Elk Grove Unified School District
Excellence by Design
 EGUSD News and Notes February 22, 2010 
In This Issue
Budget Update
Transportation Fees
Open Enrollment
All-State Honor Band
Helpful Links
Honoring Our Volunteers

Robert Guidera of Rio Cazadero High School

Guidera

Robert Guidera was recognized as an Education Partner at the February 16, 2010 meeting of the Elk Grove Unified School District Board of Education.
 
Guidera retired as the Work Experience Coordinator at Rio Cazadero in 2008, but continues to volunteer his time every week at Rio Cazadero High School.  He returns to Rio Cazadero each week to work with students to help connect them to jobs and careers.  Guidera participates in all orientations and helps students understand the needs of the workplace and the requirements to get a job permit. 
 
Guidera also meets with work experience students from Valley High School to mentor them as well.
 
Guidera worked for Elk Grove Unified for 26 years.  He began his teaching career at EGUSD as a math and woodshop teacher at James Rutter Middle School in 1972.  In 1977, he transferred to Valley High School to teach welding.  Guidera then moved to Rio Cazadero in 1988 to become the Work Experience Coordinator.



EGUSD to offer free dental screenings for students

The Elk Grove Unified School District, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente and Western Career College, will offer two free dental screenings for students in grades kindergarten through 6th grade.

California law requires children to have a dental screening by May 31 of his or her first school year. Dental evaluations that have happened within the 12 months before a child enters school also meet this requirement. 

Dental screening forms will be available for parents/guardians to complete at the screening locations listed below. 

Dental screenings will be offered from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the following locations:

March 12, 2010
Florin Elementary School
7300 Kara Drive
Sacramento, CA 95828
(916) 383-0530

April 16, 2010
Helen Carr Castello Elementary School
9850 Fire Poppy Drive
Elk Grove, CA 95757
(916) 686-1725

Parent permission is required at registration.



Florin High School teacher earns statewide award
 
Heidi Haugen, an agricultural science teacher at Florin High School, has been selected as the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Teacher Award from Computer-Using Educators, Inc. (CUE). Haugen will be formally presented with her award at the 2010 Annual CUE Conference in Palm Springs, CA on March 5, 2010.

The CUE Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes a classroom teacher who has made a noteworthy contribution to educational technology in a classroom setting. Using technology to support standards-based curriculum is the key element in this award. The CUE Award winner becomes CUE's nominee for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Outstanding Teacher Award.

Computer-Using Educators, Inc. is a nonprofit educational corporation founded in 1978. CUE's goal is to advance student achievement through technology in all disciplines from preschool through college. CUE is the largest organization of its type in the west and one of the largest in the United States.
 
For more information about CUE, visit http://www.cue.org/.
 
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.
 

budgetwatch


The Elk Grove Unified School District continues its work to identify $60.5 million in budget reductions for 2010-2011. The school district must identify the cuts in order to submit a balanced 2nd interim budget report to the Sacramento County Office of Education by March 17 and meet the March 15 deadline to notice certificated staff of potential layoff.

Superintendent Steven M. Ladd, Ed.D. held a meeting with parents about the budget on February 18 at the Cosumnes Oaks High School Performing Arts Center. At the meeting, Superintendent Ladd provided parents with an overview of state finance of public education and how the funding has fluctuated over the years. He also spoke to parents about the impact of the cuts on EGUSD. To view the Power Point presentation click here.

At the February 16 Board of Education meeting, the Board approved the district to move forward with an early retirement incentive for certificated non-management employees. The Supplemental Early Retirement Program (SERP) will be put in place to decrease the number of layoffs and save money on the higher salaries of more tenured teachers who retire by July 1, 2010. An extensive study demonstrated that certificated non-management staff members are the only employee group that would result in a savings to the district when offered the SERP. The district estimates that the SERP would yield about $2 million in savings and ultimately reduce the number of final layoffs by about 165 full time equivalent (FTE) positions. The $2 million will be applied against the district's $60.5 million in cuts.

In addition, at the meeting, Superintendent Ladd and the district's six associate superintendents announced that they will take two furlough days this school year, five furlough days in 2010-2011 and a freeze in step salary increases in 2010-2011. The six include Associate Superintendent of Elementary Education Donna Cherry, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources Glen De Graw, Associate Superintendent of Education Services Nancy Lucia, Associate Superintendent of Finance and School Support Richard Odegaard, Associate Superintendent of Secondary Education Christina Penna and Associate Superintendent of Facilities Robert Pierce. The superintendent and associate superintendents do not receive a lottery check or column salary increases.

The Board also approved a plan to fund high school athletics for $1.6 million, which is a reduction of more than $850,000, and to move forward with implementing a Voluntary Athletic Contribution (VAC) plan. The purpose of the plan is to support EGUSD's high school athletic programs and help offset district and site costs associated with the potential reinstatement of any eliminated programs next year or in future years. A parent focus group and the Athletic Budget Team worked through the winter to develop the athletic budget. Their budget proposal recommends maintaining all existing varsity and junior varsity programs.

