 For immediate release Contact: Shannon Carr,
Board Support & Communications Specialist (408) 635-2600, ext. 6031 Hanna Asrat will become Assistant Principal of Burnett Elementary School after an 11-year career in education. “I am thrilled to join the Burnett and MUSD communities and am anxious to begin serving the students in Milpitas!” she said. Asrat began her career teaching both second and third grades at Briarwood and Pomeroy, two kindergarten through fifth-grade schools in Santa Clara Unified School District. As she grew as an educator, Asrat “learned the art of teaching, the skills necessary to plan and deliver lessons and units intentionally developed to support the learning of all students, and the value of collaboration,” she said. “I’m thrilled that we have hired Hana Asrat as our Assistant Principal for Burnett,” Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said. “Even knowing the potential for budget reductions and savings through a return to the shared elementary AP model that we had, Hana still said, ‘YES!’ to our offer for employment.” Asrat served as a mentor teacher for three student teachers and served as a member of her school’s leadership, School Site Council, and PTA teams. “My work with student teachers is when I discovered that I truly enjoy facilitating adult learning,” she said. “That, coupled with a desire to contribute to systemic change for the students most in need, is why I began working at Partners in School Innovation in 2014.” Asrat has worked at San Jose-based Partners for three years, supporting teachers, instructional coaches, and principals to implement research-based practices that transform schools. She has also honed her skills as a facilitator of adult learning, coach, and leader, bettering her abilities in speaking about race, culture, and identity, and how these factors influence educational outcomes for students. Currently, in her instructional equity work with Partners in School Innovation, Asrat has been working with Santee Elementary in Franklin-McKinley School District where she coached the staff and principal in implementing professional learning communities and Results Oriented Cycles of Inquiry, and using SEAL strategies. “School leaders have the ability to impact dozens of adults and, consequently, hundreds of students,” she said. “They set the tone and can help develop a school culture and community that is supportive of and welcoming for all - teachers, students, and families.” After receiving her bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Stanford University, Asrat went on to receive her teaching credential and Masters in Education from Stanford’s elementary teacher education program. The MUSD Board of Education is scheduled to ratify Superintendent Jordan’s recommendation for Asrat as the new Assistant Principal during its meeting on August 22. By Gregory Barnes
Director, Secondary Education Summer school 2017 continued to expand educational opportunities for Milpitas Unified School District students. In total, MUSD housed nine unique programs for a variety of students this summer. Programs ended this week. Traditional classes for high school students were offered to students in need of fulfilling graduation requirements. This six-week program was separated into two three-week semester classes, allowing students to take a full year of credit if desired. The middle school program supported the math and English needs of current seventh and eight graders. Both of these programs offered classes for second language learners as well as extended school year opportunities for students in special education. Both of these programs combined housed over 600 students. Over the last two summers, MUSD has offered the SEAL summer bridge enrichment and teacher professional development summer session. This two-week enrichment/professional development extended the learning of our adult teachers while providing a thematic enrichment opportunity for elementary students. The Elementary Reading Program, also in its second year, was designed to offer reading enrichment and skill development to incoming third grade students. This five-week intervention worked with our most at-risk readers from our school sites. New to summer offerings this year were the Elevate math program and Summit Extended Learning Opportunities. The Elevate math program was offered to incoming ninth grade students in an effort to increase their math proficiency in high school. The Summit Extended session provided students with an opportunity to complete focus areas by completing associated content assessments. Finally, MUSD once again offered an enrichment program for Elementary school children this summer. Graduation for high school students will be held on Wednesday, August 2 at 4:30 p.m. in Board Room 500 at the District Office, located at 1331 E. Calaveras Blvd. The summer school presentation to the Board will be held on Tuesday, August 22 in the same location.  For immediate release Contact: Shannon Carr,
Board Support & Communications Specialist (408) 635-2600, ext. 6031 Giuliana Brahim was promoted to Principal of Milpitas Adult Education (MAE) after more than 15 years of work focused on empowering adult learners and promoting restorative education to incarcerated adults. “I am truly honored to accept the nomination of Principal for Adult Education and Corrections Division,” Brahim said. “I am humbled by the trust that the Milpitas Board Members and Superintendent Cheryl Jordan have placed in me. Each of them understands and knows the importance of the Adult Education programs in the community and in the correctional facilities. I want to extend my commitment and support to all staff and to the community. Together I am confident that we will continue to move Adult Education forward. I am grateful and excited for this amazing opportunity!” In her role as MAE’s Assistant Principal the last two years, Brahim has worked diligently to ensure that the Adult Education vision, plans, and actions align with the core values of the Milpitas Unified School District (MUSD) vision to “prepare students to go out into the world and make a difference as responsible citizens who are passionate about life and