The Vine April 7, 2017 From the desk of Superintendent Chris Williams

Open House Open House was celebrated at our final four elementary schools this week. In addition to student work being showcased, parents got to see a book fair at Winifred Pifer, learn about growth mindset and tinkering at Kermit King, taste 5th graders’ food as part of their state projects at Pat Butler, and explore the garden and perform science experiments at Virginia Peterson. It was a busy week for staff – hope everyone gets to enjoy their spring break!

PRHS Gold Ribbon Visit Paso Robles High School hosted the Gold Ribbon visitation team this week and was given a unanimous validation and recommendation for Gold Ribbon status. Less than 5% of high schools in California have this distinction. The recommendation will be sent to the California Department of Education with a formal announcement in two weeks. Here are some comments from the visiting committee: "This site is focused on innovation and opportunity for students and staff; the classrooms are about kids, for kids, and are

remarkable; the exemplar program: Science Department, is one of the best we have ever seen and their success breeds success for all (students and staff); PRHS students and parents love this school and feel connected and valued." We look forward to hearing the official announcement after spring break!

Cal Poly Athletic Partnership PRJUSD is proud to announce the first event in its new partnership with Cal Poly Athletics! In an effort to expand its outreach to the North County and make events accessible to our area, Cal Poly Men’s Soccer will be taking on Fresno Pacific on Saturday, April 22, here in Paso Robles. The event will be held at the Paso Robles Horse Park. Admission is FREE. The cost for parking is $10 so load up your car and bring your kids to see collegiate-level soccer right here in Paso Robles! The soccer team will be signing autographs and taking pictures with kids. If you have any questions about the event or would like to volunteer, please contact district athletic director, Rich Clayton, at rsclayton@pasoschools.org.

Photo Contest Award Winners The ETC Portal held a contest this March called CaliforniaStreaming.org Digital Photography Contest. Three students from Virginia Peterson Elementary earned honorable mention awards for their work. Students entered their own photos and writing. The contest required students to take and edit their own photo (students used their classroom iPads). They also had to title their photo and write a short caption or poem about their photograph. What a great way to utilize technology and the awesome garden at Virginia Peterson. Thank you to Mrs. Goldbach for sharing! Congratulations to Raegan B. (1st grade) “Blooming Happiness”, Allison G. (3rd grade) “Hide and Seek Starfish”, and Joel C. (1st grade) “Shadow Friends”.

Essay Winners Congratulations to the students at Pat Butler Elementary who participated and earned awards for their essays for the American Legion Patriotism Essay Contest. Mrs. Elisarraraz' class: Mrs. Williams’ class: 1st Emry C. 1st – Brooklyn H. 2nd Leila A. 2nd – Brandon P. 3rd Abbygail S. 3rd – Aubriana P.

Vote for Virginia Peterson Garden Please help Virginia Peterson Elementary receive a Seeds of Change grant by voting daily! You can vote by clicking the link below or go to the VP Facebook page. You can vote daily from multiple devices so be sure to use your phone, tablet, and desktop to help keep the Panda Garden growing! Voting ends April 19th. https://www.seedsofchangegrant.com/GalleryDetail.aspx…

All Virginia Peterson Elementary School teachers have adopted a garden bed for their classrooms to plant, conduct experiments with, and harvest. Students and teachers take full advantage of the beautiful garden at their school. Pictured are students in Mrs. Goldbach’s classroom taking pictures in the VP garden. The students are working on entering a photo contest. The theme for this year's contest is "Explorations" so exploring in the garden is perfect!

Mrs. Scheiffele’s 5th graders learned about the garden from One Cool Earth and got a chance to plant beets this week.

Jennifer Asadoor’s 1st grade class planted kale. Thanks to a generous donation of 4,000 plant starts from Greenheart farms, gardens across the PRJUSD are looking greener than ever. The bounty of heirloom melons, lettuce, kale, and cucumbers among many other plant starts will provide a space for ongoing observations and food production for our school communities to enjoy. Looking for fun and meaningful ways to engage in your school community? Volunteers can help One Cool Earth during garden lunch clubs, class time, and programs like Library on the Lawn to get students learning in the garden and trying new healthy foods. RSVP at action@onecoolearth.org to get involved or get more info! From planting to painting signs, there’s an activity for everyone! Also remember to check out One Cool Earth online: www.facebook.com/onecoolearth or www.onecoolearth.org.

