Turlock Unified School District trustees have always been selected through city-wide elections, with a candidate's place of residence in town not a factor. That might soon be changing as the Stanislaus County Committee on School District Organization and Reorganization unanimously voted on Wednesday to accept a proposal by the TUSD to create trustee areas for the 2013 elections. <font face="Times New ...
Sixth graders at Dennis Earl Elementary School went back in time on Friday to 2600 BC, transforming their classrooms into ancient Egypt with mummified chicken legs and gold jewels on display.
Five Geography majors at California State University, Stanislaus spent the semester biking around Turlock to help make the community a safer place. They surveyed existing bike routes and areas around town that could use bike paths to measure Turlock's bikeability and propose new bikeways.
Wakefield Elementary School first graders took home Christmas boxes filled with literacy tools ranging from pencils to books. The College of Education from California State University, Stanislaus put together 110 literacy boxes that were delivered to all the first grade classes at Wakefield on Tuesday. The college wanted to provide the literacy tools for students to use over Christmas break so they can continue to learn ...
Turlock Junior High School students from the 7th grade GATE and Honors classes put on their best Victorian outfits on Thursday to dress the part for their Christmas activity of "A Christmas Carol." Students used district-adopted materials to show other students from their school, Walnut Elementary School and Brown Elementary School sixth graders what times were like back in the Victorian days. Turlock Junior High band ...
Civility has been in short supply in Denair over the past month, but the Denair Unified School District is looking to actively change that with the formation of a new committee.
Keeping kids in school is a continuous goal for local educators. To accomplish that goal, the Turlock Unified School District has implemented a number of initiatives in the past few years to address high school drop outs including curriculum assessments, pacing calendars and benchmarks. TUSD's hard work has made a difference, according to the newly released 2008/2009 California Dropout and Graduation Rates report. <p style="margin: ...
Technology plays a strong role in daily life now more than ever. As recipients of the Enhancing Education Through Technology American Recovery and Reinvestment Act competitive grant for one-time funds of $240,000 for students in seventh grade to 12th grade, the Turlock Unified School District can now give students, teachers and staff about the most up-to-date technology training.
The Turlock Unified School District is hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, as a new governor will soon take office with a $6 billion state deficit.
As the 20 Head Start pre-school students in Maria Marques' classroom at Osborn Elementary finished their lunches, parent volunteers Victor Sanabria and Christine Berlin helped the kids throw away their disposable plates and head to the reading carpet.
A couple of weeks ago, Denair Middle School student Cody Alicea rode his bike to school like any other day with an American flag flapping in the wind behind him. At the time, he was learning about the United States Constitution and the freedom of speech guaranteed to all Americans under the First Amendment.
High school students all over Turlock are looking to make a difference this academic year.
First, second and third graders at Denair Academic Avenues Charter School had the chance to look at things they would miss at their school if they weren't available during a Pennies for Peace campaign kick-off rally last week.
Daily routines at Denair Unified School sites have been disrupted, to say the least. A community and media maelstrom has surrounded Denair Middle School and eighth grade student Cody Alicea after he was told by a campus employee to remove the American flag from his bicycle on Nov. 8.
The Denair Unified School District adopted the new "Choose Civility" initiative led by the county office of education at their Thursday board meeting, despite the lack of civility shown by a few audience members.
In a special board meeting held Thursday night, the Denair Unified School District continued to process cuts for the 2013-14 school year in an effort to avoid financial insolvency. Denair trustees unanimously voted to give four furlough days to five confidential classified employees, effective Feb. 1, for an estimated $6,184 savings for the district. The district also accepted the resignation of Denair Charter Academy principal, Karla Paul. Paul will be working with ...
Walnut Elementary students took fourth place in the Future City Competition, held Saturday, with their design for "Garnicia." Modesto Girl Scout Troop #2225 took first place and will be representing Northern California at the National Engineers Week Future City Competition Feb. 15-20 in Washington, D.C. The annual challenge has received national attention and acclaim for its role in encouraging middle schoolers nationwide to develop their interest in science, technology, engineering and math. <p ...
Months of preparation will soon be put to the test as students from Denair High School compete in the 2013 Stanislaus County Academic Decathlon. Hailed as the biggest academic event for local high schools, the decathlon is slated to take place on Feb. 2 in the Gregori High School gymnasium in Modesto. The decathlon is a two-day series of tests, speeches and interviews highlighting this year's theme, Russia. The Academic Decathlon's goal ...
