Welcome to Tahoe Truckee Unified School District ::

Tahoe Truckee region named All-America City: I was thrilled to be in Denver earlier this month as a member of the community coalition accepting the honor of being named one of 14 All America Cities for 2012 by the National Civic League. The only other California city to win the recognition this year was San Francisco. The award recognizes our ambitious plan, already in practice as Tahoe Truckee Reads, to dramatically increase the number of students reading at grade level by the end of third grade. This effort represents an unprecedented amount of community collaboration, led by the Excellence in Education Foundation, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Community Collaborative of Tahoe Truckee, Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, Placer and Nevada County Health and Human Services and First 5 Nevada County, to help students succeed. Beyond the award contest, our region is now a charter member in the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Communities Network, a national movement of local and state leaders, nonprofits, and foundations putting a stake in the ground on third-grade reading. That milestone marks the point when children shift from learning to read and begin reading to learn. Students who haven't mastered reading by then are more likely to get stuck in a cycle of academic failure, drop out of school, and struggle throughout their lives. I don’t think that any of us slept much during the whole conference; the ideas would just keep flowing after the scheduled meetings. We kept running on the energy generated from 124 communities and 350 school districts all working on the same goal—it was exciting to be part of such a collaborative and impassioned group of people.

It is gratifying to see that the Tahoe Truckee community has been working together to ensure that Tahoe Truckee Reads is a success. To help keep students reading to limit the “summer slide” in achievement, every school in the district participated in a book drive, which resulted in students receiving a bag of books to read over the summer. The Tahoe City, Truckee, and Kings Beach public libraries are offering summer reading programs with prizes for reading. Glenshire Elementary and Tahoe Lake Elementary School are offering open library times each Thursday morning. And Truckee Elementary, Glenshire Elementary, and Sierra Expeditionary Learning School are offering reading time, lessons, and books for children in specific neighborhoods. Remember to take time to read this summer!

New high school courses for 2012-2013: Students at Tahoe Truckee High School and North Tahoe High School will have more varied course options starting this fall. These new class offerings are the result of a major collaborative effort between students, teachers, counselors, and district leadership to adapt to the needs of students. New classes at North Tahoe High School include Drama, Engineering Technology (three levels), Independent Study-PE, Independent Study-Health, Physical Science, and ASB Leadership. New courses offered at Tahoe Truckee High School include AP Studio Art, Drawing, Short Stories, Digital Journalism, All Things Google, Psychology, Philosophy, Physical Science, and Marine and River Technology, as well as several AP classes that are coming back this year. I salute everyone for their efforts to make this possible, particularly the teachers, who will have the added workload of preparing syllabi and lesson plans for more courses each semester.

T.E.A.M—new high school program option for 9th graders: TTUSD and Cold Stream Alternative are launching a new high school program offered to the 2012 incoming 9th graders. Offering a rigorous yet flexible schedule, the goal of the T.E.A.M. program is to provide small, personalized class instruction, blended with an independent study piece utilizing technology for off-site studies. The intention behind this program is to offer classes and curriculum driven by project-based and “hands on” learning activities to support the learning of core standards; to integrate themes between the core subjects which draw from the philosophy of expeditionary and environment centered learning; and to utilize technology to allow for students to work from home or while traveling. The T.E.A.M. program has been a process of design over the last two years headed by Jane Loomis, principal of Sierra High Continuation and Coldstream Alternative School and is based on feedback from public meetings. The school will have two on-site campuses: one in Truckee and one on the West shore at Rideout School, with a maximum class size of 20 at each site. The schedule will follow a 4-day week, with students attending classes from 8:30-12:30, Monday through Thursday. This schedule will allow students to have multiple options: either the time to take supplementary classes at Sierra College or at the traditional high schools, or participate in sports or extra-curricular activities. Enrollment is now open.

Steve Dickinson leaving TTUSD: As many of you have heard, Steve Dickinson, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services and Chief Business Officer, has announced that he has taken a new position at Oxnard Union High School District. This is a real loss for our district, but I know this is part of Steve’s long-term plans. Many join me in thanking Steve for his fiscal guidance and the integrity and compassion he has shown during the past four difficult economic years, particularly in aiding us to balance budgets while keeping in mind the best outcomes for students.

New Executive Director positions approved for TTUSD: As part of our centralized services reorganization, the board of education voted on July 11 to approve new job contracts for some of the executive director positions within TTUSD. With Steve Dickinson’s departure, the position of Assistant Superintendent of Business Services will be combined with Human Resources into an Executive Director of Administrative Services, headed by Tom Gemma. In a team approach to business services, there will be a new Manager of Budget and Payroll, Todd Riviera, as well as two supporting positions. This configuration will be in place for the 2012-13 school year and be evaluated to determine long-term leadership for the two areas. The other two positions approved were Dave Curry as Executive Director of Educational Services and Corine Harvey, Executive Director of Student Service. Corine’s position will now encompass not only special education, but will include counseling and support of the social and emotional well-being of students in our district.

G.A.T.E. funding increased: Another action taken by the board on July 11 was approval of additional funds for the district’s Gifted and Talented Education (G.A.T.E.) program, specifically for district middle schools.

Tahoe Truckee community scholarships: Despite tough economic times, our community showed a tremendous outpouring of support in scholarships for our high school graduates to support their continuing education. Graduates from TTUSD high schools received more than $225,000 in scholarships from local organizations and individuals (plus more than $47,000 from out-of-district donors). A complete listing of the benefactors can be found on the TTUSD website: http://www.ttusd.org/scholarshipslist. I offer my heartfelt thanks for your support.

Aim High middle school program launches: I am happy to announce that the first Tahoe Truckee Aim High program launched July 2 at Kings Beach Elementary School with more than 60 sixth and seventh graders participating in the 5-week summer enrichment program. Aim High is the largest academic summer program provider in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program combines intensive, engaging and challenging academic classes with activities and events that create opportunities for leadership development and community exploration. Aim High targets mostly low-income youth during the critical transition from youth to adulthood--students join after 5th or 6th grade, and participate for three or four consecutive summers--at no cost to them or their families. Aim High instills a deep love of learning through an engaging, supportive, and personalized summer program. Thanks to the local individuals and organizations, second homeowners, foundations and the faculty for supporting this great program.

Bus passes now available: Bus passes for the 2012-2013 school year are now available through the TTUSD website. Families are encouraged to plan ahead and buy their passes early in order to take advantage of the early bird discount. Individual student unlimited passes start at $145 (early bird rate—it will go up to $160 after August 31st). There are reduced rates available for those who qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. Passes will also be sold at August Back to School Days and at selected school sites. Please check the TTUSD transportation site for more information: http://www.ttusd.org/?DivisionID=2456&ToggleSideNav.

Thanks for your support. If you’d like to email me with any comments or suggestions, my email address is rleri@ttusd.org..

Rob Leri
TTUSD Superintendent and Chief Learning Officer