Monthly Archives: August 2017

Solano Youth Coalition accepting applications – Times Herald

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The Coalition is a partnership of students from each town in Solano County. The students “raise awareness by advocating safe and healthier choices in communities through open conversations, participation, and collaboration among a new generation of youth,” said Program Manager Johanna Nowak-Palmer.

The students choose which issues and subjects to tackle, according to Ken Scarberry, director for youth development.

Projects they’ve spearheaded have been an award-winning documentary about the effects of gambling on young people, tobacco use prevention and awareness, and even putting together a water filtration system where students could get clean water without using campus fountains, Scarberry said.

Source: Solano Youth Coaltion accepting applications

Travis school board ok’s 45-day budget revision – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

Travis Unified leaders approved the 45-day revision to the district’s 2017-18 budget of $56.7 million, with $1.2 million in deficit spending and a $4.8 million ending fund balance.

In accord with the Budget Act, California school districts are required to make public any revisions to their annual budgets with 45 days after the initial adoption on or before July 1 every year.

During a meeting Tuesday night in the Travis Education Center, Sonia Lasyone, the district’s new chief business officer, told the five-member governing board that revenues, because of “one-time” mandated state dollars, will increase nearly $800,000 this coming year, welcome news.

But, she noted, there was some bad news, too: Local Control Funding Formula sources will drop by $19,000 this fiscal year, and by $131,000 and $199,000, respectively, in the next two.

Via: Travis school board ok’s 45-day budget revision

SCC to open renovated theater Wednesday – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

With some fanfare and a ribbon-cutting, Solano Community College leaders on Wednesday will open its newly refurbished Performing Arts Building.

The event begins at 5 p.m. on the main Fairfield campus, 4000 Suisun Valley Road.

The newly renovated facility, also known as Building 1200, will house the theater arts and music programs, as well as instructional classrooms, and student support space.

More than 28,000 square feet of existing space was renovated to make the building a place of enhanced learning for students, college officials noted in a press release.

“What is great about this particular project is the new theater space,” said Celia Esposito-Noy, the school president-superintendent. “Not only will students have a beautiful location in which to perform, but the college now has a space to highlight our outstanding theater, music, and dance productions as well as other academic programs.”

Source: SCC to open renovated theater Wednesday

Solano County Office of Education receives homeless grant – Daily Republic

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By Daily Republic Staff

A state grant will support training to school district staffs about how to better identify and meet the needs of homeless students in Solano County.

The county Office of Education announced Thursday it had received the $37,638 grant from the state Department of Education.

“Supporting homeless students is a priority for all educators in our school districts, and, through this grant, the Solano County Office of Education will be able to continue supporting schools in their efforts to identify all homeless youth and provide them with the services they need,” Superintendent Estrella-Henderson commented.

Source: Solano County Office of Education receives homeless grant

Trustees review Measure J oversight panel report – Daily Republic

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By Ryan McCarthy

Former Fairfield-Suisun School District trustee Perry Polk is among four people recommended for the Measure J Citizens’ Oversight Committee in a report school district trustees reviewed Thursday.

The school board established the committee in 2016 and appointed members, but one panel member resigned and another was recommended for removal after three unexcused absences, a school district staff report said.

Polk is recommended as a member at-large, while Sylvia Robertson would represent parents. Jennifer Stephenson would be a member at-large and Claudia Wilde would represent local businesses.

Source: Trustees review Measure J oversight panel report

Response to grand jury report on homeless youth wins Fairfield-Suisun schools OK – Daily Republic

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By Ryan McCarthy

Homeless youth are accurately counted, the Fairfield-Suisun School District says in a response to the 2016-17 Solano County grand jury report that stated the number of homeless students in the district nearly doubled in one year when almost 500 more youths were identified.

School district trustees meeting Thursday approved the response by Superintendent Kris Corey.

Trustees made no comments before voting to approve the response.The grand jury, in its report released June 16, said school districts in the county presented conflicting statistics in reporting the number of homeless youth and recommended all data be verifiable.

Source: Response to grand jury report on homeless youth wins Fairfield-Suisun schools OK

‘Schoolifying’ Minecraft Without Ruining It : NPR Ed

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By Anya Kamenetz

Steven Isaacs — @mr_isaacs on Twitter — is a full-time technology teacher in Baskingridge, N.J. He’s also the co-founder of a new festival that set the Guinness World Record for largest gathering dedicated to a single video game.

The game that cements both halves of his life together? Minecraft.

(In case you haven’t heard, Minecraft, originally developed by Markus Persson of Sweden, offers players the chance to build a 3-D world out of “blocks.” Since its release in 2009, Minecraft has sold more than 121 million copies, making it the best-selling game of all time after another blocky favorite, Tetris.)

