Mark Highlights December Issue 2

Manteca Unified School Board

the

MARK

December 2017, Issue 2

Highlights

Why?

Making a positive difference to each and every student daily. facebook.com/ proudtobemusd

Kindness Matters

see page 10

Contents

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7, ISSUE 2

At Our Schools

MUSD School Board

Neil Hafley Health and Wellness Night

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President Stephen J. Schluer, Area 6

Neil Hafley Guest Author Visit

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Vice President Bob Wallace, Area 7

Brock Elliott Mayor Visit

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Board Clerk Evelyn Moore, Area 5

Great Valley Studies Micro Gravity

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MUSD Farm Hosts 6th Annual Serama Show

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Michael Seelye, Area 3

MHS Happiness Projects

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Nancy Teicheira, Area 4

New Vision Mock Interviews

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MUSD Presents at STEAM Conference

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MUSD Superintendents

SHS Teacher Wins FCS State Teacher of the year

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Kindness Matters in MUSD

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Eric Duncan, Area 1 Kathy Howe, Area 2

Superintendent Jason Messer Deputy Superintendents Dr. Clark Burke

Community Outreach

Roger Goatcher

Lincoln Elementary Explores Life-Like Science

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LHS Holiday Whobilation

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WRHS Choir Spreads Joy

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SHS Punjabi Folk Dance Club

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ASB Leadership Conference - Power of Positivity

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Vision Manteca Unified School District will ensure every school day is relevant, rigorous, and leads students to become productive and engaged members of a global society while residing in the central valley.

Mission Manteca Unified School District is committed to providing a safe environment where all students will thrive with the tools, resources and support needed to achieve their academic and personal potentials.

On the cover: Lincoln Elementary School Choir students after a Holiday performance at the District Office.

The Mark Highlights is published twice Community Outreach per month, on Manteca Unified School District average. It is a publication of the MUSD Superintendent’s Office Community Outreach team. Highlights content is contributed on a rotating basis by every school site in the district. Highlights is intended to be a reflection of the MUSD Vision and Mission, because above all, we Superintendent’s Office:

value making a positive difference to each and every student daily.

The Mark Highlights Team are: Victoria Brunn Executive Editor and MUSD Director of Community Outreach vbrunn@musd.net Peter Gale Design, Writing, and Editing pgale@musd.net

Lindsay Stayner Content Coordination, Editing, and Design lstayner@musd.net Erica McCullough Design emccullough@musd.net Note to school site contributors: please send photography at the highest resolution possible. When emailing from a cell phone, please use “actual size.”

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Neil Hafley Health and Wellness Night

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Submitted by: Lori Guzman-Alvarez Neil Hafley Principal

Leadership students lead physical activity contests like a threelegged race and a jump rope contest.

At Neil Hafley, a Health and Wellness Family Night brought together students, teachers, parents, and the community to learn the importance of good diet and exercise.

Information booths were provided by Nutrition Education, MUSD Mental

Health Services, and the Child Abuse Prevention Council’s Parent Café.

Mr. Buterbaugh facilitated Hafley’s version of the Ninja Warrior course and Leadership students lead physical activity contests such as a three-legged race and a jump rope contest.

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Neil Hafley Guest Author Visit

Submitted by: Lori Guzman-Alvarez Neil Hafley Principal

After second graders at Neil Hafley read The Napping Quilt, by Gary Dei Rossi, they were delightfully surprised by a special visit.

Guest author Gary DeiRossi presented to students and families on November

20th, sharing details about his writing process and even showed a few slides of earlier versions on his work.

Students were fascinated when DeiRossi shared photos of the actual people his characters represented.

Brock Elliott Mayor Visit Submitted by: Debbie Ruger Brock Elliott Prinicipal

The Mayor of Manteca Steve DeBrum visited AVID classes at Brock Elliott school.

Mayor DeBrum promoted college and career goals, in addition to sharing with students different careers in city politics.

Students listened attentively and had the opportunity to

Student Council coordinated Brock Elliott’s Annual Adopt-A-Family for Christmas.

