Tahoe Valley

Dr. James Tarwater has informed parents that schools in South Lake Tahoe are closing immediately due to a power black out for the area. He reported that the black out will last until 4:30 p.m.

All parents are requested to pick up their students and buses will start transporting children if they are normally transported by bus. Each school has a different Bus departure time starting with STMS at 12:45 p.m., STHS at 1:30 p.m., Bijou at 1:35 p.m., Sierra House and Tahoe Valley Elementary schools at 2:10 p.m., and the Magnet School at 2:25 p.m.

Page & Sage has been serving students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District for three years, giving children in need a backpack of food and a book to take home over the weekends when they don't receive free lunches and breakfasts at school.

When Liberty Utilities in South Lake Tahoe found out about the program they began a food and donation drive in order to help fill the program's shelves. They gathered boxes and cans of food and almost $300 in cash.

In keeping with its mission to bring more arts to more people, El Dorado Arts Council is thrilled to announce its new partnership with BATS, Bringing Art to Schools, an art appreciation and art history program for South Lake Tahoe students in kindergarten through fifth grade. BATS students both learn about classic works of art—their meanings, styles, and the movements that informed them—and create their own art based upon a selected theme.

Almost 2,000 elementary students from South Lake Tahoe completed the WeCan! fitness and nutritional program on Friday, October 10.

Students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade at Bijou, Lake Tahoe Environmental Magnet, Sierra House and Tahoe Valley Elementary Schools participated in the four week program.

The students participated in weekly challenges that focused on fitness and nutrition goals. Challenges included eating fruits and vegetables of a particular color, drinking more water, stretching, exercising and trying new healthy foods.

Air show officials have decided to drop the $10 entrance fee and offer free admission to all attendees for the 25th Annual Lake in the Sky Air Show this Saturday, September 20th from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. at Tahoe Valley Airport in South Lake Tahoe.

Last year's air show was canceled due to heavy smoke from the Rim Fire. Officials are monitoring the King Fire's smoke and movement, but at this time there are no flight closures and the aerial performances and all on ground activities are still going to occur.

This year’s show which will includes:

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%

The Recreation Mater Plan has been in front of local citizens, community groups and staff for the past several months, and now their ideas and suggestions has formulated a Draft Master Plan that can now be reviewed.

The Plan is intended to provide strategic guidance for the management, improvement and development of City and County parks, in conjunction with the recreation opportunities provided by other public and private entities in the South Shore.

It's once again time to hear the ring of the school bell, to see the yellow buses going through the neighborhoods, and hear the happy voices from the school playgrounds.

The summer vacation ends Monday for students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District as walk, ride or drive to their first day of school.

Classes at South Tahoe High School start at 7:55 a.m. and school is out at 2:40 p.m. South Tahoe Middle School starts at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 1:55 p.m.

The four elementary schools have different start and end times:
Bijou, grades K-5 runs from 8:35 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.

A large scale disaster is about to hit South Lake Tahoe. Sirens are blaring, emergency personnel are responding to the airport, screaming people are seriously injured while others cannot be saved, a triage is set up and an incident command center has been set up in the City Council chambers. A large airplane has just crashed with hazardous cargo on board at the Tahoe Valley airport.

Premonition? No. It's a planned emergency drill that will take place on Monday, August 25.

Having recently read an article about the owners of the Barton Ranch property planning to tear down all the buildings as they rot and decay for the advancement of the Tahoe Valley Plan I felt I had to reply. Although I haven't read over that plan I am aware of the rich history of the Barton family who are clearly one of Lake Valley's founding families.

The LTUSD Board gets out of the board room and into the schools Tuesday as they have their Annual Student Lunch meeting. They will have lunch with about 20 selected students at South Tahoe High in the new Student Union. The students are a cross section of seniors who will be sharing their thoughts with the board.

Registration for South Lake Tahoe kindergarten and transitional kindergarten will be held May 5th through May 9th.

Children must be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2014. Children who turn 5 between September 2 and December 2, 2014 are eligible for transitional kindergarten.

California Law requires that:
1. You bring child's birth certificate;
2. You bring proof of immunizations, which includes the Varicella (Chicken Pox), Hepatitis B and for
most children - the last booster shot. Children will not be enrolled in school without presenting an

In order to be trained and prepared to handle active shooter situations, the South Lake Tahoe Police and Fire Departments took part in exercises at Lake Tahoe Community College on Thursday, April 3. They will continue the exercises on Monday at Tahoe Valley Elementary.

Both training sessions take place at school campuses that are on Spring Break so students and classes are not disturbed. The purpose of the exercises are to give the departments an opportunity to work together in order to be prepared should an active shooter incident take place within the city limits.

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.

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.

A public workshop on the vision for the South "Y" area will be held on Thursday, February 27 in the South Lake Tahoe City Council chambers at 6 p.m.

Future planning and land use guidance for what is known as the Tahoe Valley Area Plan will be discussed as the City's project leaders seek input from the community as to what the area should be.

The Tahoe Valley Plan reflects the City’s effort to rekindle the economic vitality and spirit of the Tahoe Valley Community and to enhance the area's unique characteristics.

The Community Advisory Committee will provide parents with resources needed to handle every day questions issues concerning their children.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District psychologists will be on hand to answer these questions, and more:

· Is your child struggling with her homework?
· Do you feel like your kids never listen?
· Are sibling battles out of control?
· Are you worried about your child’s behavior?
· Would you like to meet other parents who share your concerns?

For the first time since 1996, enrollment in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District appears to be on an upward trend. There are 102 new students in the district so far this school year, bringing the total number of students currently enrolled to 3,832.

This figure is still far below the number of students attending local school in the 1996-1997 school year when there were 5,978 in grades K to 12.

The breakdown of students at the district's 6 schools:

Bijou Community School – 572
Sierra House Elementary School 493

The South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce will hold a business mixer on Thursday, March 21. Borges Chiropractic and Tahoe Valley Pharmacy will host the event, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Tahoe Valley Pharmacy center, 2074 Lake Tahoe Blvd. (across from Staples near the “Y”).

The event is open to chamber members as well as the public and is free.

There will be food and prizes, including a pair of sunglasses valued at $160 donated by Lake Tahoe Eye Care. Other sponsors for donations include Tahoe Valley Pharmacy, Borges Chiropractic and Ross Groelz, DDS.

Tahoe Valley Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Irene Kaelin asked her group of 30 students Monday to raise their hands if they'd heard about what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Con...

Christmas Cheer is looking for donations of non-perishable food, new toys, or gently used toys. Please drop your donations at one of the following locations:

If the TTD took the $70 Million that they say it will cost to build the loop road and fix up the area they would still have enough over to give us a free bus system like most of the other resort towns. They are not alleviating any traffic flows or amount of cars only diverting them faster to Nevada. How is diverting the traffic helping the traffic situation, we will still have the same amount of cars on the road. I have said this before about other things done to us by our Government agency’s doing what’s best for them and us(mostly them).