Retired Vallejo teacher seeking election to school board – Times Herald

By John Glidden

Vallejo native Bob Lawson believes the community has lost faith in the Vallejo City Unified School District.

Lawson hopes to restore that faith as a member of the Vallejo school board. Lawson, who taught at Vallejo High School from 1986 to 2009, announced his intention to seek a seat on the board this fall. He outlined several reasons why he is seeking the seat.

“The superintendent is ultimately responsible for the public’s perception of the district. Instead, she has attempted to scapegoat teachers, staff, and everyone else, including the Solano County Grand Jury, for the problems,” Lawson wrote in a news release announcing his campaign. “A change is needed. In sports, when the team is not doing well, you fire the manager, not the players.”

Source: Retired Vallejo teacher seeking election to school board

Nonprofit offers mini grants to support education of employees, board – The Reporter

Solano Community Foundation (SCF) is announcing a grant-making component to its Nonprofit Partnership Program (NPP).

The organization has begun accepting applications for “Nonprofit Professional Development” mini-grants to benefit Nonprofit Partnership Program members. These grants will help members that need financial support to pursue education and training opportunities that will help their organizations grow.

“The Foundation is thrilled to be able to offer this funding opportunity. It’s something we’ve always wanted to provide the nonprofit community, but never had the resources to do so until now,” said Connie Harris, SCF’s CEO, said in a prepared statement.

Source: Nonprofit offers mini grants to support education of employees, board – The Reporter

 

Video announces Peabody Road reopening date – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

A video posted on the city of Fairfield’s Facebook page says Peabody Road will be reopened at 6 p.m. Aug. 4.The video features Ryan Panganiban, a project engineer from the city, inviting people to come by and thanking motorists for their patience during the project.

Source: Video announces Peabody Road reopening date

In Dixon Unified, a harvest of hope in migrant education – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

The clock’s second hand sweeps past 1:15 p.m. at the Dixon Migrant Child Development Center, and it is quiet in the aging, beige-colored, single-story school with an adjacent portable classroom. The youngest of the 95 Hispanic children enrolled, infants and toddlers, they are napping.

Dark and cool, the curtains drawn to ward off bright sunlight baking the somewhat woebegone former U.S. Navy housing area on Radio Station Road, the classrooms are where the preschoolers learn simple numbers, colors, letters, basic shapes and some English during the week while their parents work the vast outlying farms from sunrise to evening, or at the nearby Campbell soup factory or at the Superior Farms lamb-processing plant, among other places. Some of the parents and their children, blankets and toys in hand, arrive at the center as early as 5 a.m.

 

Source: In Dixon Unified, a harvest of hope in migrant education

Trustees want re-draft of letter of intent with Brighton Landing developer – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Vacaville Unified leaders Thursday handed the school district’s director of facilities some additional homework regarding a letter of intent with a developer that wants to sell some land to build an elementary school in a large housing project in southeastern sector of the city.

During a governing board meeting in the Educational Services Center, trustees directed Dan Banowetz to re-draft the letter to let the owners of Bristol Land Company know that it may be well more than a decade before the district is ready to enter into an agreement with the Costa Mesa-based firm to buy land for a school in Brighton Landing. In the southeastern sector of Vacaville, it is a development near the intersection of Leisure Town and Elmira roads.

A nonbinding document, the original letter, which trustees were expected to approve, established the terms and conditions that will set aside property for a school site and any land transaction would depend on a mutually acceptable purchase and sales agreement.

 

Source: Trustees want re-draft of letter of intent with Brighton Landing developer

Solano County Office of Education sponsors backpack drive for county’s homeless, foster youth – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Can you Stuff the Bus?

During the past year Solano County Office of Education officials identified nearly 1,500 homeless students and nearly 500 foster youth.

As defined under a federal law, the McKinney-Vento Act, a homeless youth may be unaccompanied and “couch-surfing” from home to home, living on the streets, in shelters, or staying temporarily with family or friends due to a loss of housing or financial problems.

Foster youth — that is, any child who has been removed from the custody of a parent or parents or a guardian or guardians by Juvenile Court — may live with a relative, in a foster home or in a group home.

Board approves school name change to Oakbrook Academy of the Arts – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Oakbrook Elementary School is now the Oakbrook Academy of the Arts.Trustees for the Fairfield-Suisun School District approved the name change Thursday for the school on Oakbrook Drive.