Recent visit from Mayor Steve DeBrum on December 15, 2017

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Great Valley Studies Micro Gravity

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Submitted by: Lisa Goodwin Great Valley Vice-Principal

ExoLab is an experiment platform that brings together classrooms and the International Space Station (ISS) in a collaborative investigation of the effects of micro gravity on living things.

Designed with lesson sequence for 6th – 8th grade next Generation Science standards, ExoLab is a plant biology investigation with Arabidopsis thaliana. A model plant organism used in many scientific investigations with a fully mapped genome.

In Great Valley Elementary classrooms that are using the ExoLab, students will grow their own Arabidopsis thaliana inside the ExoLab growth chamber

simultaneously (or asynchronously – but matched chronologically) with a plant growing aboard the ISS.

on a spreadsheet, as well as recording their own observations using an online format. This data serves as comparisons to other classrooms in the projects, as well as the plant on the ISS.

The experiments are initiated on the ISS in accordance with resupply missions.

Students will be sharing data with other schools both in and out of MUSD.

This allows for multiple experiments per year, giving options on when to align the classroom experiment with the ISS experiment.

Students look for... the effect of micro gravity on the growth of this plant.

Students look for relationships between the environmental conditions, including the effect of micro gravity on the growth of this plant and living things in general.

Great Valley Elementary students collect data and record the results daily

The Roaring Bruin

Submitted by: Karen Olsen Great Valley Vice-Principal Great Valley Elementary school is excited to share The Roaring Bruin with our students, parents, community and staff.

The Roaring Bruin was written, edited and produced by our Great Valley students.

Students interviewed teachers and other staff members for this first edition.

Mr. Gibbs, our journalism advisor, was able to let our students take the lead in the creation of the newsletter.

Congratulations to our students for a wonderful first edition!

Check out the full version here: http://mantecausd.net/schools/k-8a-l/great-valley/bruin-newsletter

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MUSD Farm Hosts 6th Annual Serama Show The MUSD District Farm hosted the 6th Annual Nor Cal Serama Show on Saturday December 9. The show was a big success as there were many exhibitors and entries.

This show is a stand-alone Serama Tabletop show, meaning no other breeds of chickens are featured there.

It is likely the BIGGEST serama show West of the Rockies!!

Submitted by: Amy Bohiken SHS Agriculture Teacher

Likely the BIGGEST Serama show west of the rockies.

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MHS Happiness Projects Submitted by: Fernanda Almaguer, Community Outreach Intern & Carol Creighton, Manteca High School Photo Teacher

We recognize that giving joy allows us to also receive it back and that this exchange can continue throughout our campus and community.

Kindness is seen all around Manteca High School. Displayed by both students and staff.

Mrs. Pasion’s Adult Living class has been showing appreciation with hand written letters and thankful posters.

Each letter was written in cursive as a way for the students to practice this lost art, and to show the students that a simple act of kindness can brighten anyone’s day.

The thankful posters arrived laminated in teacher’s classrooms the week of Thanksgiving. These posters show the teachers how much they are appreciated on campus and are currently displayed in classrooms.

The following message from Mrs. Jiana Boudreaux was attached to each poster delivered to teachers:

MHS Happiness Project “Art makes a difference in the world and can raise someone’s spirit. In an ongoing effort to create a positive experience here at MHS, my class is giving a piece of their positive art to someone on campus. These young artists were given the opportunity to select specific individuals or choose to have their art given randomly to someone on

campus. We recognize that giving joy allows us to also receive it back and that this exchange can continue throughout our campus and community. You have received this art from someone with an open and grateful heart. Thank you for everything you are to these kids! Please continue by giving someone else a bit of your joy and gratitude as well.”

Also, Mrs. Guerrero’s students in room 41 delivered newspapers to teachers and staff on school campus. This provided the students an opportunity to learn communication skills and to spread a little joy during the morning paper route.

MHS shared a video produced by Crossroads Grace Community Church, and added to their ‘kindness’ message by featuring Mrs. Guerrero’s students hand delivering newspapers.

