Submitted by Denair Unified School District:

The Denair Unified School District Board of Trustees continued to address one of its highest priorities Thursday night – salary restoration.

Trustees voted unanimously to grant one-time raises of 3.5% to classified, non-teaching staff and one-time pay hikes of 1.75% to teachers and administrators. The increases effectively provide more money in paychecks without boosting base salaries.

The district will use $252,363 in state money it has collected and saved over the past few years to pay for the increases.

Salary restoration has been a pivotal issue for employees as well as the board since pay was slashed six years ago when the district faced a financial crisis.

Classified employees absorbed cuts of 12.75%; teachers and administrators took 8% decreases as the district moved to balance its spending in the face of declining enrollment and state reimbursements.

Since 2013, classified workers have seen their salary restored by 9.25% and all other employees by 6.25%. Thursday’s action essentially means everyone still with the district who had their salary cut six years ago will have it fully restored this school year.

“We feel very strongly that restoration is the right thing to do,” said board President Regina Gomes, who along with Trustee Crystal Sousa made salaries their biggest issue when they won election in November 2017.

“It is one of our highest priorities,” Sousa emphasized.

Salary restoration will be among the chief objectives in next year’s budget, said Superintendent Terry Metzger. She said continuing to increase overall enrollment as well as attendance are key to making that happen.

Enrollment currently sits at 1,270 students. Initial projections are that it will rise to about 1,300 students next year as another Dual Language Immersion kindergarten class is added at Denair Elementary Charter Academy.

The district also has focused this year on increasing Average Daily Attendance (ADA), which directly impacts how much money it receives from the state. Though well more than 90% of students attend class each day, that number has fallen slightly in the past two years. Each 1% rise in attendance over the course of a school year means about $100,000 more for the district, Metzger said. Continue reading “Denair Trustees Approve More One-Time Pay Raises in Ongoing Effort to Restore Staff Salaries” »

The Denair Unified School District has partnered with Big Smiles to provide in-school dental care for all our students. Notices that include permission slips began going home with students this week.

The mobile dentistry clinic will be on site on Thursday, May 23 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The team is comprised of licensed local dentists and dental hygienists. Services include an examination, cleaning, fluoride, X-rays and sealants. Parents may accompany their children. If not, there will be district employees available to escort them to the dentist.

Each child will receive an oral health report card to take home after the dental visit. Patient care coordinators will contact parents of students needing additional follow-up by mail or phone.

All insurance is accepted, including Medicaid and CHIP. For those without insurance, a low cost self-pay option is available. And no child will be left unseen due to the inability to pay.

Proactive dental care is a way to keep your child healthy, in school and learning. Children who see a dentist regularly often have fewer health issues such as:

• Early tooth loss caused by dental decay
• Gum disease
• Heart disease
• Impaired speech development

Students will be provided with permission slips to take home and return, or parents may simply go to www.myschooldentist.com and sign in there. All children 18 and under are eligible.

Central California agriculture and many associated industries will be on full display next week when Denair High School celebrates Ag Day.

Parents and community members are invited to come to the campus April 18 beginning at 8 a.m. An estimated 40 vendors from the region will be on hand representing many diverse aspects of agribusiness – tractors and farm equipment, ag mechanics, livestock and animal feed, the plant and nursery industry, dairies, hogs, nuts, and irrigation.

There will be a booth highlighting Denair’s historical connection to agriculture. Non-ag careers in firefighting and law enforcement – including members of the Modesto Police Department K-9 Unit – also will be represented.

Members of the Coyote Cups of Kindness program will be on hand with refreshments.

From 8 a.m. to noon, the activities around the high school campus will be led by members of the Denair FFA Club and Associated Student Body leadership team. High school students will welcome more than 500 younger children from Denair Elementary Charter Academy and guide them on a series of fun, hands-on tours.

One will focus on floral arrangements and principles. Youngsters will be able to decorate writing pens that they can take with them.

