PUBLIC COMMENT – May 5, 2021 (submitted prior to 12 pm ...

MANHATTAN BEACH USD – PUBLIC COMMENT – May 5, 2021 (submitted prior to 12 pm May 4)

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Name: Carmela Floro Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees The physics program at Mira Costa high school is very important. It’s important that Mr. Lewis stays on as the physics teacher. There are a lot of STEM students graduating from Mira costa and are admitted to top colleges and universities in the nation. It’s important to keep physics and Mr Lewis at Mira Costa. Name: Brett Irvin Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Physics and Jon Lewis are an integral part of the Sciences Department at Mira Costa. I am graduating from UC Berkeley this semester majoring in Business and minoring in Data Science. I graduated from Mira Costa in 2017 and took AP Physics my senior year at Costa. Mr. Lewis' Physics class was not only the most interesting class at Costa I took but I think prepared me the most for college. College has been all about learning frameworks and applying them to new situations we haven’t encountered. Mr. Lewis was also the most clear in his expectations of us, made sure every assignment would enrich our learning, and always answered our questions. That’s exactly what education and life is all about. Name: Benjamin Fan Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I took AP Physics with Jon Lewis and graduated from Mira Costa in 2017. I am attending Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in industrial engineer with a GPA of 3.80/4.00. Jon's physics class and labs were extremely informative and helpful. The labs were interesting and interactive with the instructor. It helped me to visualize and understand complex physical laws. The lectures he taught were at 4-years university level. He teaches high students as if he teaches college students. The rigorous materials he taught in class prepared me to take physics 2, electric and magnetic, at the one of most prestigious and rigorous engineering university, Georgia Institute of Technology, and successfully got an A in the class. Jon Lewis' physics class prepares many Mira Costa graduates to succeed at 4-years universities, and I believe his stay at Mira Costa will continue to inspire and prepare future scientists and engineers. Name: Walker Heintz Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I want to speak on behalf of Mr. Lewis and the AP Physics program at Mira Costa. I graduated in 2017 from Mira Costa and am currently about to graduate from UC Berkeley with a degree in Chemical Biology. I genuinely mean it that after my hard 4 years here, Mr. Lewis's AP physics is still one of the most engaging and challenging courses that I have taken. He taught physics so naturally and at such a fundamental level that it translated not only the knowledge of physics but ways of understanding any concept or class at a high level. I am being honest when I say that I took Mr. Lewis's class in high school and then at Berkeley when I took physics, I didn't even have to show up to class or study in order to succeed due to having such a great base of knowledge from AP Physics. Not only did his class adequately prepare me for physics in college, but just the rigor and challenge of college classes in general. I think he is a phenomenal teacher and deserves the support of the school board and funding to run AP Physics. I would also like to add that I think having an AP Physics course is an important part of the curriculum at Mira Costa. Having a more hard science alternative for AP students is one of the only ways that people can tell whether they want to go into STEM in college. AP Physics is what made me sure that I enjoyed STEM. AP Biology or AP Mathematics don't fill the same niche of STEM problem solving and concepts that can make you aware of this. AP Physics is an important medium for learning how the world around you works and for inspiring students to know what they want to study going forwards.


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Name: Ethan Nahlinder Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Dear MBUSD Board, My name is Ethan Nahlinder, and I am a senior at Mira Costa. I have been taking AP Physics C this year under Mr. Lewis, and even in such a unique school year as this, he has proven to be one of my favorite teachers I have ever had. He has been able to go above and beyond during the year to ensure us students are receiving and comprehending the necessary information to lead us to success, and his dedication shines through in everything he does. Coming into his class for the first time, I immediately recognized that his teaching style was different. His emphasis on thinking “like a third-grader” has been extremely helpful in understanding the different concepts that have been taught. His demonstrations and experiments all aid in our perception of physics and its impact on us all, and most importantly: they are fun! The work he assigns us never feels wasted, and it is able to make me realize that what he teaches us really means something in the world. Outside the classroom, he is willing to sit down and talk with any of his students to help them with whatever they need help with. Often the assistance he has provided me has led to conversations on nearly any subject, establishing him as a person and not just a teacher that I listen to during class. The priority is always set on physics, but he always connects with the students on a deeper level. He and I have talked about films several times after settling a few questions on rotational kinematics or gravitation, and I will never forget that. Not only is he one of the best teachers, but he is a great person that any student can talk to on campus. When I heard that the district was going to have even more layoffs for teachers and staff, I was devastated. Of course with any budgetary issue, decisions must be made, but I cannot emphasize enough how important Mr. Lewis and his class are. He has been able to adequately prepare me and many other students for the higher level science classes we will face in college, all while keeping it fun and meaningful. Please consider letting him stay. Sincerely, Ethan Nahlinder Name: Elisse Friedman Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello, my name is Elisse Friedman and I am from Mira Costa’s graduating class of 2017. Mr. Jon Lewis was my AP Physics teacher during senior year, and I am writing in support of keeping him in his current teaching position at Costa. Mr. Lewis is not only the best physics teacher at the high school, he is also what many of us fondly refer to as a “life teacher.” In addition to giving us a university-level physics education, he interspersed his curriculum with important life advice that I still remember four years later. He also encouraged us to invest our time in things we were passionate about, which we were able to do during the final creative project my year (although things may have changed since then). I am now in my final year of my Animal Science bachelors degree at UC Davis, and have had three physics professors (all with PhD degrees). Mr. Lewis has proven to be a better physics instructor than all three of them. I felt more prepared for college-level physics than almost any other subject once I arrived at UC Davis. I have achieved several important academic goals throughout my time in college, and Mr. Lewis’s teachings have played a part in many of them. He not only taught us physics, but how to approach any sort of calculation-based problem. I scored above-average on the GRE, which became part of my successful application to vet school. Looking back on my time at Mira Costa, I took nearly all AP courses my senior year and passed all of my exams with a 3-5 score range, earning the title of AP Scholar With Distinction. I would not have succeeded if it had not been for the high quality of instruction provided by Mr. Lewis. Mira Costa would suffer a devastating loss if he was laid off, especially during a time when some schools in other states are considering discontinuing AP curriculums altogether. I know many students and parents would be heartbroken to see him leave, and he is devoted to making sure his students are ready for the AP Physics exam and college in general. Please consider allowing Mr. Lewis to continue to have a positive impact on Costa students.


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Name: Shanshan Zhu Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am from class 2016, took Mr Lewis's Physics H and AP physics! Currently, I am an MS student for Accounting at LMU and work at BDO as a financial auditor for technology industries. I transferred to MCH during my Junior year as an English learner student. It is not easy to found a sense of belonging in MCH. But in Mr. Lewis’s class, he always found a way to inspire me to solve the problem and build friendships with other students. He likes us to work in teams and conduct experiments as a team(that is when I slowly realized I can make friends at the school! I am forever grateful for this small push). I sincerely believe what I learned to form his class is more than physics, it is more about building confidence and a complete personality. His patience led me to open up myself to the classmate and other peers in MCH. When I started Physics H in Junior year it was challenging for me to understand the material. But, luckily I got assigned to a small class. When I am confused about something, he always approaches the key points by a different method that I can understand. He was always supportive of students coming from different cultures as well. He always encouraged me to share my view on current events and bring a new perspective to the classroom. Amount all the teachers that I had, I found Mr. Lewis is the only one that I can build a connection with and be excited to have the class every day. As for the quality of his class, Mr. Lewis is the only teacher who prepared us for college. He let us adopt college communication format and lecture-style teaching in high school. When all my other college classmates are googleing how to send a proper email to the professor and how to take organized notes, I am already confident about what to do and let me have the chance to develop other skill sets. Mr. Lewis always pushes us to think about things from at least two perspective. What we see on paper or social media is not usually the complete story, we should always look for more evidence for a complete story. The ability to think objectively and independently made me qualify for my job today. I am proud that I was his student and still have the honor to share my experience to MBSD! I really wish the school could let him continual influencing more students! Name: Ashley Werre Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees In 2 weeks, I will be graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley. My next move will be to the University of Oregon for a Master’s degree in Electrochemical Technology. Mr. Lewis was my AP Physics teacher in Period 3 for the 2016-2017 school year and, had it not been for his class, I can say I would certainly not have pursued engineering. I had always been highly science-oriented, but I was interested in medicine. I took the opportunity to take Mr. Lewis’s AP Physics course my senior year as it was the closest introduction I would have to engineering before applying to college. Coming to class and getting to learn new facts applicable to the real world was the best part of each day. I vividly remember deriving forces, such as lift, in airplanes and learning that they are actually quite safer than one would think, and to this day I will never stay too close in front of a truck on the highway because I know with their momentum it takes a lot more time to slow down than a standard automobile. At UC Berkeley, each engineering student is required to take two courses in subsequent semesters known as Physics 7A (Mechanics) and Physics 7B (Electromagnetics). Most students who had never been exposed to physics would agree that it was no easy feat; the course average was a B-, after all. For me and the handful of other Costa graduates in the class, not one of us felt challenged. In fact, I hardly studied after leaving lecture because I retained so much of what Mr. Lewis had taught us leading up to the AP Physics C exam in May 2017. Not studying and still receiving an A- in a course (which is well above average, I might add) is every student’s dream. Obviously, this was not a trend with engineering courses at UC Berkeley, but it was refreshing to experience this for one single semester. Mr. Lewis not only made learning a difficult subject easier, but enjoyable and relatable. It would be a great loss to the Mira Costa community to let Mr. Lewis go. I urge you all to consider the impact this would have on students—especially


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underrepresented minority females, such as myself—who are interested in STEM but not sure where to start. Thank you. Name: Ali Wu Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I took Mr. Lewis' honors physics course my senior year of high school back in 2017. And although the skills I learned in this class were most practical for my freshman year of college at UC Davis (the year I took all of my GE stem courses), I firmly believe taking Mr. Lewis' class helped set up a strong foundation for how I do any of my work now. If there's anything this man can teach really well other than physics, it's organization. And on top of that, you can tell he really cares about the students. It's very clear he wants them to succeed outside of his class whether they continue pursuing math and science careers or anything else. A good teacher helps the students learn the material, but a great teacher will also teach them valuable life skills that'll help them in whatever field they end up in. It would be sad to hear he's getting let go after everything he's done for us. Name: Catherine Boudreau Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees To whom it may concern, I am a class of 2018 Costa graduate and am writing this in support of Jon Lewis. I was taught honours physics by Mr. Lewis in 2018 and some of my best memories from Costa are from doing labs and group work in his class. Mr. Lewis was a fantastic, passionate teacher and instilled in me the desire to push myself to explore different academic fields. Physics and mathematics in general never came naturally to me, but his class prepared me immensely for the two university level physics courses I had to take in my undergrad at UBC Vancouver as part of my BSc. in Cognitive Systems. I did well in these courses and Mr. Lewis played a big part in that. For the sake of future Costa students in STEMS, please reconsider your decision to let him go! Name: Michael LoCascio Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am commenting in support of Jon Lewis and advanced physics courses at Mira Costa. I was an AP Physics student of Mr. Lewis in 2015-2016, my senior year at MCHS, before I went on to study mechanical engineering at UCLA. The majority of my classmates that took Mr. Lewis' classes went on to study in STEM. I frankly can't imagine entering my undergraduate education in engineering without the foundation in mechanics that I picked up from Mr. Lewis' class--it would have put me at a severe disadvantage to say the least. There's a chance I might not even have discovered my passion for physics and engineering if I wasn't a student of Mr. Lewis, and I can't imagine my life without it now. There was one moment when we were studying forces and Newton's second law, and I was struggling to grasp a concept. We were doing a problem where a person is standing on a scale in an elevator, and essentially, when the elevator accelerates upward, the scale would record a higher weight than if the elevator was not accelerating. When Mr. Lewis sensed I was having trouble, he called me up to the front of the class so I could work out my thought process and make my mistakes in front of everyone. It wasn't a cruel way to shame me--many other students had the same questions, and by working out the details together, everyone was able to feel more comfortable voicing their questions. Almost every time I am on an elevator I think of that moment, so you know that the concept stuck with me. People talk about "keeping the pencil in the student's hand" when you are teaching so that they stay engaged, and Mr. Lewis understands this approach well. I am now pursuing a PhD at Stanford University in mechanical engineering, and I rely on that strong foundation in physics every day. I cannot stress enough how important Mr. Lewis and these courses are to preparing Mira Costa students for careers in STEM. This first exposure to physics is all about connecting your intuitions about the world to their systematic, mathematical explanations. High school is the right environment for this exploration, because by the