The video is available for viewing on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Iv6zDDAwUfk. Mr. Knauss’ students in room 47 put together donation boxes for Hope Family Shelters and the CSF Club held their annual toy drive for those less fortunate in the community.

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New Vision Mock Interviews

Submitted by: Peter Gale Photos by: Erica McCullough Community Outreach Team

“They analyze their values and prepare to enter the world beyond high school.”

Welcoming four panel professionals to their classroom, New Vision High School’s Personal Economics/Creative Writing blended elective held mock interviews Tuesday, December 19, 2017.

This is a unique course at New Vision because it is co-taught by an English teacher and a social science teacher.

“Throughout the course, students are asked to look at their decision-making processes,” said Michelle Guzman, the class English teacher. “They analyze their values and prepare to enter the world beyond high school.”

Guzman further explained that for the past few weeks, students have created resumes, practiced interview questions and studied interview skills.

Some of the questions they prepared to answer included: •

What are your strengths?

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What are your weaknesses?

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What do you bring to the team?

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What are two of your best qualities?

One of the professional adult interviewers was Sylvia De Alba, Coordinator at Venture Academy, which is part of the San Joaquin County Office of Education schools.

“I think the practice that they experienced today is going to be very helpful. It is obvious that as part of the curriculum they had a chance to practice with the questions. I think that what the teachers are doing is great,” said De Alba. “Just providing students the opportunity to experience a mock interview is something they get a lot from.”

Several of the students dressed up for the occasion, sat with poise, and calmly answered even though it was a group interview. Some questions were directed to just one student, and some were for each person to answer individually.

“I have done events like this with schools before,” said Paul Sylvester, with San Joaquin County Probation Department. “I would totally do this again, this was a lot of fun.”

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MUSD Presents at STEAM Conference Submitted by: Education Services Department

MUSD teachers presented four breakout sessions at the California STEAM Symposium on December 1011, 2017. Sessions included: •

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Full Steam Ahead with the Manteca USD Community Makerspace (Steve Unterholzner, SHS; Kathy Ruble, District Office; Michael Cardenas, Industry Partner and Woodward parent) Gaming.Edu: Using Game Development to Integrate STEAM Concepts (Kenneth Scott Myers, LHS)

SHS Teacher Wins FCS State Teacher of the year Liz Aschenbrenner, Family Consumer Science (FCS) teacher at Sierra High, was named FCS State Teacher of the Year at the annual FCS Conference.

Liz has taught Life Management, Culinary Arts, and Fashion Design—amongst other classes— since 1993 for MUSD. Congratulations to Liz on her well-deserved award.

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HALS Toolkit: How Manteca USD Supports the Maker Movement (Kristen Messer, be.tech; Kathy Cambra, District Office IT Department)

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Incorporating Robotics into the 6-12 Mathematics Curriculum (Doug Obrigawitch, MHS)

The sessions were all very well received and each of the presentations proudly represented MUSD.

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Kindness Matters in MUSD

Stella Brockman Leadership students led a “Coats for Kids” drive! Numerous coats, sweaters, and warm weather clothing items were donated by MUSD families.

Leadership students hosted a give away for families in need during the Santa Shop on December 7th. Families were able to select items of need to stay warm this winter!

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Neil Hafley Mrs. Priest’s 3rd grade class has partnered with Manteca’s Eskaton Senior AssistedLiving Center for the school year.

Students make monthly visits to the center to create crafts, enjoy a meal and make new friends.

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August Knodt Miss Agdeppa, grade 4th-6th SDC teacher, developed a Kindness project for her class to honor a former student.

Miss Agdeppa and her students colored 530 bookmarks. Each bookmark has a kindness quote or a positive message printed on them.

These bookmarks will be available in the August Knodt library to promote kindness to the entire student body.

Miss Agdeppa’s class is also currently making Christmas cards for the children at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Along with the cards, she and her students will also be donating books and kindness bookmarks.

Each bookmark has a kindness quote or positive message printed on them.

