Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

School board members get sworn in

Dr. Henry Smith is latest addition to panel

Los Baños Unified School District's Board of Education welcomed its most recently elected board members at its last meeting; returning members Colleen Menefee and Jack Vasquez, and newest member Dr. Henry Smith. Members were sworn in at last Thursday's meeting.

Additionally, the new board elected its officers for the upcoming year. Dennis Areias was elected as president, with Menefee installed as vice president and Don Goin as clerk.

Andree Soares, the school board's previous president, was awarded for her service for the previous year.

"She kept us going in the right direction," Superintendent Steve Tietjen said.

Charleston and Volta elementary schools also received a variety of awards from Merced County Office of Education's Lee Anderson, the county superintendent.

Out of 20 districts in Merced County, totaling 55,000 students, in the small elementary school category, Charleston Elementary School took first place in the Academic Performance Index, API., as an overall high performer. Volta took second in the same small elementary division. Each school was also awarded for exceeding 800 points in the API.

Both schools received the award in the Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP, category for having 55 percent or more of their students proficient and advanced in English-Language Arts and math.

Also in the AYP category, Charleston took first place for English-Language Arts high performer; Volta came in second place.

Charleston was also awarded in the AYP second place for greatest games and first place for high performer in math.

Jan Whitehurst, principal at Volta, said she gives credit to the students and teachers for their awards. She was also proud the school had shown growth from the previous year.

"It's not me; it's them," she said.

Charleston's Principal Lou Ruiz agreed and said his students, parents, staff and teachers are the ones whose hard work is awarded.

Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com