Bobcat Mentors In order to receive their final ROAR wristband, students in 4th and 5th grade at the Arts Academy at Bauer Speck are required to complete a PBIS community service project around school. Some of these projects include working as a bathroom and hallway monitor, recycling, monitoring TK and K recesses, mentoring younger students, helping in the library, and working in the office or garden. All the students who participate in these projects had to first receive all four bands - Respectful, Outstanding, Always Safe, and Responsible in order to qualify for these jobs. We hope that all students benefit from serving others and from creating a sense of community within our school. Thank you to Mrs. Moses for sharing!

Bearcats Care Last week, approximately 100 Paso Robles High School students participated in Bearcats Care. Bearcats Care is an event put on by the Peer Communication class where students are brought together to learn about how they can make a difference on their campus. Students learn about anti-bullying techniques and how to improve their school culture. They work together to find solutions to issues at school and work towards building tolerance. The students heard from several guest speakers during the day including “Dog” who talked about his life in gangs and how he dealt

with bullying as a child. Mr. Burrell talked to the students about resiliency and how the events in his life brought him to where he is

today. Students participated in team-building activities and icebreakers to better get to know one another. Mr. Carroll, Peer Communication teacher, says the event started in 2003 when he was a student at PRHS and he hopes that he can expand this to our middle school students in the future.

School Beautification Day Kermit King Elementary recently held a school beautification day. Parents, students, and staff volunteered to spruce up the planters around campus. The Kermit King Dad’s Club helped to spearhead the effort.

Guest Speaker at FFA Meeting Submitted by: Gracie Ellis, Paso Robles FFA Reporter

March 9th, our PRHS FFA chapter held our chapter meeting. This meeting was held at the culinary arts center! What made this meeting so special was our guest speaker, Michael Bradley, the California mid-state fair CEO!! Mr. Bradley talked to us about his past experiences and what FFA members can expect this year at fair. He also spoke about how he plans to add more to the fair as it grows! He talked about new breed categories for Lamb and Swine Showman. He also talked about new security for this year and how each year they improve to help keep our community safe! FFA member, Natalie Nicolay said, “He was very informational, it was helpful to know what to expect at fair this year. It was nice to hear about things that are going to affect our community!” Mr. Bradley gave away tickets to a concert at the fair and also gave away fair merchandise to members who could answer questions at the end! We are very thankful that Mr. Bradley had a chance to talk with us, and would like to thank him for his time and generosity!

Busy Week for Liberty High Students Liberty High School students had a busy week leading up to spring break. Thank you to Deb Lauridsen for sharing all the great things happening at Liberty!

• Liberty students participated in a Spring School Spirit week, led by the Leadership class. Activities included Pajama, Crazy Hair, and Sports Shirt days, as well as an egg hunt and School T-shirt day.

• Science students participated in learning about the digestive system, the Colorado River Watershed and hydrocarbons. Students planted seedlings in their salad bowl garden!

• Drawing and Painting class students wrapped up Zentangle line art projects and began biographical slideshows on famous artists. • In math classes, Geometry students are learning about triangle similarity and Algebra students are graphing parabolas. • In Independent Living, students are comparing and making calculations with "dining out" receipts and nutrition labels. • In English 3/4, students are seeking the answer to these questions: How are scientific and medical study results reported to the public? How can people interpret these reports with an eye to reliability, and seek additional information to put the news into scientific context? Students recently read an article about a study on anti-depressants and discussed the implications of how that study was reported. Now the students are researching science topics of interest and will write an informative text that evaluates news reports for validity and explains strategies for reading such reports.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” Bravo to the Arts Academy at Bauer Speck Bobcat Players on their production of “The Emperor’s New Clothes”! The story is about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that they say is invisible to those who are stupid. When the Emperor parades before his subjects in his new clothes, no one dares to say that they don't see any suit of clothes on him for fear that they will be seen as stupid. Finally, a child cries out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" The students were outstanding and the sets and costumes were incredible! The audience had quite a few laughs throughout and were thoroughly entertained. Congratulations to Mrs. Linfield, director, and the students and staff!

