Esther's Park Band 3
St. HOPE Welcomes SETA!
In 2007, the St. HOPE-operated preschool, Triumph Center for Early Childhood Education, opened its doors offering a high-quality early childhood education program for young children in the Oak Park neighborhood. For nearly 10 years, Triumph actively served hundreds of families throughout the community and surrounding areas, creating a learning environment inclusive for all.
In June 2017, Triumph made the difficult decision to close its doors with the hope that through continued conversation, future opportunities would emerge.
St. HOPE Annual Employee Wellness Fair
Walking into the dimmed library, staff were greeted with the aroma of fresh fruit and the beat of exhilarating music. In one corner of the room, folks were sharing the benefits of meditation, in another, a barre demonstration was just starting. Samples of detoxifying juices and sunflower butters were passed around while staff worked on a community brainstorming project. This is the St. HOPE Annual Wellness Fair, an event designed for all St.
The Student Store is ONLINE!
Buying school uniforms just became easier with a click of a button! All St. HOPE Public School polos and jackets can now be purchased through our online store! We know how difficult it can be to come into the store to buy all of your scholar’s items so now you can go online, select the items you want, purchase them with your credit card and then pick them up at the store.
Free Meals for St. HOPE Scholars
This school year we will begin serving free meals to our students for breakfast and lunch. We are excited to be given the opportunity to provide our students cost-free meals under the USDA Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The CEP, launched under the Healthy, Hunger-free Act, is a four-year program that serves free meals to the nation’s highest poverty schools and operates through federal and state funds. This is the first year we have qualified for the CEP program.
Oak Park Speaker Series Conclusion
The inaugural Oak Park Speaker Series presented by Underground Books and the Greater Sacramento Urban League concluded with two amazing events at the Guild Theater.
Scholars Receive Summer Camp Scholarships
In addition to the traditional academic summer school session for scholars in need of catching up before the next school year, St. HOPE also partnered with Camp EDMO to provide scholars with a unique STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) enrichment program. The Bay Area based program recently expanded to the Sacramento Region and offered its services to the Sac High campus location for the first time last year.
interview: aizik “aik” brown, wide open walls muralist
Valley Vision Blog
Aizik “Aik” Brown proudly describes himself as an Artist and Educator committed to improving the lives of those around him, particularly in Oak Park. Over the past two weeks, Valley Vision has been fortunate enough to have Aizik paint a stunning mural on the outside wall of our new office building as part of Sacramento’s Wide Open Walls mural festival, in partnership with St. HOPE.
Soccer Succeeds at PS7 Elementary School!
For the last two years, Street Soccer USA and PS7 Elementary School have partnered to provide 3rd – 5th grade scholars at PS7 access to after school soccer as an enrichment program multiple days per week. The partnership is funded by Councilmember Jay Schenirer’s Way Up Sacramento initiative to provide more healthy activities for Oak Park youth, and because soccer was a sport they wanted to pilot.
Still Accepting Applications!
St. HOPE Public Schools is still accepting applications for the 2018-2019 school year! School starts August 8th! Enroll your scholar today!
St. HOPE Announces MLB All-Star Barry Bonds as 2018 Dinner Speaker
St. HOPE is excited to announce MLB All-Star Barry Bonds as the special guest speaker for the 2018 St. HOPE Dinner to be held on Sunday, September 23 at the Hyatt Regency downtown. The St. HOPE Dinner attracts a sellout crowd of 1,000 guests and has included speakers such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, John Wooden, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber and many more!
St. HOPE Promotes!
One of our favorite moments at St. HOPE is celebrating our scholars during school promotion time. The end of a school year is always a time full of heartfelt reflection and excitement for what’s to come. As we gather to celebrate the achievements of our amazing scholars and reflect back on their unique journeys, we are reminded of their triumphs and trials, hardships and successes and are overflowing with joy as we set our eyes to the future!
5th Annual Sacramento Black Book Fair
The 5th Annual Black Book Fair took place Friday, June 1st and Saturday, June 2nd. The Black Book Fair is held once a year to bring African American literature and authors to the community. This year’s featured authors came from Sacramento as well as different cities in California. There were also several national other authors who showed up from all across the country, including Florida! It’s no surprise to say this year’s fair was a success.
2017 St. HOPE Annual Report
2017 was a fabulous year for St. HOPE, and you can check out a few of the details in our newly released annual report found here. While we are proud of our work in 2017, we can’t help but look forward to showing off our 2018 accomplishments. We have already seen tremendous growth this year in scholar achievement, and 95% of Sac High seniors were accepted to a four-year college.
Byron Pitts comes to Oak Park
The Oak Park Speaker Series hosted the second of a four-part series on June 11th at the Guild Theater with special guest speaker Byron Pitts. Nearly 150 guests attended the event, emceed by former Mayor Kevin Johnson and included remarks by Greater Sacramento Urban League President and CEO Cassandra Jennings. The evening concluded with a fireside chat with Mayor Johnson and award-winning journalist and author Byron Pitts. Pitts was raised by a single mother and struggled with severe learning disabilities.
Mobile Teaching Kitchen
In the first week of May, more than 200 St. HOPE students and staff took a break from the classroom and participated in Chartwell’s Mobile Teaching Kitchen program. Chartwell’s has been contracted to serve school meals at St. HOPE for the last several years. The Mobile Teaching Classroom was very impressive and is a custom-designed shipping container modified into an 80-square-foot, fully functioning kitchen complete with three-sided belly height kitchen countertop and five individual induction plates.
St. HOPE Scholars Are Oak Park Smart!
Know some amazing students? So do we! This past month, three students, one each from PS7, Oak Park Prep and Sac High, were recognized at the second annual Celebrate Oak Park festival as Oak Park Smart’s top students. Celebrate Oak Park is an annual celebration of learning and student achievement for the schools serving Oak Park and is put on by Jay Schenirer’s WayUp initiative.
Best of Sac High, 2018
Underground Books and Old Soul were pleased to present the 15th annual “Best of Sac High Student Art Exhibit.” The exhibit showcases the school year’s best work by students attending Sac High. The exhibit is a board cross-spectrum of talented youth – freshmen to seniors, as well as a diverse representation from the three art pathways on Sac High’s campus.
Pi Day Fun!
PS7 Middle scholars had the opportunity to participate in our annual Pi Day carnival in March. Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi (π), celebrated on March 14th (3.14)! The event was led by our 8th grade scholars as they managed a variety of stations for our sixth and seventh grade scholars to participate in, such as field games, math worksheets, a Pi chain, and of course, enjoying a slice of pie!! Our sixth and seventh graders had a fantastic time participating as they were able to show off their math knowledge and teamwork skills!
Sac High Class of 2021 Visits Google!
Last month, the entire Sac High Class of 2021 (9th grade) was invited to spend a day at Google headquarters in Mountain View! The Dragons spent the whole day touring the #googleplex with a “Googler”, eating a meal from the Google Kitchen, and hearing from a panel of “Googlers” with diverse backgrounds and experiences. This trip was important for our students in that it opened up their minds to the endless possibilities available to them when they pursue and obtain their college degree.
Shout Hooray for St. HOPE’s Big Day!
Earlier this month, St. HOPE participated in the Big Day of Giving, one of the region’s biggest online giving campaigns created to support Sacramento’s nonprofit community by raising essential funding and allowing for nonprofits to continue in their efforts to make Sacramento a better place!
As hopeful as our staff and students were, we would have never expected what was to come on that big day! Securing over $60,000 in donations and matching donations of a $50,000 goal was more than we could have ever anticipated! EVER!