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Clayton Pioneer • www.claytonpioneer.com
Charter school team taking shape
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Dave Linzey, Clayton Valley Charter High School’s executive director, continued to put together his leadership team, introducing several new administrators last week. They Patrick Gaffney, director of curriculum and instruction, Pat Middendorf, director of operations and special education, and Miguel Romo, director of student services. Also introduced was Tim Murphy, CVCHS’s new head football coach. I asked each to introduce themselves through this column. This issue, we hear from Coach Murphy: “In short, I use football and the lessons it provides as a means of preparing young people to be successful in all aspects of life,” says Murphy. “There are countless things football can teach young people. If I had to break it down, there are two things our program is truly centered around; trust and work ethic. Establishing trust in our program is showing up everyday, treating people right,
APRIL WINSHIP
THE CHARTER PAPERS taking care of your school work, staying away from drugs and alcohol and never quitting no matter how difficult the circumstance.” I will have more of Coach Murphy’s philosophy in the next column. Governing Board Update. Four teachers have been nominated for the teacher position on the Governing Board to replace teacher Pat Middendorf. Science teacher Greg Hile, math teacher Dennis Beck, English teacher Jenny De Angelis and science
teacher Aaron Pascucci are the candidates. The Proposition 39 agreement with MDUSD is not completely resolved yet, reports teacher and Governing Board member Neil McChesney. “The Governing Board voted to approve the Facilities use Agreement with MDUSD for the Clayton Valley site for one year. There are several issues that will require further discussion and/or documentation. This includes the price for ‘rent’ known as the prorata calculation.” Some of the points agreed to: CVCHS cannot make improvements that exceed $2,000 in cost without prior consent from MDUSD. There are two exceptions, paint and re-keying. CVCHS will receive revenue for public use of the site, (with prior MDUSD consent or use permit). The Governing Board also approved a two year contract with ExEd, a non-profit “back office” services provider. ExEd will act as the business manager
for CVCHS. They will handle payroll, budgets, accounts receivable and payable, mandated state reporting and help establish vendor contracts during the first year of operation. Volunteer information. Want to volunteer at CVCHS but don’t know how? Contact me at april.winship@claytonvalley.org and help CVCHS shine. Need landscape help. Is your company’s expertise in landscape maintenance or janitorial services? CVCHS is now seeking bids. For details see the BIDS AND SERVICES tab. Freshman transition. Would you like to help with the Freshman Summer Transition Program? Contact Kat Marzel at katmar56@gmail.com. What is your vision for CVCHS? What steps would you take to realize this vision? Email comments to april.winship@claytonvalley.org. April Winship is the parent of two CVCHS students. She lives in Clayton with her family.
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My last column for the Clayton Pioneer… The way I see it, it’s impossible for this not to be cheesy, so bear with me because I am being 100 percent honest. Three years ago (ish), I emailed publisher Tamara Steiner, thinking that I might wind up writing for the Pioneer once in a while. I figured that my writing would get better, and it would look good on my college applications. I had no idea that I would get so much more than I bargained for out of the whole experience. I didn’t really realize at the time I started writing for the Pioneer that I was given a tremendous platform, a platform on which I could voice my true opinions. However, with this privilege came a responsibility to share my opinions without “preaching” to my readers. I learned to find the delicate balance between voicing my opinions in a constructive manner and essentially telling my readers what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Most importantly, I learned to think more deeply about why I held these opinions. It wasn’t enough to merely state what I felt and be done with it. Researching facts and pulling from my experiences to write a cohesive and concise article
