TUSD Weekly Update
"Every kid is just one caring adult away from being a success story." ~Josh Shipp
Spring Board Tour
Measures N & O Tour
Last Thursday the TUSD Board of Trustees received an up close and personal view of Measures N & O projects:

▪️Dutcher Middle School
▪️TUSD Farm
▪️TJHS
▪️Osborn TWI Academy
▪️Pitman High School
▪️Pitman Culinary Arts 

First stop: Dutcher with Principal Scott Lucas where projects include a new parking lot and shade structure as well moving the cafeteria entrance and replacing classroom portables. 

Second stop: The TUSD Farm where Project Supervisor Larry Winters and Coordinator Laura Brem led the Board through the new Swine Barn. We have 29 pigs ready to strut their stuff at the Stanislaus County Fair! 

Third stop: TJHS where the Board met with Principal Robert Ruiz to hear about future parking lot changes to improve traffic flow and security fencing tentatively scheduled for summer 2020. TJHS is slated for a full modernization which is currently being planned. More info will be coming this fall! 

Fourth stop: Osborn Two-Way Immersion Academy where design planning is currently underway for modernization of the campus with new parking and security fencing. TUSD recently acquired two houses near Osborn on Soderquist Avenue which will greatly improve our ability to provide a safe drop off and pick up location for our students. 

Fifth and final stop: Pitman High School where Principal Angela Freeman led the Board on a tour of the Playfield Project. The Board was also treated to a delicious lunch provided by the Pitman Culinary Arts program—the winning Iron Chef Menu! Culinary Arts is tentatively slated to have a brand new facility by December 2019. 
Board of Trustees Area 1 Vacancy
Deadline to Apply: May 20, 2019
The TUSD Board of Trustees is seeking interested candidates to fill one vacancy on the Governing Board through the provisional appointment process. Trustee Area 1 will fill one and one-half year vacancy until the Regular School Board Trustees Election in November 2020.

Interested community members who reside in Trustee Area 1 should contact the Office of the Superintendent, 1574 E. Canal Drive, Turlock, CA 95380, or by phone at (209) 667-0632 Ext. 2003, to request a Candidate Information Form. Detailed information, including the appointment timelines, candidate information application, and the Trustee Area Map is available on the TUSD website.
NGSS Winner
Eric Hauck and Ryan Hollister, Science Instructional Coaches
We are excited to announce the conclusion of our 2018-2019 NGSS incentive program! Ryan and I are pleased to announce that we have worked directly with over 200 teachers within the last 4 months. 

The grand prize is a 2 night stay at the Rush Creek Lodge, and HERE is the announcement of the winner.

We are looking forward to next year; our goal is to reach every teacher in the district with some sort of professional development. Here are the ways you can work with us:

  • Work directly with a coach Eric’s survey for K-6 (2019-2020) and Ryan’s e-mail for 7-12 is rhollister@turlock.k12.ca.us
  • Film yourself teaching a lesson
  • Provide a copy of a lesson plan you did with student work
  • Provide a reflection on a lesson series w/ things you think went well and could have been better
  • Provide record of you and your team collaborating on a storyline and the phenomena that you are using
 