A second tour will allow elementary students to milk a fake cow designed by a Denair High art class and fill up milk cartons donated by Crystal Creamery.

The final lesson will enable children to build “soil” layers with candy and cereal in clear cups that they can take home.

At noon, the elementary students will return to their campus and Denair Middle School students will arrive to enjoy a barbecue with their high school counterparts. There also will be booths highlighting various ag and non-ag careers, and a petting zoo featuring horses, heifers, hogs, sheep, goats, chickens, and rabbits for students to enjoy.

If you have reason to be on a Denair Unified School District campus Thursday or attend the monthly school board meeting that night, you may notice many teachers, administrators and staff members wearing red.

No, the Coyotes have not changed from their traditional purple to a new color.

Instead, red reflects a local one-day public effort called “Red for Ed” to call attention to a campaign driven by multiple unions, the California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators highlighting the chronic lack of funding for schools in the state.

Here are a few sobering statistics:

• Despite being the fifth-largest economy in the world, California ranks 41^st in per-pupil spending in this country
• California ranks 45^th nationally in class size
• California is 48^th in pupil-to-staff ratio

Red for Ed is one way for educators to galvanize public attention on a problem affecting almost every school in the state.

“School districts across the nation are being asked to provide more support for students than ever before,” said Terry Metzger, Denair’s superintendent. “Yet new mandates rarely come with the funding required to carry out the task. The Red for Ed movement is about standing up for resources that  our students, schools and communities need.”

California spends an average of $10,291 per student per year, nearly $2,000 less than the national average ($12,252). Class sizes average 22.1 students, well more than the national average (15.4). And in California there are 11 students per staff member, three more than the national average.

In California, there currently is a push at the state level to increase school funding to the national average by 2020 and to the average of the top 10 states by 2025.

“To put it in perspective,” Metzger explained, “if we were funded at the national average, Denair’s annual budget would see an increase of more than $2 million! This money would positively impact our ability to provide the programs and services that our students deserve.”

Thursday’s Red for Ed display has the support of the DUSD board and administration as well as the Denair Unified Teachers Association and local members of the California School Employees Association.

The return of the pole vault to the Denair High track team involves a pricy donation, a surprising discovery and a whole bunch of determination by three young athletes.

Until this spring, Jim Wagner never has coached a pole vaulter in his decade with the Coyotes. But the seeds were planted last year when his friend Thad Moren, the track coach at Pitman High in Turlock, asked Wagner if he wanted an old pole vault pit the Pride was replacing.

Wanger said, “Sure.” It was a $15,000 piece of equipment Denair otherwise never would have been able to afford. And it set in motion a series of events that led to the resurrection of the pole vault program this spring.

The pit – a huge rectangular pad that allows vaulters to safely land on their backs from heights – is a must for the event. But there are other important pieces, costing about $3,000.

The vaulters need a variety of fiberglass poles to use. There needs to be concrete foundations for the adjustable metal standards that hold the crossbar as well as a “box” for vaulters to plant their poles as they big their jumps.

Wagner approached the sports boosters last fall to buy the equipment and help with installation. Some of the longtime supporters and members of the Denair maintenance staff recalled the pole vault had once been part of the team. What happened, they wondered, to the area at the east end of Jack Lytton Stadium where the event was contested?

Assistant coach Ron Martinez and the maintenance staff started doing a little excavating earlier this year. Sure enough, they found the foundation of the old box and concrete pads buried under about 6 inches of grass and dirt. They couldn’t really safely use them, so Martinez – a firefighter in Oakland who lives in Denair and also has a construction background – poured new footings in early March.

About two weeks later, Sergio Zavala, Logan Johnson and Shayln Gomes became the Coyotes’ first vaulters in more than a decade.

“I didn’t recruit the kids, the event recruited them,” said Wagner. “It’s not an easy event.” Continue reading “Pole Vault Makes a Return to Denair High Track Team” »