Dear Valley Oaks Families,

Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year. As I start my fifth year at Valley Oaks, I look forward to continuing with the work we began last year and watching the students thrive at this amazing school. I am incredibly proud of our outstanding faculty, the challenging and rigorous curriculum we provide, and the unique opportunities available to our students. Valley Oaks has again received top ratings from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and our students are accepted into colleges and postsecondary programs all over the country. We have experienced some staffing changes for the coming year. Our long-time... To read the full letter, click HERE.

Our VOS Back to School Week happened on August 13th, 14th, and 15th. It was great fun to see students and family members after the long summer rest! Students were assigned to complete their About Me page of their Digital Portfolios and the following week teachers commented about how wonderful these pages' bios, photos, and quotes were. We are very proud of our VOS students - new and returning! Attendance Cards will soon be shared with all students' gmails and with any parent who has a gmail. A student Attendance Card shows all courses, hours earned each week, and other important information. ILP numbers will soon be put on these cards. At the end of this newsletter you can read how your ILP number is calculated.

• Channing Matthews 10th (pictured above)
• Felipe Jimenez 11th
• Marissa Barredo 12th
• Charlene Campton 12th
• Kelly Garcia 12th
• Kailey Kroyer 12th
• Ian Peracca 10th
• Jessica Rue Coulman 12th
• Jordan Zajonc 12th

Congratulations to our Principal's Honor Roll students for last semester! These students earned an impressive 4.0 for all courses including co-enroll courses. All of these students also met many other requirements for this honor including excellent participation at appointments, and all staff members unanimously gave their approval to each student. To read the Principal's Honor Roll requirements please click here.

Valley Oaks has never had an Assistant Principal until now. Mr. Smith, our new Assistant Principal, was recently hired for the job and we are very fortunate! For the past nine years, Mr. Smith has been the Math, Economics, and Computer Science teacher at San Antonio High School. He is a graduate of both the University of Oregon and Dominican University, and is currently at Sonoma State University. You may remember him as the coach who took his Petaluma team to the televised 2012 Little League World Series! In addition, Mr. Smith created a sports program for alternative schools in Sonoma and Mendocino counties and helped with fundraising efforts to pay for jerseys, travel, and team meals. In doing so, Mr. Smith has helped to increase student morale. Aside from his record as a very charismatic coach and teacher, Mr. Smith is especially kind and has a great sense of humor. He has two children that played sports at PHS and Casa and are now in college continuing with their sports. At home, he lives on a ranch here in Petaluma and operates its 40 pair cow/calf beef herd. We look forward to Mr. Smith conducting our monthly Informational Meetings and helping to make Valley Oaks the best school it can be. Welcome Mr. Smith!

Susan is our new VOS secretary and we are so excited to have her, all her skills, and her good nature! She comes from a family of educators - her father was a college professor, her mother, a clinical psychologist PhD, was a university advisor, and her sister is a special ed teacher. Susan, choosing not to go into the education field, became an attorney and was, as she puts it, and surely, the beloved "black sheep" of the family for many years because of this. After growing up in Florida, Susan eventually came to Petaluma and has lived here for the past 20 years and has raised her three sons here. All three boys have been and are in the Petaluma City Schools. This makes it especially fun for us teachers to see Susan recognizing and knowing so many of our students and their families. Susan stopped practicing law to raise her children and has been very involved volunteering in her children's schools. Currently she is the PHS Music Boosters Club treasurer and the PHS Athletic Boosters Club treasurer. She sought out a part time job this past summer now that her sons are older. She is with us from 9am to 1pm, Monday through Friday, and says that she is very happy to be with "a great group of teachers and students"!

