The Denair Unified School District school board would like some clarity from local and state officials regarding COVID requirements concerning face coverings and, potentially, mandatory vaccinations for students. So would a small but vocal group of parents and community members who attended Thursday night’s board meeting.

In an effort to better anticipate what lies ahead, trustees directed Superintendent Terry Metzger to draft and send a letter to area legislators, the governor, state and local health leaders, and state and local education officials seeking information.

The district’s questions boil down to this:

• Masks: What are the benchmarks for removing mask mandates from schools? What conditions need to be met to eliminate universal masking in K-12 schools?
• Vaccines: When will legislators begin to debate mandatory vaccination of students, how will public comment be accepted and will a personal-belief exception be allowed? 

Metzger expects to have a final version of the letter ready for trustees to sign next week. It will be sent soon after and posted on the district’s website.

Masks have been required on all California campuses since some students began returning earlier this year. School districts have no choice in the matter. The rules are established by the California Department of Public Health, Metzger explained to trustees and those in the audience Thursday night. The district’s attorney and insurance carrier also have warned Denair Unified could be in legal jeopardy if it doesn’t follow the state rules.

That didn’t dissuade about a half-dozen speakers – including one tearful student – from pleading with trustees to drop the mask mandate.

“This is about government control and school districts are being held hostage,” said Marie Stucker, whose daughter became emotional when talking about being forced to wear a mask in class. 

Andrea Bennett cast the issue as one of “parental choice.”

“We don’t oppose those who want to wear masks or get a vaccine; we want to make our own choices,” she said.

Any push toward mandatory vaccination of all students – something Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested earlier this fall – clearly was opposed by those in the audience Thursday. Metzger and Board President Ray Prock Jr. cautioned that a vaccine mandate for students could only occur after being debated and voted on in the Legislature, and then signed into law by the governor.

“We expect it to be a legislative process, not an edict from the governor, despite what he said a few months ago,” Metzger said.

Without an urgency declaration by lawmakers, Prock doubted any vaccine mandate could take effect before Jan. 1, 2023.

Metzger said it would up to the Legislature whether to include a personal-belief exception for parents to cite in not vaccinating their children – if and when any mandate would be passed in Sacramento. Such exemptions used to exist for other mandatory vaccinations students must have to enroll in school, but were abolished in 2015, she said.

“We want legislators to consider how a vaccine mandate will affect in-person learning,” Metzger said. “As it stands right now, not having a personal-belief exemption would require students to go to independent study. We know that works for some families, but not for most families.”

The superintendent also said that in the past month, the health community has begun to shift from calling COVID a “pandemic” and begun referring to the virus as “endemic” – meaning, like the common cold and the flu, it’s likely here to stay.

“It means we will be dealing with COVID for a long time,” Metzger said. “We need long-term guidance.”

In other action Thursday night, trustees:

• Listened to a report from Metzger on the district’s mental health programs, which have been recognized as among the best in the state. The district has four counselors, one psychologist, one full-time and one part-time mental health clinician, and one student assistance specialist on staff. The positions are paid for by a combination of state and local funds, plus partnerships with Legacy Health Endowment in Turlock and the Center for Human Services in Modesto. Metzger said concerns remain about the mental health of some students who have exhibited signs of stress, anxiety, anger and even suicidal thoughts during the pandemic. Social media often exacerbates those feelings, she said. Among other things, the district offered a three-hour workshop for all students last fall and will provide three more hours next semester. Mental health services also are available to teachers and other staff members.
• Heard the first interim budget report, which revealed that district enrollment is 67 students lower than the 2021-22 budget had projected. Most of that decrease (61 students) is the result of lower attendance at Denair Charter Academy. Fewer students translates into a drop in state funding of about $140,000.
• Accepted the resignation of Chief Business Official Linda Covello, effective June 30, 2022, at the end of the current school year. Trustees also voted 5-0 to approve a plan to replace the CBO position with a Director of Fiscal Services/Chief Business Officer. Recruiting for that opening will begin in January, with the goal of hiring someone in time for them to cross-train with Covello and help develop the 2022-23 budget before she leaves. The district expects to save $37,000 in salary with the new job classification. 
• Voted 5-0 to appoint Trustee Ray Prock Jr. to be board president and Trustee Carmen Wilson to be board secretary for the next year. Trustee Regina Gomes was appointed to the Stanislaus County Committee on School District Reorganization.
• Unanimously approved offering $2,000 bonuses to teachers and staff members who let the district know by January if they intend to retire at the end of this school year. Early notification allows the district to better plan for the next year’s staffing needs, Covello said.

