Category Archives: Dixon Unified School District

SPI Names California PAEMST Finalists – Year 2023 (CA Dept of Education)

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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today honored six outstanding math and science teachers from California who are finalists for the 2023 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

“Let me offer my sincere congratulations to these educators who we honor for their leadership and instructional practices and how they are inspiring a new generation with passion and talent for science, technology, engineering, and math,” Thurmond said. “They model excellence in how we are preparing California students for the challenges and advancements of the future.”The PAEMST program is administered by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The PAEMST is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government specifically for kindergarten through grade twelve science, mathematics, engineering, and computer science teaching. For 2022–23, those who teach grades seven through twelve were eligible for the award. Presidential Award recipients are honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., and receive a $10,000 special award from the National Science Foundation.

Source: SPI Names California PAEMST Finalists – Year 2023 (CA Dept of Education)

Teacher, students use grant for a ‘Healthier Dixon’ – The Vacaville Reporter

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In February, Dixon High School English teacher Lisa Krebs applied for — and received — a Tobacco Use Prevention Education grant through the Solano County Office of Education for an anti-vaping and anti-smoking project to create and carry-out with her 10th grade Honors English students at Dixon High School.

Nearly 80 students participated in the project, called “Healthier Dixon.

”Krebs says they started out with an idea to help make Dixon High School and the Dixon Community a healthier place by educating Dixon High students about the dangers of smoking and vaping.

Source: April 27 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Faces and Places – The Vacaville Reporter

Dixon High’s “The Lending Closet” offers donated formal wear to students – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Rebecca Wasik

Do you have an old prom dress or tuxedo stored away in a box in the garage gathering dust?

If so, you’re not alone. Some people however choose to donate these items to their local high school in order to allow a current student to create new memories with it.

Dixon High School has been accepting donated prom dresses and tuxedos since 2016. Once Principal Stephanie Marquez realized just how many dresses her daughter had acquired by the end of high school, she began lending some of them out to students that didn’t have one or decided to attend prom at the last minute.

Source: Dixon High’s “The Lending Closet” offers donated formal wear to students – The Vacaville Reporter

Nominations open to recognize those who help students with disabilities – Daily Republic

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Nominations are being accepted for the 17th annual Community Advisory Committee Recognition Awards for those who go above and beyond in the service of students with disabilities.

The CAC Awards are presented to educators, youth and community members for outstanding service who go above and beyond in service of students with disabilities.

Award recipients are from each school district within the Solano County Special Education Local Plan Area: Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield-Suisun, Travis and Vacaville, as well as the Solano County Office of Education.

Source: Nominations open to recognize those who help students with disabilities

Unofficial Solano election results are in; more to come – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Kimberly K. Fu

Election Day has come and gone, but results for races in Solano County are not yet set.

Why? Because there’s still thousands of ballots left to count.

According to the Solano County Registrar of Voters office, outstanding Vote-by-Mail ballots total 35,821 while outstanding provisional ballots number 1,671.

On Wednesday, staff focused full bore on processing ballots. An estimated 15,000 were ready to be counted while 13,000 more were ready to be verified.

Source: Unofficial Solano election results are in; more to come – The Vacaville Reporter

Schools election picture coming into focus after Day 2 of count – Daily Republic

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By Todd R. Hansen

Jack Flynn held a majority lead over incumbent Jonathan Richardson for the Trustee Area 5 seat on the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District board.

As of Wednesday, Flynn had tallied 963 votes, representing 51.5% of the ballots cast, while Richardson had 907 votes (48.5%), the Solano County Registrar of Voters Office reported.

The unofficial result is with all 10 precincts counted, but with mail-in and provisional ballots left to count.

Source: Schools election picture coming into focus after Day 2 of count

CA must act to address mental health and suicide crises | The Sacramento Bee

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These are difficult days for my students of the past, the present and the future. They need more from us.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The need for better help and better health and my deepening concern for the well-being of our kids had led me to share my own story of struggling with mental health.

April 16, 2018, was one of those days I thought I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. My body was fine, but my mental health was not. The depression that has been an unwelcome companion of mine throughout my life had me under its control again. I had my plan, including a bottle of pills, and was ready to follow it.

