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"Well, Dr. Shalvey, I'm not perfect but parts of me are excellent!" That astute comment was made by one of our Aspire students in response to my question about his student exhibition. It could just as easily been a statement about our performance this past year. Aspire Public Schools is far from perfect, but by all standards we had an excellent year. > > >
Aspire CEO Honored For Leadership by the James Irvine Foundation
In August, Aspire CEO Don Shalvey was honored as one of the first-ever recipients of The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. The award celebrates individuals who have demonstrated ingenuity, dedication, and efficacy as they make a significant difference for California's future. Shalvey joins a select group of six other leaders, who collectively won $775,000 to apply lessons in addressing the state's most critical social problems. > > >
I was hoping that my lunch date with Tomas Marquez would hone my message for this article. Maybe we would discuss something that would boil down our five years together into a sentence. Or maybe Tomas would say something, a brilliant quote that I could borrow and reflect upon. Or maybe we would make a joke that I could write here to make everyone chuckle knowingly. And we did discuss things, he did have brilliant quotes and we did make jokes. But none if it could possibly come anywhere near to summing up my incredible experience mentoring students from seventh grade through their recent graduation from Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy. > > >
This year, 12 of Aspire’s 17 principals are "home grown." Nine were promoted to the principalship after having previously been teachers and lead teachers in Aspire schools. Three others became principals for the first time at an Aspire school after demonstrating their leadership potential in other schools. These numbers reflect Aspire’s commitment to identifying and developing talent from within the organization to create a thriving, engaged leadership team. > > >
Aspire Opens Four New Campuses, Expands in Los Angeles
This Fall, Aspire opened four new campuses, adding 1,000 new students to the Aspire network – a growth of over 25 percent. Aspire now has 18 campuses in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, the Central Valley and Sacramento. At almost 5,000 students, Aspire is now larger than 760 of the 1,000 public school districts in California. > > >
KaBoom! Builds Playground at Capitol Heights Academy
In early June, Jason Hart of the Sacramento Kings came out to support Capitol Heights Academy and KaBOOM!, a national non-profit, to help build a playground to promote activity and fun for students, families and the community. Following are some of the photos from the build, which was an exciting day for the entire school community. > > >