Head of school News
God is on the Move!
God is on the move at CCCS! I am so excited by the education that I see happening at Contra Costa Christian School, and as I have connected with members of the community, what lights up the discussion more than anything is when we start talking about the future of CCCS. This lights me up as well!
People love being a part of organizations that are on a positive trajectory…where they seem to be going somewhere…where there is progress that is evident.
Someone that I trust recently asked me, "Julius - why did you really decide to move here?" And there are lots of reasons that all come together in answering this question…but here’s the main one that I keep coming back to: CCCS is on the cusp of an amazing future! The last few years have certainly been challenging for the school as we’ve navigated some tough things, but the board and the leadership have turned the corner towards the future again - and it's truly a joy for me to move into a leadership position that can help shape this future. My desire and Deep Hope is to engage the entire community in this excitement so that we have shared vision that we are all excited and passionate about. God is on the move at CCCS!
Why am I so hopeful? What are proof points?
It's all about the people!
Staff: You probably saw our Deep Hopes artifact that I wrote about last time (see the 8/30/24 tab). Our staff have a huge desire to serve our families well and engage your kids in a biblical God-fearing way as they help prepare them for this world. Our staff are courageous, they are nurturing, they are fun and engaging, and they love Jesus! They are people that you love and trust to partner with in educating our children.
Students: your kids are truly wonderful - all 338 of them! They bear God’s image, and they are the reason our staff get up in the morning. They are what drive us to educate distinctly Christianly, and they are the reason we strive to bring our very best - every day.
Board of Directors: Our board is also serving you well. They are in the ‘crows nest’ of our ship steering us towards the future. Next week they will engage in a Board Retreat (yes they are volunteering an all day Saturday on behalf of all of us!) that will focus on being good board members as well as charting a course (otherwise known as a strategic plan) for our future.
Coffee Talk: speaking of the strategic plan - pay attention to the announcement regarding ‘Coffee Talk’’. My hope is to engage those who are interested in the actual strategic plan of the school during this meeting and in future ones. It will be hot off the proverbial presses from the upcoming board retreat. If this future oriented posture is something that resonates with you…I encourage you to sign up for one of these events. The first one is coming on Oct 1st.
I look forward to leaning into our future together. God is on the move at CCCS!
Thanks for your trust and partnership.
In Him,
Julius Siebenga
Head of School
God is on the move at CCCS! I am so excited by the education that I see happening at Contra Costa Christian School, and as I have connected with members of the community, what lights up the discussion more than anything is when we start talking about the future of CCCS. This lights me up as well!
People love being a part of organizations that are on a positive trajectory…where they seem to be going somewhere…where there is progress that is evident.
Someone that I trust recently asked me, "Julius - why did you really decide to move here?" And there are lots of reasons that all come together in answering this question…but here’s the main one that I keep coming back to: CCCS is on the cusp of an amazing future! The last few years have certainly been challenging for the school as we’ve navigated some tough things, but the board and the leadership have turned the corner towards the future again - and it's truly a joy for me to move into a leadership position that can help shape this future. My desire and Deep Hope is to engage the entire community in this excitement so that we have shared vision that we are all excited and passionate about. God is on the move at CCCS!
Why am I so hopeful? What are proof points?
It's all about the people!
Staff: You probably saw our Deep Hopes artifact that I wrote about last time (see the 8/30/24 tab). Our staff have a huge desire to serve our families well and engage your kids in a biblical God-fearing way as they help prepare them for this world. Our staff are courageous, they are nurturing, they are fun and engaging, and they love Jesus! They are people that you love and trust to partner with in educating our children.
Students: your kids are truly wonderful - all 338 of them! They bear God’s image, and they are the reason our staff get up in the morning. They are what drive us to educate distinctly Christianly, and they are the reason we strive to bring our very best - every day.
Board of Directors: Our board is also serving you well. They are in the ‘crows nest’ of our ship steering us towards the future. Next week they will engage in a Board Retreat (yes they are volunteering an all day Saturday on behalf of all of us!) that will focus on being good board members as well as charting a course (otherwise known as a strategic plan) for our future.
Coffee Talk: speaking of the strategic plan - pay attention to the announcement regarding ‘Coffee Talk’’. My hope is to engage those who are interested in the actual strategic plan of the school during this meeting and in future ones. It will be hot off the proverbial presses from the upcoming board retreat. If this future oriented posture is something that resonates with you…I encourage you to sign up for one of these events. The first one is coming on Oct 1st.
I look forward to leaning into our future together. God is on the move at CCCS!
