The Vine June 15, 2018 From the desk of Superintendent Chris Williams

District Champions The PRJUSD elementary soccer championships were held last week at Barney Schwartz Park. Soccer is the final sport in our elementary athletic offerings for the school year (others included cross country, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, and track &field). Congratulations to our district elementary soccer champions:

5th grade girls: Georgia Brown 5th grade boys: Kermit King 4th grde girls: Kermit King 4th grade boys: Pat Butler And be ready for cross country when school starts up in August!

Chef Gregg and Staff Win Mac & Cheese Fest Congratulations to Chef Gregg Wangard and his amazing culinary staff on winning the annual Avila Beach Mac & Cheese Fest! The PRJUSD Culinary team won 1st place out of 23 competitors!

Mrs. Stoner’s Last Day Winifred Pifer Elementary celebrated the last day of work for their principal, Carol Stoner. Mrs. Stoner is retiring after 40 years in education. The students and staff had a special song for her. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/fZiLW_8vwr8. You can also watch Mrs. Stoner lead everyone in the Pifer Pledge one last time: https://youtu.be/Oi31Pgrz1Uc. Congratulations to Mrs. Stoner and all of our retirees! We will be celebrating all of our retirees on Monday, June 18, with breakfast at Culinary beginning at 8:00 AM. All are invited!

Flamson 5K The annual Flamson Middle School 5K was held earlier this week. The entire student body participated by either running or walking. Even the staff and students from Georgia Brown Elementary came out to cheer them on and give them water! Congratulations to all the winners!

Teachers Earn GATE Certification Congratulations to our first cohort of teachers who successfully completed training to earn the GATE (gifted and talented education) certificate! This is the first time that a GATE certificate has been offered within PRJUSD. The cohort was trained by Virginia Peterson Elementary Principal Melanie Crawford and Guidance Specialist Maggie Tatman. Each of these teachers currently has a cluster of GATE students in their classroom and will continue to teach GATE clusters in the future.

Students Recognized for Positive Behavior Students at The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck were recently recognized for earning their final ROAR tag. ROAR is the PBIS (positive behavioral interventions and supports) acronym which stands for respectful, outstanding, always safe, and responsible. These Bobcats ROAR!

Principal for a Day It was a busy day for Kermit King Elementary student, Ethan Fanning. He took over the role as Principal for the Day. Ethan made the rounds visiting classrooms and checking in on all of the Frogs. This is the second year in a row that Ethan has won the prize in a raffle from the Kermit King Krazy Karnival. Great job, Ethan!

Field Trips PRHS Teacher, Jon-Paul Ewing, recently took three of his top students (who had to apply for the limited spots) to visit the Sheriff’s Coroner’s Lab to get some real-world experience with science. Jill Schlickeiser, Brooke Milder, and Alejandra Nunez had a 20-minute meeting with SLO County's first full- time medical examiner and the nation's first African-American female medical examiner. According to Mr. Ewing, Dr. Joye Carter was “wonderful and sincere.” He went on to add “I was so proud of the questions our student's asked about the career and pathway into the field. We spent three hours watching the meticulous autopsy procedure done on a 30 year-old man who passed away last week. For the students, it was affirmation that they are capable to pursuing a career in medicine. Ale mentioned how she felt that all the

material she has learned in Anatomy came together as she understood the vocabulary and structures being pointed out.” Mr. Ewing is already planning for next year and is working with Sergeant Wells, who runs the Coroner's Unit, to return. He will also have Dr. Carter come to the high school to speak to his students.

Students at Flamson Middle School visited the Learn by Doing Lab at Cal Poly. The 8th grade Honors Science students and AVID (advancement via individual determination) students had a great time experimenting with various hands-on activities!

Lewis Middle School History Club members had a great field trip to our local Pioneer Museum. Thank you to Paulette Pahler and Jan Coppaletti for the amazing welcome to the historical one-room Geneseo school house!

Students Receive Books Every 2nd grade student in PRJUSD received the book The Legend of the Dragon Lake Nacimiento thanks to a donation from Glen Darcey, the son of the author, Judith Darcey Yoakum. Mr. Darcey said that his mother wrote and self-published the book in 2010. The idea came about based on a story she made up and told his sons when they had a house at Oak Shores. The book starts with an imaginary story about a dragonfly. At the end, there are pages of factual information about dragonflies, the geology of the area, and other topics that are discussed in the book. Thank you for this amazing donation to our students!

Students Reach Math Objectives Congratulations to Winifred Pifer Elementary 2nd graders in Mrs. Caruana’s class who achieved 100% on their ST Math objectives! The students got a chance to celebrate their accomplishment with their teacher this week. Way to go!

