Principal Rebecca Lofton has two very important reminders for students.

1. Before the end of the semester, students need to turn in a Verification Form documenting that their 5 hours of mandatory community service for the semester has been completed. We are very happy that almost every student has either started their service hours or at least has described to their assigned teacher what they plan to do.

2. Digital Portfolios need to be polished and ready to present at our Open House on May 9, 2019. At this point in the year, students should have at least 2 assignments from September/October, posted on their website/portfolio. Additionally, the About Me page should be done and ideally the Community Service page is underway. Remember, the instructions are on our school website under Academics, and all staff members are ready and willing to help you. We are very pleased that so many students are already experienced and comfortable using Google sites!

Mr. Jamerson, our school counselor, has prepared speakers and activities for his annual Fall COLLEGE NIGHT/FINANCIAL AID NIGHT. It will be on 11/28/18, a Wednesday. There will be two parts: The first part will be from 6pm to 6:45pm. Speakers from the JC, the CSU system, and the UC system will present overviews of the application process. The second part will be from 6:45pm to 8pm. Information on financial aid for college will be presented and each student will be given a computer to work on their financial aid forms. Mr. Jamerson will be there to facilitate, instruct, and help you. If you just want the financial aid assistance, you are welcome to arrive at 6:45pm instead of 6pm. This event will be held in a SAHS classroom which has multiple student computers set up.

Trisha, our school secretary, has been especially busy this month enrolling new students! Welcome to Nicholas Barajas, Brenda Amador, Lucas Adelman, Emri Bullock, Casey Manford, and Channing Matthews! Trisha continually works with new students to facilitate their smooth transition to Valley Oaks. October is always a month where we get a bigger wave of new students. We are excited to have had a very large group of prospective students attend our October 25th Informational Meeting hosted by Ms. Halsey and Mr. Jamerson!

Facebook - Did you know that just this last month, Trisha Shew and communications coordinator, Ashley Collingwood from the district office made a Facebook page for VOS? Please check it out! This is a great opportunity for us to build our school community and inform interested families.

Mr. Jamerson grew up in East Oakland and went to the public schools there. He graduated from Skylane High School. For fun, as a kid, he would ride his bike all over town and would ride bikes with friends to see movies at Grand Lake or Parkway theaters. Nowadays, he is a great Oakland A's fan but likes all Bay Area teams. He and his beautiful wife have two energetic young boys, ages 10 and 6. Currently he is attending Sonoma State, taking 5 classes this fall and again this spring to earn his administrators credential. He earned his Masters Degree and Counseling Credential from SSU a few years ago.

Although clearly self-directed and motivated now about his professional path, it was not always this way for Mr. Jamerson...

Please continue reading about Mr. Jamerson's story HERE.

It was a unanimous decision by the staff to make 12th grader, Cole Charbonnier, our Bright News! student for October. Cole's teachers are very impressed with his academics and every staff member has experienced Cole's polite, intellectual, and enthusiastic personality. Cole was given a candy lei and his photo is now hanging on our Bright News! wall in Building #1. All staff created a Bright News! letter that was mailed to his family. We think so highly of you, Cole! And we are so happy you came to Valley Oaks!

Students who are demonstrating 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.

There was no school for students on October 15th, a staff development day, but teachers were very busy! In the morning, all the district teachers met and worked on their pet interests. Ms. Parker received help from PHS's Ms. Smith to move our Physical Science course from a "G" category course to a "D" in our UC a-g list. This will be a great help to our college prep students!

VOS teachers in the afternoon worked together to prepare our WASC report. This year Valley Oaks will be evaluated by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC), which will determine if we, staff members, are setting and achieving appropriate school goals. We are proud to say that VOS has always received the highest scores from WASC visits! The visit will be in March.

Preston Ashton, now a senior, has been a VOS student since the start of his freshman year. He chose VOS because he "likes to do the un-common thing and be different". Working his first job at Jamba Juice (photo) since March, he is preparing himself for a life-long career in business. He is very well informed about the company, its policies and products. Additionally, he is very enthusiastic about his job and says it makes him feel more independent and lets him be able to pay for his car. He likes to work-out and wanted a job where he could promote and consume healthy food. When he graduates he plans to go to College of Marin and then San Francisco State to get an MBA. He wants to be a business entrepreneur - all of his family members have become their own business owners. Cars are Preston's #1 passion. He goes to car meets and shows and loves to go on drives with his friends. In addition, Preston can easily be called a great animal lover because he has 3 Bearded Dragons, 1 California King Snake, a tortoise, 2 goats, 2 alpacas, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and he had two rescue Jack Rabbits but they escaped.