Other games allow you to fight monsters, construct giant castles, build power plants, navigate mazes, chop down trees for wood, survive in the wilderness or band together into guilds. Minecraft has all of the above. It is so open-ended, in fact, that some refer to it as a platform instead of a game, or an “infinite Lego set.”

Source: ‘Schoolifying’ Minecraft Without Ruining It : NPR Ed : NPR

New Liberty High School principal highlights goals for new year – Benicia Herald

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By Nick Sestanovich

As always, there will be new faces at Liberty High School this year. Chief among them is the person in charge, Zachary Pless.

Pless is the new principal at Liberty High, taking the reins of JoAnn Severson who retired in June after 31 years with Benicia Unified School District. Pless received his master’s degree in educational leadership from UC Berkeley and has lived in Benicia with his family since 2003. However, during that time he has mostly been working in other districts. He was a history and theater teacher at Rodriguez High School in Fairfield, a coordinator for summer and after school programs at Berkeley Unified School District and a vice principal at Martinez Junior High School, where he has worked for the last three years. Now Pless will join Benicia Unified as the new administrator at Liberty, and he is excited to be able to work in the district.

Particularly, he is looking forward to being able to work at a continuation high school.“We have a lot of flexibility at a continuation high school,” he said. “It’s a small staff, small community, small classes. This is a school where every single kid is known by every single staff member. You can’t ever say that at any comprehensive high school of any significant size.”“There are students who often times have struggled in school in the past,” he added. “It really is an opportunity and an ability for us to turn things around.”

Source: New Liberty High School principal highlights goals for new year

Vallejo school board to interview superintendent candidates – Times Herald

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The Vallejo City Unified School District Board of Education is holding two special closed session meetings starting Thursday to interview possible candidates for the permanent superintendent position.

The closed session meetings are scheduled for 8 a.m. on Thursday and Friday, at the Marriott Vallejo Napa Valley, 1000 Fairgrounds Drive in Vallejo.The public will have an opportunity to address the board both days before the trustees enter into the closed session.

Source: Vallejo school board to interview superintendent candidates

A day of anxieties, rules, new faces, hope – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

Standing with friends near the school office, Kaylee Sendejas, 11, a fifth-grader at Gretchen Higgins Elementary in Dixon, pointed to her name and her teacher’s, Matt Banuelos, on a class roster affixed to a window. She giggled and smiled, matching the high youthful spirits of those clustered around her.

For Sendejas — with less than 10 minutes before the school bell’s first loud ring on the first day, at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, marking the start of the 2017-18 academic year in Dixon Unified — it was a morning with many possibilities mixed with an equal amount of anxieties.

Source: A day of anxieties, rules, new faces, hope

More students coming to US for high school, but growth slows – Daily Republic

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By The Associated Press

The number of international students coming to the U.S. for high school is leveling off after years of rapid growth, according to a new study released Wednesday.

Researchers at the nonprofit Institute of International Education in Washington say growth is slowing as students face more education opportunities in their home countries and abroad. But the U.S. remains a top study destination for international students, researchers say.

“The numbers have been growing at slower rates each year, but there’s still definitely interest and growth in international students coming to earn a high school diploma in the U.S.,” said Christine Farrugia, author of the new study.

Source: More students coming to US for high school, but growth slows

How teachers are using the solar eclipse to shed light on science | EdSource

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By Carolyn Jones

It’s official: the world is not flat, and on Aug. 21 California science teachers will prove it.

With the total solar eclipse coinciding with the start of school for thousands of California students, teachers around the state will be using the rare solar spectacle to ignite students’ interest in science, showing them first-hand evidence that the earth rotates around the sun, the moon spins around the earth, and all three of them are undeniably round.

“The eclipse will help students appreciate the beauty of space — feel that joy and sense of wonder, ask questions and create their own journey of understanding the universe and their place in it,” said John Panagos, a teacher at Burckhalter Elementary in Oakland.

Source: Fade to black: How teachers are using the solar eclipse to shed light on science | EdSource

Vacaville Unified to receive Kairos update, consider CBO contract – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

An update on Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, an independent charter school, and an employment contract for Jennifer Stahlheber, the new chief business officer, are on the agenda when Vacaville Unified leaders meet Thursday.

Jared Austin, co-founder and executive director of Kairos, which is aligned with Vacaville Unified and in its fourth year of operation, will make the presentation.

According to agenda documents, he will offer data on demographics, including enrollments by race, English learners, foster youth, number of homeless, economic status and special education numbers; state standardized test results; physical fitness test results; attendance rates; number of community service hours; suspension and expulsion rates;

Source: Vacaville Unified to receive Kairos update, consider CBO contract

Fairfield-Suisun USD responds to grand jury finding on homeless students – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

Fairfield-Suisun Unified leaders on Thursday will face a relatively light agenda, except for item 14, a review and possible approval of Superintendent Kris Corey’s draft letter to the Solano County Grand Jury report, “Educational Rights of Solano County Homeless Children and Youth.”

