CUSD Update
April 2017
HONORS/AWARDS
2017 California Gold Ribbon Schools
2016 ERP/CBEE California Honor Roll
2017 Rotary Educators of the Year
Chico Rotary honored six educators of the year, including four from Chico Unified School District. Please join me in congratulating the following 2017 CUSD Rotary Educators of the Year:
- Fair View High School: Jesse Bremm
- Chico High School: Mike Christopher
- Inspire School of the Arts and Sciences: Antonio Isern
- In addition, Brett Silva was honored from Pleasant Valley High School. Brett’s family was present for the ceremony and was not only able to hear the impact he had on students, staff and family, but his wife shared the positive impact our students, staff and families have had on the Silva family.
Again, congratulations to the 2017 Rotary Educators of the Year!
2017 13th District PTA Honorary Service Awards
Honorees included:
- 13th District PTA: Laura Angel, Golden Oak Award
- Rosedale Elementary: Shanon Payne, HSA
- Marigold Elementary: Melissa Pratt, CSA; Amber & Lance Johnson, HSA; Kristen Briggs, CSA
- John McManus Elementary: Laura Puterbaugh, HSA
- Citrus Elementary: Kalpna & Tajes Patel, HSA
- Chico Jr. High: Carole Cornwell, HSA; Kim Hull, HSA
- Chico High: H.B. Calvert, HSA; Craig Mathews, HSA
- Chapman Elementary: Stephen Tchudi, HSA
- Bidwell Jr. High: Dustin Smith, HSA; Laurie DeBock, HSA; Denise Katsikas, HSA
Congratulations to Our PVHS Student Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)
Over 1,000 students attended the 70th Annual FCCLA Statewide Conference in Riverside, CA from April 8-11. Pleasant Valley High School had eight leaders attend. Over $1.2 million was awarded in prizes and scholarships. Over 24 competitions were conducted along with workshops, industry tours and keynote speakers.
Congratulations to:
- JT Ling and Loreen Caspar for their Food Innovation Presentation. Their project involved the development of a high protein bar, packaging and marketing along with nutritive values. JT and Loreen were awarded 3rd in the State.
- Briana Romero received 2nd place in state as Regional Historian
- Sienna Sasselli was awarded as outgoing Regional President for her leadership
- Christina Newquist was awarded as outgoing Region Treasurer for her leadership
- Taylor Le was installed as the 2017-2018 Region 2 Historian and Leadership Team member. This region spans from Yuba City to the Oregon Border.
Six representatives were voting delegates and served a vital role to realign state documents to the name change from FHA-HERO. Sienna Sasselli was selected as a nominating committee member for the incoming State elections; an honor to be asked. She oversaw the state officer incoming elections and interviews.
Advisors Susan Sullins and Priscilla Burns are proud of the delegates from our state recognized Pleasant Valley High Chapter of 180 members.
CHS Students at Disneyland Choir Festival
PVHS Students at Heritage Music Festival in San Diego
The Pleasant Valley High Music Students represented Chico Unified well at the Heritage Music Festival in San Diego that included schools from all over the country. Of the 92 students that attended, they were on time to EVERYTHING EVERYTIME and they were also nice, polite, on task, and just all around awesome people. Musically, they were amazing as well.
Ensemble Awards included:
Concert Band: Bronze
Choir: Bronze
Jazz Ensemble II: Silver
Symphonic Band: Silver
Jazz Ensemble I: Gold
The Gold Rating is the highest rating and it qualifies the students to participate in a special festival next year held in the Symphony Halls of San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Nashville, and Los Angeles. Hopefully we can make that happen!
Individual Awards included:
Olivia Bridgnell: Maestro Award for Upright Bass
Elliott Pickett: Maestro Award for piano accompaniment and singing
School Award: In addition, PVHS students won the Spirit Award, which only goes to one school. It goes to the school who represents the school and the festival the best, who have great attitudes, and who behave in exemplary ways. This is the award the students are most proud of!