We have an extensively experienced, dynamic, big hearted, fun new counselor this year, Ms. Leigh! Hopefully by now all new students have either met with or signed up for a meeting with her. For all of our students, here is the link, if you don't already have it, to request a meeting with her.She has been at PJHS for the past 5 years. Before that she was at Deer Valley High School in Antioch, a charter high school in San Fernando Valley, two different high schools in Santa Barbara county, and was also a counselor for a private college. She speaks Spanish fluently and is an avid runner. Ms. Leigh is your "go-to" person for all your counseling needs: questions about your life in general - and also, of course, for things like recommendations for coursework to take, your graduation status, co-enrolling, job permits, PSAT/SAT testing, college information, college applications or other post-high school plans, scholarships, financial aid for college, and all needs specific to 7th and 8th grade counseling. Ms. Leigh has one grown son and lives with her husband and also her dog and her cat. Something that all of our students might want to seriously take advantage of is to also get advice from Ms. Leigh about travel opportunities. Ms. Leigh is an avid traveler! Aside from traveling in all 50 states, she has traveled in over 50 different countries!!

• Brenda Amador
• Nicholas Barajas
• Abbi Grogan
• Jacqueline Jones
• Flynn Loveless - pictured above
• Jade Polaski
• Henry Wilson

Congratulations to our Honor Roll students for last semester! These students demonstrated their academic fortitude by both earning a 3.5 grade point average or higher and exhibiting other academic and character traits worthy of honor such as completing their 5 hours of community service in a timely manner and taking on challenges. All staff members discussed these students' achievement and records and unanimously approve them for the Honor Roll. We are very proud of these students and hope that all of our students this semester will make the Honor Roll. (Click here for the Honor Roll requirements).

Congratulations to Henry Wilson whose science fair project was chosen by the judges this summer to be the first place winner in the 2019 VOS Virtual Science Fair. All students had to create an online science fair project journal for the duration of their 3 or 4 month-long project, a 3-panel poster board, a video presentation, and a slide for the Virtual Fair. All projects had to use the Engineering Design Process. Henry's project was noteworthy according to judges' comments in that all four categories of his project were exemplary and he had multiple prototype improvements.

• 1st - Henry Wilson for Skate Shoe Protector
• 2nd - Channing Matthews for Tuff Glove
• 3rd - Harland McCready for Quackers
• 4th - Devin Jones for The Flips & Flops of Spatulas
• 5th - Teja Burgess for The Perfect Solar Cooker
• 6th - Brenda Amador for Brother's Toy Car
• Honorable Mention - Althea Patchett for Reading Aloud vs. Reading Silently
• Honorable Mention - Kayley Kroyer for The Perfect Vegetable Pot

Congratulations to all these students for completing this extensive project! Four other students attempted but were missing one of the four categories of the project.

Peggy and Jenni have their desks near our principal, assistant principal, and counselor's desks in the main office right across from the VOS building #1 door. If you need a secretary and it is after 1pm when Susan Cook is gone then Peggy will be the person to go to. Jenni works until noon. Peggy is now our VOS senior secretary. Peggy has been the senior secretary of San Antonio High School since 1999! She has four children, 17 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild! Peggy is a master and expert at her job and so is Jenni. They both love teenagers and have a lot of fun during their work day. Jenni has been in Petaluma for 40 years and has been married for 40 years. She has 2 children and 2 grandchildren and three cats. Her mother is 100 years old and she enjoys spending time doing things with and for her. We are so grateful to have Peggy and Jenni's expertise, experience, constant help, and confident ability to handle a very diverse range of issues easily. They are still learning the intricacies and unique processes of independent study school administration but with them and Susan, Valley Oaks will be in the best shape of its life!

We cannot wait to have Ms. Abelli-Amen back in January - and maybe even a little sooner! In the meantime, we are very lucky to have Mr. Anderson subbing for her. He is a great addition to our staff right now and is very happy here. Although he grew up in Danville, he has been in Petaluma for the past 6 years. He and his wife are raising their three young children in 1st, 4th, and 7th grades. They also have two rescued cats - one is three-legged! Mr. Anderson plays on an indoor soccer team and is an avid video gamer. He says that the game Boarderlands has great characters and clever humor. When it comes to his teaching, he believes that "hard work is the key to most success we have" and that it is important for students "not to get frustrated" - and that "it is okay for students to ask for help with the same questions over and over again". Mr. Anderson was inspired to be different from his own high school geometry teacher who did not have patience for his questions. He is offering Math 1, Business Math, Math Review, 7th and 8th grade math, as well as 7th and 8th grade English and Social Science. Welcome, Mr. Anderson!