Thank you for all of your hard work. We are honored to work with such amazing people, and are excited to help with NGSS in any way you need!
Induction Mentors Needed
Denise Duewell, Coordinator of Professional Development and Induction
Tech in TUSD
Marshall Beyer, Ed Tech Coach
Student Rep to School Board Reports
Henry Wooley, Turlock High School
  • On May 2nd our CTE Dance/Choreography program held a Spring Showcase. Over 100 students participated and the Performing Arts Building was full of family and friends who enjoyed the successful performance.
  • The Interact Club took a field trip to the California Museum last week, where students learned about important people and cultural groups that have influenced California. It was an amazing experience and included exhibits about Indigenous Americans in California, Dolores Huerta, and inclusivity, just to name a few!
  • Turlock High School Symphonic band received the highest honors by receiving a unanimous superior rating at the CMEA Band and Orchestra festival at CSU Stanislaus on May 3.
  • The ELD Newcomers traveled to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
  • In April, at the California State Leadership Conference, Cole Marchy was the State Proficiency winner for Diversified Crop and Billy Marchy was the State Proficiency winner for Dairy Entrepreneur. At State Finals at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, several Bulldogs earned awards: High Individual in Dairy Cattle Judging, Ryan Haringa – 1st in the entire STATE!; 2nd high team Dairy Cattle Judging; 5th high individual in Floriculture judging Michaela Rantz; 4th high team Agriculture Mechanics.
  • At the Math Superbowl 16 students and seven students made it up on stage: 1st place Statistics Blitz (individual competition); 2nd place Math II Huddle (pair competition); 3rd place Math III Huddle; Two honorable mentions in Statistics Blitz and Math II Blitz.
  • On May 9th we held a Senior Reveal Day! We collected information from seniors and had posters with their plans for next year in the Rally Court.
Gabrielle Sotomayor, Pitman High School
  • Pitman FBLA students participated in the recent State Leadership Conference April 26-27. The Social Media Campaign team qualified to attend the National competitions in San Antonio next month.
  • The FFA Parliamentary Procedure team placed 3rd in the State. Our chapter had a great time at the State FFA Leadership Convention in Anaheim. PHS Career Development Event teams had success at State Finals: Agronomy-5th High team with members Maddy Cunha, Andrew Ippolito, Demona Isik, & Maggie Creighton; Milk Products-8th High team with members Sara Drumonde, Hector Flores, Roxi Machado, & Payton Donaldson; Welding-11th High team with members Dallas Climer, Carlos Ochoa, Carolyn Boster, & Joaquin Peral.
  • The FFA Banquet will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 5pm in the Pitman Gymnasium. All are welcome to attend. PHS FFA is preparing for about 50 FFA members to show at the fair this summer. Animals are here and preparations have started!
  • Pitman hosted Senior Awards Night on Thursday May 2nd. Perfect Attendance Award, Superintendent’s Award, and Scholar Athlete Awards were presented. Lifetime College Scholarship Federation members were honored and received a white cord which they will wear at graduation. Scholarships were given out to graduating seniors who applied for local and private scholarships. Thank you to Jamie Nascimento for coordinating and planning this event!
Athletic Director Weekly Sports Wrap-Up
Mike Brown, Turlock High School
Baseball   Varsity baseball is headed to post season play after securing the CCAL championship.  THS will host a first round game against Lincoln of Stockton @ 4:00 pm. Our JV baseball team also closed out the season with two more wins and won the league championship.  The freshmen did not want to be out done so they also won the league championship.  Congrats on a very successful baseball season. Hope to go deep in the playoffs.

Softball Ended the regular season with a win against Downey 3-1. They will now travel up to Bear Creek in Stockton for the first round of the CIF Championships. Their game time is 4:00 pm. Good luck Lady Dogs!

Golf Our golf team ended up with a 4th place team finish and one of our golfers qualified as an individual to go on to Masters. K. Young will be playing Monday up at the Reserve, Spanos in Stockton. 

Track and Field   Track did an unbelievable job up at Divisionals at American River College. Here are all the boy qualifiers for the Masters meet:
400 5th Darian White 51.16, 800 2nd Uriel Alverez 1:59.94, 1600 9th Eric Hernandez 4:39, 3200 5th Eric Hernandez 9:59, 4 x 400 relay 5th Jackson Allen, Rios Rogers, Uriel Alverez,Darian White 3:26, Discus 6th Jake Dirkse 137’11”, High Jump 2nd Ty Montgomery 6’ 1”, Long Jump 7th Ty Montgomery 21’ 1”, 8th Nick Santos 20’ 8”, Triple jump 5th Nick Santos 42’ 10.5”, 6th Ty Mongomery 42’10”, POLE VAULT 1st Silas Fredeen 16’, 2nd Nathan Garibay 15’, 3rdCooper Bowen 13’ 8”, 4th Henry Wooley 13’ 2”, 5th Josiah Gonzalez 13’ 2”, 6th Eric Guzman 13’ 2”, 7th Dean Larick 12’ 8”, 8th Luke Appleby 12’ 8”.  We received 1st through 8th place in the Boys Pole Vault!

