Sunrise Community,

Our hearts go out to all the people who have been affected by last Wednesday’s most tragic turn of events. It appears as if the attack was prompted by a gross misuse of social media.

We as a staff have reviewed this situation numerous times, after the incident, and after we met with our families Thursday evening.

We appreciate all your comments, questions and concerns and have tried to address them all.   We are open to meeting with you further. In addition, we will meet with our two parent advisory committees within the month on this same subject. 

Sunrise has had an excellent track record for safety these past 12 years, and we will continue to keep our school safe. We will not allow this one incident to define our school. We are a group of passionate and dedicated professionals who always put the needs of our students before anything else.

IMMEDIATE SAFETY MEASURES

Following Wednesday’s attack, staff did the following within a half hour: 

• Immediately called the police and 911
• Held back the assailant and brought him to an isolated and secure area
• Retrieved the weapon
• Administered first aid to the victim
• Removed students from the scene and brought them to another area of campus
• Notified parents, within 45 minutes

INTERMEDIATE SUPPORTS

In the days following the incident, staff provided:

• Counseling for all of our students in need
• Healing circles in the classrooms
• Cooperation with police on this matter and related social media issues
• Community meeting with all parents as well as individual meetings

LONGER TERM MEASURES FOR SAFETY

Responding to parent concerns, Sunrise staff has formulated the following measures to ensure future safety for our students:

• Portable metal detector for the school’s Director of Security
• Backpacks locked in classrooms during brunch and lunch
• Additional security before school, during brunch and lunch, after school and in between classes.
• Monitoring of students’ social media
• Advisories educating students on the dangers of social media
• Promotion of the STOPit app for reporting bullying and cyberbullying
• Continued consequences, including behavior contracts and mandatory parenting classes, for those who violate our cyberbullying policy
• Zero tolerance for dress code violations
• Expansion of counseling services
• School Site Council parent advisory committee tasked with oversight for school safety and security
• Expanded supervision of students before, during and after school
• Invitation to all parents to join our staff in supervising during lunch and brunch and before and after school (if interested, please call/text Ms. Ivette, parent liaison, at 650-868-6634.)
• Continued backpack checks in cases of reasonable suspicion
• Expansion of parenting classes to include one on mental health and first aid – contact Ms. Ivette, parent liaison, at 650-868-6634.
• Continued efforts to link troubled students with outside therapists

Again, we refuse to allow this one incident to define Sunrise. We honor all staff and parents who have worked diligently to make the school safe and secure for our awesome students. 

Just like the Phoenix, we will rise from the ashes of this tragic event and become all the stronger! 

It is with your help and continued teamwork that we will make this happen.

Sincerely,

The Administrative Team at Sunrise

Sunrise Aztecs won the league championship in futsal, with a 7-4 win over University Prep.

The team got better and better as the season progressed, and players are now getting ready for soccer in the spring!

Congratulations, Aztecs!

The state of California has released the English and math test scores for last spring. This was the first year since students came back from COVID-related distance learning, so scores statewide were not as good as prior to COVID. 

Nonetheless, there were some bright spots in Sunrise Middle’s test results.

• Sunrise actually did better in math than pre-pandemic.
• Sunrise students did better in math and English than other schools statewide with similar demographics.
• Our English Learners scored nearly twice as well as English Learners statewide on the ELPAC English Learner test.
• Our special education students did nearly as well as similar students statewide, despite our more challenging demographics.
• Sunrise outranked other nearby charter and district schools in both English and math.

Special congratulations to this year’s 8th graders, who carried the school in both math and English.

Sunrise will be offering 30 extra days of activities beyond the normal school year to your students this year. They are optional and provided under the ELO-P program. This program also helps pay for our free after school program, which goes every day until 6 pm and is open to all students.

The extra 30 days will include 20 days of summer school, as well as overnight trips and other adventures during the school breaks.

We also are offering four overnight camping trips this fall – from Friday night to Saturday.

Congratulations to our 8^th graders upon being promoted to high school. Our students will be attending more than a dozen different high schools, ranging from prestigious private schools to charter high schools to district high schools.

Santa Clara County Board of Education President Peter Ortiz and Board Member Grace Mah offered encouraging words to our students at the promotion ceremony.

Congratulations also to our 5^th graders, upon being promoted to middle school!

We wish all of you the very best!

Sunrise is proud to announce the school will be reclassifying a third of the school’s English Learner to English proficient this year.

One third of our students scored 4 out of 4 on the this Spring’s state ELPAC test for English Learners. Another third scored a 3 out of 4. And, only one third scored a 1 or 2.

About 11 percent of the school’s students now are recently from another country, or in the U.S. for less than one year.

The Sunrise Board of Directors on Jan. 10, 2022 approved a revised COVID safety plan for the school. The plan focuses on how the school is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and still offering safe instruction. So far the school has had no outbreaks, although it was one of the first schools to reopen. Read here for a full copy of the plan.

The Sunrise Board of Directors has adopted a temporary pandemic-related independent study policy for those students whose health is compromised and need to remain at home during the
2021-2022 school year.
If you feel your student qualifies for home study please contact the school office to request an appointment.
Home study involves parent meetings and daily meetings with school staff. Students who are not doing well will be encouraged to go back to in-person instruction.
Distance learning is not an option this year in California.

Sunrise Middle School has completed the annual update of it’s comprehensive safety plan, which includes our plans for everything from earthquakes to fires to the pandemic. You may read the plan here.

Sunrise Middle School has submitted its COVID Prevention Plan (CPP) to the State of California.

This plan lists all the measures the school is taking to preserve the health and safety of its staff and students while open during the pandemic.

The school currently is open to fifth grade and one classroom of challenged learners.

We hope to open to all students in late March.

The CPP can be read here