Lydia Williams, also now a senior who has been at Valley Oaks since the start of her freshman year, plans to become a veterinarian. She will be graduating early, which became one of her goals at VOS, and after starting at SRJC in January, she plans to go to Colorado State, which has an excellent vet med program. In addition to Rhino, pictured so beautifully here, Lydia has 4 other dogs (one is a foster dog), a cat, a carpet python, a gecko, and fish! She has upcoming volunteer opportunities with Big Dog Rescue and the Petaluma Animal Shelter (now that she just turned 18). Lydia was 8 years old when she moved from Florida to Petaluma with her 2 younger sisters. When she was just 13 years old, she started working at the Phoenix Theater, a teen center and now an all-ages night club. Lydia's responsibilities at the Phoenix have grown exponentially! Lydia can be considered a poster-child for independence and youthful wisdom. In addition to always having a job, she bought her first car over a year before she could drive, she is continually doing good deeds for people and animals, and, on top of all these activities and school work, Lydia has taken on a new hobby which is studying and growing houseplants - she even bought a pH meter to better understand the science of her soils! Initially, Lydia came to VOS because she "doesn't like big crowds and classrooms" and now, laughing that she loves to talk, what she says she loves most is her personal connections with her teachers! - thanks, Lydia!

Cece Illingworth, holding a lima bean, April Adelman doing a funny pose in back, the very polite Preston Ashton, and the more reserved Ian Peracca got their Group Work Out for PE done on October 5th. At the end of the class, Ian demonstrated his awesome pull-ups on the pull-up bar in the gym - way to go, Ian!!! (We use lima beans to keep track of our lap numbers during the cardio time.)

Sophia Bauer, a VOS sophomore, is an experienced equestrian. Her Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse, Dominic, is unusually tall! When she bought him, he was a western pleasure horse. Now, with Sophia's training, Dominic has learned to be an English jumper. This month, they achieved a height jumping goal in her Goal Setting Course - congratulations!!

Our PE Group Work Out on October 19th started with an easy stationary bike warm up. This day was unusual... we had one 9th grader, Brenda Amador, one 10th grader, Ian Peracca, one 11th grader, April Adelman, and one 12th grader, Cece Illingworth!

Jacob Cafiero - A huge thank you to student, Jacob Cafiero, who has begun the newest work of campus beautification. He worked in the hot October sun for five hours straight!!! We are excited that there will be another student spreading bark soon (a much easier job than clearing the land that Jacob is doing here) in the bedraggled rose bed outside building #1. We are eager for this service project to be completed which will beautify our campus. English teacher, Ms. Kesseru searched and found a company to give us a free load of bark: Sonoma Compost in Nicasio. Thank you to Ms. Kesseru, to this kind, wonderful student, Jacob Cafiero, and to the next yet unknown student!

Michael Kofoid, pictured center holding the huge trophy, is a junior at Valley Oaks. He came here at the start of his sophomore year he says, because of the flexible schedule. His goal is to become a professional race car driver and race for a team full time. Michael's racing career began when he was introduced to his father's best friend's son who raced go carts. Michael raced go carts from age 9 to age 12. He then started racing sprint cars at age 13. Sprint cars have a huge wing for down-force, all the bolts are made of titanium, and they have a very high power-to-weight ratio: 1,400lbs & 900 horsepower (versus 3,400lbs & 200hp for a car). They do not have a transmission or a starter and so they need to be pushed by a truck to get them started. Once going, they can reach almost 200mph!

A video of Michael winning the Howard Kaeding Classic at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville is HERE. Michael is in the all red "4" car. The DSR on the car stands for Dan Simpson Racing. Michael won $5,000.

He won the 57th Annual Johnny Key Classic of 50 laps and also was awarded $5,000 (photo HERE).

Michael is pictured here at a Skagit, Washington race from this past summer where he won $10,000!! This race was especially meaningful to Michael because just a couple of months before, he had an accident on this raceway due to a malfunction of the car which caused the bearings to freeze. The car made one roll and doctors thought he had broken his neck. Michael said "it was the most painful thing in my life." He was on IV's and had CAT scans but miraculously, Michael bounced back and is pain free with no lasting injury! - and best yet, he came back to the track and won!

Cole Charbonnier is a junior at VOS. He just came to us this August and has made a hugely positive impression on staff members! He is taking two difficult SRJC courses, Astronomy 3 and Business. He plans to transfer from SRJC eventually and go to NYU. Cole is also in the height of his hockey season. Because he is so busy, we did an online interview together and Cole's responses demonstrate his stellar personality and potential!

1) What do you like to do for community service?

Cole: helping coach youth hockey

2) Why did you come to VOS?

Cole: I came to VOS to have a flexible environment where I can chase my career objectives and have classes tailored to my specific interests. In traditional schools, you don't have staff that genuinely cares about your success, but at Valley Oaks, everyone wants what's best for you.

3) What do you like about VOS?

Cole: I like the care teachers have for their students. I also enjoy being able to tailor classes such as history towards a more economics-oriented view, because that will best help me with my career goals.

4) Did you grow up in Petaluma?

Cole: I grew up in Petaluma

5) How long have you been playing hockey and how did you get interested in it?

Cole: I've been playing hockey for...

Please see photo/video and finish reading Cole's online interview HERE

Cece Illingworth was enjoying the huge zebra-striped black and white monarch butterfly caterpillars in the garden box outside building #2. Cece counted 5 of them crawling on the milkweed patch there. The one in this picture is in the bottom right corner - it is at least 2 inches long. If you know, please tell one of us teachers why they have tentacles on both the front and back ends! Thank you to Ms. Abelli-Amen and our wonderful substitute teacher, Ms. Guest, for establishing this habitat. The USFWS will have a decision in June 2019 as to whether or not monarchs belong on the Federal Endangered Species Act.