With the second week of school underway, Bruin Point Elementary is already making plans for early testing and are looking forward to a great year thanks to their summer school program and something that Principal Toddachinnie has not experienced in her 25 years as an educator.

Every year the school year begins, educators are always worried about the “Summer Slump”, meaning that they have to go backwards with the education process to bring the kids back up to where they were last spring. Toddachinnie said that this year it’s not the case.

“You know you always see a “Summer Slump”, well usually, and this year we really didn’t, because of our summer school program we had. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to continue with that, it was funds from COVID, but it was phenomenal. It was a great way for some of our kids to spend the summer and they really focused on reading and math, and we didn’t really that “Summer Slump” as much as we do normally.”

Another reason for there to be some excitement at Bruin Point is that when the school year began they had the same teachers that the ended last school year with.

“This is the first time in my educational career that there has not been a change in the teaching staff in the school I’ve been in. That is a huge, huge celebration.”

They have however had some new para-professional hired for the pre-school and reading interventionists. They will also work with the kids in physical education and technology.

They are also experiencing an uptick in enrollment at the elementary.

And in closing we talked about the fact that they already have a field trip planned in April where the students will get to go to the zoo.

“We’re going to the zoo this year, there is a program that pays for all of it. We just have to follow their guidelines with the number of chaperones we bring, but it’s all free and the kids get to go to the zoo in April.”