By Nick Sestanovich
At Thursday’s school board meeting, the Benicia Unified School District welcomed Stephanie Rice as the new coordinator of education services. In this role, she will be working at all grade levels and curricular areas to support instructional programs and practices at each school.
Rice graduated from Benicia High School in 1992, attended Sonoma State University and the University of Southern California and has a master’s degree in education. She has been an educator for 18 years, 16 of which have been with BUSD, including a period as a fourth-grade teacher at Robert Semple Elementary School. For the past two years, she was a Teacher On Special Assignment, with a particular focus on math and science. She helped implement the district’s current elementary math program, promoted vertical articulation with Benicia Middle School math and science teachers, assisted with the adoption of Next Generation Science Standards at Benicia and Liberty High and worked closely with Benicia High’s math and science departments.
Additionally, Rice was also a camp coordinator at 2016’s C-STEM Girls in Robotic Leadership Camp, in which female Benicia Middle Schoolers got to spend a week learning lessons in robotics and coding and even got to go on an excursion to UC Davis.Rice has two daughters, a fifth-grader at Robert Semple and a seventh-grader at Benicia Middle.