May 14th - 9:30am
Galen Clark Preschool - 211 E 11th Street in Merced

New Findings show Obese Children can still be Malnourished

The Merced County Office of Education’s Network for a Healthy California will host a briefing to introduce “Malnutrition in the 21st Century,” an education brief featuring new, shocking evidence that Central Valley children may be suffering from malnutrition.
A collaborative of health and nutrition experts from the Central Valley Health & Nutrition Collaborative have found that Central Valley ooverweight and obese children may be nutrient deficient despite an excess of calories. Malnutrition, a lack of nutrients despite an abundance of calories, is jeopardizing the future of our children and the welfare of our communities because they lack the nutrients needed for healthy development.
An excerpt from the brief reads: “For most Americans, the concept of malnutrition evokes heartbreaking images of starving, emaciated children. In the Central Valley, however, malnutrition has taken a new form in the 21st century. Many of the Valley’s overweight children may actually be malnourished – nutrient deprived but calorically oversatisfied – according to information collected by the Central Valley Health & Nutrition Collaborative.”
The briefing will be held at Galen Clark Preschool, 211 E 11th St. in Merced, on Wednesday, May 14 from 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Dr. Connie Schneider, Nutrition & Family Consumer Science Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension, and Jaci Westbrook, Nutrition Project Manager for the Merced County Office of Education will both speak at the event about best practices in school food service and nutrition education.
At 10 p.m., a local berry farmer will give a presentation about farming, and students will get to taste a variety of local berries.
For more information on the Network for a Healthy California, call Jaci Westbrook at 385-5394.

May 9, 2008

UC Merced’s Get S.E.T. Team to Show Burbank Students Practical Science

UC Merced engineering and science students demonstrated their science skills to elementary school students at Burbank Elementary School on Friday, May 9.
Members of UC Merced’s service learning project called Get S.E.T., which stands for science, engineering and technology, provide elementary school students and their educators in Merced County school districts with hands-on science demonstrations.
The program is a collaboration between UC Merced and the Merced County Office of Education along with other local school districts.

For more information on the program, visit getset.sl.ucmerced.edu. .

Atwater High School
dedicates its music building in honor of former Band Director

Atwater High School held a Dedication Ceremony and Open House for the naming of the Atwater High School Music Building. The original Band Director, William H. Schnider was a wonderful and the building is being names the "William H. Schnider Music Hall".

Widow of William H. Schnider cuts ribbon to the
"William H. Schnider Music Building"

Danielle and Jacqueline is pictured with Atwater Chamber of Commerce President, Connie Hunter

Miss Atwater, Danielle Battisti, was on hand for the dedication of the Music Building. She is also the Drum Major of the 140 member Falcon Band of Atwater High School. Also in attendance was Wee Miss Atwater, Jacqueline Serrano.

The Merced County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is accepting applications for individuals interested in becoming a Certified Volunteer Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Applicants must complete 36 hours of classroom training and no less than 10 hours of field training. A minimum of five individuals is required for the free training class. To receive an application or for further information, please call #385-7402.

May 5, 2008

Comcast Cares for MCOE Head Start

On Saturday, May 3, more than 4,000 Comcast employees and their families and friends will volunteer to improve 28 schools throughout California as part of Comcast’s seventh annual “Comcast Cares Day.”
And the Merced County Office of Education’s Atwater Castle Head Start Preschool will be one of those schools.
The event will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and at 11 a.m., elected officials will speak and make a presentation.
Comcast employees and their families will join with students, parents, Head Start employees and other volunteers to spend the day repainting walls, cleaning up the grounds and planting at the preschool.
In total, more than 50,000 Comcast volunteers nation-wide will participate in this year’s company-wide day of community service, making it one of the nation’s largest single-day corporate volunteer efforts.

Attending the event:
• Children from Atwater Castle Head Start Preschool and their families
• California State Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced)
• Lee Andersen, Merced County Superintendent of Schools
• Gaye Riggs, Assistant Superintendent of Early Care and Education
• Linda Kaercher, Director, Merced County Head Start
• Debbie Santistevan, Site Supervisor, Castle Head Start Preschool
• Jill Schwinn, Director of Government Affairs, Comcast – South Valley

May 5, 2008

MCOE Hosts First-Ever Autism Forum

The Merced County Office of Education, along with the Challenged Family Resource Council and the Special Education Advisory Committee, will showcase present and future plans for educational services for infants, toddlers, children, and young adults at an Autism Forum on Thursday, May 15.
The forum will be held at MCOE’s Clark/Newbold conference rooms, 632 W. 13th St. in Merced, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Parents will be asked to give input on present and future programs for autistic children through small breakout sessions.
A light dinner, child care and translation services will be provided at the forum.
For more information and to RSVP for the event, call the CFRC at 385-5314.

