By Thomas Gase

Per usual, Loma Vista Farms in Vallejo was full of animals, apple cider, train rides and puppet shows on Saturday. However, when Loma Vista Farms Events Chair Jennifer Shinar was asked what her favorite part about the farm’s annual Harvest Festival was, she didn’t hesitate.

“Oh, the kids. No doubt. Seeing their faces light up when they see everything here,” Shinar said. “That’s what keeps me coming back year after year. I especially like seeing them with the old-school cider house. I love watching the kids crank it up and then crush it and then taste it. We do it every year and I love watching the kids’ reaction to it.”

Source: Loma Vista Farms harvests fun family time in Vallejo – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Griffin Technology Academies and the Vallejo City Unified School District announced a memorandum of understanding in response to the school district’s notice of violation issued to the academy last spring.

According to GTA news release, this provides “benchmark remedies to guarantee transparency, accountability and a strong academic program.”

Last spring the district sent out draft Notices of Violations and Opportunity to Cure to GTA last month. A Notice of Violations is the first step in initiating charter revocation proceedings against the four charter schools.

Source: Griffin Technology Academies has new memorandum of understanding with Vallejo City Unified School District – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Instead of welcoming returning classmates back from summer break with a handshake or a quick “hello,” students at Vallejo Charter instead created a mural, “Our Message of Self Discovery.”

The mural project, from Vallejo Teaching Artists in partnership with the Vallejo City Unified School District Expanded Learning Program, introduces students to public art through the collaborative process of creating a mural with a professional muralist — in this instance Leah Tumerman, a muralist for years who was inspired by the work of the five students behind the greeting.

Source: Painting a welcoming picture – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Dr. Charles Young may not be the Benicia Unified School District superintendent, but the city still believes it has the “Wright” stuff.

Damon Wright is the new superintendent of BUSD. After a series of interviews and “meet and greet” events in May, Wright was offered the position on June 9 at the Governing Board meeting. Young retired from the position on June 30.

“The interview process was rigorous, and I grappled with a rollercoaster of emotions throughout it,” Wright said on Tuesday. “I rushed home and shared the news with my family. I was excited about the opportunity to return and lead the District. I am very fond of BUSD.”

Source: Damon Wright ready to lead Benicia Unified School District – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Temperatures may have soared into the high 80s on Monday, but kids in Vallejo were hitting books, not waves.

Class was back in session — and summer was unofficially over — for the first day of school in the Vallejo City Unified School District. Benicia Unified began last week.

Although students and teachers are still required to wear masks indoors, the mood on campus suggested that a return to the pre-pandemic days of school wasn’t far off.

Source: Vallejo classes back in session – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Six-year-old Mahdi Hawkins was already excited to get a new backpack Saturday morning, but it was the contents that took his excitement to another level.

Well, officially a first-grade level.

“Oh my God, there is stuff in here!” Hawkins shouted, gawking at new folders, crayons, pens, pencils and the like, his eyes growing as wide as the Grand Canyon as he jumped up and down“

Whoah!”

Source: The Hill Vallejo helps kids ‘get back’ to school – Times-Herald

The Vallejo City Unified School District (VCUSD) is hosting a job fair from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the District offices located at 665 Walnut Ave. in Vallejo.

Prospective employees can apply, interview, and get hired that day at the event.

Interested applicants are invited to fill out an application before the event. Certificated jobs, which require an applicant to have a certification or licensure, can fill out an application. Classified positions, which do not require credentials, can fill out an application.

Source: Vallejo City Unified School District holding job fair on Tuesday – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a missing ingredient at your local restaurant.

People.

According to Mare Island Brewing Company’s founder Kent Fortner, the decline in jobs — including ones for line cooks and prep cooks — is approximately 50 percent.

“The demand for employees in the restaurant business is there, but a lot of people have moved on for various reasons,” Fortner said. “I think in the end people were just too tired of waiting for restaurants to reopen, so they moved on,” Fortner said, adding that many people wanted to get into the restaurant business, but the problem was they had no experience.

Source: Citizens get acquainted with the kitchen with month-long class in Vallejo – Times-Herald

The Griffin Technology Academies Board of Directors announced this week that Nick Driver, who has been serving as acting superintendent since March, will fill the position permanently starting July 1. The board voted to approve his three-year contract during its June 14 meeting.

