Home - Mt. Diablo Unified School District (2024)

Both programs are provided through a partnership with DVC that includes college level courses, providing college credits to students while they are in still in high school. Speakers at both events noted that this year's seniors started their freshmen year remotely in distance learning during the pandemic, but have shown courage, resilience, confidence, curiosity and a willingness to take risks as they chose to pursue rigorous programs that challenged them and offered opportunities not available at all high schools.

The College Now program is based on the DVC campus and allows students to take both community college courses taught by DVC staff and high school courses taught by MDUSD staff. This year's graduating class of 28 seniors earned an average of 33 college units, which means they completed the equivalent of more than one year of college. Eight will continue their education at DVC, and 20 plan to attend four-year universities, said College Now Administrator Dr. Heather Fontanilla. Student speaker Amisha Shukla encouraged her classmates to continue taking advantage of new opportunities, even if they involve risks, and to push themselves outside their comfort zones. "We've made it this far by taking a risk," she said.

The Ygnacio Valley HS CCAP program offers students the opportunity to study engineering throughout all four years of high school, with some classes taken at DVC in their senior year. Seventeen students from this year's first graduating class were honored at the celebration, including five who earned 12-17 college units and received a gold graduation cord, four who earned 18-21 units and received a blue-gold cord, and eight who earned 22 units or more and received green-white-gold cords. Eleven plan to continue their education at DVC before transferring to four-year universities and eight plan to pursue engineering, one plans to pursue computer science and one will major in business. Students were mentored by teacher Joseph Alvarico, who was named a District, County and CA Teacher of the Year in part due to his student advocacy, mentorship and willingness to launch this program at YVHS. Many of the CCAP students also participate in the Project 212 Robotics Club and/or Femineers Club for girls interested in engineering, which Alvarico oversees. In addition, the students have also been mentored by engineering and manufacturing industry professionals including from manufacturing company Bishop Wisecarver. Kelly Walden, VP of Manufacturing for the company, suggested an alternate meaning for the CCAP acronym in recognition of the students: Courage, Commitment, Achievement, and Pride.

Speakers at both events encouraged students to continue to be lifelong learners and to "give back" to the community to make the world a better place for future generations.

InSequoia Elementary School's International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme, 5th-graders are required to complete group "research projects that represent the culmination of their academic learning," said Principal Rebecca Vichiquis. In the interactive event held both outdoors and indoors on Friday, May 17th, at least 120 parents and other adults visited students, looked at their displays and listened to their community presentations about their projects.

Parents and community members said they appreciated the opportunity to speak with students about their research. “I was so impressed with every student and the level of rigor,” said County Superintendent Lynn Mackey, who toured the exhibition with Vichiquis. “The presentations were amazing.” She and Vichiquis learned about inflation from students Eli Cunanan, Jack Greenberg, and Haru Onoda, who included charts, drawings and Chromebook research in their presentation. "In particular, they chose to examine the causes, impact on people, and potential remedies to address the effects of the rapid inflation we have experienced over the past few years," Vichiquis said. "The group had excellent presentation skills and their presentation was very interactive. I was particularly impressed that they were able to articulate their findings surrounding this highly relevant and complex topic using simple comprehensible language, which certainly increased the impact of their message on the audience."

Parents John and Tiffany Kavanaugh said they have been pleased with the IB program at Sequoia and thought the research projects were challenging and thought-provoking. "They are learning to think outside the box - this is not a cookie-cutter approach," John said, after seeing "The Inclusion Project" presented by his son Colin Kavanaugh and classmates Brayden Cady and Logan Mims. "This was a very well put-together presentation." The project examined discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and provided resources in a brochure that said: "Respect is needed." The group wants to foster a more inclusive mindset at the school and to eliminate gender stereotypes.

MDUSD Board Member Debra Mason said she enjoyed the presentations. "The kids are very informed," she said. "I like the variety of the topics they're looking at. And the parents are very engaged. The parents are actually learning from the students. You can see the parents having 'aha' moments." Mason was particularly impressed with the electric car project by students Samuel McCray and Townsend Marlowe, since she has purchased an electric car herself. Samuel pointed out that taxpayers can get a $7,500 credit for buying an electric car. A parent walking up to the exhibit said, "That's right! I just did!"

MDUSD’s 2nd Annual Black Excellence Awards Night on May 9th at Concord High recognized and honored 140 student award winners in grades TK-12 for academic achievement and attendance. In addition, Black Educator Awards were presented to Mt. Diablo HS Principal Dr. Markell McCain, Shore Acres Vice Principal Dr. Tiffany Jackson, District Administrator Linda Pete, Teachers Malachi Tripp and Leah Lipscomb, Classified staff members Gordy Cruel and Rae Jackson Sr., Counselor Shalendell "Sissy" White, and Social Worker Deonne Curtis-Wesley. Parent Noelle Cummings received the African American Parent Advisory Committee Parent of the Year Award. And Gregory Gardens Elementary, Sequoia MS and College Park HS received Equity Awards.

