, Abraham’s mother. “It’s fun to see and learn about the different stages of the butterfly together as a family. I’ve learned a lot, too.”

The Eusebio family is not the only one in town that finds raising monarch butterflies rewarding. Bettina Mitteer is a Scripps Ranch resident who has been raising monarchs at home for three years. She has also been known to give away milkweed and monarch caterpillars to her neighbors through her local Buy Nothing Facebook group, complementing it with mentoring and strategies for maintaining a successful habitat.

“Raising monarchs was an accidental hobby,” Mitteer said. “I bought and planted the milkweed, and the monarchs started landing on it and laying their eggs. Because I’ve been successful, it has been very rewarding and that was something I wanted to share with my neighbors. Particularly because the population is declining, I feel it’s something we can do to make a difference, one butterfly at a time.”

Anthony Eusebio, Abraham’s father, said that Boelzle has done a great job of educating students on the importance of the environment and ways to care for it. Looking ahead, Boelzle hopes to get even more parents involved as she, along with students and her fellow educators, work to continue conservation and beautification efforts at Dingeman Elementary and in the surrounding community.

(StatePoint) Backpack and supplies: check! So, what’s left to do before going back to school? How about finding out how well your child has learned foundational skills that they need to succeed in the next grade?

Ninety percent of K-8 parents believe their child performs at or above grade-level in reading and math, according to Learning Heroes’ research. However, the National Assessment of Educational Progress finds that only a little more than a third of students are achieving at that level. What’s more, the “summer slide” puts students at risk of losing up to two months of reading skills and two and a half months of math skills over a single summer.

To get a better feel for how prepared your child is for the next grade and how to support their learning at home, check out these tips from Learning Heroes’ “Super 5 Back-to-School Power Moves.”

1. Get a gut check: Use the Readiness Check to see how prepared your child is for their new grade. Designed by leading experts in reading and math, the Readiness Check instantly provides important information about your child’s grade-level progress with reading and math skills after your child answers just three to five questions in each of the two subject areas. The free tool, which is available in both English and Spanish, also connects you to information, videos and activities to help build grade-level skills at home. To access this tool and other resources, visit bealearninghero.org.

Other ways to assess how ready your child is for the new grade include paying attention to how easy or hard it is for them to do grade-level tasks and looking at their annual state test results from last year. If you haven’t received the results yet, ask your child’s teacher.

2. Partner up: At your first teacher meeting, bring your child’s state test results and ask what they mean for this year. Find out what’s expected of your child and how you can provide support at home. Help the teacher get to know your child by sharing their interests and strengths as well. You can also share what you learned from the Readiness Check.

3. Make learning fun: You are the expert on your child and can make learning exciting. Read together, choosing topics that interest your child. Find math in everyday life and turn it into a game. These small learning moments add up to a lot.

4. Celebrate effort: Help your child see that hard work is what leads to success. Focus on effort and what your child is learning. This will help your child feel less nervous about new tasks or subjects.

5. Support life skills: Strengths such as communication, problem-solving and confidence will help your child in school and life. Talk openly with your child about how they feel and handle situations, especially tough ones.

“Learning happens everywhere: at home, in the community and in the classroom,” said Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes. “The Super 5 Back-to-School Power Moves can help you use the summer and beginning of the school year to get a more complete picture of where your child is on track, and where more attention and focus may be needed.”

Innovations Academy (IA), a kindergarten through eighth grade public charter school in Scripps Ranch, has been relocated three times since its inception in 2008. At the conclusion of the upcoming 2018-19 school year, it will be forced to move once again, but with the expectation that the next site will be its permanent home.

On June 19, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Board of Education voted 4-1 to move forward with the Scripps Mesa Joint Occupancy Project – a deal which will involve demolition of the current school site and construction of a mixed use facility with 264 apartment units in its place. While many residents and all local community groups opposed the project, the school board voted in favor, citing overall benefits to the school district, including an ongoing revenue stream that would be generated from the full 66-year lease agreement.

As part of the project’s description, according to the environmental impact report (EIR), “The intention of the District is to relocate Innovations Academy to its own, permanent location, and the District, in July 2016, approved spending up to $20 million on such a facility. In the event a permanent location cannot be secured … Innovations Academy would be relocated to an existing traditional K-6 or 7-8 school campus, within the school district boundaries.”