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Destiny Silva is not quite sure exactly what voters in 209 Magazine’s annual readers’ poll were thinking of when they voted the Coyote Cup of Kindness coffee cart run by her Denair High special education students as the second-best community festival or event in 2021, but she’ll gladly take the recognition.

“I was really shocked yet very humbled to learn the news considering we were running up against the Asparagus Festival and the Chocolate Festival, which are two huge events,” admitted Silva, the driving force behind the Coyote Cup of Kindness program when it debuted three years ago.

In reality, Coyote Cup of Kindness finished behind only the Lodi Grape Festival in the voting – a very impressive showing that speaks to the growing popularity of Denair’s program.

The goal of Coyote Cup of Kindness is simple – teaching important life skills to students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who often are dismissed as unemployable. To accomplish that, the students each day staff a coffee cart just outside Denair Unified’s administration office on Lester Road.

Silva began the program in November 2018 with five students. Today, it has grown to 19 students serving coffee, other drinks and snacks – all with a smile and an extra dose of kindness.

How popular has the service become? On a typical day, the students make more than 100 drinks during the afternoon rush alone. In the morning, parents dropping off their children have become regular customers. An app allows teachers and other staff members to place orders remotely; students then deliver them at the times requested.

Clearly, the program has clicked with the public, in person as well as on social media. Coyote Cup of Kindness has its own Facebook page with 785 followers and an Instagram page with 2,313 followers. 

“We are so proud of the students involved in Coyote Cup of Kindness,” said Denair Superintendent Terry Metzger. “The lessons that it teaches are important and long-lasting. And the fact that it has grown in popularity each year says a lot about the support from our community. It’s very rewarding to see its positive impact on our students as well as their customers.”

The Coyote Cup of Kindness cart is open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and Friday from 7 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. It also makes special appearances at Denair High athletic events as well as other community events.

The Denair High marching band may be small, but it still is mighty.

With only 15 musicians – including four from the middle school – the marching Coyotes are dwarfed in size by a typical high school band. But what they lack in numbers, they more than make up for in energy and enthusiasm.

So when band director Fred Steiner signed them up last month to appear in the annual Turlock Downtown Christmas Parade, the young musicians embraced the challenge. With barely a month to prepare for last Friday’s parade, Steiner and his students met weekly after school to practice and get used to the coordination needed to walk in formation while playing an instrument.

“There was no choreography, but there’s definitely a skill to marching and playing,” Steiner said.

So what was his assessment of Friday’s performance?

“It went as well as anyone could have hoped it would go,” he said Monday morning. “I believe the kids had fun. The only remark I heard in the aftermath was, ‘Wow, that was a lot of work.’ In my view, that’s a good thing.”

The parade route snaked through downtown Turlock and eventually wound up after a mile and a half at the Stanislaus County Fairground. At various points, Steiner said fans were lined up 20 people deep.

The Denair band basically rotated through two songs – a drum cadence to keep everyone in step and the crowd engaged, followed by an arrangement of “Jingle Bells.” Steiner estimates the students played the song at least a dozen times in the 40 minutes or so it marched.

The band – including two seventh-graders and two eighth-graders – featured woodwinds, saxophones, a couple of trumpet players and two drummers, plus someone jingling bells.

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Steiner is a marching band veteran. His teaching career includes leading high school bands in Southern California with 70 or more members playing in major events, including the Orange Bowl Parade in Miami.

“Honestly, I have done so many parades in my career – some small, some big,” he said. “I always say things are going to come up and you roll with it. But nothing came up. The kids did exactly what was expected. There were zero issues.”

It was actually the second time this fall the band has performed. It also appeared in the Denair Homecoming Parade in October.