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Joshua Cowell Submitted by: Katie Francis Joshua Cowell Prinicipal Over the last several years, it has become a tradition for Joshua Cowell Elementary and community to celebrate Patriot’s Day through the assembly of care boxes for soldiers; in memory of USMC CPL Charles O. Palmer II, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer’s late son. On December 15th, Joshua Cowell was blessed with a visit from a soldier, PFC Taylor Sennett, that just returned from an eight-month deployment in Kuwait and Iraq.

He received a care box from Joshua Cowell Elementary, and reached out to express his appreciation.

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PFC Sennett’s mom, Mendy Ostling, and his sister, Courtney Sennett, visited alongside students during a weekly opening ceremony in the courtyard.

PFC Sennett honored third grade student Isabel Logsdon with a gift.

She had written a letter that was included in the care box and made him a “good luck” necklace.

PFC Sennett carried the necklace with him throughout his deployment, and even brought it with him to Joshua Cowell.

“Today was very humbling and we are so proud of our Joshua Cowell community!! Thank you for your service and sacrifice PFC Sennett and family!” – Joshua Cowell Vice Principal, Katie Francis.

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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#KindnessMatters by @proudtobeMUSD

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East Union FFA For the past 14 years, East Union FFA has adopted a family in our community for Christmas. Again this year we have a family of six children.

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FFA students, Ag teachers and community members provide necessary items—and desired presents—for the children in the family.

Also, during the Christmas dinner East

East Union Leadership Students were asked to bring in canned food for the less fortunate.

East Union collected multiple cans to donate to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

To increase the number of donations, we offered a discounted entry fee to the Power Puff game for those who brought a canned good.

Union provides a $100.00 gift card to Food for Less donated by a community member.

Our chapter enjoys supporting our community by giving back and making an impact in a family’s holiday season.

new toys or books to the leadership program. This will be donated to our feeder school, French Camp Elementary.

Finally, we are asking students to submit their winter wishes at lunch time, and if possible, ASB would like to grant a few of those wishes to students.

Participating students share their wish by hand writing their wish on a star.

We have also collected gently used or new jackets, sweaters, beanies, and gloves to donate to the local Hope Family Shelter to help our homeless.

To ignite the holiday spirit, students wrote 100 letters to Santa and delivered them to the Macy’s mailbox. For each letter written and delivered to the Macy’s mailbox, Macy’s will donate $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation.

Students across campus were asked to donate gently used or

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Mossdale Eighth Grade teacher Eddie Carrillo displayed his huge heart this month when he orchestrated the purchasing and wearing of t-shirts for a graduate of Mossdale School.

Travis Torres-O’Callaghan, a current student at be.tech, developed a benign brain tumor during his 8th grade year.

Despite the obstacles, Travis went on to graduate last year.

As news arrived this year that Travis would need to begin chemotherapy treatments to help fight the continued growth of the tumor, Mr. Carrillo initiated the fundraiser of “Team Travis” t-shirts to be purchased.

Proceeds and donations will go towards a meal train for the family as they travel the distance for hospital visits.

Other children of the Torres-O’Callaghan family attend Mossdale, Lathrop High School and be.tech.

Mr. Carrillo’s act of kindness helps warm our hearts as we support this great student and awesome family.

Brock Elliott Staff has pulled together to deliver daily meals to one of our teachers.

Teacher, Donna Goulart is off due to a major injury that requires a lengthy and likely painful recovery.

The generosity of the staff has been amazing.

In other Brock Elliott news, on November 28th—or Giving

Tuesday—a former parent anonymously donated $4,109.00 to pay off meal charges incurred

by Brock Elliott students over time.

Her generosity is greatly appreciated by the students and staff.

A former parent anonymously donated $4,109.00 to pay off meal charges incurred by Brock Elliott students over time.

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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hosted a Veteran’s Day BBQ and assisted Leadership in setting up American flags along Yosemite Avenue in honor of Veteran’s Day and Pearl Harbor Day.

Sierra High School We believe in giving back to our community, whether planned or through random acts of kindness, students and staff always step up in a big way!

This past month, our Hispanic Youth Leadership and Community Leaders of America clubs, along with our Associated Student Body Leadership class, demonstrated this passion for helping others. The HYL Club gathered sundries and other items to create 75 gift bags, which accompanied homemade cards, and were delivered to the Veteran’s Hospital in Livermore. A special thank you to the staff at Brock Elliott for the large box of items they donated.