Here are all the Girl qualifiers: 100 6th Kylee Redman 12.83, 200 4th Kylee Redman 26.53, 9th Katja Guerrero 26.81, 800 8th Fatima Chavez 2:30, 1600 5th Sofia Andres 5:33, 9th Cynthia Varela 5:36, 4 x 100 relay 3rd Catelyn Cummings, Katja Guerrero, Kylee Redman, Sarah Romo    48.94, 4 x 400 relay 7th Sofia Andres, Raquel Zapata, Katja Guerrero, Romy Sauter 4:13, Shot Put 7th Jasmine Tubbs 32’ 7”, Discus 6th Yamilet Madrigal Noyola 97’ 5”, 8th Pepper Nunez Bradshaw 92’ 7”, Long jump 5th Candence Roy Williams 35’ 11”, Triple Jump 1st Candence Roy Williams 35’ 11”. Pole Vault: 1st Sara Romo 10’ 9”, 2nd Kasandra Medel 10’ 3”, 4th Ava Chiesa 9’ 3”, 7th Nadia Mayer 8” 9”, 9th Elizabeth Johnson 8’ 9”. 

Athletes of the Week are all our male and female pole vaulters for their unreal performance in their event.  They took care of business and are now going on to the Masters. Great job track team! This is one of the largest groups that we have ever taken to the masters. Congratulations!

Coach of the Year has to be our great boys and girls track Coach Bergann Hernandez. She returned to THS and built and unbelievable track team that is almost impossible to beat. Her old event in track was pole vault and that is why we qualified 13 pole vaulters for the Masters meet. I guarantee you that is the most that any high school qualified for the masters meet. Her team finished the season with a league championship in Boys Varsity, Girls Varsity and JV girls.  Congratulations Pitman on the JV boy’s championship. It was a battle all year!
Dave Walls, Pitman High School
Baseball The Pride had the week off as they awaited the SJS DI Baseball Playoff Bracket. The #11 Pride travel to Elk Grove to face the #6 Franklin Wildcats in the first round of the playoffs
 
Softball The Lady Pride finished the year off on Thursday as they defeated the Modesto Panthers 12-1 behind a solid pitching game from Gabbie DeLeon and Kia Deleon. The Pride finish the year 9-6 in league and one game out of the playoffs. 

Boys Golf Conner Cook, Steven Bishop and Derek Neveras all qualified for the Section Divsionals in Davis, California on Monday.
Boys Tennis The Pride traveled to Rocklin on Tuesday for a D-2 semi-final showdown with Rocklin High School. The Pride fell to the #1 seeded Thunder 8-1. The Pride finished the year 17-2 overall and 9-1 in CCAL play. 

Track & Field
Pitman Track participated in the D2 Track & Field Championships at American River College. Outstanding performances were turned in by the Pride over the weekend. Pitman Boys finished 5th in the team competition which is the highest finish in school history. Pitman Girls finished 6th which is the 2nd highest finish. 
Individual Results:
1st - Jayson Martin - 800m 1:56.34
2nd - Mavleen Mann - 3200m 11:15.73
2nd - Khaiya Simpson - Discus 117-11
2nd - Jayson Martin - 1600m 4:29.56
2nd - Boy's 4x100 (Moore, Williams, Vierra, Steckwren) 42.50
3rd - Caitlyn Bell - Discus 109-11
4th - Ty Thomson - Triple Jump 43-00
4th - Ty Thomson - High Jump 5-11
4th - Boy's 4x400 (Mendoza, Van Allen, Williams, Martin, Moren) 3:26.31

Coming Up for the Pride:
Mon: No Games
Tues: Baseball @ Franklin-Elk Grove - 4:00PM (Franklin High School)
Wed: No Games
Thurs: Track @ SJS Masters Trails - TBA (Elk Grove HS) / BB @ SJS DI Playoffs TBA 
Fri: Track @ SJS Masters Trails - TBA (Elk Grove HS)
This is TUSD
Sandra Ortega-Ramos, Turlock Junior High School
How long have you worked in TUSD? This is my 6th year at TJHS.
 
What is your job title ? School Counselor
 
Where did you work prior to TUSD?  I worked for Empire Union School District for 20 years as a school counselor.
 
