November 19, 2004

ESD NEWS BRIEFS

Measure N ballot looks like a loss

Although Santa Clara County is still tallying ballots, Evergreen School District’s Superintendent Tom Andrade said it looks like Measure N is still trailing less than one percentage point behind the 66.7 percent of yes votes required to win.

Measure N would have brought about $1.9 million per year to the district for four years, at a cost of just $94 per parcel of land each year.

“We are disappointed that we didn’t make the 66.7 percent that we needed to win, but we probably had the largest amount of voters ever supporting us,” said Andrade. “We are thankful and appreciative that so many people would speak so positively of our district.”

Andrade speculated that with so many new voters, as well as voters who don’t regularly vote but voted this time, it was tough to adequately inform the 28,000 or so voters who showed up at the polls. The campaign focused on regular voters, and volunteers made 12,000 phone calls to those voters.

As of Tuesday, Nov. 16, Measure N had garnered 18,938 yes votes (66.08 percent), and 9,720 no votes (33.92 percent).

“Special thanks to all the parents, teachers, administrators and classified staff who worked so hard for this campaign,” he added. “They all did an awesome job.”

What’s the next step? Andrade said once the final votes are counted, the district will analyze voting data, and based on need, will determine where to go from there.

Dec. 9, 14 & 15

Enjoy winter band concerts at ESD middle schools

The Evergreen School District’s band programs will be holding their annual winter concerts in their respective gymnasiums in December, beginning with Quimby Oak Middle School on Dec. 9, from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. The band will play holiday selections as well as a medley of Beach Boy tunes, a Beatles song and a few of Elvis Presley’s famous songs.

The LeyVa Middle School winter concert will be Tuesday, Dec. 14 from 7 – 8 p.m. and Chaboya Middle School’s winter concert will be on Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 7 – 8 p.m.

Rosemary Fernandez, who runs Quimby Oak’s band program, urges parents to support any fundraisers at their schools that benefit the music program, which has already been eliminated from the elementary schools.

The Quimby Oak band, for example, is collecting old cell phones and used ink cartridges. Last year alone, more than 300 million cartridges were thrown away, while 30,000,000 cell phones were tossed or replaced. “We’re alleviating the volume of waste that goes into landfills, while collecting cash that we need to keep our music playing,” said Fernandez. Cell phones and ink cartridges can be dropped off at the Quimby Oak office.

“We will continue this fundraiser for the next two years while we have a band program,” she added. “It’s so sad that next year’s eighth graders will be the last band class in the Evergreen School District, unless we raise the necessary money to fund the program.”

If you have any fundraising ideas, contact Fernandez at Quimby Oak at 270-6735 or Karen Kolber at Chaboya (270-6900) or LeyVa (270-4992).

Saturday, Nov. 20 craft faire

First annual Millbrook holiday shopping extravaganza

Don’t miss Millbrook Elementary School PTA’s first annual holiday shopping extravaganza and holiday faire from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20. All proceeds directly benefit Millbrook Elementary School.

The faire will feature more than 30 booths selling specialty items such as jewelry, cosmetics, baskets, scrap book supplies, housewares, candles, handmade crafts, quilts, health and fitness items and more. There will also be children’s arts and crafts, a Scholastic Book Faire, food, raffles and prizes.
 
Millbrook Elementary School is located at 3200 Millbrook Dr.(between White and Ruby and Aborn and Quimby, near Boginni Park). For more information, contact Millbrook PTA president Laura Quisenberry at (408) 238-1142.

Cadwallader’s Carnival, Harvest Festival builds community,
keeps math standards alive

The goal is to plan a family-oriented, community-building event near the beginning of the year that brings together the school community, using an informal structure. Throw in an opportunity to raise a little money for the school and strengthen students’ math skills and you have Cadwallader’s Carnival and Harvest Festival, which was held Oct. 22.

Cadwallader Elementary kindergarten students Santino Cruz and Mariela Mestaz enjoy the spin art.

