Monthly Archives: September 2016

Intradistrict football games moved from Fridays to Saturdays – Daily Republic

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By Paul Farmer

In a move to promote the safety of fans, players and others, the Fairfield-Suisun School District announced on Thursday that the three intradistrict high school games have been moved from Friday nights to Saturdays.

Rodriguez at Fairfield has been moved from Sept. 16 to Sept. 17, Fairfield at Armijo from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 and Armijo at Rodriguez from Nov. 4 to Nov. 5. Kickoffs for the junior varsity games for the first two will be at 10 a.m., with the varsity to follow. For the third, the JV kickoff will be at 9 a.m. to ensure that the varsity game begins by noon, which is a Sac-Joaquin Section regulation as playoff pairings will be determined and announced later in the day.

Source: Intradistrict football games moved from Fridays to Saturdays

School Readiness Gaps Narrowing, Report Says, But Slowly – Education News

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By Kylie Ullmann

Income and racial/ethnic gaps to school readiness have declined among kindergarten students over the last 12 years, a new paper on school readiness trends has found. However, children in kindergarten today may not see the gaps eliminated during their lifetime.

The working paper, titled ‘Recent Trends in Income, Racial, and Ethnic School Readiness Gaps at Kindergarten Entry’, published by the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis provides new evidence on achievement gaps measured by numerous variables to identify if trends from previous research are present within the education sector today.

Sean F. Reardon of Stanford University and Ximena A. Portilla of MDRC discovered that school readiness between ethnic groups narrowed between 1998 and 2010 despite an increase to income inequality and segregation and differences in parental spending on children.

Source: School Readiness Gaps Narrowing, Report Says, But Slowly

Schools Taking Various Approaches to Pokemon Go – Education News

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By Corwin Mollett

Schools are attempting to find ways to keep the wildly popular mobile app Pokemon Go out of their classrooms. In the new technological age it was already difficult to keep students off their phones and focused on the class, but Pokemon Go has added a new level of distraction for the students.

As Joe Mullins writes for ars Technica UK, France’s education minister is asking Niantic to keep rare Pokemon out of schools. Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, education minister of France, is worried that rare Pokemon in schools would be potentially distracting to students.

While France is trying to discourage the game within its schools, some have decided to try and use it to engage with students more. One teacher, in particular, plans to make writing assignments involving the new hit game:

Marissa Grodnick, an English teacher, said “Any time something becomes a big pop culture sensation, as a teacher I     try to just kind of ride the coattails.”

Source: Schools Taking Various Approaches to Pokemon Go

Facility needs, developer fees on tonight’s Fairfield-Suisun agenda – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

Fairfield-Suisun Unified leaders, when they meet tonight, will review and possibly approve a facility needs analysis and set new developer fees; and review and possibly approve the creation of an ad hoc committee to consider a PLA, or project labor agreement, for construction of district facilities.

First things first: The governing board will hold a public hearing on the school facility needs analysis and the setting of developer fees, in advance of the trustees’ approval, disapproval or modification of a resolution.

Like other California districts, Fairfield-Suisun Unified uses developer fees, sometimes in conjunction of matching state funds, to pay to build new schools.

District administrators recommend Level II fees of $4.85 per square foot for single-family and multi-family units, and the fees will be collected before building begins.

 

State board poised to take new direction in school accountability | EdSource

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By John Fensterwald

After months of drafting, revising and debating how best to measure and improve schools, the State Board of Education this week will adopt key elements of a new and distinct school accountability system.

The series of votes on Thursday will meet the Legislature’s Oct. 1 deadline and will mark 2½ years since the state board suspended its simpler predecessor, the Academic Performance Index. The board expects to change components of the system in coming years.

The new system shifts from a one-dimensional school rating under the API and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, based on test scores, toward a broader picture of what constitutes a quality education. It combines measures of underlying conditions, ­such as teacher qualifications and student suspension rates, and academic outcomes, including gauges of college and career readiness and standardized test scores.

Source: State board poised to take new direction in school accountability | EdSource

Benicia USD president: No school board election in 2016 – Benicia Herald

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By Nick Sestanovich

2 incumbents, 1 newcomer to run unopposed

As Benicians get caught up in who to vote for in the mayoral, city council, assembly, state senatorial, congressional, senatorial and presidential races, they will have one less election to worry about: the Benicia Unified School District’s governing board.

As board President Gary Wing announced at Thursday’s school board meeting, “We don’t have to have an election this year.”

