The latest news from EPACS and Phoenix Academy.  We need your help to sustain our amazing results - click here to donate now. View this email in your browser Class of 2016 College Decisions Our largest graduating class is looking forward to college. Students are looking forward to attending UC Riverside, UC Merced, San Francisco University, Chico State University, CSU East Bay, San Jose State, Sonoma, Stanislaus, and Fullerton. Two of our students are also taking a gap year with Global Citizen, and are traveling to India! Congratulations Seniors!    EPAPA Gym to be Finished During 2016-2017 Academic Year   Five years after moving from  the warehouse into our building on Garden St,  EPAPA has broken ground  on a gym at the current site!  We are extremely grateful for your support, the community and the Peery Foundation. Your generosity has allowed us to create space for an expanding student body of 60 additional 6th graders. In addition to a larger enrollment, the new gym will provide a safe haven for our after school sports programs, school assemblies, and other enrichment programs. We look forward to opening the gym in February of 2017! Sharon Johnson Passing the Baton at EPACS to Mari Montoy-Wilson After 16 years of working at EPACS, Sharon Johnson, will be transitioning to the Aspire Home Office as the Associate Superintendent for Aspire Bay Area, after the 15-16 school year. Sharon’s contributions to the EPACS family has been nothing less than amazing. She has helped make EPACS a place that fosters learning and growth for our students. We are grateful to have had her as a part of the EPACS family and team as an English Language Arts Literacy Coach, a second and fifth grade teacher, and principal. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication you put into helping our students become college ready, 16 years to be exact! We will miss you! With that being said, Sharon and the EPACS family are more than excited to pass the baton to our new principal, Maricela Montoy-Wilson, a former 3rd grade teacher and the 2nd-3rd Master and Lead teacher at EPACS. For the past 4 years she has been mentoring teacher candidates from the Stanford Teacher Education Program, of which she is an alum. Currently, she is a Mentor teacher for the Aspire Teacher Residency Program and has been teaching at EPACS for seven years.  She believes strongly in developing students' mindset and ensuring every child receives the first-rate education they deserve. She is passionate about creating a strong classroom community, rich with critical thinking, academic discourse, inquiry, and student autonomy. Mari also enjoys reading and writing about education. You can follow her blog at maricmw.tumblr.com.  EPAPA High School Students Compete in their First Track Meet During the 2015-2016 school year, EPAPA has been proud to announce a track team as a new addition to the sports department. On Wednesday, May 18th, our team competed in their first ever track meet! Ninth grader, Arlene Nava, ran the 100 in 13.1 seconds, and Cassandra ran the 100 in 12.8 seconds! In addition, the opposing team did not have a long-distance girls team… So one of our runners, Amy, competed against the boys… And won first place! We are so proud of our runners and their accomplishments. We are definitely looking forward to their success in the upcoming school year! Student Blog: Uriel Barragan Having goals is essential to accomplishing dreams. Goals are like small stepping  stones that slowly merge to  develop a path that will get  you to your dreams; every  time you reach a specific  goal, the distance to achieve  your dream is cut shorter  and shorter. My dream is to  attend a four-year university  and graduate as a  mechanical engineer. In order to achieve my dream and fulfill my potential, I had to establish goals that would guide me, in the words of DJ Khaled, onto the path of success. In order to achieve my dream of attending a four-year university and becoming a mechanical engineer, I know that I have to be as competitive as possible; my goal is to have the best grades possible, which would in turn allow me to be valedictorian of the class of 2017; by doing so, I would be able to reassure universities that I was indeed the best candidate for their school. If it wasn’t for the wonderful staff at EPAPA, I don’t think that I would be on the right path to achieving my goal of becoming Valedictorian of the Class of 2017. EPAPA has really helped me grow in every aspect that defines who I am. To begin with, EPAPA’s small student population allows teachers and students to build relationships that will last beyond college. Through these relationships, students are able to develop a plan of action that will allow them to reach their goals. In my case, my advisor has been my go-to person whenever I need help. My advisor has helped me get through it all; whether it is giving me personal life advice, helping me with school problems, or just simply hearing me rant about things that are on my mind, my advisor has always been there for me since day one. Apart from “supplying” me with a go-to person, EPAPA has also helped me develop a better understanding of the world. I still remember the first day when I walked into Social Justice class. I was not sure what to expect; as a matter of fact, I was not even 100% sure what the words “social justice” meant. Little did I know, I was getting into a class that would change the way I would view the world. Social justice enabled me to see the flaws in the world and society that many fail to notice. Through these new lenses, my knowledge and perspective on things changed, which in return enabled me to become more conscious about the things I see in the world. It has been an honor to have been apart of the EPAPA family for the past 2 and a half years and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for me next year as a senior. Teacher's Voice EPACS Kinder and 1st Grade Teacher Chana Stewart's Piece on Family Engagement "Engaging in meaningful school-family partnerships is foundational to improving student outcomes. Families are an essential resource as we strive to work together to best support our students." Read the full piece here! Invest In Our Success Our Annual Fund is designed to help us support Literacy, STEM, and College Preparedness. Learn more. Donate Facebook Twitter www.epacs.org East Palo Alto Charter School and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy are part of Aspire Public Schools. Founded in 1998, Aspire Public Schools is one of the nation's largest highest-performing, college-preparatory public school systems. Aspire delivers a rigorous K-12 College for Certain education to 15,000 students in 38 open-enrollment public schools in California and Memphis, Tenn. Currently in our 17th academic year, Aspire is one of the nation's first charter school systems.Learn more   Copyright © 2016 East Palo Alto Charter School & East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have supported EPACS/EPAPA in the past. Our mailing address is: East Palo Alto Charter School & East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy P.O. Box 51717 East Palo Alto, CA 94303 Donate

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