A unanimous decision by all staff members made 12th grader Marissa Barredo, our Bright News! student for December. Marissa was given a candy lei and her photo is now hanging on our Bright News! wall in Building #1. All staff created a Bright News! letter that was mailed to her family. We are proud of you, Marissa!

Students who have demonstrated academic excellence during the past month are discussed at staff meetings and one is chosen to be honored. Our Bright News! form letter is on our website.

Juonior Michael Kofoid, and sophomores Devin Jones, and Ian Peracca do a weekly math lab together for Math 3. Michael was absent so their teacher, Ms. Abelli-Amen performed his role. This particular day's project was for the students to discover the shape of the sine curve and Periodic Function without these first being discussed and explained. A story was presented stating that "a nurse is walking down a corridor rolling a hanging bag of blue liquid and unknown to her, the bag has a small dripping leak and is swinging behind her as she steadily walks". The students made a model of this scenario and then brainstormed options to improve the model (to make it more periodic) and performed the improvements - successfully! See additional pictures HERE.

Senior Althea Patchett loves art! She has been doing art with her artist grandmother for her whole life. Currently, Althea is taking Art 2 at Valley Oaks with Ms. Garcia. They are learning about Surrealism and in the photo top left is Althea's latest Surrealism piece. As described by Althea, the assignment was to "focus on a feeling instead of an idea of exactly what you want to draw." Althea explained it this way: "It's like looking at clouds and then seeing shapes." The most difficult part of art for Althea is working on getting the correct proportions of a face to make it realistic. Her favorite artist, one who really makes her think and feel things is Edward Munch who did The Scream. She went to a show of his at the Museum of Modern Art last year and was struck by the "cool, creepy pictures"! Please continue reading HERE .

Freshman Henry Wilson has been with the North Bay Rowing Club for the past two years. Last year, as an 8th grader, Henry was on the Learning-to-Row Team, which prepares young athletes for the competitive high school team. This year, Henry will have opportunities to compete at the regional and national level.

What Henry particularly likes about his sport is that he "has a great team with nice people". He says he really enjoys the competitiveness. There are about 15 teens that make up his team. The most difficult part of rowing for Henry is getting his technique correct and that it is "extremely physically demanding".

(Please continue reading HERE - and see more photos!)

Senior Jessica Rue Coulman has been playing lacrosse since 1st grade! She played with the Petaluma River Cats from 1st through 6th grade and then joined the High School lacrosse team when she was just a 7th grader! Lacrosse is in Jessica's DNA - in part thanks to her aunt who was the head coach for the Cal Berkeley lacrosse women's team. The best thing about being on the lacrosse team, says Jessica, is that "the team is like your family. You see your teammates every day and after games you go out together." On the nights before a game, the team has a fun "Carb Night" hosted at someone's house where they load up on pasta and pizza and get excited to win their game.

The most difficult part... continued HERE

Sophomore Channing Matthews, for the past year and a half, has been playing golf year-round. She is on the Petaluma Golf Team - a fall sport, and then she plays in tournaments for teen- agers. Her favorite thing about golfing is getting to be outside, walking in the fresh air, and going to different courses. The course she enjoys the most is her high school team's home course, Rooster Run. When it is not PHS's golf team season, Channing plays three times a week at Rooster Run and takes a weekly lesson there. The most difficult thing about golf for Channing is the pressure to concentrate and focus on hitting the ball - especially when a lot of people are watching. Once Channing lost her focus at the tee-off and the ball only went three feet! When it was her turn to take her second shot, she must have tripled her concentration because her ball went right in the hole - a Birdie!!

Please click HERE to read a few short segments from an Argus-Courier story.

Congratulations to 12th grader, Jacqueline Jones for earning our Valley Oaks Bright News! Letter for January!

Jacqueline was given a candy lei and her photo is now hanging on our Bright News! wall in Building #1. All staff created a Bright News! letter that was mailed to her family. We are proud of you, Jacqueline!

