On December 9, high school students from all academies got to attend our first dance since 2019! Over 130 students and their guests danced the night away, made new friends and took tons of photos at our Winter Wonderland themed event.
The energy was great and we loved seeing your winter-themed outfits. We can’t wait for the next dance!
Visions In Education’s Main Offices and Student Technology Services (STS) are closed for the remainder of the day 12/12/2022 due to a power outage.
We anticipate that power will be restored this evening and our offices will reopen in the morning. If this changes for any reason we will send you another communication.
Visions In Education is an independent study charter school that serves Sacramento and its eight adjacent counties and is authorized by the San Juan Unified School District. Visions’ main offices are located at 5030 El Camino Avenue, Carmichael. We serve nearly 7,000 TK-12 students in three different home school and independent study high school programs.Â
Visions is looking to replace a vacant seat on the board. Visions’ charter has established that the school will have no less than five and no more than seven board members. As one of our board members is stepping down, we are seeking your help in recruiting a new community member to serve on our governing board.Â
We are looking for interested candidates with expertise in specific areas such as: legal, financial, fundraising, PR/marketing, facility management, human resources, educational leadership, and nonprofits. Each member is expected to devote 8 to 10 hours per month for meetings and to work on sub-committees. This is an unpaid volunteer position. Board members donate their time to help Visions excel at our mission of making a difference in the lives of our students.Â
Interested candidates can submit the governing board interest form. Our staff will reach out if you have been selected to participate in the interview process and provide you with additional information.Â
Visions In Education: Preparing each student to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
At our October board meeting it was announced that one of our original board members, Katie McCleary, would be stepping down at the end of this year.
Katie has served as a member of the Board of Directors since its inception on December 14, 2017 and was Chairperson in 2020-21. But she has been a Visionary for many years as Visions has been partnered with the nonprofit she founded, 916 Ink, to offer our students the popular Find Your Voice writing class for over ten years. During her tenure Katie played a pivotal role in helping Visions’ transition to an independent charter school and served as an inspiration to our students and a champion for underserved communities. Katie is a steadfast believer that the needs of our students always come first and her guidance has been incredibly valuable to me.
I want to take a moment to thank her for her support and service to our school community. Her perspective and creativity will be greatly missed and we wish Katie the best in her future endeavors.
Katie has shared the following farewell message for our students, families and staff.
Dear Visionaries,
Serving staff and students for the past 4.5 years has been an honor. In my tenure on the Board of Directors, I have been proud and grateful to witness and help shape the positive impacts Visions has had on the lives of thousands of young people. Through my time on the board, we have persevered through change, and strengthened not only our charter school, but this innovative field, too. As we say, “It’s great to be Visions!” and I truly feel honored and proud to have worked with such a phenomenal cadre of families and educational leaders.
I am stepping down because my career has exploded (in a good way). My book, Bridge the Gap, was named 1 of 3 business books to read in 2022 by Inc. Magazine, and my co-author and I have developed a practical curriculum that helps all kinds of professionals build more communicative and collaborative relationships. I work in the realm of education, finance, government, healthcare, and corrections—equipping people to have deeper, more meaningful, and impactful conversations. While I will miss my time at Visions, please know that I am still out there advocating for vulnerable students and school choice, innovations in education and the arts, and supporting the development of educational leaders and decision-makers. You can always count on me to show up and be a “Visionary,” even if it means I won’t be voting on board issues.
I am pleased to pass the torch to the next board member and to continue supporting the work of Visions’ next iteration as we seek to become more equitable, impactful, and innovative for our entire community.
Thank you. It’s been an honor to serve.
Katie McCleary
Board Member
Thanksgiving Break for families is next week, Nov. 21 – Nov. 25.
Visions In Education’s offices and Student Technology Services Hours:
Offices will open again on Monday, November 28 when classes will resume.
On behalf of everyone at Visions In Education, we hope you and your family have a safe, restful, and happy Thanksgiving!
The month is a time to recognize and celebrate the diverse cultures, traditions, and histories of Native people.
Native American Heritage Month is also a time to educate others about tribes and raise awareness about the unique challenges Native people face.
Join us in learning more about Native American history through some of the resources below.
Our at-home learning model made it much easier to make adjustments due to the pandemic and we are proud to report that our students performed better compared to 18/19!
ELA: 49.4% of our students that took the 21/22 assessment Met or Exceeded the standard. San Juan Unified School District’s rate was 42.6%.