Three candidates are on the ballot in 2016, all of whom will be running unopposed. Incumbent trustees Wing and Stacy Holguin will be running on the four-year rotation, and social worker Celeste Monnette, who will be running on the two-year rotation. After Holguin was appointed in January to succeed Rosie Switzer, who had died in November, she was placed on the two-year rotation to fill out the remainder of Switzer’s term, after which she would be put on the four-year rotation if she would have won in 2016.

Source: Benicia Unified School District president: No school board election in 2016

BUSD student surveys indicate mixed results – Benicia Herald

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By Nick Sestanovich

Carolyn Patton, the special services director for Benicia Unified School District, provided an overview of the results of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) as well as the Relationships, Effort, Aspirations, Cognitions, Heart (REACH) survey— which were both administered to district students— at Thursday’s school board meeting.CHKS is a statewide survey given to all seventh, ninth and 11th-graders as well as all Liberty High School students every two years which captures behavioral data in the areas of substance abuse, school safety, social/emotional wellness and student/teacher relations.

The REACH survey was issued for the first time last year to all BUSD students in grades 6 through 12 and further examines the relationships between students and teachers and identifies internal assets known to increase achievement. The surveys are aligned to LCAP goals of preparing students for college and careers and increasing parental awareness of what happens at school, and a superintendent goal of promoting safe and welcoming schools.

Source: BUSD student surveys indicate mixed results

State test scores, facilities and scholars program on Kairos agenda tonight – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

The Kairos board of directors, when they meet tonight, will hear a report about the latest state test scores and hear a pair of updates, on school facilities and the Kairos Innovative Scholars Program.

The school’s executive director, Jared Austin, will tell the seven-member board that the TK-8 independent charter school, meaning it is not governed by the district with which it is aligned, Vacaville Unified, posted, for the second time in as many years, some of the highest 2015-16 CAASPP scores in Solano County.

(CAASPP is the acronym for California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, in its second year and tests students in grades three to eight and 11 on subject matter learned under Common Core.)

Austin and Patrick Broughton, the school’s educational services director, will note that some 320 students were tested, with 63 percent meeting or exceeding the standards in English, an increase of 4 percent over last year. Fifty-five percent did so in mathematics, an increase of 3 percent over last year, bettering averages of 43 and 32 percent in English and math, respectively, countywide, and 49 percent and 37 percent statewide.

 

Source: State test scores, facilities and scholars program on Kairos agenda tonight

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month – Daily Republic

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By Mark Netherda

As our children head back to school, we should all be aware that September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 out of 5 children in the U.S. is obese. Data from the California Department of Education from 2015 reports that 38.5 percent of seventh graders in California are overweight or obese. Unfortunately, for Solano County that statistic is even worse with 41.1 percent of all seventh graders found to be overweight or obese.

These statistics are all much higher than they were just 10 to 20 years ago, and continue to rise for some age groups.

Source: September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

Marks, Smith, Wright seek Fairfield-Suisun School District seat Marianno holds – Daily Republic

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By Ryan McCarthy

Three candidates seek a Fairfield-Suisun School District seat in the wake of incumbent Kathy Marianno’s decision not to run again for the school board she’s served on since 2003.

Spencer Marks, Bethany Smith and Mike Wright are running in Trustee Area 1 that covers most of Suisun City. Trustees are now elected by area.

Marks, 29, said he took an oath in 2007 to serve when he joined the U.S. Army.

“It has no expiration date,” he said of serving.

“It’s my duty to my daughter and my family,” Marks said.

A parent, as well as a student at Holy Names University in Oakland where he is studying international relations and biology, Marks served in the Army from 2007-14.

Source: Marks, Smith, Wright seek Fairfield-Suisun School District seat Marianno holds

Panel may ponder project labor pacts for Fairfield-Suisun School District – Daily Republic

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By Ryan McCarthy

Trustees will meet with supporters and critics of project labor agreements for building paid for with Measure J funds, the $249 million bond voters approved in June, if Fairfield-Suisun School District trustees follow a recommendation.

Two to three trustees from the seven-member board would be appointed to the committee in the proposal the school board takes up Thursday.

Phil Henderson, an attorney for the school district, reviewed project labor agreements at the school board’s Aug. 25 meeting.

Source: Panel may ponder project labor pacts for Fairfield-Suisun School District

Why Psychologists Agree The School Day Should Start Later – Benicia Patch

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By Cody Fenwick

Waking up early in the morning can be difficult for anyone. For teens who are soon returning to the routine of school, however, it can be brutal.

