Monthly Archives: February 2008

A few notes on the Esther Fong Magnet Program

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 29, 2008 | Comments closed
    Stockton Unified School District dedicated the Esther Lee Fong International Education Magnet Program at Hamilton Elementary School this afternoon. According to Dan Wright, the director of Stockton Unified’s magnet programs, the plan for the first-year K-8 program is for it to be a feeder into Franklin High School’s International Baccalaureate program. It will take [...]
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More from marathon meeting

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 27, 2008 | Comments closed
    Tuesday night’s Stockton Unified School District board meeting didn’t end until around 10 p.m. It makes it kind of tough to provide a complete report in the next day’s paper, considering the deadline for me to have a story in was 9:45. So here are a few odds and ends that didn’t get in [...]
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One afternoon, two interesting meetings

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 22, 2008 | Comments closed
    I was out of the office much of Wednesday, attending two very different discussions about the same topic — the future of education.     At the library at West High in Tracy, I sat in on a meeting held by 11th district Rep. Jerry McNerney, the Democrat who ousted incumbent Richard Pombo in 2006. McNerney [...]
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Stagg, speakers series, bullying, drugs, special needs

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 19, 2008 | Comments closed
    Stagg High English teacher Toina Vickers said the fundraising dinner for a student trip to Europe in June attracted about 200 people to the Boys & Girls Club on Saturday. That’s money raised — $3,000 based on the price of $15 a ticket — will help with incidental expenses such as buses to the [...]
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Jamal A. Brice Jr.

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 13, 2008 | Comments closed
    The Aaron Kelly tragedy has rightfully received tons of attention this week.     The passing of 8-year-old Jamal A. Brice Jr. has received considerably less notice.     Like Aaron, Jamal was a student at Hoover Elementary School. According to Hoover Principal Janna Schumacher, he suffered severe burns in a fire a couple of years [...]
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A brief history of SUSD superintendents

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 13, 2008 | Comments closed
    For a followup on SUSD Superintendent Jack McLaughlin’s decision to retire later this year, I was asked today to find out the recent chronology of superintendent changes in the district. With the help of the district’s community relations office, I found out a whole lot more.     A city ordinance established the district on Oct. [...]
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Vision of a new Walton Special Center

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 7, 2008 | Comments closed
    Tom Whitesides has been principal at Walton Special Center for a decade. The staff there does all it can for the school’s severely disabled population. But it’s no secret that the place needs a facelift, which it is scheduled to receive now that Measure Q has passed. Walton is slated to receive more than [...]
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California: Bonds R Us

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 6, 2008 | Comments closed
    According to the California Department of Education, Measure Q was one of 30 local school bond measures approved in the state on Tuesday. Thirty of the 39 bonds requiring 55-percent approval, such as Stockton Unified’s $464.5-million bond, were successful. Those measures will provide about $3.9 billion in local school construction funds.     State Superintendent of [...]
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Measure Q landslide

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 6, 2008 | Comments closed
    We will never know whether Stockton Unified School District officials made the right decision back in November when they lowered the amount of their bond proposal from $673 million to $464.5 million. In so doing, the officials lowered the threshold needed for passage from two-thirds to 55 percent. The decision was made at a [...]
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Now about that other election

By Roger Phillips | Published: February 1, 2008 | Comments closed
We realize everyone reading this is utterly riveted by Measure Q. I hate to bore you with less momentous matters, but there is something else going on Tuesday. Make that “Super Tuesday.” Since I now write about education, I figured this would be as good a place as any to make it easy for readers [...]
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