Steiner has a vision to rekindle a band tradition at Denair High. As the music director for the entire 1,300-student district, he already has embarked on a mission to introduce music to every child – with a larger goal of creating a marching band with 40 or more musicians.

Monday morning, he already was receiving positive feedback from his elementary students who attending the Turlock parade on Friday night and proudly watched as the Denair band marched by.

“That bodes well for us building excitement and enthusiasm for band in Denair,” Steiner said.

What’s next for the band members? Steiner has plans for an indoor concert in late January. And he said Denair will have a pep band for at least five varsity boys basketball home games after the first of the year.

The Denair Unified School District is proud of its Dual Language Immersion program, and why not? Now in its seventh year, the popular program teaches students in English and Spanish beginning in kindergarten. The first class of youngsters are now in sixth grade, which is a big deal for the district because it means the program – and, most importantly, the students – made a successful transition from Denair Elementary Charter Academy to Denair Middle School this year.

At Thursday night’s monthly DUSD board meeting, DMS Interim Principal Gabriela Sarmiento and one of her DLI instructors updated trustees on what is happening in the program on their campus.

There are 23 sixth-graders in the program. One of them happens to be Sarmiento’s son, Victor, who also spoke to trustees Thursday night. Victor and his classmates receive 40% of their education in Spanish and 60% in English (there is a higher proportion of Spanish at the elementary grade levels).

The middle school students have three classes in Spanish – history (ancient civilizations this year), Spanish language arts (reading, listening, speaking, writing, grammar rules) and what is known as an “exploratory wheel class” (Spanish literature, Latin culture and more). Their English classes are math, science, English language arts and PE.

Sarmiento, who has a bilingual teaching certificate, was among the staff members who researched curriculum and visited middle schools in other districts to see how they teach students in English and Spanish. She also taught math and science in English to this year’s dual language sixth-graders until last month, when she became interim principal. In addition to learning another language, Sarmiento said there are many benefits to the DLI program.

“Obviously, the ability to read, speak, write fluently in two languages is important,” she said. “According to research, it increases a child’s cognitive ability for critical thinking. One of our goals is to also increase students’ appreciation for diverse cultures. Making students aware of that helps give them an overall appreciation for others.”

Earlier this month, the DLI students created an art exposition to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a traditional Mexican holiday that honors family and friends who have died. In addition, their studies include culture and customs from 25 other Spanish-speaking countries. The students also have produced fun videos in English and Spanish talking about the program, five of which were played for trustees Thursday night.

Sarmiento said her son is proud to be bilingual and be part of the first DLI class at each grade level. In response to a trustee’s question, Victor said: “I wouldn’t change a thing about the program. I like it just the way it is.”

One of the goals, Sarmiento told trustees, is that DLI students will qualify for the Seal of Bilingual Literacy on their high school diploma, signifying that they truly are proficient in two languages. The seal can be an asset when applying for college or seeking a job.

Superintendent Terry Metzger said the DLI program has become a magnet, attracting students from outside the district to Denair. Of the district’s 1,300 students, 187 from kindergarten through sixth grade are in the DLI program this year, she said. Denair will continue to add classes each year until the current crop of sixth-graders graduates from high school.

“Commonly cited benefits to bilingual education are increased cognitive development and improved memory, which almost always lead to better academic achievement,” Metzger said. “Research shows that students who participate in DLI programs are more keenly aware of how language works so picking up a third or fourth language is not uncommon.

“Participation in DLI programs also increases empathy, flexibility in thinking and social awareness. All of these things help our campuses be great places to work and learn, and they give students real skills for post-secondary success.”

In other action Thursday night, trustees:

• Voted 5-0 to adopt of comprehensive facilities master plan, a long-range document that provides a road map for the district’s classroom and other building needs well into the future. The three-phase plan could cost as much as $35 million and includes upgrades on every campus — new ag and science facilities at Denair High School, science labs at DMS, replacement of long-term portable buildings, and five new TK and kindergarten classrooms and a staff restroom at DECA. It was created by Caldwell Flores Winters of Emeryville.
• Unanimously passed a resolution allowing the board to meet virtually if the ongoing COVID pandemic makes meeting in person potentially unsafe.
• Heard a short report about the state Educator Effectiveness Block Grant. The grant provides $399,790 to the district to support educator effectiveness and teacher training. The money will be split between DHS and DMS ($209,827), DECA ($140,558) and Denair Charter Academy ($49,405).