That’s why many education advocates and adolescent psychologists say our school start times need to change. As much as we want to encourage students to have grit, our forcing them to sit at a desk at 7:30 a.m. or earlier has a much worse impact on their academics, emotional well-being, and safety than is often acknowledged, they say.

Source: Why Psychologists Agree The School Day Should Start Later

A new Day begins for Benicia High School’s drama department – Benicia Herald

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By Nick Sestanovich

As one player exits the stage of Benicia High School’s drama department, a new one emerges. Nathan Day is ready to demonstrate that the show must go on.Day is the new head of Benicia High’s theater department, and he is taking the reins from Christine Mani, who recently left Benicia High to become a full-time theater instructor at Solano Community College. Some might view this as a difficult transition for students who had worked with Mani the previous year, but Day says they have been very welcoming.

“There’s been a lot of enthusiasm,” he said. “Any time you’re going to a new campus, it’s difficult but when you’re taking over a program where you’ve got kids involved in that program for all four years and they’ve been a part of it and had this great teacher in Ms. Mani, there’s always that nervousness of ‘What’s their reaction going to be?’ But it’s been great. There was excitement, not fear and dread.”

Source: A new Day begins for Benicia High School’s drama department: Former Rodriguez High School drama teacher Nathan Day to run program

Cayangyang to host campaign kick-off in Vallejo – Times Herald

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By Times Herald Staff

Vallejo school board trustee Ruscal Cayangyang will host a campaign kick-off from 3 to 5 p.m., Sunday, at Nathan’s Conscious Cup, 419 Georgia St. in Vallejo.

Cayangyang was appointed to the Vallejo City Unified School Board of Education in January 2015 to fill an opening on the board.

He is currently seeking to finish the original term. The seat he currently occupies will be open for election in 2018.

Source: Cayangyang to host campaign kick-off in Vallejo

A brief but powerful read on improving K-12 education – The Reporter

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By Doug Ford

Linda Darling-Hammond and Robert Rothman have put together a very brief but powerful book on what we need to do about K-12 education. Published by Teachers College Press at Columbia University, it calls for a strong systemic approach to improve our teaching force through strong recruitment and preparation, attractive teaching conditions, continued support for learning, equitable allocation of teachers and resources and proactive leadership development.

Fifty years ago, our elementary and secondary education system was still thought of as the best in the world, but as we dallied with too many piecemeal incoherent modifications and inadequate funding, several other nations that had been far behind us have caught up with and passed us in performance through their systemic and coherent improvements.

Source: Doug Ford: A brief but powerful read on improving K-12 education

Law to increase charter school accountability awaits governor’s signature – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

Lack of accountability and transparency at California charter schools is hurting students, a group of state officials, educators, civil rights leaders said Thursday, noting that a new law awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature that will require all charter schools to be open to greater public scrutiny.

In a national media teleconference, Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, the author of Assembly Bill 709, said some of the state’s 1,200 charter schools fail to make financial and administrative records open to the public, in violation of the law.

“They cannot be excused from accountability,” he said.

The bill would increase transparency and accountability to parents and to disclose how the schools spend taxpayer money, including budgets and contracts. Additionally, it prohibits charter school board members and their families from profiting from their schools, and requires charter schools to comply with California’s open meetings, open records and conflict-of-interest laws.

Source: Law to increase charter school accountability awaits governor’s signature – The Reporter

 

Student filmmakers hope for more wins at Benicia Film Festival – Daily Republic

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By Amy Maginnis-Honey

Boundless Studios took seven awards at the Eye Light Film Festival in Vacaville earlier this spring.

One of the films, “Colours,” is featured this weekend at the annual Benicia Film Festival. Filmmakers Jonathan Stevens and Julie Durant will talk about the five-minute short.

The story, Stevens said, centers on teens who remain silent in their own home about life’s big issues. The character, played by CJ Corpus, finds life’s colors through music.

“It brings him happiness,” Stevens said.

Source: Student filmmakers hope for more wins at Benicia Film Festival

Solano County Student Poster Contest Brings Awareness to School Attendance – Benicia Patch

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By Bea Karnes

Solano County Office of Education has joined a nationwide initiative to celebrate Attendance Awareness Month in September and has pledged to raise awareness about the value of regular school attendance

focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism in the new school year.

Solano County Office of Education recognizes that good attendance is essential to academic success, but too often students, parents and schools don’t realize how quickly absences, excused or unexcused, can add up to academic trouble.

Source: Solano County Student Poster Contest Brings Awareness to School Attendance