By Mayrene Bates

The best part of being a school board trustee is visiting as many schools and programs as possible throughout the year.

Long before I became a school board trustee, I followed the Vanden High School Academic Decathlon team and their outstanding coach, David Kenyon. Vanden has been a top decathlon winner for approximately 13 years. Academic Decathlon programs in Solano County, in contrast to some of the award-winning ones out of Southern California, run on very limited budgets. It’s probably why not all of our high schools participate in the program.

It’s really a year-round endeavor, as Kenyon and the Vanden team well know, if you expect to be competitive with other counties throughout the state. The regional competition for our area occurs in late January in Fairfield, and the state competition in March in Sacramento. I know for sure that Kenyon has already planned some summer study sessions.

via Vanden decathletes share how program changes lives Daily Republic.