Bearcat Athletes of the Year Congratulations to our 2017-18 Bearcat Athletes of the Year! Cade England (football, track & field) and Alexis Serna Castillo (soccer) were recognized at a ceremony earlier this week. Also announced were the Scholar Athletes of the Year. Congratulations to Will Stroud (baseball, 4.23 GPA) and Stephany Abarca (tennis, 4.11 GPA). Alexis Serna was 1st team all-league for the Pac-8 and captain of the varsity girls’ soccer team. She was the Lions Club Award recipient voted on by her peers as well as the MVP. She was one of the top goalkeepers in the league for the last two seasons, always able to come up with the big saves. Cade played an integral part in both football and track & field winning league titles. In football, he set the school record for the longest field goal (54 yards). In track & field, Cade’s best event was the triple jump where he was the Pac-8 League Champion and set the league meet record and the PRHS school record (held since 1991) with a jump of 46' 5.5”. At the SLO County Meet, he won the long jump, triple jump, and was named Outstanding Field Athlete. At the Pac-8 League Meet, Cade won the triple jump, was 4th in the long jump, and 7th in the high jump, scoring 17 points for the Bearcats.

Promise Scholar Congratulations to Katie Schulte, PRHS senior, who has received the UC Santa Barbara Promise Scholarship. The Promise Scholarship is valued at $120,000 for the next four years! Katie was very involved in visual and performing arts at PRHS taking dance, drama, choir, and advanced art, in addition to advanced placement courses. She also hasn’t missed a day of school in her four years at PRHS. Katie plans to major in theatre at UCSB. Congratulations to Katie and her family on this fantastic achievement!

Student Never Missed Day of School Congratulations to Chase Diedrich, PRHS senior, who has not missed a day of school since starting in kindergarten! In addition to his excellent attendance record, Chase also played tennis and participated in SkillsUSA and video production. You can read all about his accomplishments in this Paso Robles Press article: https://www.pasoroblespress.com/article/paso-senior-hasnt-missed-a-day

Senior Appointed to Air Force Academy PRHS senior, Beckett Andersen, has been appointed to the United States Air Force Academy. Beckett is graduating with a 4.51 grade point average. He was honored as a Top Cat, CSF Life Member, and earned the Seal of Biliteracy. Appointees go through a rigorous application process which includes a congressional recommendation and several interviews. Applicants are selected based on academic performance, character assessment, fitness assessment, and extracurricular involvement. His scholarship is valued at $400,000 over the next four years! Beckett is also a level 10 gymnast who recently competed in the Junior Olympic National Championships, qualifying for the all-around finals and placing 21st overall. Congratulations to Beckett and his family!

VAPA News Students at Winifred Pifer Elementary had a great time celebrating the dance year with recess “dance jam” sessions.

At Virginia Peterson Elementary, Mrs. Madonna’s 2nd grade class worked as a group to compose a piece on boomwhackers by arranging candy in different patterns until their song sounded best. Here, five students play their color-coded instruments while one keeps the beat for the group.

The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck 4th graders learned how to play bells and xylophones.

Mrs. Guerrero's keyboard students at Winifred Pifer Elementary performed a recital for their families. The recital was the culminating event for their trimester of the after-school VAPA program.

PRHS students finished up their various projects. Advanced Placement Art, Studio Art, and Advanced Placement History students worked hard to complete murals for the history walls and art students finished up barrels for the community.

Georgia Brown Elementary students performed a play titled Porque zumban las Abejitas (Why Bees Buzz). The play is an annual tradition

performed by 2nd grade. The play is about a rumor that the bees started in the jungle. Because of the rumor, the animals start to blame other animals. Every animal sang a song in Spanish including snakes, sloths, and anteaters, among others.

Leadership Students Offer Advice Lewis Middle School leadership students recently visited Kermit King Elementary. The students were there to share their experiences about middle school with the current 5th graders (soon-to-be 6th graders). The older students gave the younger students their best advice!

Early Learning Academy Congratulations to the “graduates” from our preschool, the Early Learning Academy! Pictured are the students from Winifred Pifer Elementary. Students from The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck also celebrated their first “graduations.”

Muffins with Munchkins Parents and staff celebrated one final Muffins with Munchkins at Virginia Peterson Elementary. Thank you to the VP PTA for hosting!

STEAM Lesson Winifred Pifer Elementary 5th grade students completed the final engineering challenge of the year. Their task was to design a basket shooter and hoop by building a catapult.

Graduation Walks Earlier this week, PRHS seniors participated in the annual tradition of Grad Walks. For the 3rd year, seniors dressed in caps and gowns and visited their former elementary schools. The graduates were greeted with signs, high fives, and lots of well wishes. This is a PRJUSD favorite event for students and staff. Pictures are included below from each site. Next week, the last issue of The Vine for the school year will feature graduation ceremonies. Congratulations and best of luck to all of our graduates!

Georgia Brown Elementary

Pat Butler Elementary

Virginia Peterson Elementary

Kermit King Elementary

The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck

Winifred Pifer Elementary