Celebrating and Looking to the Future

On January 17th, SCCS families gathered for the State of the School Address delivered by Administrator, Dr. Jones. The address focused on celebrating successes, the Strategic Plan process and looking to the future.

“I believe SCCS and our vision of Teaching Minds and Training Hearts for God has never been needed more and our collective community is rising to the challenge for our students’ best and for God’s glory,” shared Dr. Jones. “We are continually improving and actively chasing excellence.”

During the fall of 2018, Dr. Jones met with over 100 families through organized focus groups. Additionally, all parents received a satisfaction survey over Christmas break. School leadership read through and considered each response. These efforts and additional conversations help shape future decisions and direction for the SCCS community.

“Something we learned through this process of focus groups, the survey and conversations is our need to celebrate successes,” continued Dr. Jones. “Once again, SCCS was voted as a Favorite School by the Los Angeles Daily News. Events such as our Veterans Day Chapel have been positive and communicate our desire to impact the community for Christ. Our student athletes continue to achieve new success. There is much to celebrate.”

Dr. Jones encouraged the listeners to celebrate service at SCCS as he highlighted groups such as Mom’s in Prayer, Parent Teacher Fellowship and Watch Dog Dads as individuals who serve and care for SCCS students, staff and families. Additionally, Dr. Jones pointed out the service of the Student Leadership Council and their efforts to lead and unify the school body. 

“We are academically strong and growing,” continued Dr. Jones. “Senior Haley Gunther will graduate with 60 units and enter college as a junior. She also had a perfect score in English on the ACT. She began attending SCCS in Kindergarten. This is one example of academic success and how well a student can do within our learning environment. To further strengthen our curriculum and academic excellence for the future, Lynn Kistler will focus on elementary curriculum and Trisha Theobald will work on secondary curriculum. Together, they will develop a one-page guide for each grade and for each subject. This will be a direct and meaningful plan that can be used through a child’s tenure at SCCS. We plan to show progress in the spring.”

 

As the address continued, Dr. Jones encouraged the listeners to look to the future. This Spring, a committee including parents, students and staff will work together to create a 3 to 5-year Strategic Plan. This plan will be presented at the August 2019 Back to School night and its progress will be reviewed during the 2020 State of the School Address. Additionally, attendees were updated about the school’s fundraising goals and were asked to save the date for the May 3 Fundraising Gala where David A. R. White, Managing Partner of Pure Flix Films, will share his testimony of being a Christian in Hollywood. This fundraising event will be a seated dinner with a silent auction and entertainment. Dr. Jones asked Lonna Gibson, Marketing Director, to share about the strategy of the event. “We are seeking 30 table captains who will commit to sponsoring a table of ten, or commit to selling those tickets. To date we have 17 who have committed as table captains. If you are interested in being a table captain, please contact the marketing department. Look for more information about the gala coming in February.”

Partnering with parents continues to be a core goal of SCCS. On March 17th at 5:30 PM, SCCS will welcome Dr. Glen Schultz to speak about Kingdom Education. Dr. Jones mentioned that as parents, it is our job to raise our children. Church and school should align with what we are teaching our children.

“We are here for you and want to partner with you in educating your children,” shared Dr. Jones. “We will be having grade level meetings that describe what the next grade level and teachers will expect from your child. We want to prepare you more.”

The SCCS community and “family feel” continues to be what parents love most about our school. In the greater community, there is much interest in SCCS. As SCCS trends up, events such as Kindergarten Preview and Discover SCCS are getting attention and we expect to be at maximum capacity in a number of grade levels next year.

“The current discourse in our country is very disturbing. In these challenging and changing times, we are stewards of our students and of the timeless truths from the Lord,” continued Dr. Jones. “We have an opportunity to illustrate a better example for our kids and encourage them to live for His honor and glory. Our efforts of improving and actively chasing excellence is an ongoing endeavor. Most importantly, we are chasing excellence for God’s glory. Please join us in prayer over our students, staff and families.”