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time you reach higher education, that intuition is assumed. Mr. Lewis' absence would severely handicap the development of the next generation of scientists and engineers out of MCHS. Name: Sydney Blum Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa in 2019. My senior year, I took AP Physics C with Mr. Lewis, and I can say, without a doubt, that it was the best choice I had made during my four years. Not only did Mr. Lewis make class fun and engaging, but he taught in such a way that I completely understood every topic we learned, and I was able to retain most, if not all, of the information for college. One of the best teaching tools he used, in my opinion, was the multiple AP exams we took second semester to prepare for the exam. I believe we did around 10 practice AP exams in class before the real one, and as a result I got a 5 on the exam. I am currently at NYU majoring in applied mathematics, and taking AP Physics C in high school greatly affected my college experience. I am required to take all of the Physics C courses for my major, and taking the first one with Mr. Lewis allowed me to skip it in college while still using those skills in other courses. As a STEM major, physics is extremely important and useful for every course, and students in high school should be learning it. Not only has physics been useful in my college career and most definitely future job, but Mr. Lewis was extremely influential in making it the best it could be. He deserves to continue teaching physics to students. Name: Vanna Kizirian Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello, my name is Vanna Kizirian and I graduated from Mira Costa High School in June 2018. In my senior year, I took Jon Lewis's Honors Physics course and I can honestly say it created a great benefit to me when I first attended Chapman University to pursue a Chemistry degree and I had to take a year of Physics. Jon Lewis's class helped create a great foundation of Physics and applied a lot of the material to real life. For example, the physical reasons of why the seatbelt is shaped and constructed the way it is, as well as the effects of driving a car with/without a head seat. In addition, the reason why we use car tires made out of rubber and asphalt on the streets is because it creates enough friction in case of an immediate stop. These are just a few fun facts that I learned that have stuck with me after a few years. Beyond that, I learned a lot from the lab experiments conducted in class such as finding the acceleration of a toy race car, etc. If I could attend the Zoom meeting to make a public comment I would but I unfortunately have stacked classes and lab on Wednesdays. Physics is a very common course to take for people pursuing STEM and I believe it is necessary to be offered in high school even if students do not think they want to pursue in the sciences. I hope this gave another perspective as to why Jon Lewis should continue teaching Physics at Mira Costa High School when returning to school in-person. Thank you. Name: Ronald Clinton Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hi, my name is Ronald Clinton and I am a 2017 Mira Costa alum, former AP Physics student with Mr. Jon Lewis, and a current Stanford student graduating in September 2021. Like many students, I didn't appreciate the rigor of my high school coursework until I came to college and realized how well prepared I was for my college-level coursework. The AP classes at Costa taught me how to absorb large amounts of information quickly, and many of those concepts were covered again in my college classes. One of the most pivotal classes I took at Costa was AP Physics C with Mr. Lewis as this was an instrumental class in allowing me to gain some exposure to a field of study I had not encountered since 8th grade. This class gave me a solid introduction to and foundation in mechanical physics and the AP credit I gained from that class allowed me to test out of a quarter of Physics in college, thereby freeing up my schedule to take other classes. In addition, Mr. Lewis continually challenged his students to perform at the best of our abilities, and shared several tips


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for handling college coursework (many of these tips proved to be very valuable). All in all, I support Mr. Lewis' position at Mira Costa and hope that future Costa students can benefit from learning physics. Name: Pleia Hall Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Lewis is an unique teacher. He not only teaches physics; he teaches his students how to learn and think for themselves. During my time in his AP Physics class, I was completely engaged and challenged intellectually. He helped me learn to have a growth mindset and not get discouraged when things got difficult. That is a skill that has gotten me through college and through some of the most difficult moments of my life. Terminating his position is taking away invaluable learning opportunities from hundreds of future Mira Costa graduates. He is not only able to teach difficult science material effectively but can equip students with life skills. This is a unique combination that I don't see being replaced. Name: Lauren Goldston Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Lauren Goldston and I am a current sophomore at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I am also a member of the Costa class of 2019 and took AP Physics during my senior year. At Wake, I am a business major and a political science minor. So my story is not going to be about how this class helped me with my major to get ahead in college, rather I want to share with you how it aided me as a person and student. Although I am not a STEM major, and AP Physics was not my forte, the class aided me tremendously in starting my career in higher education. This class taught me how to work hard and put in meaningful and long hours into my studies. Most importantly, Mr. Lewis's class taught me about dedication and determination. As I said, I was not good at physics. However, by being pushed to pick myself up and work harder after I did poorly on a test or assignment, I grew as a person and a student. I was never challenged at Costa in the way this class challenged me, and I am a better student for it. Although I did not continue with science-based classes in college, skills from physics aided me in becoming an effective studier and student in college, which was a major part in me gaining acceptance into the competitive undergrad business school at Wake. I want to thank Mr. Lewis for being a tremendous resource during my senior year at Costa. Through being his student and going to his classroom at office hours, I learned a lot about asking for help from an instructor, an important tool for college. Moreover, his instruction and dedication allowed me, someone who does not have a STEM-geared brain, to get a 4 on an incredibly difficult AP test. His class also gave me resources beyond physics knowledge. We had a Four Summers Project, completed after the AP test, in which Mr. Lewis tasked his students with crafting a plan for the four summers available during college. I even secured an internship this past summer at one of the organizations I planned within my project. It is also this internship that has led me to securing my internship for this summer at BDO, a multinational professional services firm. Also, it is important for me to emphasize that, now that I am in college, I am confident that this class most resembled one that might be in a university. It would be an injustice to deprive Costa students of the rigorous academic material I experienced with Mr. Lewis in AP Physics. This class taught me to not shy away from an academic challenge, which is something that Costa students should do in order to be a better asset and more competitive in college. It is honestly unfortunate that many Costa students appear to be lacking academic determination, resulting in smaller class sizes. A core and valuable science class, with an invested instructor, should not be something that is the first to go within a high school. It was an elite group that decided to take AP Physics, and we are all better for it.


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Name: Joanna Sergieva Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am a graduate of the 2018 class of Mira Costa High School. In 2017-2018 I attended Jon Lewis' Honors Physics course and greatly enjoyed it. Physics boasts its own lab experience that is not similar to any other science course at Costa. Mr. Lewis is an enthusiastic teacher always seeking to prepare his students for University level courses. He brought forth his own experience as a student to teach us how to properly keep a physics lab book and make sure future professors could clearly see our organized work solving a problem with in 3 pages. The things I remember from Mr. Lewis's course are the applications of theory. Whether it be a car crash force analysis or Olympic figure skater rotational force inspection, every lesson was exciting and made me use physics to look at the world through a different lens. I am not the type of student who is particularly interested in the arts, I was the student who took all the available science courses and this course was detrimental to facilitating my drive to go into science in College. There are more students like me, but perhaps physics just needs better visibility as a cool course. It was quite challenging but very essential for my University courses. I currently attend Radboud University in The Netherlands Majoring in Biology. I applied initially for a Molecular Life Sciences and Chemistry Major however since I had not taken the AP physics exam I was not qualified. With AP Biology, AP chemistry, and Honors Physics I was able to qualify for acceptance into the Biology Bachelor at my University. Without Physics I would not be able to attend any science Major abroad. In the European education system, students pursuing science take multiple years of physics and other sciences to prepare for University. My education at Mira Costa would not match up without these high level science courses like Physics. In a globalization viewpoint, this course is without a doubt essential from my opinion. Jon Lewis is an absolutely amazing teacher it would be outrageous for Mira Costa to no longer have him here. Name: Lan Nguyen Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I was a student in Mr. Lewis' AP Physics course during my time at Mira Costa. I enjoyed my time in his class. I remember being intimidated by the title of the course, but Mr. Lewis takes time to make the topic approachable, and understandable. This course encouraged me to pursue my degree in Engineering Physics, and truly set me up for success in many of my college courses. I am now part of the 13% of female engineers, and I believe the last thing we need is a cut in a STEM course. Students need to be encouraged to take on this course, as it can set them up for success not only in college, but in their careers. Name: Amy Nguyen Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Dear Board of Trustees, I am writing in support of the AP physics program at Mira Costa, specifically Mr. Jon Lewis. Both of my now adult children loved their AP Physics class with Mr. Lewis. Both Lan Nguyen and Minh Nguyen are now Engineers using their AP physics skills on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Both of these former students of Jon Lewis own part of their personal business and financial success in the working work to this amazing teacher. Science fields help develop clear thinking and observation skills. Mira Costa needs a strong science department - and no science department is complete without Physics. It is the job of the counselors to ensure that students are introduced to all subjects, including science. If students are not aware of the benefits of physics to their own personal success, it is the job of counselors to educate Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors to the importance of this area of study. I strongly oppose the lay-off of Jon Lewis and believe it would be a great detriment to Mira Costa in both the short and long term.


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Name: Paula Cenusa Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Jon Lewis - AP Physics Graduation Year: 2014 Cabrillo College - Mathematics Major Mr. Lewis' class was extremely well taught and his teachings have lasted me to this day where I remember the topics he taught in my day to day life. I think about coefficients of friction when I drive down the highway and I remember his advice on how best to apply torque to make my life easier. I would very much recommend that his position not be terminated so that he can continue making an impact on fellow learners. Name: Ashley Goussak Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Graduation year: 2014 Class taken: AP Physics Teacher: Jon Lewis Undergraduate institution: University of Oregon/Robert D Clark Honors College Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences Minor: Special Education Graduate Institution: San Diego State University Masters in Speech-Language Pathology I strongly disagree with the proposition to discontinue the physics program at Mira Costa. I believe this course was immensely valuable to my progression towards earning my master’s degree in 2020. To someone who is not familiar with my field, you may not think there are fundamental physics principles in the area of speech pathology; however, concepts I learned in this high school course were salient in my higher education studies. I utilized this information learning about acoustics of speech sounds, aerodynamics of resonance, and many other ways. I am a prime example of a student who went into a STEM associated field and is consistently using integral information I learned in physics in my everyday professional practice. I strongly urge you to maintain the physics courses at Mira Costa and allow Mr. Jon Lewis to continue to be the educator for this course. Discontinuing physics would hurt students and make them appear less desirable for college candidacy. Thank you for your consideration and please feel free to contact me with additional questions. Sincerely, Ashley Goussak Name: Brian Cui Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello. My name is Brian Cui, and I am a current sophomore at Rice University. I am part of Mira Costa's class of 2019, and I took Mr. Lewis's AP Physics course during the 2017-2018 school year. To get straight to the point, the district is absolutely making a terrible choice in choosing to terminate Mr. Lewis's classes. From the perspective of a current college student, Mr. Lewis's course was by far the best course in terms of preparing me for a college education in a STEM field. The way he teaches really encourages his students to truly learn and understand the material. He never emphasized the memorization of random equations and facts, but rather a deeper understanding of the material that built a strong foundation that enabled his students to learn anything that they put their minds to. As a district that prides itself on academic excellence, it does not make sense to stop offering a class that challenges students and prepares them to succeed at the next level. Even beyond physics, Mr. Lewis was a great influence in showing his students how to live a fulfilling life. He fully encouraged his students to get out and experience the world with friends


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and family. He even helped organize and lead a trip every year that allowed his senior students to travel with their peers. Mr. Lewis is truly an excellent teacher, and terminating his classes is a decision that the district is sure to regret. I hope the district strongly reconsiders their current decision. Name: Sean Banchik Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees The future of our economy and possibly our planet for the generations to come is heavily rooted in STEM careers and disciplines. As the Board is keenly aware, top state and private colleges look not only at a student's GPA, but also at the rigor of classes taken in high school. As such, denying our Mira Costa students that excel in the sciences the opportunity to challenge themselves with upper level physics classes would be a huge disservice. Both of my daughters are Costa graduates, class of 2016 and class of 2018, and both took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis. One is now a U.C. Berkeley Computer Science graduate working on cyber security products and the other a promoting senior at UC Santa Barbara who will be sitting for the MCATs this summer. While no one can say what might have been, I believe the rigor of their Costa education and particularly access to upper level classes like AP Physics has been instrumental to both the opportunities they've received and their resulting success. We ask the Board to strongly consider the impact on your promising young science-oriented students who rely on these opportunities when voting on this resolution and that you not cap the potential of our current and future Costa scientists by limiting their high school alternatives. Thank you for your consideration. Name: Brendan Fisher Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am a recent UC Davis graduate who took Jon Lewis' AP Physics course over the 2015-2016 academic year. Upon hearing that this class may be cut from Mira Costa's course offerings, I was a little surprised. While I understand that certain courses will always have less demand than others, the value they offer is unchanged. During my time as a student at Mira Costa, no class challenged me in the same way my AP Physics course did; I was taught valuable skills in problem solving and critical thinking and could not simply memorize my way through. Additionally, the interactive nature of the class in regard to both lectures and labs and how closely it tied to our curriculum was unmatched. In a time where science is unduly criticized and ignored, our academic institutions should be leading the charge against this movement by arming future generations with as much exposure to the sciences as possible. As such, cutting STEM programs appears to be a step backwards when forward progress is desperately needed. I strongly implore the school board to reconsider their options in regard to low-demand programs and what the broader impact on future students would be if courses like AP Physics were cut. Name: Samantha Banchik Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Samantha Banchik and I'm a recent Berkeley graduate who attended Mira Costa from 2012-2016. I took Honors Physics my senior year at Mira Costa and I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable and most rewarding classes I took. Mr Lewis is an excellent teacher who genuinely cares about his students. He would always encourage us to attend office hours, came up with fun labs, and was masterful with the material. As a Berkeley STEM alum, I can also testify that Honors Physics not only helped me get into Berkeley but also inspired me to pursue STEM in my career. Mr Lewis encouraged everyone to get involved in science regardless of background. I think it would come to a great disadvantage to all at Costa to axe the honors and AP physics programs. It will gravely affect college admissions, as well as effect students moving forward who will be unsure about what Physics and many of its related STEM fields has to


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offer. I hope the Board can recognize the importance of the higher level Physics program at Costa and find a way to keep this program around both for the benefit of the students as well as the school itself. Name: Tim Shannon Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa in 2015 and have since graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in computer science, I now work in aerospace. I took AP Physics in high school with Jon Lewis. Physics is a foundational level class for many students looking to get into engineering. It is often the first hard class students take as it introduces many new topics and ways of thinking, namely actually having to apply the math you learn instead of just memorizing it. Not only is it different, it is also foundational; even as a CS student, I took about 7 classes that built off of those basic concepts. Without a good foundation in math and physics, you will struggle as many of my classmates did. I however did not struggle as I learnt these concepts over a year with a fantastic teacher rather than having to cram them all in over a college quarter where the quality of the teacher can vary greatly. It would be a loss to cut these advanced physics classes from Mira Costa just off the argument that students would miss the chance to take a great class with an inspiring teacher; not even mentioning the benefits of taking advanced physics mentioned above. Not only should these classes be saved, they should be encouraged for anyone wanting to pursue a degree in engineering. Thanks! Tim Shannon Name: Mairead King Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I took Jon Lewis’ AP Physics class in 2015-16. It breaks my heart that future Mira Costa students may not be able to enroll. In my opinion, it is absolutely critical that students curious about STEM encounter high-level material as early as possible. I recently graduated UChicago where I studied math and economics. As part of the math major, I enrolled in a number of physics courses. Having taken AP Physics, I found the material difficult and fast-paced but ultimately manageable. Without AP Physics as preparation, I would have been overwhelmed. Although Mira Costa offers a number of AP classes, physics was unique in that it united advanced quantitative skills with intuition and critical reasoning. It demanded a deep level of understanding that could not be rushed or memorized. It challenged me to work and think in ways no other high school course did. It also forced me to get comfortable diving into material that didn’t click immediately, which developed my own study habits. These skills translated directly into any upper level math/economics courses I encountered in college, despite the unrelated material. It’s vital that students be given the opportunity to build and demonstrate comfortability with advanced material for sake of both college admissions and their future trajectories. Without a strong background, students interested in STEM could very easily be overwhelmed and forced to pick a different college track. Others may neglect to consider physics (or similar fields) as an option altogether, having not encountered and built confidence with such material in high school. This is especially important for students with backgrounds under-represented in quantitative fields. Although the decision is understandable from the perspective of budget-cuts, it’s incredibly saddening that low-enrollment is motivating the elimination of Mr. Lewis’ class. I believe that students should be given every opportunity to challenge themselves. I also believe that the development/unification of quantitative and qualitative skills -- intrinsic to the study of physics -- creates a uniquely strong foundation for a successful college experience and future career.


