Ready or not…
School Begins!
August
19th
First Day of
School!
If you have your schedule already, you are good to go! If you weren't
able to go to Brownell on the assigned days of your grade level and name or you
can’t remember where you placed it… we’ll have a table for you to go to on
the first day of school to pick up a new schedule. Tables will be placed:
6th grade go to the 6th grade Village, 7th grade in 7th Quad area, 8th
grade next to Rm 25.
Schedule and book handouts went pretty smooth and most
students did receive them. There were some glitches and we need to meet
with parents to work them out. If you have a concern and believe your
student does not have the right classes, please make an appointment to see
either Kara Armijo or Julissa Mendoza. For the time being Ms Armijo will
be handling questions from students in the 7th grade and 8th and Ms Mendoza will be working with
the 6th and 8th.
Ms Mendoza also works with Spanish speaking families in all grades. Just
let the front office know you need a counselor and they will direct you.
It is important that you start with the counselors as they are working close
with me and are the ones who do the actual changes if necessary.
GATE Classes:
Because of the number of GATE students in the 6th and the 7th grade there is only one GATE class at
each level and nearly all of the students in the classes are GATE.
Then we have one Accelerated class of 34. To generate another ACC class,
I would need another 34 ACC students and there aren’t that many left to fill up
a class. The ACC class has the highest scoring students using the
last two CST scores and last year’s Benchmark scores. In the 8th grade
(the largest grade level) we have two GATE/ACC classes and one ACC class as
well.
SPORTS:
We’ll have the after school sports schedule up on
Schoolloop within the next week and look forward to a great year of
competition. More later…
PE clothes:
We take donations of $15 for shirt and $15 for shorts. We cannot accept checks so it will
need to be in cash. If for any reason you cannot afford a
donation, do not worry. Let the front office know so we can have
clothes for your student. Some
parents like to purchase 2 outfits. If the shirt and/or short do not fit,
the students can exchange them the following day(s) in their PE class, as long as they have not written
their name on them. Sizes are ADULT XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL and
XXXL. They do not shrink.
SPANISH:
Unfortunately, we will not be able to start the year
off with a Spanish class. We have been searching for a new Spanish
teacher and we know how popular and important this class is. We
will inform you as soon as this occurs. Our former teacher is now working
in San Jose and we certainly want to wish Ms Carpio-Aguilar the best. She
now is able to work close to home and close to the University of Santa Clara
where she can now complete her Master Degree.
CHOIR:
Ms Avey will be contacting
you, but in the case that you do not get the message, there will be class on
the 19th and the class will be held in Rm 32 this year at 2:45 pm!
Teachers who have
left:
Besides sorely missing Ms Carpio-Aguilar, Ms Garner is
on a one year leave of absences. Ms Griggs is now working at South Valley
Middle School. Mr. Gonzalez has retired and Ms Mullen is working directly
with teachers on all three middle school campuses on Common Core
implementation. We miss them all and the good news is that some of them
will eventually return!
Our New Staff Members!
Breanna Cull joins us in special education as a
resource specialist. Celia McCormack returns to Brownell after working in San
Jose for the last 7 years. Ms McCormack was a Bruin for many years prior
to leaving and she is glad to be back home, and will be teaching 8th grade Science. Brian
Collum will join us on the PE staff. Raised in Gilroy and known by many,
Mr. Collum brings a real zest for his profession and will fit right into our
Conditioning and Fitness team! Also, we warmly welcome Muriel Fernandez
to the Secretarial staff and front office. We are still looking for
three other slots to fill in English Language Arts and English
Development. We are lucky to have some strong guest teachers in the
positions to be filled and they will be working as long term substitutes.
That is all for now,
Thank you for your time and consideration and we will
do our part to make your student have a great year! And Go Bruins!
Greg Camacho-Light