African American Family Engagement Coordinator Dr. Lamont Francies welcomed families, noting that some students at the standing-room only event may only be used to hearing applause when they throw a ball or jump high in sports. But this celebration was not about sports. It was all about Black student achievement, with inspiring remarks from Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark and equity consultant Dr. Shelley Holt. Dr. Clark said he has been working with District administrators to "shake things up" and "change the narrative" in MDUSD by holding all staff and students to high expectations so that everyone feels welcome and all students can reach their full potential. He received applause from the audience when he said: "I will not accept mediocrity. When it comes to working with kids, they deserve our absolute best. I advocate for all of our students."

Holt urged families to teach their children to be future leaders by educating them about their history and culture; how to manage a home; how to budget, save and invest; to pursue to whatever careers interest them; and how to communicate and connect with others in positive, healthy relationships where they can disagree effectively and respectfully. "If we are going to continue to have Black excellence," she said, "it's got to start at home."

Then the fun began, as students walked proudly across the stage by school to accept awards for top performance on standardized English language arts or math tests, top attendance, or top Grade Point Averages among Black/African American students at their schools. Click on these Social Media posts to see highlights featuring students fromGregory Gardens Elementary,Holbrook Language Academy,Sun Terrace STEM Elementary,Walnut Acres Elementary,Valley View MSandCollege Park HS.

Building on that success, Jackson has continued to advise the club, which this year includes about 10 students in grades 6-8 who meet weekly for one hour after school to raise environmental awareness, and foster sustainable practices among students, with a goal of reducing the school's carbon footprint and qualifying for a Silver, Gold, or Green Achiever Green Ribbon School Award within the next 2 - 3 school years. This year, Foothill MS achieved 65% waste diversion and hopes to reach 80% or more by 2030, Jackson said.

"The E.C.K. Club's main initiative is a recycling and waste reduction program," he said. All students in the school can earn raffle tickets by correctly sorting waste and minimizing trash, with a chance to win prizes at the end of the year, which promotes a greener campus. The E.C.K. Club conducts trash collection walks and waste audits to manage and reduce school waste effectively. "This enabled us to reduce 65% of the landfill waste compared to 2021," Jackson said. In addition, the club has established a garden of approximately 600 square feet where students create their own compost, which enhances their learning environment and commitment to sustainability. "Looking ahead, we aim to expand this garden throughout the school to provide a vibrant space for students to engage with environmental issues," Jackson said. Club members also hope to build support for zero-waste sustainable climate change goals throughout MDUSD and Contra Costa County to generate community-wide solutions.

"We want to spread awareness and create change in our world by thinking globally and acting locally" said club President Alex McCarty. Vice President Chloe Carey added: "As a club, we strive to teach our peers about the environment and what is happening in the world." Rhea Lokesh noted, "although educating others helps us grow, we also need to make change happen within ourselves." And Perry De Lucia said the club wants to create a native garden space "where students can talk and express themselves and their love of the environment." School pride also plays a role in their efforts. "We want the entire campus to be clean, and unlittered," said Sarika Puppala. Jackson, who teaches Science, STEM, STEAM, Engineering, Robotics and Environmental Literacy, engages students with his enthusiastic motto: "Science rocks and so do you!"

"Hi everyone, my name is Conor. As you already heard, I attended this school, and when I was 10 and in 4th grade I gave a speech about autism. Now I’m 16 and in 10th grade, and I wanted to come and share some information with you. First, I have a question. How many of you play video games, raise your hand? How many of you play on an X-Box? How many of you play on Play Station? How many of you play on a Nintendo Switch? Well, some may argue that whichever system they play is better than the others, but that’s not true. They just work differently. Brains are kind of the same. For me, and other people with autism, we have brains that work differently than yours. Some things are super easy for me, and I could amaze you with the things I can memorize, or how fast I can do mental math. However, there are things that you may think are easy that might be harder for me.

Some things that people with autism struggle with are noise sensitivity, anxiety, focusing on one subject, and trouble with social situations. I can hear things right now that most of you can’t. It’s very hard for me to focus in a classroom with lots of students because I can hear lights humming, or things clicking, and someone playing with a zipper behind me. My brain is thinking about many things at once, so if it’s a subject I don’t really care about, I can often drift off. Autistics also struggle in social situations. Many people with autism can’t always detect sarcasm for example. I’m lucky that I don’t struggle with that,
because, as many of you know, my mom is often sarcastic, and taught me well. Another thing autistic people struggle with is we think very literally. Sometimes it’s hard to know when people are joking, or what a teacher is asking me to do, because I’m interpreting the information differently than my peers. As I have gotten older, I have learned to advocate for myself and tell my teachers that Ineed it explained in a different way.

For anyone here who may be neurodivergent, I want you to know when I attended school here people picked on me all the time. It wasn’t fun. I would like to say that things got better, but if I’m being honest, even now at my school, I still get picked on a lot. People sometimes are just mean to me for no reason. I am hoping that maybe I can inspire some of you who don’t face some of the challenges others do, to be more patient, and accepting, and learn to not pick on people who are different. Instead of teasing your peers, or laughing at them, maybe you could be patient and empathetic. Everyone wants friends, and nobody likes to feel isolated.

I want you all to know that there are always going to be some people that are jerks. You just need to find people that accept you for who you are. I like to say, “don’t put counterfeit bills in your wallet to make it look like you have more money.” What I mean by that is, don’t be friends with people just to say you have more friends. Choose the ones who are kind, accepting, and who choose you back.