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Name: Dusan Rakic Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I would like to preface this comment by saying that the following words will be considered greatly offensive to the Board of Trustees. I would have greatly enjoyed delivering them in-person, as it were, but I wish not to show the slightest modicum of respect for the Board in light of their recent decisions. I had Mr. Lewis for physics when I attended Mira Costa. My classmates in college physics courses wept for their grades. My eyes stayed dry, and I thanked my lucky stars that Mr. Lewis had already taught me 90% of the material. He is the most brutal, unforgiving, and unquestionably effective teacher on the Costa campus. Bar none, he is your best educator. Not employing Mr. Lewis is, simply put, madness and stupidity. You are throwing away one of your greatest assets. Stop, consider your actions, possibly after removing your heads from your own gastrointestinal tracts. What was the thought process, exactly? "We're short on money, so let's cut one of the most quintessential cornerstones of STEM from the school"? Good God, this is embarrassing. It's disgraceful that Mr. Lewis had to email his alumni to fight for his position. It's confounding that something so self-sabotaging was even considered as an option. Do better. Name: Claire Hunt Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hi, I’m a 2015 grad who took Mr Lewis’s AP Physics class senior year. I went on to study Physics and ultimately graduate from UCSB with a degree in Applied Math. This would not have been possible without Mr. Lewis’s class. His style of teaching was the one single class at Costa that prepared me best for what STEM courses would look like in college. Eliminating him as a teacher or AP physics classes at Costa would be incredibly devastating to anyone who hopes to pursue STEM after high school. I wish I took his course Junior year, but even by the time college apps were due only 2-3 months into the school year while taking his class, I knew physics/applied math was what I wanted to study, and I know that he had the same affect on all of my peers who also took his courses. While the course was tough and its reputation for being difficult scared many off from enrolling, Mr Lewis was the most fair, knowledgeable, and wise teacher I ever had in high school. He is such an incredible resource and I couldn’t imagine Costa without him. Name: Nicole Barman Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I had the pleasure of taking Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class in my senior year (class of 2014) at Mira Costa, the year before attending UC Berkeley, where I double majored in Business Administration and Economics. Despite not majoring in hard sciences in college, I can say with a high degree of certainty that this was one of the most helpful classes I took in high school in terms of preparing me for college and for the workplace. Mr. Lewis structures his courses in a way that was incredibly similar to my college courses, and the content I learned in his course mirrored the physics G.E. course I took in college, allowing me to succeed early in my undergrad career. Beyond college, Mr. Lewis's way of teaching has stayed with me and influenced my success in the workplace. His teachings have stayed with me for such a long time that, as I am now studying for the GMAT, any physics-related reading passages and math questions intended to scare off future business students are relatively easy for me to answer correctly. Most importantly, Mr. Lewis instilled in me a mindset


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that grades do not define a student's success, that exams can and will be challenging in the future and that you will be evaluated not on the absolute number of questions you answered correctly but on how your performed relative to your peers, and that college professors and managers will be understanding of your "off days" and other life events that may prevent you from being at your best on a given day. Taking away the opportunity for future Costa students to have a similar experience so diligently engineered by Mr. Lewis would be devastating to their future success, and I really hope that you are able to continue offering students the invaluable privilege of taking a class with Mr. Lewis. Name: Kieran Smith Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Regarding: Jon Lewis Connection: Former student. Graduated 2018. I am a Mira Costa graduate pursuing a physics degree at San Diego State University. I took honors physics with Jon Lewis during my junior year at Mira Costa, and it was such an interesting class that I took him again for AP physics my senior year, receiving a 5 on the AP exam. Not only did Jon Lewis adequately prepare me for the AP exam, but he also taught the material in a way that made me curious and excited to learn more about physics. The laboratory experiments we did in class gave me more applied use of the subject material than any other class I have taken. In the first college physics classes I attended, I was one of the few people who felt adequately prepared for the rigor and expectations of the professors, and as of right now, I am a 2nd semester junior with a 4.0 GPA. I attribute much of my success to the instruction of Jon Lewis. Denying future students from being able to attend his classes is only making the transition from high school to college more difficult for them. I have never had another teacher that tries so hard to set the students up for success in their future endeavors. His classes were of immense benefit to me and taught me more than I ever thought a high school class could teach me. Name: Megan Stickelmaier Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated Mira Costa in the year of 2016 and went on to get a degree in Civil Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I am now working as a field engineer at a construction company that does major highway / roadway work. I took Mr. Lewis's Honors Physics class in my junior year and his AP Physics class in my senior year. Physics is not an easy subject to learn. I took two years of it in high school because (1) I wanted to get better at it and (2) I loved having Mr. Lewis as my teacher. Mr. Lewis did a phenomenal job teaching it. His notes and lectures were well organized and easy to follow. Everything he taught in lecture was then reinforced in the many hands-on labs we did from worksheets that he prepared specifically for his classes. From his teaching, I was able to pass the AP exam and get credit for my first physics class at university which put me ahead of my peers from the start. Mr. Lewis taught physics starting from the very fundamentals. I remember we spent a couple weeks on drawing graphs of position vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time in his Honors physics class. To this day, I still find myself thinking back to those exercises Mr. Lewis created because it taught the fundamentals on how graphs are related to each other. I was able to recognize and see those concepts over and over again as I was going to school for engineering. Cal Poly SLO is a school where you have to declare your major when you apply as a freshman. Until I took, Mr. Lewis's classes, I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go into engineering. In the end I chose Civil Engineering as my major because I thought it would be most related to the static physics I learned to enjoy in Mr. Lewis's classes. Four years later, I loved every moment of my major and I truly believe I am doing what I want most. I truly believe I would not have gotten to this point if it hadn’t been for Mr. Lewis’s guidance. Please keep Mr. Lewis as a teacher at Mira Costa so that other students can be as prepared for their university physics classes and beyond as my peers and I were.


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Name: Caroline Keever Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Grad year-2016 Mr Lewis Gonzaga university Writing to the Board to save Mr. Lewis’s job at Mira costa. He was such a great teacher and although the class was challenging, it was one of the greatest classes I took at Mira Costa. Name: Drew Dates Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am writing this comment in support of Jon Lewis and the AP/honors physics program at Mira Costa. As a young Costa student, advanced level physics provided me the unique and privileged opportunity to explore a diversity of scientific interests prior to entering college and was a critical component of journey toward advanced degrees in chemistry and chemical biology after leaving MCHS. Jon Lewis inspired us to think creatively and intuitively in ways that no other teacher had, and he helped shape my early perceptions of what science is and the kinds of problems it can solve. Despite our often sardonic back-and-forths on the merits of physics and chemistry, Jon taught me the elegant ways in which physics can inform other real-world studies and pursuits, and this was critical to my success moving forward. The science program at Mira Costa stands to be heavily diminished with his departure, and every student, regardless of whichever path they take post-graduation, will be impacted for the worse without the option to explore physics with Jon moving forward. Best, Drew Dates MCHS Class of 2014 Graduate Student, Chemical Biology PhD Program Harvard University Name: Christine Keever Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Class of 2012, ap physics, mr lewis, Gonzaga university Name: Amy Wong Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello MBUSD Board, my name is Amy Wong, I graduated from Mira Costa High School in 2014, and I took honors physics and AP physics with Mr. Jon Lewis during my junior and senior years respectfully. I enjoyed my time at Mira Costa, and Mr. Lewis' physics classes were undoubtedly crucial to my academic time there. After I graduated from Mira Costa, I attended the University of Washington with a declared astrophysics major, one that I chose solely because of how much I was inspired by Mr. Lewis and his teaching. In his physics classes, I got hands on experience during labs, and found that the subject matter helped improve my understanding of other classes including calculus and environmental science. Even though I ended up changing majors and taking a different career path (I now work as a journalist at The Seattle Times) I'm certain that Mr. Lewis was an early force that shaped my desire to learn, grow, and seek out more information about the natural world. I'd hate to see future students deprived of similar opportunities, and am disheartened that MBUSD would even consider dissolving Mr. Lewis' role, given the district's history of touting its top notch STEM programs. Having foundational physics knowledge prior to attending college is crucial for anyone pursuing a


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science degree, and as Mira Costa has heavily advocated for continued education, I hope they make the right choice in keeping Mr. Lewis and the physics program in order to prioritize the success of its students. Thank you for your time. Name: Sydney Hong Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am a 2016 Mira Costa graduate who took Mr. Lewis’s Honors Physics my senior year. While I would admit that Honors Physics was challenging, I believe it prepared me for time at the University of Denver (DU). I graduated DU with a bachelors and masters degree in accounting and attribute my success in part to my time at Costa, including the study skills and habits acquired during Mr. Lewis’s class. Mr. Lewis taught his students to detail oriented when completing class work but also critically think when solving complex problems. I was not required to take a physics class while at DU, but that is not to say that taking Honors Physics was a waste to take during high school. Mr. Lewis also emphasized collaboration among classmates which is invaluable in any collegiate business school and as we enter the work force. I truly believe that the skills and knowledge learned in Mr. Lewis class are non-replaceable and thus, not re-employing Mr. Lewis would be a mistake. Name: Trevor Julius Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Trevor Julius and I was in the Mira Costa class of 2016. From my personal experience, taking AP Physics had a profound impact on my life after taking it. While it was the eye-opening experiments that made me initially pursue a Systems Engineering degree at Washington University in St. Louis; it was the challenging and rigorous problems and pace of the Advanced Placement course that allowed me to succeed in that program and earn my degree. It was this rigor that built up my determination and resilience, allowing me to stick with that degree program throughout challenging classes. Taking AP Physics also had major outside of my Engineering degree. AP Physics with Mr. Lewis taught me a sustainable and replicable method of dissecting and solving complex problems, regardless of if they were engineering problems, business challenges, or even personal issues. This level of rigor will not be replicable in a non-Advanced Placement environment, and losing that will place future Mustang’s at a severe disadvantage in getting into and succeeding in Universities, not to mention the rest of their lives. Removing the AP Physics program at Mira Costa would mean the district is failing in their mission to “to prepare all of our students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing, highly complex, technology”. Name: Malia Yuhl Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Malia Yuhl, a Mira Costa graduate from the Class of 2019 and current undergraduate studying Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. I took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis my senior year (2018-2019), and I still think of it with fondness as the most valuable class I took during my time in high school. Taking a high level physics course was essential for my future pursuing a STEM major, and I see that even more since I’ve graduated. If AP Physics wasn’t offered, I would have gone through all of high school without taking a physics course, and would have been utterly unprepared for college. AP Physics was easily the most challenging class I took in high school, but isn’t that expected? I have since taken physics at the university level, and watched my peers without any prior experience struggle to even pass. Not only was I grateful I had taken AP Physics previously but the tools I learned from Mr. Lewis allowed me to excel in this and so much more. I even emailed him last year when I was learning about a topic that seemed like the most outrageously difficult thing ever in high school, and now here I was presented with it again my first year, and I couldn’t help but tell him about how glad I was he previously exposed and equipped me to be able to handle it. Mr. Lewis taught me so much about discipline in solving complex problems and held us all accountable as students. He also was a teacher I felt over time was approachable and I could go to for advice. He taught me about life and random scientific phenomena, and revived a