PVHS Regional Winners in the 2017 Directing Change Program and Film Contest
Pleasant Valley High School students in Michael Peck's class are regional winners in the 2017 Directing Change Program & Film Contest. Pleasant Valley submitted twelve films this year and received regional recognition for the following three:
- First Place- Suicide Prevention: “All That Matters" at: https://youtu.be/ZULmaT_RNC8
- Second Place- Mental Health Matters: “You Deserve Happiness” at: https://youtu.be/fV504YLXdQc\
- Honorable Mention-Mental Health Matters" “Never Alone” at: https://youtu.be/MjWI8HaPokc
All That Matters and You Deserve Happiness are advancing to the statewide round of judging and will be screened at the award ceremony on May 11.
Across the state, 456 films from 110 schools and community-based organizations, representing 28 counties and 1,343 youth, were submitted to the Directing Change Program. You can view all the winners at: http://www.directingchange.org/2017-winners/.
Also check out the films submitted to the Through the Lens of Culture category; including issues around gender identity, perspectives from the Native American community, films in many languages including sign language, Spanish, Chinese, and several others. You can view these films at: http://www.directingchange.org/2017-winners/#Diverse
About Directing Change: The Directing Change Program & Film Contest is part of Each Mind Matters: California’s Mental Health Movement. The program offers young people the exciting opportunity to participate in the movement by creating 60-second films about suicide prevention and mental health that are used to support awareness, education and advocacy efforts on these topics. Learning objectives surrounding mental health and suicide prevention are integrated into the submission categories of the film contest, giving young people the opportunity to critically explore these topics. Program participants - whether they are making a film, acting as an adult advisor, or judging the films - are exposed to appropriate messaging about these topics, warning signs, how to appropriately respond to someone in distress, where to seek help, as well as how to stand up for others who are experiencing a mental health challenge. In addition, schools and organizations are offered free prevention programs and educational resources. To learn more visit: http://www.directingchange.org/about/ and view the impact video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j0uq60OMII&index=6&list=PLT7yPYJyy186-trxp-BELrkHMHSuADVSu
Sierra View Receives Cal Water Award
On April 5, Sierra View’s fifth grade class was recognized as the grand winner of the Cal Water Award for a project that students designed to test Chico water for lead contamination. Cal Water is the state’s largest water supplier with over 2 million customers and has been around since 1926. Fifth grade teacher Emily Akimoto accepted the award on behalf of her class. While humbly giving her students all the credit for the award, her leadership, facilitation and guidance was recognized by Cal Water officials as instrumental in the quality and complexity of the class project. Sierra View was also awarded a $3,500 check as the grand prize and the class will go to Malibu for 3 days to attend an Environmental Camp later this spring.
Congratulations to Sierra View, the fifth grade class and Emily Akimoto as winners of the 2016 Cal Water Award!
Parkview Nature Bowl Team
Our Amazing Students
Marigold's Virtue of the Month
Marigold’s virtue of the month for April is Humility: Putting others first by giving up what you think you deserve. As noted by Marigold Principal Shawneese Heath, Marigold teacher Lisa Roy provided her students and the entire school with a perfect example of the word humility. A Chico Unified School District student recently lost her home to a fire. Upon hearing about this, 3rd grade teacher Lisa Roy, who also serves as a mentor to the student through the PVHS Careers with Kids, worked with her students to raise money for the family. The students and parents raised $200 and presented it to the student today. This was an incredibly thoughtful and generous gift that the class did quietly with no thought of recognition for their efforts. Thank you Ms. Roy, thank you to the students and parents in her class who participated in this project, and thank you Laura Dietle and Shawneese Heath for the support they provided.
PVHS Arts and Crafts
Pleasant Valley High School Art Teacher Reta Rickmers and two of her students were interviewed about arts and crafts they are producing with the aid of an entrepreneurship grant on Friday, April 21, at 3pm, on KCHO/NSPR's (91.7FM) "Weekend Showcase," hosted by Tom Kinnee by Dolores Mitchel.
