Pureza Avila is the Denair High School Class of 2021 valedictorian thanks to her 4.09 grade-point average. The salutatorian will be Brielle Prock, who compiled a 4.03 GPA over four years.

Graduation is set for May 28 at Jack Lytton Stadium. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. and the ceremony begins at 7 p.m. This year because of ongoing COVID concerns, seniors and their families will sit on both sides of the stadium to space people out. All seating will be pre-assigned and printed on graduation tickets (each graduate will receive six tickets).

Avila and Prock recently took time to answer some questions about their high school experiences.

Question: Obviously, the Class of 2021 has had a much different educational experience because of the pandemic and a year of school held primarily via distance learning. How do you think that will shape you and your classmates?

Avila: During the pandemic, we all learned new skills and developed values that further shaped our character. This year definitely made us stronger, open-minded and more caring towards each other. These intangibles will help us be more successful in life as we enter adulthood. As I state in my valediction: “While we all have individual aspirations, varied skills and definitely different levels of motivation, we have learned that what we do possess is a boundless capacity to care for each other. We also found a way to dig deep, conquer our fears and achieve goals, even if those goals were just set yesterday.”

Prock: I think that this past year made our class realize what real life will be. Once we walk

Denair Charter Academy celebrated nine home-school students Thursday night who were promoted from eighth grade. 

The students who were honored were Dalys Barragan, Angela Foulke, Ruby Gutierrez, Leah Lambert, Giselle Montes, Russell Myers, Juan Rossall, Lillyanna Vanwinkle and Aiza Zazueta. The ceremony took place in the Denair Middle School gymnasium.

DCA Principal Breanne Aguiar, district Superintendent Terry Metzger and eighth-grade home school teacher and advisor Victoria McFarlane presented students with their certificates.

Leah Lambert thanked parents for their support and all they do to educate their children. Guitierrez recited a poem entitled “Always Be” by an unknown author, Vanwinkle led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance and Giselle Rodriguez gave a student welcome address.

It’s a different time to be an athlete at Denair High School. The COVID pandemic compressed all sports into a truncated schedule, with football and other fall sports starting in March Words and winter sports like basketball and wrestling overlapping now with baseball, softball, soccer and track. Here is a quick look at how some of the Coyotes’ teams are doing this season.

Boys Basketball

Denair, led by junior guard Mario Plascencia, a three-year starter, has won all five of its games and is in first place in the Southern League. The Coyotes played their best game of the season on Friday on the road at Hughson, routing the Huskies 78-52 behind Plascencia’s 24 points and 12 rebounds.

“He does it all,” complimented Coach R.J. Henderson. “He guards the other team’s best player. He steps up to every challenge. He’s terrific defensively. He’s the straw that stirs the drink.”

The final three weeks of a school year like no other are shaping up to be busy ones in the Denair Unified School District. About three-quarters of the district’s 1,300 students returned to their campuses last month after spending most of the year learning at home via computer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with the end of the school year in sight, here is what’s happening on each campus.

Denair High School

Final exams loom in all grade levels, but many of the most fun and memorable events will be enjoyed by seniors. At least the Class of 2021 – unlike their older friends and siblings last year, when the pandemic wiped out events like the prom and senior trip and turned graduation into a drive-by ceremony – will get to experience some of the senior traditions.

On the same night Denair Unified School District board members unanimously extended Superintendent Terry Metzger’s contract, trustees also heard her lay out a vision for where the district would like to be when that new deal is up for renewal in three years.

In California, all school districts must develop a strategic plan that lays out for parents and the community how they will spend the millions of dollars they receive each year from the state. That document is called the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). It reflects the district’s goals, actions and metrics relating to how progress will be measured. 

“In Denair Unified, we see the LCAP process as a great opportunity to think deeply about the focused actions we’ll be taking to improve student outcomes,” Metzger said Thursday night.

Specifically in Denair, the broad goal for the next three years is that all children will have a foundation for post-secondary success. That means preparing high school graduates to enter a two- or four-year college, or having the skills to go directly to a trade school or another kind of vocational field in order to begin their professional careers.

One key measure of success in the next three years, Metzger explained, is for at least 80% of Denair’s 1,300 students to demonstrate literacy – reading, writing and speaking – in all content areas. She described that as teaching students to speak well, to organize their thoughts, and to be able to create and give presentations.