District Elementary Track & Field Championships

Congratulations to all of the elementary track & field student athletes who earned medals last week at the PRJUSD Championships! Pictured here are just a few of our winners. Thank you to the PRHS track & field coaches, athletes, and parents for their help in putting on the event. And thank you to the elementary coaches, parents, and staff for their support! Full results can be found here: Elementary Championship Results. Up next is soccer! Congratulations to our district team champions: Girls’ Team: Winifred Pifer Elementary Boys’ Team: Virginia Peterson Elementary

PRHS Track & Field Last weekend, the Bearcats made the journey to Buchanan High School, home of the California State Track and Field Meet. The Bearcats had an outstanding day with several outstanding performances. The race of the day was Annie Meeder's 2nd place finish in the Women's Invitational 1600m. Annie Meeder became the first lady Bearcat to break 5 minutes at that distance and set a new school record of 4:59.46! She broke the current record, 5:02.09, set by Ashley Davis in 2016.

Trad Berti bounced back after last week’s epic 4:10 run at Azusa Pacific. Berti won the Men's Invitational 1600m with a time of 4:18.52. Steven Scruggs won the Men's Seeded 1600m run with a time of 4:31.72 setting the meet record for the seeded division. Scruggs came back in the Seeded 3200 finishing 8th. The boys’ relay finished 3rd in the 4x400m open division comprised of Javier Solis, Dante Coletta, Matt Olsen, and Trad Berti. Clay Wilshusen finished 2nd in the Men's Seed Pole Vault with a jump of 11-9. Kyle Meeder sets a huge personal record in the Men's 3200m Invitational race running 9:40.08. Jacob Franklin finished 6th in both Men's Invitational Shot and Discus. Madison Mitchell finished 3rd in the Women's 300m Invitational Hurdles running

46.81. Codie Wilshusen finished 3rd in the Women's Invitational Pole Vault jumping 11-7. Key Mabien found a new season best in the Women’s Open 400m running 59.23. Madison Wineman also found a personal record of 26.96 in the Women's Open 200m. The relay finished 6th in the Invitational Women's 4x4 running a huge personal best of 4:02.93 including Codie Wilshusen, Key Mabien, Madison Mitchell, and Madison Wineman. Varsity Highlights from the SLO High Dual Meet included: The Women's 4x100 and 4x400 relays took home 1st with teammates Kayla McDonald, Madison Wineman, Maddie Mitchell, and Key Mabien. Madison Wineman also took home 1st place in the 200m and 3rd place in the 400m. Key Mabien walked away with a 2nd place finish in the 400m in a very competitive race with SLO were both girls run under 59. Madison Mitchell won both the 100m and 300m Hurdles. Nadeene Al Azzam won the discus with a toss of 100-02. Codie Wilshusen also had a good day winning the Pole Vault and taking 2nd in the High Jump. On the Men's side, Matt Olsen won the 800m, Aiden Kerr won the 110m Hurdles. Jacob Franklin secured the Shot Put and the Discus for the Bearcats and Clay Wilshusen took 1st in the Pole Vault. This weekend, the Bearcats are taking 6 athletes to the Elite Arcadia Invitational. Madison Mitchell is running in the 100m and 300m Hurdles, Codie Wilshusen is in the Pole Vault, Jacob Franklin is in the Shot Put, and Annie Meeder will run in the 3200m. Trad Berti and Callum Bolger from SLO will be at it again in the Invitational heat of the 1600m on Saturday night so stay tuned. Next week, the top freshmen and sophomores will head to Atascadero for the PAC 8 Frosh/Soph FAT meet and then the top Bearcats will head up to Salinas, CA for the Bill Kearney Invitational Congratulations to the seniors on outstanding careers! Thank you to Anthony Overton for always keeping us updated on track & field!

Students of the Month Congratulations to the Students of the Month for our middle schools! Students at Flamson Middle School were recognized for having a positive attitude. Students at Lewis Middle School excelled in the classroom and showed their SPOTS (success, positive attitude, ownership, teamwork, safety-minded)!