Corey’s letter, addressed to Judge Robert C. Fracchia, takes issue with some of the report’s findings and concurs with others. It also clarifies and informs several grand jury recommendations.

She partly disagreed with the first finding, about whether district officials offered “conflicting statistics” in reporting the number of homeless children in the sprawling district, the county’s largest, with more than 21,500 students in more than two dozen campuses.

And she agreed with two recommendations, that reporting data be “accurate and verifiable” and that the district (and others countywide) find “more effective ways” of identifying homeless students.

via: Fairfield-Suisun USD responds to grand jury finding on homeless students

Sports study: High school athletes not being fully protected – Daily Republic

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By The Associated Press

A high school sports study conducted by the Korey Stringer Institute shows that many individual states are not fully implementing key safety guidelines to protect athletes from potentially life-threatening conditions, including heat stroke.

More than 7.8 million high school students participate in sanctioned sports annually. KSI announced the results Tuesday at a news conference at NFL headquarters. The league partially sponsors the institute.

The state-by-state survey of all sports played in high school showed North Carolina with the most comprehensive health and safety policies at 79 percent, followed by Kentucky at 71 percent. At the bottom were Colorado (23 percent) and California (26 percent). Those scores were based on a state meeting best practice guidelines addressing the four major causes of sudden death for that age group: cardiac arrest, traumatic head injuries, exertional heat stroke and exertional sickling occurring in athletes with sickle cell trait.

Source: Sports study: High school athletes not being fully protected

Thursday benefit concert at Vacaville High canceled – The Reporter

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A Thursday concert and fundraiser for Vacaville Unified high school music programs has been canceled, an event organizer has announced.

The concert, with at least three bands on the bill, was set for Zunino Stadium at Vacaville High.

In an email routed to The Reporter, Aaron George said “the construction situation” at the West Monte Vista Avenue campus, where crews are finishing the construction of a new classroom building and starting on another, forced the event’s cancellation.

Source: Thursday benefit concert at Vacaville High canceled

TUSD agenda: 45-day budget revision, hike in meal costs – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

The 45-day budget revision, a 5-cent increase for school breakfasts and lunches and the adoption of school district goals are on the agenda when Travis Unified leaders meet tonight.

Sonia Lasyone, the chief business officer, will present the 45-day revision to the district’s 2017-18 budget of $56.7 million, with $1.2 million in deficit spending and a $4.8 million ending fund balance.

In accord with the Budget Act, California school districts are required to make public any revisions to their annual budgets after the initial adoption on or before July 1 every year.

In the case of Travis, Lasyone will tell the five-member governing board that revenues, because of one-time mandated dollars, will increase nearly $800,000 this coming year. Additionally, Local Control Funding Formula sources will drop by $19,000 this fiscal year, and by $131,000 and $199,000, respectively, in the next two fiscal years.

Source: TUSD agenda: 45-day budget revision, hike in meal costs

“Food shaming” not an issue as DUSD deals with meal debts – The Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

After a national chorus of outrage, American public schools are rethinking so-called “lunch shaming” policies that humiliate children with meal debts.

Since July, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has required school districts to adopt policies for taking care of delinquent student accounts for breakfast and lunch meals. While the agency, which funds the meal programs, is not specifically barring most of the embarrassing methods — such as serving cheap sandwiches instead of hot meals or sending children home with reminders, such as hand stamps — districts are being encouraged to inform parents at the start of the school year, so children don’t go hungry.

It is an issue that turned up last week on the Dixon Unified governing board agenda, as district leaders seeks solutions to the sizable number of unpaid lunch accounts.

via: “Food shaming” not an issue as DUSD deals with meal debts.

Healthy meals help kids succeed in school – Daily Republic

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By Lisa Larsen

Making healthier choices from all five food groups is a simple and proven way to help children succeed in school.

A growing body of research links nutrition and achievement, meaning that kids who eat well do better in school. The start of the school year is a great time to give children every academic advantage possible by encouraging participation in the school breakfast and lunch program and including nutrition education in the classroom.

School meals are modeled after MyPlate and provide a convenient and affordable way for families to ensure children have access to healthy food at school. Student participation in school breakfast or lunch programs is associated with improvement in grades, standardized test scores and school attendance.

Source: Healthy meals help kids succeed in school

Back-to-School Resource Fair returns Saturday – Daily Republic

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By Daily Republic Staff

The Fairfield-Suisun School District, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, the Fairfield Police Department and several other organizations are joining efforts to provide school supplies for students in need.

The annual Back-to-School Resource Fair is slated from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the church, 1600 Union Ave.

Area residents are asked to bring such items as pens, pencils, notebooks and backpacks in advance of the event to the Sullivan Interagency Youth Services Center, 2195 Union Ave., in Fairfield. Backpacks should not be blue or red.

Source: Back-to-School Resource Fair returns Saturday