Fred Steiner has a dream. As the music teacher for all of the Denair Unified School District, he imagines a day when there is a marching band to play at football games, a pep band to appear at rallies and other events, and dozens and dozens of students tapping into and developing a creative gift they never knew they had.

With only 12 students in the music program today at Denair High and just more than twice that at Denair Middle School, Steiner’s vision may seem like it’s a long way off.

But what gives him hope are the 45 fifth-graders taking beginning band this year. Those youngsters – who are learning to play clarinets or blow saxophones, trumpets and trombones or keeping the beat on percussion – are the foundation upon which Steiner intends to build Denair’s musical program.

No doubt, COVID has impacted Steiner’s ability to foster a music culture since he arrived in the summer of 2020 from Southern California. It’s tough to teach a child to play an instrument via distance learning, which Denair was on from March 2020 through most of the last school year. But a lack of continuity among music teachers has also had an impact. Steiner admitted as much at a recent meeting of the school district’s Board of Trustees.

“I only had two eighth-graders playing instruments last year,” he said. “I was wondering why there were only two or three kids per grade level. I asked an eighth-grade trumpet player what happened. He told me that when he was a fifth-grader, there were 45 kids in band. So, I think part of it’s because I’m the third music teacher he’s had since the fifth grade.

“My message to the board was that it doesn’t look too impressive today, but we’ve got 45 at fifth grade and that’s the light at the end of the tunnel. We must retain them. That’s our future. We basically need to have some continuity around here and keep the same teacher for more than two years in a row. If we do that, we’ll be flourishing.”

If anyone can engineer such a turnaround, it would be Steiner. As the district’s only music instructor, he energetically bounces between the high school, middle school and elementary campuses every day. He spends 90 minutes each morning at Denair Elementary Charter Academy teaching 350 second- through fifth-graders for 30 minutes at a time. The lessons focus on the fundamentals of music – rhythm and beat, tempo and pitch. He uses sticks and bells and clapping – even dancing – to engage the youngsters. Singing – because of COVID – is less frequent than it otherwise might be.

“I try to get them up out of their seats. It’s good to get kids moving,” he said.

Introducing younger children to music also supports Steiner’s long-term goal.

“The more I contact these kids and their parents at an early age, the more I can convince them that music is something they want to do,” he said. “I get know every kid.”

By fifth grade, most children are big enough that band instruments can be introduced. This year’s beginning band includes about half the fifth-graders at DECA.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was right at my goal,” Steiner said. “How many will stay with it at DMS? I’m working my butt off and really focused on — above and beyond anything else — making good choices to reduce attrition. You’re going to have some (losses) for a number of reasons. But all things being equal, I ought to be able to hold on to 75% or 80% of them reaching high school.”

In four years, this year’s beginning group of fifth-graders will be Denair High freshmen. If Steiner can keep 25 or 30 of them involved with music – and then keep it going year after year – his dream of building a vigorous, thriving music program that includes a high school marching band will be realized.

In Palos Verdes – where Steiner came from – he had what he calls a “high-powered high school band” for 17 years. Replicating that in Denair is years away, which Steiner acknowledges. It also means competing for kids’ time against other extracurricular activities like sports, FFA, drama and speech.

“Let’s say half of the kids starting this year make it to sixth grade next year. We’ll have a legitimate sixth-grade class,” he said. “In three years, we could have 80 kids in middle school band. Right now, we have 30. … In seven years, there should be 100 kids in the high school band.”

Steiner knows that achieving his dream will be a team effort. Elementary teachers who engage kids with singing and dancing can help inspire a love of music. Guidance counselors such as Elise Domico at DMS and Brittany Heinsaar at DHS also can steer students toward music electives.

“Real leaders, especially in education, have a long-range vision,” Steiner said. “If we can stick with it, the results are almost impossible to mess up. … We’re moving in the right direction. Want the kids to have a quality experience and teach them well. We’re on the right track. We’ve just got to stay the course.”