Their original art products will be displayed and sold at Art at the Matador, on 9th and The Esplanade, on Friday May 12, from 4:00-9:00 p.m. and on Saturday May l3, from 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
You can listen to the interview at: www.mynspr.org. You can support this showcase for performing and visual arts by pulling up the KCHO "Weekend Showcase" Facebook page and doing "like" and "share" under their post.
International Visitors to PVHS Campus
Thirty amazing Ecuadorian students and 3 teachers visited the PVHS campus. They were warmly welcomed by PVHS students who provided remarkable love and care for their buddies. Priscilla Burns and her talented culinary students prepared an incredible lunch and Stefanie Volk facilitated an outrageously fun afternoon of Link Crew/Breaking down the walls activities for PVHS and Ecuadorian students after school.
During debrief late yesterday, the Ecuadorian students excitedly reported about the incredible classes they sat in on all day. They marveled at the teaching methods and proudly remarked that some of them even participated in classes. Last night I sat near a group of Ecuadorian students at School of Rock and watched them thoroughly entertained by the performance. It is safe to say, our guests truly LOVE it here.
I am so proud of our staff and students for embracing and learning from and with international friends. Thank you for your overwhelming kindness. The Ecuadorian and PVHS students will be working on a joint CAS project to help beautify the campus. Warmly ~ Amy Besnard
Teens Present at Tobacco Recovery Summit
Four Fair View students gave a panel presentation at the Tobacco Recovery Summit in Chico on April 28. They spoke of personal experiences with tobacco and their struggles to quit. The summit was attended by nearly 100 people, including doctors, psychiatrists, professors, counselors, teachers and social service providers.
The FVHS students, Crystal Balser, Adam Mines, Michael Thomas and Sara Smith, did an incredible job. They were clearly nervous to speak in front of so many adults, but it was also obvious that each of them took the task seriously and had prepared well. They were honest, passionate, direct, moving and effective.
I’ve been doing prevention and treatment work for over 20 years and have been privileged to be a part of many youth presentations, I can honestly say their presentation was the best I’ve been involved in. They represented Fair View High School, CUSD, and Butte County schools superbly. I wanted to let you know how great they were and how much we appreciated their hard work and commitment, they were awesome! Thanks for sharing them with us!
Bruce Baldwin
Butte County Office of Education
Student Health and Prevention Programs
I have a PEP grant update and will be sending a few more photos along with more information your way to go along with the fun stuff happening!
Part of the PEP grant is bringing back HOTM or Harvest of the Month tasting.
At 6 elementary sites and 2 middle schools (BJHS CJHS Chapman, Citrus, McManus, Neal Dow, Parkview and Rosedale) we are delivering the HOTM tastings.
While ALL sites in the district are getting the HOTM deliveries these sites are being provided the tasting.
We have partnered with Chico State students to help us pass out the tasting and help with data collection too!
The pictures above are from BJHS and CJHS where we did bulk cafeteria tastings and the students shared whether they Loved, Liked it or Tried it.
Photo’d are Jen Swanstrom (our Food Corp Rep in grey sweater), Chico State Students Sophia Sepulveda (with Jen), Morgan Schell (in the pink) Morgan Newton (with Morgan S).
I will have pictures for you in a bit of the classroom tasting deliveries.
Best Regards,
Crystal O’rear
Our Amazing Board Members
Legislative Action Days
Learning Opportunity
ROLAND DIGITAL FABRICATION WORKSHOPS at CHS
Receive a demonstration of Roland's Benchtop CNC Mills including the new MDX-50 Milling Machine with a 5-station Automatic Tool Changer and Rotary Axis Option. You will learn about Roland's easy-to-use workflow procedures by taking native .stl files into Roland's SRP Player CAM software. Be prepared to leave with a deeper understanding of how CNC, 3DP, and SRP can benefit your organization and students. Promotional giveaways and refreshments will be provided.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Middle School & High School Educators and Administrators that wish to begin or expand their CNC and 3DP offerings. Also perfect for those involved with Maker Space/Digital Fabrication Labs.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Chico High School, Chico, CA
Registration and more info: http://bit.ly/2oN80VC
Facebook Event Page: http://bit.ly/2oNi1lm