Migrant children see themselves in California Mini-Corps teachers – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

In Abilene Martinez, a teaching assistant in Markham Elementary teacher Jose Bermudez’s classroom, a group of middle school-aged migrant students in Vacaville Unified’s summer Migrant Education program see themselves.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Martinez, 25, is the daughter of a migrant worker, Enedina Hernandez, who picks fruit and harvests vegetables on vast Central Valley farms.

A recent graduate of California State University, Sacramento, Martinez, during her weekdays at Markham in June, worked as a member of the California Mini-Corps.

 

Source: Migrant children see themselves in California Mini-Corps teachers

Scholarship available to county ag majors – The Reporter

The Julia I. Carrington Foundation continues to offer multiple $10,000 scholarships to Solano County graduates who maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 and higher.

Applicants must be undergraduates and majoring in an agricultural field while attending college at either the University of California, Davis or California Polytechnic State University. Consideration is given first to students who have resided in Solano County for at least two years, and where a member of their family derives their living from farming or other agricultural means.

Each scholarship can be applied for on an annual basis up to four years. Scholarships shall be issued for a minimum of $10,000, or a larger amount determined by the Foundation Trustees.

Source: Scholarship available to county ag majors

Hello, Jr. Olympics: Middle school cross country wasn’t enough for Simon Stubbert – Daily Republic

By Marcus Lomtong

It’s a Monday and as the middle-of-summer heat rises, Simon Stubbert, 13, plays Destiny – a video game for Playstation consoles.

But unlike the rhetoric of a child playing video games all Summer would suggest, Stubbert has been ordered to play video games and do nothing athletic until Friday.

Source: Hello, Jr. Olympics: Middle school cross country wasn’t enough for Simon Stubbert

Schools See Less Crime, Fewer Students Feel Unsafe, Federal Data Show – Education Week

By Evie Blad

Counter to popular narratives, American schools may actually be getting safer.

Reports of student victimization at school continue to decline, and students’ reports of fear of harm at school also keep falling, data released today show.

Between 1992 and 2014, the total victimization rate at school fell from 181 victimizations per 1,000 students in 1992 to 33 victimizations per 1,000 students in 2014, according to the most recent federal data. Those victimizations include incidents such as theft, assault, robbery, and sexual assault.

The data come from an annual report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, which is produced jointly by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Source: Schools See Less Crime, Fewer Students Feel Unsafe, Federal Data Show – Rules for Engagement – Education Week

As deadline looms, California struggles to finalize new school accountability system | EdSource

By Louis Freedberg

California is on the verge of finalizing what leading educators believe is the most ambitious attempt in the nation to use multiple dimensions to measure how well – or poorly – a school or district is doing, rather than focusing primarily on test scores.

“All across the country people are paying attention to what California is doing,” Linda Darling-Hammond, the president of the Learning Policy Institute, said at a recent California School Boards Association conference.

The deadline for approving the plan is barely two months away, as required by a state law championed by Gov. Jerry Brown that implemented the Local Control Funding Formula, which reformed both the way schools are funded and how progress will be measured.

The state’s goal has been to come up with a system that will require schools and districts to measure how they are doing on eight “priority areas“ ranging from test scores to less definable measures such as school climate.

Source: As deadline looms, California struggles to finalize new school accountability system | EdSource

Benicia Unified to hold candidate meeting – Times Herald

By John Glidden

The Benicia Unified School District will hold a perspective candidate information meeting at 6 p.m., Aug. 4 in the district office board room, 350 East K St.

Three seats are open on the board in November. Two will be full four-year term seats, while a third is a two-year seat.

BUSD Trustee Stacy Holguin officially became a candidate on Tuesday, according to the Solano County Registrar of Voters. Holguin is seeking one of the full four-year seats this fall. She was appointed in January to replace Rosie Switzer, who died suddenly in November 2015. The two-year seat will complete Switzer’s term.

Source: Benicia Unified to hold candidate meeting

Two more Vallejoans take out candidacy paperwork – Times Herald

By John Glidden

The second week of the fall’s candidate nomination period opened with two more Vallejo residents taking out paperwork.

Guillermina “Mina” Diaz, and Vernon Williams III picked up candidacy papers on Monday, as both seek a seat on the Vallejo City Council, according to the city clerk.

Diaz is founder of Diaz and Loera Centro Latino, a service organization which primarily serves the Latino community in areas of social awareness, community responsibility, and advocacy.

