DOWNEY — Welcome back from spring break, Downey Unified!

I hope everyone was able to enjoy time with friends and family this past week. Our schools have been very busy since my last article, and I know that having some downtime before our final push toward the end of the school year was much needed. As things continue to open and restrictions continue to be lifted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, our schools have once again been able to host events to showcase our amazing students and all that has been accomplished this year.

I, along with my fellow Board members, have been so happy to visit campuses again to see our students and teachers in action! Since October, most Board members have visited nearly every school within our district, traveling from class to class, to get a better idea of all the great things occurring inside and outside the classroom. One of our Board members even visited a 9th grade Honors Science class and was incredibly impressed by the superior level of learning that is going on at this grade level.

Our Superintendent, Dr. John Garcia, also loves visiting our schools and interacting with our students. Did you know that he makes a point of visiting every school within our district twice a year? Well he does. This year was no different, other than the fact that he had to speed up his visits to get them all in these last few months.

Like I said, it’s a busy time of year and now I want to share with the community some of the things that have been happening across the district. Our annual Femineers Gala was held at the end of March where all of our middle and high school female engineers were brought together to showcase their work and all they have learned within the field of engineering since the beginning of the school year. With only approximately 20 percent of all engineering jobs occupied by women, through the Femineers program, Downey Unified has provided an opportunity for female students to fill this gap and be more successful post-graduation by continuing to expand a female-focused engineering program.

In partnership with Cal Poly Pomona’s Women in Engineering Program, the Femineer program has been integrated within Downey Unified for over 10 years to provide better opportunities for these young students to learn firsthand what a career in engineering would encompass.

Next, let’s move onto our Apple Distinguished School celebrations! Although they were awarded this designation back in September, we were finally able to honor four of the five Apple Distinguished Schools these past few weeks with the final celebration happening next Friday. If you remember, Gauldin, Imperial, Lewis, Old River and Rio San Gabriel elementary schools received this international designation for their use of technology to connect students to the world, fuel creativity, deepen collaboration and make learning personal for each student.

Although only five were selected this year, this is being done at all 13 of our elementary schools and our goal is to get five more schools designated by next school year, with the final three the following year. Through our elementary Innovation Labs, all of our TK through 5th grade students are able to get hands-on engineering experiences, learn robotics and even various levels of coding.

When this award was first announced back in September, there were only 31 schools in California with this designation; however, globally there were only 546 schools—ranging from elementary to college level—that have earned this designation. We cannot express how proud Downey Unified is to have five of our schools added to this global list, with more to come each year.

There are so many additional happenings which have occurred that I could share, but I don’t want to take up the entire paper, so I will leave you with just two final things. One, I want to share that the Assistant to the Board of Education and Superintendent, Jennifer Boose, officially retired at the end of March after 31 years of service to our Downey Unified family. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with for the past 22 years and she will truly be missed.

We as a Board are very excited to welcome Martha Machado who will be taking this position. Martha worked as the office manager at Griffiths Middle School for many years and transitioned to the district office to support our Educational Service Department for the last few years. She is a wonderful addition to the Superintendent’s office and we look forward to working closely with her moving forward.

Lastly, Open House season is underway and we are grateful that these are finally being held in person this year! Please make sure to check with your child’s school to see when they will be holding this event. It’s a great opportunity to connect with your child’s teacher(s) and see all they have accomplished this year, all while getting to see the school campus.

For the full schedule of all of our Open Houses, please find Downey Unified on social media as an extensive list was posted just this week with reminders to be posted in the coming weeks, so don’t miss it!