Tag Archives: Denair High School

DHS and DCA to Use Block Grants to Beef up Programs; DMS Teachers Given More Time to Collaborate

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Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Additional academic assistance, enhanced college preparation and tangible ways to improve study skills among high school and middle school students were approved Thursday night by the Denair Unified School District board.

Trustees voted 5-0 to accept two $75,000 College Readiness Block Grants from the state – one each for Denair High School and Denair Charter Academy.

Board members also unanimously adopted a proposal to immediately add nine additional staff collaboration opportunities at Denair Middle School. The impact will mean shorter days for students every Friday beginning March 3.

The block grants at DHS and DCA are part of $200 million in state funding directed at high schools to better prepare students for college. The goal is to increase the number of students who enroll in traditional or vocational colleges and complete their undergraduate degrees within four years.

At Denair High, Principal Kara Backman told board members that the majority of the money will be used to implement AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID is a research-based system used nationwide to provide teachers “with training and methodologies that develop students’ critical thinking, literacy and math skills across all content areas,” according to its website.

All teachers will undergo five days of training before the next school year, Backman said. Most importantly, AVID will be the basis for a new requirement for next year’s freshman class to teach study skills to all students. The goal is to enable them to better prepare for Advanced Placement and other college-prep courses, Backman said. Next year’s sophomores also will be able to enroll voluntarily to sharpen their skills, she said.

A piece of the state grant also will pay for a computerized testing program intended to better identify students’ weaknesses and allow educators to provide targeted intervention more quickly, Backman explained. Continue reading “DHS and DCA to Use Block Grants to Beef up Programs; DMS Teachers Given More Time to Collaborate” »

Sac-Joaquin Section Committee Reverses Course, Votes to Keep Denair High in Southern League

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Submitted by Denair High School

A passionate plea from Superintendent Aaron Rosander, the unanimous support of its league peers and an assist from Riverbank was enough Thursday to convince a Sac-Joaquin Section realignment committee to keep Denair High School’s sports teams in the Southern League.

The unanimous decision — while not final – is likely to have major influence on the Section’s Board of Governors, who will make the ultimate choice later this spring. It also marks a reversal from the committee’s recommendation last month to shift Denair from its longtime home in the Southern League to the much smaller Central California Athletic Alliance.

Denair High Principal Kara Backman, Athletic Director Darrin Allen and school Trustee Ray Prock Jr. joined Rosander at the Section meeting Thursday in Stockton.

Rosander read an emotional letter to the realignment committee retracing the perilous financial path the Denair Unified School District has been on the past five years. He told committee members that the district was nearly taken over by the state because its budget was so far out of balance. Its financial condition negatively affected enrollment, he said, especially at the high school level, which had a predictable domino effect on the competitiveness of almost all its sports teams.

“It was a dark time,” he admitted.

Fortunately, those days are well behind the district now.

“The district has repositioned and rebranded itself within its region, and a budget that was once insolvent is now healthy, with assets, and growing,” Rosander said. “Enrollment that hit a low of 1,249 students a short time ago is now well over 1,300 and climbing.

“Families and students that left the school district are now returning, and athletes who were once considering leaving the district after their eighth-grade school year are now beginning to stay in large numbers. … This year’s freshman class exceeded enrollment projections by some 30 students, representing a 10% growth at Denair High School.” Continue reading “Sac-Joaquin Section Committee Reverses Course, Votes to Keep Denair High in Southern League” »

Denair to Fight Proposal to Move Coyotes’ Sports Teams From Southern League

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Submitted by Denair High School

Denair High School’s sports teams have been a fixture in the Southern League for decades, but that athletic tradition would be lost and the Coyotes moved under a proposal being considered by the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.

The plan would shift Denair from the Southern League to the Central California Athletic Alliance, which also would include Big Valley Christian (Modesto), Brookside Christian (Stockton), Millennium (Tracy), Sierra Ridge (San Andreas), Stone Ridge Christian (Merced), Turlock Christian and Venture Academy (Stockton).

Denair intends to fight the proposal, which would take effect in the 2018-19 school year. District Superintendent Aaron Rosander and Athletic Director Darrin Allen will attend the section realignment committee’s meeting Thursday in Stockton to formally oppose the plan.

