At the start of the school year, some parents were feeling a bit anxious about trying to understand the new changes coming to Edison as part of the Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) initiative, which aims to boost student achievement by staffing identified schools with high-performing principals and teachers.
Later, after Edison’s open house was held, parents and students began to feel the change and the new “you can do it” environment after watching the new group of teachers and the new principal interacting with the students with a high level of excitement.
“Students are feeling good about themselves and are embracing change, discipline structure, respect and boundaries in a positive way,” Principal Luis Valdez said. “We are pumping instruction and getting the students engaged.”
Uniforms have created a sense of pride, school officials said. During the second week of school, some students were still learning how to fix a knot in their ties, while Valdez made sure their ties looked sharp every morning.
Angélica Pérez, a mother of a sixth-grader at Edison, was enthusiastic about the changes she has seen this school year.
“Change is always a positive thing,” she said. “I attended this school when I was young and I was very skeptical to bring my daughter because Edison was not safe back then.”
Andrea Martínez, who has a daughter at Edison, expressed how proud she feels about her daughter attending the school. She added how beautiful her daughter and her friends look with their uniform. She also expressed her daughter’s interest in science and the opportunity of small group tutoring at the school.
Assistant Principal Mohamad Amid Clinton said the school has an important mission
“We are working on educating better students not only for Edison, but for this nation,” Clinton said.
For more information about the ACE schools click here.
