Employee Anniversaries

35 Years

Penny Smith

30 Years

Jean Campbell, Audreyn Christiansen, Cheryl Collinson, Merrilee Conklyn, Jeannie Egelhoff, Sharon Morgan, Randall Oler, Lora Rickerl, Teri Sweeney, Linda Washington, Becky Card, Monica Christoffersen, Barbara Dew, Maria Navarro, Cheryl Wolff

25 Years

Lori Billig, Kristen Clair, Lori Clark, Michelle Dale, Michael Luft, Sandra Menjivar, Carrie North, Michelle Ordinola, Eva Para, Terrell Reedus, Cathryn Sloan, Deborah Sprague, Kimberly Tatera, Mary Terry, Rosemarie Velasquez, Samantha Call, Esther Day, Barbara Eklund, Johnette Ellis, Nancee Fine, Teri Harps, Yara Hazan, Elizabeth Heald, Hugh McNeese, Michael Mullen, Linda Natali, Glenda Robinson, Guy Robinson, Jeffrey Sievers, Joseph Waldron, Richard Warren, Karen Yarnell

20 Years

Corinne Bergman, Kent Berryman, Jeffrey Bragg, Laura Chapman, Evelyn Clabo, Cathy Conde, Elizabeth Cook, Marriette Craig, Gerri Delahoussaye, Rhonda Douty, Melissa Edwards, Maria Franco, Debra Gerberich, Anna Graff, Joan Herdlein, Amy Jones, Bill Klopping, Michelle Maus, Erika Mendenhall, Ismael Miranda, Lori Mullikin, Theresa Navarrete, Renda Newton, Will Pallo, Tonja Parkin, Vicki Rodriguez, Linda Rueter, Teresa Salazar, Glynis Smith, Chris Smolenski, Dale Stover, Jacob Tess, Melissa Timko-Miller, Melissa Torres, Tammy Turner, Concesa Wychico, Shelley Wong, Carrie Billings, Mary Bluford, Christina Bragg, Anita Campbell, Judith Garrett, Victor Gonzales, Glenda Lindberg, Heidi Malone, Angela Painter, Livier Palacios, Annette Stolfus, David Stolfus, Awilda Sturdivant, Antonio Torres

15 Years

Meredith Alvarez, Rhonda Anderson, Colene Barles, Brenda Davison, Emily Duffield, Crystal Esquivel, Joshua Farrand, Emily Graff, Teresa Letner, Margarita Medel, Robert Parkin, Luann Shaner, Christine Skelton, Leticia Torres, Sara Velasquez, Laura Voss, Steve Armstrong, Pearl Bellamy, Tanya Benitez, Jennifer Bovee, Shannon Carbajal, Patricia Covarrubias, Beth Fehrs, April Forcen, Sarah German, Sandra Gonzalez, Susan Gutierrez, Jillene Kelly, Jackie Lester, Ramona Priester, Maureen Savage, John Serio, Nancy Serrano, Yolanda Smith, Mitzi Tresler, Laura Valentin, Nicole Witherspoon, Khariati Zimmer

10 Years

Martha Aleman, Barbara Almaraz, Rosemary Armstrong, Marcel Barrios, Merry Beck, Leticia Briones, Cindy Cahoon, Cruz Calderon Jr., Juana Campos, Brittan Egnozzi, Timothy Forster, Jennifer Gaines, Janet Gallegos, Maria Garcia, Joseph Garza, Grace Herrera, Anastasia Johnson, Cory Kale, Tina Lugo, Erica Madrid, Cheryl Marek, James Martin, Christopher Michalovic, Elizabeth Mondoza, Yolanda Morales, Jayme Ninemire, Joanne O Connor, Mary Ann Omila-Requerme, Wendy Pike, Joe Pont, Freda Salazar, William Sanderson, Melissa Sipes, Robin Smith, Ma Del Carmen Torres, Mindy Tsai, Kimberly Verduzco, Candice Webb, Ashley Yamnitz, Amy Alsbury, Matthew Alsbury, Humberto Alvarez Jr., Kristi Barbour, Sacnite Bernal, Stephanie Clapper, Carol Conlon, Irma Cortez, Conor Devlin, Barbara Espinoza, Kristin Falzone, Christine Gabler, Robert Greenlaw Jr., Starlett Hale, Jer'ray Honeycutt, Esther Mosqueda, Jamie O'Malley, Jennifer Picarelli, Michael Picarelli, Joanna Pizana, Regina Roberts, Tomille Smith, Grace Tinio, Misty Ubina

5 Years

Krista Baziak, Margarita Bermudez, Kristina Bickhart, Lori Bruce, Jami Cashion, Brandie Catuto, Andrea Chavez, Ebony Curtis, Jessica Danielson, Cathleen Diaz, Semetrah Harris, Destiny Marshall, Jeanette Miller, Denyse Owens, Genesis Pleitez, Jenifer Ritchie, Connie Rosete, Stephanie Rzucidlo, Jaimi Salaiz, Lisa Shuler, Jennifer Spotts, Natasha Stumpf, Bridgette Tolentino, Vickie Varner, Kristina Villareal, Dayna Yorba-Ruiz, Melissa Carpenter, Rinda Harman, Teri Hollman, Juan Perez, Diana Pizana, Guillermina Stastny, Sean Vester

Family Resource Center

Jorge Escalante, FRC Manager

At the beginning of this school year, we opened our Family Resource Center to better meet the needs of our students and their families. With outstanding support from our community, we’re proud to say it has been a great success.

During our first year, there have been over 2,400 visits to the Family Resource Center. More than 240 parents attended various classes, 179 parents utilized the computer lab, and nearly 200 families accessed important resources from our community partners. Marta Alvarez, a VESD parent, said, “It is a very pleasant place to visit. The center has provided support and helped me to form relationships with other parents. I am able to practice my English there as well!”

