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Gold Fun Facts
Jessie Baker School was the first public school for children with severe disabilities in the State
of California. It is named for Jessie Baker, a remarkable
woman who dedicated her life to the education of children with severe disabilities.
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| Honoring Our Volunteers
Ramon Canahuati of
Monterey Trail High School
Ramon Canahuati was recognized as an Education Partner at the February 17, 2009, meeting of the Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Education.
Canahuati has been a key volunteer at Monterey Trail High School and has donated his time in many areas. He has been involved with the Monterey Trail Athletic Booster Club since 2004. He has served as Booster Club president and currently holds the title of vice-president. In addition, he volunteers as the equipment manager for the Monterey Trail football team and volunteers his time to help maintain the athletic fields. Canahuati also serves meals to Monterey Trail athletic teams and helps run football camps in the summer.
Canahuati and his family have lived in Elk Grove since 2000. He is self-employed as the owner of EZ Green Landscaping and TV CHOICE. Canahuati has been married for 20 years to his wife Evelyn and they have three children: Louis - a star athlete who graduated from Monterey Trail in 2008, Diego - a sophomore at Monterey Trail and Sarah - an 8th grade student at Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School.
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Calvine High School receives $1,500 donation from Elk Grove Rotary Club
Calvine High School recently received a $1,500 donation from the Elk Grove Rotary Club for their Architecture, Construction and Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program. The donation will cover program expenses for ACE at Calvine.
The main emphasis of the ACE program is to provide students with "school to career" opportunities within the building industry. For more information on ACE, please visit www.acementor.org.
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EGUSD employees to "Run for Rhett"
On March 15th, 2009, approximately 125 EGUSD employees will participate in Fleet
Feet's Shamrock'n Half Marathon.
They will participate in honor of Rhett Seevers, who was born in 1997 with
cerebral palsy and died in 2004. On the one year anniversary of
his death, his mom, dad, and friends decided to run the first Shamrock'n Half
Marathon in his honor. A year later, 35 friends joined them. In 2007, 125
joined the effort and a non-profit foundation was formed called "Runnin'
for Rhett."
Last year, over 400 runners, walkers and volunteers
joined the effort. The Runnin' for Rhett
foundation was able to raise a $5,000 scholarship to award to a Sacramento County college student who aspires to
teach children with special needs like Rhett.
Runnin' for Rhett's Mission Statement is to let Rhett's story inspire those
who feel defeated, to uplift those who feel down, and encourage people to take
that first step and Move into Life. For more information on how you can join,
donate or volunteer for Runnin' for Rhett, please visit their website here.
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EGUSD rewarded for energy conservation by SMUD
The Elk Grove Unified School District was recognized for it's commitment to conserving natural resources by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) board director Genevieve Shiroma at the February 17, 2009, EGUSD Board of Education meeting.
Elk Grove Unified stepped up energy conservation efforts by installing power management software in computers throughout the district.
The EGUSD Board was presented with a "check" for $78,096, which represented the financial incentives EGUSD will receive from SMUD for the implementation of the PC Power Management software throughout the district.
The PC Power Management software automatically reduces the energy consumption of networked PCs and monitors. It engages the sleep mode feature when the PC is inactive for a preset amount of time, while allowing the computer to be quickly called into action at the user's convenience. In addition, the software can be preset to turn off the computer for a designated time period.
Elk Grove Unified's participation in the program has been a collaborative effort between SMUD staff and EGUSD's Technology Services and Facilities and Planning departments. | |
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Welcome to eguNews, an EGUSD email newsletter published every two weeks. If you have questions about eguNews, you can email communication@egusd.net or call (916) 686-7732.
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Budget Update
At the March 3, 2009, Board of Education meeting the governing board heard a report on the impact of the state's signed budget on the Elk Grove Unified School District.
The Governor's signed budget includes $8.6 billion in cuts to K-12 education for both the current year and 2009-2010. It also includes increased flexibility for how school districts spend categorical dollars. While flexibility is helpful, it does not make up for the lack of funding for our students. A critical component of the state's budget is that it is dependent on the outcome of a number of ballot measures that go before voters on May 19, 2009. Education finance experts agree that the state budget represents one of the most complicated budgets for public education in the state's history. Further complicating matters are the unknowns surrounding the federal stimulus package.
