Denair High School’s oldest surviving alumnus, Sterling Pratt, celebrates his 100^th birthday on Saturday, Dec. 5 and though he no longer lives in the area, many in the community want to congratulate him on his milestone.

Initially, there was to be a tribute paid to Mr. Pratt on Saturday during a 5K run put on by the Denair High FFA chapter. Unfortunately, that event has been postponed until early next year by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, some members of the Denair family would like to call attention to Mr. Pratt’s big day.

Mr. Pratt was born on Dec. 5, 1920 to Charles and Myrtis Pratt. He grew up on his family’s dairy farm at the corner of Hamlow and Gratton roads. His brother, Calvin, was born in 1925.

When Mr. Pratt was a young boy, his father bought the grocery store in Denair. A few years later, he built a new store called Denair Cash Store at what is now the Village Market location. Mr. Pratt recalls stocking shelves and cleaning eggs at the store. He preferred working there to his chores at the dairy.

In 1936, Charles Pratt sold the market to Harold and Lola Chance Walton – a deal that would loom large later in Sterling Pratt’s life.

Mr. Pratt graduated from Denair High in 1938. He said his favorite subjects were math and science. He took a year off school to work at the lumberyard his father owned on the north side of Denair, then began attending Modesto Junior College in the fall of 1939. Still intrigued by science, Mr. Pratt took classes like organic chemistry and quantitative analysis.

There are many generous programs to help families in need during the holiday season, especially with toys for children and food for people of all ages. Things that are equally in demand – but less often given – are bathroom items and other household essentials.

Recognizing that, some employees of the Denair Unified School District and their partners at Sierra Vista Child & Family Services and the Center for Human Services are teaming up this year for the first time to provide hygiene baskets to about 75 Denair families.

The plan is to distribute the baskets on Thursday, Dec. 17 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. during the daily food pickup at Denair Middle School. That is the last food distribution for Denair families with children before the two-week Christmas break begins.

The Denair Unified School District has a modest music program, but instructor Fred Steiner has ambitious plans to grow it over the next few years.

But to do that, he needs more and better instruments to replace horns and woodwinds and drums that, frankly, are a little past their expiration date and should be retired.

It’s hard to make beautiful music with a clarinet or trumpet that is older than a beginning student’s grandparents, which is why Steiner is inviting members of the Denair community via a video to donate unwanted instruments to the district that may be gathering dust in a closet or attic.

“Several of the instruments we have are 50-60 years old. … A lot of the older instruments have simply been used by many, many students over several decades and they’re reaching a point of requiring a lot of regular, expensive maintenance. I’m hoping we might receive some useful donations that are an upgrade to our current inventory,” explained Steiner, who came to Denair this year after 16 years in the Palos Verdes School District in Southern California.

It’s not certain when the next football game will be played at Jack Lytton Stadium but when it happens, the lights will be much, much brighter thanks to a project recently completed by the Denair Lions Club.

“It’s a big difference,” said Mark Hodges, the school district’s director of maintenance and facilities. “I told one of the guys we’re going to have to give all the football players sunglasses. The end zones used to be a little dark, but now the field is lit from end to end.”

More than a dozen Lions Club members spent part of Nov. 13-14 installing the new LED lights, which are far more powerful and energy efficient than the 1,000-watt bulbs they replaced. Each of the six light standards at the stadium have six fixtures. Hodges expects the new lights to last at least 15 years, given the normal usage of the field.

Unlike some school districts, Denair Unified has been measured and uber cautious in how it has reopened its four campuses in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Small groups of students began returning to class a few weeks ago in what are called “learning pods.”

In most cases, those students are either in special education, are English learners, are enrolled in Denair Elementary Charter Academy’s dual language immersion program or are in danger of failing one or more classes at the Denair High School or Denair Middle School. At Denair Charter Academy, some independent study students have resumed in-person weekly appointments with their teachers.

Though the vast majority of the district’s 1,300 students remain entirely on distance learning, this week 290 students participated in one or more days of in-person instruction. That’s consistent with the district’s conservative approach to reopening, Superintendent Terry Metzger told trustees during a Zoom meeting Thursday night.

While a few more students are starting next week, Metzger said, “We’re not going to expand until after Thanksgiving. We will determine how many students will come back to campus then and we’ll do the same thing after Christmas.”