VUSD classified staff ratify new 2-year contract | dailyrepublic.com

The Vacaville Unified School District classified staff voted Wednesday to ratify a new two-year contract that includes a $20 minimum wage, no cuts to healthcare, improved health and safety protections and a one-time bonus.

The vote, which was almost unanimous, included maintenance workers, nutrition workers, paraprofessionals, student supervision workers, custodians, clerical workers and bus drivers.

In mid-January, members of Service Employees International Union 1021 voted to authorize a strike, but did not set a date.

Source: VUSD classified staff ratify new 2-year contract | News | dailyrepublic.com

With strike looming, VUSD OKs wage pact with school-support workers – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

After 10 months of negotiations, Vacaville Unified leaders and the school district’s classified, or school-support employees, reached an agreement on a new two-year wage-and-benefits package, The Reporter has learned.

On the verge of going on strike before the deal was made final, a majority of the 700 members in the Vacaville chapter of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 ratified the contract Wednesday, Chelsea Fink, an SEIU spokeswoman, said in an email.

Source: With strike looming, VUSD OKs wage pact with school-support workers – The Vacaville Reporter

In special board workshop, VUSD trustees to hear school ‘report cards’ – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

During a special governing board workshop, Vacaville Unified leaders on Saturday will hear reports on school accountability, sometimes commonly referred to as “the district’s report card,” a review of multiple district departments, and a budget presentation.

Trustees will be asked to approve, submit and publish the 2023-24 School Accountability Report Card for 17 schools to the state Department of Education.

The report card details the condition and performance of district schools, with data that includes to conditions, outcomes of state testing in English and mathematics in grades three to 8 and 11, and engagement.

Source: In special board workshop, VUSD trustees to hear school ‘report cards’ – The Vacaville Reporter

Middle school honor band holds concert | dailyrepublic.com

Vaca Pena Middle School in Vacaville recently played host to the North Bay Honor Band for middle schools.

There were two days of rehearsal, culminating in a concert on Sunday.

“Students are selected by competitive taped auditions,” Ted Foreman, a teacher at Green Valley Middle School, said in an email sent through a third party.

Source: Good News: Middle school honor band holds concert | News | dailyrepublic.com

Solano educators: Nation’s ‘report card’ underscores needs, opportunities – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Several Solano County education leaders on Thursday said the so-called “nation’s report card,” indicating that America’s children have continued to show declines in reading skills and made little progress in math, underscore needs and opportunities for improvement.

Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading.

Source: Solano educators: Nation’s ‘report card’ underscores needs, opportunities – The Vacaville Reporter

VUSD says it’s ready for possible strike | dailyrepublic.com

The Vacaville Unified School District is prepared to navigate a possible classified employee strike.The district’s classified staff voted to authorize a strike. No date has been set.

“Our primary focus remains ensuring that learning continues in our classrooms and that our student’s educational experience is minimally disrupted,” the district wrote in an email to the Daily Republic.

Source: VUSD says it’s ready for possible strike; wants to reach fair agreement in timely manner | News | dailyrepublic.com

VUSD trustees to meet as school-support employees threaten strike – The Vacaville Reporter

Vacaville Unified trustees will meet tonight in regular session as members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 — some 700 school-support employees ranging from bus drivers and special education aides to maintenance workers and custodians — threaten to strike.

Chelsea Fink, a communications specialist with the union, said lead negotiator Casey Thompson and others have been in talks with district officials for a “successor contract” for some nine months and have met well more than a dozen times to resolve contract and other matters.

Source: VUSD trustees to meet as school-support employees threaten strike – The Vacaville Reporter

Kairos plans ‘new chapter’ in Vacaville – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Like an adolescent, Kairos Public Schools, which currently enrolls nearly 800 students in TK-12 classes, keeps growing and growing. It will enroll nearly 900 students next year and will have its own separate high school in 18 months in east Vacaville.

The bold plans are part of an “exciting new chapter” to expand opportunities for the independent charter school’s students and the Vacaville community, Jared Austin, superintendent and CEO of Kairos, said in a press statement.

That chapter includes construction of the school’s first permanent high school, the Kairos Luminary Academy High School. Groundbreaking is set for this summer and its estimated completion date is July 2026, he said in an email to The Reporter.

Source: Kairos plans ‘new chapter’ in Vacaville – The Vacaville Reporter

Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom: Pros and Cons – Times Herald Online

Whether it’s in the form of digital assistants like “Siri” and “Alexa” or a Facebook video of a cat clumsily dancing on two legs, there’s no doubt that AI — artificial intelligence — is increasingly common in our everyday lives.

That includes education.

Depending on who you ask, its role in the classroom is either the first step towards inevitable doom or the first step towards an enlightened future.

Source: Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom: Pros and Cons – Times Herald Online

Vacaville People’s Forum to host annual MLK Day of Celebration – The Vacaville Reporter

The Vacaville People’s Forum and Vacaville City Councilman Greg Ritchie will team up to present the fifth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Celebration, from noon to 2 p.m. onMonday, Jan. 20, at the Sunrise Banquet Hall & Event Center, 620 Orange Drive, in Vacaville.