While Williams currently serves as president and chief executive officer of The Williams Group and Associates, “a consulting firm which specializes in the re-entry of prison inmates into society and the mentoring of teenagers and young adults,” according to his campaign.

Source: Two more Vallejoans take out candidacy paperwork

Travis Unified leaders convene budget workshop tonight – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Travis Unified leaders today will lead a workshop about the Fairfield district’s 2016-17 budget.

Superintendent Kate Wren Gavlak, the five-member governing board and Jamie Metcalf, the district’s newly hired chief business officer, will discuss the recently approved $54.5 million budget, which has $1.7 million in deficit spending and an ending balance of $3.4 million. No action will be taken during the meeting.

In a June 14 presentation, Metcalf advised trustees to prepare for slower growth, which, in the coming years, likely will mean hiring freezes.

Source: Travis Unified leaders convene budget workshop tonight

3 seek school district seat Marianno has held – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

At least three candidates will seek the Fairfield-Suisun School District trustee seat held by Kathleen Marianno, who is not seeking re-election Nov. 8 – and incumbent Trustee John Silva faces a challenge by a Solano College communications professor.

Spencer Marks, Bethany Smith and Michael Wright are running for the Trustee Area 1 seat Marianno has represented. Solano College professor Ana Petero seeks the Trustee Area 6 seat held by Silva, who is seeking re-election.

Source: 3 seek school district seat Marianno has held

$400-a-month school board post proves popular in Fairfield-Suisun City – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

The first thing you’ll be asked, Pam Shamansky said of Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees visiting schools, is how much money you make.

The $400-a-month trustees are paid hasn’t discouraged four people from running Nov. 8 for seats on the school board – and they, along with several more who may run, attended a Tuesday special board meeting led by Shamansky about the job they seek.

Among the advice to candidates: Read what’s in the packet that’s part of school board meetings, follow the Brown Act and understand trustees work collectively.

Source: $400-a-month school board post proves popular in Fairfield-Suisun City

Building Students’ Cognitive Flexibility | Edutopia

By Judy Willis MD

In today’s world, the skillsets of cognitive flexibility are more critical and valuable than ever before. These skillsets include:

  • Open-minded evaluation of different opinions, perspectives, and points of view
  • Willingness to risk mistakes
  • Consideration of multiple ways to solve problems
  • Engagement in learning, discovery, and problem solving with innovative creativity

My previous posts in this series described strategies to build students’ executive functions of organization, prioritizing, judgment, and critical analysis. In this post, I’ll suggest ways to activate your students’ developing neural networks of skillsets for cognitive flexibility. Students with these skillsets will be prepared to achieve their highest potentials for cognitive flexibility and the creative cognition to embrace the as-yet-unknown opportunities awaiting them in the 21st century.

Source: Building Students’ Cognitive Flexibility | Edutopia

Peabody Road to reopen on time – The Reporter

By Jessica Rogness

Peabody Road will reopen next month as planned.

The new Peabody overpass, part of the Fairfield-Vacaville Train Station Project, will be opened Aug. 4, 10 days ahead of a previously announced opening date.

Crews are beating a critical milestone of Aug. 14 to reopen the road after it has been closed for 14 months since June 2015.

“Making that milestone was absolutely critical,” said Ryan Panganiban, Fairfield associate civil engineer.

A grand re-opening ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Aug. 4. near the corner of Peabody and Vanden roads.

“We will be opening the road that night,” Panganiban said.

 

Source: Peabody Road to reopen on time

Travis schools enrollment packets available – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

The Travis School District will distribute registration packets for K-12 students from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday at the Travis Education Center, 2775 De Ronde Drive.

Staff will be available to answer questions and parents may be required to fill out additional paperwork upon enrolling their children. Packets will not be accepted during this event.

Source: Travis schools enrollment packets available

Buck Foundation shifts $325,000 to Solano Community Foundation – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

The Frank H. and Eva B. Buck Foundation has given $325,000 to be used for education grants by the Solano Community Foundation.

The grants will be available to nonprofits that provide such services as after-school and summer learning programs, the Solano Community Foundation reported Thursday.

Money will be disbursed through the Education Plus! Grant Fund.

Source: Buck Foundation shifts $325,000 to Solano Community Foundation

Torlakson Speaks at Safe Schools Conference – Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

California continues to make sure students, teachers and staff will be safe and secure at school, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced at the 7th Annual “Safe Schools Conference” in Garden Grove.

