Back to School 2016-2017: Looking Ahead to the New School Year
As the new school year kicks off, we have been bustling with many details on all of our Green Dot Public School campuses. The first days of the year always are filled with a palpable mix of excitement, nervousness, and anticipation for what lies ahead. That’s true for students and for teachers!
Earlier this week in Memphis, Tennessee, Kirby Middle School and Hillcrest High School welcomed community members to kick off the new year with a ribbon cutting ceremony. This is the first year that both schools are under Green Dot management.
There is more activity than usual at Ánimo Florence-Firestone Middle School, our new middle school that opened on August 9, 2016. As a feeder school to Ánimo Pat Brown Charter High School – named by US News and World Report as one of the country’s best high schools – Ánimo Florence-Firestone is seeking to deepen the community ties Green Dot has made through Ánimo Pat Brown.
During a time when approval of new charters in Los Angeles is down, we were proud to secure Ánimo Florence-Firestone’s approval, along with the renewals of eight other charters. Across the Green Dot network, the accountability measures involved in the public charter renewal process are helping to ensure that our schools are meeting the needs of their communities and providing students with the foundation necessary to succeed in college, leadership, and life.
All of us at Green Dot know that our work is urgent, made even more so by the pressing needs in the communities we serve.
We will continue to push, each and every day, to provide our students and their families with the opportunities they deserve.
And we’ll measure our success against what we all have achieved before. Just last year:
- Across California, 74% of the Class of 2016 were accepted to four-year universities, including Ivy League colleges and UCs; and across the Green Dot network our overall college-going rate is set to top 80%,
- Members of the Class of 2016 were offered more than $3.3 million in scholarships to help them cover the cost of their post-secondary education,
- Almost 1,000 Green Dot students and more than 300 Green Dot parents registered to vote, with the help of our Community Engagement Team
- We launched our first in-house internship program, with several students spending a month at Green Dot’s home office, and,
- We launched a new accelerated teacher credentialing program in collaboration with Loyola Marymount University to help bring more teachers into the profession – the first 13 members welcomed their first classes on Aug. 9!
And one final – but important — note. For the second year in a row, as part of our All Green Dot Day (our annual faculty and staff “pep rally” for the new school year), we challenged all our schools to create a school cheer that showcased their spirit and what made their school special.
This year’s CA school cheer winner was Ánimo Jackie Robinson Charter High School – they received the most viewer engagement on their school’s Facebook page.
All our schools demonstrated the same great spirit and commitment everyone at Green Dot has that help our students succeed everyday. We hope you enjoy their winning video: