By Daily Republic Staff
Fairfield High School’s Way Off Broadway Theatre wraps up its run of “A Bad Year for Tomatoes” this weekend.
The plot centers on a famous actress who, feeling too much pressure, leases a house in a tiny hamlet with the goal of writing her autobiography.
When nosy neighbors determine who she is, the actress invents a mad, homicidal sister, locked in an upstairs room, who escapes long enough to scare off uninvited visitors.
By Ryan McCarthy
A change in Superintendent Kris Corey’s employment agreement, whose approval the school board president described as “standard,” increases Corey’s salary by 3.25 percent to $234,021 after unanimous approval of the amendment Thursday by Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees.
Corey’s contract now reflects the 3.25 percent salary increase provided to Classified School Employees Association members and others that trustees approved Nov. 12.
Her pact is adjusted in an amount equivalent to the highest annual percentage adjustment in the salary for any employee group, a report to trustees said.
via Pay increase boosts Superintendent Corey’s salary to $234,021.
By Richard Bammer
For Damian Hernandez, a Cambridge Elementary second-grader in teacher Jennie Moore’s class, a power outage Wednesday was not normal, but it had an up side.
“I thought it was cool!” he said excitedly, seated at a cluster of desks lighted with a lone battery-operated lantern, with three of his classmates’ faces aglow in the low light as the children worked on a writing and art project. “It’s fun being in the dark.”
For Moore, however, the daylong, cool-or-not outage — reportedly due to a faulty transformer — was a time to adjust her daily lesson plan, a pivot she appeared to handle with ease in the early afternoon, some 30 minutes before class ended for the “short-schedule day,” at about 1 p.m.
via . The Reporter
By Richard Bammer
Like other school districts statewide have done or will do, Fairfield-Suisun Unified will reshuffle its governing board tonight during a governing board meeting.
The seven trustees also will consider approving the August reopening of Dover K-8 as the Dover Academy for International Studies, and likely approve a 3.75 percent pay raise for district teachers.
Elections for board present, vice president and clerk will be determined early in the meeting. Their terms of office will be in effect through 2016. David Isom, a senior pastor at St. Stephen Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, is the current board president.
The possible approval of Dover K-8 as the Dover Academy for International Studies comes as Superintendent Kris Corey recently returned from an educational trip to China.
via Teacher pay contract and other matters on Fairfield-Suisun school district agenda.
By Richard Bammer
The annual board realignment, a first interim budget report, and a public hearing on installing cost-saving solar panels districtwide are on the agenda when Dixon Unified officials convene tonight.
The five-member board will reshuffle itself, electing a president, vice president and clerk. Their terms of office will be in effect through December 2016. Caitlin O’Halloran, an education activist and former Reporter columnist, is the current president.
Adrian Vargas, the district’s chief financial officer, will present the 2015-16 first interim budget report, which shows increases over last year’s budget.
He will tell trustees that revenues are projected to be $32.3 million, expenses nearly $31 million, the bulk of it salaries and benefits, including a 4 percent salary schedule increase. Ending cash balance is expected to be $2.8 million.
By Richard Bammer
Election of new board officers, the first interim budget report and recommendations from the Sierra Vista Reopening Committee are on the agenda when Vacaville Unified leaders meet tonight.
An annual event every December, the election of new governing board officers, for president, vice president and clerk will take place early in the meeting. Their terms of office will be in effect through December 2016. Whit Whitman currently serves as board president.
Sandra Lee Lepley, interim chief business official, will present the 2015-16 interim budget report.
Because of considerable revenue increases, her report to the seven-member board should ring pleasantly in trustee ears.
via . The Reporter
By Ian Thompson
You can support your school and give to a good cause at the same time this weekend when nine Fairfield and Suisun City schools, as well as staff from the Fairfield-Suisun School District main offices, become bell ringers for The Salvation Army.
“They are each taking a location Saturday to see who can raise the most money,” said Salvation Army Capt. Jonathan Harvey.
Volunteers from the schools will staff the kettles from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Not only will each of the schools have their own kettle, the kettles will each be painted one of the school’s colors and will each have the school’s logo.
By Kristin DeCarr
Beginning in February, a group of districts throughout California will begin to evaluate their schools using more than just test scores.
A group made up of some of the largest districts in the state, CORE, is expected to discuss its new plan for measuring public schools in the state at the California School Boards Association Conference in San Diego.
School scores are expected to account not only for academic performance, but also how safe children feel while on campus, suspension rates, skills that cannot be measured by traditional academic tests, such as self-control and social awareness, and how quickly students who do not speak English are learning the language, among other things.
The group hopes that the new measures will offer a broader picture of how schools in California are truly operating.The group is expected to release preliminary results of the first attempt at using the measures in the coming months.
via California CORE Districts to Evaluate Schools Differently.
By Robert Pondiscio
Like many, I’m convinced that what happens inside the classroom—curriculum and instruction—has as much of an impact (if not more) on student outcomes than structural reforms. For those who believe as I do, the revamped Elementary and Secondary Education Act has the potential to help states figure out how to hold schools accountable for student learning and what, if anything, to do about teacher evaluations. Let me throw out a few ideas.
“If you want more of something, subsidize it,” Ronald Reagan famously quipped. “If you want less of something, tax it.” During the No Child Left Behind era, test-driven accountability has too often stood Reagan’s maxim on its ear. Annual reading tests have practically required schools and teachers to forsake the patient, long-term investment in knowledge and vocabulary that builds strong readers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. High-stakes accountability with annual tests that are not tied to course content (which reading tests are not) amounted to a tax on good things and a subsidy for bad practice: curriculum narrowing, test preparation, and more time spent on a “skills and strategies” approach to learning that doesn’t serve children well. Under the new ESEA, states will still have to test students annually, including in reading. But they have a lot more control over the way the results from those tests are turned into grades for schools. This could offer an opportunity to restore some sanity to schooling.
via ESEA and the Return of a Well-Rounded Curriculum – Education Next : Education Next.
By Richard Bammer
Has a new bipartisan day of comity dawned on Capitol Hill?
Probably not, but the U.S. Senate today is expected to reauthorize a federal education law that will, essentially, replace the deeply unpopular No Children Left Behind Act.
The House approved the bill Wednesday on an overwhelming 359-64 vote.
Once the Every Student Succeeds Act is approved in the Senate, it will be sent to President Obama for his signature. He is expected to sign it immediately.
Under the law, a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965, some things will change and some things will remain the same, local education leaders said Monday.
via U.S. Senate poised to OK education law that replaces unpopular NCLB.
By Richard Bammer
It is no longer your grandfather’s physical education class in at least one Vacaville elementary school.
Valerie Blanchard’s third-graders on Monday spent the better part of some 40 minutes running, jumping, pairing up with partners to do more movement, including folk dancing and even The Twist to a recording of the No.1 1960 tune by Chubby Checker.
But it was volunteer Irene Sanders, a retired Vacaville Unified teacher, who was in command, joyfully, a quality of her personality that seemed to spread to the 24 boys and girls having fun inside the multipurpose room at the North Orchard Avenue campus.
The Benicia school board is set discuss on Thursday the process to replace a trustee position that was left empty due to a recent death.
Rosie Switzer, who served on the board for a decade, died suddenly at her home in November, according to her obituary. She was 69.
Switzer last served as the clerk on the board.
According to staff, her position needs to be filled within 60 days from the date of vacancy, or by Jan. 29.
The board could call for a special election or provisionally appoint a trustee to fill a one-year term until the regularly scheduled election in November next year.
By Richard Bammer
The annual governing board reorganization, the first interim budget report, and a new biotechnology course proposal are among the agenda items tonight for Travis Unified leaders.
Elections for board president, vice president and clerk will be determined early in the meeting. Their terms of office will be through December 2016. Ivery Hood currently serves as board president.
Chief business official for the district, Ken Forrest, will update the five-member board on the first interim budget report for the 2015-16 school year.
Such reports are required by state law and, in accord with the general custom and practice by school districts statewide, they must be presented to school boards no later than mid-December, then certified no later than 45 days afterward.
As required by law, Forrest also will include multi-year projections in his report, which runs to 127 pages in small type.
via TUSD board to reorganize, hear interim budget report tonight.
By Richard Bammer
The first interim budget, and facilities, enrollment and CalPERS updates are on the agenda when Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy leaders meet tonight.
Anita Schwab, chief business official for the independent charter school, will update the seven-member board on the first interim budget report for the 2015-16 school year.
Such reports are required by state law and, in accord with the general custom and practice of school districts statewide, they must be presented to school boards no later than mid-December, then certified no later than 45 days afterward.
As required by law, Schwab also will include multiyear projections in her report. Schwab will tell the board that 2015-16 budget revenues are $4.12 million, with a $1.3 million ending balance and $186,000 in a prudent reserve, or about 5 percent of the overall budget. Projected budgets are $3.76 million for 2016-17; $3.88 million for 2017-18; and nearly $4 million for 2018-19, according to agenda documents.
via Interim budget, CalPERS update on Kairos agenda tonight.
Solano County student helps collect 3,000 boxes of cereal for Richmond homeless: Christonio Guerrera of Fairfield recently spearheaded a drive to collect boxes of cereal for the homeless in Richmond that succeeded better than hoped. A graduate of Benicia’s St. Dominic Elementary School, the De La Salle High School freshman who just turned 14, conceived of and lead the drive which ended at the end of October with the Concord school having reached its goal of collecting 3,000 cereal boxes, school officials and Guerrera’s grandmother Elaine Banasik said. The retired Vallejo School District employee said her grandson, whose father’s family founded and still runs the area’s Napoli’s pizzeria restaurants, is a good student, graduating from St. Dominic’s last year with “straight A’s,” and has been a competitive swimmer since age 8. “He was recognized by the school for his (cereal-collection) efforts,” Banasik said. “His parents had to haul all that cereal to De La Salle. It took two trips.”
via November 26 Vallejo A&E Source: Always Something To Celebrate.
By Amy Maginnis-Honey
An enthusiastic crowd of holiday shoppers paused at Solano Town Center Sunday afternoon to hear the first of three Families Helping Families concerts.
The Crystal Middle school choir and musicians, under the direction of Jennifer Doherty, were the first performers. The school’s pageantry unit also did a routine to “Winter Wonderland.”
Maria Villa, a Crystal Middle School eighth-grader, joined her fellow classmates tossing red flags and dancing with the pageantry unit.
via Musically inclined: Students showcased at concert series.
By Richard Bammer
Recently returned from an educational trip to China, Fairfield-Suisun Unified Superintendent Kris Corey said one of the most surprising aspects of Chinese schools are class sizes of 55 or more and high schools of 10,000.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Reporter, Corey, a Vacaville resident, compared the U.S. education system with the Chinese, but her observations and impressions largely touched on stark differences between the two.
The large class sizes she witnessed in Xiamen, a port town in the southeastern province of Fujian (directly west of Taiwan), were common “even in first grade.”
via FSUSD leader visits China, sees stark differences between school systems.
By Ryan McCarthy
Travel to Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and other states to participate in teacher recruitment fairs will cost $25,000, says a report that Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees take up this week.
Robert A. Martinez, assistant superintendent for human resources, said in the report that the California teacher shortage continues to affect the school district.
“Districts throughout California are experiencing the same problems as us when it comes to hiring qualified teachers to fill our current and upcoming teaching vacancies,” Martinez said.
via Fairfield-Suisun School District to pay $25,000 for recruitment trips.
By Daily Republic Staff
More than 40 teams are expected to compete this week in the Nothing But Net robotics contest at Vanden High School.
The Vex Robotics Competition, which takes place Saturday, features primarily Solano County teams. It takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium at 2951 Markley Road in Fairfield.
Team inspections and practice take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. Pits open at 7 a.m. Saturday, followed by an opening ceremony at 8:15 a.m., qualifying rounds from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and elimination rounds from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. A closing ceremony and awards presentation starts at 5 p.m.
By Richard Bammer
Vacaville Unified has been placed on a national testing firm’s honor roll for achievement on Advanced Placement exams, district officials reported.
The College Board — an organization that prepares and administers standardized tests, such as the SAT, used in college admissions — listed the 12,300-student district on the 6th annual AP District Honor Roll.
Shared by 425 out of more than 13,500 school districts across the nation, the honor recognized the Vacaville district for increasing access to AP courses while, at the same time, maintaining or boosting the percentage of students earning scores of 3 or higher on AP exams.
via Vacaville Unified among districts hailed for boosting access to AP courses.