District staff have spent hours pouring over the budget variables to understand how they will impact EGUSD's budget. Based on the best information known at this time, EGUSD must identify $38 million in ongoing cuts over the next three years. In addition, the district will need to make $10 million in one-time, mid-year cuts in 2008-2009. All of the 2008-2009 cuts involve things and did not result in any layoffs.
Superintendent Steven M. Ladd, Ed.D., requested that the budget reduction process be viewed through the following lenses, in no particular order:
- keep people before things;
- cleanliness;
- safety and security;
- academic programs and services.
Fortunately, over the past few years, the district has been cautious with its dollars, which has resulted in a reserve that can now be used to help the district weather tough economic times. That time has come. Superintendent Ladd has worked with the Board, cabinet and staff to use the reserves to save as many jobs and educational programs as possible for at least one more year in 2009-2010. As a result, several of the identified budget reductions, including class size reduction in kindergarten through 3rd grade, administrators, library positions and others, have been postponed to the 2010-2011 school year. Through that work, the list of potential layoff notices for 2009-2010 was reduced from 1,100 to 300.
While the district will use its reserves to save jobs and academic programs, in order to begin to close the $38 million gap, the district has identified $4 million in one-time and $12.2 million in ongoing reductions for 2009-2010.
In response to the statutory March 15 deadline, the Board of Education convened during a regular meeting of the Board on March 3, 2009, and initiated the legally required steps to notify certificated personnel and classified personnel of potential layoffs for the 2009-2010 school year. Specifically, the governing board considered and adopted a resolution directing the Associate Superintendent of Human Resources to notify all certificated employees associated with the reduction and/or elimination of 85.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) certificated positions. In addition, the Board considered and adopted three resolutions directing the associate superintendent to notice all classified employees associated with a reduction in force of 190 positions.
Of these 190 classified positions, more than half are unrelated to the district's budget reductions. They are being notified because their position is funded through grants that have expired or revenue sources that are uncertain. The district annually notices a number of these positions until their funding stream is confirmed.
In the coming weeks, the budget information will be refined and notices will be rescinded accordingly. The district has been and will continue to be creative with funding to provide Elk Grove Unified students the best educational opportunities possible.
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EGUSD Board votes to cap
open enrollment transfers
On March 3, 2009, the Elk Grove Unified School District's Board of Education approved a 5 percent cap on the number of students allowed to transfer from a school attendance area through the 2009-2010 open enrollment process. The cap is 5 percent of the school's projected 2009-2010 student enrollment.
For the 2009-2010 school year, the Elk Grove Unified School District offered open enrollment at six middle schools: Harriet Eddy, Samuel Jackman, Joseph Kerr, Elizabeth Pinkerton, James Rutter and T.R. Smedberg; and at five high schools: Cosumnes Oaks, Elk Grove, Florin, Laguna Creek and Valley. Applications were due by February 13, 2009.
This year the district received more than 800 requests for open enrollment. The only two school attendance areas affected by the 5 percent cap are Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School and Harriet Eddy Middle School. All other transfer requests fell below a 5 percent cap.
Of the 76 students requesting to transfer from Harris Middle School to another school, 63 will be accepted. Of the 241 students requesting to transfer from Eddy Middle School to an alternate school, 45 will be accepted.
The district will conduct a random computer-generated lottery at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 9, 2009, at Laguna Creek High School. A computer will randomly assign numbers and rank order students. Students will be offered open enrollment slots at Edward Harris, Jr. Middle School and Harriet Eddy Middle School based on this rank order.
Students not selected for open enrollment will maintain their rank on a waiting list. Should students selected to attend their school of choice decline to transfer, the slot will be offered to the next student on the ranking list. The waiting list will be maintained until the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
Following the lottery process, parents and students will be notified of lottery results through a letter. Students wishing to move forward with the open enrollment process must fill out an open enrollment agreement, which will be included with the letter. The agreement must be returned to the student's school of choice by March 27, 2009.
Once enrolled in the school, students do not have to reapply each year. However, should middle school students wish to attend the feeder high school, they must apply through the open enrollment process at that time.