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feeling for wanting to know how things work just for the sake of knowledge, which gets so easily burnt out during high school. I still often tell people I meet now, and anticipate I will continue to tell, stories from my time spent doing labs and feeling fascination as I was genuinely learning new things while jamming out to whatever themed music Mr. Lewis was playing that day. It would be such a genuine shame for a challenging year affected by a pandemic was enough to not only rob current students of the full physics experience with Mr. Lewis, but future students as well. I implore whoever is reading this to reconsider his removal. Name: Hana Escovar Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Hana Escovar and I am a Mira Costa Graduate of 2017 I currently attend Johns Hopkins University and study Environmental Engineering. I had Mr. Jon Lewis as an AP Physics teacher during my senior year (2016-2017). Mr. Lewis was an amazing teacher for me and for many others and teaches not only physics but life skills. In all levels of his classes, Mr. Lewis presents a way of learning called "the cookbook method" where students write out the steps to solve a type of problem on a card or in a journal and can use the "cookbook" later for similar problems. Not only is this method great for learning initially, having these separate from notes can help students draw connections between different aspects of the material and deepen their understanding. This method has been super helpful for me in my college classes learning the material, and even for tutoring fellow students to prepare them for exams. When I was employed as a tutor, I also used this method for my K-8 students to prepare them for tests and help them solidify their basics. Mr. Lewis also gives students the opportunity to experience physics hands-on which is really important to learning this advanced material. Having this experience before college has helped me to understand why things work the way they do and gave me better fundamentals to enter an engineering program with. I think it is important to note that physics is a huge criteria for an upper-level school or engineering program. Many colleges ask if you have taken any physics course as part of the common app and some even ask for AP scores. As far as life skills Mr. Lewis is always available to talk after class or during our break if we have any questions physics or otherwise. He has also been encouraging of pursuing one's dreams and trying stuff out in life just for the sake of trying. I published a book because of his class through Amazon Direct Publishing and even got the chance to visit London with him as my chaperone through one of the school trips available to students. Mr. Lewis is an integral part of Mira Costa. He made my time there brighter and will continue to inspire many other students in the future. Name: Lisa Valicente Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Costa in 2014, and was a student of Mr. Lewis's during my senior year. I was enrolled in his Honors Physics class which at the time was a huge challenge for me. Physics did not come easily to me in high school and it never got easier - I had to take six physics courses at UCSD to graduate with a degree in Biology. I know that being enrolled in Mr. Lewis's class gave me a solid foundation to work off of in college. I would have struggled a lot more if I did not take Mr. Lewis's class. Mr. Lewis is a very dedicated teacher who is clearly passionate about Physics. He could work any job in the physics world but chooses to teach because he knows how important it is for future scientists to have an in depth knowledge of physics. I urge the Board to retain Mr. Lewis's position - Physics is a vital science and Mr. Lewis is an excellent teacher. Name: Zachary Wu Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I'm been informed that there are plans to terminate Mr.Lewis' position, and by extension severely limiting the teaching of physics courses at Mira Costa. AP physics is probably one of the hardest classes offered at Mira Costa, but it is by far the most rewarding in preparing students for success in college. Mr. Lewis' teaching style not only makes you master the


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content, but makes each student prepared for the type of learning that will be required of them in the real world. There is no hand holding or babying of students through the course, but rather real learning and growth of the students independence and skillset. Me and many of my friends currently at Berkeley have been able to thrive in the difficult environment here, because we were already prepared for it, in part because of Mr. Lewis' physics class. To eliminate his role, and the class would be an affront to some of the brightest students at costa, and their future success. Name: Yu-Wei Vincent Yeh Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am writing to provide some insight on Mr. Lewis’ physics classes, and explain why I believe physics is critical for those looking to go into STEM professions - the reason why Mr. Lewis’ position should be retained. I graduated in 2018, and was in Mr. Lewis’ honors physics during the 2015-16 school year, and AP physics during the 2016-17 school year. I am currently an Electrical Engineering student at UCLA, and after taking countless physics-heavy college engineering courses, I realized how invaluable my training in AP Physics has equipped me to succeed in my discipline. In my opinion, AP Physics encapsulates the best of critical thinking and mathematics, and I truly believe that it’s an inalienable part of high school STEM curriculum. There is a really steep learning curve going from high school into college, and there were multiple instances where the analytical skills I obtained from AP physics helped me tremendously in tackling problems that I wouldn’t have solved if I wasn’t in Mr. Lewis’ class. As a matter of fact, AP Physics is one of the few AP classes that is on-par with college curriculum in terms of both rigorousness and content, and it is for the students’ benefit that Mr. Lewis’ position is retained. Besides, in the age of technology, especially in electronics, not only has the knowledge of physics become more important than ever, the analytical thinking skill that comes out of it could truly prepare students for challenges that go way beyond schooling. Thank you for your consideration. I hope my comments provided some useful insight on the matter. Name: Corey Shono Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa, class of 2012, and took AP Physics from Jon Lewis my senior year of high school. Mr. Lewis’s class was a launching point for my path into the world of engineering. After graduating high school I earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from UC San Diego, an M.S. in energy systems from Stanford University, and along the way have worked across numerous industries including aerospace, biotech, oceanography, and the electric power sector. At each step on this journey, lessons from AP Physics with Mr. Lewis have bolstered my growth as an engineer trying to decipher the workings of our physical world. On top of its ubiquity as a subject matter across all technical fields, Mr. Lewis’s class taught us to think practically--questioning our solutions and assumptions with common sense and intuition before blindly accepting our findings as truth, presenting data to clearly and accurately communicate trends to an audience, handling uncertainty in lab experiments when applying clean mathematical theories to the messiness of the real, physical world. Nearly a decade since taking AP Physics with Mr. Lewis, I still apply his lessons and approach to understanding the world in work and life. His contributions are vital to Mira Costa’s ability to provide a top-tier stepping stone for students wishing to pursue futures in technical fields, and arguably even more vital to spark the curiosity of students for whom this is the last physics class they will ever take. Making sense of dynamic environments and reducing theory to practice are core to the human experience. Mr. Lewis’s curriculum prepares students for all of the above, and it would be a mistake to deprive future students of these invaluable experiences.


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Name: Torrance Cui Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees This is in regards to Mr. Lewis. I am a 2017 alumni of Mira Costa and took Mr.Lewis’s AP Physics class my senior year. I am currently a senior about to graduate from UCSB majoring in computer science. Having to take 3 physics courses here, I truly believe that taking Jon’s class in high school fully prepared me for these classes and taught me many different skills that I was able to apply to all of my college courses. Without his class, I can say confidently that my college classes would’ve been a lot more difficult. I hope my words help persuade the board’s decision. Thank you. Name: Owen Konsmo Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I found Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class one of the most challenging and worthwhile classes I took at Mira Costa. Mr. Lewis ensures students have a thorough understanding of the material—rather than just knowing how to pass tests or complete assignments, his class teaches students to understand fundamental physics principles on both a qualitative and quantitative level and be able to apply them to real-world scenarios. I distinctly remember being surprised by how confident I felt while taking the AP Exam for Physics, because Mr. Lewis's class had prepared me so well for it. Additionally, AP Physics is a must-have for any students who value preparing for more difficult college science courses. It is the most advanced STEM class at Costa and it would be a grave mistake to cut it. Name: Matthew DuMont Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa High School in the class of 2017, and I took AP Physics with Jon Lewis my senior year. I did not go on to study physics, or science at all in college, but I still rely on the lessons I learned in that class in my everyday life. Mr. Lewis didn’t just teach us how to solve physics problems and memorize equations; he taught us how to make estimates, how to make predictions, and how to think through problems before we approached them with possible solutions. These skills are immensely useful no matter what you go on to study. Moreover, AP Physics should remain a course offering for students who take advanced science classes early in high school and want to continue to challenge themselves their senior year. For those who do study STEM in college, having a head start on Physics is a huge advantage, especially at large, competitive universities. I’m by no means an expert in the complexities of the MBUSD budget, but it’s disheartening to me that cutting teachers and classes appears always to be on the table, especially when our schools display such opulence in other areas, including our new titanic, state-of-the-art sports facility. It just never feels like the dismissal of longtime Costa teachers and the cutting of entire subjects from the curriculum are treated with the gravity such decisions deserve. Surely the money can come from somewhere, whether it be sports or something else. From my perspective, the vast majority of students who leave Costa to attend college look back on their high school years and recall the impact left on them by the teachers and classes who inspired them. Mr. Lewis and his classes are among these inspiring few, and his impact should be prioritized. Name: Savannah Gurrola Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello my name is Savannah Gurrola. I graduated Mira Costa High School in 2017. While attending Mira Costa I had the privilege of being in a class with Mr. Lewis. He was a very caring, funny, and lovable edutainer (education/entertainer). The class was what I found myself looking forward to. Without him I wouldn’t have thought of taking college level Physics but I did. I thank him for my high grade and extensive knowledge as my peers struggled. I know he prepared me


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for University and I’m proud to announce I am graduating California State University, East Bay! Please reconsider as I think of this teacher and many others at Costa often. Name: Mackensie Banchik Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa in 2018 and took AP Physics with Mr. (Jon) Lewis during my senior year. I'm currently a 3rd year Biopsychology major at UCSB preparing to apply to medical schools. I can't imagine where I'd be without Mr. Lewis's class. As a college pre-med, physics is one of the hardest courses we have to take and his preparation put me miles ahead of others. Now preparing for the MCAT, I still utilize some of the frameworks of thinking and physics tips he taught me. Mr. Lewis's class was focused on understanding of underlying principles and application of such principles to broader examples. He would first teach theoretically and work in observable examples of the theory, which helped us gain a core comprehension of the topics taught. He would then challenge us to apply this understanding in problems that incorporated past concepts or applicable phenomena. This is exactly how colleges teach and test learning and mastery of concepts, especially in STEM. Additionally, his class was one I look back on fondly when I think back on the classes I took at Costa; I was always excited to go. The labs are some of my favorite memories of school, and in addition to learning a critical way of thinking for college, I was able to establish friendships with my classmates that have lasted years later. His method of preparation for the AP exam is unmatched, I know that I would never have received a 4 and As in university physics classes without his practice testing system and problem solving review days leading up to the exam. Further, he provided an exciting environment that encouraged hands-on learning, understanding of core concepts, and teamwork/collaboration. This was a rare find in my experience at Mira Costa, honestly. Mr. Lewis went beyond a teacher's role and offered students applicable real-life/career advice as well as companionship and comfort when we needed it. He is a great role model for students, exhibiting kindness, good-will, empathy, and integrity on a daily basis. Mira Costa's quality as a school will be significantly reduced without Mr. Lewis and the Physics classes. The future STEM/pre-health students at MCHS will be greatly disadvantaged without the opportunity to take physics, especially without Mr. Lewis. Name: Natasha Anders Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Natasha Anders. I was in Mr. Jon Lewis’ AP Physics Course for the 2018/2019 school year and am currently a sophomore at UCLA. I am speaking in support of Mr. Lewis’ Physics class and his position at Mira Costa. I took my first of three Physics courses last quarter at UCLA. While many students around me struggled with the content, I felt extremely prepared for the course, receiving high A’s on our labs, homework assignments, midterm, and final. Myself and other students from Mr. Lewis’ physics classes excelled in this course, which gave us the opportunity to receive letters of recommendation from our professor, as he writes them only for students who rank within the top 20% of his course. It turns out a B+ in Mr. Lewis’ class translated to an A+ in my Mechanics and Energy Physics course at UCLA. I cannot thank Mr. Lewis enough for his help in our preparation for higher level university classes — Physics is not only a core science course that is 100% necessary for anyone pursuing science related majors in college, but the critical thinking his class entailed is relevant in all studies. While at UCLA, I have learned that a high percentage of students were required to take Physics in high school, but very few of them had a physics program of Mr. Lewis’ caliber of instruction. Mr. Lewis also assigns a “4 Summers” project to all of his classes in which students present a cost analysis and general plan for what they wish to achieve in their four college summers. I never thought that this project would have such a large impact on my college experience, and I am extremely grateful to have had a teacher a Mira Costa who stressed the importance of future planning. The 4 summers assignment led me to receiving my EMT certification the summer before starting at UCLA, which resulted in me being the only freshman, and one of six to be hired as an EMT for the UCLA on-campus ambulance program in their fall hiring process. In my first quarter at UCLA, I also applied and was accepted to be an Emergency Medical


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Research Associate at Ronald Reagan Medical Center, a highly competitive position I discovered as a result of this project. I know that Mr. Lewis’ class will continue to have a positive impact on my future endeavors, and I know that he has made an impact and inspired every student who has walked through his class. I truly believe that discontinuing his employment at Mira Costa would be a disservice not only to him but to all of the future students whose choice to participate in an amazing program of such high caliber would be taken away. Name: Anders Olsen Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees There is nothing more important than a teacher that is able to reach their students and help them become the best that they possibly can be not just in one class but in all of them. I took AP Physics from Mr. Lewis my junior year in Highschool, I had been doing ok in most of my classes but I wasn't really all that interested in learning everything that I could, after the first week in Mr. Lewis' class I completely changed. He showed us that there were fun ways to learn and that when you put your mind to something absolutely anything is possible. Thought this class I was not only taught physics but life skills as well. the most important life skill he taught in my opinion was work ethic. As when you put your mind to something and make sure that is first in all your thoughts it is amazing what you are able to achieve. Mr. Lewis really changed my life for the better that year making me a better student and person overall and I am confident I would not be where I am today with out this amazing man. If you do not let this amazing man continue teaching here you will be making a huge mistake, depriving the current and future students of Mira Costa the chance for the best education possible not only in physics but in life too. Name: Arturo Bianchi Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Arturo Bianchi, graduation class of 2012 as an exchange student from Italy. Mr Lewis has been fundamental in my exchange experience / professional career. I have to thank him if I was able to pass my Physics classes and graduate from Politecnico di Milano (Best engineered university in Italy). Name: Elizabeth Bundy Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I was in Mr. Lewis’s honors physics class in 2012. When I look back on my time at Mira Costa, I can genuinely say that some of my most valued memories are because of Mr. Lewis. Physics was never my preferred subject. I went on to focus on chemistry, which does require a base understanding of physics. In fact, all sciences require physics. All college majors in sciences, regardless of the subject, require physics courses. Mira Costa would be doing itself and its students a disservice in removing physics classes, which would only hinder the students who want to move forward in the sciences. I received a major and a masters in chemistry, and I could not have done it without physics classes. In high school, I was less in touch with this understanding, and did not prioritize my physics learning. Mr. Lewis took notice of this, and pulled me aside and mentioned to me that he knew I had the capacity to perform better in his class on the subject. It was true, and I knew it at the time. Mr. Lewis has a capacity to connect with the students and encourage them in positive directions. Most importantly, though, is how passionate Mr. Lewis is about giving the students real life experience in physics. He prioritized labs on a regular basis in the confined classroom, and even in excess outside the classroom. The year I was in his course, he saw an opportunity for the class to view an eclipse, and took it. I was hesitant to attend the excursion, and Mr. Lewis went out of his way to encourage me to go. The memories of that trip are still fondly treasured by me, and I am so glad he was able to convince me. After I went away to college, I prioritized dropping back in with Mr. Lewis on my breaks when I went back home. I remember on one visit, he was joyfully describing the new science building, and all the ways he could utilize its construction to design new, engaging labs for his students. Physics is a


