By James Ott

The recent child-abuse accusations facing the Antioch school district and recent bomb threats at Deer Valley High School have prompted the Antioch School Board to schedule special meetings this month to discuss improving the safety of their schools.

At the previous school board meeting, Antioch Unified School District, (AUSD), Superintendent Dr. Donald Gill asked school board members to add a special meeting at the end of the month to discuss the district’s child-abuse reporting policy and other safety matters.

The decision to improve safety policies comes as the district is being sued by the families of three disabled students.

Larry and Megan Evans, Teresa Green and Heather Carranza all allege that their kids were abused physically and verbally by special education teacher Theresa Allen-Caulboy at MNO Grant Elementary in Antioch. They are part of a lawsuit that seeks damages from Allen-Caulboy, and the Antioch school district.

The lawsuit claims that Allen-Caulboy pinned students to the ground, pinched and gouged at them and called them names like “retard.”

The parents of the affected students are also targeting MNO Grant Elementary School principal Michael Green, AUSD Special Education Director David Wax, Assistant Superintendent Keith Rogenski, and Special Education Coordinator Kai Montgomery – all administrators who the lawsuit claims failed to protect their children from abuse and even attempted to cover up the problem by urging parents not to report the case to the police.

As if the alleged abuse of disabled students wasn’t enough, Antioch police also recently arrested an unnamed 16-year-old Deer Valley High School student from calling in bomb threats to several area schools including Deer Valley and Black Diamond Middle School.

The student was arrested on April 25 after calling in numerous bomb threats over five days, all of which proved to be hoaxes. The student admitted to the threats after they were arrested.

The district has vowed that the responsible student would be expelled and possibly face felony charges.

Superintendent Gill said that student safety is always the number one priority of a school district, but that it is even more apparent after the recent lawsuit and bomb-threats.

“The most timely topic we have before us now is student safety,” said Gill.

AUSD Board President Joy Motts said that the district will be “looking at everything we possibly can” to improve student safety at Antioch schools.

Motts said that some of the things they might look to improve at future meetings include school infrastructure, providing teachers with the correct tools to identify problems and keep students safe, intervention programs to determine if children are in need, and reviewing all documents related to safety and reporting of complaints by students and staff.

“I think it’s absolutely appropriate to do everything we possibly can to make sure our kids are safe,” added Motts.

The next scheduled school board meetings are scheduled for tonight, Wednesday, May 8 and Wednesday May 22 at 7:00 p.m. at 510 G Street in Antioch. The special board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday May, 29.

By James Ott

Antioch’s school district could save millions in energy costs and gain funding for new education initiatives if it decides to go with a plan to add solar panels to it’s school sites.

Three companies combined to give a presentation about the benefits of solar to the school board at their March 27 meeting. After the presentation the board voted to allow them to do a feasibility study and secure $30 million in bonds from the state that would help pay for the solar panels.

Bob Redlinger, a senior manager at 25-year-old solar company SunPower led the talks, saying that the school could save nearly $70 million in energy costs over the next 25 years from installing it’s solar panels. After paying $34 million back in bonds to pay for the construction and maintenance of the panels the district could expect a $35 million net savings to their general fund, Redlinger said. After that, he said that the district will continue to save millions in energy costs and have schools that are energy independent.

Redlinger presented a mock-up of Deer Valley High School as an example of how SunPower’s solar panels may be implemented into Antioch schools. Solar panels would be placed on the roof of the school and over parking lots and outdoor assembly areas to provide shade in addition to power. The initial energy production of the solar system could produce 2,110,619 kilowatts and hour and pick up 76 percent of the large schools’ entire energy usage. Increasing the size and efficiency of the system could do even better, according to Redlinger’s presentation, making the school entirely energy independent and erasing the entire $457,927 energy bill the district pays to run high school each year.

Steve Nielsen of financial consultant company MuniBond Solar would handle financing for the solar project and said that Antioch Unified could get the entire program going with no “out of pocket” expenses. This is possible because the district has applied for $30 million in Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, (QZABs) through the California Department of Energy. $98 million in QZABs were authorized by the state in January of this year to help pay for alternative energy projects at California schools.