VAC donations will not be mandatory and a student will not be adversely affected in terms of her/his participation in the district's athletic program if the family chooses not to make a financial contribution. A copy of the presentation on the VAC can be viewed by clicking here.

The district continues to work on the identification of the additional $18.5 million in reductions that identified as a result of the Governor's January budget proposal. These budget cuts are on top of the $42 million previously identified for 2010-2011. Click here to view a list of the $42 million in budget reductions. 
 
Questions and ideas about the district's budget can be submitted through the EGUSD website.  Go to Budget Watch and scroll down to complete the form.

Consistent school attendance critical to student educational advancement

kerrstudent

 Experts agree that regular school attendance improves learning and the educational experience.  Students who attend school regularly perform better in their classes.  Missing one day - or even a few hours - of school can affect a student's academic performance.  While the district allows for work to be made up at home, it cannot replace the time in class.  Each day is an important and valuable component of a successful academic career for students.
 
Consistent school attendance is not only important for just students, it is important for the district as well.  Each day a student is absent, the school district loses $33 per day, per student, in state funding.  Now, more than ever, the money earned by the school district when students attend regularly plays an important role in purchasing classroom materials and providing increased academic support programs.
 
The Elk Grove Unified School District actively promotes regular school attendance through an incentive and promotion campaign called No Excuses - Go to School.  The campaign is designed to remind students, parents and staff about the importance of regular attendance.  The attendance campaign begins with the promotion of the idea that students should not use excuses to miss school.  The program is an outreach approach to parents and community members through school newsletter articles, press releases, letters home, posters and flyers. 
 
Student support is sought through monthly incentives donated by local businesses and community members. Every month at each of the district's elementary, middle, high and alternative schools a list is compiled of students with perfect attendance. From that list, one student's name is drawn to receive an incentive. In addition, each month all the students' names go into a raffle for the grand prize drawing at the end of the year.  The program reminds schools and students each month that strong school attendance brings rewards.
 
For more information on the EGUSD attendance campaign, click here. 

Open Enrollment at Elk Grove Unified

jackmanms

On February 16, 2010, 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 2010-2011 open enrollment process. This cap is 5 percent of the school's projected 2010-2011 student enrollment. The school attendance areas affected by the 5 percent cap are Harriet Eddy, Samuel Jackman and James Rutter middle schools. Transfer requests from all other schools were approved by the Board of Education.
 
Students who attend Harriet Eddy, Samuel Jackman and James Rutter middle schools will participate in a lottery to determine who will be allowed to transfer to their school of choice. This random computer-generated lottery will be conducted at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at Monterey Trail High School. A computer will randomly rank order students. Students will be offered open enrollment slots at requested schools 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. A waiting list will be maintained until the end of the 2009-2010 school year.

Following the lottery process, parents and students will be notified of lottery results through a letter. Students wishing to move forward with open enrollment must fill out an open enrollment agreement, which will be included with the letter. This agreement must be returned to the student's school of choice by March 8, 2010 to finalize enrollment at the requested school.

Once enrolled in the requested 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.

For the 2010-2011 school year, the Elk Grove Unified School District offered open enrollment at seven middle schools: Harriet Eddy, Edward Harris, Samuel Jackman, Joseph Kerr, Elizabeth Pinkerton, James Rutter and T.R. Smedberg; and at seven high schools: Cosumnes Oaks, Elk Grove, Florin, Laguna Creek, Monterey Trail, Sheldon and Valley. Applications were due by February 11, 2010. This year the district received more than 1,300 requests for open enrollment. 

Questions about open enrollment or the lottery process may be directed to Secondary Education at (916) 686-7706.

EGUSD band students selected for 2010 CBDA All-State Honor Band

musicnotes

Four Elk Grove Unified musicians have been named to the 2010 California Band Director Association's (CBDA) All-State Honor Band.
 
Tim Kreis and Daniel Gonzales, both clarinetists, were selected from Elk Grove High School. Merrijo Passanando, a bass clarinetist from Florin High School and Virginia Rodriguez, a bassoonist from Franklin High School, were also selected for the All-State Honor Band.
 
More than 1,600 students auditioned statewide for the CBDA All-State Honor Band. Participants in the honor band are selected through an audition process. The student musicians will perform at the ABDA's annual conference on February 21 in Fresno and at the California Music Educators Association conference on March 13 in Sacramento.
 
The guest conductors for this year's bands are Dr. Mark Scatterday - Eastman School of Music; Dr. David Gillingham - Central Michigan University; Dr. Peter Boonshaft - Hofstra University; Dr. Jack Stamp - Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Ellen Row - University of Michigan; Robert Sheldon - Composer; and John O'Reilly - Composer.
 
CBDA is a professional organization for school band instructors throughout the state from all levels of public, private and collegiate educational institutions. One of their primary functions is the hosting of the California All-State Honor Band. Once a year auditions are held and students are selected from across California to put together some of the finest high school and junior high honor bands in the nation. 
 
For more information on CBDA, visit http://www.cbda.org/.