Bearcat Boosters Golf Tournament Coming up is the annual Bearcat Booster Golf Tournament on Saturday, April 29th, at the Paso Robles Golf Club. Players and sponsors are needed! There will be a chance to win $10,000 in a putting contest for the top 5 closest-to-the-hole finalists, as well as other prizes and a post-tournament party. All proceeds benefit PRHS Athletics! For more info, contact Lainey@PasoRoblesGolfClub.com

Welcome to PRJUSD Congratulations to the following employees who were approved by the Board of Trustees and will be joining us in the fall! Katie Engelter-Johnson, Special Education Program Coordinator

Katie Johnson received her B.S in Psychology from University of California, Santa Cruz and her M.A in Early Childhood Special Education at Santa Clara University before earning her Administrative Credential in Educational Leadership through the Santa Clara County of Education credentialing program. Katie is relocating to beautiful Paso Robles from Santa Clara County where she worked as an Inclusion Training Specialist as well as faculty member at the Education Preparation for Inclusive Classrooms (EPIC) credentialing program. Katie facilitated the CA Embedded Instruction Pilot Project and supported both

general education and special education preschool teachers in inclusive classrooms to embed child learning objectives within daily routines and activities to promote functional and generative skill development. Through her work at the Inclusion Collaborative, Katie worked with students, families and teachers across grade levels who are seeking support for working with challenging behaviors. Katie also taught preschool for 8 years. She enjoys hiking, reading and spending time with her family. She is excited to become a member of the Paso Robles community and to enjoy life in the Central Coast. Aryn Jorgensen, School Psychologist

Aryn Jorgensen attended California State University, Fresno, where she earned both a B.S. in Psychology as well as a M.S.in School Psychology. Aryn has been employed as a school psychologist for 14 years with Fresno County Office of Education. During this time, she has had the privilege of working at a small, comprehensive elementary school for the last eight years. Additionally, she has fourteen years of experience working in intervention programs for students with an emotional disturbance at elementary, middle, and

high school settings. Aryn has also been a member of the Behavior Intervention and Educationally Related Mental Health Team for several years; in this assignment, she has assisted schools from all over the county in meeting the needs of their students with severe emotional and behavioral issues. Although Aryn is passionate about her work and improving the lives of the students and staff with whom she works, she is also passionate about her family. She and her family love being outdoors hiking in the mountains or going for long walks on the beach. Aryn also enjoys running to maintain her own mental health. In her spare time, Aryn also enjoys fostering rescue dogs to get them prepared for their new homes.

Video Game Creation & Cartooning Classes Offer Spring Break Fun at Paso Robles Recreation Services Artist and game designer Raymond Mullikin will be teaching classes related to Cartooning and Video Game creation at Paso Robles Recreation Services during Spring Break in April. From Monday, April 17 through Friday, April 21, three different classes will be offered throughout the day. Participants can choose from Video Game Creation from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Creating Interactive Fiction Video Games from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., and Comic Book Making & Publishing from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. In addition, a class in Cartooning will be taught on Monday, April 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Classes are open to students ages 9 and older and happen at Centennial Park, 600 Nickerson Drive in Paso Robles. The Video Game Creation class is a great way for participants to learn to create multi-level arcade or platform style video games, like Super Mario or Space Invaders, using introductory graphical programming software for both kids and adults. The cost of this class is $77 plus a $10 supply fee payable to the instructor for the one-week session. In Creating an Interactive Fiction Video Game, students will learn to create an interactive story-style game with pictures, animations and sound. “This class has a Choose Your Own Adventure feel,” says Mullikin. “Students learn to make a game that changes based on the choices the reader makes with the click of the mouse.” Participants will bring their games home on a flash drive. The cost of this class is $72 plus a $10 supply fee payable to the instructor for the one-week session. The Comic Book Making & Publishing class will give participants a chance to create a comic book that family and friends can read. Students will plan stories and characters through warm-up imagination exercises then design a comic through drawing, lettering and inking on paper. The final work is done on a computer and assembled into an eBook (on a flash drive). This class costs $72 plus a $15 supply fee for the week-long class. Mullikin’s Cartooning class is a fun way of inspiring and motivating students in their love of drawing. Students will learn how to create their own cartoon characters, working in a humorous Sunday funnies style, even if they've never drawn before. They will learn warm-up and imagination exercises that cartoonists use and discover the basic drawing techniques that make up a cartoon, such as line, shape and value. This class is for students ages 9 and older. The class is $47 with a $5 supply fee. For more information or to register for any of Ray’s classes, visit www.prcity.com/recreationonline. Registration can also be accomplished in person Monday through Friday from noon to 5:00 p.m. at the Paso Robles Recreation Services registration desk at Centennial Park.