helped me to understand my own thinking on a deeper level. While I hope I’m not rambling, I had sincere motive behind writing my final piece about my experience with the Pioneer. Peers, parents, strangers, and even some teachers ask me why I would ever want to voluntarily write and do more work any more often than I have to. The answer is simple because not only do I love to write, but I am one of the select few teenagers out there who is allowed to open the eyes (hopefully) of readers each month by writing about anything I want. As I head off to UC Santa Barbara this fall, it will feel odd not wracking my brain each month for an article topic; I know my fellow “Teen Speak” writer, Taylor Tovrea, can commiserate with me on that one. I’ll miss submitting a strong article that I know is controversial (like my article about the bullying problems I witnessed at Ayer’s Elementary 5th grade camp), and I’ll miss reading the either biting or supportive comments some readers emailed to me after such articles. I shall now attempt to give my successors some sound advice. Aside from the obvious hypocritical advice that you
SARAH ROSEN TEEN SPEAK should TRY not to wait until the day of the deadline to write your article, I recommend seeing your monthly column as an opportunity to think more deeply about what you care about. What gets you really angry? Or really excited? Think about what disgusts you and makes you ashamed to be a teenager. Start there and write everything you feel about that topic down, and finally, make it constructive. Consider whether or not you would want to read that article if someone else had wrote it. If it sounds like you’re complaining, start over. Okay, I’m done rambling now. I hope that some of what I said sticks with anyone who would consider writing op-ed columns for a newspaper. While I sit in sunny Santa Barbara, I look forward to reading the future “Teen Speak” columnists’ writing. Good luck! Sarah Rosen is a senior at CVHS. You can e-mail her at sarah_rosen@claytonpioneer.com.
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Congratulations, kudos and huzzahs to our two retiring TeenSpeak columnists. With excitement for their bright futures but a little selfish regret to see them go, we bid farewell to Sarah Rosen and Taylor Tovrea. Both women are graduating with honors from CVHS this month and will be heading off to college in the fall. Sarah will attend UC Santa Barbara to major in English and Film Studies. Taylor is on her way to UCLA, where she will major in neuroscience with an eye to medical school in the future. Sophomore Robbie Parker will continue as a CVHS reporter at-large. We are looking for at least one other student to write commentary and opinion columns, features and profiles and cover news stories on campus and in the community. Students must have a lively writing style with excellent grammar, punctuation and spelling, have something interesting to say and not be afraid to say it. Interested students should send an email to tamara@claytonpioneer.com.
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DramaMama’s hard-knock life CELINE HERRERA DVMS REPORTER The DramaMama teen performance program wrapped up the year last month with a perennial favorite, “Annie: The Musical.” “Annie,” is the story of an orphan girl (played by Jordan Ben-Shmuel and Megan Robinson), who lives in an all-girls orphanage that is run by Ms. Hannigan, (played by Veronica Renner and Devon Taylor) in the 1900s. One lucky day, Grace, (played by Claire Olson and Valeria Huaco), the secretary of the rich and famous
Oliver Warbucks (played by Daniel Jones), comes to the orphanage to ask a red-headed orphan child to spend the Christmas holidays with Mr. Warbucks. She ends up choosing Annie, who suddenly enjoys the life of luxury she’s always wanted. When Mr. Warbucks wants to adopt Annie, she resists, because when her parents left her at the orphanage when she was a baby, they promised her that they would come back for her. The plot thickens when a mysterious couple arrives at the Warbucks’s home claiming to be Annie’s parents. Could they be? Or, are they just after the big money award and not Annie? I asked student Laura Ruscitti what part of “Annie” she enjoyed the most. “I loved the
songs,” she says. “The actors and actresses did a really good job singing them.” There were many tears shed and heartfelt speeches at the final showing of the play. A special speech was given by the only five boys in Drama Mama — Sean Calimlim, Daniel Jones, Dylan Kies, Aaron Olk, and Vincent Tran. They all sang a special song to commemorate the special final night.
Membership in DramaMama, is $80 a month. Students participate in two shows a year, a spring show and a winter show. Contact drama_mama@comcast.net if you are interested in signing up for the 2012-2013 school year Celine Herrera is in the eighth grade at Diablo View Middle School. Email comments or questions to celine@claytonpioneer.com.