“This would make us the only public school in the league,” Allen said. “The  CCAA schools rarely have JV football, so that would hurt us, too.”

The section analysis suggests Denair should be moved because of its size and lack of competitiveness in the Southern League.

The CCAA is a Division VII conference, made up of many of the smallest schools in the section. Denair High has about 275 students; the rest of the proposed CCAA ranges from 100 (Sierra Ridge) to 931 (Venture Academy).

Division VII would include four other leagues in addition to the CCAA: the Central Valley California League, Mountain Valley League, Northern Pacific Athletic Conference and Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League.

The Southern League would remain a Division VI league. Its proposed members are Delhi, Gustine, Le Grand, Mariposa, Ripon Christian (except for basketball), Riverbank and Waterford. Only Riverbank is not currently a member. Orestimba, now in the SL, is proposed to be shifted to the larger Trans-Valley League.

The proposed reorganization is part of a larger review of the 27 leagues across seven divisions from Merced to Sacramento overseen by the Sac-Joaquin Section.

Justin Steeley Named Southern League Football Co-MVP

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Submitted by Denair High School

Justin Steeley, the heart and soul of a determined Denair High football team that succeeded despite limited numbers, was selected as the co-Most Valuable Player of the Southern League in voting by the league’s coaches.

Also honored were Joe Brasil, chosen as lineman of the year for his play on offense and defense, as well as defensive back Brendan Curnow.

Steeley is a senior who excelled at running back and linebacker. He scored 17 touchdowns and was the emotional leader all season for the Coyotes (6-5), who reached the Division VI playoffs before losing to eventual Sac-Joaquin Section champion Amador. For much of the season, Denair had no more than 15 players on its varsity roster.

Steeley shared the league’s top honor with Toby Silva, a wide receiver and defensive lineman for league champion Orestimba.

Brasil, a senior, was a force on both sides of the ball. At 5-foot-9 and 230 pounds, he was the Coyotes’ strongest player and the one they often ran behind on offense and counted on to make a big play on defense.

Big plays were Curnow’s specialty. The senior scored six touchdowns as a running back against Le Grand and spearheaded the Coyotes’ ball-hawking secondary with hard hits and interceptions, including three against Ripon Christian.

Three Denair players made the all-SL second team – defensive back Chase Pritt, linebacker Zach Ramalay and tight end Dylan Mann – while Joe Ciccarelli and Hector Obando gained honorable mention.

The awards were announced Saturday night by head coach Anthony Armas at the Coyotes’ football banquet.

Denair Charter Academy Hourly Teachers Receive Pay Increases

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Submitted by Denair Unified School District

Another piece of the salary restoration puzzle was put into place by Denair Unified School District on Thursday night when they unanimously approved 2.2% pay increases for 13 teachers at Denair Charter Academy.

The instructors at the campus serve home-school students and parents in grades kindergarten through eighth as well as teens enrolled in the independent study high school program.

Unlike teachers at the district’s other campuses, they are paid hourly and are not covered by a union contract. When the district faced financial crisis in 2013, their pay was reduced 3.5%. Thursday’s board action restores their wage in the same proportion as already has occurred this year for union-covered teachers, as well as non-teaching classified staff and administrators.

Also on Thursday, the board:

  • Elected Trustee Kathi Dunham-Filson as board president for 2017 and Trustee Ray Prock Jr. as clerk.
  • Approved the addition of two new courses at DCA: the history of Mexico and introduction to culinary arts. Matthew Groom will teach the first course; Barry Cole will lead the second.
  • Heard a report from Lucy Zamora, principal at Denair Elementary Charter Academy, and four of her instructors who recently attended a conference on dual immersion language programs in New Mexico.
  • Cheered as Denair High School Principal Kara Backman reported that more than $30,000 was raised for the campus’ FFA programs and students from the first-ever tractor pull in November. More than 1,100 people attended the event at Jack Lytton Stadium.
  • Heard a presentation from Mike Curry of Johnson Farms, asking the district to join other public agencies and residents in opposing the State Water Resources Control Board’s plan to increase flows in the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers.