Once again this holiday season, current and retired Denair Unified employees as well as students are partnering with businesses and the Lions Club to make things a little brighter and happier for children and families in the community.

There are three programs to assist Denair residents. 

The first is the hygiene basket program, which was launched in 2020 by members of the Denair Middle School staff as the COVID pandemic was affecting so many people. The idea was to put together baskets of products such as shampoo, toothbrushes and tooth paste, towels, soap, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and other every day necessities to complement food baskets already created the Lions Club. 

Denair staff members funded the project the first year, but it has since grown to 100 baskets thanks to donations from nearly two dozen local businesses and organizations.

Families sign up to receive one of the baskets, which are distributed on the last day of class before winter break. This year, that will be Dec. 20 between noon and 2 p.m. at Denair Middle School’s parking lot. There still is time for families to register. Anyone interested should call DMS at (209) 632-2510, ext. 3211 or 3115.

“This program has not only benefited Denair families, but it has also provided an opportunity for high 

school students to earn community service hours by helping with assembly and/or delivery of the baskets,” said Maria Olivas, a retired Denair teacher who helped create the hygiene basket program along with mental health clinician Lina Mateus and representatives from Sierra Vista Child & Family Services and the Center for Human Services.

The second program is the Lions Club food baskets, which began almost 30 years ago. The service club partners with local businesses to provide boxes of meals that include turkey or ham with all the side dishes, plus dessert. Students and school district employees helped raise money and organized food drives this year. Staff at the Denair campuses also identified families who would benefit from the program.

This year, 60 food baskets were distributed at Thanksgiving – 20 each to deserving Denair families, senior citizens and local military veterans – and another 60 will be delivered on Dec. 21.

“With the amount of support offered by DUSD this year, I feel there is an opportunity to expand the program next year so we can serve even more families,” said Billy Myers, who is the Lions Club secretary as well as a school board trustee.

Myers said families in need or anyone who knows one can reach out to him at (209) 620-2485 to get on the Lions distribution list.

The final program is Letters to Santa, which is coordinated by Elvia Brizuela, a bilingual secretary at Denair Middle School. About 50 Denair students from kindergarten through high school are privately identified by their teachers, counselors or other staff members as being a good match. Parents are contacted and asked if they would like to participate.

Volunteers at school then fill a bag for each child with clothing (pajamas, socks, a school logo sweater and toys). Distribution of the bags began Dec. 9. Some parents pick the items privately so they can take them home to wrap; others bring their children with them. Either way, the gratitude of the families is more than matched by the feeling of goodwill among the volunteers.

“I feel so blessed to be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus and see the children as well as the parents’ faces light up and even tears of joy,” Brizuela said.

Last month, voters in the Denair Unified School District overwhelmingly approved a plan to sell $34.3 million in bonds to pay for major facility upgrades. Monday, the district’s Board of Trustees took action to make some of those bonds immediately available to investors.

In the final count of the Nov. 5 vote prepared by the Stanislaus County Elections Office, Measure Z received 2,712, or 64.2%, “yes” votes and 1,511, or 35.8%, “no” votes. It took 55% for the measure to pass.

At a special board meeting Monday, Denair trustees unanimously agreed to accelerate the sale of the first series of bonds, valued at $12 million. There are two strategic reasons behind the decision, according to Denair Superintendent Terry Metzger.

The first has to do with how many bonds – collectively worth about $40 billion – were approved by California voters last month.

“There will be a lot of competition in February and March when most of these bonds go to market,” Metzger explained. “There is currently a very small supply of bonds available for investors and getting to the market now will likely provide favorable results for the district.”

The district’s bond advisors expect that Denair will be one of the few districts statewide trying to sell bonds between now and the upcoming holiday break, making it more likely that Denair can raise the money it needs at a lower interest rate, which ultimately means less cost to taxpayers. 

The second key reason to sell some of the bonds now is that it makes the money available immediately to pay for urgent projects. Metzger cited the leaky gym roof at Denair High School and the relocation of the Denair Elementary Charter Academy kitchen to the gym as two examples.

The remainder of the Measure Z money – valued at about $22.3 million – will be raised in bond sales over the next couple of years, Metzger said. Those funds will pay for a range of much-needed improvements across the district, many of them at DECA, the district’s oldest campus. The DECA projects include:

• Construction of two new classroom wings
• Creation of a drop off/pick up and bus zone (like at DMS) on Madera Avenue for efficiency and safety
• Conversion of the old cafeteria into an administration building
• Security enhancements, including making DECA a single-point entry campus

Measure Z money also would be used to make Denair Charter Academy a single-point entry facility, Metzger said. At Denair High School, the 400 wing of portables would be replaced a permanent classroom building and other security upgrades will be completed. Denair Middle School, the district’s newest campus, also will receive some classroom upgrades and repairs.

As part of its passage, Measure Z includes a bond oversight committee. Metzger encouraged residents interested in serving on the committee to contact the district office.

Empowerment of girls continues to be a priority in the Denair Unified School District, which offers multiple programs geared to inspire those from elementary age through high school to believe in themselves, dream big and avoid the perils of social media.

One of the programs is ROX – Ruling Our eXperiences. Since it began in Denair in 2019, hundreds of girls from the high school, middle school, independent study and even elementary campuses have participated in a 20-week series of meetings with trained mentors on the Denair staff.

The curriculum addresses the unique pressures and expectations that teen-age and pre-teen girls often face — confidence and self-esteem, finding their authentic voice, girl bullying, unhealthy dating relationships and sexual violence, and lack of strong friendships and support systems.

In September, participants in the ROX program were treated to two special activities.

The first involved a presentation from Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Detective Dianna Barron and two other members from the Special Victims Unit.

The second fun event was a field trip to Riverbank as part of “Empowering Girls in Entrepreneurship: A Day of Inspiration + Career Exploration.” Students were able to visit nine booths where they had one-on-one interactions female entrepreneurs in fields such as politics, law, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), healthcare and education.

“These students not only met weekly for an entire year but also had the opportunity to focus intensely on exploring career paths through doing research, creating posters, and talking to other professional adults,” said Lina Mateus, one of Denair’s mental health clinicians. “Girls now know that focusing on their talents, skills, desires, and values can go far without being limited by gender.”

In late October, 20 girls from the high school and middle school received certificates after completing the ROX program. Fittingly, their celebration included a cake from Dulce Mia Cakes bakery created and decorated by Abigail Melendez, a ROX participant at Denair Charter Academy last year.

Last year, the ROX program was expanded to include fifth-graders for the first time. There were 22 girls in Denair Elementary Charter Academy who participated in meetings led by Kara Binkley, a counselor at Denair Charter Academy who has been one of the district’s ROX facilitators from the beginning. Over the summer, another 12 fifth- and sixth-graders completed the ROX lessons.

“It was a huge success,” said Binkley of the first-ever summer ROX session.

Many of the girls who have participated in ROX continue to meet monthly with Mateus to discuss key issues and support each other.

A new ROX group will begin this month. High school and middle school girls interested in joining should contact Mateus at lmateus@dusd.k12.ca.us to register or obtain more information. Binkley also is leading two fifth-grade ROX groups at DECA and another for high school girls at DCA.

Denair’s second program targeting girls is part of the nonprofit She Became network, which believes that education, mentorship and community are interconnected. More than 40 girls in Denair benefitted from the program in the last school year. Earlier this fall, She Became founder Joanna Esparza came to Denair to headline a rally attended by 35 girls that featured guest speakers, breakfast, live music, games, prizes, giveaways and lessons on empowerment. 

The next She Became workshop is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. Its theme is “Unleashing Creativity & Confidence in Every Girl.”

“What is unique about this program is that it continues motivating all female students to participate with other women who are part of their support system, such as their grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters, or guardians,” Mateus said. “All Denair students’ families are welcome to join.”

Denair Superintendent Terry Metzger is proud of the district’s commitment to girls as evidenced by the ROX and She Became programs as well as women who lead them.

“The wonderful programs that support girls in Denair Unified would not be possible without the incredible mentorship of our facilitators, counselors and even administrators,” she said. “We have so many strong female leaders in the district and, without exception, each of them believes that part of their job is lifting up our young women to be strong, independent, happy, empowered leaders of tomorrow.”

Denair cross country runner Sal Virgen accomplished something this season that no other Coyote had ever done – he qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section Meet. Virgen, a junior, finished 24th out of 76 runners with a time of 19 minutes, 16 seconds on the three-mile course at Willow Hills Reservoir in Folsom.

Denair Coach Matthew Groom was not surprised Virgen broke new ground for the program.

“It is fitting that it would be Sal. He was the first runner I had to break 20 minutes for a 5K, and he did it his freshman year. For the past three years, he has been the standard both on and off the course,” Groom said.

Virgen was the top runner all season for the Coyotes, who captured their first Southern League cross country title. It was a major milestone for a program that has made enormous strides recently.

“Two years ago, we had two runners who competed as individuals,” Groom said. “This year was the first year we had enough runners to score as a team since 2018, and we won our league, and we did it without one senior on the team.  … This team grew a lot in a short period of time.”

Groom expects Virgen to lead a strong group of runners next year.

“While we grew a lot, we have a lot left to do,” he said. “I am expecting the majority of the team to return and I am also expecting us to have enough runners to at least have a few individuals on the JV team.  I would like us to qualify for the Section Meet as a team next year.”