Source: CA must act to address mental health and suicide crises | The Sacramento Bee

Dixon heads back to class for 2022-23 school year – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Nick Sestanovich

All throughout Dixon Unified School District’s six sites Monday, students returned to class after two months of summer vacation.

For most students, it meant returning to the same campus but going to different classrooms. For others, it was a campus they were attending for the first time. For all, it was a new start.

And nowhere was it a newer start than for kindergarteners, who took the first steps of their 13-year educational odyssey that will culminate in them graduating high school in June 2035.

Source: Dixon heads back to class for 2022-23 school year – The Vacaville Reporter

Dixon Unified hosting equipment surplus sale – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Nick Sestanovich

As the 2022-23 academic year for Dixon Unified School District inches closer — it’s next Wednesday, kids — the district will be selling off its surplus fixtures.

A chance to help the district get rid of its excess items and walk away with a new piece of furniture for home? That is exactly what will happen when DUSD hosts its Community Sale Aug. 11 to 13.

Held in the multipurpose room of the former CA Jacobs Middle School campus, the district will be selling surplus furniture, equipment and other items, most of which are available for $1, $2 and $5. Only cash will be accepted. DUSD’s goal is for all items to be sold, and items must be completely removed from the premises no later than 5 p.m. Aug. 13. Storage on-site for later pickup is not permitted.

Source: Dixon Unified hosting equipment surplus sale – The Vacaville Reporter

Dixon’s Maine Prairie High mints 30 new grads – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

The power went south throughout Dixon Wednesday night but there was no outage of energy at the Maine Prairie High School Class of 2022.

Held outdoors on the quad at Dixon High as the sun had set, the Dixon Unified continuation high graduated 30 students, who, later tonight will embark on a new life journey, whether it be in college, in the military, at a trade school, or on the job, said Principal Yvette Ramos.

District Superintendent Brian Dolan, lamenting the outage as he spoke to the gradually swelling crowd of graduate families and friends, said, “‘We’re here to celebrate our kids,” a statement that was translated into Spanish just before the delayed 6:30 p.m. ceremony began.

Source: Dixon’s Maine Prairie High mints 30 new grads – The Vacaville Reporter

Celebrate grads in Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon – The Vacaville Reporter

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Graduation season is here, which means it’s time to mark your calendars and gather some goodies in readiness for that special milestone day for your graduate-to-be.

Following is a list of high school graduations in Vacaville, Fairfield and Dixon.

Source: Celebrate grads in Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon – The Vacaville Reporter

Schools help unload boxes for Wreaths Across America – The Vacaville Reporter

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Soon, Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon will become a sea of wreaths as it will be one of more than 2,500 locations participating in Wreaths Across America, an annual holiday event in which boughs are laid on the gravestones of veterans.

Approximately 2,700 wreaths have been packaged and are ready to be bestowed upon the headstones. Local organization Remember a Vet has already gotten a head start on unloading the boxes, and schools were among the various volunteers Friday helping them do so. This included Dixon High School, Buckingham Collegiate Charter Academy’s National Honor Society students and Vanden High School’s baseball team.

Source: Schools help unload boxes for Wreaths Across America – The Vacaville Reporter

Dixon school board to discuss site emergency response plans – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Nick Sestanovich

How schools plan to responds to any emergency situation on campus will be just one topic presented at Thursday’s Dixon school board meeting.

By law, schools are required to submit safety plans to ensure that their campuses are prepared for emergencies that may arise on campus. The California Department of Education has a checklist that schools are required to meet.

The safety plan that was included in the agenda packet for Thursday’s meeting was the emergency operations plan for Dixon Unified School District’s three elementary schools, although the middle and high schools have their individual plans as well.

Source: Dixon school board to discuss site emergency response plans – The Vacaville Reporter

Dixon High farm grand opening scheduled for Saturday – The Vacaville Reporter

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Since its relocation to College Way in 2007, one thing Dixon High School has lacked has been easy access to a farm for its agriculture students, although establishing one has been a priority for the Dixon Unified School District for the last 14 years.

The wait is nearly over. On Saturday, a grand opening will be held for Dixon High’s farm, its first to ever be located on a Dixon High campus.

At its previous location at 455 East A St., Dixon High students utilized a farm on Sievers Road for Future Farmers of America projects. Since the school’s relocation, students have independently worked on projects at different farms. With funding from a Career Technical Education Facilities grant from the California Department of Education and sale of the Sievers Road farm, DUSD was finally able to get the project going, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2019.

