News and Events

Local schools make the grade in fitness, more

Modesto Bee

http://www.modbee.com/editorials/story/858877.html

Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

There's notable news from and about local schools this week:

• Stanislaus County's "Fit for the Future" campaign, launched a year ago by the County Office of Education, has produced rewarding results — and we're not even counting the health benefits.

As we reported on Thursday's front page, Tuolumne School in Modesto will be getting a state-of-the-art fitness center thanks to the generosity of the Livermore School that actually won the statewide prize in the Governor's Challenge, but opted to give it to a school with greater needs. Hickman Elementary School won a $6,000 prize as the regional award winner, and Stanislaus was named county of the year in the statewide competition. We're delighted that the fitness campaign will continue this school year.

The prizes and titles are nice, but the best reward comes in better health through staying active, which is a critical lesson for all of us. We congratulate all who organized and supported the Fit for the Future campaign and all those students and adults who participated.

• A number of area schools celebrated significant improvement in the state test scores that were released this week based on exams taken last year. Although our county numbers still lag behind the state average, we applaud the effort that is going into bringing the test scores up.

As Turlock Unified School District Superintendent Sonny Da Marto noted, the improvements came in spite of reduced resources, which makes them all the more significant.

• In response to the budget cuts in its district, the Sylvan Educational Foundation has launched a campaign to collect money to keep music, art, sports and other extracurricular activities going in the K-8 district serving north Modesto and parts of Riverbank.

Individual school districts have few ways to raise revenue on their own, which is why having an educational foundation can be so helpful. Sylvan is one of about eight districts in Stanislaus County with a functioning foundation.

Sylvan's "Stops for Change" campaign started this week and runs through Oct. 9. Containers have been placed in various businesses for people to donate spare change. Donations also can be made by going to the district Web site, www.sylvan.k12.ca.us, and clicking on the foundation link.

• Finally, as a reminder, on Saturday, teams of volunteers will go into several neighborhoods as part of the "Reach Out to Students and Families Walk," a joint effort of the Modesto City Schools and the city of Modesto. The goal is to encourage students to stay in school and graduate and to point families to the various programs to help.