Thanks for your trust and partnership.
In Him,
Julius Siebenga
Head of School
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Deep Hopes
Once again, I need to say how grateful I am to be a part of this community! The Back to School Night (along with many other exciting things this week 🙂), reiterated this for me yet again. It has been well documented that our school wide theme for the year is HOPE, which comes from Romans 15:13. A part of our start up with staff members prior to the school year was for every staff member to spend some time reflecting on what they were hoping for for the year - and we participated in an exercise that finished with the creation of an artifact that we wanted to share with our community. This artifact has become known as the ‘2024-2025 Staff Deep Hopes’. You will have to come visit me in my office to see it first hand - but I am sharing a picture here as well. Some staff chose to add their names and others preferred to leave it anonymous - but in reading it and re-reading it many times, I am reminded of the amazing staff we have here at CCCS. They have some deep hopes for your children and because we believe in an amazing Savior that provides our ultimate Hope - it's our combined hope and prayer that these Deep Hopes come to fruition. Please be sure to stop by and check out these Deep Hopes (we will also post the artifact on our social media soon) on campus - reading them altogether is a powerful witness for who you get to drop your children off with every day. Speaking of Social Media - be sure to choose your favorite theme song choice for the year … we are encouraging all CCCS community members to place their vote so that we have a theme song for the year - chosen by our community. This then can be something that our kids can sing together and unite us as a community (kids singing to our Lord just does that!). If you don’t like which song is winning, feel free to campaign to others (sharing, tagging etc) 😀 … deadline is quickly approaching. Thanks for your partnership! In His Hope, Julius Siebenga Head of School |
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Greetings CCCS Family!
I am writing this on the first day of school and I just want to say thank you to so many of you for introducing yourselves to me and welcoming me to the community. What a wonderful community! I am so excited to partner with all of you!
As you know we launched the theme of Hope as our main theme for this year and we decided to use the passage of Romans 15:13 as our guiding verse:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
There are many new and exciting things that God has in store for this year and I can’t wait to unpack them with you. One of them is how we are reinstituting our Parent Group (PG) this year, which will be a combination of what we launched last year (PTO) and what we have always done around here which is (PG). Kara Johnston will be heading all of this up as our new Marketing Manager and she has already been full speed ahead with many of you. If she hasn't reached out to you yet … she will soon!
Another item that will be new is that I will be hosting some live (and recorded) gatherings for parents who are interested in knowing more about the future of the school. It will be rolled out in the next few weeks - so be watching for it - but it essentially will be an opportunity for you to hear from me as Head of School about where we want to go as a school and what type of education you can expect for your children - it will also be a place where you can ask questions about the direction etc.. I am still trying to think of what to call it, so if you have any ideas (Coffee with the HOS?, Preparing the Next Generation?, Julius and Friends …?) feel free to shoot me an email or flag me down - would love to crowdsource the name.
On behalf of the staff, faculty and board, I trust that your child/ren are being well nurtured and deeply engaged in meaningful learning as we start up the year. I look forward to our partnership going forward.
Julius Siebenga
Head of School
I am writing this on the first day of school and I just want to say thank you to so many of you for introducing yourselves to me and welcoming me to the community. What a wonderful community! I am so excited to partner with all of you!
As you know we launched the theme of Hope as our main theme for this year and we decided to use the passage of Romans 15:13 as our guiding verse:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
There are many new and exciting things that God has in store for this year and I can’t wait to unpack them with you. One of them is how we are reinstituting our Parent Group (PG) this year, which will be a combination of what we launched last year (PTO) and what we have always done around here which is (PG). Kara Johnston will be heading all of this up as our new Marketing Manager and she has already been full speed ahead with many of you. If she hasn't reached out to you yet … she will soon!
Another item that will be new is that I will be hosting some live (and recorded) gatherings for parents who are interested in knowing more about the future of the school. It will be rolled out in the next few weeks - so be watching for it - but it essentially will be an opportunity for you to hear from me as Head of School about where we want to go as a school and what type of education you can expect for your children - it will also be a place where you can ask questions about the direction etc.. I am still trying to think of what to call it, so if you have any ideas (Coffee with the HOS?, Preparing the Next Generation?, Julius and Friends …?) feel free to shoot me an email or flag me down - would love to crowdsource the name.
On behalf of the staff, faculty and board, I trust that your child/ren are being well nurtured and deeply engaged in meaningful learning as we start up the year. I look forward to our partnership going forward.
Julius Siebenga
Head of School