Questions about open enrollment or the lottery process may be directed to Secondary Education at 686-7706. An open enrollment fact sheet can be found here. |
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Castello Elementary celebrates African-American History Month through reading
On Friday, February 27, Helen Carr Castello Elementary School
students celebrated the last day of African-American History Month with a
R.O.A.R.
The brainchild of Castello principal Ilesha Graham, R.O.A.R.
stands for "Reach Out And Read." Graham had the idea to create the R.O.A.R.
program because of a report that stressed the importance of fourth grade
reading scores.
"That report made me start brainstorming ideas for programs
at Castello that focused specifically on promoting literacy," said Graham. "This first kick-off event was in honor of
African-American History Month, so we invited African-American men from the Elk
Grove and Sacramento
areas to participate."
Graham's goal was to have at least 15 men volunteer to
participate in the inaugural R.O.A.R. event.
Over 30 men representing a variety of backgrounds - including doctors,
dentists, law enforcement, professors, managers and business owners -
volunteered to read to Castello students.
The R.O.A.R. program seeks to fulfill three main objectives:
1) to promote and celebrate literacy, 2) to build a connection between Castello
students and their surrounding community and 3) to help students see the
connection between the skills they learn in school and the skills they will
need in the workforce.
Guest readers gathered in the library for a short
presentation given by Graham at 8 a.m. From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., the guest readers each visited two
classrooms for 30 minutes to read to students.
Guest readers were asked to read a story to the class and give a short
presentation on their profession or business.
"Our guest readers were asked to highlight the importance of
literacy, education and/or character development during their talk with the
students," said Graham.
At 9:30 a.m., guest readers returned to the library for a
special "surprise" oral language performance given by Castello students and were
presented with certificates to thank them for participating in the event.
Overall, Graham felt the event was successful and beneficial
for students.
"I hope that by having our guests come in and read to the
students, that the students will see that reading is a lifelong skill and is
something that even adults do," said Graham. "I also believe that our students benefit from making connections to
adults from diverse backgrounds and careers."
The program will continue in March as the school will
invite women readers to the campus in recognition of Women's History
Month. Beginning in April, Castello will
hold a R.O.A.R. event on the third Friday of each month - combined with
Graham's Coffee Klatch - and will invite parents to come in and read to or with
small groups of students in the classroom. |
Sunrise Elementary
kindergarteners learn about giving to those in need
It's never too early to learn the importance of helping
others in need.
This is a lesson being taught to students early on at Sunrise Elementary School. Last year, the kindergarten classes at Sunrise were inspired to collect winter attire for
children in Afghanistan
who were in need. The decision to
collect winter attire was driven by the coincidence that the students were
reading the children's book "The Mitten" at the time.
This year, the kindergarten team decided to stay local with
their donations. The students donated
the items they collected to Sacramento's
Loaves and Fishes on Friday, February 20th.
"Our principal, Judy Hunt-Brown, likes for each grade level
to participate in some sort of community service project," said Julie Radke, a
kindergarten teacher at Sunrise. "We wanted to continue our 'mitten' tradition
and decided to give our donations locally to Loaves and Fishes. This project ties in perfectly with our
school's participation in the Free to Learn Character program. We were able to link our project with our
Caring, Giving and Serving unit for this program."
Students were given 2-3 weeks to come up with the
donations. A letter was sent home with
students to their parents asking them to have their children earn money to
purchase items to donate by doing chores around the house and favors of
neighbors or elderly relatives.
The kindergarten teachers all agree the project has had a
positive impact on their students.
"This project is great because it teaches our students
what it's like to help others - not just children but adults too," said
Radke. "Sometimes, this is the first
exposure a student has to the idea that a person is homeless or doesn't have
the money to buy necessary items. Since
it is cold when we do this project, we ask the students to think about how it
would feel if they were to go outside in the cold without a jacket, gloves or
scarf."
The success of the project has inspired the teachers to continue
the project every year.
"This is definitely something that we will continue to
participate in every year," said Radke.
"It works wonderfully across curriculum with our units - i.e. mittens,
winter and caring, giving and serving - that it is just too good to pass
up. We're really looking forward to the
project next year."
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