Schools

Camp Richardson will be turned into an agricultural center on September 16 when over 500 third and fourth graders from South Lake Tahoe take part in the 2nd Annual Tahoe Farm Day.

Tahoe Farm Day is an all day field trip where the students learn about the wide variety of regional agriculture. Over 30 volunteer presenters bring agriculture alive for students through creative, interactive activities that feature fruits, vegetables and farm animals as well as concepts of healthy eating, nutrition, and stewardship of the land.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District is renewing their focus on raising the attendance rates of students in the district's seven schools. Not only is being at school essential to a good education, it's also essential to the District's budget.

On Tuesday, the LTUSD Board will vote on a proclamation to declare September as "Attendance Awareness Month." They want parents, students, teachers, staff, administrators and the community to focus on "Every School Day Matters" and help keep kids in school.

During the 2013/14 school year, the attendance rates were:

Bijou - 92.3%

Leading French language coach is hosting a special event in September especially for parents and home-schooled children.

The Bijou Community Playground represents a community effort and shows what we can do when we all come together and each do a little. "Many hands make for light work" is a true phenomenon here at Bijou School. Since 2007, with the inception of the Two Way Immersion program, and our forced volunteering program, the parents, staff and community members have consistently been spending time, funds, and those blood, sweat and tears we always talk about at this school. The new playground, as well as the field and park behind it, is a tangible representation of the volunteer force here at Bijou.

Guidance and Planning for Success, or as it's known on campus, GPS, is a new state mandated program that requires all students at Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) to complete a new student orientation, take Math and English assessment tests so they are placed in courses that match their needs, and to work one-on-one with an LTCC counselor on a personalized Educational Plan prior to enrollment.

GPS is required for both new and returning students.

Larry the Cable Guy hit a shank on his tee shot on the 18th hole Saturday, hitting a bystander in the head and knocking him down.

The visibly shaken celebrity (who's real name is Daniel Lawrence "Larry" Whitney) rushed to the side of a spectator along with golfing partners Charles Barkley and Kevin Nealon.

Sheriff's officers, tournament officials and paramedics were on the scene and rendered first aid. The spectator was taken to the medical tent with a bag of ice over his head.

It was a sea of blue and gold, mortarboard and tassels on Friday afternoon at South Tahoe High School as 246 seniors took the next step in their lives as they graduated in front of friends, parents and classmates.

Thunderheads and darkened skies threatened to dampen the celebrants but sunshine prevailed and ceremonies went off without a hitch tossed in by Mother Nature.

The Top 10% of the STHS Class of 2014, led by Valedictorian Grace Bronken

Parents, students, and community members are invited to join us for two nights of amazing performances at the South Tahoe High School Pops Concerts on Monday, June 2, and Wednesday June 4, at 7 p.m. in the TADA Theater.

On Monday night, the Vocal Pops Concert with the Glee Club and Chorale will perform their favorite songs from famous blockbuster movies. The Band & Orchestra Pops Concert will be held on Wednesday night with very special “Dream” songs to be performed. Experience the world premiere of the first STHS commissioned piece, “The Lake in the Sky,” written by Alan Lee Silva.

In a world full of acronyms it may be difficult to keep up on what they all mean. Here are two that you may want to learn as they have an impact on students in not only the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, but in the entire state of California.

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) replaces California's nearly half-century-old, state-controlled school finance system with one that promises more local control as well as greater transparency and fairness. LCFF is designed to provide school districts with flexibility to direct resources to meet student's needs.

You’d be an idiot to miss this!

South Tahoe High School’s drama department presents Robert E. Sherwood’s 1936 Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Idiot’s Delight”. A cast of eccentric and international guests - countesses, arms dealers, showgirls, revolutionaries, charlatans and lovers – spend a fateful weekend in a resort hotel in the Italian Alps. While songs are sung and dances danced and loves rekindled, the dark clouds of World War II come rolling in.

Our Community has the opportunity to benefit from a Raley's grant program that will give money to the 10 most popular projects in many regions of California (138 projects submitted in total) . Several of our community members have submitted proposals for projects that would benefit The Environment; Health; or Kids and at least 4 proposals have been made for projects at one of our schools or for the entire school district. (There are other Tahoe proposals as well.)

The Lake Tahoe Educational Foundation invites the community to its annual Celebration of Education. LTEF provided grants of over $44,000 for student activities in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District during the 2013/14 school year.

Join them on Wednesday, May 14th, from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Lakeland Village Pavilion. There will be presentations by local students, refreshments and entertainment. This is a free event for the entire family to see the great things that are happening in our school district through the support of our local education foundation.

