Video: PiE in Our Secondary Schools

In our middle and high schools, PiE enriches our elective classes and reduces class sizes. PiE also supports many other programs and services. The following short video highlights how we work with our secondary school parents, school staff, and community members to help preserve PAUSD’s outstanding schools and programs. We hope you enjoy the following…

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PiE-Funded Counselors Are Crucial to Navigating Middle School in Palo Alto

The Slice – Fall 2014: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools Navigating middle school can be a challenge, to say the least. To get through this occasionally tumultuous time of change, students need an all-encompassing support system that addresses their academic, social, personal, and emotional well-being. Enter…

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Meet the People Who Bring Middle School Electives Alive

The Slice – May 2014: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools Middle school is a time of exploration and discovery, when many students find the passion that will sustain them through high school, college and even their careers. In Palo Alto, thanks to donations from Partners in…

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Flexible Funding from PiE Supports Writing Across the Curriculum

The Slice – December 2013: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools The consensus is clear among all three Palo Alto middle schools: Students need to hone in on their writing skills during these crucial years. In every PAUSD middle school, principals are using the flexible funding they…

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Building Community and Connection

The Slice – October 2013: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools Students in the city’s middle schools are reaping the benefits of the Strong Schools measure to expand and enrich their learning environments. JLS: New Amphitheater and Classrooms Build School Community At JLS, projected student enrollment growth…

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Letter to My Middle School Self

The Slice – May 2013: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools According to six students from the three PAUSD middle schools, the two greatest transitions in their school careers were the fearsome leap from elementary to middle school, and the “Game Changer” – the transition from 6th…

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Middle School Students “In the Middle”

The Slice – March 2013: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools How do the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) counselors track the progress of every middle school student? What if kids have never, in their three years of middle school, made an appointment to see a…

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Middle School Electives Can Launch Self-Discovery, Even Life Paths

The Slice – January 2013: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools If grade school is about gaining knowledge, middle school is about gaining choice. Beginning in sixth grade, students are introduced to “The Wheel.” Made up of six-week short courses, and common to all three middle schools…

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Tight-Knit Teams: Fostering Student Achievement and Professional Growth

The Slice – November 2012: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools With Palo Alto middle school class sizes growing, how can teachers give students the individual feedback they need to improve future performance and adapt their own teaching style to help? Ask any middle school principal in…

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Starting Adolescence and Adjusting to a New School

The Slice – April 2012: In Our High Schools | In Our Middle Schools | In Our Elementary Schools “Sixth grade is like kindergarten, like starting all over again.” –6th Grade Student (“Transition to A Middle Level School: What Kids Say,” Middle School Journal, November, 1992). The transition into middle school characterizes the end of…

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