School administrators and parents at IA have mixed feelings about the relocation of the school.

“There is nervousness about the uncertainty among parents, administration and even students,” said Jennifer Ott-Rol, parent of twin fourth graders at the school.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, and we won’t until there is a definite location for us. My kids are nervous about it; it’s an upheaval in their lives,” she said. 

Christine Kuglen is the director and author of the charter for IA, and she recalled what it was like moving year after year when the school was first founded.

“I was desperate to be anywhere for more than a year,” she said. “We had been at three different locations for one year each and I was moving the school every summer.”

In anticipation of the fourth move, she sought out unused SDUSD property on her own, hoping to find a permanent or semi-permanent home for the school. When she found the former Ellen Browning Scripps Elementary School site at 10380 Spring Canyon Road, she approached the school district with a petition to use the campus. While it initially met with resistance, she ultimately received approval for a short-term lease that began in the summer of 2011.

With regular lease renewals always looming at the current site, the prospect of a permanent location for IA is appealing to Kuglen.

“I never expected to be there (at the current site) forever. We do need a permanent, forever home, and we are going to get that now,” she said.

Parents who were first attracted to IA because of its project-based learning style, among other offerings, say they would consider following the school to its next site if the new location puts it in a reasonable commuting distance.

“I am willing to commute as long as my daughter is still thriving and feels she belongs,” said Amanda Belton, whose third grader has been enrolled at IA since kindergarten. “If we were to change schools, it is doubtful that we would choose a traditional neighborhood school, as I truly believe in project-based learning.”

Kim Knox is another parent who was first attracted to the school because its teaching methodologies and positive discipline philosophy aligned well with her parenting style. However, proximity was also a consideration, so a cumbersome commute would likely cause her to consider other charter school options for her fifth-grade son.

(StatePoint) It’s time to get back into the school mindset, which for parents means school supplies, packing lunches and carpools.

A carpool arrangement can be the school year’s greatest gift, but the key to a seamless schedule is good communication and a solid set of rules. With these best practices, parents can help ensure a safe and smooth ride for all the carpool passengers throughout the school year:

• Develop a contact list: Compile a contact list that includes the names of every child and adult involved in the carpool, along with addresses and phone numbers. Print several copies of the list. Keep one copy in the car and share the remaining copies with the other families participating in the carpool.

• Create a calendar: Discuss scheduling needs and clearly outline who goes where and when each day of the week. This calendar may change over time, so consider sharing a document electronically for easy updates and to keep everyone on the same page.

• Prioritize safety: New car seat options are making it easier to ensure every child is protected in the back seat. For example, the Graco TurboBooster TakeAlong Highback Booster and Backless Booster provide safety on-the-go and are designed for ultimate portability. In both highback booster mode and backless booster mode, big kids from 40 to 100 pounds can be safely transported. In highback mode, the seat back nests inside the seat bottom, making it simple to transport the booster from car to car. In backless mode, the seat folds to become 50 percent smaller and comes with a carry bag for additional portability. To learn more about these booster seats, visit gracobaby.com.

• Minimize distractions: It’s important to stay focused. Don’t listen to a podcast or look at your phone. Instead, concentrate on the task at hand: getting children safely where they need to go.

• Provide snacks: After school, kids are typically hungry and will want a snack during the car ride home. Talk to the other parents about what food you plan to provide for their children. Be mindful, many children have allergies or dietary restrictions, so factor this in before snack time.

One local librarian at Jerabek Elementary is known for making exercise fun. Her name is Ruth Burr, librarian and certified instructor. She teaches aerobics to adults during the day and to kids in the afternoon.

Whiz Kids was started by a friend of Burr in 1989, and Burr came on board around the early 1990s. Now, Whiz Kids, an aerobic team and class for children, is independently helmed by Burr as her own venture.

Burr’s background is in exercise and she taught aerobics to adults before she taught it to children. Her pursuit in teaching aerobics to kids was inspired by her daughter who used to be very shy when she was younger until she took an aerobics class. Burr said she was surprised to learn that, according to her daughter, aerobics was “the most fun [she’s] ever had.”

