It was an exciting morning for the entire Soledad Community. The Ground Breaking Ceremony took place on Friday, November 8, 2019 across San Vicente Elementary. It is so appropriate that the Hartnell - Soledad Education Center going to be built across San Vicente Elementary. They are both Panthers! Student representatives from across the district and future Hartnell alumni attended this special event. Thank you to the students and principals for making the trip to support continuing education. Thank you to the Hartnell Board, City Council and our own Soledad USD Trustees; they work collaboratively for the benefit of Every Student...Every Day!

The Safety Dog program began with orientations for parents and students at Main Street Middle

School and Soledad High School. Student orientations were conducted in grade-level assemblies on November 6 at Soledad High School and Physical Education classes at Main Street Middle School on November 6. This t is attached to this update. Parents and staff are receiving information beginning today, Friday, November 1.

The District contracted with Proactive K-9s to conduct random searches of students' belonging on unannounced days throughout the school year. The purpose of random canine searches is to deter students from bringing prohibited controlled substances onto campuses. On the day of a random search, the trained dog handler and safety dog will arrive on campus and will be accompanied by a school administrator and campus security personnel to search randomly selected classrooms on campus. Upon arrival at a classroom, students will be asked to leave their belongings and step outside of the classroom while the safety dog sniffs all of the student belongings in the room. The safety dog will not sniff students. If the safety dog alerts on a specific item, the student owner of that item will be as discreetly as possible escorted to the office with his/her belongings and have the items inspected with a witness present. If nothing is found, the student will return to class. If a prohibited controlled substance is found, appropriate intervention and/or disciplinary action will be taken.

Parents and students had the opportunity to meet the safety dog handler and the dog, see the demonstration of the process and answer any questions.

Friday, November 8th was Flu Shot Day at Soledad USD! Thanks to our H.R. Department for coordinating this event for our staff. Thank you to Mee Memorial Hospital for coming out joining efforts with Soledad USD and to the phlebotomists who used their specialized skills. These are students in the LVN Program at Hartnell College from King City.