The Solano County Office of Education is looking for volunteers to help with the Bay Region Academic Decathlon.
Volunteers are needed to be Speech and Interview judges; room monitors; runners; Super Quiz proctors and other tasks.
“All volunteers will receive an orientation packet and participate in an in-person orientation to prepare for their roles,” organizers said.
Source: County Office of Education seeks Academic Decathlon volunteers | Hydrography | dailyrepublic.com
The 2024 California School Dashboard (Dashboard) and accompanying DataQuest reports are now online, with data showing continued statewide improvements in student outcomes across key indicators of student success.
The Dashboard is a key component of the state’s school accountability system, which includes the latest data on graduation rates, suspension rates, test scores, English learner progress, the college/career indicator, chronic absenteeism, and local indicators.
Source: 2024 Dashboard: Progress in Academics, Grad Rates – Year 2024 (CA Dept of Education)
President-elect Trump announced on Tuesday that he will nominate Linda McMahon to serve as secretary of the Department of Education on Tuesday.
McMahon is co-leading Trump’s transition team. She was considered a front-runner to lead the Department of Commerce and her co-lead on the transition team, Howard Lutnick, is expected to be named for that role.
McMahon previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
Source: Trump nominates WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to lead Department of Education | FOX40
Thursday’s meeting of the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District board could be the last for three trustees.
The unofficial results of the Nov. 5 election shows three challengers leading in five trustee area contests.
The vote count, as of Monday, shows Alonso Duarte leading Trustee Area 1 incumbent Bethany Smith with 54.71% of the vote; Brigette Hunley leading Trustee Area 3 incumbent Judi Honeychurch with 51.92% of the vote; and Nikki Parr leading the four-candidate race for Trustee Area 7 with 36.66% of the vote. Appointed incumbent Perry Polk has 13.86%, the county Registrar of Voters reports.
Source: Changing of board leadership looms at F-S Unified | News | dailyrepublic.com
There will be a new poet laureate in Fairfield in the new year.Michael Wyly, a Solano Community College English professor, has worked with current poet laureate, Suzanne Bruce, over the past few years.
They met in 2011 when she had a poem published in the Suisun Valley Review, an annual anthology from the college, which is under his guidance.
Source: SCC instructor, Michael Wyly, is Fairfield’s new poet laureate | Diversions | dailyrepublic.com
Two of Rodriguez High School’s top student-athletes were celebrated Wednesday afternoon as they signed national letters-of-intent with Division I programs near and far.
Ava Bautista will continue her swimming career and education at San Jose State. Arden Billingsley has found a volleyball home at DePaul University in Chicago.
Source: Rodriguez High students sign with Div. I programs | High School | dailyrepublic.com
An increasing number of Vallejo City Unified School District students are regularly attending school a year after rolling out a plan to improve its students’ low attendance rates. Newly released data shows that the district has seen a drastic reduction in its chronic absenteeism rate, the rate of students who miss 10% or more of the required instructional days.
VCUSD’s chronic absenteeism rate skyrocketed after the COVID-19 pandemic began. In the 2018-19 school year, VCUSD’s chronic absenteeism rate was 24.1%. But during the 2021-22 school year, the first year the California Department of Education resumed publishing school absence data after the pandemic hit, its rate was 58.1%. While the district’s rate dipped in the 2022-23 school year, it remained high at 49.2%.
Source: Vallejo school district sees promising attendance trends
By Richard Bammer
While Sacramento leaders are singing the blues about the 2024-25 state budget, freighted with $46.8 billion in red ink, a Vacaville Unified labor group hears the same tune.
Barbra Hamilton, chapter president of the Vacaville Unified School District chapter of Local 1021 of the Service Employees International Union, said Wednesday district, after some eight months of fruitless negotiations, “is bargaining in bad faith.”
Source: VUSD chapter of Local 1021 of SEIU still without new contract – The Vacaville Reporter
The Vallejo City Unified School District held its last 7-11 Committee Meeting earlier this week and approved three recommendations to present to the VCUSD Board of Education at the upcoming Board Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 20 meeting.
Source: VCUSD’s 7-11 Committee approves three recommendations for Board of Education – Times Herald Online
The Rodriguez High School entertainment unit – leading up to the 33rd annual Tournament of Champions – continued its run of successful competition performances.
REU brought home five trophies from its field show performance at this past weekend’s Napa Valley Band Review held at Napa Memorial Stadium. There were 16 bands at the event.
The unit placed first in Division 5A, and took first place overall in Conducting and Percussion, while taking second in Woodwinds and third in Color Guard.
Source: Rodriguez High brings home 5 more band competition trophies | News | dailyrepublic.com
Solano County’s voter turnout climbed up to 67.7% with 8,280 additional ballots counted Friday – up from 64.63%.