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challenging subject, that a lot of students can struggle with (myself included). Mr. Lewis’s passion for the subject, and engagement in the students lives and learning is a unique gift that should not be taken for granted. I know there is capacity to keep Mr. Lewis on board, and the school would be doing itself a disservice to lose him. There is a lot going on in the world that is making things very difficult this last year and for the rest of this upcoming year, but for the benefit of the current and future students, Mr. Lewis, and his courses, should not be lost as a result. The education students receive at Mira Costa is part of the reason Manhattan Beach is in such high demand, and why people are willing to pay the required taxes to keep the school funded. It is because of teachers like Mr. Lewis that keep this demand high. If the priorities are shifted to drop passionate teachers to accommodate funding in other areas, Mira Costa will become a school of nice, expensive buildings, filled with careless teachers, and the families paying for the school will move on. Name: Nicholas Walters Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees During my senior year at MCHS (2015-16), I became interested in physics. Having not taken such a course as a graduation requirement, I was not yet exposed to physics concepts to the extent of those in biology and chemistry. I elected to take Jon Lewis’ 6th period Physics course, and it opened my eyes to a world of fascinating phenomena and the mathematical rigor underlying their investigation. The impact of Mr. Lewis’ animated and engaging teaching was such that I changed my proposed major at the University of California, Santa Cruz to physics as soon as I could. Now, years later, I have graduated with two degrees in physics and mathematics (with honors), and in the fall I am starting my mathematics PhD program at the University of Oregon, with the intent to become a researcher/professor in mathematical physics. If it were not for Mr. Lewis’ fascinating labs and eagerness to share his passion for physics, I likely would not be where I am now. His attention to both mathematical and conceptual insight was crucial in preparing me for college. I sincerely hope that Mr. Lewis can continue having this great impact on future MCHS students, so that they may be guided on a journey of curiosity and determination like I have. Name: Ariel Floro Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa in 2015 and took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis during my senior year. I have since received my bachelor's degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics with a minor in Biomedical Research from UCLA. Over the past year and a half, I've worked in a lab at UCLA in the same department as my degree and will be attending USC in the fall for the Biology of Aging Ph.D. program. While I knew I wouldn't go into physics as a major, the principles that Mr. Lewis taught in his class are ones I used all throughout college, my classes, and even today. The actual academic lectures he taught translated to multiple other classes, such as his requirement for extensive detail when showing work which I then had other TA’s and professors applaud me on. In addition to academics, Mr. Lewis would help us seniors by giving us daily real-world lessons that were of immense value. It was amazing to see that he realized our life wasn’t just going to be equations and homework, but that we had this next step coming up. It was obvious how much he cared and wanted to properly prepare us for it. Once I went to college, I definitely felt prepared for it. I am saddened to hear that the district wants to eliminate Mr. Lewis’ position as I am certain that his class helped me get to where I am at today. Thank you for reading.


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Name: Jason Goussak Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello. I am a graduate of Mira Costa High School, class of 2010. I wanted to reach out in opposition to the proposal eliminate Mr. Lewis at the helm of the physics program at Costa. While I did go to college for a more artistic-focused major, the information I learned in these courses was something I have applied to almost every project I have worked on in my career. When I was a college student working towards a theater design and technology degree, the principles learned in my physics courses in high school were directly applicable; the physics of waves (both for optics and sound), work and energy in relation to pulley systems and weights, and electricity and electromagnetism. Even after college, this information became invaluable; still today, working as a Project Manager for the event and trade show industry, I am constantly using calculations I learned in Mr. Lewis’ physics classes to determine the needs for my events, keeping everyone safe from dangers they may not be aware of. Most event attendees may not think about the amount of heavy machinery rigged over their heads, or potential dangers with overloaded electrical circuits, but these are issues I have to deal with on a daily basis. Mr. Lewis’ knowledge and expertise in teaching these courses was invaluable. He is able to make these classes fun and entertaining while also teaching us in ways that make the information difficult to forget. While courses in physics may not sound like something that is applicable to many future career paths for your students, I promise that the knowledge obtained in these courses will impact more future students’ professions than you may realize. I implore you to reconsider the elimination such a great leader and advocate of this curriculum. Thank you for your time. Name: Jazlyn Seidel Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am a member of the Mira Costa class of 2016 and had the absolute pleasure of taking physics my senior year with Mr. Jon Lewis. I had always been a high-achieving student, but never before had I been challenged to think in the manner encouraged by this course. The ability to reason abstractly and quantitatively is a skill that is not only innate to the field of physics, but is also wholeheartedly practiced and promoted by Mr. Lewis himself. Most teachers would say that they would like their students to be inspired to learn rather than just inspired to have a high GPA, however, few can successfully implement a classroom focus on personal growth as proficiently as Mr. Lewis. His course relied on team collaboration, hands-on experiences, and real-world applications. He was always approachable and dedicated to giving up his breaks to spend time answering students’ questions and running thought experiments. Not only did I learn to think in a more applicable and mature way, but I also came out of his class inspired to continue learning. I actively pursued Biomedical Physics as a potential career and excelled in all of my courses at Northeastern University. I often referred to my notes from Mr. Lewis’ course to help teach my classmates college level physics material due to the very logical and analytical way it was presented in his class. Even now, as I study for the medical college admission test (MCAT) and prepare to apply to medical school, I continue to apply the material and learning strategies I gained in his course. There is no doubt in my mind that my success in higher education is in part due to the skillset and mindset I gained from Mr. Lewis. I truly believe the problem solving and critical thinking abilities I learned will one day make me a stronger physician. Mira Costa High School prides itself on a “tradition of excellence” in which students are provided with the best mentors and resources possible in order to help them succeed. Mr. Lewis is one of the greatest of these mentors, having had a great impact on the education of countless students over the years. He is certainly integral to the “tradition of excellence” at Mira Costa and will undoubtedly continue to inspire students like myself for years to come.


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Name: Priya Chatwani Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hi! My name is Priya, and I graduated Mira Costa in 2016. I took AP Physics C with Mr Lewis, and his class was a really important part of my STEM education. At Stanford, I majored in Computer Science, and thanks to my AP credit, I had to take one rather than two quarters of physics to graduate college. I really appreciated Mr. Lewis's dedication to hands-on and experiential learning, and his class was a valuable part of my Mira Costa education. Name: Lulu Tojo Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees As a 2018 graduate of Mira Costa High School and now a student at UC Berkeley, I have found that Mr. Lewis' CP Physics class was crucial for students, regardless of the major that that they pursued in college. It goes without saying that Physics is extremely important for students who want to pursue STEM majors. As these majors are bigger than ever before, Physics is necessary for students who want to study this field of work. To take this away would put Costa students at a disadvantage going into college. While I am not a Physics major, the ability to take Physics and other liberal arts classes simultaneously and earn a competitive grade ensured that I am a well-rounded candidate for the schools that I applied to. The class not only taught me the basics to Physics, but it strengthened my abilities to quantitatively reason my solutions and problem-solving skills that are important everywhere. Crazy as it sounds, my friends from that class and I find ourselves thinking back on the labs in the class and for the first time, understanding how gravity actually works. Something that sounds so simple, I was never able to fully explain until I took the course, and this was one of many labs that helped us understand very basic Physics. We laugh looking back, but we truly saw a lightbulb over our heads understanding these concepts. If it weren't for the knowledge and instruction offered by Mr. Jon Lewis at Mira Costa High School, students would not be as successful as they are in pursuing STEM majors, as it would mean that college is the first time they are being exposed to the subject matter. I would be ill-equipped in my mathematics to take basic General Education classes at my university, and I wouldn't have had any other competitive electives to take to round out my applications. The low enrollment numbers are easily attainable through more exposure of the class to incoming students and explaining to them the importance of it post-graduation. I believe that for the sake of future students, to better equip them to take higher science courses, and for others like myself, keeping the course and the department taught by Mr. Lewis is imperative to their success. Name: Mason Kidd Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hi, my name is Mason Kidd and I’m from Mira Costa’s Class of 2019. I currently attend NYU and am studying Film and TV at the Tisch School of the Arts. I’m sending this message to advocate on behalf of Mr. Lewis as I took his Honor’s physics class back in 2018 and am shocked to hear that this meeting is to discuss his dismissal from campus. Removing this class is with no uncertainty a mistake and an unequivocal disservice to students. His teaching has sent ripple effects through not only my academic career, but through countless of my friends and through the numerous years he’s been a member at Mira Costa. Even though what I study now is separate from what Jon explicitly teaches, his class provided me with a foundation that other students at other schools were denied. At my university, kids struggle to understand concepts that Jon taught us in the first week. To strip this class from Mira Costa would be to sully the name of the school. Finding and practicing meaningful application of abstract concepts can be the pivotal moment in a young person’s life in deciding whether or not to continue studying a subject. Let’s face it - without Jon’s humor, practical applications, and class altogether, so many of Costa’s students would become disheartened and avoid higher level math. I ask: where’s the motivation to learn calculus, and I don’t mean take AP calculus but genuinely learn it, if there’s no way to understand it


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and see its movement in our daily lives through physics. How do we expect students to retain higher level thinking and problem solving if they do not actively study for something outside of a test? Jon provides this type of environment. It was through him I learned how to use excel, something no other teacher in my academic career at Costa taught despite its prevalence in real world applications and use in fields outside of physics. This is crucial to what I do now as a producer. I budget for productions using excel and build my own equipment using equations Jon taught us. I am better able to understand and expand my worldview because Jon provides his students with the tools to teach themselves. Removing him greatly reduces the capabilities of Costa’s students in college, and more importantly, in life. I strongly request the voters today to reconsider their position. Name: Charlie Winkelman Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I graduated from Mira Costa High School in 2019 and now attend UC Santa Cruz remotely from home. In my senior year at Costa, I took AP Physics with Jon Lewis, and it had a tremendous impact on me. The rigor of the class prepared me for the difficulty of higher education; had I not taken it at Costa I would have ended up with worse grades in college due to lack of preparation. It is also an extremely valuable course in that it teaches concrete applications of abstract mathematical concepts. Taking AP Physics in tandem with AP Calculus gave me a much richer understanding of the material in both classes because they built off of each other. Please do not cut the AP and Honors Physics programs from Mira Costa High School as I believe they are invaluable to Costa students for the reasons mentioned above. I personally benefited greatly from going through the program and know many students that would say the same. Name: Hope Hawkins Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I, Hope Hawkins, graduated from Mira Costa in 2019. I took AP Physics with Jon Lewis during my senior year. I am currently attending UC Berkeley as an intended psychology major. I believe Jon Lewis's physics classes have been ludicrously undervalued. Taking AP Physics with Mr. Lewis was the first time I felt confident in my work in a science course. He is an incredibly engaging and inspiring teacher, and I found my critical thinking skills expand with every lab we did. I am currently pursuing a social science major, and I have found many lessons from his AP Physics course to be extremely helpful for my academic success at UC Berkeley. In addition to the actual course material, Mr. Lewis taught his physics students exam-taking and problem-solving skills. He emphasized the importance of always writing something on an exam, even if that meant just writing down a formula. He taught us to work hard to demonstrate our knowledge in circumstances where other students might give up. I believe I achieved a 4 on the AP physics exam because of this mindset. I have applied this skill during my time in college, and it has helped me become a better student and achieve greater academic success. In addition, Mr. Lewis's AP physics class was the first high school science class I felt confident in. There are multiple STEM and research courses that I have to complete for the Psychology major at UC Berkeley, and I would not have half of the confidence or success that I do now while taking them if it wasn't for that AP Physics class. While I am not majoring in physics, Mr. lewis had a great impact on me and has positively contributed to my current academic success. I hope that Mira Costa High School chooses to continue providing his physics classes, so future students can have a similar experience.


