HABLEMOS SUPPORTERS OF GARDNER ACADEMY
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Mission Statement
We are Hablemos, the nonprofit Parent Teacher Organization at Gardner Academy, located in the Northeast corner of Willow Glen. Our multicultural elementary school serves 480 students; 75% qualify for free and reduced lunch, and 68% are English language learners. Gardner offers a Two Way Bilingual Immersion program, which allows our students to become fluent in both Spanish and English. Our teachers, staff, and parent community are working hard to build Gardner into a strong school in terms of academics and achievement, enrichment opportunities, and family involvement. We want our students equipped with 21st-century skills, we want our students to be strong leaders, and we want our students to have pride in Gardner and pride in themselves.
About This Cause
Hablemos’ purpose is to build community at Gardner Academy and improve student engagement and enrich the student learning experience. Our organization raises funds for community building events and students’ enrichment programs. Our largest expense is the Little Heroes Program, which serves all students on our campus every day for the entire school year. Little Heroes is in part a program that increases physical activity opportunities for students throughout the school day, in part a program that teaches leadership skills to older students so they can better lead and support younger kids on campus, and in part a mentoring program for a group of select students beyond the school day. We implemented Little Heroes to help address an increase in classroom and playground discipline issues, which were on the rise prior to this year. So far, we are incredibly happy to report that Little Heroes is making a positive impact at Gardner in all the ways we’d anticipated. In addition to funding Little Heroes, Hablemos has also committed to making sure after school enrichment opportunities exist at Gardner and are financially available to even our most financially challenged families. Over the course of the school year, we partner with ACE (After Class Enrichment) to offer three terms of after school classes for students, with classes ranging from skateboarding and soccer to folklorico dancing and Mad Science. Hablemos also funds a scholarship program for students who cannot afford the ACE tuition for the class they’d like to take, and each term those scholarships support an average of 10 students. Hablemos also contributes to the funding of a music program at Gardner, serving students 1st-5th grades in music education once a week during the school year. And, Hablemos has contributed to the funding of science camp for our 5th graders, where students spend a week in the woods exploring and studying biology and ecology, and participating in teambuilding with their classmates. One of the most important ways we contribute to Gardner is through our community building events. Through small events like staff appreciate lunches and larger events like Family Nights, giving our students, families, and staff opportunities to come together has helped to improve the culture of our school and has increased the involvement and pride we feel at Gardner. Our community building events occur every month, and are designed to both meet the needs of our campus (like Campus Clean Up Days) and to meet the needs of our families (like the Back to School BBQ, which welcomed new and continuing families to campus before school started in order to introduce staff, explore campus, and enjoy lunch together). Lastly, the annual Walkathon and Silent Auction is our largest fundraising event each year. Students collect donations and then walk or run aps on the day of the event. Parent volunteers collect donations to be auctioned off in the silent auction. Games and activities, food concessions, and entertainment are also provided either by donation or paid for by Hablemos, and the event is run entirely by student and parent volunteers on our campus.