The school board in May had approved an advisory committee of students, parents and school district members. The committee unanimously agreed to recommend the name change, a school district staff report said.

Source: Board approves school name change to Oakbrook Academy of the Arts

New school year brings new program to Vacaville schools – Daily Republic

By Daily Republic Staff

Officials with the Vacaville School District have announced a new integrated preschool opportunity for youngsters.

The Integrated Preschool Program will bring preschoolers with and without disabilities together to learn, according to the district.

Classes are intended to help children experience different developmental, social and behavioral models from other children, the district said. The blended environment emphasizes compassion, understanding and positive perceptions of diversity and disability.

Source: New school year brings new program to Vacaville schools

Vallejo school board unable to place bonds on November ballot – Times Herald

By John Glidden

A level of shock and stillness was felt in the meeting hall Wednesday night after the Vallejo school board failed to place two companion general obligation bond measures on the November ballot.

Vallejo City Unified School District staff had recommended placing two $139 million bonds on the fall ballot to repair school facilities in the district. One measure was reserved for middle and high schools facilities, while the second was intended to assist the district’s elementary schools.

Per state law, 66 percent of the board, or four out of the five trustees needed to vote “yes” to place one or both measures on the fall ballot.

Board President Tony Ubalde, along with Trustees Hazel Wilson, and Ward “Ace” Stewart voted “yes” for both bond measures, while Board Vice President Ruscal Cayangyang, and Trustee Burky Worel voted “no” each time.

 

Source: Vallejo school board unable to place bonds on November ballot

Sleep Train amid school-supplies drive for area foster youth – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

School begins anew for most Solano County students in less than five weeks, but who wants to remind them, as their summertime is like the Beach Boys’ tune “Fun, Fun, Fun”?

But for local foster kids, going back to school often brings concern about fitting in and keeping up academically.

Having the necessary school supplies can help ease their worry and allow them to focus on learning, said Sleep Train corporate leaders, who have begun a school-supplies drive. They said giving is easy, and Vacaville has two locations.

Purchase a few of the most-needed items, like new backpacks, three-ring binders and multi-subject notebooks. Drop them off at any Sleep Train store, and encourage friends and family to do the same.

 

Source: Sleep Train amid school-supplies drive for area foster youth

Interested in serving on the Fairfield-Suisun school board? – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Live in Fairfield and want to make a difference in the future of local public schools?

Then you may want to consider running for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified governing board in November.

Four seats are up for grabs in the county’s largest district, with some two dozen campuses, more than 21,00 students, and more than 2,000 employees.

But you may first want to know what being a school board member means and what your duties, obligations and requirements are.

To that end, district leaders are sponsoring an informational meeting July 26 in the district’s central office board room, 2490 Hilborn Road.

Source: Interested in serving on the Fairfield-Suisun school board?

5 Fairfield-Suisun schools to get surveillance cameras – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

A $222,902 contract to install surveillance cameras at Armijo and Fairfield high schools, Green Valley Middle School, B. Gale Wilson Elementary and the Adult School on Travis Boulevard won approval Thursday from Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees.

School district staff, in response to questions trustees posed about the contract, said Fairfield and Armjio high schools have some existing cameras but very few compared to what will be installed.

Locker rooms and bathrooms are off limits to the cameras, which will focus on common areas outside school buildings, the staff said. Some cameras will cover inside, high-traffic areas such as hallways or the front office, according to the staff.

Source: 5 Fairfield-Suisun schools to get surveillance cameras

Board OKs $3,604 Tahoe stay for teachers – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

Payments including $3,604 for the Franciscan Lakeside Lodge in Tahoe Vista where four teachers stayed for three nights were approved without comment Thursday by Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees.

The lodging was for the California Association of International Baccalaureate World Schools, a liaison to the International Baccalaureate program. Teacher training workshops took place June 25-28 at the Granlibakken Resort and Conference Center in Tahoe City.

Source: Board OKs $3,604 Tahoe stay for teachers

Fairfield-Suisun superintendent’s salary rises to $241,088 – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

Raising Superintendent Kris Corey’s salary to $241,088 won approval by Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees Thursday after one trustee’s motion for a higher raise to $245,820 was not seconded.

“We started her out low when we hired her,” Trustee Kathy Marianno said in seeking the higher raise.