Additionally, our CLA Club

Led by ASB Leadership, the Sierra High community also helped MUSD “Stuff the Bus” with clothing, toys and other items for local families.

Additionally, many Leadership students visited the Eskaton Senior Living Center where they baked cinnamon rolls and played games with the residents. A great time was had by all with many stories shared between generations!

Finally, the Community Leaders of America Club baked cookies for 5 local fire houses and the Manteca Police Department.

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

A special thank you to Mrs. Amy Lee for her assistance and baking prowess!

A huge shout to Melissa Harbison, Angela Garcia, and Jared Rio for taking the time to lead these clubs with vision and purpose! The passion and compassion to help others is paramount to who we are as a district and school, and Sierra High stepped up in a big way in 2017!

We are excited for what the future holds in 2018 as new opportunities for random acts of kindness and service learning present themselves!

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Shasta Donna Morais and Leandra Bowen read the book Wonder with our 5th

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grade classes. On Saturday Nov. 18th, we met many of our students and their families at the AMC Theater to experience the movie together.

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The book and film both encourage us to “Choose Kind” in how we treat all the people in our lives. It is a message that builds empathy for others.

One Senior began her journey to college early at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT.

EUHS AVID Program In the library of East Union High School, one senior began her journey to college early at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. Stephanie Plumb—the fourth in her family to graduate from EUHS— thanked her AVID class for a wonderful early graduation ceremony.

This expression of kindness on her

behalf meant the world to Stephanie and her family.

She worked with the AVID class as a tutor throughout the school year.

She will continue to cherish her friendships. It was clear they feel the same way.

Her parents gleamed with pride along side of the high school Principal Raul Mora. Congratulations!

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Co m m u n i t y O u t re ac h

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Lincoln Elementary Explores Life-Like Science Submitted by: Lindsay Stayner Photos By: Wendy King Community Outreach Team

The 21st century can be dramatically characterized by change. Change in the way we socialize, communicate, conduct business, and shop, and much of this evolution directly stems from our ever-relevant digital world we know today.

Introducing the 21st century classroom. Classroom learning entails freedom, exploration, focused objectives, community involvement, student to student engagement, and greater recognition of various learning styles among teachers and students.

In 2001, Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s first iPod. This changed the way the world listens to music, news, podcasts, even video. Today, we Facetime. A live phone call allows us to personally connect with distant relatives, our deployed loved ones, and our children as they make their way home from school.

In some districts, such as Manteca Unified, there is a computer to student ratio of 1:1.

In 2004, Facebook launched. And today, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Live serve as a personal online documentary. These moments carved out the society which we thrive in today. Alongside these lifestyle transformations, changes in public education inevitably derived.

On December 8th, Lincoln Elementary students were awarded a one-year license to Lifeliqe [life-like], a digital science curriculum. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are met through interactive three-dimensional reality models, virtual reality, and microscopic deep-zoom images.

A single cell structure can be displayed on their computer screen, then dissected and explored. Or, students can immerse virtually into the stomach of a shark to analyze its anatomy.

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Co m m u n it y O u tre ac h

Tammy Dunbar, 5th grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary, and her students experimented this year with several test drives of various Lifeliqe lessons.

In the spirit of giving, LifeLiqe granted their new curriculum to the eager Title 1 school, Lincoln Elementary. “We were super excited,” stated Dunbar, “it’s great to give our students this opportunity that we wouldn’t normally get.”

Lifeliqe contains over 1,100 threedimensional models and over 700 lesson plans related to STEM and aligned with NGSS. Dr. Michael Carter, a former educational researcher at Apple and advisor to Steve Jobs, is now an advisor on the education team with Lifeliqe and is responsible for creating the lessons and curriculum.

“These lessons can be utilized throughout the school,” expressed Dunbar. “Lifeliqe immerses students in a multi-layered environment where they can explore, research, and imagine.”

