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Area school employees honored for making a difference
SCOE

Seven local school employees from five area school districts will be honored today as part of the 17th annual Employees Making a Difference program held by the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) and Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Region VII.

A total of 29 classified staff will be honored at an award ceremony at the Martin Peterson Event Center in Modesto at 4 p.m. 

School districts throughout the county selected their honorees and forwarded nominations to the SCOE. Each district was eligible to send in a certain number of nominees based on district average daily attendance. For example, districts with 0 to 4,999 students can only nominate one employee; those with 5,000 to 9,999 students can have two nominees; districts with 10,000- 20,000 students can have three individuals and those with more than 20,000 students can have four nominees.

Of the 29 honorees are: 

·         Barbara Bjarnason, Medeiros Elementary Paraprofessional/Special Education-Severe, Turlock Unified

·         Linda Nelson, Pitman High Secretary III, Turlock Unified

·         James Sinford, Turlock Junior High Paraprofessional/Special Education-Severe, Turlock Unified

·         Candida Baldwin, Denair Middle Food Server, Denair Unified

·         Pepe Flores, Ross Middle Lead Custodian, Hughson Unified

·         Elizabeth “Cari” Guyer, Keyes to Learning Charter Paraprofessional, Keyes Union

·         William Brasil, Mountain View Middle Custodian, Chatom Union 

At today’s ceremony, one of the 29 nominees will be presented with the Jane Johnston Civility Award. The Education Foundation of Stanislaus County presents the award to the individual who best exemplifies the principles of civility. It is named in honor of former SCOE Assistant Superintendent Jane Johnston, who helped launch the county-wide Choose Civility Initiative in 2010 and passed away unexpectedly in April 2012.

Additionally, five of the 29 honorees will be selected to represent Stanislaus County in the California Department of Education’s statewide Classified Employees of the Year recognition program. The names of the five individuals will be announced at the event.