Envision Schools

Envision Schools Press Kit
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Metro Open House a Huge Success!

October 19, 2011

Thanks to all who came out for the Metro Open House last week to help us celebrate our recent move to San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, and our permanent new home on 1195 Hudson Avenue. It was a fun and inspirational morning and the students, teachers and administration of Metro High and Envision Schools were honored and pleased to spend the morning with you. Attendees had the opportunity to hear civic and community leaders speak, talk with members of the community, tour campus, attend classes, and meet faculty.

For those of you that missed it, here’s some highlights from the event:

S.F. Board Supervisor Malia Cohen, who has a deep commitment to the Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood gave an inspiring speech that reminded us how important gratitude is, and that San Francisco needs all of its students to succeed.
S.F. Unified School District Board President Hydra Mendoza, who’s worked so hard, and in such partnership with Envision Schools, raised cheers from the crowd when she declared “Welcome Home, Metro High!”
Lyslynn Lacoste, Executive Director of Bayview Magic, a collaborative, neighborhood-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to facilitate, coordinate and network community resources and opportunities that support service providers and community members in Bayview Hunters Point, talked about the importance of collaboration and partnering so that we serve all of our students.
Tully Murphy presented Metro High with a check for $5,000 on behalf of Credit Suisse to support students in achieving their dreams.
Metro High Students, Maurisha Finley and Shabree Williams, exhibited great poise on the podium, as they shared their Metro experience with event attendees.

All in all, it was a fantastic morning. Thanks again to all who attended and helped make this event such a tremendous success!

Press Release: Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School Holding Open House for Bayview/Hunters Point Community

October 10, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

Contact
Natalie Zensius
Envision Schools

925-963-1694 (mobile)
nataliez@envisionschools.org
www.envisionschools.org

Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School
holding Open House for Bayview/Hunters Point community

October 10, 2011, San Francisco, CA – In celebration of its recent move to San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood, Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School (Metro), a public charter school run by Envision Schools, will be holding an Open House on October 13^th at the school’s permanent new home on 1195 Hudson Avenue from 10am until noon. The Open House promises to be a fun and informative morning. City officials and community leaders–Supervisor Malia Cohen among them–are expected to be in attendance mingling with students, parents and other community members as they tour campus, attend classes, and meet faculty.

Metro is housed on the Gloria R. Davis campus, named for the San Francisco educator, city commissioner and political activist. Ms. Davis devoted her teaching career to helping children achieve academic excellence and continued to advocate for them throughout her public life. Envision’s partnership with the school district to bring a public charter high school–the first of its kind–to the Bayview neighborhood, is seen as the beginning of a new era of educational opportunity for local residents, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college.

Metro Principal, Nick Kappelhof said: “We’re thrilled to be part of the Bayview community and it feels great to have a long-term home for the students who come to Metro from all corners of San Francisco. We feel privileged to be building on the legacy of so many educators, like Gloria R. Davis, that have gone before us, and we’re immensely grateful for the volunteer support and welcome we’ve had from the community. The Open House is our way of saying thank you.”

Like its three sister schools in the Envision Schools public charter school network, Metro is built around intentional diversity, rigorous academic discipline and excellence at every level, where compassion and high expectations inspire and empower students. The Envision network of schools, is creating exemplary results for students: 89% of the class of 2011 graduated, and more than 86% of the class of 2010 remain enrolled in college after their first year.

For more information about the Open House, call (510) 451-2415 or visit the Metro Open House web page.

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About Envision Schools (www.envisionschools.org)

Envision Schools is a non-profit school reform and charter management organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Envision Schools’ mission is to transform the lives of students, especially those who will be the first in their family to attend college, by preparing them for success in college and in life. Envision operates four innovative college-preparatory high schools in San Francisco, Oakland and Hayward and disseminates its model through Envision Learning Partners, a research, development and training entity. 95% of Envision’s graduates have enrolled in college.

Location of New Metro Campus

1195 Hudson Ave, San Francisco

A New (School) Year’s Resolution: Looking Back and Forward

September 27, 2011

This post first appeared on Edutopia’s website here: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-based-learning-college-readiness-bob-lenz. To see an archive of all Bob’s blog postings for Edutopia, visit this link: http://www.edutopia.org/spiralnotebook/bob-lenz.

Continue reading “A New (School) Year’s Resolution: Looking Back and Forward” »

You’re Invited! Open House at Metropolitan High School!

September 20, 2011

Please Join Us for an Open House at
Metropolitan Arts and Technology High School’s
NEW location in Bayview Hunters Point! Thursday, October 13, 2011

ES_Students

On August 17th, Envision Schools opened Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School at its new location in the Bayview at the Gloria R. Davis campus on Hudson Avenue. Metro is the first free, college-prep charter high school in the Bayview!

We’re holding an Open House from 10am – 12pm on October 13th to celebrate the opening of our new location, and it promises to be a fun and inspirational morning! You’ll have an opportunity to talk with faculty, students, and parents, as well as members of the community and public officials. You’ll be able to tour the campus, attend classes, and see first hand what learning at Metro is all about.

Gloria R. Davis, for whom the school is named, believed that by placing young people in a challenging environment they would succeed. We’re very excited to be part of the Bayview and immensely grateful for the volunteer support and welcome we’ve had from the community. We’re honored to fulfill the promise of Ms. Davis’ legacy by bringing a strong and successful educational institution into the heart of her community.

Come to Metro and see for yourself what we’re building together!