Traditional textbooks have transformed into an accessible digital platform. Software companies everywhere are creating, and regularly improving, applications that align with current educational standards such as NGSS to further integrate science in the classroom.

Mark Anderson, Co-Founder and Vice President of Growth at Lifelique, mentioned in an interview, “It is obvious that there is something very special going on here at Lincoln Elementary.” Then refers to a conversation had with Lincoln Elementary Principal Steve Anderson, reflecting on the passion within, and among the campus.

“The enthusiasm and energy that teachers and staff at Lincoln Elementary give to their students is so inspiring. We are extremely proud that we can support their efforts and give the students something like an early Christmas gift,” said Ondrej Homola, CEO of Lifeliqe.

In the spirit of giving, Lifeliqe granted their new curriculum to the eager Title 1 school, Lincoln Elementary.

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Co m m u n i t y O u t re ac h

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Lathrop High Holiday Whobilation Submitted by: Jessika McCuaig Community Outreach Intern

This year, Lathrop High School decided to do something a little different for the holiday season: a Whobilation!

A Whobilation is a Who celebration – like from Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The idea came about when one of the hall monitors, Marcia, mentioned her successful Dr. Seuss themed holiday party.

Leadership soon formed a committee to organize the event: what games to play, how to advertise it, when to put it on.

It took place on December 13, which also happened to be a one-lunch Wednesday. Teachers were encouraged to bring out their lawn chairs—in order to eat with the students—if they weren’t participating in the celebrations.

The biggest goal was to have students, clubs, faculty and staff

participate as much as possible.

“A big part of what made Whobilation successful was the involvement!

Hosting a club meeting with over thirty clubs helped spread the message of the vision we had,” said ASB President Virly Santos. “Clubs helped decorate the poles as well as enter the costume contest, in their best ‘Who’ attire.”

Because LHS is designed with overhangs on each wing of classrooms, there are several support poles on campus.

“I actually really liked the Whobilation.

The pole decorations made the school look more festive and it was really pretty. I just wish there was also a contest for the poles, because Chem Club had the best pole,” said senior Marissa Briseno. “With all the finals and stress coming up, it was fun to get involved and be distracted for a little bit. This is definitely something we should do again.”

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Co m m u n it y O u tre ac h

Teachers and students alike participated in the costume contest.

They were advised to dress in ugly sweaters and do their hair crazy. Even the hall monitors decorated their golf carts for the occasion.

theater and choir. Theater performed their closing number from their fall play; choir performed holiday songs.

Senior Marytonae Sanchez said, “Whether it was participating in the pole decorating, the dress ups, and the fundraisers multiple clubs held, I felt as though—out of the four years of my time here—Whobilation is definitely one of the major events that brought a lot of joy to staff and students.”

“I really liked the campus monitors’ decorations,” said senior Jerrick So. “It really added to the atmosphere. And when they drove around, you could hear the bells jingling.”

College Bound Club, Link Crew, and Interact held donation drives during this lunch time activity. Students could donate gently used shoes, new shoes and toys.

Santos went on to say, “What’s amazing is how clubs participated through their own initiative and will. This event not only celebrated the holiday season at

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LHS, but increased the involvement of the students and clubs overall.”

“It was such a great day to be a Spartan, there was so much positive energy on campus,” said LHS Activities Director Alison Birakos. “This will be an event that students and staff look forward to for years to come.”

The Leadership class is hoping to make this event an annual holiday tradition, spreading kindness and joy around campus before finals and winter break.

“Whobilation created a great atmosphere, which also reminded Lathrop High of the gift of giving,” said Yvette Javier, 2018 Class President.

There were also performances by

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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WRHS Choir Spreads Joy

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Submitted by: Judit Zamora Community Outreach

On December 14th, Weston Ranch High School’s choir went from classroom to classroom singing and spreading their holiday cheer.

Every year, they sell sing-a-grams to students and staff who pay them to sing and bring joy to others.

With finals being around the corner, the choir club—also called Dynamix—wanted to spread the holiday spirit around campus and remind everyone to lighten up a bit and live in the moment.