However, there were no lead changes in the local races as leaders in the closest contests, in fact, secured their advantages.
Two races for seats on the Fairfield City Council remain close, the outcome on three races for spots on the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District are not clear, yet, and the Vallejo mayor’s race and one seat on that council also have not been decided.
Source: Solano County election staff cuts into ballot pile | Solano County | dailyrepublic.com
By Thomas Gase
The Vallejo City Unified School District held its last 7-11 Committee Meeting earlier this week and approved three recommendations to present to the VCUSD Board of Education at the upcoming Board Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 20 meeting.
The Travis Unified school board is going to have a very different look.
Three new members will take their places on the five-member board in December: two with election wins on Tuesday; the other appointed one night earlier.
Brenda A. DaPrato and Suzanne Schwartz were the only candidates for two open seats in Trustee Area 2, replacing Manveer Sandhu, who opted to run for Fairfield City Council, and Ivery Hood, who chose not to seek re-election. Tierra Ekstrom was appointed by the board during a special meeting on Monday. Ekstrom fills the District 1 post vacated by Melinda Beyer, who resigned.
Source: Three new members will join Travis Unified governing board | Politics | dailyrepublic.com
By Richard Bammer
What a difference a day makes.
Updated ballot counts Wednesday for a pair of contested Vacaville Unified School District governing board posts showed Michele Guerra overtaking incumbent Michael Kitzes in the three-way Trustee Area 7 race, but Audra Orr continues to maintain her lead over incumbent Lindsay Kelly for the Area 4 seat
Source: In VUSD trustee races, Guerra overtakes Kitzes, Orr retains lead – The Vacaville Reporter
By Richard Bammer
Updated ballot counts Wednesday showed incumbent Amy Sharp maintaining a comfortable lead in the three-way Solano County Office of Education race in Trustee Area 2.
Unofficial votes tallies showed Sharp in the lead with 11,030 votes, or nearly 47 percent, ahead of Dr. Bonnie Hamilton’s 8,232, or 35 percent, and Carol J. Kalamaras trailing with 4,271, or 18 percent.
Source: Incumbent Amy Sharp continues to lead in SCOE Trustee Area 2 race – The Vacaville Reporter
The facility bond measure in Travis Unified had the early backing of voters, but Vacaville Unified voters were rejecting that bond.
As of the 8:10 p.m. county Registrar of voters posting, with mail-in ballots only, 57.95% (3,046 to 2,210) of the early Travis Unified voters backed the $65 million Measure R bond. Vacaville Unified voters were voting against the $317 million Measure E bond, with 51.01% (9,072 to 8.714) against.
Source: Travis Unified supports facility bond, Vacaville Unified not so much | News | dailyrepublic.com
The Fairfield High Performing Arts Center project is one of three items to be discussed Thursday by the Fairfield-Suisun school board’s Facilities Subcommittee.
The meeting is set for 5 p.m. following a tour of the KI Jones Elementary School library.
Also on the agenda are discussions on the Public Safety Academy Office, Parking Lot and Track Project, and other projects in their design phases.
Source: FSUSD facilities panel meets Thursday | News | dailyrepublic.com
The Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District awoke Tuesday to the possibility of having five new board members – and with it – the possibility of a big policy shift.
Instead, the voters in Districts 2, 3 and 6 seemed to be on the way to returning their sitting incumbents, while appointed Trustee Perry Polk was losing in District 7.
Bethany Smith had a slight edge over Alonso R Duarte in District 1 – 1,664 to 1,633, (50.47%) – following the initial 8:10 p.m. posting of election day results, the Solano County Registrar of Voters Office reported.
Source: Fairfield-Suisun school board voters staying mostly on course | News | dailyrepublic.com
The Travis Unified school board, on a 4-0 vote Monday night, selected a Fairfield native, and wife of a Travis AFB tech sergeant, to serve as the Trustee Area 1 representative.
Tierra Ekstrom, 38, will be sworn in at the first December meeting of the board. She replaces Melinda Beyer, who resigned.
She has a son who is a senior at Vanden High and a daughter who is in seventh-grade at Golden West.
Source: Travis Unified board selects new Trustee Area 1 rep | News | dailyrepublic.com
By Nick McConnell
As voters across the country head to the polls to pick a new president, Solano County voters will make their voices heard in down-ballot races.
Vallejo voters will select a new mayor and will vote in city council districts one, three and five. Vacaville voters will weigh-in for contested city council races in districts three and five and will select new school board trustees in Vacaville Unified School District areas four and seven. Vacaville will also vote on Measure E, a school bond issue.
Source: Local races, issues on November ballot – Times Herald Online