Other trustees praised Corey but voted for the $241,088 raise that reflects a 1 percent increase based on her satisfactory evaluation for the 2015-16 school year and a 2 percent salary increase granted other employees in April.

Source: Fairfield-Suisun superintendent’s salary rises to $241,088

State board backs plans for California’s first college and career readiness indicator | EdSource

By  Fermin Leal

Despite concerns, the State Board of Education on Wednesday approved a preliminary version of California’s first College and Career Readiness Indicator, a tool aimed at measuring how schools prepare students for postsecondary opportunities.

The metric would evaluate high schools and districts by their students’ Advanced Placement test scores, the number of students concurrently enrolled in community colleges, how many successfully completed a career technical education pathway, how many completed courses required for UC and CSU admission, and other measures.

The College and Career Indicator is part of the state’s overall effort to create a new school accountability system to meet new federal and state guidelines.

Source: State board backs plans for California’s first college and career readiness indicator | EdSource

Proposed bond update, design firm approval on DUSD agenda – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Dixon Unified leaders, when they meet tonight in Dixon, will hear an update on a proposed bond measure and learn of the prequalification of a design firm to upgrade and modernize the school’s district’s eight campuses, some of them more than 60 years old.

As he has in the recent past, Superintendent Brian Dolan will lead the discussion about the bond measure, to include sample ballot language and a review of the project list with an ultimate price tag of more than $30 million.

A district voter survey carried out some weeks ago, he said in a text message to The Reporter, indicated enough support for the bond to meet a 55 percent voter-approval threshold, as required by law.

Source: Proposed bond update, design firm approval on DUSD agenda

Superintendent contract extension on Vacaville Unified agenda tonight – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

A letter of intent with a land company, a memorandum of understanding with a state university, and a one-year contract extension for Superintendent Jane Shamieh are on the agenda when Vacaville Unified leaders meet tonight in Vacaville.

Dan Banowetz, the district’s director of facilities, will present a letter of intent with Bristol Land Company, a Costa Mesa-based firm, which is developing the Brighton Landing housing project, near the intersection of Leisure Town and Elmia roads.

A nonbinding document, the letter establishes the terms and conditions that will set aside property for a school site. Banowetz will tell the seven-member governing board that the land transaction will depend on a mutually acceptable purchase and sales agreement. Trustees are expected to approve the letter.

Source: Superintendent contract extension on Vacaville Unified agenda tonight

Trustees to consider Superintendent Corey’s salary boost to $241,088 – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

Superintendent Kris Corey’s salary will increase to $241,088 if Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees follow a recommendation when they meet Thursday.

The additional $7,067 in pay reflects a 1 percent increase based on her satisfactory evaluation for the 2015-16 school year and a 2 percent salary granted to other employees in April, a staff report said.

Trustees meeting in December approved a 3.25 percent increase, raising Corey’s salary to $234,021. That increase reflected the 3.25 percent salary increase provided to Classified School Employees Association members and others that trustees approved Nov. 12.

Source: Trustees to consider Superintendent Corey’s salary boost to $241,088

Tahoe lakeside lodge stay among costs before FSUSD trustees – Daily Republic

By Ryan McCarthy

The $3,604 cost for the Franciscan Lakeside Lodge in Tahoe Vista where four teachers stayed for three nights is among payments going before Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees when they meet Thursday.

The lodging was for the California Association of International Baccalaureate World Schools, a liaison to the International Baccalaureate program.

Teacher training workshops took place June 25-28 at the Granlibakken Resort and Conference Center in Tahoe City.

Source: Tahoe lakeside lodge stay among costs before Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees

How to decipher the state’s proposed school and district report cards | EdSource

By John Fensterwald

Some states assign a single number or letter grade to rate a school. Some parents prefer that too. But California education leaders are proposing a very different system with a brightly colored report card as a way of explaining the achievement of every school and district. At its meeting Wednesday morning, the State Board of Education will look at the latest draft and discuss how to proceed with it. (You can watch the webcast, starting at 8:30 am, here.)

The board is facing a September deadline to adopt a new school and district improvement and accountability system, which will take effect in 2017-18. In place of the now suspended Academic Performance Index, which assigned a three-digit number to a school based on standardized test scores, the state will take a more comprehensive look at school life and academic progress. The change will parallel the shift in Washington from the No Child Left Behind Act to broader measures required under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Source: How to decipher the state’s proposed school and district report cards | EdSource