Parents who were outraged at the lack of security at their child's elementary school site in December are now working with the district to create a school safety plan. Turlock resident and local law enforcement officer Vince Hooper, who videotaped himself walking around campus in December at Medeiros Elementary pointing out the lack of security, voiced his safety concerns and his appreciation of steps already taken to trustees at Tuesday's Turlock Unified School ...
A desire to help people succeed in education is the reason Beverly Cullum wakes up every day. Cullum, a typist clerk at Turlock Adult School, will be honored among 28 outstanding classified education employees through Stanislaus County's "Employees Making a Difference" on Tuesday at the Petersen Event Center in Modesto. For Cullum, her job is her passion. Since beginning her tenure at Turlock Adult School in 2004, Cullum goes above and ...
January Character Counts Profile: Fairness Student Feature: Teresita Orozco and Andrea Selkow, Dutcher Middle School Open communication is key to creating fairness, a trait that eighth graders Teresita Orozco and Andrea Selkow exemplify. Both Orozco and Selkow were honored as the district students for the character trait of fairness. Selkow, a 4.0 GPA student, has always played by the rules from an early age. She takes turns in sharing with her ...
The Turlock Unified School District is moving forward with a list of potential one-time expenditures for the 2013-14 school year, despite uncertainty from a few of its board members. The move to carry on with one-time expenditures made sense to district officials after the passage of Proposition 30 and an increase in TUSD's enrollment for the 2012-13 school year, said district staff. "Based on the passage of Prop. 30 and other events ...
Concern about the safety of school campuses continues to mount nationally and locally as parents hope to avoid shootings like the ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and more recently, Taft Union High School in Southern California. Turlock resident Lori Hooper was so dissatisfied with the security at Medeiros Elementary that she pulled her 8-year-old daughter out of school. "There's no fences. There's nobody monitoring. There's nobody watching," she said. ...
Across the nation, teams of middle school students are working to imagine, design, and build cities of the future, a task that 6th grade Walnut Magneteers are familiar with. For the third consecutive year, students from Walnut Elementary will participate in the Stanislaus County Future City Competition on Wednesday at the Peterson Event Center in Modesto. The annual challenge has received national attention and acclaim for its role in encouraging middle schoolers ...
The Denair Unified School District continues to make cuts in order to avoid a state takeover. During a yet another crowded meeting, school district trustees unanimously voted to cut teachers' salaries by 3.5 percent effective Feb. 1 , while also eliminating four school days and one training day. Over the next 18 months, Denair must cut $1.4 million in ongoing spending in order to avoid a state takeover. "We're back and ...
Students from Turlock and Pitman high schools will soon have their day in court. The annual Stanislaus Mock trials will be held on Tuesday at the Stanislaus County Courthouse in Modesto. This year's fictitious case, People v. Vega, is a trial of Adrian Vega, a resident of Hidden Valley and child of the city's mayor. Vega is charged with failure to perform a duty following an accident (commonly referred to as felony ...
Merced College, in partnership with the Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce, will offer a professional development training program through the college's Customer Service Academy. Morning and afternoon workshops will be offered on the last two Thursdays of each month, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Topics will include "Customer Service," "Team Building," "Attitude in the Workplace," "Values and Ethics," "Stress Management," "Time Management," "Conflict Resolution," "Decision ...
Hung Gao, a criminology professor at California State University Stanislaus, is beginning research on juvenile gang activity in the Central Valley. It's a shift for Gao, who spent seven years studying drug use among women in China, but local gang activity is a good topic for research, Gao said. Currently, very little research exists on gangs in the Central Valley, despite the location's importance in drug trafficking. "I hope my research on ...
Preparing canapés for 80 isn't such an easy task when the clock is ticking and newly learned skills are put to the test. That's what happened for a number of local area residents who recently completed their final in the flagship course "Garde Manger," which is basically known as the "cold kitchen," at the Stanislaus Culinary Arts Institute in Oakdale. "We had a good response. People were excited to be there," said ...
While a sense of pride and accomplishment were felt throughout the assembly of graduates at UC Berkeley, the bonds of the Davoodian family were particularly meaningful during the Dec. 16 commencement ceremony. Bianca Davoodian, an alumna of Turlock Christian High, was honored by her peers and professors as the commencement student speaker. Over 4,500 had the opportunity to hear Davoodian's words of inspiration, the thanks she offered to her family, especially her brother ...