Thanks to our generous volunteer teachers and in association with Victor Valley College, parents were able to take advantage of free workshops like the parenting classes Love & Logic, The Parent Project, and Nurturing with Love. The center also offered Spanish 1A, ESL I, ESL II and English Pronunciation & Culture classes designed to help parents master the Spanish and English languages. The Family Resource Center has provided parents with the resources to be leaders in their children’s education and in their communities. Tureka Baker said, “No matter what you’re going through, if you can get to the center, you can get help.”

In April, VESD’s Family Resource Center was honored by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools at the 2017 Multilingual Recognition Dinner with the countywide award. VESD is thankful for all of the support that has been given to the center and for everyone’s ongoing involvement in building it into a place where parents and our community are able to receive resources and services.

VESD Growth and El Evado Site

Debbie Betts, Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services

Over the past year, VESD has experienced unprecedented growth with nearly 700 new students this school year. Since the the 2011/2012 school year, we’ve added 1,424 students. We currently have 12,532 students enrolled in our schools.

In addition to the arrival of our new students, we are also lowering our class sizes in grades TK-3 to a student to teacher ratio of 24:1. So, even though we just opened a new site for Galileo Academy School of Gifted and Talented Education this year - we are already making plans to build the next new school!

The new school will be located at El Evado Road and Mojave Drive where we have purchased a 20 acre parcel of land. Until an official name is chosen, the school will be referred to as the “El Evado School.” Although the name and focus of the El Evado school will be decided at a later date, the school was designed with the 4 C’s of 21st Century learning in mind – communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Instead of individual classrooms, the floorplan features open studios to accommodate entire grade levels creating flexible learning environments. This flexibility supports diverse teaching and learning needs by allowing different configurations for students working together, individually or under the guidance of a teacher.

We are excited about our growth and the prospect of an innovative new school on the horizon! We will continue to provide updates on our enrollment, timelines and plans for the El Evado School via our website, social media and through our community newsletter.

Fiscal Update

Laurien Spiller, Director of Fiscal Services

Second interim is one of two critical points in the year when the budget is updated and a multi-year projection is prepared and analyzed to evaluate the financial health of the district. VESD completed the second interim report with a positive certification, which means it has been certified that we can meet our financial obligations for the current year and two subsequent years.

Our district continues to have a stable, growing student population. In 2016/17, VESD increase 450 students over the prior year (CBEDS). From Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), we expect to receive $9497 per Average Daily Attendance (ADA), of which $2103 per ADA is generated from the Supplemental and Concentration Grants. This money is granted based on student demographics and therefore, is intended to benefit those students. This leaves $7394 per ADA as unrestricted to meet the needs of VESD.

VESD has been continuing to make reductions to class sizes in grades TK-3 as we move toward the 24:1 ratio that is required under LCFF. In 16/17, our target ratio for TK-3 grades was 25:1, next year will be 24.5:1, and we project to be at 24:1 by the 18/19 school year.

There is a lot happening at the state level in the way of school finance. VESD is monitoring the activities and preparing for updates as they are developed and rolled out. The VESD Budget for 2017/18 will be prepared and presented to the board in June.

HD Fitness Challenge

For the past several years, VESD has participated in the HD Fitness Challenge. The Fitness Challenge is a competititon between several employers throughout the High Desert to determine who's got the best athletes. We've always had great success winning Top 3 prizes each time.!

This year's competition starts on September 9th. In addition to the standard events like Zumba, COED softball, women's volleyball, bowling,etc., they've added CrossFit, shooting and possibly considering a few others like soccer and beach volleyball. If you'd like to participate, we'd love to have you join the team! Please check out the ground rules and instructions below...

• You must be a VESD employee or an immediate family member of one.
• Feel free to sign up for more than one sport. But keep in mind that if we exceed the max roster number, we'll give preference to someone who hasn't signed up for other sports.
• Please check the dates to ensure that you'll be able to participate.
• The team sports are highly competitive and so consider that when signing up for a sport. We don't want any injuries or anything.
• Have fun!
• We'll be getting Team VESD T-Shirts that will act as our uniforms for each sport, cost will be somewhere between $5-10 each.
• We're there to win but more importantly, we're there to represent our awesome district and colleagues.

To sign up, please fill out the Google Form below:

Facilities Update

Dale Etter, Director of facilities

The Facilities Department has been busy over the last year! Thanks to our awesome team, we were able to make a big difference this year. Here are some of the projects that have been completed…

• Galileo School of Gifted and Talented Education opened its doors this year
• All asphalt on the west side of the freeway was repaired and coated
• All of the outside doors at Village School were replaced
• Lighting at various sites was retrofitted for energy saving LED lights
• Carpet was replaced at various sites throughout the district
• Liberty school was repainted
• Roofs were repaired our Nisqually building and Brentwood School’s multipurpose room
• Ductwork and insulation were installed in 10 portable classrooms at Liberty School
• HVAC units and controls were replaced at Lomitas and Puesta Del Sol
• Montessori moved to their new location at the old Galileo site. The site was remodeled including new floors, fresh paint and new signs installed on building
• Ramps were and a crosswalk were installed at 6th Street Prep
• Park View, Liberty and Mojave Vista had new marquees installed
• A portion of the Nisqually building was remodeled for our new Family Resource Center
• A bus turnaround was constructed at Green Tree East School to enable more efficient drop off and pick up of students
• The parking lot entrances were reconfigured for Lomitas and Montessori to facilitate better traffic flow
• The Village office was remodeled to give them additional space to accommodate and larger student population and office staff to support them

Enjoy your Summer Break!