Whiz Kids is now a small operation with three classes taught personally by Burr. She has her two classes at Jerabek Elementary after-school, when it’s in session, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She also teaches a Tuesday class at the Scripps Ranch Swim and Racquet Club which is open to anyone, even those who are not members of the club.

She teaches all her classes at Jerabek by herself. However, at the Scripps Ranch Swim and Racquet Club, she has about two or three teenagers that were in Whiz Kids when they were children who now help her out. These teens undergo a paid training program with Burr and they help her teach the kids in her Tuesday class.

Burr started in this venture by teaching 10 children. Now she teaches about 90 of them.

Whiz Kids’ target demographic are boys and girls ages 5 to 10 – kindergarteners through fifth graders.

Burr’s main exercise philosophy for Whiz Kids is not at all about competition, nor is it about perfection. It’s more about getting the kids moving and, more importantly, having fun.

“It really is a good avenue for children that maybe aren’t the greatest at sports, or they may not be the greatest at dance, but they want to do something and they want to feel successful,” Burr said.

She teaches the children aerobic exercise skills based on flexibility and balance and dance routines.

Burr added that Whiz Kids is all about wanting to increase kids’ concentration, self-confidence and self-esteem so that they can develop a love for physical fitness through aerobics and dance at an early age.

“I always want the kids to feel the confidence that they can exercise and that exercise is fun,” she explained. “I said when you get older, and you feel like, ‘Oh I have to go work out,’– I don’t want that. I want the kids to always think exercise is fun.”

At the start of each fall and spring at Miramar Ranch Elementary School, third to fifth graders get the opportunity to embrace music through the school’s choir program, run by volunteers Heather Sadleir and Jill Herbold.

For Sadleir and Herbold, this isn’t new. The duo has been running the program for 15 years.

Herbold said it all began when she decided to use her piano skills to get more involved with her second-grade daughter’s school. This year, that same daughter finished her freshman year of college.

“Every year the kids ask us, ‘Are you coming back next year?’” Herbold said. “It’s just so nice to see how excited they are when choir starts on the first week they come back.”

Choir programs in the San Diego Unified School District are not funded by the district. At Miramar Ranch, this means parents must pay $80 to the school’s Family Faculty Association to fund to program, Sadleir said.

The program gets by, but Sadleir and Herbold will always be unpaid volunteers.

“Every single cent that goes into the program, if we don’t accrue it for next semester, it’s flushed back into the system,” Sadleir said. “We try to do it top notch for these students.”

Herbold said the lack of pay has never been an issue for her because, without their work, the school wouldn’t have a choir program at all.

“I can’t imagine not having music at this age,” Herbold said. “It’s such a good foundation for life.”

Sadleir said the students really showed off the hard work that goes into the choir program at their end-of-the-year performance on the last week of May. This time around, the students sung tunes from Disney’s “Teen Beach Movie,” along with songs about summertime and promoting into the next school year.

“I usually am emotional because I can’t believe how they’re able to just pull it off and make it sound really good,” Sadleir said.

For parents who are interested in enrolling their kids in the choir program at Miramar Ranch Elementary School, Sadleir said, enrollment is on a first come, first served basis and is generally capped at about 30 kids. Students must be in the third to fifth grade at Miramar Ranch and there is an $80 fee to enroll. Parents should look out for an email if they want their children in the program, or contact the school when classes begin in August.

Happy seniors from Scripps Ranch High School gathered behind Viejas Arena on June 13 and chatted excitedly just moments from their high school graduation ceremony.

Once seated inside, following music, inspirational opening remarks and speeches by leading seniors, SRHS Principal Nicole DeWitt began handing out diplomas to each graduating senior in the class of 2018.

Graduates and their families celebrated for a long time following the event, posing for pictures and just basking in the moment.

Forty years ago, a handful of teachers and parent volunteers herded a group of students out from their temporary classrooms at Miramar Ranch Elementary School and paraded them several blocks to the site of Jerabek Elementary, their new school.