learning.” “Giuliana has shown me since she first applied for the AP position in 2015 that she is one who can accept a challenge and live up to it,” Superintendent Jordan said. “Giuliana knows that education is hope, it is the key to equity, and has empowered many of our students in the Corrections and Ayer sites with the opportunity to better their lives. Giuliana demonstrates perseverance and grit, and I am proud to support her as she steps into this new leadership role.” Superintendent Jordan announced Brahim’s new position during a July 12 staff meeting at Elmwood Correctional Facility, one of two locations for the Milpitas program, also housed at the Ayer Adult School at the District Office. “Adult education is all about second chances and endless possibilities; it influences the future of families, predicts academic success of children, and broadens the chances of adequate placement in the workforce and the attainment of postsecondary education,” Brahim said. She has spent the majority of her career, 13 years, proudly immersed in MUSD. She has brought awareness to the importance of adult education and correctional programs by ensuring opportunities for learning and growth to both classified and certificated staff through resources and professional development. In addition, Brahim has supported students and their families to assure student retention and high school graduation completion. In the 2016-17 school year, there were close to 100 students total who completed secondary graduation requirements from MAE either by receiving their high school diploma through 190 credit hours of academic study in the independent study program or successfully passing the General Education Development (GED) test or High School Equivalency Test (HiSET). “As our new MAE principal, Giuliana will continue the collaboration between our Pre-K through high school program leaders that has been established these past two years, and will seek ways to expand pathways to learning for adults and high school students through our membership in the South Bay Consortium for Adult Education, and our partnership with San Jose City College,” Jordan said. Brahim began as a Spanish teacher at the IES Language Foundation in Pleasanton. From there, she taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at Samuel Ayer High School in MUSD for five years before leaving Milpitas briefly to teach ESL at Strategy for the Workplace in Redwood City and East Side Union High School District, and becoming an Administrative Assistant at Berryessa Unified School District. Brahim returned to MUSD in 2007, where she has successfully served as a teacher at the Elmwood Correctional Facility for Women and Program Specialist, Evening Administrator, HiSET Chief Examiner, and in her current role as Assistant Principal at Milpitas Adult Education. Since 2014, through MUSD, Brahim has also been a member of the South Bay Consortium for Adult Education, a regional coalition of 2 community college districts and 5 school districts with adult education programs working together to seamlessly transition adults to postsecondary education and economic upward mobility. “Our district’s contributions are sharing the shared vision of the region’s adult education; there is ‘No Wrong Door,’” she explained. “The mission is to empower adult learners to achieve academic success and become financially independent to sustain their families and grow the local and state economies.” Brahim is known for tackling challenges proactively through an unwavering, calm demeanor founded in vast knowledge and experience, strong communication, and an earnest, methodical, objective approach. Her colleagues have shared she is an equity-minded leader, who fosters the potential of every student and staff member using her strengths as as an advocate with unreserved support and an innate ability to anticipate issues with a growth mindset. Brahim graduated from Anglo Americano Prescott School in Arequipa, Peru in 1979 and took select architecture and art history courses from the School of Architecture and Urbanism Lima in Peru in 1985 and Universidad de los Andes Bogota in Colombia in 1986, before earning her Adult Education credentials in ESL and Vocational Education from Metropolitan Education District in 2002 and 2007, respectively. In 2007, Brahim earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Educational Studies and her Master’s Degree in Learning and Technology in 2009 from Western Governors University. The MUSD Board of Education is scheduled to ratify Superintendent Jordan’s recommendation for Brahim as the new Principal during its meeting on August 22.  For immediate release Contact: Shannon Carr,
Board Support & Communications Specialist (408) 635-2600, ext. 6031 Carlton Stice, Principal of Calaveras Hills High School (commonly referred to as Cal Hills), says math and engineering teacher Sridaya Mandyam-Komar has been a strong advocate for building student pathways since joining the continuation school in fall 2015. “Sridaya works so hard and is open to bringing our students great, out-of-the-box types of opportunities,” he said. “She has developed a course in engineering that now has approximately 60 alternative education students turned on to engineering in a powerful way that could change the trajectory of their lives.” Because of Mandyam-Komar’s ongoing dedication, Stice said it came as no surprise when the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) recently selected her as one of three winners in its Texas Instruments Innovations in STEM Teaching Awards. “When I was selected as a winner, I felt genuinely happy for Cal Hills and what we represent,” Mandyam-Komar said. “Seeing that my students were curious about STEM and how some of them had started to map out their future in STEM careers was reward enough for me. This award makes this reward even sweeter.” Mandyam-Komar will be honored at the 48th annual Teacher Recognition Celebration, presented by the SCCOE, at 7 p.m. on September 14 at the Heritage Theatre in Campbell. Along with the STEM honorees, the event will also recognize 32 accomplished educators, selected from their respective districts. “One of the great pleasures of hosting the