Enlightening Young Minds in Banning Unified!

Enlightening Young Minds in Banning Unified!

By Superintendent Robert Guillen

Enlightening young minds … there’s nothing more important or meaningful in the world of education. And that’s why we chose this motto.

Banning Unified believes in the promise and potential of every student; youngsters inspire us daily in everything they do: preschoolers mastering their ABC’s; middle schoolers writing computer code; high schoolers exceling in Advanced Placement.

It calls to mind the poignant words of patriot Thomas Paine:

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

A strong foundation

Education, just like a building, needs a strong foundation.

It starts with a child’s first teachers, their parents. Parents should talk, read, sing, and play with their children to build cognitive skills and emotional well-being. Research has shown that 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurs by age five — before they enter kindergarten.

The next pillars in our children’s education are preschool and transitional kindergarten for those too young for regular kindergarten. In our District, the Florida Street Discovery Center, a transitional kindergarten and state-licensed preschool, begins the process of enlightening young minds.

Educating the whole child

Next, we underpin enlightening young minds by educating the whole child.

Quite simply, Banning Unified is responsible for more than book learning.

Many factors influence academic performance, and so educators must also focus on students’ nutritional and emotional well-being.

Feeding a love of learning

As a lower-income school district, every one of our students is eligible for free, healthy school meals. In fact, Banning Unified served up 1.2 million student meals last year.

Research shows that students who eat breakfast do better in school, especially in math, and have fewer behavioral and psychological problems and greater attentiveness.

Building emotional well-being

Grades, test scores, and graduation rates are important. But emotional health greatly affects how students do in school. And that’s why we’re spending about $1 million annually on a District-wide program focused on social and emotional learning. About half of the costs are covered by grant money.

With help from teachers, school counselors, psychologists, and marriage and family therapists, students are learning to recognize and manage their emotions.

Our program includes everything from 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation in the morning to having students take part in free individual and group therapy sessions at school if their parents approve.

Focusing on academics

As a school district, our focus is on academics and using targeted programs to inspire our students.

Here is just a sampling of some of our programs:

Encouraging college

One of the most popular is AVID Schoolwide, which is offered throughout the District at every grade level in every school, including kindergarten. AVID stands for Advancement via Individual Determination, and the program encourages students to pursue college degrees by using innovative classroom techniques.

Teachers and students generally sit in a circle engaging in free-flowing dialogue and critical thinking exercises about class material. Students often take group tours of their favorite colleges; in 2018, 97 percent of AVID Schoolwide students at Banning High School attended either a four-year-college or a community college.

Bilingual students

At Central Elementary School, we’re teaching many of our students to be proficient in Spanish and English. It’s a way of enhancing their academic abilities, enriching their career options, and encouraging cultural understanding.

Dual-language immersion programs have many cognitive benefits; bilingual students excel at problem-solving, creative thinking when many possibilities are involved, and listening because of their enhanced sensitivity to verbal and non-verbal cues.

A blend of academics

At Hoffer Elementary School, an enrichment program is blending science, the arts, and every subject in between to chart a promising future. The STEAM program stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics.

Our students are doing amazing things; for instance, they’re capturing computerized images of Earth from outer space by linking up with an orbiting satellite and they’re using 3D pens to draw objects in mid-air that harden moments later.

Investing in the future

Education, to be successful, needs investment.

At Banning High School, we’ve taken a quantum leap in Career and Technical Education. We’re doing so by building a new $26 million project with bond money. It includes a 27,000-square-foot Performing Arts Center, with media and TV production facilities, and a 12,000-square-foot Construction Academy for learning the building trades. In about two years, the facilities should be welcoming their first students.

Everyone can do something

But as I close, I would like to spotlight a major force in enlightening young minds:

YOU.

Within each of us, there’s a special gift to be shared with our local schools … maybe you can volunteer in the classroom or on the playground; maybe you can help organize a fundraiser or make a donation; maybe you can speak at career day or be a sports booster. We can each do something, just as others did for us when we were students.

Perhaps a grandfather speaking on graduation day summed it up best:

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

Click here to view a brief video on Enlightening Young Minds