October 1st, 2018 Newsletter

Principal Rebecca Lofton's 2018-2019 Welcome Letter:

Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year. With this, my fourth year at Valley Oaks, I look forward to continuing with the work we began last year and watching the students thrive in this amazing school. I am incredibly proud of our outstanding faculty, the challenging and rigorous curriculum we provide and the unique opportunities available to our students. Valley Oaks has received top ratings from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and our students are accepted into colleges and postsecondary programs all over the country.

To read the full letter, click HERE.

Ms. Lofton held an introductory meeting for all students on August 29th, to explain what the Digital Portfolio assignment is and to give initial instructions for it. At the meeting Ms. Lofton gave all students a Chromebook. Students looked at how to make a Google Site and learned what needs to be posted on their website.

Instructions for the Digital Portfolio are on our school website as is an example of a Digital Portfolio thanks to our college prep senior, Marissa Barredo. Thank you, Marissa!

Students convened in building #1, on September 18th, to receive the district's annual training regarding sexual harassment at school. Principal Lofton additionally presented case examples. Afterwards Ms. Halsey made a brief presentation on registering to vote and Ms. Parker presented the Honor Roll certificates.

Thanks, Sophia (pictured front right), for smiling for the camera!

Spring Semester 2018:

Lydia Williams

Kristin Ward

Haley Porter

Ian Peracca

Lillie Montplaisir

Nick Matteri

Julian Liu-Rivera

Kelly Garcia-Ortiz

Kate Costello

Charlene Campton

Marissa Barredo

April Adelman (see photo above)

Congratulations to our Principal's Honor Roll students!! To read the requirements for the Principal's Honor Roll click HERE.

for mid-August to mid-September:

Kristin Ward was chosen by a unanimous staff vote to be our September Bright News! student! Congratulations to Kristin! Students who demonstrate academic excellence during the past month are discussed at staff meetings and may be honored by having a Bright News! letter sent home. A photo of the student is posted in Building #1 and a small gift is given to the student.

Spring Semester 2018:

Jessica Rue Coulman

Michael Kofoid

Jacqueline Jones

Devin Jones

Felipe Jimenez

Abbi Grogan

Mikayla Galbraith(see photo above)

Deborah Arango

Congratulations to our Honor Roll students! To read the requirements for the Honor Roll click HERE.

Photos of all our Honor Roll students are posted in building #1. Be sure to check it out!

Jacob Cafiero, new 12th grader:

Jacob came to us from Casa for two reasons. Firstly, he wanted to try and graduate early (he is on track to graduate in December!) and secondly, he wanted more flexible hours so that he could work.

Jacob prepares orders at Kalabrand Music Company, his first job. He grew up in Petaluma and heard about VOS from his brother who almost transferred here from St. Vincent's.

After graduating, Jacob will attend SRJC for the spring and then he hopes to move to Monterey for school and work while living with his brother. His hobby is computer science and his goal right now is to have a career in computer 3D modeling for gaming. We are so proud Jacob!

Ms. Karen Kesseru

We are so happy to have Ms. Kesseru start this year as our new English teacher. She has been teaching for many years but she has not always been a teacher! Growing up in the 60's in Braddock, Pennsylvania there was much violence and unrest. Her dream there as a teenager was to become an artist and move to California. Although it took her three tries to finally move permanently to California, she did it! She also became a glass sculpture artist and studied in England for two years. Her hobby in her youth was windsurfing on the East Coast in Maryland where she and her husband built a house from scratch on a lovely country property with a creak. In Maryland, she worked as a contractor for the Navy at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Later, as a mother of 3 boys, she and her sons took up the hobby of gold mining in Quincy in the Sierras! For 14 summers they did gold mining with a friendly team of old-timer experts and have collected many nuggets!

Minna Stess, 7th grade

Here Minna is holding a certificate she earned from California Senator Joel Anderson, on August 25th, for teaching skateboarding to underprivileged girls in San Diego. Minna earned half of her semester's required community service hours. Good Job, Minna! Minna is preparing to qualify for the Olympics! She leaves for two weeks soon to compete in China! We are so proud of Minna!

2018 Science Fair winners received their certificates and gifts at our Digital Portfolio Informational meeting. Sophia Bauer, Michael Kofoid, Kristin Ward, Michelle Mendoza, and Felipe Jimenez are pictured here from left to right.

Michael's project involved calculating the percent change in weight of 6 large model cars placed in a wind tunnel that he built with a shop vac and plexiglass box. The judges gave him 2nd place.

Please see all of these hard working students' projects, and the students not pictured, on our Virtual Science Fair slideshow HERE.

Sophomore Sophia Bauer and her horse, Dominic, are featured in a video Sophia made for her 3x4 Returning Student Assignment. If you enjoy animals, you will love watching this well made, pleasant, & funny video!

Please click HERE to watch.

Sophia is also continuing to earn elective credit with her Dominic in the Goal Setting Course. One of her goals is to teach Dominic to lie down on command! She has already made great progress!

Contact Mrs. Parker if you'd like to do the Goal Setting Course.

On Friday, September 21st, Ethan Carbone, April Adelman, Aubriana Bossaller, and Cece Illingworth enjoyed each other's company at the Group Work Out for all Valley Oaks PE students.

Group Work Outs happen approximately every other Friday from 2:30 - 4. PE students attend once every month but are invited to attend all of the Group Work Outs. Students are encouraged to exercise at their own pace and to make goals for improvement.

On September 11th, we enjoyed an hour of beautiful morning sunshine outside in our Valley Oaks garden areas trimming and pulling weeds. Everyone in our Valley Oaks community was welcome to join us - please consider joining us on March 5th, for our next Garden Party!

Pictured here from left to right is our art teacher, Ms. Garcia, our math/English teacher, Ms. Abelli-Amen, our school counselor, Mr. Jamerson, & our English teacher, Ms. Kesseru.

We were very pleased to meet with parents at our Back to School Night on September 20th. Two school board members joined us as well as our assistant superintendent, Dave Rose. Parents are always welcome to attend their child's appointment/s and we are always available to answer questions.

Gorgeous professional photos of our wonderful students were recently taken at our annual Picture Day. Most students will have received their student ID cards by now from Trisha. The photo packages have also arrived and many sets, as of Sept. 24th, are still waiting for students or parents to pick them up. Pictured here is student, Michelle Mendoza.