Dynamix club president Valeria Diaz stated, “The happiness it brings to students and staff is priceless. It is such a great feeling being able to give joy.”

Dynamix performed Wednesday December 20th at the WRHS theatre, sharing their talent and joy for the holidays to friends and families.

The Weston Ranch High School’s choir wishes everyone a happy holidays.

SHS Punjabi Folk Dance Club Submitted by: Madi Boyd Community Outreach Intern At Sierra High School, art club and FFA are not the only clubs available to students. One of the most prominent and active clubs within Sierra is the Punjabi Folk Dance Club, which combines culture and music together to have fun and dance.

The club began at the start of the school year, and it was created by Muskan Saini, a sophomore girl at Sierra. “I was inspired by my coach Preet Chahal,” said Saini. “Where he is today in his dancing journey is where I’d like to be someday.”

According to club member Isheka Kumar, Punjabi and Hindi are the types of music they use to dance. The rhythmic sounds echo throughout the campus on the afternoons they

have practice.

They stomp their feet and clap their hands along with the beat of the music. Non-club members can’t help but sway along, too.

“I really enjoy the connections I built with the team. The trust I have with them is amazing,” said Saini. “I also love choreographing for other people.”

The members of the club include

Muskan Saini, Isheka Kumar, Ariana Habibi, Aisha Saeed, Gorv Saggi, Puneet Saggi, Amrit Singh, Harkirat Singh, Sukhpreet Singh, Livleen Kaler, and Buhpinder Jair.

The next event they will perform will be for Multicultural Week. They will showcase their talent and dancing skills for the entire school!

#KindnessMatters in MUSD

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Lo ca l N e ws

REL#17-93 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 12, 2017

CONTACT: Robert Oakes PHONE: 916-319-0818 E-MAIL: ROakes@cde.ca.gov

State Superintendent Torlakson Opposes Federal Tax Bill Changes that Hurt Teachers

Sacramento – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that he opposes changes in pending federal tax bills that could reduce the income of teachers and aspiring teachers at a time when California faces a teacher shortage.

Current law lets teachers deduct $250 annually for paper, pencils, pens, and other classroom supplies, an assistance program that Congress created in 2002. The House Republican tax bill would scrap that deduction, and the Senate version would double it to $500. Congress must reconcile the tax proposals before sending a final bill to President Trump.

“The House bill is the wrong action at the wrong time,” Torlakson said. “It discourages people from joining or remaining in the teaching profession at a time when California needs to encourage qualified people to join or stay because our state is experiencing a significant teacher shortage.”

Any full-time instructor at a public or private school is eligible for the deduction. The Education Market Association reported that most teachers spent nearly $500 last year on supplies. The deduction is listed on tax forms alongside deductions for student loan interest, moving expenses, and health savings accounts. The House GOP bill also removes all those deductions.

In addition, the proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act that was recently introduced in the House of Representatives eliminates the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which allows for eventual loan forgiveness for student borrowers who take up careers in public service, including teachers. More than 500,000 college graduates have signed up for the program nationwide.

“Teachers play a pivotal role in helping young people become excited about learning and reaching success in 21st-Century careers and college,” said Torlakson, a former science teacher and coach. “Congress should encourage talented people to pursue careers in teaching and other public services, but this proposal does just the opposite. I urge Congress to retain the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and help alleviate the teacher shortage.”

According to the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit research institution, well-designed loan forgiveness programs can aid the recruitment and retention of talented teachers in high-need areas and locations.

Torlakson has made retaining and recruiting teachers a top priority. Last year, when he served as acting governor, Torlakson issued a proclamation designating July 26, 2016 as “Change Lives – Be a Teacher Day,” while urging qualified people to join the field.

California needs about 20,000 newly credentialed teachers a year. But for the past three years, starting in 2013-14, California has issued about 12,000 credentials, creating a shortfall of about 8,000, according to the Learning Policy Institute. Shortages are especially significant in the fields of math, science, special education, and bilingual education. ###### The California Department of Education is a state agency led by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. For more information, please visit the California Department of Education’s Web site. You may also follow Superintendent Torlakson on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

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