unified school district

Community members, school officials, local planners and agencies have been involved with the South Tahoe Middle School Connectivity Plan for months and the final plan will soon be available. The goal has been to create safer, more walkable and bikeable off highway routes around South Tahoe Middle School (STMS), Bijou Park and Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC). A $150,000 grant from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to the Lake Tahoe Unified School District got the activity in motion.

When Sue Novasel won November's El Dorado County Supervisorial race it left a vacant seat on the Lake Tahoe Untiifed School Board (LTUSD). A Notice of Vacancy was filed, encouraging locals to apply to fill the trustee position for the remaining 22 months of Novasel's term. At Tuesday's LTUSD School Board meeting, the opening was filled.

Jamie Anderson continued her Give Back With Love sponsorship program on Tuesday, by giving three local students a dream package of equipment and a ski pass.

Anderson wanted to be present to give the students their prize but, according to Sierra-at-Tahoe, Jamie has been tied up with the X Games and Burton European Open. They wanted to get the kids up on the hill as soon as possible so didn't wait for Anderson's return but she'll join them on the slopes once back in South Lake Tahoe.

The Community Athletic Coordinating Council, an organization consisting of representatives of youth and adult sports organizations in South Lake Tahoe will be holding a meeting on Wednesday, February 4, 2015. This meeting will be held at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District Boardroom, starting at 5:15pm. This is an open meeting and all interested community members are invited to attend.

Topics to be discussed include
 Election of Officers – 2015
 Develop and adopt procedures for submittal of projects
 Project Review and Update
 Old and Unfinished Business
 New Business

After several years of declining enrollment, Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) has seen more students sitting the seats of local schools over the past two years.

The lowest enrollment figures were for the school year 2012-2013. When school ended in June of 2013 there were 3,793 students in South Lake Tahoe's eight schools.

When school started back up in the Fall of 2013 there were 3,855 students enrolled. An additional 26 students started off this school year.

High winds kept emergency personnel busy throughout the day on Thursday. Downed power lines and trees wrecked havoc on the South Shore where many residents were without power for much of the day and evening.

A 200 ft tall tree fell at St. Theresa's Catholic Church just before noon. A photo of the tree barely missing the statue of St. Theresa in front of the church made it to the national news via Associated Press according to Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District Marshall Eric Guevin. Most of the damage was to the tree.

Like many visitors to South Lake Tahoe, Steve and Janet Wozniak love visiting our mountain paradise and come to town as often as possible. It was on one of their frequent trips to the Hard Rock Cafe inside Harvey's Lake Tahoe that they met Kimberly Templeton, Lake Tahoe Sales Manager for the chain and a friendship formed.

Wozniak, co-found of Apple Computer, and his wife Janet were in town Wednesday night to help raise funds for Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD).

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.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) was awarded over $150,000 to look into providing safer, more walkable and bikeable off highway routes around South Tahoe Middle School (STMS), Bijou Park and Lake Tahoe Community College. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) awarded the grant as part of their $500,000 "On Our Way" program grants.

Another public workshop to get feedback from the community will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the STMS Multi-purpose room.

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.

To Our Community,

Our journey toward Measure F began in May 2013, when Lake Tahoe Community College enacted “Investing In Our Future,” a fiscal stability plan to ensure the sustainability of LTCC for the next 40 years. The first step in this plan was to build a shared vision of the future. In September 2013, LTCC leaders brought community members, faculty, staff, students, K-12 educators, and elected officials together to develop that shared vision.

(http://www.laketahoenews.net/2013/09/ltcc-engages-locals-pave-future-path/)

TahoeChamber has endorsed seven candidates for the upcoming election that best portray the values and abilities necessary to serve the South Shore business community. As directed by the TahoeChamber Board of Directors, the TahoeChamber Candidate Endorsement Committee (TC-CEC) used the pillars of the Chamber’s adopted Tahoe Future A South Shore Community Vision 2020 as the foundational criteria for evaluating candidates. The pillars include Economic Vitality, Quality of Life, Sustainability, Infrastructure and Intellectual Capital.

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.

Lake Tahoe Educational Foundation is now accepting applications for its fall grant cycle. Applications are available online on the organization’s website www.ltedf.org and are due Sept. 26, 2014.

Zawadisha, a Tahoe-based global women’s empowerment organization, announced today that South Lake resident and Lean In partner Rayona Sharpnack will be the keynote speaker at its inaugural “Women as Change Makers: Leading and Thriving in the 21st Century,” conference, to be held October 3rd at the North Tahoe Event Center. Sharpnack, the CEO of the Institute for Women’s Leadership, has facilitated women’s leadership trainings for such Fortune 500 companies as Microsoft, Charles Schwab, and Hewlett Packard.

Location

Registration for kindergarten at South Lake Tahoe schools will be held on August 4th. South Tahoe Middle School registration for new students will be held on August 12 and for new students at South Tahoe High August 11-14.

The first day of school is August 25th.

A candidates forum for the El Dorado County District 5 Supervisor race will be held on July 29th at 6:30 p.m. at the California Conservation Corps (CCC) Tahoe Center building in Meyers.

The forum was rescheduled from it's original date of July 22.

TahoeChamber, Tahoe Daily Tribune and Tahoe Regional Young Professionals will host the forum in anticipation of the November election in which two candidates, Kenny Curtzwiler and Sue Novasel, will campaign for the position to be vacated by current Supervisor Norma Santiago.

Throughout June and July, adults and children with Medi-Cal will be able to see a dentist locally in South Lake Tahoe. Tooth Travelers, a Mobile Dental Clinic, is available by appointment Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. behind the Barton Community Health Center at 2201 South Avenue, South Lake Tahoe. Credit card and cash payments are welcomed for families without insurance.

It may be a couple of weeks until all of the votes are counted for the June 3rd primary, and by the end of it all we may see a different outcome from the one seen Tuesday.

Sue Novasel and Kevin Brown were in the lead after Tuesday's election for the District 5 seat on the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors. Novasel came out on top with Brown coming in second and with the top two vote getters proceeding to the November runoff most assumed it would be those two names they'd see on the ballot.

For every day a student misses school it costs the Lake Tahoe Unified School District about $60 in lost revenue. With a budget centered around an average attendance of 95%, every time the figures dip below the average, it is a concern not only for the student's learning experience, but also for an already tight budget.

Walking down the aisle on the South Tahoe High School football field is a long standing tradition for graduating seniors.

While that tradition is in tact, the way caps and gowns are handled are changing.

Changes in the California Education Code - EC 49010(a) - now classify the graduation ceremonies as a educational activity which mandates students can no longer be charged a fee for the required cap and gown purchase.

South Tahoe Now sent a questionnaire out to all of the candidates for El Dorado County Supervisor. We will be posting them in the order received.

1)What do you see as the Number 1 issue facing residents of District 5?

Ivonne Larson, the Principal of South Tahoe High, was named Assistant Superintendent by the Lake Tahoe Unified School District Board on Tuesday, April 22. She will be in charge of Secondary Education, Career Technical Education and AVID for the district starting July 1, 2014.

This is the first time LTUSD has had an Assistant Superintendent since Barbara Davis resigned in August of 2005. The new position for Assistant Superintendent is part time.

The District will post a job opening for STHS Principal this week to replace Larson.

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