The Vine May 25, 2018 From the desk of Superintendent Chris Williams

Community Book Drive Thank you to Courtyard by Marriott Paso Robles for the amazing donation of a book to EVERY student at The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck! Employees collected nearly 500 books for students to keep as part of their Spirit to Serve Day. The staff even took the time to deliver the books to every classroom. We love our community partners and all they do for our students and families!

Students Become Published Researchers Congratulations to Beckett Andersen, Adrian Griffin, Beatriz Lopez, Kate Reupold, and Katherine Pham on becoming the first current PRHS students who are published researchers! Earlier this year, they enrolled in Astronomy 299 at Cuesta College which served as a pilot to the newest PRHS Field Studies Collaborative course "Astrometry Field Research." The students picked a double star, sent coordinates to a robotic telescope in Australia, analyzed the images, and wrote a scientific paper which was approved this week for publication in the Journal of Double Star Observations. Very few high schoolers in the nation have that experience, although many more at Paso Robles will get the opportunity in years to come. Thank you to Mr. Ewing for sharing!

College and Career Exemplar Congratulations to Madison Harris, our College and Career Exemplar Student! Madison has completed the remarkable task of earning her full Associate’s degree at Cuesta College while enrolled in high school! She will be graduating from both PRHS and Cuesta College this spring. She is a pathway completer in the area of

patient care. She earned a gold and bronze medal at the SkillsUSA state conference and will be competing at the SkillsUSA Nationals in the area of first aid and CPR in June. Madison served as SkillsUSA president and vice president and was involved in CSF, Link Crew, and Leadership. Madison was also recently selected to receive a scholarship to attend the national conference. Way to go, Madison!

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Lions Club Awards Congratulations to the PRHS winter sports athletes who received the Lions Club Award this year. The students were selected by their teammates for demonstrating leadership, sportsmanship, and character. Front row (l-r): Ryan Slawson (JV swim), Aniah Weaks (varsity track), David Gonzalez (varsity volleyball), Hayden Wagner (JV golf), Carra Ford (JV softball), Lucrezia Santucci (JV track), Brighton Garrett (JV swim). Middle row: Kade Carlson (JV baseball), Ryan Stronks (varsity tennis), Johnatten Wallace (JV tennis), Garrett Freygang (frosh baseball), Gabriella Clayton (varsity swim), Hannah Chambers (varsity softball). Back row: Brendan Farnsworth (varsity track), Cole Roberts (varsity baseball), Zachary Smith (varsity golf), Tanner Ehlers (JV volleyball), Brian Kragh, (JV track), Gavin Hughes (varsity swim). Not pictured: Ethan Lundgren-Carmon (diving).

Culinary Arts Academy Our Culinary Arts Academy is always a hub of activity! In addition to making breakfast and lunch for our students daily, students and staff also cater numerous events off-site and host different groups at their facility. Earlier this week, Chef Gregg and Chef Adam gave the members from The Red Hat Society a tour of the kitchen. And the kitchen is also a classroom where students learn as part of our CTE (career technical education) program. This week, students prepared desserts as part of their final project.

GLAD Training PRJUSD now has two officially certified GLAD trainers. GLAD stands for Guided Language and Acquisition Design and is a research-based instructional model for teaching language development in all content areas. Nicole Delbar, who was previously certified, is now joined by Kristen Usilton. With

Nicole’s support, Kristen completed 18 months of coursework, two days of training, and four days of demonstration lessons. Through GLAD training and coaching, PRJUSD will extend our continuing support to all students in their language development. Great job, Ms. Usilton and Mrs. Delbar!

Young Athletes Program Our Young Athletes Program had its final culminating activities at Pat Butler Elementary and Virginia Peterson Elementary this week. The YAP is a sport and play program for children ages 2-7 with and without disabilities. Nearly 250 TK and kindergarten students participated throughout the district along with 135 4th and 5th grade volunteers. The older students led the younger students in each of the different stations. Everyone who participated received a t-shirt and ribbon. It was a great time had by all! Thank you to all of our adult staff and volunteers and our adult special education students for helping!

Athletes as Readers and Leaders The PRHS Athletes as Readers and Leaders (ARL) visited their last school this week, The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck. As a thank you for volunteering their time, the athletes received a framed memento of their participation in the ARL program. District Librarian, Stephanie Lowe, who oversees the program, would

like to thank all of the students that participated this year especially those students that were able to attend regularly: Isiah Espinoza, Jimmy Claassen, Robert Tauscher, James Doran, Sulial Ngiraitpang, Daniella Perez, and Sergio Torres.

Gold Rush The annual Gold Rush event was held this week for 4th grade students at Georgia Brown Elementary. The students got to pan for gold, use a sluice box, and wash laundry without the use of a washing machine or dryer.

Students are Always Learning Every minute of instructional time is important in Mrs. Root’s class at Winifred Pifer Elementary. When students line up at 8:07 a.m., they walk into the classroom identifying equal and not equal parts with thumbs up or down. Students are always learning!