Nielsen said he expects the QZABs to come with a 17 to 20 year term with a low interest rate of around 1.5 percent. He praised the QZABs simple structure and low cost.

“These [QZABs] are somewhat comparable to a really low fixed-rate home mortgage,” said Neilsen. “And it doesn’t require a direct repayment from taxpayers because payments will come out of the district’s general fund.”

If the district decides to go with SunPower and MuniBond Solar they will also get the services of Project Lead The Way, (PLTW), – a company that specializes in developing so called STEM, (science, technology, engineering and math), curricula for middle and high schools.

Dr. Duane Crum represented PLTW at the meeting and said that his company “provides rigorous, hands-on curricula and intense professional development in STEM disciplines.” STEM education has become popular in K-12 schools as the world economy moves to more technology laden jobs that require a more educated workforce.

Crum said that PLTW has over 500,000 students taking it’s courses in all 50 states including some at Antioch High School. As part of the solar panel project PLTW will develop and implement STEM academies with hopes to better educate Antioch youth in those disciplines. SunPower also plans to link it’s solar panels to modules and labs where students can conduct physical experiments.

Crum said that PLTW will provide up to $3.1 million in matched in-kind funding to pay for the program.

If the school board decides to move forward and approves a contract with the three companies at the June 12 board meeting, Redlinger said that the they can start the design and development of the project that same month. They then will began construction in July 2013 while simultaneously training teachers and implementing the PLTW STEM curriculum.

If all goes well the plan is to energize the solar panels as early as the mid-year, 2014.

By Dr. Sean Wright, CEO, Antioch Chamber of Commerce

The Antioch Unified School District is leading the way in a statewide effort for High School Reformation. Five years ago AUSD applied for a grant and project from the James Irvine Foundation that brought in monetary resources and experts to incorporate a new model of educational reform known as Linked Learning. Antioch’s Superintendent Dr. Donald Gill and the AUSD school board has fully embraced this new model of educational reform and created numerous academies at each of the Antioch High Schools.

For the past five years, this grant has allowed AUSD to be involved in a California Linked Learning District Initiative, which aims to demonstrate that when school districts use Linked Learning as a primary district strategy for high school transformation, student outcomes improve. Only nine California districts were able to participate in this phenomenal opportunity. AUSD now offers pathway academies in Medicine, Law, Engineering, Business, Technology, and the Performing Arts with more on the way.

The data from these school districts is coming in with Higher Test Scores, decreased levels of truancy and overall students who are more engaged in their own educational process than ever before. Because of the promising data, the state of California wrote an Assembly Bill last year known as AB790 which sought out twenty school districts that would continue the work of Linked Learning over the next five years. Looking to collect more data and give the beginning districts more time to expand their pathways. AUSD partnered with Mount Diablo and Pittsburg School Districts to work together as surrounding districts to expand Linked Learning. The three school district cohort grant known as The Diablo Delta Corridor Project was applied for and accepted by the state of California in January of this year.

The Diablo Delta Corridor Project is an interesting model for Linked Learning as it looks to engage Businesses in order to create greater dialogue and more understanding for our students coming directly from the source of the employers of the future. This Linked Learning model allows student education to incorporate Math, English, Science and Social Study core learning into a thematic relevant and engaging pathway around the student’s direct area of interest. It’s not Math for the sake of Math or English for the sake of English, it is Math, English, and Science taught to help a student understand the topics that make them want to learn.

By Allen Payton

Kristoff Isiah Williams of Antioch, has earned a place on Washington State University’s President’s Honor Roll for the 2012 fall semester.

A criminal justice major in his junior year, Williams is a 2010 graduate of Deer Valley High School, where he was a four-year scholar athlete and a National Football League Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete, as quarterback for the Wolverines. He now plays wide receiver for the WSU Cougars football team. Williams is the son of Daniel and Corlette Williams.

The President’s Honor Roll recognizes students who stand above the rest with excellent academic performance. To be eligible for the honor roll, undergraduate students must be enrolled in a minimum of nine graded hours in a single term at WSU and earn a grade point average of 3.75 or earn a 3.50 cumulative GPA based on 15 cumulative hours of graded work.