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Name: Cameron Ibrahim Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello, my name is Cameron, I am a graduate of the Mira Costa Class of 2016, and have since gone on to acquire my Bachelors in Computer Science at Cornell University and am working on my PhD at the University of Delaware. I took AP Physics Mechanics with Jon Lewis in my junior year and found it to be both informative and important to my ongoing academic success. My performance in AP Physics and on the AP Physics exam was a significant part of my college application, and was a major factor of my admittance to Cornell. Failing to offer AP Physics would not only put high achieving STEM students at a disadvantage applying to prestigious universities, but it would do a disservice to those students who would miss out on Mr. Lewis' quality teaching. Name: Rhett Rudnicki Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello All, I attended Mira Costa and graduated in 2015. It has come to my attention that the school board is considering defunding Jon Lewis' AP Physics course as part of "budget restrictions". I believe this to be an absolute travesty and feel it would cause extreme harm to the quality of a hard science education available at Mira Costa High. His course performs an absolutely critical role in preparing bright students for the challenge of entry level Physics and Engineering courses at reputable universities and without it, those attempting to continue with study in subjects such as Dynamics and Control theory will be at a severe disadvantage. As a recent graduate of UC Santa Barbara with both a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a MS in Robotics/Control Theory, I feel entirely qualified and comfortable to make such a strong and contentious statement. The courses undertaken by freshman students in both the Physics and Engineering departments at UCSB (I completed coursework in both as part of a major change) were very challenging and resulted in a high failure rate over the first year of instruction. Jon Lewis' AP Physics course provided me with an extremely sound foundation for these subjects when compared to my peers and helped me find success while many around me failed. I strongly urge you to reconsider removing his course from the curriculum as Mira Costa's brightest students will be the ones to suffer the consequences. Name: Nathan Caridad Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees With every year becoming more and more focused on grades, college, and academic performance, there is less focus on actual learning and the world around us. There is far too much competitive nature in American schools, and Mr. Lewis provides classroom settings for both of that. I took his CP Physics course in my Junior Year at Mira Costa High School. I received a C in that class because I did not put in the effort to learn the material as I should have. Despite that, I learned more in that class than any other because of the focus on the process of learning and less on the rote memorization and grade focus. I have heard that his AP Physics classes focus on grades and more than prepares you for the AP exams and college level physics, while still making sure the students actually learn and understand the material to better their intuitive understanding that can carry over to real world applications. The Physics class I took had more interactive and active learning labs than I could count, but ones I still remember today and think back of the concepts I was able to connect. Because we had an entire year to go through the material, Lewis packed much of our time with labs, something that isn’t possible in a semester long college level course. Because I did not take the AP physics exam, I ended up retaking Physics in my time college. A year total of two semester long classes, I did a total of two labs. In Mr. Lewis’s year long class, it was easily over 20 labs where we got to learn by doing and experimenting. And I ended up getting a better grade in those college level courses because of what I remembered from my time in high school.


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From measuring the weight of the Earth, to seeing with our own eyes how electricity and magnets interacted, Lewis made me want to come to class and learn. This is the type of professor you want to keep at any school. Name: Nathan King Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello all! I’m Nathan King, a chemical engineering student at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I was a student in Mr. Lewis’ AP Physics class during the 2019-2020 school year, and I find it concerning that Mr. Lewis might be cut. Mr. (Jon) Lewis is an extremely important component of Mira Costa’s science education and I believe future students would be much less successful in understanding physics, passing the AP tests, and having a good understanding of physics going into college. I am a freshman chemical engineering student, and his class is still paying off for me. He ran his class in rigorous way that prepared me for the fast-paced classes that my engineering school offers. A lot of students here struggle because the professors tend to skip the basics and jump into complicated calculus and differential equations. Mr. Lewis taught us not only how to do the basics, but also why! His class was actually a large part of what made me choose chemical engineering. Although the curriculum was difficult, he made sure we saw how it applied to real life. Did you know spoilers on race cars are to prevent them from flying? He taught me that! Other physics teachers have dull classes where you just go through the motions. I know Mira Costa values promoting STEM subjects. I would say a good 90% of dropouts from my college would cite either boring classes or being unprepared as their reason for leaving. I can guarantee that the number of students taking physics at Costa would drop by at least 10% within the next five years if Mr. Lewis were replaced. Mr. Lewis makes physics interesting and he prepares students for success in STEM majors. I now work as a tutor and use everything he taught me to help younger students (and sometimes my age or older) understand math and physics in the same way Mr. Lewis taught me. I think that losing this learning opportunity for skilled students at Costa as well as his class’ fun environment would be a huge mistake. Mr. Lewis was a better teacher than any college instructor I have had yet (and my classes are in person!). Name: Faith Lyons Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Eliminating its lone physics teacher does not seem consistent with Mira Costa's claims to excellence. Please reconsider your continued employment of Mr. Jon Lewis for this position. He is an excellent teacher and was the reason my daughter Grace majored in Physics at college. I understand that enrolment has been down but this is not unexpected given that the students don't have access to Costa's lab which is so integral to learning this subject. I can't think of any reason why enrollment would not rebound with in-person instruction. Having taken a number of physics classes in high school and college myself, I can tell you that these challenging concepts are difficult to teach. It requires experience and expertise to do so effectively. Science teachers at this advanced level are not fungible. You can't just have a Bio or Chem teacher step into this demanding role. I urge you to continue having Jon Lewis teach Physics at Costa. Name: Emily Jones Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Lewis was my professor four years ago at Mira Costa high school. His class challenged many students, including myself, to pursue a career in STEM. I’m currently graduating from CSU, Chico with my bachelors in civil engineering. Looking back, I don’t believe I’d be nearly as prepared for the college level physics courses without the fundamental concepts Mr. Lewis taught. To this day I still remember calculating the problems on the basics of forces, Newton’s laws of motion, work and energy, linear momentum and collisions, waves, harmonic motion, and so much more. I still remember and refer to his labs and examples from class to better understand more challenging criteria. Those same principals I’ve applied to designing roads, analyze collisions, and understanding complicated force diagrams. His class


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was not easy, but I would argue that Mr. Lewis’s teaching methods were superior compared to many of my college professors. Without him I doubt I’d have accomplished the A’s and B’s I received in all the following physics related courses I took in college. Mr. Lewis’s genuine passion and high level of expectations for his students, truly affected me in a way no other professor could. In short, he inspired me to be who I am today, a future engineer! Name: Noelle Sheldon Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello, my name is Noelle Sheldon and as a person who has greatly benefitted from taking physics with Mr. Lewis, I ask you to reconsider removing this class and position from Mira Costa High School. I graduated from Mira Costa in 2020 and took physics during my junior year with Mr. Lewis. Today I attend UCLA and I believe that taking physics played a role in me getting here and helped inspire me to pursue a STEM major. I was lucky enough to get to take the class in person, and Mr. Lewis genuinely cared about what he was teaching and about each student. The labs, practice AP exams, and group work really helped me learn the material and succeed in the course. I especially enjoyed the labs, as the resources provided by Mr. Lewis made it extremely engaging and hands-on. Physics was always said to be a challenging class, and taking it as a junior was daunting, but I found Mr. Lewis to make it enjoyable and valuable. I truly believe that every student at Mira Costa should have the option to take this class with Mr. Lewis so they can learn physics in an engaging way, gain college credit, and access a new field of study. Taking away physics with Mr. Lewis would leave students with no introduction to this content, and it will be a huge disadvantage to future students. I have found that my knowledge from the course has been useful in my college career and I believe that it will continue to be useful later on. I sincerely hope that future students have this same opportunity. Thank you for reading. Name: Allison Doami Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Regarding the decision to eliminate Mr. Lewis's position due to budget/enrollment reductions: I am a 2015 graduate of MCHS and studied Electrical Engineering at UCLA. From a young age, I knew I wanted to study engineering due to the influence of my parents and engineers I met in elementary and middle school. I was eager to take Honors and AP Physics with Mr. Lewis during my junior and senior year and even talked to him early on in my freshman year because of how excited I was to get more involved in engineering-related activities. Both of these classes were fundamental in my pathway to studying engineering. If it weren't for these higher level courses, I probably would not have had the eagerness to study engineering. All college-level physics classes, regardless of what university you study at, basically require you to have taken a higher level physics class in order to be prepared. Mr. Lewis's weekly labs made learning physics not only easier and more understandable, but also fun because we got to work closely with our lab partners on something hands-on. Mr. Lewis is an essential teacher for all prospective engineering/stem college students, I would be concerned for our future students who don't get the opportunity to take his classes. Name: Barron Regan Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I believe that Mr. Lewis, along with many of the other teachers, should not be laid off as a result of budgeting difficulties. Mr. Lewis is a phenomenal teacher who taught his students a very challenging, unique, and important sets of skills. Advanced physics is necessary for Mira Costa students to learn, and its elimination from Mira Costa would harm Mira Costa's reputation and rankings more than any budget cuts would. Mr. Lewis taught his students the importance of problem-solving and being meticulous. He taught me how to learn in and out of the classroom in ways that few teachers have, and he should not be pushed out of Mira Costa for financial reasons.


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Name: Ella Erich Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Background information: Graduating class: 2020, University attended: University of Colorado at Boulder, Class taken: AP Physics with Jon Lewis. I had the pleasure of taking AP Physics with Mr. Lewis. It was under his guidance and tutelage that I was able to grow as a scholar and be the student I am today. As a teacher, he encouraged me to continue to chase my passions, to remain curious about the world, and always question and explore knowledge if I believed it was false. It was through these lessons I gained in his classroom that propelled me into pursuing a major in aerospace engineering while also having minors in both Spanish and business. Thanks to Mr. Lewis' class and for him pushing me to be the best student possible, I am studying at one of the best aerospace engineering schools in the nation. This physics class showed me what I would see and learn at college and prepared me for my fall semester physics 1 class for engineers. Without the difficult tests, labs, and valuable life lessons, I would not have been able to keep up with my fall semester coursework at the university. It is an absolute shame that his job is in peril for all the positives that he does for the students at Mira Costa. In every class there is the possibility of the next astronaut, the next politician, or public service officer. Taking away Mr. Lewis' job deprives students the ability to explore what truly fascinates them. I implore you to recognize this fact and see all the good that he and this program does for this school. After all, doesn't everyone want to shoot for the stars so they can land on the moon? Thank you for your time today. Name: Audrey Vo Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I have just learned that MBUSD intends to dismiss Mr. Jon Lewis from his position as the only Physics teacher at Mira Costa High School this year. After hearing this recent news, I was very disappointed in even the possibility of this decision being executed. Mr. Lewis's role at Mira Costa as the only Physics teacher is essential for the growth of many students, especially those who plan to pursue STEM careers in the future because it provides a high level foundation on an essential subject. Because the physics classes at Mira Costa have a smaller class size, I understand why it can be argued that this class might not be as necessary to keep from a budget standpoint. However, that does not mean it is not as important as other STEM classes that are offered. When I attended Mira Costa, many students had considered Mr. Lewis’s ‘AP Physics C’ class as one of the most challenging STEM classes at the school. Therefore, it seemed only natural that less people were willing to take on the course load. However, the students who were willing to take this high level class did so because they were interested in the subject and believed it was necessary for their educational growth. None of the students in my physics class, including myself, had decided to join the class because it was considered an “Easy ‘A’”. Not only is offering a high level Physics course at Mira Costa necessary for the student’s growth, but it is also necessary for those applying to STEM schools. I, personally, applied and will be going to a STEM school that requires at least one year of Physics in high school, and know that my school is not only the college to do so. By eliminating a course that is clearly considered to be just as essential by other universities, Mira Costa is sending out a message that they do not fully support and prioritize students whose future career lies within the STEM fields. Mira Costa High School can not claim to be a highly competitive school if they do not offer the most fundamental academic courses. Letting go of teachers responsible for supporting students who have a passion in the math and sciences based on the class’s popularity rather than significance would be a mistake that would affect future aspiring mathematicians, engineers, and scientists to come.


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Name: Michelle King Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees As a parent of two Costa students (classes of 20 and 22), I am alarmed by the continued reduction in academic rigor at Mira Costa. Top STEM programs expect their students to have completed AP Physics. My son, a chemical engineering major, says Mr. Lewis’s course was instrumental in preparing him for his college coursework. Further, successful completion of Mr. Lewis’s course inspired him to continue in STEM. I doubt he would be where he is today - a happy freshman on the dean’s list at a rigorous STEM school - without Mr. Lewis’s excellent preparation. Lack of core AP classes would definitely cause me to consider a different high school for my children. Rather than cut AP Physics due to small class size, we should instead ask why our highly capable students are being steered away from meaty classes like AP Physics. Are we really going to settle for only being known as the high school with the really great gym? Name: Magie Malaro Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Dear Board of Trustees, My son had the privilege of first learning physics under the guidance of Mr.Jon Lewis. His teaching style, experimental design and testing style provided not just an excellent basis for physics but for all problem solving. Mr. Lewis always took the time to respond promptly to questions. He paid attention to deficits each student was facing and provided the students with processes to solve their problems. I saw him do this not just for my son but for several of his friends as well. Alex is currently finishing his sophomore year in college as a Computer Science and Computer Engineering major. I would like to share with you direct quotes from my son when I told him that Mr.Lewis maybe leaving Mira Costa. " Mr.Lewis is the best physics teacher I have ever had" " I learned more from Mr.Lewis than my physic teacher here who won a Nobel Prize" " I am doing as well as I am right now in labs because of Mr.Lewis" Mr.Lewis's guidance extended beyond just physics and the scientific method. I recall an email he sent his students encouraging them to make plans for the summers. He provided them with ideas and Websites to explore to make the most of this very special time in their lives. What more could you want from a teacher than to be able to take a difficult subject matter present in a way that allows different students to grasp the concepts in their own way and walk away from the class not just having learned the material necessary to pass the AP exam but with their own personal road map of how they can teach themselves anything? I urge you not to let go of such a treasure. Name: Brennan Danlasky Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Lewis was an incredible, eye-opening teacher. He not only laid the foundation for my understanding of physics, but taught me critical behaviors as a developing scientist. He engaged us with experiments that practically applied course material. From simple to complex, his experiments still leave an impression. He demonstrated the power of using different scientific models for estimations. We estimated the mass of the Earth from a graduated cylinder of dirt. He made a makeshift hovercraft to demonstrate uniform circular motion. Thinking about these experiments again as a PhD student at Johns Hopkins, I realized how much effort Mr. Lewis put into his work. His enthusiasm, dedication, and experience are irreplaceable. I knew that I would need some physics background for my genetics degree. My year-long undergraduate class at UC Davis was incredibly underwhelming compared to Mr. Lewis’s thought-provoking guidance in his honors physics class. I