Cal Poly Field Trip Last week, a group of PRHS Anatomy & Physiology students made a special trip to Cal Poly. The students toured the biology labs and got hands-on experience with the human cadavers kept there. Anatomy students are wrapping up their unit on muscles, which features in-depth dissections of cats. The human cadaver experience helped connect the hard work students are doing on the animal specimens to our own bodies. Big thanks to Dr. Shields, Dr. Kiste, and Dr. Bush at Cal Poly for organizing the visit.

Frogs Have Fun Kermit King Elementary students and staff dressed up for twin day last week. It was also their Krazy Karnival night. Tons of families attended and had a great time!

Fire Truck Visit PRHS Bearkitten Preschool students received a special visit from our very own fire department last week. The students and staff are also enjoying their new location! Be sure to mark your calendars for the PRHS Bearkitten Graduation on Monday, June 4, beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Bearcat Softball The PRHS Bearcat Softball season has officially come to an end, but these ladies had an outstanding season! The Bearcats finished tied for 2nd in the PAC-8 with a record of 10-4. They won the first round of CIF Southern Section Playoffs by defeating South El Monte 8-5 on the road. The Bearcats then hosted the 2nd round playoff game and came up short against Sonora High School, 9-0. Congratulations on a great season!

Muffins with Mom Winifred Pifer Elementary recently held their Muffins with Mom event before school. Special thank you to the All Pro Dad’s Club and PTA for hosting!

In the Garden Students at Pat Butler Elementary are creating their own garden. A worm bin has been installed and students are recycling left overs. The left over salad bar is used at the end of the week to feed the worms. This is reducing waste and teaching students how to care for Mother Earth.

Students have also created two planters full of herbs and one succulent planter. The herbs that are being grown are mint, apple mint, sage, and rosemary. Thanks to culinary, parent volunteers, and Mrs. Sanchez for making this all happen!

The Rotary Club of Paso Robles Sunrise recently adopted the Georgia Brown Elementary garden. Volunteers helped by weeding and cleaning out the garden beds. Now the garden is ready for students and staff! Thank you to Rotary and One Cool Earth!

One Cool Earth Corner Submitted by: Danica Smith On Saturday, June 2, from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Virginia Peterson Elementary, One Cool Earth is hosting a family cooking experience in the Panda Garden. We will be harvesting, washing, and preparing many items fresh from the garden and enjoying them together! There will even be solar ovens created in order to heat up some ingredients! Please sign up in the front office if you wish to attend OR volunteer. A group of Cal Poly freshman honors students dedicated many hours this year in order to break ground on the VPES Sensory Garden. They strapped two rain barrels to be used as drums onto the fence, built two beautiful tables out of redwood, installed recycled piping for students to play telephone through, and donated cement and mosaic pieces for students to create garden stepping stones. Big thank you to Ryan, Nicole, Brianna, Hannah, and Maia for donating time, energy and materials to the students at VPES, especially as you transition into a different pace of life in college and in a new environment. The students will enjoy these creations for years to come! In VPES new garden beds, donated by Big Creek Lumber, students planted tomatoes, artichokes, yellow bell peppers, and crookneck squash. Looking forward to a happy summer of growing so students can enjoy these fruits and veggies when school resumes this fall. If you are interested in volunteering in any way, please contact Danica Smith, our FoodCorps AmeriCorps Member at danicas@onecoolearth.org for further opportunities and information. And remember to check out One Cool Earth on Facebook to see when they’ll be hosting community garden workdays at your school: www.facebook.com/onecoolearth or www.onecoolearth.org. From planting to painting signs, there is an activity for everyone.

VAPA News Drama classes at The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck enjoyed fabulous audiences and the chance to share their Aesop’s Fables-Deluxe! with friends and family. Over 60 4th and 5th grade actors actively told the story through song, dance, and dialogue. Also at TAABS, Orchestra 1 and 2 students held concerts. Coming up on Tuesday is our 2nd

annual trip to Vina Robles to see a live production. This year, many of our elementary students will get to see Peter Pan.

At PRHS Open House, the library was full of student art and demonstrations. Attendees also had the pleasure of listening to Jordan Summers on guitar.

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Battle of the Books Schools throughout the district held Battle of the Book contests to determine who their representatives will be at the district event. The PRJUSD Battle of the Books (BOB) will be held on Friday, June 1, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at Centennial Park and ending with the Grand Battle at PRHS at 12:45 p.m.

Pictured are 4th and 5th grade students who battled at Georgia Brown Elementary, Kermit King Elementary, Virginia Peterson Elementary, and Winifred Pifer Elementary. Best of luck to all of our competitors next week!

Senior Science Night Celebrated This past week, PRHS Science Department hosted their annual Senior Science Night. This year, 53 seniors earned a Science Honor Cord to be worn at graduation, the highest number ever. These students took 5 or more science courses and earned a grade of B or better every semester. The Science Night honors these seniors and allows them to compete for the coveted title of Senior Science Scholar through lab challenges, word problems, and a round of Jeopardy. This year's winner was Mason Seden Hansen. He was awarded a tie-dyed lab coat as well as a signed photograph of the entire science department. If you love Science, you love Paso Robles!