With more than 18,000 undergraduate students studying in more than 200 fields of study, Washington State University is proud of its talented and diverse student body. The University is especially honored to recognize those students who stood out above the rest with their outstanding academic work. The award is especially noteworthy because of the world-class caliber of faculty who teach there and their high expectations of their students.

For more information on the WSU President’s Honor Roll visit http://president.wsu.edu/office/awards/honor-roll/index.html. For more information on Kristoff Williams, visit http://www.wsucougars.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/kristoff_williams_585405.html.

Click on the ad to visit the website to register for the event.

By James Ott

An outpouring of support from passionate parents and students may have prevented the firing of an alternative education teacher in Antioch.

At the February 27 Antioch School Board meeting district staff recommended laying off at least 14 teachers as part of the school district’s annual review of projected student enrollment and corresponding staffing levels.

The list of potential firings included one teacher from Antioch’s E.N.C.O.R.E., (Educating and Nurturing with Options, Resources and Education) alternative teaching program.

But thanks to a fervent outcry from concerned parents and students, not only will that teacher likely keep her job, but the school board decided to look into expanding the successful program.

E.N.C.O.R.E. is a kindergarten through eighth-grade program that allows home schooled children to still have the benefits of learning part time in a classroom.

It is taught by teachers Leslie McKinnon, Irene McLaughlin, Ericka Spires and Cynthia Schroeder who was the teacher expected to lose her job if the district went through with the process.

Person after person spoke up at the meeting to say that all of E.N.C.O.R.E.’s teachers including “Miss Cynthia” as many of her students and their parents refer to her, are invaluable to E.N.C.O.R.E.

Parents and teachers argued that E.N.C.O.R.E.’s unique structure in which the same 100-125 students a year stay with the same teacher and fellow students as they move from kindergarten through eighth-grade cannot handle such a layoff.

Besides they said, E.N.C.O.R.E. is very successful program that consistently produces high grades and test scores and consistently has had to put interested families on a waiting list for most of it’s 20-year existence. This year there are already 12 families waiting for room to put their children into E.N.C.O.R.E.

“You have the best alternative education program in the Bay Area,” claimed one parent. “I know because I did the research and I chose to come here.”

Every parent who spoke agreed with that sentiment, many of them moving from other parts of the Bay Area just to enroll their kids. One father commutes from the Dublin/Livermore area just to get his kids into E.N.C.O.R.E.

Parents and students raved about the teachers and special classes that allow their home-schooled students socialization with other kids as well as a sound education.

“I went to E.N.C.O.R.E. as a very shy student that didn’t know how to go through public school and I came out a performer,” said former student Rayanne Baird.

Baird is now pursuing acting at Diablo Valley College.

There were similar stories of students that not only went to E.N.C.O.R.E. and got a good education, but several said the lives of these students were positively changed.

One mother recounted how her son was an angry trouble maker who had below average or failing grades and couldn’t handle public school. After 9-years at E.N.C.O.R.E. he consistently makes honor roll at his high school and is a well adjusted, happy young man.

Over and over parents and students credited E.N.C.O.R.E.’s success directly to it’s four teachers, describing them as “fabulous,” “wonderful,” and amazing.

Former students recounted how they dissected cow eyes and sequenced DNA in science labs, took field trips to galleries to appreciate art, made Chinese bamboo painting and learned to write critical thinking essays.

Several years ago a group of students at E.N.C.O.R.E. even wrote, directed, edited and starred in a feature film called “Around the World in 180 days.” The film was shone at the former Brenden Theaters in Pittsburg.

After all of the praise, many were left wondering why the district was even considering laying off any teacher from such a successful program that even has a positive cash flow for the district due to a lack of student abences.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the district Keith Rogenski said that all of the potential layoffs were being looked at because of lower enrollment projections for the coming school year.

Those projections for each school he said, determined that certain teachers may not have enough students to teach and therefore may not be needed.

At the meeting however, Rogenski did stress that all of the projections and thus the potential layoffs were just preliminary estimates that the district is required to make each year by March 15.

He said the General Fund savings for those 14 potential layoffs could be as high as $700,000 for the 2013-2014 school year.

“This action is preliminary not an end all be all, permanent action,” he said.

The board, Rogenski said, is free to make changes to any of the teacher positions on the list in the coming months.