As the SAHS campus supervisor, Barbara has been out and about around our campus, Vallejo Street, and the intersection of Vallejo and Jefferson Street helping VOS students and staff for 13 years. There have been car accidents involving our students and parents, crying spells and emotional days for our students out walking the front of the school, lost items, car issues, and a sundry of instances where a caring adult was immediately needed - and Barb was there to help, to cheer, to encourage, to arrange further help, and to solve problems. She is everybody's friend and a temporary "Mom" to many students. Starting this year, Barb is now officially part of our staff too. If you see her ask her to show you a picture of one of her dogs! (especially her old Boxer!). She was born and raised in Petaluma on King Road. She has three grown children of her own and her hobbies are gardening, anything to do with the outdoors, sewing (she often wears clothes she has made), and her dogs. A saying she likes is "live and let live" and she says, "I love kids!" and you feel it when you see her interacting with them. Thank you, Barb, we love you!

VOS 8th grader Minna Stess has recovered from her elbow injury that happened last year. Last week she was in filming a commercial for Santa Cruz brand skateboards about younger athletes who use their boards. She is now in Brazil competing in the world championships which will determine if she qualifies for the June 2020 Olympics in Tokoyo. Right now she is in 3rd place in the Olympic rankings for the United States. In November there will be yet another competition to further secure Olympic rankings. Click HERE to see some fun photos of Minna skating.

Congratulations to Gabriel who, this past summer, was the male lead, Emmett, in his first Spreckels Performing Arts Center show, Legally Blonde. This following his male lead in Cinnabar Theater's Mamma Mia, at the end of last semester in May. Gabe has an amazing memory when tested in his courses and this most likely is because he has trained himself and his brain to retain acting lines for many years. He also has a strong singing voice and he continues to improve all of his acting skills with each new show. In November he will audition for his next show with Spreckels. Cinnabar Theater is here on Petaluma Boulevard at Skillman Lane and it gives teens acting opportunities that can enrich their lives, build lifelong friendships, and develop a myriad of life and career skills. Please click here to see Gabriel in Cinnabar's enthusiastic production of Mamma Mia.

During the last month of school we had quite a few graduates. We are very proud of them and of the additional students that did not get a Bell Ringing Ceremony because they either asked to not have one, were out of town, or finished coursework in a co-enroll course or in a VOS course during the last week of school and there was no time remaining to schedule a Bell Ringing Ceremony. These are those students and we congratulate them and we enjoyed seeing them at the Lucchesi Graduation Ceremony:

• Preston Ashton
• Marissa Barredo
• Ethan Carbone
• LoraLai DePriest
• Kelly Garcia

Marching in at the May 29th, Graduation Ceremony!

Here are 6 photos from the May 29th, 2019, Alt Ed Graduation Ceremony. Grads from Valley Oaks, Carpe Diem, Sonoma Mountain, and San Antonio High Schools were together on the stage. In the audience were all the grads' family and friends, the staffs of the 4 schools, district office administrators, and the PCS School Board members.

Principal Ms. Lofton giving a VOS grad a hug.

Justine Barnes, Lydia Williams, Abbi Grogan, Kristin Ward, Cece Illingworth, Preston Ashton, Jordan Zajonc, & LoraLai DePriest

Photos taken at the Lucchesi Graduation Ceremony.

These eleven VOS students showed up right on time at 10am and hung out in Building #1 together. It is a very rare occasion to have more than two or three VOS students together at one time. Many more students also arrived in time to get their photos taken in the San Antonio gym.

Here are two photos of Devin Jones and Channing Matthews at our last science lab of the year.

Here are Ian Peracca, Sophia Bauer, and Gabe Adelman at our last Group Work Out of the school year.