“Watching literally hundreds of families enjoy themselves for the entire evening was so heartwarming,” said Cadwallader Principal Denise Williams, noting that this was the greatest amount of family participation and event attendance of the year.

By 4 p.m., the yummy fragrances of popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, hot pretzels and Chinese cuisine filled the air. Participants chose from more than 12 carnival games and interactive activities that kept them excited and amused until 8 p.m.

As one parent stated, “This is such a wonderful event, it could go on until 9 p.m.” Some of the other highlights were face painting, root beer floats and an activity that enabled students to take home miniature gold fish. Red, the mascot of the Red Robin Restaurant, stopped by to greet the students and pose in pictures as an added attraction.

Even in the midst of overwhelming amusements, the standards prevailed. The math standards were addressed in the standards-based token redemption center that was filled with prizes. Students could trade in from 1 to 200 tokens for prizes.

They came into the prize room and were encouraged to use place-value strategies to separate and tally their total amounts into groups so that they could use their math skills to determine their prize category. Paper and the white board were available for students if needed. Students and parents were diligently manipulating tokens into groups to calculate efficiently.

“This was a collaborative effort of the teachers, parents, PTA and administrative staff,” said Williams. “Teachers utilize all of the funds generated from this event for instructional materials or any other resources that will enhance learning for their students.”

Each grade level generated funds from $75 to $400. The games generated close to $2000, and after some expenses, will be used to help buy a new copier for the school. Next year, more of the activities will focus on interactive standards-based activities, providing a time for students to play and continually learn.

“We are extremely proud of our school in its efforts to continue to build a strong, supportive community,” said Williams. “We believe that the comfort of a child’s environment is critical in further developing self esteem and reaching the highest goals. The Cadwallader families are working together to make this happen.”

Low-cost health care available for kids

By Diana Messamer
Special to the Times

Teachers work with your children 180 days per year, and we are concerned about the “whole child.” A healthy child is better able to learn.

Currently, one million children in California are eligible for, but not enrolled in, low-cost health insurance programs. Therefore, I want to let our community know there are health benefit programs available that provide comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage for children up to 19 years.

Santa Clara County is the first county in the nation to commit to providing health coverage for uninsured children, under a program called Children’s Health Initiative. There are three programs under which low-income families may qualify for coverage.

Medi-Cal for children
Medi-Cal is a state program free for children and pregnant women who qualify. A family of four earning $47,136 a year may be eligible. Other programs are available for those who don’t qualify.

Children may qualify for Medi-Cal if they are U.S. citizens or eligible immigrants who live in California and their family income is within Medi-Cal guidelines. For children, the guidelines differ by age.

Healthy Families
Healthy Families is a program funded by state and federal government. Five different health plans in Santa Clara county accept patients with Healthy Families insurance: Santa Clara Family Health, Kaiser, Health Net, Blue Shield and Blue Cross.

The cost is $4 - $9 per child.* A family of four earning $47,136 a year may be eligible with a maximum of $27 a month per family. Children may be eligible if they:
• Do not qualify for no-cost MediCal,
• Are not currently covered by health insurance,
• Are U.S. citizens, or legal immigrants,
• Live in California,
• Earn household income within

Healthy Families guidelines.

*Parents may call (888) 244-5222 for toll free information and enrollment assistance.

Healthy Kids
Healthy Kids is funded locally by FIRST 5 of Santa Clara County, the Tobacco Settlement Fund, and additional organizations (i.e. the Packard Foundation, Santa Clara Family Health Foundation).

Eligible children, from birth to 18 years old, regardless of immigration status, will be provided low cost health care at $4 - $6 per month, $18 per family per month maximum.

Children may be eligible if they:
• Live in Santa Clara County,
• Do not qualify for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families,
• Are not currently covered by health insurance,
• Earn household income within Healthy Kids guidelines

For more information, visit the Web site: www.healthykidsfund.org.

Diana Messamer is the new president of the Evergreen Teachers Association.