The decision to potentially fire an E.N.C.O.R.E. teacher seemed to come from the fact that the program only had about 75 students at the time the district was making their list.

Schroeder said that those figures are inaccurate and misleading because, like many schools their enrollment goes up after several weeks into the school year.

“The district stated that our attendance goal is 100 students – we have always met that,” she said. “Our new principal said that it was actually 106 so we met that – we are currently at 109 students.”

In the end the school board members seemed to unanimously agree that E.N.C.O.R.E. is meeting it’s attendance goals and it’s academic goals and should not be losing a teacher. In fact, they voted 4 to 1, (with Gary Hack against), to put off the preliminary vote on any of the layoffs in question until the next board meeting so that they can get staff to research how to grow the E.N.C.O.R.E. program.

“My vision 20 years ago was for E.N.C.O.R.E. to be much bigger,” said Board member Claire Smith, who helped found E.N.C.O.R.E. “I know you fit the needs of a lot of students.”

Board members seemed so impressed by the praise of students, teachers and parents that they said E.N.C.O.R.E. in many ways should be a model for the whole school district.

“You’re the dream for all of us,” said Board President Joy Motts. “[E.N.C.O.R.E.] is how we envision public education.”

The next school board meeting is on March 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the School Services Building at 510 G. Street.

Local youth sports organization, The Delta Baseball & Softball League, announced today its donation of over $2,750 to Antioch schools.

In 2012 the board of director for the Delta embarked on a new initiative, “Delta Goes to Bat for Schools.” The purpose of the program is to two-fold: in partnering with local schools, the league strives to demonstrate to its players the overriding importance of education. In the words of board member Rick Hilton, “baseball and other team sports are important in the development of our children, but every player should be reminded that school must always come first.”

A secondary mission of the program is to promote the importance of physical education and both individual and team sports within schools. According to board member David Chuey, “sports in general and team sports specifically teach kids things like communication, teamwork, good sportsmanship, and responsibility – all qualities that aid in their overall physical and educational development.”

The program, now in its second year, encourages schools and their PTA/PTO to get kids involved in baseball/softball and other team and individual sports. A percentage of the fees families pay to play in the Delta Baseball & Softball League are donated back to the school that the player attends. This year Delta is giving back over $2,750 to public, charter and private schools in Antioch, Pittsburg, Oakley, Brentwood, and Discovery Bay. Representatives from the three schools with the greatest number of players in the Delta Baseball & Softball League – Diablo Vista Elementary School, Holy Rosary Catholic School and Cornerstone Christian School – have been invited to the League’s Opening Day at Freedom High School on March 23, 2013 as honored guests. The league will present checks to each of the represented schools as a part of their opening day ceremony.

The Delta Baseball and Softball League, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was founded in 1984 as the Delta Peanut League by a group of like-minded parents seeking an alternative to the high pressure, high intensity youth sports leagues available at the time. Though originally serving only 6-8 year old “peanuts”, the league has grown over the past 30 years to include children from age 4 to 13, and today has both non-competitive divisions carrying on the legacy and vision of the league founders, and competitive divisions playing under banner of Cal Ripken Baseball and Babe Ruth Softball.

In 2007 the league added a division for differently-abled children, the CHAMP division (formerly FREEDOM division) where physically or mentally challenged children learn and play baseball free of charge alongside all of the other children in the league.

The league’s mission statement is to “strive to provide a positive and instructional baseball and softball league for children where the focus is on participation, fundamentals and enjoyment of the game; all in a safe environment where everyone is treated fairly.” League President Jarrod Wiener says these core fundamentals apply to all league divisions, baseball and softball, competitive, non-competitive and CHAMP.

To find out more about the Delta Baseball & Softball League please visit them at www.deltabaseballleague.com or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DeltaBaseballandSoftballLeague.

 

Antioch resident, Lauren Rojas, a 12-year-old student at Cornerstone Christian School, launched her Hello Kitty doll into space, last month, using a weather balloon, and as a result has become an internet sensation garnering national attention.

Her science experiment for a class she’s taking caught the attention of ABC News. The video of it has received over 555,000 views.  See the article by clicking here  and the YouTube video of the space flight, by clicking here.