Driver’s base salary is set at $196,720 for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. He will lead the charter school network, which operates two middle and two high schools. Originally known as Mare Island Technology Academy, GTA became the first to operate as a charter school within the boundaries of the Vallejo City Unified School District in 1999. The network has since expanded and currently has about 1,300 enrolled students.

GTA also announced that Shawna Gilroy was elevated to board chair, while Vivian Wesley was made the board’s vice-chair. The network also announced that Alex Insaurralde will return as chief academic officer.

Source: Vallejo charter network names Nick Driver as new superintendent

By Thomas Gase

The Griffin Technology Academies Board of Directors announced several new leadership positions on Wednesday, including new Board Chair Shawna Gilroy, Board Vice-Chair Vivian Wesley and the appointment of Nick Driver as permanent superintendent.

Driver has spent nearly two decades in a variety of roles serving students and the charter school community. As a founding staff member at the California Charter Schools Association, he supported GTA and its schools beginning in 2004.

“I’m very excited about the future of GTA and our new school leadership,” Driver said in a news release. “I’m incredibly honored to be selected as permanent Superintendent and entrusted to lead our schools forward. Ms. Gilroy and Ms. Wesley are committed leaders, and also strongly believe in supporting the Vallejo community through activism, volunteerism, and resilience — and I’m convinced they will continue to bring that same commitment to their new board roles.”

Source: Griffin Technology Academies announces new board officers – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Griffin Technology Academies says it agrees with school district issues with its four charter schools and is acting in good faith to resolve the concerns.

The Vallejo City Unified School District sent out draft Notices of Violations and Opportunity to Cure to GTA last month. A Notice of Violations is the first step in initiating charter revocation proceedings against the four charter schools. If not corrected, the VCUSD Board can consider the action of sending a Notice of Intent to Revoke to one or more of the four schools — Mare Island Technology Academy middle and high schools as well as Griffin Academy middle and high schools.

Source: Griffin Technology Academies hope to move forward after getting ‘wake up call’ – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

When keynote speaker and former Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan addressed the crowd at Beverly Hills Elementary School in Vallejo, he began by reciting the definition of the world “resilient.” Someone who is resilient is someone able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

Or in this case the 2022 graduating class at Mare Island Technology Academy in Vallejo.

Family and friends cheered on 104 students receiving their diplomas on Wednesday night after four years of studying during difficult times in the world.

Source: Mare Island Technology Academy uses ‘resilence’ to graduate – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

Vallejo High School valedictorian Rachel Contreras Ramirez had some difficulty giving her speech at times on Thursday afternoon. In many segments, especially while thanking her family, she was overcome with emotion, shedding tears.

However, much like her fellow students in the Class of 2022, she pushed on despite the challenges.

Those tears from Ramirez eventually subsided and her smile eventually matched the ones of 292 other students as family, friends, teachers and others celebrated the Redhawks making it through an often difficult four years to get to commencement

Source: Vallejo High School ‘achieves greater lengths’ to graduate – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

It wasn’t a cold winter day in Boston, but Vallejo City Unified School District Superintendent William Spalding gave the same advice to John Finney High School graduates once given to a Harvard freshman named Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Persevere.

“This has been the hardest year of the hardest three years for students,” Spalding told the crowd and students at Corbus Field Wednesday. “These students had to persevere under so much and yet, here we are. You can credit that to stamina, resilience, and tenacity. So give these students a round of applause as they probably had to work harder than any other student to get here.”

Source: John Finney students ‘rise’ to graduate – Times-Herald

By Thomas Gase

As COVID infections rise once again throughout the country, masks are returning to Vallejo schools.

After a rise in COVID cases attributed to the BA.2 Omicron strain, the Vallejo City Unified School District decided over the weekend to have its staff and students to wear masks in all indoor settings.

VCUSD Superintendent William Spalding said in a news release, “We believe that this simple measure provides us the best opportunity to finish this school year without further significant disruption and to be able to hold planned events.”

Source: VCUSD teachers, students to wear masks indoors for rest of school year – Times-Herald

With smiles on their faces, the Vallejo city council happily agreed to a request from First 5 Solano Children and Families to provide $500,000 in funding to establish an Early Learning Center at the former Beverly Hills Elementary School site in South Vallejo.

The funding will be split in at least two ways with the city redirecting $160,000 from its Youth Initiative budget, and $340,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funding.

Source: Council pledges $500K toward early childhood center in South Vallejo