Math: 31.5% of our students that took the 21/22 assessment Met or Exceeded the standard. San Juan Unified School District’s rate was 29.2%.
See the comparative breakdown of results by year:
In 21/22, the statewide percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards in ELA was 47% (was 51% in 18/19) and 33% in Math (was 40% in 18/19). To see the change in test scores from 18/19 to 21/22 for other schools and districts use the tool found at the end of this article which draws from more detailed reports accessible on the California Department of Education’s Test Results at a Glance dashboard.
San Juan Unified School District is the authorizer for our charter. Every few years we need to petition to have our charter renewed and positive outcomes, like this year’s assessment results, help us keep our charter so we can continue to serve our students.
Thank you to all the students and parents that participated. We appreciate your dedication to learning and growing despite the challenges of the last few years.
Kudos to our amazing teachers that supported these efforts by helping our students prepare and complete state assessments. Keep up the great work!
Developed and refined for over a decade, Visions’ Launchpad Student Support System seamlessly integrates all technologies into one easy-to-use platform.
In September 2022, Visions In Education, a Sacramento-based charter school serving over 6,500 students throughout Northern California, applied for and received copyright protection for its Launchpad Student Support System. This unique system, built from the ground up by Visions, ensures that technology is an asset for the school, not a complicated patchwork of programs and systems that can often overwhelm and confuse users.  Â
“As a non-classroom-based charter school, the effective use of technology is critical to our core mission of serving students,” said Tom Tafoya, Visions’ Chief Operating Officer who has been with the school for 18 years. “About 15 years ago, we really started seeing an acceleration of different programs and platforms being launched to assist students, parents, teachers and administrators. It was great to see so much technology being developed for the education space but it quickly became clear that all those different products had the potential to overwhelm users.”
Visions began exploring how it could spend its own time and technology resources to better integrate these different products into a single ecosystem, minimizing the need for end users to organize and maintain the different products.Â
“The Launchpad Student Support System creates a single point of entry for users regardless of the programs and platforms they are accessing,” continued Tafoya. “This was a significant investment for us considering the technological expertise involved and the responsibility to ensure that the data collected and shared through Launchpad was secure and protected. It’s amazing to look back years later and see how Launchpad has evolved as such an important part of how we serve students now.” Â
The Launchpad Student Support System is the single point of entry for parents to access student records, order curricula and supplies, manage events and more. Visions has partnered with major curriculum and supply vendors including Amazon, Staples, BNC K-12 powered by MBS, Bookshark, Lakeshore Learning, Rainbow Resource Center and TextbookX to create custom integrations within Launchpad. Staff use Launchpad to track enrollment and attendance, manage vendors, monitor and track student requests and streamline communication between different school audiences.Â
Launchpad was also critical in Visions winning a “Pivotal Practice Award” from the California Department of Education for its ability to quickly and effectively distribute technology to families and staff as the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person interaction.
“We were incredibly proud of the fact that we were able to quickly adapt to meet the challenges of the pandemic with minimal disruption to our students and staff,” said Dr. Steve Olmos, Visions’ Superintendent. “Because Launchpad was already such an integral part of our work, we were able to avoid the struggles of maintaining student engagement and attendance that impacted so many other schools.”
After spending considerable time and resources building and refining Launchpad, it only made sense to seek copyright protection for this critical asset. As such, all versions of the software code have been copy written and the name of the software has been trademarked. This IP protects Visions significant investment in the system going back to 2011.
Visions In Education is now partnering with Care Solace, a free mental health coordination service, to provide access to care for all Visions students, families, and staff! The Care Solace professional team will help you find appropriate mental health services for you or someone in need.
Accessing Care Solace is as simple as accessing our customized website available to currently enrolled students/families and staff on the Wire. The page will direct you to a website where Care Solace’s team will ask a series of questions to help connect you with the help you need.
Our partnership with Care Solace is one of many mental health tools and resources Visions provides to our students and staff. If you have any concerns or mental health questions, please reach out to your counselor or see our Counseling and Mental Health Resources available on the Wire. For more mental health resources please click here.
It has been an amazing start to the school year and we can’t thank our students and families enough for sharing their back to school photos! We were blown away by your creativity and eye for showcasing Visions’ mission to personalize learning.
See all the photos and videos in our Back to School Celebration album on Facebook!
Congratulations to our gift card recipients! Recipients will receive an email with a gift code to the Spirit Store.
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