Teacher Recognition Celebration is having an opportunity to learn about all of the excellent teachers within Santa Clara County, including Milpitas Unified School District’s teacher Sridaya Mandyam-Komar,” said Summer Reeves, Communications/Public Relations Specialist with the SCCOE. Mandyam-Komar credited the vision of Principal Stice and dedication and persistence on her end to create an engineering course at Cal Hills, which has gained her the recognition. “As our students are primarily here to recover credits, it was not very clear how this would pan out,” she admits. “It is gratifying to see that our students rose to the occasion and persevered to finish the course with success.” She added her students have benefit immensely from the generous funding for the engineering program. Mandyam-Komar has been able take them on field trips to The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose and local universities, along with bring in a guest speaker, all of which has provided access to career and college options. The support has also allowed them to have a fully equipped computer lab and 3D printer, to enrich their everyday coursework. “I have been fortunate to teach at a school and district that value risk taking and innovation,” she said. “Bringing the engineering course to Cal Hills has definitely made me see myself as a powerful catalyst in sparking student interest.” Earlier this year, students engineered endless possibilities for their future through FlexFactor, a four-week entrepreneurship program offered by NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute. The project -- offered to students in Mandyam-Komar’s “Intro to Engineering” classes -- was run in collaboration with participation from local partners including the City of Milpitas, Evergreen Valley College, and Flex (previously Flextronics) in Milpitas. Students worked in teams of four to conceptualize a Flexible Hybrid Electronic device focused on human health or performance monitoring, and develop a business model around their product. They pitched their ideas in a Shark Tank-style, three- to five-minute presentation to a panel of representatives. “Her engineering course and the NextFlex project was such a great success I knew they would want to honor her for her hard work to help facilitate that project,” Stice said. Reeves explained that the STEM awards were added to the Teacher Recognition Celebration in 2012 as a way to honor special instructors in Santa Clara County public schools who are sparking their middle- and high-school students to enjoy and excel in science, technology, engineering, and math. “Sridaya Mandyam-Komar is a model selection for this award because of her passion for STEM education, and her work toward creating student equity in STEM education,” she said. “Her nomination stood out because Sridaya is a teacher who is using the power of a STEM education to change her student’s lives by exposing her students to processes and industries, and offering a high-quality STEM education to high-risk credit recovery students.” With the support of Superintendent Cheryl Jordan, Stice said he and Assistant Principal Karisa Scott nominated Mandyam-Komar for the award as a way to “honor her for the dedication to our students.” Before teaching at Cal Hills, she taught math at Silver Creek High School and San Jose High School for over a year each and at Homestead High School for 10 years. But her passion for education began years before, growing up in India, where she learned about the traditions of how revered a guru, also known as a teacher, is. “I always had an innate desire to be able to work with our youth and to hopefully influence them to see what great things they could achieve,” Mandyam-Komar said. Another aspect that inspired her to become an advocate for students was being a volunteer in her children’s classes, where she quickly noticed many kids didn’t have the same level of access as her own. Furthermore, Mandyam-Komar noticed that women are underrepresented both in the high-tech industry and in engineering schools. Mandyam-Komar was already trained as an engineer and was working in the industry as she volunteered as a parent. Becoming a teacher was her way of contributing to lessen the inequity. Mandyam-Komar studied Electrical Engineering in Bangalore University, India, earning both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in 1991 and 1995, respectively. She worked as an engineer in several Bay Area companies from 1997 to 2002. Mandyam-Komar started teaching in 2002 and later earned teaching credentials in math and CTE (Career Technical Education in Engineering sectors) and a Master's Degree in Education from National University, San Jose in 2005. “It was apparent that as our girls got into higher grades, their comfort with, and thereby enrollment, in advanced STEM classes dropped,” she said. “I wondered if I could be part of the solution, being a woman trained in STEM, by inspiring girls such as my own daughters to get into STEM careers.” She said this was important to her for a simple reason. “If only our students, irrespective of their identity, could see how important STEM careers are, both in terms of their own earning potential and contributing to today’s technological advances, we would have twice the progress in areas related to STEM,” Mandyam-Komar said. Dr. Madeleine Dasalla-DiSanto was also named a winner for the Texas Instruments Innovations in STEM Teaching Awards. During the June 27 Board Meeting, Superintendent Cheryl Jordan shared that Dasalla-DiSanto is a teacher at the District's sister school, Silicon Valley Career Technical Education Center with Metropolitan Education District. "I don't think that it's general knowledge that this school actually is an extension of Milpitas Unified," she said. "It's part of a joint powers agreement and we along with five other school districts support that school. And, in turn, that school provides an opportunity for many of our students." Each of the winning teachers will be honored at the Teacher Recognition Celebration in addition to receiving a cash award of $1,000 and the opportunity to attend a professional development event at the SCCOE. For more information about the award, read the News Release from the SCCOE.   For immediate release Contact: Shannon Carr,
