Jerabek Elementary School
Our History
Welcome to Jerabek Elementary School, a California Gold Ribbon School! Our school opened in 1978. Jerabek Elementary began with eight teachers in September of that year. By January, there were 12 and the number kept growing. There were about 35 teachers by the third year of the school’s existence.
Who we are
Jerabek Elementary is a neighborhood school located in the eastern section of Scripps Ranch. We serve some 720 students from Universal Transitional Kindergarten through grade 5 and a private preschool program that includes an additional 12 to 24 students. As a result of a stellar educational program our students perform well above district and state averages on standardized tests. Our mission is to provide an exceptional educational experience in a positive, respectful school culture that nurtures the progress and development of the whole child in an environment that is focused on the needs of our students. The foundation for this successful endeavor is the building of essential behaviors that lead to academic success. These critical learning behaviors include: resilience, responsibility, respect, caring, fairness, and trustworthiness along with the Twenty-First Century Skills of critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. We strive to create leadership within our classrooms, by empowering our students to develop and implement the 7 leadership habits from Leader In Me: Be Proactive, Begin With the End In Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win Win, Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, Synergize and Sharpen the Saw. Our goal is to enable greatness in each of our students, so that they will then turn and share their greatness with the global community.
Our vision is to educate students in an environment of high expectations and develop the demand for personal responsibility for one’s path in learning. Students are immersed in Common Core-based instruction in order to prepare them for college and career readiness. Our students are provided with a well-rounded education which also includes the incorporation of technology, the arts, and music education. Jerabek students excel in the areas of mathematics and science as instruction and activities are designed to enable students to demonstrate their depth and breadth of knowledge in a variety of ways, show understanding of important information, and represent their learning computationally, conceptually, linguistically, and non-linguistically.
Jerabek Elementary has been recognized as a California Distinguished School in 2018 and 2020, as well as by the California Business for Education Excellence Honor Roll in the school year 2018, 2019 and 2020. The stability of Jerabek’s school culture and the Administration and staff’s relentless insistence for a positive, respectful environment has led Jerabek to newfound levels of achievement.
Our school is special because of our supportive and involved parents, our students who come to school eager to learn, and our compassionate faculty who are devoted to the success of our students and to continually improving instruction so that we remain at the forefront of educational innovation. In addition, our teachers collaborate, support each other, and value the opportunity to learn from each other. EBS students, parents, teachers and community members work as a team to achieve our goal: academic, social and emotional success for every student.
Awards
At the start of 2023-2024, Jerabek was named #33 Best Elementary School in California by U.S. News and World Report. U.S. News analyzed 103,099 pre-K, elementary and middle schools. For each state, schools were assessed on their shares of students who were proficient or above proficient in their mathematics and reading/language arts state assessments. Half of the formula assessed the scores themselves and the other half incorporated the test results in the context of socioeconomic demographics. In other words, the top-ranked schools are all high-achieving and have succeeded at educating all their students.
U.S. News and World Report shares that "great elementary and middle schools educate their students from all socioeconomic backgrounds with the goal of setting them up for success. In turn, their students develop the core competencies in state curricula to best prepare them for high school."
In 2018 and 2023 Jerabek was named a California Gold Ribbon School by State Superintendent of Public Instruction. This award recognizes California schools that have made exceptional gains in implementing the academic content and performance standards adopted by the State Board of Education for all students, including English Learners.
"These schools shine as bright beacons for others, putting forth an exemplary effort to ensure that every student is ready for 21st century college and careers," Torlakson said. "California teachers are developing an education model for the nation, training the students of today to be the problem-solvers, inventors, and pioneers of tomorrow."
We were also designated a 2018 and 2020 California Distinguished School in recognition of high student achievement. Our commitment to teacher collaboration and departmentalization in the upper grades were spotlighted as two of our many signature practices. It is because we set high standards for our students and ourselves that we can enjoy such great success!
Our focus on excellence in teaching and learning, though key to our performance, is not the only factor when reflecting on our amazing school. Site staff, parents, community members, and volunteers work together to ensure the success of every student.