Superintendent Binks' Message to Begin the 2023-2024 School Year

Parents, Guardians, and Family Members of YCJUSD,

On behalf of the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District (YCJUSD) Board of Education and the rest of the YCJUSD Team, welcome to the 2023-2024 school year!  Thank you for making the choice to join our school community.  We look forward to working with you as a partner to create a safe culture of learning and growth in your child’s life that will help prepare them for college, career, and life.  There are so many wonderful opportunities for your child to grow during their time with us and we truly can’t do it without your support, so thank you.  

Our team has developed a comprehensive system of standards-based teaching and assessment that promotes success and checks for understanding throughout the school year to ensure all students receive equitable support and opportunities no matter where they are in their academic journey.  We have also honed alternative resolutions to child behavior that not only helps to keep children learning academically but also strengthen their social-emotional skills to create a strong whole-child foundation through the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) framework while still following California Education Code requirements.  I believe that with your continued support, we can prepare the next generation to accomplish truly amazing things.         

For those of you with children new to our elementary schools and those who are returning after a well-deserved summer break, I am excited for you to see the incredible resources, textbooks, and curricula our team has developed to support all children from transitional kindergarten through fifth grade.  With our enhanced common formative assessments, teachers and paraprofessionals are able to quickly target areas of need for each individual child and apply support specific to those areas.  Each of our elementary schools has also implemented a variety of after-school clubs to help continue building a strong community amongst our elementary campuses.  

And those of you with children in our middle and high schools, I think you will be impressed with some of our new curricula that strongly adhere to state standards to keep your children academically engaged year-round.  We have also renewed a partnership that will offer 24/7 tutoring support at no cost for all children from sixth grade to graduation.  In addition, our team has received numerous professional development opportunities over the last few years in order to better support your children both academically and social-emotionally.

We also know that school safety has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds in recent years but I can assure you the safety of your children has always been our top priority.  The Board of Education recently made a sizable commitment to enhancing school safety district-wide and we have truly made strides at the Board’s direction.  We are excited about the renewal of an important and effective anonymous reporting platform known as STOPit.  STOPit empowers parents, guardians, community members, employees, and students to notify our team of any safety concerns at any time while maintaining anonymity and confidentiality.  In addition to tools like STOPit, over the course of the summer, you may have noticed that many of our schools are receiving physical upgrades as well.  We are continuing to assess different options to keep your children safe at school while also being effective stewards of taxpayer dollars.     

In closing, I want to personally thank you for entrusting us with your children and for your support.  Whether you are new to our community or a lifetime resident, your continued support and partnership in the education of your children is appreciated and we all look forward to working with your families over the course of the next school year “To Make a Difference in the Life of Each Child.”

Sincerely,

Cali Binks

Superintendent