Lake County Office of Education Year in Review 2010-11

8/6/2019 Lake County Office of Education Year in Review 2010-11

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Year in Review 2010-2011

Cover photo courtesy of Juan


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The 2010-2011 school year was an eventful time

of transitions and growth for Lake County

Office of Education.

The school year began with the election

of Wally Holbrook as Lake County

Superintendent of Schools, and the transition

into retirement for Superintendent Dave Geck.

Fall brought another change to LCOE as

Chris Thomas, Deputy Superintendent, was

appointed State Trustee to the Round Valley

School District. This transition launched a

close examination and reevaluation of LCOEstructure, and led to a reorganization of the

organization.

In any organization, its important to take the

time to recognize achievements, accomplish-

ments, and challenges, and in the following

pages youll find an snapshot of the

outstanding programs, events, initiatives

and accomplishments of LCOE programs

during the 2011-2012 year.

Despite the multitude of events and changes,

however, youll find the primary purpose of

Lake County Office of Education remains at

the forefront. The focus of each and every

program, initiative and event is to teach ourstudents, serve our communities, and continueto learn and grow as educators.

Life is no brief candle to me.

It is a sort of splendid torch which

I have got hold of for the moment, and

I want to make it burn as brightly as

possible before handing it onto future

generations.G.B. Shaw


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Alternative Education

2010-2011 Highlights Lake County Office of Education Court and

Community Schools supported 161 students from the five

school districts during 2010-11 school year.

Renaissance Court School60

Clearlake Community School61

Lloyd P. Hance Community School40

Four teachers have completed the state-adopted

advanced certification process (VPSS) by which

teachers in special settings have an additional option

to become compliant with No Child Left Behind.Teaching staff have participated in eight weeks of

instruction in the four basic core areas; English, math,

science and social science during the past two summers.

Three Safe School Counselors supported 70 students on

three school sites.

Renaissance Court School 11

Clearlake Community School 51

Lloyd P. Hance Community School 8

Seventeen children attended Lloyd P. Hance Child

Care during the school year, enabling their parent(s) to

continue their own education while their children were

receiving excellent child care services.

Clearlake and Hance Community School students

participated in twelve special events, including

fieldtrips, sports tournaments and community service

activities. All students met the attendance, attitude and

achievement requirements to participate in each event(listed at right).

Six students from Clearlake and Lloyd P. Hance

Community Schools successfully completed courses at

Yuba Community College or Mendocino Community

College.

From Top: Dale Krueger with students ingarden; Students on field trip to theOld Faithful Geyser; Students at OspreyEnterprise Market Days.

Special Events/TripsToys for TotsPennys for People ServicesCommunity Food Cupboard

Canned Food DriveTango Mike Letter WritingGold/Silver Level Field Trips

Rolling SkatingBowling

Marine WorldOld Faithful GeyserClearlake State ParkOsprey Enterprise

Market DaysSports ActivitiesFleet ballSoftball


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AmeriCorp

2010-2011 Highlights Tutored over 600 students, spending over 20,000 hours

of service at our preschool, Healthy Start, K-12 school

and after school sites. AmeriCorps members focused on

students who were at least one functional grade level

behind their actual grade level.

Provided all LCOE preschool children with 300+ Second

Step lessons (Skills for Social and Academic Success) as

well as nearly 200 Oral Health and Nutrition lessons.

Provided 85 caregivers with lessons on how to better

support their 0-5 child/children's Health, Oral Health

and Nutrition.

Assisted in 93 medical health screenings/checkups and

231 dental screenings/evaluations for children 0-5 years

of age.

Tammy Alakszay and Rob Young (pictured far left) accepting the 2011 Starof Lake County award for non-profit organization on behalf of AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps is a national

community service program

designed to help communitiesmeet the specific needs in their

area by recruiting and training

individuals who are willing to

devote one to two years service

in selected community projects.

Service programs strengthen

communities, encourage responsi-

bility, expand opportunities for

education, provide job experience

and increase life skills.


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Business Services

2010-2011 Highlights This was the second year that we have been working in

our new financial system, Escape. Although we had one year

under our belt, we continued to learn more about the system

and refined our processes within it.

We looked at the business services department and how

it was structured and determined that we needed to more

clearly identify internal business services from external

business services. Duties were shifted among business

services staff so that staff members were either internal

business services or external business services, allowing for

the department to better meet the needs of the variousclientele we serve.

We also teamed up with Information Technology and

began to utilize IT staff to handle the technological processes

involved with payroll and accounts payable.

Desk procedures were updated for each position to ensure

that all critical work can be done even when an individual is

out unexpectedly; policies and procedures were reviewed and

streamlined; and new auditors were contracted after a

thorough request for proposal process was conducted. Various trainings/workshops were conducted by

business services in 2010/2011 for staff, board members and

districts. Topics included: Cash Management, Revenue

Limit Calculations, Understanding the Budget, Escape

Webinars, etc.

With the challenges and changes that occurred this year in

business services, we were still able to complete the tasks at

hand:

We paid 2,107 staff countywide throughout 2010-2011Approximately 15,200 vendor checks were processed

during the year

Approximately 13,500 paychecks were disbursed in 2010-11Over 6,800 were actual payroll checks processedOver 6, 700 were direct deposits

Team means Together Everyone Achieves More!~Author Unknown

Business Office Staff, showing teamspirit with casual Friday costume days.

Business services had a year of

budget challenges and departmen-

tal changes. With budget reduc-

tions continuing due to the state of

the economy, there was much

uncertainty as to the amount ofmoney that schools would be

receiving in 2010-2011. This uncer-

tainty created struggles for the

county office and the districts. In

light of the difficulties, business

services managed to take a look at

the department and determine

what changes needed to be made

in order to continue to provide

quality support during these tough

economic times.


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Career Technical Educatio

2010-2011 Highlights Instructed by 24 teachers, over 1,300 high school students

were served in CTE classes.

A Summer Construction Skills Course is offered for up

to 20 students between the ages of 15 and 21.

Supported the Skills USA teams at both regional and

state competitions. Regionally, students from Upper

Lake High and Lower Lake High earned 19 gold medals

and 1 silver medal. At the state competition, Upper Lake

High students earned a bronze medal in mobile robotics

and Lower Lake High students earned a gold medal in

introductory automotive services technology.

Provided CTE online training to 20 teachers. All

instructors posted curriculum online allowing them

to share with other CTE instructors and meet state

guidelines.

The Educating for Careers Conference was attended by

20 teachers to learn about the new tools available to CTE

instructors and students.

Mendocino College hosted an articulation meeting to

assist CTE teachers in developing relationships andagreements with local community colleges.

Graduated 30 students from the Certified Nurse

Assistants program.

Supported the CTE Agriculture Pathway through their

involvement in the Lake County Fair.

Provided access to over 450 people to take the General

Educational Development (GED) Exam.

From top:Katie Robertson, a beginning wood student isworking with Mike Newton in building anAdirondack loveseat in Advanced Woods.Andrew Copsey runs the track-cutting torch

in Mike Jones' ROP class.

At right, from left:Students who perform well in Pam Inman'schild development/child care classes areallowed to use an empathy belly thatsimulates pregnancy. For part of the exercise,a mechanical baby simulates a second child.Lake County students show and marketanimals during the Lake County Fair throughlocal school agricultural pathway programs.

The primary goal of the Career

Technical Education (CTE) office is

to provide countywide leadership

and support for high school career

education that is academically rigor-

ous and aligned with the workforce

preparation needs of our county.

Through the Regional Occupational

Program (ROP), LCOE offers job

training classes at every comprehen-

sive high school in the county and a

limited number of adult classes.


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Child Care Planning Council

2010-2011 Highlights Implemented the Steps to Leadership Program,

supporting 45 educators in the establishment and

attainment of goals to improve quality, and distributed

approximately $20,000 in stipends and incentives.

Hosted and/or collaborated to provide approximately

100 hours of professional growth opportunities for Lake

Countys early childhood educators.

Supported the Lake County Cares for Our Kids

Advocacy Walk and Childrens Festival; anddistributed over 3,000 paper doll and advocacy

statements to Lake County businesses to raise

awareness of child abuse prevention and the

importance of quality early childhood education.

Hosted the 2011 Early Childhood Educator of the Year

Award program and award dinner which had 200 in

attendance and presented 11 awards to recognize

excellence in early childhood education.

Maintained our monthly Council meetings which

provide a forum for ongoing collaboration and

resource building for the field of early childhood

education in Lake County.

From bottom left: Yaquelin Sandoval fromEarly Connection Preschools presentedwith the Leading the Field Award from

Jennifer Kelly, California State Teacherof the Year; LPC booth at the ChildrensFestival; Steps to Leadership workshop

participants; Workshop activity; LakeCounty Cares for Our Kids AdvocacyWalk and Festival.

The primary purpose of the Child

Care Planning Council is to

promote quality child care through

community assessment, advocacy,resource development, and

collaboration with other

organizations.


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Child Development Divisio

2010-2011 HighlightsChild Development has had the pleasure of providing highquality early education and after school services for: 15 infants and toddlers at the ASPIRE program 442 preschoolers of which 250+ will be transitioning to

kindergarten! 475 children through our ASES programs! We also served 89,349 meals and snacks to the children of

our programs!

This year, we reviewed every aspect of our programs and

administrative processes and carefully restructured every-

thing we do. As a team, we have worked hard to streamlineand amend our organizational structures, adding simplicity,

clarity and efficiency to all aspects of our work from

enrollments to record keeping! This has helped us stretch

our precious dollars even further. We have been extremely

creative in sharing supplies and equipment among sites,

programs and office staff.

Although we all are feeling bruised and nursing sore backs,

the huge office move is complete and we are very happy in

our new temp home here at the LCOE main office. We

look forward to moving again this fall to our forever and

ever and ever home at the new Hance site.

(Sung to the tune Its a Small World)Its been a year of laughter and a year of tears.Its been a year of hope and funding fears.Theres so much we have done that it is time for

some fun.Its a small office after all.

Above: Kid Connection students, enjoying

after school programs.Below: preschoolers in action!


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College-Going Initiative

2010-2011 Highlights At the 6th Annual University Admit Reception, 124

students were honored. The event honors students who

have been accepted to a four-year college, with a special

recognition of the families and staff who assisted in

their accomplishment.

Five students from Lake County were accepted to the

UC summer COSMOS program. This is a residential

four-week program at a UC during which students will

learn advanced math and science through hands on

learning.

The Lodge at Blue Lakes announced that they will bethe primary sponsor of the Academic Decathlon next

year. Upper Lake High School won the tri-county

regional event and participated in the statewide

competition.

176 students were served by the Summer Advancement

Algebra and Science academies. Lower Lake High

students won the countywide Jonas Energy Solar

Car Races. Mendo Lake Credit Union awarded two

scholarships of $250 each to a Clear Lake High studentand Mt. Vista Middle School student.

More than 30 students attended one of the two SAT

Prep workshops. The workshops teach student test

taking strategies as well as review critical information

on the exams.

Provided support to counselors through the Counselor's

Network Meetings that are designed to bring school

counselors, college counselors and other vital college

and career personnel together to share events and

updates.

Delivered presentations on college readiness and career

exploration to all grade levels, with emphasis on 7 th &

8th grades. Additional presentations have focused on

scholarships, admissions essays, note taking and

promoting summer activities such as COSMOS,

National Youth Leadership Forum, summer academies

and college classes.

From top:

Left to right: Cydney Dixon, JonetteMoffet, April Leiferman, Jessica Phillips,

Jeff Dixon, and Jamey Gill at the Solar CarRaces.Medals at Academic Decathlon.Poster entry at Academic Decathlon.

The College-Going Initiative (CGI)promotes a college-going culture forstudents, parents, and community.Through student/staff workshops,college tours, and curriculum devel-opment CGI provides collegereadiness and support to staff andstudents at all grade levels.


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2010-2011 Highlights The Mendocino Lake Leadership Network is focused ondeveloping effective school site Professional Learning

Communities (PLCs). In 2010-11, four Lake County schools participated

in PLC trainings, worked with an LCOE C & I facilitator, and worked

to establish professional learning communities at their sites.

A major area of focus for LCOE C & I staff in 2010-11 was facilitating

the development of benchmark assessments. The purpose of benchmark

assessments is to give teachers reliable and predictive student

achievement data as they work toward attainment of the California

Content Standards in preparation for the California Standards

Tests. One example of this work was with Kelseyville High School

(KHS). In 2010-11, KHS developed quarterly benchmark assessments

for each of the academic classes that require students to take a state

test. This work will continue in 2011-12 as we look to standardize the

benchmark assessment process across the county.

Another major area of focus for LCOE C & I staff is working with

school site departments, grade levels, and individual teachers on the

pacing of curriculum. In most cases, there is simply too much to teach

in the 150 days of instruction teachers have before the state tests. The

process of pacing looks at the scope and sequence of what is presentedin our textbooks and aligns instruction to the school calendar and state

testing dates. Making strategic decisions on what to teach and when to

teach it is critical in preparing students for state testing.

Along with meeting the state requirements for compliance in meeting

the needs of English Language Learners, C&I has provided support and

professional development on meeting the needs of English Learners in

the classroom. This has been accomplished through structured profes-

sional development focused on increasing the oral language production

in the classroom, which increases student achievement for ALL

students. This professional development has been followed up with

monitoring walk throughs with administrators and modeled lessons to

support the ongoing implementation of student interactive

learning. The results of this focused professional development can be

seen through the creation and implementation of English Language

Development classes with pacing and assessments to monitor student

progress. Schools in Title III sanctions have met criteria that they had a

history of not meeting through this focused effort between the school

districts and C&I.

The focus of Curriculum and

Instruction support at LCOE

is to provide leadership and

technical assistance in all things

related to what to teach and

how to teach it for schools and

districts in Lake County.

Curriculum and Instructio


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Healthy Start

2010-2011 Highlights Served over 3,500 children and their families through

school based support services in all 7 school districts and

47 school and preschool sites, focusing on access to health

care, parenting education, family support and referrals to

community resources and services.

Taught 300 adults in Nurturing Parenting classes

53 parents in Lake County jails, 135 parents attended

Adolescent and Community Classes at school sites, 14

teen parents at Aspire, and 98 parents taught by

community partners.

Provided intensive case management to over 60 families

in the Family PRO program throughout Lake County.

Family PRO has received state and national recognition

for positive outcomes in increasing parenting

knowledge and skills, increasing family access to local

services and creating safer and more stable home

environments.

Good oral health is important to childrens and

adolescents overall health and well-being. Over 2,200

children received a dental screening at their school this

year and those children with unmet dental needs were

referred for treatment. Healthy Start transported 261

children to local dentists and 106 families were assisted

in completing medical/dental insurance applications.

Provided one-on-one tutoring to 19 foster youth inschools. Assisted foster youth in High School to pass

the CHSEE, collect all their credits, gain life skills and

employment experience and graduate from High School.

The McKinney Vento Homeless Students program

identified 792 students throughout the county and

provided continued education to families and school

personnel as to the educational rights of students living

in qualifying settings.

AsI reflect upon the past year, I am so

proud to see the success of the students

and families that I have worked with

throughout the year. This year I worked

with a single mom with threechildren who were homeless. Her

children were failing in school. This

family now lives in a home, mom is

employed and her self-esteem is

back. The children are now successful in

school. This is just one story of many

that I am proud of.

Wendy Gattoni, Healthy Start

From top: Free sealant clinic at MinnieCannon, provided by Dr. Doug Lewis; babyat ASPIRE learning about oral health,along with her mother, taking a NurturingParenting class; Doreen Gilmore at theRespect for All Booth at the Lake CountyCares for our Kids Advocacy Walk andChildrens Festival, collecting signatures onthe Kindness Pledge.


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2010-2011 Highlights Began installation of county-wide fiber-optic Internet

upgrade. The total speed at the 16 included school sites

will increase by nearly 1,700%. This will allow for new

and more reliable educational technology services to be

used within the classroom and administrative offices.

Maintained Internet, e-mail, and website resources

for over 3,000 computers. This includes an email and

calendaring collaboration system with nearly 1,200

users. On average, we processed 1 email message every

3 seconds over the past 12 months. Internet trafficexceeded the equivalent of downloading the Library of

Congress 10 times.

Purchased and replaced 15% of our computer inventory.

This includes servers, desktop and laptop computers,

and tablets. We have a variety of applications for this

equipment; from classroom instruction, to fiscal and

administrative responsibilities, and even assistive

technology for special education.

Assisted in completing transition to paperless

purchasing and approval process. Our new

financial system has helped to improve speed and

efficiency in producing fiscal reports, processing

payments, and administering human resource tasks.

Information Technolog

Lower Lake Elementary After School Program Computer lab. LCOE IT Staff from left, Juan Huerta, Blaze King, Wayn

The Information Technology

Department has three areas of

support: Internal, External and

External Business Services. All

three programs provide leadership

and support to the 7 school districts

and the county office. We provide

support to departments that would

be unable to meet their mandates

without computer and technology

access.


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Safe Schools/Healthy Students

2010-2011 Highlights Received Elementary and Secondary Counseling Grant

from the U.S. Department of Education July 2010.

Hired four full time positions and one half time

position.

Provided individual counseling to over 400

students.

Provided Early Intervention services to 228 K-3

students.

Provided small student support groups to

over 100 students.

Provided classroom curriculum on

bullying to K-8 students.

Sponsored annual poster contest for Child

Abuse Awareness Month.

Held award ceremony at Taco Bell to honor

poster winners (pictured at left).

From Left, back row: Joyce Elmer, Director of SafeSchools/Healthy Students Program; Michelle Scott, Man-ager Taco Bell; Reed Rinehart, Owner Taco Bell.

From Left, front row: Poster Contest Winners: Layla, CobbElementary; Melinda, Lakeport Elementary; Trinity,Lakeport Elementary.

The purpose of the Safe Schools/

Healthy Students Program is to

meet the needs of students requiring

mental health services but who are

unable to access these services

through the clinics provided by

Lake County Mental Health.


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SELP(Special Education Local Plan Are

2010-2011 Highlights Program Specialist/ Autism Spectrum Disorders

Specialist

Patty Langston joined the SELPA staff this year

and developed and taught the Added Autism

Authorization Credential Program at LCOE with 27

teachers participating. Additionally, Patty initiated

a coaching/consultant model for General Education

teachers to provide curriculum and instruction

support for Autistic Spectrum students included inGeneral Education.

SELPA Staff Development

The Lake County SELPA hosted a community-wide

training on School Violence Prevention by national

expert Diana Browning Wright with 95 attendees.

Workability I ProgramMarty Bardelmeier became the Workability I

Coordinator this year and the program placed over 90

students in subsidized employment with Lake

County employers.

Assistive Technology

Tom Barnhard, the SELPA assistive technology

specialist, experienced great success this year in his

focus on Augmentative Communication devicesfor students without the ability to communicate.

Photo Courtesy of Linda Tyner.

The Lake County SELPA is made

up of the seven school districts and

the County Office of Education

located within Lake County. These

Local Education Agencies (LEAs)

collaborate to offer a free appropri-

ate public education to every

individual with Exceptional Needs.

A SELPA is a state-mandated

consortium that provides for all the

special education service needs of

children residing within the

regional boundaries.


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Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium

2010-2011 Highlights Hosted free Lake County School field trips for over

1,500 students, providing activities, solar and night sky

viewing and planetarium experience.

Over 1,000 County residents enjoyed lectures,

planetarium shows and night sky viewing at our

monthly Public Events and Star Parties.

Our Future Astronomers Telescope Essay Contest had

seven winners. Seven students won 6-inch Reflector

Telescopes two students from Kelseyville, two from

Middletown, and one each from Lakeport, Upper Lake

and Lucerne.

Over 300 Lake County residents and students enjoyed a

Holiday Season experience with The Mystery of the

Christmas Star Planetarium Show.

Our Junior Astronomy Camp provided summer time

entertainment and education to 4th through 6th grade

students and their families.

From top: Dome telescope, KathyScavone and Future Astronomers,Taylor Observatory, Planet Walk,Wally Holbrook with FutureAstronomers.

Taylor Observatory-Norton

Planetarium is located beneath

the coal-black skies of Lake

County, in Kelseyville. Our

facility features a 36-seatclassroom, a 16-inch research

grade telescope and a planetar-

ium with a 6.2 meter (20 ft.)

dome and a Digitarium star

projector system. It is well-

equipped for students, teacher

workshops and the general public

to learn about astronomy and

science.


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Lake County Highligh

Academic DecathlonOn January 29 and February 5, more than 50 volunteers and 65 students from Willits, Upper Lake,

Clear Lake, Middletown, Lower Lake and Williams high schools convened at Lower Lake High

School for the College Going Initiative Academic Decathlon. For the last 31 years, Lake County

has participated in the annual Decathlon events, in which students participate in more than 10

contests of academic strength. The Academic Decathlon program has grown into the premier

scholastic competition in America since its inception in 1968. It was created to provide

opportunities for high school decathletes to experience the challenges of rigorous team and

individual competition. Students dedicate after-school hours to studying and preparing for this

rigorous, competitive event. Each year, the national organization selects a topic of study, on which

the entire Decathlon is built. This years theme was The Great Depression. New this year were

optional contests in poetry and poster design that also addressed the theme (winning posterpictured below, top left)

Upper Lake Team 2 took top score in the 2011 Lake County

Decathlon (pictured below, bottom right), edging out the Lower

Lake Team (pictured below, bottom left), who placed second.

Special individual awards were also given to top-scoring

students in the individual categories, including essay, speech,

interview, language and literature, arts, social sciences,

mathematics, music, economics, and top scorers in the SuperQuiz competition.


17/18

ChampionsThe Lake County Junior High Spelling Bee (grades 7-8) was held at Upper Lake Middle School on

Tuesday, March 15, 2011. In what proved to be a true test of endurance, the top two finalists were

Ariana Diaz and Arthur Wilkie (pictured below with Wally Holbrook). Ariana is an eighth grade

student at Middletown Middle School (far left photo, on left). Arthur is an eighth grader from Lu-

cerne Elementary School (far left photo, on right). Both students went on to compete well in the

California State Junior High Spelling Championship on Saturday, May 14, at Miller Creek Middle

School in San Rafael.

The Lake County Elementary Spelling be was held at Terrace School in Lakeport on Tuesday,

March 22, 2011. The top spellers were David Thinnes, a 6th grade student from Lucerne Elementary

(right photo, on left), and Tyler Parrott, a 5th grader from Cobb Elementary (right photo, middle).

David and Tyler alsowent on to compete

well in the State

Elementary Spelling

Championship held

on April 16, at the

San Joaquin County

Office of Education

in Stockton.

Polar PlungeNine brave LCOE Super Heroes braved one of the coldest days

of the year to participate in the Polar Plunge and raise money

for the Special Olympics. The LCOE Super Heroes raised

$2,590, the second highest amount of any team. The LCOE

Super Heroes were (pictured left to right): Rebecca Jeffries,

Terry Ryan, Tammy Alakszay, Stephanie Wayment, Jan

Bailey, Wally Holbrook, Michael Oken, Stefanie Parker, and

Tim Gill (not pictured).

California State Teacher of the YearThe 2010-2011 Lake County Teacher of the Year, Jennifer

Kelly, from Middletown Middle School, received the

prestigious honor of being selected as a California Teacher

of the Year. Congratulations, Jennifer!

Lake County Highlights


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1152 South Main Street, Lakeport, CA 95453 * 707-262-4100 ph * 707-263-0197 fx * www.lakecoe.org

Lake County Office of Education Year in Review 2010-11

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