Students who have demonstrated academic excellence during the past month are discussed at staff meetings and one is chosen to be honored. Our Bright News! form letter is on our website.

Congratulations to senior, Charlene Campton, who earned Principal's Honor Roll status for last semester!

Here is the list of all the students who made the Principal's Honor Roll and their GPA's for the fall semester:

Deborah Arango 4.0 (senior)

Justine Barnes 3.85 (grad)

Marissa Barredo 4.0 (senior)

Sophia Bauer 4.0 (sophomore)

Jacob Cafiero 4.0 (grad)

Charlene Campton 4.0 (senior)

Kelly Garcia 3.96 (senior)

Felipe Jimenez 3.83 (junior)

Ian Peracca 4.0 (sophomore)

Jade Polaski 3.89 (junior)

Jessica Rue Coulman 4.0 (senior)

Kristin Ward 4.0 (grad)

Lydia Williams 4.0 (senior)

Congratulations to all of our Principal's Honor Roll students!

Congratulations to senior, Cece Illingworth, who earned a spot on the Honor Roll for last semester!

Here is the list of all the students who made the Honor Roll:

Abbi Grogan 3.68 (senior)

Cece Illingworth 3.19 (senior)

Michael Kofoid 3.41 (junior)

Michelle Mendoza 3.56 (senior)

Congratulations to all of our Honor Roll students!

To read the requirements for the Valley Oaks Honor Roll and Principal's Honor Roll, click HERE

As of this month and this semester, the new minimum GPA for Honor Roll is 3.5. It was 3.0. The new minimum GPA for Principal's Honor Roll is 3.9. It was 3.8.

Minimum GPA is not the only requirement for Honor Roll/Principal's Honor Roll.

Although sophomore Devin Jones says he is unsure about his exact college plans, he is "keeping all his doors open". More than thinking about a specific university, Devin is developing his career plans. His current plan is to have his own accounting business and be a Certified Public Accountant. Both he and his younger brother have always had excellent math skills. Devin wants to be in business with his brother. He feels that this is a very stable career field that will always be needed, and the independence of being his own boss, scheduling his own hours, and being in control of all decisions is very attractive to him. He is excited to possibly get an internship with family friends who have an accounting business - "it's good to get your foot in the door now", says Devin!

Sophomore Ian Peracca has been planning to attend U.C. Berkeley probably since before his freshman year. Ian took both Biology and Math 2 as a freshman which have given him a step up toward advanced math and science courses.

Senior Marissa Barredo has been busy completing college applications. She has received acceptance letters from Channel Islands CSU and University Nevada Reno. She is still waiting to hear from San Diego State, Sacramento State, & Sonoma State. She is considering applying to Arizona State. Good Luck, Marissa!

Here at her 2018 graduation ceremony at Lucchesi, Julia Sherman had big plans underway. She spent a semester doing a science internship in Costa Rica and then worked for the Spring semester back in town. After her one year deferred enrollment, Julia is now a freshman at U.C. Davis. During her 4 years at Valley Oaks, Julia worked at the Petaluma Market and co-enrolled at SRJC in Spanish 1 and 2 and in Environmental Studies and in a lab science Geology course.

Nick Matteri is also pictured here at his 2018 graduation ceremony. While a senior at Valley Oaks, he commuted to the Santa Rosa airport for classes and earned his pilot license. He will earn a Bachelors Degree in Commercial Aviation from UND. He decided against the other top school for this degree, Embry-Riddle, since UND will be half the cost and Nick has friends at UND from the Santa Rosa flight school. Nick spent all 4 years of high school at Valley Oaks.

Ben Hoffman was a VOS student from 7th through 12th grade and graduated in June of 2016. He chose the "combo" route through Valley Oaks and went to the JC. He is currently at SRJC in an engineering pathway. After this year at the JC he plans to transfer to Cal Poly’s Material Sciences department. His passion is to have a career where he can address the issues of climate change.