The idea of Sierra House Elementary School becoming the Sierra House Mountain Academy was presented to the Lake Tahoe Unified School Board this week. If this becomes reality, Sierra House would join the other themed South Lake Tahoe elementary schools: Meyers is the Environmental Magnet School and Tahoe Valley is the Performing Arts Magnet School.

Would you like your child to be able to read, write, speak, and think fluently in English and Spanish? (and receive the same curriculum as all other students?)

The Two Way Immersion Program at Bijou Community School makes it happen!
For detailed information, please visit:www.bijouschool.org

The school is taking sign ups for children interested in this program and will be entering kindergarten in 2014. There are only 66 openings and spots will be awarded in a Lottery.

Blue Go buses in South Lake Tahoe will soon be adorned with artwork created by students from Irene Kaelin's 5th grade class at Tahoe Valley Elementary. The Tahoe Transportation District is donating the art space on buses to raise awareness against animal cruelty ad the importance of Spay-Neuter and Vaccinations for your pets.

"Art for Animals" plans on helping spread the message of the Lake Tahoe Humane Society.

The Whittell Warriors Boys Basketball team beat Virginia City by a score of 62-55 Saturday Night to become the Northern Nevada IV League Champions. The Warriors won their last 11 games, bringing their league record to 13-1 and the overall record to 21-3.

Coach Phil Bryant's Warriors this year were #2 Osvaldo Reyes-Lucero (Jr.), #3 Mark Waite (Sr.), #4 Jake Sharp (Jr.), #10 Parker Chaplin (So.), #11 Colin Buchholz (So.), #13 Cole Snyder (Fr.), #14 Andy Delgado (So.), #15 Spencer Buchholz (Sr.), #22 Alex Barnes (Sr.), #23 Bryce Bronken (Jr.), #55 Quinn Kixmiller (So.).

Super combined bronze medalist Julia Mancuso of Lake Tahoe led the U.S. Ski Team with eighth in Thursday's Olympic downhill as Dominique Gisin of Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia made history with a tie for gold. An Olympic medal tie has happened four times since 1948 in alpine skiing, but before today, had never happened for a gold medal.

In a quest to make a difference, South Tahoe High School senior Brooke Georguson is collecting jeans that will be donated to homeless youth in the Reno/Tahoe community. On top of that goal, Brooke wants to collect the most jeans in the region so her school will be awarded a $10,000 grant.

Youth Sports and Recreation is a new business on lower Kingsbury Grade on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. The TahoeChamber will be celebrating their opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on January 30 at 5:30 pm.

It is a place for kids to get fit and have fun with a focus on engaging the brain and body in their fitness programs by utilizing functional fitness with a variety of state-of-the-art activities and techniques.

Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe clinched the first spot on the U.S. Olympic slopestyle snowboarding team with her victory Thursday at the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain. Ryan Stassel (Anchorage) took the victory for the men, while favorite Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) fell hard during his first run and couldn’t put together a complete second run. It was the third Olympic qualifier of five, and the fourth qualifier commenced Thursday at 4:30 p.m..

Anderson's winning run was a 50-50, back lip, tail 270 out, frontside 360 shifty, backside 540 and cab 720.

The South Tahoe High School Performing Arts Booster Association (PABA) Gala will be held on Saturday, January 25 at 5 pm. For just $30 per ticket you'll get a steak and lobster dinner prepared by local residents, the Romagnolo family. Discounted entrance tickets into the theater department's performance of "Young Frankenstein" immediately after dinner are also available for $10 each.

Dinner is at 5 pm and will be held in the STHS Studen Union. The play will start after dinner in the school's new theater.

For tickets, contact PABA at sthspaba@gmail.com

The Family Resource Center is hosting a Cafecitos Gathering on November 5th for all Spanish-speaking parents that have a child in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District. Cafecitos is similar to PTA. The gathering is designed to engage parents in school success, and provides an opportunity to formulate ideas on how parents and schools can work together more effectively. We will be meeting at Lake Tahoe Community College in the Aspen Room from 9:30am to 10:30am on November 5th. The Family Resource Center will donate coffee and pastries for your enjoyment.

The 2013-14 school year is off to a great start! We have had much excitement since August 19th with our first and hopefully, annual Round Hill Pines Beach Bash which was held on September 8th. Festivities included hot dogs and hamburgers, a raffle, and a silent auction. Families were able to get acquainted and re-acquainted and the kids were still enjoying the long summer sun. Thanks to our awesome Parent-Teacher Club, we are well on our way to funding many academic opportunities for enrichment and intervention as well as materials and resources for our teachers.

It took several cashiers and 3 check out lines to process the carts full of clothing, coats and shoes that 120 South Tahoe Middle School students spent the day shopping for at Kmart. On Saturday, October 5. The Assistance League® of Sierra Foothills (ALSF) partnered with the South Lake Tahoe Kmart to bring the Operation School Bell® program to the students.