Board Support & Communications Specialist (408) 635-2600, ext. 6031 Growing up, Laura Polden never imagined a life that didn’t involve working with children. “My earliest memory ever is the day my sister was born, and I picked out a book that I was going to read to her when she came from the hospital,” recalls Polden, who was 2 at the time. “I was ready to take on that role from a very young age.” Over the years, Polden’s maternal instinct grew to foster jobs ranging from a camp counselor to a nanny, swimming instructor, and teacher for a special education program and private school. She was even known as the potty trainer for the local neighborhood kids. “There’s never been anything else that I wanted to do,” Polden readily admits. This passion and relentless dedication is obvious to her colleagues and school district leadership alike, which is why the fourth grade teacher at Pearl Zanker Elementary School was announced as Milpitas Unified’s 2016-17 Teacher of the Year during the Employee Recognition Celebration on May 24. Polden will be one of 32 accomplished educators honored at the 48th annual Teacher Recognition Celebration, presented by the Santa Clara County Office of Education, 7 p.m. on September 14 at the Heritage Theatre in Campbell. “I was very surprised and humbled,” Polden said of the announcement. “...It makes me feel very emotional.” Zanker Principal Trisha Lee said Polden was nominated by at least four colleagues, who helped pen the submission form collaboratively. She was first chosen as Zanker’s Teacher of the Year, before going on to earn the school district award. Among the nomination highlights, Polden was noted for being a “dynamic instructor who has a natural ability to read her students needs through explicitly implemented informal formative feedback as well as through her ability to sense their non-verbal feedback.” They cited her work as data driven and highly engaging -- for students and staff alike -- and said Polden has amazing communication skills, relationships with students and families, and engagement in the Zanker community, attending almost every school event. “I think she is extremely deserving,” Lee said of Polden being selected for the award. “She has this zest for life. She finds a way to connect with all colleagues, and invites parents to be a part of her classroom. She is truly a lifelong learner.” Lee noted Polden being recognized is also impressive because she will be entering her fourth year of teaching in the fall. Regardless of her time, she said Polden is an innovative teacher “who is very conscientious of her abilities as well as her areas for her growth, and tries to always better her practice.” Before the 2016-17 school year started, for example, Polden volunteered for “looping,” because an intermediate teacher had retired and the opening needed to be filled. Looping is the practice of a teacher remaining with the same group of students for more than one school year. For Polden, this meant teaching a third grade class in 2015-16 and going on to teach the same students in 2016-17 for fourth grade. Lee credited this move as brave particularly because Polden was only used to teaching third grade, with three years of experience under her belt. “Developmentally, it’s a really big year,” Polden said, adding the transition allowed her to grow by revisiting education acquired during her college coursework. Polden earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Developmental Psychology from George Washington University in 2009 followed by a Master’s Degree in Education from Santa Clara University in 2013, at which time she student taught at Pomeroy Elementary School. Polden added that looping also allowed her to focus on being a data-driven teacher, beyond what is typically analyzed. “It can be data in any form,” she said, explaining that often comes with student observation. “And I was telling my sister, that sometimes data is what you feel. It’s not always a number that a computer produces.” Polden said this data is important because it allows her to meet the needs of all of her students. “So that’s why personalized learning is really important, because each kid gets something different,” she said. “It doesn’t mean 32 lesson plans. It just means different ways, options to give to them.” This year, Polden implemented book clubs in her classroom to meet this need. At that time, students were given options of books to read within a parameter of their reading level, to try and challenge them further. Based on their selection, they were placed in groups and engaged in different activities about their books. Polden said the value in this is “not everybody is reading the same book, which is how I grew up,” citing “The Catcher in the Rye”; “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and other literary classics that have long been required reading in English classes. “Guaranteed, 70 percent of the kids in my English class were not supposed to be reading ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ either because it was too challenging or it was way too easy,” she said. “You can’t teach like that anymore. And if you do, you have to have a lot of other options for ways that kids are going to get their learning targets from that.” Polden said regardless of where her teaching career takes her, this individualized focus will always be front and center in her work. And she believes it all starts quite simply. “You have to get to know your students,” she said. “There’s no Pinterest project, there’s no glitz and glamour borders or colorful paper that can take away that relationship that you have. If you are able to know your students, their family background, what makes them tick, what sets them off, what frustrates them, you can drive your instruction to make your lessons meaningful to all of your students.” |
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING:
The governing board of Milpitas Unified School District will hold a Public Hearing on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Media ResourcesArchives
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