Date: Thursday, October 13, 2011
Time: 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Location: Metro’s NEW location at the Gloria R. Davis campus
1195 Hudson Ave. San Francisco, CA 94124
RSVP: Please reply to this email to RSVP. For more information, please contact Alicia Siegel at Alicia@EnvisionSchools.org, or 510.451.2415.

We look forward to seeing you there!

A Special Thank-You to our Donors:

The Human Element of Teacher Retention

September 15, 2011

Envision Schools was lucky to host Luke Pena, an Education Pioneers intern and MBA/MA Ed student at Stanford University, as a summer intern. Luke offered a reflection on his time at Envision Schools and the teacher retention tracking tool he created on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Center for Social Innovation website. Check out the article here: The Human Element of Teacher Retention.

Leadership Changes at Envision Schools!

September 12, 2011

Dear Friends,

It’s hard to believe that it’s already September and that school has been well underway for almost a month now; it seems like summer started just yesterday. I hope that you and yours had a wonderful and restful few months. Back to school is always such an exciting time of new beginnings. As we settle ourselves back into our daily routine, I wanted to share with you some exciting new beginnings here at Envision and let you know about the new leadership changes in place this school year.

Envision Schools welcomes Gia Truong as its first Superintendent.

Prior to joining Envision, Gia led Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Leadership, Curriculum, and Instruction department where she oversaw a team of more than 60 people engaged in tasks as varied as coaching principals, providing professional development to teachers, and designing and managing curriculum projects. Before that, she supervised nine OUSD middle schools and coached, led, and supported the principals at each school.

Gia has a deep commitment to educational equity and social justice because her life was transformed by education. Like many of our students, she is not only a first-generation college graduate, she is a first-generation American who immigrated with her family to the United States from Vietnam. Gia entered 3rd grade not speaking or reading a word of English, and went on to graduate from San Francisco State (BA) and Brown University (MA). We are fortunate to have someone with Gia’s level of experience, skills, vision and passion leading our schools.

Allison Rowland becomes Vice President of Teaching and Learning

Allison is the former principal of Envision’s City Arts & Technology (CAT) High School and has been an exemplary leader and a guiding light to both staff and students, as evidenced by her moving commencement speech to the graduates of the Class of 2011 at CAT in June.

Before becoming the VP of Teaching and Learning, Allison spent 7 years as principal, vice principal, and lead teacher at CAT. Allison has long had a passion for urban education, demonstrated by her previous teaching experience at Thurgood Marshall High School in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. She graduated from Williams College with a BA in Biology, and Stanford University with an MA in Education.

Envision Academy and CAT gain New Principals

Kirsten Grimm, who has served for the last two years as a highly successful Vice Principal at Impact Academy of Arts and Technology, became Principal at Envision Academy this fall. As Vice-Principal at Impact, Kirsten was the architect of the school culture and a key leader of the school’s success. Prior to joining Envision, Kirsten was a founding staff member with Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles. Kirsten is a Teach For America alum who also worked with Geoffrey Canada’s organization, Harlem Children’s Zone. Kirsten completed her graduate work at Loyola Marymount University and her undergraduate work at Duke University.

Daniel Allen joins Envision as CAT Principal, most recently from the TechBoston Lower Academy School, a national model for successful urban schools, where he served as the principal intern. Previously, Daniel was the Department Chair and a National Board Certified teacher in Mesa Arizona. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil and Assistant to the President of La Gran Mision Resistencia in Argentina. Daniel is a graduate of Arizona State University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is currently featured on their website.

Envision Schools is a learning community, where we support, and challenge one another so that we can all grow together as leaders in pursuit of high academic achievement for our students. Please join me in congratulating these new leaders at Envision, all of whom have a deep passion for providing high quality leadership at Envision Schools and will, I’m sure, be instrumental in helping to take our organization to the next level.

Best,

Bob Lenz

Campus Beautification a Huge Success!

August 8, 2011

Metro Arts and Tech High School would like to send out a great big THANK YOU to the 70+ students, parents, teachers, board members and corporate volunteers who came out on Saturday to help us get our new campus ready for the first day of school. It was so much fun to see everyone come together for a common purpose, and even more fun to see the AMAZING progress at the end of the day. We completed Phase One of re-planting the planter boxes, set up the library, Learning Center, and classrooms, washed windows, power washed walls and screens, created some beautiful bulletin boards, and painted our railings METRO PURPLE. The El Tonayense taco truck was a much welcome guest and only a small token of our enormous appreciation to everyone that pitched in.

We’re looking forward to seeing students and families for orientation and the first day of school!

Do the Classroom Flip: Humanizing School Through Technology

July 14, 2011

This blog post was published by Chris Sturgis of the Youth Transition Funders Group (a network of grantmakers whose mission is to help all youth make a successful transition to adulthood by age 25) on July 14, 2011, and can also be viewed at http://cby25.blogspot.com/2011/07/do-classroom-flip-humanizing-school.html

We all know that a successful high school, alternative school, detention alternative, or foster care program is rooted in the quality of the relationship between adults and youth. It’s natural to think technology in the classroom might undermine those relationship. The worst case scenario of a student stuck in front of a computer with a drill and kill software program is pretty horrifying.

Although counter-intuitive, it’s very possible that the effective use of technology can actually nurture relationships. In a recent meeting on next generation learning in which we watched the TED interview with Sal Khan, a very skilled principal dedicated to the most vulnerable teens in the South Valley in Albuquerque said “I thought technology would be dehumanizing. But this shows that it can actually be used to strengthen relationships.” She had walked into the meeting resistant to the idea of next generation learning. She walked out wanting to find a way to pilot the possibilities. Continue reading “Do the Classroom Flip: Humanizing School Through Technology” »