The Board of Directors of the Belmont-Redwood Shores “School-Force” Education Foundation are pleased to announce that our new President of School-Force for the 2012-13 school year is Matthew English. He will officially take office on July 1, 2012 and is currently thinking about goals and strategies for the upcoming school year.

Huge thanks to all the kids who read and all of your friends and family who donated.

Although most middle-school students learned library skills in elementary school, they need some review when they first arrive at Ralston. Right at the start of the school year, Library Media Specialist Maggie King challenges sixth-grade Language Arts classes with a scavenger hunt. Students search for specific materials in the library, competing on speed and accuracy. The orientation also includes a game of “reference concentration” to help students learn what reference books are in the library. The kids have fun and leave the library knowing where to find what they need.

In one recent session at Central Elementary, students in science specialist Janet Mastalir’s class dug into soil and water to learn if isopods, or roly-polies, prefer an environment that’s dry, moist, or soaking wet. In an experiment teaching about both the organisms themselves and the crucial scientific concepts of constants and variables, students piled up equal-sized amounts of soil, varying only the moisture in each, and set the creatures free to see where they gravitated.

Many of us parents have clear memories of middle school, and those memories are not necessarily fond recollections. In retrospect, as adults, we know that what most of us experienced there was “normal”. Middle school is a time of transition: the beginning of puberty, trying on behavior perceived as “grown-up”, pushing boundaries, and beginning to step away from parents. On top of that, there is the increased academic rigor and the shift from having one consistent teacher to having six teachers a day.

At 8:45 a.m., the Central Elementary School library is peaceful yet inviting. The seating areas are tidy and the floor cushions plumped up. Bright posters highlighting the latest award-winning children’s literature decorate the walls. And the books, all 8,000 of them, are in order. Classes will troop in all day for out-loud story sessions and independent browsing and reading. Dozens of students will visit during recess or lunchtime to play chess, read, or just decompress.

During the 2010-11 school year (July 2010 - July 2011) generous Belmont-Redwood Shores parents, friends, relatives, businesses and community members donated $1.5 million to the School-Force Education Foundation. As per the Foundation's funding policy, the vast majority of these funds were donated to the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District to be used for high-priority programs in the current 2011-12 school year.

The 9th annual Save the Music Festival, held in Twin Pines Park, was a roaring success! Great singers, dancers, bands, orchestras, theater troupes, rock and jazz bands from our schools, community, and the entire Bay Area kept the crowd happy and flowing all day long.

Ralston Middle School music teacher Jordan Webster tells parents that incoming sixth-grade music students are “ready to fly.” Bringing the fundamentals learned in fourth- and fifth-grade instrumental music classes, sixth graders are ready for some serious ensemble work.

For the musically inclined fourth grader in the district, attending the mid-September demonstration of instruments at school is like visiting the candy store. Which to pick: Saxophone or flute? Violin or trumpet?

Can you help us find a new School-Force slogan? When School-Force volunteers created the “I’m in!” campaign slogan in the spring of 2010, the goal was simple: to encourage Belmont and Redwood Shores community members to be Invested, Informed and Involved in their local public schools and raise at least $1 Million by June 30th. It worked. The push that spring more than doubled fundraising from the previous fiscal year, saving critical programs and services for our children, as well as teacher jobs . The campaign also increased knowledge and volunteerism in the community.

Belmont-Redwood Shores School District (BRSSD) officials held a budget workshop on April 14, 2011, inviting the public to learn about the district's finances and contribute ideas for spending priorities. Here School-Force summarizes the meeting, and developments since then, for parents who could not attend.