Source: Dixon High farm grand opening scheduled for Saturday – The Vacaville Reporter

Masked and ready, Dixon students, staff return to in-person learning – The Vacaville Reporter

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By Richard Bammer

For the first time in nearly 18 months, Dixon Unified students, from kindergarteners to high school seniors, returned to full-time in-person learning Wednesday morning with teachers, staff and students masking up amid the ongoing pandemic.

The day came and went for the 3,100-students as California became the first state in the nation to mandate all teachers and school staff be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. Announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new requirement, prompted by a surge in infections due to the Delta variant, affects some 320,000 California public school teachers and tens of thousands support staffers.

Source: Masked and ready, Dixon students, staff return to in-person learning – The Vacaville Reporter

Friends of the Dixon May Fair award seven scholarships – The Reporter

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By Kimberly K. Fu

Seven Solano County scholars — six from Dixon and one from Vacaville–are sharing $12,000 in college agricultural scholarships awarded by the Friends of the Dixon May Fair.

The Friends, the service-oriented and fundraising arm of the fair, annually awards scholarships to Solano County residents enrolled in an agricultural-related field at either a four-year university or a two-year community college in California. The organization, headed by president Donnie Huffman of Vacaville, has awarded $222,750 in college scholarships since 2003.

Natalie Victorine of Dixon, a 2021 graduate of Dixon High School, received the $3000 Ester Armstrong Scholarship, the top award. She will major in agricultural communications this fall at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Source: Friends of the Dixon May Fair award seven scholarships – The Reporter

May Fair scholarships awarded to 7 Solano County students – Daily Republic

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Natalie Victorine, a 2021 Dixon High graduate, was awarded the top agriculture scholarship from the Friends of the Dixon May Fair.

Victorine, who will major in agricultural communications this fall at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, received the $3,000 Ester Armstrong Scholarship. The award is named after the industry veteran and 2006-09 interim chief executive officer of the Dixon May Fair, who died of cancer.

Six other Solano County students will share the remaining $9,000 in scholarships awarded, the Dixon May Fair group announced in a statement.

Source: May Fair scholarships awarded to 7 Solano County students

Sky’s the limit for Dixon High graduates – The Reporter

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By Kimberly K. Fu

Clear blue skies, tropical temperatures and cooling breezes Saturday were a perfect backdrop for Dixon High School’s Class of 2021 graduation.

Gathered at Finney Field, loved ones cheered and foot-stomped as their loved ones entered through a green-and-white balloon arch and took their places on white folding chairs.

An estimated 220 teens were slated to hang up their student status and graduate to academic adulthood, moving on to jobs and careers, the military, college. With their diplomas in hand, every pathway would be open for exploration.

Source: Sky’s the limit for Dixon High graduates – The Reporter

Maine Prairie graduates resilient in more ways than one – The Reporter

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By Nick Sestanovich

The graduation ceremonies at Maine Prairie High School are always inspirational events, given all that students have had to accomplish just to reach the stage.

Wednesday’s ceremony was momentous on another level: Students had the added challenge of a global pandemic, and it did not deter their graduations one bit. Some had even graduated early.

“(It’s) a relief,” new graduate Joel Chambers said ahead of the ceremony. “It’s a huge weight off my shoulders.”

Source: Maine Prairie graduates resilient in more ways than one – The Reporter

Dixon High to present farm-to-fork proposal to school board – The Reporter

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By Nick Sestanovich

The farm-to-fork movement, which promotes the serving of ingredients often sourced directly from or other food producer at restaurants or school cafeterias, has continued to make gains in recent years. More eateries have adopted farm-to-fork approaches, and even Dixon High School could be offering courses for its students.

At least that’s what Principal Stephanie Marquez and Miranda Will, a career technical education teacher on special assignment are proposing. They will be presenting their proposal at Thursday’s school board meeting.

The farm-to-fork courses would serve as a replacement to the school’s current culinary program, which is currently offered trough the Family Consumer Science Department. The present program has two courses, the first of which teaches students the basics of food and preparing meals and the second of which teaches students to preserve and market foods and even open “businesses” to sell their items to students and teachers, per the DHS 2019-20 school catalog.

Source: Dixon High to present farm-to-fork proposal to school board – The Reporter