News

We are excited to announce that Larry Simonsen has been named Assistant Principal of Da Vinci RISE High, replacing Edith Funes who resigned effective December 31, 2022.

Larry is a career constructivist educator and innovative school leader for instructional innovation and social justice. His 27 years of experience in secondary and post-secondary education in Los Angeles include the stewardship of unique schools for authentic stakeholder partnership and real world apprenticeship, among them LAUSD’s first start-up PILOT school.

Larry periodically serves as an adjunct professor for Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology, and his secondary students have presented rigorous project-based learning (PBL) science projects at the LA City, LA County, CA State, and National Levels.

Larry and his students have modeled effective PBL pedagogy for pre-service teachers, contributed to environmental engineering initiatives, and participated in rigorous research competitions.

His areas of professional passion are constructivist instructional design for diverse classrooms, and the development of authentic systemic approaches to assessment for deep and lasting learning.

Larry chose to join RISE High School because of its commitment to innovating transformative change in public education, challenging systems to evolve and serve all communities and student populations with equity.

Larry can be reached at lsimonsen@davincischools.org. Welcome to the Da Vinci family!

For the latest RISE High news and announcements, subscribe to the blog here (scroll to bottom to subscribe).

We are excited to announce that Marissa Crook has been named Athletics Director of the Wiseburn Da Vinci Athletics program. Marissa assumed her duties last week.

For the past 12 years Marissa has worked to create and improve Physical Education and Athletic programs at the schools she has served. Marissa brings experience in building athletic teams and programs from the ground floor as an inaugural coach and athletic director. As a former high school and college athlete, Marissa has a passion for providing students with opportunities to thrive in both their academic and athletic endeavors.

Marissa’s focus is on building a positive and respectful culture of athletics whose members represent our schools and the WDV Athletics program with pride. “I am excited to be part of Da Vinci Schools and to serve in the Wolves’ Athletic Program. I hope to see many student leaders and athletes engaged in the community as exceptional ambassadors of the spirit and dedication of Da Vinci Schools and Athletics.”

Marissa is coming at an exciting time for Wiseburn Da Vinci Athletics which moved to the Pioneer League this school year. The new league benefits our student-athletes by providing a more competitive experience, more consistent game schedules, additional team levels, shorter travel times, and more.

Marissa earned her Bachelor’s in Kinesiology-Physical Education from Cal State Northridge, a teaching credential from Cal State Bakersfield, and a Master’s in Kinesiology from Fresno Pacific University.

Marissa was selected from a pool of 146 candidates. The top three candidates were interviewed by a joint Wiseburn Da Vinci Interview Panel composed of Wiseburn and Da Vinci administrators, Wiseburn community members who are parents with students attending both Wiseburn and Da Vinci schools, student-athletes, and coaches. We are deeply grateful to our panel members, as well as to Wiseburn Superintendent Dr. Blake Silvers for his athletic director expertise and for helping us through this process. We also wish to express our gratitude to Tori Grafeman, WDV Assistant Athletics Director, who did a wonderful job in her role and continues to be a highly valued member of the Da Vinci organization.

Marissa can be reached at mcrook@davincischools.org. Welcome to the pack Marissa! Go Wolves!

For the latest Athletics news and announcements, subscribe to our new WDV Athletics blog at athletics.davincischools.org.

Dear Da Vinci Students and Families,

We are exploring adding additional language and arts offerings during Zero period (which will be approximately 7:25-8:35am) next semester. The goal is to make any additional offerings available to all high school students, regardless of school site.

Please complete the survey below by Friday, Oct. 14th to share your thoughts and ideas about what additional language and arts classes we should offer. There is also space on the survey to share any other thoughts or ideas you think we should know. There are two separate surveys — one for students and one for parents/guardians.

Student Survey Link: https://forms.gle/JypEbSfU138b1W34A

Parent/Guardian Survey Link: https://forms.gle/y6hbKrNGMfJvVcBS8

We thank you!