The year was 1978 and some of the teachers who were present that day returned this year on June 1 to attend a special reception and ceremony at Jerabek Elementary School to commemorate the school’s 40th anniversary. Diane Pali Belliveau and Stacy Wible are two of those teachers. Belliveau was a kindergarten teacher and Wible taught first grade in the early days of the school. Their new classrooms were close and they could easily see one another during the day. They remember connecting immediately, forming a close bond. Both recalled that first day when they moved to the new school.

“We gathered them up by classroom and we got parents to help us out, and we just walked down the streets and came over here,” Belliveau said.

Before the new school was finished, the students who would attend Jerabek had classes in the portable classrooms at Miramar Ranch Elementary. Essentially, there were two schools within a school.

Jerabek Elementary began with eight teachers in September of that year. By January, there were 12 and the number kept growing. There were about 35 teachers by the third year of the school’s existence.

The first day and the parade to the new school were an exciting experience for everyone involved.

“Kindergarteners are excited about everything,” Belliveau said. “So, we just herded them together.”

The school was named in honor of Chauncy Jerabek, the head gardener and horticulturist for the old Scripps estate. He was present for the school’s ribbon cutting in 1978 and, wearing a three-piece suit, addressed the crowd.

Wible recalled Jerabek’s speech. He was 84 years old at the time, and she wondered if he was a bit lost as he was making a noise for the children: “clickety-click-click.” He was telling the kids about when he was a student in a small wooden classroom.

“He was imitating the woodpeckers that would peck on (his) school building when he was a boy,” Wible explained. 

“He said he wished his mother was there to see it (the dedication),” Wible said. “He even said she thought he would amount to nothing. ... He passed away four months later.”

As classes continued throughout the year at the new school, and for the years to follow, the teachers and staff became a close team.

“We did things as a staff to make us feel cohesive because when you bring in people who don’t know each other and plunk them down as a staff, there’s no norm set, there’s no protocol set,” Belliveau explained. “We had that rare opportunity of building a school from the block walls up and bringing that heart that you always want to bring in for teachers and children. It stayed, I can see that.”

Belliveau taught at Jerabek until 1995 and Wible was there full-time until 2007. The two have witnessed the school change and grow, and they marveled at the computer lab. They remembered a time when someone collected spare computer parts in an attempt to build computers for the classrooms. There was a debate about whether they should have PCs or Macs. Eventually, volunteers donated the first computers.

“One thing hasn’t changed, and that’s the support the community has given from the very beginning of the school, how they just helped us get settled in,” Belliveau said. “The FFO (Family Faculty Organization) was formed and the support obviously is continuing.”

“The FFO has always been very supportive,” Wible agreed.

Jerabek Elementary was named a California Distinguished School in 1987, only nine years after opening, Belliveau said.

Today, Principal Kristie Joiner oversees the school’s daily operations. She has completed her fourth year as principal, noting that she was glad to provide stability and implement a students-first policy, especially in light of the fact that she became the fourth principal at the school in five years when she arrived.

“When I came in, I just had to pull everybody together and kind of get on a path,” she said. “We had about three goals. One was to improve achievement. The second one was to change our culture from an adult-centered culture to a child-centered culture. … The third was to relentlessly pursue kindness and positivity on our campus. … Just getting back to the business of kids and achievement.”

A special anniversary ceremony was held the afternoon of June 1. Jerabek students performed the entire ceremony, with children making speeches and the school choir providing the musical highlights. The event ended as former faculty, staff and administrators led the crowd in a spirited rendition of Jerabek’s school song.

This was an even bigger day at Jerabek Elementary because the anniversary ceremony was soon followed by the opening of the school’s annual Ranch Roundup carnival, a major fundraiser held each year at the campus.

Marshall Middle School Choir participated in the annual Forum Music Festival at Fullerton College on June 1. The Beginning, Intermediate/Advanced, and Marshall Madrigals performed selections, and each group received a Gold ranking, which is the highest they can receive.  

Justin Strahm received an individual award for Outstanding Musicianship, and Amalea Ribeiro received an individual award, too. The alto section and the Madrigals also received special acknowledgment and accompanying plaques. 

Great, big smiles were seen throughout Scripps Ranch this week as schools wrapped up for the summer. Proud parents and relatives shared these images of graduates and students at promotion ceremonies.