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helped several of my struggling peers. Mr. Lewis covered the entire course through his honors class, teaching more effectively than one of the top public universities. I finished each quarter with an A. His lessons reach beyond undergraduate physics courses. I have learned through my personal research experience that it’s important to look at a scientific question from multiple angles. Although my focus is in genetics, I cannot ignore the biophysical component to my research. Mr. Lewis has an unreplicatable teaching style, personality, and view of science. He pushes his students, challenging them to think critically. While I have had some excellent teachers at Mira Costa, he is at the top- my education would be incomplete without him. I was at Mira Costa when they first opened the math and science building; it’s pointless having such a great facility without one of the greatest faculty members. Students need a teacher like Mr. Lewis. Physics is a complicated subject; it simply cannot be experienced through Zoom. The growth that I saw in myself under Mr. Lewis’s mentorship is invaluable. To dismiss him would be to close doors for future STEM students; please consider how many he has already instructed. The impact, or lack thereof, of Mr. Lewis would certainly affect their careers. A school as highly ranked as Mira Costa that does not have an AP/honors physics program surely cannot be good for the school. I strongly suggest that you reconsider removing this remarkable mentor’s position. Brennan Danlasky Mira Costa Valedictorian Class of 2014 Name: Cathy Miao Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Connection: Graduated 2016, took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis, attended Caltech (recently graduated with a CS degree). Taking Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class was an invaluable experience, both in making me interested in physics and preparing me for the STEM (including physics) classes I would go on to take in college. I absolutely believe not having this as an available course Costa would have left myself and many of my peers severely underprepared for college physics courses, which are largely required for most STEM majors. AP/Honors Physics is a fundamental class for students interested in majoring in STEM fields, which is why it would be such an extreme detriment to such students if this position/course were to be removed. I can vouch for Mr. Lewis being a knowledgeable, effective, and impactful teacher, and for AP Physics being one of the best and most enjoyable courses I took while at Mira Costa. Name: Noel Castellanos Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees To Whom It May Concern: My name is Noel Castellanos, and I am a Mira Costa HS graduate--Student of the Year, Class of 2012. I graduated from the University of Southern California with an engineering degree in 2016 and am currently a consultant for Oracle Corporation. I'm writing this memo to defend my former AP Physics instructor, Jon Lewis, from losing his job. I would not be where I am today without him, his lectures, and in-person labs. Mr. Lewis was always giving his time to his students. It never mattered if he was off or on the clock. He helped us form a small robotics team, entered us into a competition, and guided us to winning 1st place in that competition. He did not have to do this. There was no prize money--he didn't gain anything. He did it out of his own heart and love for the work he does. You'd be doing the youth at Mira Costa a tremendous disservice by letting this man go. I advise you to reconsider your decision before it's too late. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Best, Noel Castellanos


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Name: Mark Warnecke Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees During my senior year at MCHS (class of 2017) I took Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class. I am currently 1 month away from graduating from UCSD in Aerospace Engineering. Taking Mr. Lewis's class made the transition to college engineering very pleasant because I had a strong foundation in mechanics and calculus based physics. Many of my colleagues didn't take same physics courses in HS and struggled to keep up early on. Mr. Lewis's class was still relevant in my advanced engineering courses because the more advanced concepts were built up from the fundamentals. The pace of college is much faster, so I am very glad I received a slow and detailed explanation of the fundamentals from Mr. Lewis. I think future MCHS students looking to major in engineering or physics would lose out on a huge advantage without Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class. Name: Ella Pachler Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am a 2018 graduate of Mira Costa High School and am writing this in the hopes that you will reconsider your motion to not re-employ Jon Lewis as the physics instructor at Costa. I took Mr. Lewis’s AP Physics class during my senior year, and am currently in my third year at UCLA studying Bioengineering. My major requires one year of general physics classes, and I can speak from experience as well as on behalf of my peers in STEM-related majors that these classes are some of the most difficult lower-division courses offered at UCLA. The vast majority of students in these classes are not physics majors, and instead are required to take the classes as pre-requisites for their major-specific upper-division courses. The classes are designed to be incredibly (some would say unreasonably) difficult, with the intention of weeding out students who aren’t willing to put in the work required to receive even a passing grade. Most of the UCs are on the quarter system, which means learning a semester’s worth of information in 10 weeks. This accelerated time frame makes learning the already difficult material all the more challenging, and had I not already been exposed to the material in high school, I guarantee that my first year at UCLA would have been significantly more disheartening and miserable. The concepts and problem-solving skills I developed in AP Physics were crucial to my success in my first year of college in a STEM field, and I had a noticeable advantage over other students who were seeing the material for the first time. I as a student in STEM maintain that your choice to remove the high-level physics classes offered at Costa will put students with interests and aspirations in STEM at a significant disadvantage, whether or not it is discernible from your perspective as board members. During my time at Costa, teachers and MBUSD board members repeatedly affirmed and prided themselves on the fact that we are an above-average high school, and that my four years there will more than sufficiently prepare me for the rigors of any university of my choosing. While I have for the most part found this to be true, it would certainly pain me to see the next generation of young STEM enthusiasts potentially dissuaded from pursuing an interesting albeit difficult major due to a bad experience in an entry level physics class. Name: jennifer marer Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Jennifer Marer, and I took AP Physics from Jon Lewis in 2017. While I didn't end up pursuing physics in university, I am still extremely grateful for this class. For our final project, Mr. Lewis encouraged us to explore other disciplines, and I created a STEM blog. Without it, I might have not pursued writing for online publications, which allowed me to begin my journalism career in that same year. Please consider keeping Mr. Lewis; he is an invaluable member of MCHS staff!


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Name: Katelyn Lowry Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I would like to voice my support for Mr. Jon Lewis and his continued employment at Mira Costa High School. I’m a 2020 graduate that took Honors and AP Physics with Mr. Lewis. I am now studying architectural engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Honors Physics was one of the reasons I decided to pursue a career in structural engineering and AP Physics was an extremely important component of my success going into a STEM field. My AP test score allowed me to bypass multiple college classes, which helped me to get ahead in other major courses. In my area of study, a strong foundation in physics is crucial for later success. I felt thoroughly prepared for the rigor and concepts covered in my higher level physics courses thanks to Mr. Lewis’ class. The structure of his class was nearly identical to the physics courses I’ve been taking at Cal Poly. In teaching he emphasized understanding concepts rather than memorization; this approach to learning has helped me tremendously in college. Mr. Lewis uses a systematic approach to help his students gain full understanding which has been nicknamed “the cookbook”. This helped us to learn how to break down complex problems into manageable parts and pushed our critical thinking skills. I have found this technique very effective for studying and I now make similar outlines for many of the concepts I am studying. Both Honors and AP Physics were heavily based in labs, so I do not think that they can be fairly judged under current conditions. Under different circumstances, Mr. Lewis’ courses allowed myself and other students to see and experience physics in action. Thank you for taking the time to read my comment. Name: Jonathan Sklar Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am Jonathan Sklar, a ’17 Costa grad and a former student of Mr. Lewis for AP Physics. In June, I will graduate from Stanford University with dual undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Philosophy. In the fall, I will start in the PhD program in Chemistry at Northwestern University. I heard from Mr. Lewis that his position as AP Physics teacher is at risk of being eliminated. This would be a very unfortunate decision for the students of Mira Costa. Mr. Lewis is an excellent physics teacher, and removing him from his position would deprive students both of valuable preparation for advanced scientific study and of much-needed support in pursuing their personal academic interests. From Mr. Lewis’s AP Physics class (now 5 years ago in my junior year at Costa, how time flies), I still clearly remember the comprehensive nature of Mr. Lewis’s astute instruction, combining theoretical problems and laboratory experiments with practice in applying physics knowledge to domains like thoughtful mathematical estimation. In my own educational and career path, the opportunity to learn college-level physics from Mr. Lewis has been invaluable. I believe that having the opportunity to demonstrate ability in advanced courses like AP Physics was an important factor in my ability to achieve admission to Stanford. Furthermore, once at Stanford, having been prepared for college-level physics in high school has been of great utility, allowing me to pass out of certain chemistry prerequisites. This freed up more time for me to be able to take advanced chemistry courses in preparation for my doctoral studies in Chemistry, and to pursue my second undergraduate degree in Philosophy. Even disregarding these material benefits, Mr. Lewis’s instruction has also been invaluable to me and students like me simply because it has given us the opportunity to explore our deep academic interests, providing great personal benefit. In sum, I would like to reiterate that depriving Mira Costa students of Mr. Lewis’s instruction would be of great disservice to both those students' current academic fulfillment and their future endeavors.


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Name: Yuka Noda Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I had the pleasure of being in Mr. Jon Lewis's Physics Honors and AP Physics during my years at Mira Costa, before graduating in the year 2012. Until March this year, I have attended Keio University as an Environmental Informational Science major. This April, I was hired as an engineer at a multinational conglomerate holding company. In order to work at my current company at my current position, I would have had to have a university degree in informational or computer science. In order to enroll into the university with an informational or a computer science major, I had to pass an entrance exam, which required knowledge of physics. This knowledge of physics was introduced to me in Mr. Jon Lewis’s physics classes. Without his classes, I am not sure if I would be where I am today. From my standpoint, STEM is important, and the decision to not re-employ a teacher who is beyond well versed in the field does not seem like a good decision. Name: Miles Gilliam Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Jon Lewis is an integral and irreplaceable part of the physics curriculum at Mira Costa. I took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis during my time at Costa. I graduated as a valedictorian from Costa in 2015 and went on to major in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Lewis is THE reason I easily received A's in all physics courses and labs at Johns Hopkins. The scientific foundation he provided was unparalleled by any other course I took while at Costa. Many of my peers at Johns Hopkins had taken AP physics from their respective high schools but still struggled with college-level physics. I want to emphasize that it was Mr. Lewis' attention to detail and patience while teaching high-schoolers complicated physics concepts that helped me flourish in rigorous college physics courses. I would recommend to any Costa student planning to pursue a career in any field of science to take a course with Mr. Lewis. He not only prepared me for college level physics, but also made me a better overall scientist. I strongly urge you to keep the best science teacher at Costa. Name: Katherine Stone Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees To whom it may concern: My name is Katherine Stone and I am a Mira Costa graduate (Class of 2020) writing to urge you not to eliminate Jon Lewis’s position as the physics teacher at MCHS. I had the pleasure of taking Mr. Lewis’s AP Physics class my senior year, and it was one of the educational highlights of my high school career. As a teacher, Mr. Lewis has an innate knack for breaking down concepts, utilizing tangible demos, and implementing applicable labs to help students grasp a complex subject necessary for all scientific disciplines. Not only is his class thorough and in-depth, but it also fosters a collaborative environment while challenging students to tackle college-level coursework. As a first-year UCLA undergraduate majoring in Bioengineering, I am constantly reminded of just how valuable Mr. Lewis’s class was and its impact on my education beyond high school. Like most engineering majors, my curriculum requires at least one year of physics to prepare us for upper-division courses that build on those foundational concepts. General physics classes can be rigorous and difficult; however, I’ve actually enjoyed and felt able to succeed in these courses, which I attribute to Mr. Lewis’s class. I entered college with an understanding of the material, and moreover, the right mindset with which to approach physics. If I had not been given the opportunity to have Mr. Lewis as a physics teacher, I would not be equipped to take on these academic challenges. As such, it would be a mistake to deprive future students of that same chance to study with Mr. Lewis, and it would be to their disadvantage if the school board were to eliminate his role. He is an invaluable asset to the Mira Costa STEM department and I implore you to retain his position.