Versión en español (haga clic aquí)

Hello RISE Families,

I hope this message finds you and your loved ones happy and well. As a reminder, our first day of Quarter 3 begins this Monday, January 11th. By now you should have received hardcopies of the parent letter, report card and other informative documents sent over winter break. Should you have any que

stions please do not hesitate to reach out to me via email at ewhalen@davincischools.org or reach out to your site administrator Edith Funes at APCH or Rebecca Robinson at Hawthorne.

Congrats to our December 2020 Graduates ♥

The RISE High family is PROUD to congratulate our December graduates! You have defied the odds during an incredibly challenging time and we couldn’t be more inspiredby your resilience and determination to reach your goals. This is just the beginning of your journey, always remember your RISE family has your back!

Advisory at RISE!

EVERY SINGLE student at RISE has an advisor. Advisors are staff members who are there to support students with academic progress, socio-emotional development and coaching through the year. Students must attend AT LEAST 4 one-on-one check-ins with their advisor each quarter. Students should also register for their selected 6 workshops (1 college and career, 1 social emotional and 4 of their choice). Completing these tasks not only provides students with tools to succeed, but also provides them with 2.5 credits that can work to boost their GPA. Though advisory credits do not count towards high school graduation, they are used to pump up our student’s GPAs to make them even more competitive for college acceptance, internships, job opportunities and more.

College and Career/ Senior Workshops!

College and Career workshops are an excellent resource for students looking for employment or interested in future job opportunities. This workshop is open to all students and occurs on Wednesdays from 2:30—4:00pm.

Senior Workshops are for RISE students who are “Senior Status” or “approaching senior status”. This workshop supports our seniors with all post- and pre-graduation needs (applications, college essays, interviews etc.)

Senior Status – 30 Credits or less remaining

Approaching Senior Status – 30 – 45 Credits remaining

EL Workshop

English Language Learning workshop is designed to support students for whom English is their second language. This class is to provide additional tutoring to support your academic progress! Students can earn up to 2.5 credits in their English classes for attending (.5 credits), making Lexile growth (.5 credits) and completing Achieve 3000 articles (1.5 credit).

Schedule Breakdown

All student schedules are included in their Personalized Learning Plans! Students should be working on their assignments in-between classes to ensure they are making adequate academic progress. During “Independent Work time” students are able to reach out to their teachers for additional one-on-one or small group support. ALL staff contact information is located the Da Vinci RISE Staff Directory.

Parent Workshop

Principal, Erin Whalen and Site Director, Da’John Harris will be leading a parent workshop on Thursday, January 21^st, 2021 at 5:00pm via Zoom. We will be there to help our parents learn how to read the student schedule, navigate DreamSeeDo and help be a support system to your student to ensure they are making adequate progress at RISE!

Health and Safety

During this very trying time, we want to ensure our community is educated and supported on ways to stay safe and healthy. Please let us know if you need any support. Here are some useful COVID-related resources:

• Informational Slide Deck 
• COVID Essential Services

Yearbook 2021

Are you enrolled in Yearbook!? Are you interested in social media!? Well today is your lucky day. Yearbook is being revamped this quarter to allow our Yearbook Scholars to be our social media leaders! Little known fact, RISE has an Instagram, twitter and Facebook. We will be using our Yearbook class to learn how to effectively and professionally navigate the social media world! Additionally, we will be working to create an AWESOME yearbook! Check your PLP to see if you are in Yearbook.

For Questions and Assistance, please reach out to your loving administrative team:

FULL RISE STAFF DIRECTORY (CLICK HERE)
Principal: ALL Sites New Earth Administrator	Assistant Principal: Hawthorne	Assistant Principal: APCH
Erin Whalen(310) 490-5100 Ewhalen@davincischools.org	Rebecca Robertson(415) 562-5230 Rrobertson@davincischools.org	Edith Funes(562) 378- 9644 efunes@davincischools.org