April 24, 2008

Migrant Education Parents, Students, Alum Make Trek to Annual Conference

Parents, students, and administrators — even the Merced County superintendent of schools — attended the 29th Annual State Migrant Parent Conference in April.
Migrant Education coordinators from Region 3, which consists of Merced, Madera and Stanislaus counties, loaded up a VIA bus of 45 parents to attend the 3-day conference in Anaheim.
Honored from Region 3 at the conference, were student Luis Ojeda; parent Alejandra Hernandez; and alumnus Martin Macias.
Ojeda will graduate this year from Chowchilla high school with a GPA higher than 4.0 and aspires to become an attorney or politician.
Hernandez is the Migrant PAC President in Alview-Dairyland Elementary School in Chowchilla. She encourages other migrant parents to get involved in school-related activities and is seen as a role model to other parents.
Macias, who now works as an English Learner program specialist for the Merced County Office of Education, started his scholastic career much differently. He grew up working in the fields alongside his parents, and continued until his second year in college.
“Field work provided a positive foundation to build from to focus on a college education,” said Macias.
After earning his bachelor’s degree, Macias worked as a middle and high school teacher, and vice-principal and principal.
In addition to teaching during the traditional school year, he spent eight summers working with high school students at CVOC Migrant summer school. “In this country, we limit ourselves to what we want to achieve. There are opportunities everywhere you look,” said Macias, who eventually went on to earn his Masters in Education.

Alejandra Hernandez

Luis Ojeda

Martin Macias

In addition, due to the Merced County Coordinator for the Migrant Program friendship to Dr. Gerald Newmark, author of the book, “How To Raise Emotionally Healthy Children,” Newmark participated as a guest speaker in the conference.
Newmark’s message was on the five critical emotional needs all children must satisfy in order to be an emotionally healthy person. Those needs are: to feel respected, important, included, accepted, and secure.
For more information on Migrant Education in Merced County, call Rosa Alejandre at 381-6654.

April 18, 2008

Thanks to grant from Target, Atwater VCS Students Embark on Trip to San Francisco

On April 4, students Tamika Evans, Justin Barraza, Luis Rojas, Robert Rivas, Jesus Herrera and teacher Dave Mosher departed Atwater on a journey to San Francisco.
The purpose of our mission was two-fold: Our first destination was the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where the students were exposed to cultures, art and artifacts of various civilization and time periods.
Of particular interest was the collection from numerous Pacific Islands and the Americas, including a Jade mask from the Mayan Preclassic period (600BC.)
Upon leaving The de Young, we made a brief stop at the Japanese Tea Garden for photographs. The students were interested to know that the ending of “Memoirs of a Geisha” was filmed there.
A 10-minute drive west brought us to the vast Pacific Ocean at Ocean Beach. It was low tide so the students enjoyed walking barefoot in the cool moist sand. Much to Tamika’s delight, she found a sand dollar to take home.
From Ocean Beach we wound our way along the coast and side streets past the Legion of Honor Museum and Baker Beach toward the Presidio and Fort Point, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. We enjoyed the view of San Francisco Bay and snapped more pictures before moving on.
No trip to San Francisco would be complete with out enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Fisherman’s Wharf. And we did.
A short drive around the Embarcadero and across the Bay Bridge brought our troop to its final destination and dinner at Quinn’s lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1903 and guided ships into the Oakland Estuary.
The lighthouse was moved and converted into a restaurant in the mid 1960’s and has served the public since that time. One of the features that caught the students by surprise was the need to shuffle through discarded peanut shells on the second floor of the lighthouse restaurant. Once our scholars were used to the idea of eating free peanuts, they had a great time adding to the peanut strewn floor while waiting for our dinners.
Alas, all good things must come to an end so, we merged with the rush hour traffic and drove back towards Atwater, where the last student was safely delivered home at 9:00 p.m.

From left, Atwater Valley Community School students Jesus Herrera, Robert Rivas, Justin Barraza, Tamika Evans and Luis Rojas spent the day in San Francisco, thanks to a grant from Target.

We had embarked on this journey of discovery with two goals in mind, one to get a better understanding of the de Young Museum and all of the treasures of civilization it contained. Second, we wanted to experience, and appreciate, in even some small way, the culture that is inherent and embedded in the city of San Francisco.
Listening to the students recount their adventures to one another on the journey home convinced me that this trip has been a success.
With that in mind I would like to thank the Target Stores for their generous grant which made this and other cultural field trips possible.

By Dave Mosher
Teacher - Valley Community School, Atwater

Have You Ever Thought About Homeschooling?

A workshop for parents who would like to know more about homeschooling

Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 6:30pm

Merced County Library, 2100 ‘O’ Street, Gracey Room

Cost: Free

Presenters: Wendy & Stuart Spencer, local homeschool parents

Have you ever thought about homeschooling, but just don’t know enough about
how to do it? Well, come join us for an evening of questions and answers.
Here are some that will be addressed:

* Why do people homeschool their children?
* I heard that homeschooling is now illegal in California? Is that
true? What are the legal options for homeschooling?
* What if I don’t feel qualified to teach my own children at home?
* What about socialization?
* How do I choose a curriculum?
* Do homeschoolers follow the California State Standards?
* What does a typical homeschool day look like?
* Do homeschoolers really stay at home all the time?
* Can homeschoolers get into colleges and universities?

MERCED COLLEGE CUSTOMER SERVICE ACADEMY

GREATER MERCED CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 2008 SCHEDULE
All Classes are held at the Merced College Tri-College Board Room (TC-1)

Participants can choose a morning session from 8:30am to 12:30pm or
an afternoon session from 1:00pm to 5:00pm   Schedule

ATWATER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 2008 SCHEDULE
Schedule

Kings Christian Academy

Merced Christian School

St. Anthony's
Pre-School & Elementary School

St. Luke's Episcopal School

St. Paul Lutheran School