Torlakson kicked off the conference, which brings together nearly 900 school administrators, counselors, child welfare and attendance personnel, safe schools coordinators, law enforcement, probation officials, mental health and social workers, and school psychologists.

“We need to heal as a nation. We need to come together,” Torlakson said. “Our schools can lead the way. Every day on campuses all across this great state, teachers, law enforcement, student, parents, and community members work together and show how we can build trust and confidence in each other and promote safety. “

Source: Torlakson Speaks at Safe Schools Conference – Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Hyland Teen Center to offer fun throughout summer – Benicia Herald

By Nick Sestanovich

Summer is in full swing, and despite the freedom that teens feel it can be quite easy for them to get bored. This is one way the Hyland Teen Center can help.

The Hyland Teen Center, located behind Gateway Church on Military West, was established in January by Barbara Gervase, whose son Kyle Hyland had died by suicide in 2014. Shortly afterwards, Gervase founded the nonprofit Kyle Hyland Foundation for Teen Support to promote statistics of teen suicides and provide support for youth struggling with depression and anxiety issues. One of the main goals had been to establish a teen center in Benicia for teens ages 13 to 19 to hang out, decompress and receive emotional support from peers and counselors if needed.

The center had its grand opening in January and has continued to operate throughout the summer. The season, however, will bring new changes to the center.

Source: Hyland Teen Center to offer fun throughout summer

Vallejo residents take out candidacy papers – Times Herald

By John Glidden

Local residents took full advantage of the candidate nomination period’s first two days to pull election papers.

According to information supplied by the Vallejo City Clerk, current Councilman Bob Sampayan and business owner Randy Golovich pulled mayoral candidacy paperwork Monday.

Kyler Thompson, and Joseph Mickelson took out mayoral paperwork on Tuesday.

Former Vallejo City Councilman Hermie Sunga, and current Councilwoman Rozzana Verder-Aliga have picked up city council paperwork, as well.

Four city council seats, including the mayor position, are open this November.

Source: Vallejo residents take out candidacy papers

Solano Community College leaders break ground on new biotech, science building – Times Herald

By Richard Bammer

In American education circles, Solano Community College’s biotech manufacturing program has made a name for itself, and, a year from today, the school will open a new building in Vacaville dedicated, in part, to the pursuit of a four-year degree in the academic field.

Ready for the cameras, shovels in hand, college leaders and elected officials Wednesday spaded some earth during a groundbreaking ceremony for a 32,000-square-foot biotechnology and science building at the school’s Vacaville Center on North Village Parkway.

Source:  Solano Community College leaders, elected officials break ground on new biotech, science building – Times Herald

Area school board candidates begin to file election papers – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

The local election season is underway for incumbents, challengers and others who want to serve on central and eastern Solano County school boards.

Candidates seeking four- and two-year terms have begun to file documents to place their names on the Nov. 8 ballot, said John Gardner, the assistant at the Solano County Registrar of Voters.

In Vacaville Unified, where five of seven seats are up for grabs, incumbent trustee Michael Kitzes, manager of the Vacaville Children’s Mental Health Clinic for Solano County and the longest-serving governing board member, turned in on Monday his notice that he will seek re-election.

In a Wednesday text message to The Reporter, trustee Nolan Sullivan, a manager with Yolo County, wrote that he was “still deciding” whether to run for re-election.

 

Source: Area school board candidates begin to file election papers

Summer and after-school programs can promote social and emotional learning | EdSource

By Jennifer Peck and David Plank

When we think of school we too often picture rows of students sitting quietly at their desks, listening to the teacher or reading a textbook. This familiar image of a quiet classroom and docile students is and should be increasingly outdated. The state’s new Common Core and Next Generation science standards require teachers to teach and students to learn in more dynamic ways. They raise the bar for subject-matter knowledge in English, math and science.

These standards also aim to ensure that students engage in deeper learning by focusing on what are sometimes called “the four C’s:” communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. These are skills that are essential for success in today’s job market that cannot be nurtured if students are sitting quietly in rows in the classroom.

California’s new Common Core standards and a growing body of research are driving increased interest in social-emotional learning as an essential component of student success. Without skills like the ability to manage stress, to empathize with people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and to engage successfully in the small-group work required for deeper learning, students cannot be successful. And, unless educators work actively to help students develop these skills, schools will not be able to deliver on the broader set of Local Control Funding Formula priorities that the state has adopted, promoting positive and productive school climates.

Source: Summer and after-school programs can promote social and emotional learning | EdSource