Doors will open at 11 a.m. so attendees have time to visit more than a dozen resourcetables offered by local non-profit organizations, organizers said in a press release. The free event will feature DJ Al Ilaoa, with live music by the Sylvan Singers of Will C. Wood High School and the Vacaville School of Rock, and dancers from Bliss Urban Arts Center and the Vacaville Neighborhood Boys & Girls Club.

Source: Vacaville People’s Forum to host annual MLK Day of Celebration – The Vacaville Reporter

VUSD’s Teacher of the Year ‘really passionate’ about teaching TK – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

It may be a cliched story but still a true one for some: a teacher somewhere along a student’s education path influenced them to become a teacher.

“I had amazing teachers,” said Renee Yeasted, a Vallejo native and a traditional kindergarten teacher at Hemlock Elementary in Vacaville, said during a brief telephone interview Monday.

Which explains, in part, why she entered the profession, one in which she can exercise a deeply felt emotion every day at work, and also explains why she has been named as this year’s Vacaville Unified Teacher of the Year.

Source: VUSD’s Teacher of the Year ‘really passionate’ about teaching TK – The Vacaville Reporter

Latest school shooting spurs safety conversations in Vacaville – The Vacaville Reporter

By Robin Miller

It was 25 years ago that two students walked into Columbine High School and opened fire, killing 13 people and wounding 21 others before turning the guns on themselves. Monday’s school shooting at a Madison, Wisc., school has once again stirred the same debates that raged over school safety and gun violence back then.

In the wake of the most recent shooting, parents and school leaders across the nation are again talking about the issues.

Source: Latest school shooting spurs safety conversations in Vacaville – The Vacaville Reporter

VUSD New trustees, board reorganization, budget report – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Tonight will mark the Vacaville Unified governing board’s last meeting of 2024, and two newly elected women will be sworn in as the school district’s newest trustees — just in time to hear the school district’s 2024-25 first interim budget numbers and see some projected red ink.

Audra Orr, a retired state Department of Justice special agent and retired Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel representing Trustee Area 4, and Michele Guerra, chairwoman of the Solano County Republican Central Committee representing Trustee Area 7, will take the oath of office.

Source: On VUSD agenda: New trustees, board reorganization, budget report – The Vacaville Reporter

Vacaville honored for ‘Summer at City Hall’ program | dailyrepublic.com

Vacaville is one of 10 recipients honored with a League of California Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence.

Vacaville was recognized for its commitment to youth engagement and community service with the Ruth Vreeland Award. This award celebrates the city’s Summer at City Hall program, which empowers high school students by blending classroom learning with hands-on internships in local government.

Source: Vacaville honored for ‘Summer at City Hall’ program | News | dailyrepublic.com

VUSD chapter of Local 1021 of SEIU still without new contract – The Vacaville Reporter

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

Local races, issues on November ballot – Times Herald Online

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

On the VUSD board agenda: Designating Red Ribbon Week – The Vacaville Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Vacaville Unified School District leaders appear to have a relatively light agenda when they meet Thursday night in Vacaville.

The governing board likely will adopt a resolution declaring support for Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-31, the nationwide campaign — this year themed is “Life is a Movie, Film Drug Free” — to join in tobacco, alcohol and other drug-prevention programs, activities, and, according to wording in the agenda documents, “making a visible statement and commitment to healthy, drug-free communities.”

Source: On the VUSD board agenda: Designating Red Ribbon Week – The Vacaville Reporter

An excellent example (VUSD) – The Vacaville Reporter

By Nick McConnell

If excellence is what students at the Shereene Wilkerson Academy of Excellence seek, they need only look to their new namesake for an example that is, well, excellent.

Wilkerson served with the Vacaville Police Department in the 1970s as the city’s first School Resource Officer and set up the Youth Services Section for the department, which still serves community youth today. In 1980, she started working for the Vacaville Unified School District as a teacher, where she became Teacher of the Year in her first year at Vacaville High School. Wilkerson eventually became a principal and was later promoted to the district office, where she finished her career as Associate Superintendent.

Source: An excellent example – The Vacaville Reporter

Vacaville Chamber holds VUSD Forum – The Vacaville Reporter

By Nick McConnell

Five Vacaville Unified School District Board of Trustees candidates from Areas Four and Seven participated in a forum hosted by the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday night at Travis Credit Union. Asked a series of questions throughout the two-hour forum by chamber CEO Debbie Egidio, candidates expanded on their policy platforms, giving answers on spending, their priorities for the district, and their motivations for running.

In Area Four, incumbent Lindsay Kelly, elected in a 2023 special election, is running against Audra Orr, a former military member and police officer. In Area Seven, 21-year incumbent Michael Kitzes is running against challengers George Burton, a father in the district with longstanding family ties in the area and Michele Guerra, Chair of the Solano County Republican Central Committee.

Source: Vacaville Chamber holds VUSD Forum – The Vacaville Reporter