Any info you would like to share about your job? Average day? There really isn't an average day, as every day there's something different that happens. However, if I was to define my average day it would involve assisting students academically, socially and emotionally; it would also include supporting our staff however possible. We discuss grades, behavior, making better choices, difficulties with friends, misunderstandings, family issues and more. I'm also very busy with pro-active programs or clubs like Peace Ambassadors, Tiger Pride, PHASTjv, Student Court and other lunch time activities like intramural sports, game days, etc.

Things you are most proud of? Right now I am very proud of our Peace Ambassador Students. They have risen to the challenge of creating a wonderful Peace Summit. 

Challenges? When students are in need of extra services or resources and those resources are not available in a timely manner.

Favorite memory/story? I have several great memories like going to Mexico as a child with my family, my wedding and my three kids being born. One very memorable story is when I got lost in Mexico. I was in my early 20's and went to my cousin's wedding; it was in a small town up in the sierra of Sonora, Mexico. The next day we decided to go to a picnic. We drove to our destination mid-morning. After about an hour, a cousin of mine, a friend and I decided we wanted to go back to town, but the others we were with were not ready to leave, so we decided to walk back. We were advised not to walk by the road because we could get kidnapped, so we followed a stream back to town.  Well...that stream divided and we had to make a choice as to which way to go, then it divided again, then it dried out. We were then just going up and down different mountains. We encountered several different animals, some scarier than others, i.e. bulls, snakes. We finally found a small "ranchito" and I wanted to stay there until help arrived; however my cousin said that people come only once a week to check on the cattle. So we continued walking and we followed a trail. I could finally see the town at a distance and what looked like several flashlights, some going in different directions. We stopped by the stream and began drinking water. That's when a car came by and found us. We were told there was a search team looking for us, and what I thought were flashlights ended up being several different cars' headlights looking for us and the town's plaza lights were on. We made it back safely after 10 hours lost in the Sierra.
 
What are you reading? Right now I am reading The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I picked up this book from our Scholastic Book Fair in our library. I've read some of his other books and enjoyed them, so I was surprised to find one of his books in our library book fair.

Any favorite shows you’re watching on TV? I don't have much time to watch TV so I usually end up recording some shows I enjoy like Hawaii 5-0 , NCIS Los Angeles , CSI , and World of Dance .

Anything about your personal life you’d like to share? Last summer my husband, Jose, and I celebrated our 25th year anniversary. I have three grown children, Jesus (attending San Jose State University - graduating at the end of this month), Ilianna (attending CSU Fullerton) and Elissa (attending Modesto Junior College). I am also the Children Religious Education (CRE) Coordinator at All Saints University Parish here in Turlock. I've been involved with CRE for 18 years at my current parish and 10 in my previous parish of St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Hughson. I help cook and serve breakfast every Sunday morning at Salvation Army. I am also a board member and help with Hughson United Soccer League and currently serve as the secretary.
Seen on Social Media
ASES Awards
The Project SAFE After School Awards event celebrates the ASES programs and partners. Congratulations to our three TUSD employees who were recognized by the City of Turlock ASES programs:
  • Diane Springer, Volunteer of the Year (Osborn)
  • Rupali Kaur, Site Coordinator of the Year (Cunningham)
  • Jeffrey Kleiner, Teacher of the Year (TJHS)
Early Childhood Education
Attention parents of 3 & 4 year olds! Apply for State Preschool by calling (209) 238-6400 or visiting www.findchildcarestanislaus.org . Only children on the Stan Wait List will be placed in the TUSD program. Need help? Contact TUSD Head Start/State Preschool Office at (209) 632-2857.
National School Nurse Day
May 9 is National School Nurse Day—from a scrape on the knee to insulin shots our TUSD School Nurses always know how to make students feel better. Shout out to our outstanding Health Techs as well! 
The 411
Share Your Awesome!

Marie Russell
Chief Communication Coordinator
mrussell@turlock.k12.ca.us
209.648.0968
@tusd_mrussell
We would love to have ALL staff help share our TUSD story to the world, but if that is not really your thing, just click on link below to download an opt-out form and return to "Marie Russell, D.O." via district mail.