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Name: Dani Wenger Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Hello! My name is Dani Wenger and I am a proud Mira Costa alum (Class of 2015). I took Honors Physics with Mr. John Lewis during my senior year (2014-2015) at Mira Costa. I was deeply saddened to hear about the potential elimination of the course as well as my former teacher. Mr. Lewis's Honors Physics class helped me to gain a great foundational understanding of physics before I began my rigorous pre-med coursework at UCLA. Because of his class, I also learned how to tackle challenging science labs and how to make detailed data graphs using Excel. Mr. Lewis was a phenomenal teacher and really helped me, as well as my other classmates, prepare for the more challenging science courses that we would soon be taking in college. I remember how particular Mr. Lewis was about the margins, axes, titles, and other components of a data graph that he required us to submit for each of our labs. Looking back, I now realize how useful and important it was to have this mastered this skill while in high school, as I was well-prepared for my chemistry, biology, physics, and other difficult science courses at UCLA when my teachers were ALSO very particular about our data graphs. I am currently finishing up my first year of medical school, so I have gone through and survived the challenging pre-med journey, which included doing well in all of the hard core science courses, getting a high score on the MCAT, and eventually applying to med schools. I strongly believe that having taken physics in high school, especially with Mr. Lewis, really helped me to exceed as a pre-med at UCLA. I had a much easier time doing well in my physics courses, which then translated to doing well on the chem & physics section of the MCAT, and also just being prepared for the rigor of college-level science courses. I have now (almost) survived my first year of med school, and I am always grateful to Mira Costa for providing me with a strong science education and sparking my interest in science/medicine in general. I hope that my fond comments of Mr. Lewis and his course can help encourage all of you to keep Mr. Lewis and his course at Mira Costa! Name: Aaron Kissel Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I was a student in the MBUSD for 14 years all the way from Robinson to Mira Costa. Recently, it came to my attention that my home school district was considering removing the AP physics program at Mira Costa due to budget cuts and a lack of interest. These classes are taught by Jon Lewis, an educator who has given years of his life trying to develop critical thinking and mathematical skills in every student. Some of the knowledge learned in his classroom I still use today both in educational and non-educational settings. I am now a pre-med neuroscience major at Bowdoin College where I was able to breeze through introductory physics because of the background I developed in the AP physics program. I also now understand the mechanics of how to avoid slipping on a steep hike and how to most efficiently turn my skis during a slalom race. These skills may seem insignificant, but they give me an extra margin of safety during athletics and an advantage against my opponents. But most importantly, I believe the rigorous material covered in Mr. Lewis’s AP physics class will help to build the study habits necessary to succeed in college, especially during the ultra-competitive time we now experience. I believe any lack of interest in taking AP physics currently has to do with the difficulty of the class, because supposedly every student “needs an A” in every class to get into their dream school. But students and parents should see this class as an asset, because having the ability to think critically and study competently will take any student much farther than an A will. On a different note, Mr. Lewis stands out as one of only a few teachers who spends class time discussing topics that won’t be tested, but are paramount to being successful later in life. I clearly remember him talking about retirement planning, financial markets, and the importance of leaving your comfort zone. He understands that good teaching results in students who are well-rounded, hard-working, and deeply knowledgeable. A teacher like Mr. Lewis is a great asset to the MBUSD, and the AP physics program is integral to training our future engineers, doctors, and mathematicians. For these reasons, I ask that the school board keep the AP physics program and Mr. Lewis. Thank you.


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Name: Erica Wenger Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My sister took Physics with Mr. Lewis and it helped her tremendously as she went on to UCLA for undergrad and ultimately to medical school. Physics is one of the three core sciences and must be provided as an option for the health-focused, advanced students. Mr. Lewis goes above and beyond to create great lab experiments for his students and his teaching and course should continue at Costa. I feel strongly that if my sister hadn’t experienced Mr. Lewis’ course she would’ve had a harder time in undergrad and ultimately medical school. Name: Margot Mel Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I was very surprised to hear that the board would consider eliminating Mr. Lewis's position at Costa. I took his class as a senior in 2016/2017, and am now graduating with a degree in biomedical engineering from USC. AP physics was the course that prepared the me most for my engineering classes in college. I took almost every STEM AP course at Costa, but Mr. Lewis's physics course has played the largest role in my time at USC. AP Physics is a uniquely challenging course at Costa, and a very exciting opportunity for STEM focused students. Having such a strong AP physics program sets Costa apart, and I continued to learn as I interacted with people from different high schools; our physics program, led by Mr. Lewis, makes Costa unique in its range and quality of high level science courses. It would be a huge mistake to eliminate this course and Mr. Lewis's position. His class was the hardest one I took at Costa, but by far the most rewarding. My college experience would not have been the same without the rigorous preparation I got from Mr. Lewis, and I am very grateful for it to this day. The thought of his position being removed saddens me, as it would be an incredible disservice to all current and future Costa students. Mr. Lewis is the kind of teacher that you remember many years later and realize how lucky you are to have had him, his experience is a huge gift to Mira Costa, and it would be wrong to let him go. Name: Cheryl Hoffman MD FSIR RPVI Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Re Mr Johnathan Lewis. Mr Lewis taught Honors Physics to my daughter in 2014-2015. It was a creative and engaging course which was loved by the students. It is hard to make physics fabulous but Mr Lewis gave it his all and did a wonderful job. This foundation provided an interest and a framework for my daughter to pursue a science degree in college and continue on to medical school. Physics is an essential science and should not be eliminated. Physics is required for all science and engineering students and the exposure and development of science studies begins in high school. I implore you to not get rid of essential STEM curriculum. Mr. Lewis contributed to the success of many Mira Costa students who have entered the science fields and he should continue to teach this course for years to come. The students who already love science and the students who discover that they love science in his course deserve this exposure. Name: Cali Sheldon Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Lewis and the AP physics program at Mira Costa are both immensely valuable resources to students at Mira Costa, and I thoroughly believe that AP Physics is the only truly advanced course that Mira Costa offers which feels truly comparable to a college level course. It was in AP physics that I felt like both myself and my peers were able to truly explore our academic potentials, and nearly all of my peers in that class continued on to find academic success by attending great universities across the country. AP physics inspired people to learn and become active participants in


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their education, and it was truly the most valuable course I took over my time at Mira Costa. I do not think that there are any other classes that truly provide the same experience, and it has helped me be successful at UCLA. Mr. Lewis is hard working, passionate, and engaging, and he truly cares about his students. He is a teacher who emphasizes genuine learning over memorizing and working to simply pass a test, and his passion for physics is contagious. It would be a mistake to cut this program, which truly is the only program at Costa that is truly comparable to classes in university, and I sincerely hope that this program continues to be offered to future students so they are able to truly embrace their love of learning. Name: Sean Langley Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees Mr. Lewis's class prepared me more for college-level math and physics than any other class at Mira Costa. Lewis's AP Physics is THE class you want to take in high school if you want to be prepared for college. I would've been completely shocked at my freshman-year mechanics class if Lewis hadn't spent the time to teach us how real physics is done. Not to mention the physics labs, which were immensely helpful when taking lab-based courses in college. The lab-based courses were graded on a curve, so Lewis's labs gave me a leg over the rest of the students in the class and helped me succeed. Name: Arjun Patel Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I am writing as a member of the Mira Costa class of 2016 and 2020 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in support of Jon Lewis with whom I took honors physics in 2014-15. Mr. Lewis is one of the several Costa teachers who have made a lasting impact on me, and one of the few whose course material I still remember 6 years later. Mr. Lewis’s class remains by far the most interesting STEM course I have ever taken. This is due to his teaching style which emphasizes the every day relevance of the subject and his professionalism which prepared myself and my peers for our college courses. Mr. Lewis makes physics interesting and memorable by frequently tying material to relatable topics. His lab instruction and in-person presence are invaluable in engaging students to connect with the material. Thus, his students gain an in-depth understanding of the subject, rather than memorizing formulas to pass tests as is often the case in other STEM courses. Mr. Lewis’s professionalism is another aspect which makes him so great. He the Costa teacher who stands out as most similar to my college professors. His expectations of his students are always fair, and he provides the necessary tools for students to succeed without holding their hands too much. This results in a high-performing classroom environment. Students are prepared for discussions, lectures, and labs due to a high level of understanding of the subject. This mutual respect between Mr. Lewis and his students also leads to an enjoyable course- free time is used for fun discussions about the application of Physics, stories of travels, and funny life advice. Students feel comfortable in his class, are engaged, and come in every day ready to learn. I hope you’ll consider these comments in your decision. 6 years later, Mr. Lewis still impacts me, and in 6 more years that will certainly remain true. Thank you for your time. Name: Gabriel Mel Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees I think it would be a mistake to eliminate Jon Lewis's teaching position at MCHS. He's a fantastic teacher, and I think it would be hard to find someone who is better at this job. Physics is a very difficult subject, and yet with the systematic problem solving framework he teaches (and which he developed), it almost becomes easy. When I was his student I remember being amazed at how well the entire class seemed to be doing, thanks to his system, despite pretty significant differences in background and interest among the students. He is a very effective teacher. He's also one of a small number of teachers I had who clearly loved their subject. That love was contagious, and was part of what inspired me to pursue a technical major.


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If enrollment is the issue, my feeling is that the best solution is to encourage more students to take the class, rather than cut it entirely. AP physics is an extremely valuable class for any student going into a technical major, and knowing this material gives MCHS graduates a significant edge in college. If students aren't enrolling because of its reputation for being hard or for ruining GPAs, this seems like a separate and solvable issue. This is a class worth teaching, and it's hard to think of someone better to teach it than Mr. Lewis. Don't lose this seasoned pro! Gabriel Mel MCHS class of '12 Took AP physics with Jon Lewis USC class of '16 Name: Danielle Major Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Danielle Major, MCHS Class of 2016, University of Pennsylvania Class of 2020. I am writing on behalf of Jon Lewis. I was enrolled in Mr. Lewis's AP Physics class in 2016. As a teacher, Mr. Lewis used a variety of teaching techniques to give his students the best chance to understand the material. Apart from lecturing and homework sets, he went above and beyond to reinforce concepts with in-person labs. Not only did the physical portion of the labs greatly augment my understanding of mechanical physics, the written component taught me how to properly organize my work and develop a process for addressing each problem rather than simply trying to attempting to replicate a formula. Mr. Lewis's class drove me to take a number of physics classes during my time at Penn, and despite the fact that I ended up majoring in International Relations, Economics, and Spanish rather than Physics, his class was absolutely foundational for my development as a critical thinker. I also very grateful that Mr. Lewis took the time to prepare his students for the transition from high school to college, notably by encouraging us to set concrete timelines for broader goals beyond the classroom. To this day, I consider AP Physics one of the most influential classes I took in my overall academic career. It would be a great shame if future students were not given the same opportunity to develop critical thinking skills under strong mentorship. Name: Alexis Johnson Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees My name is Alexis Johnson, and I took Mr. Jon Lewis’s AP Physics course at Mira Costa in 2016. I graduated from Columbia University in 2020. I am writing because especially now, when scientific research guides our largest public policy decisions, it is critical that high-level science courses are taught, and taught with the compassion, curiosity, and rigor that Mr. Lewis fosters inside of his classroom. I am not alone in believing this; studies by the ACT, President Obama’s non-profit “Change the Equation,” the Pew Research Center, the National Science Board, and other educational research institutions cite a high-level physics course as a fundamental component of a high school education, and as absolutely vital to college readiness. Outside of STEM, AP Physics, when taught in engaging, creative environments such as Mr. Lewis’s class, fosters essential logical, comprehension, and mathematical skills that have innumerable interdisciplinary applications. During my time at Columbia University, I applied the logical, algebraic, reading comprehension, and creative skills developed and sharpened in Mr. Lewis’s physics class to subjects ranging from architecture to political science, and from chemistry to philosophy. I’ve witnessed first-hand how pivotal a high-school Physics education has been in preparing my friends and


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peers in college—many of whom are now attending graduate programs at Columbia University, MIT, Yale, and University of Chicago—for the rigor of collegiate-level STEM classes. Physics classes in particular require students to not only understand, but practice scientific investigations, and learn how to connect physical processes with logical arguments, which develops an altogether unique sense of curiosity and respect for scientific inquiry that carries over into other disciplines. In his Physics class, Mr. Lewis employs a wonderfully creative and effective range of methods—from intensive lab experiments to creative writing to creating instructional videos for future students—that keep his students engaged and inspired by his infectious curiosity and optimism. In today’s political climate, when cutting edge science and technology are constantly being thrust into the forefront of the public imagination, it is vital that we foster citizens with a deeply ingrained understanding, and therefore trust, of scientific methodology and investigation. Maintaining a scientifically literate populace is crucial in preserving our economic health, national security, and the health and well-being of our nation. This mandate extends beyond competing with other public and private schools to develop the most college-ready student body; science and technology will continue to intersect with public policy, and you, who have the responsibility to determine which educational opportunities will be afforded to students in our district, must ensure that our students have access to the education that will make them well-informed, compassionate citizens. Name: Alex Malaro Agenda Item: E.2 (Action) Resolution 2021-10: To Not Re-employ Certificated Employees 2019, Honors Physics and AP Physics, Jon Lewis, Pennsylvania State University Shreyer's. I am currently a computer science major and have taken, mechanics, e&m, wave motion, and quantum physics. Through my first 2 courses I wasn't taught any new material, Lewis was able to teach me in more ways than 1 which covered a lot of ground including out of course material. At the end of the year after the AP test instead of wasting time he continued instruction. We went through some E&M topics and solidified a base which allowed me to have an easier time through what i was warned to be one of the hardest classes I'd take in my pre-major undergrad. John Lewis is to date the best physics teacher I've had and I've been instructed by a Nobel Prize winner. If the board comes to the conclusion of letting him go I'd heavily persuade him to look at property in State College, PA. The university would be lucky to have him and you all are lucky to have someone who cares so much about his students now. Don't let him go. Name: Zachary Goldstein Agenda Item: E.4 (Action) Expanded Learning Opportunity Grant Plan I am a former Mira Costa student, graduated in 2018 and took AP Physics with Mr. Lewis my senior year. I feel it is imperative for the board to keep Mr. Lewis as a Physics teacher. As a Chemistry major at UCSB I know first hand how many people struggle with the general physics pre-req courses. However after learning from Mr. Lewis I found myself excelling in physics courses with ease. Furthermore I can't name how many times I've bragged about the 5 he helped me get on a difficult AP test long with well over half my class. Above all that though Mr. Lewis goes a step further to really try to enhance his students life. During one of his classes a drug dog barked at my bag and although I wasn't in trouble with the school, he asked to talk to me after class that week. He connected to me on a personal level and made sure I knew the dangers and repercussions of anything I could get myself into. I honestly look back on that conversation frequently and it has helped guide me through a college like UCSB. I can name dozens of teachers at Mira Costa that deserve the pink slip more than Mr. Lewis so please reconsider your decision, thank you.

PUBLIC COMMENT – May 5, 2021 (submitted prior to 12 pm ...

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