As this school year comes to a close, the Sonoma Valley Unified School District has a great deal to celebrate, on so many levels. We first celebrate our retirees and thank them for their dedicated service to our School District and community: Betsy Adams (SVHS), Pam Adams (SVHS), Kevin Coates (El Verano), Marcia Ford (SVHS), Melissa Gossett (Dunbar), Patty Griffith (El Verano), Lora Grimes (Adele), Sandy Lane (Dunbar), Sivani Lloyd (El Verano), Diane Lopez (Flowery), Shawn Martin (SVHS), Glenn Moll (Altimira and Adele), Barbara Naslund (Altimira), Gary Neville (SVHS), Maurine Solomonson (Prestwood), Linda Steinberg (Dunbar), Kathy Summers (SVHS), and Mary Taylor (Altimira); Classified Staff: Rita Andrieux (SVHS), Maggie Cunningham (SVHS), Rita Hensic (Transportation), Chris Hunt (El Verano) and Chris Stovall (Prestwood).  We say “so-long” and wish them well in their retirement.  We also take a moment to remember our dear friends who we lost this year: Peggy Feuer and Kathy Krempely.

 Throughout the school year, as a district, we celebrated a number of successes and the list below will remind all stakeholders of the incredible work which has been accomplished.  We celebrate these accomplishments as a team – students, educators, families, trustees, and community members – each and every one of us contributes. The events and activities are roughly in chronological order and certainly not exhaustive!

Summer and Fall 2011:

• SVUSD receives a $150,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation and $150,000 from the Vadasz Family Foundation for work on College and Career Pathways at SVHS
• Over forty elementary teachers, from all five sites, participate as the first cohort of the Federal Investing in Innovations Exploratorium grant
• Altimira successfully transitions to a Block Schedule
• SVUSD Music Teachers offer a wildly successful Summer Music Camp and host a live music performance in the Plaza
• Creekside High School successfully pilots an on-line credit recovery program
• The District English Learner Advisory Committee hosts forums on Budget Information, Special Education, English Language Development and Drug & Alcohol prevention with great support from parents and educators
• Altimira eight grade students enter the Sonoma County Science Fair for the first time and each entry places at least 3^rd or better
• More than 50 Teacher Support Network (TSN) volunteers head back to high school to work alongside students and teachers (Thank you Sonoma Valley Education Foundation!)
• Our faithful Sonoma Kiwanis Organization delivers dictionaries to ALL third grade students in the district
• The Sonoma Valley Education Foundation (SVEF) hosts the Red & White Ball. More than 600 people gathered in the plaza in support of our schools. Proceeds from the event were shared with PTO's and also went to support innovative programs funded by SVEF
• Flowery receives a $2,000 Cooking in the Garden Grant from the School Garden Network
• Over 20 SVHS teachers, along with district and site administration and community members, visit school sites throughout the State of California focused on College and Career Readiness for ALL students
• Plein Air generously donates over $66,500 to school sites focused on ART programs
• The El Verano Preschool expands to add an afternoon session thanks to funding from the Ernest Bates Foundation and Vadasz Family Foundation working in collaboration with the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation.
• The Sonoma Valley Chapter of Realtors kindly donates $10,000 to every school site
• Transportation successfully implements our student tracking and GPS system 
• Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley donates over $6,000 to SVUSD programs throughout the District
• Dunbar third through fifth grade teachers attend an English Learner Professional Development (ELPD) at the County Office
• SVHS successfully implements the Freshman Teams model serving 360 freshmen including innovations such as the Freshmen Seminar that allows for rapid resorting of students for ‘just in time’ interventions
• Districtwide Garden Programs are flourishing at every school site
• Prestwood receives a Safe Routes to Schools Grant which allows students in grades 2, 4, and 5 to participate in bicycle safety classes and the fourth grade to participate in a bike rodeo
• The Information Technology Department installs new, more robust, wireless points throughout the District for more efficient staff and student access to the Internet
• Adele Harrison and SVHS teachers (18 total) participate in Explicit Direct Instruction Trainings with John Hollingsworth, Data Works
• Creekside High School students create a new school logo, paint a mural of the logo and have logo T-shirts and sweatshirts for the first time in the school’s history (Thank you Sonoma Plein Air!)
• A Districtwide Technology Committee is in place, designing a process and application for allocations of Measure H funds
• Sonoma Valley Soroptimist host successful “Moving On” events for eighth grade students and the “Road to Reality” for high school seniors

• Sassarini serves two classrooms of JumpStart Kindergarten focusing on our youngest learners with no prior formal schooling experience with 100% parent participation

Winter 2011/2012:

• The Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley celebrates its 50^th year of serving youth in the Valley!
• Barn Sales Grants, through the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, are awarded to nine SVUSD educators
• Food Service is using Alvarado Street Bakery breads at all sites and continues to provide fresh fruit and vegetable bars to our elementary sites, as well as salad bars to our secondary sites
• The Information Technology Department rolls out LCD Projector/Document Camera Carts to all interested teachers
• Purple Pinkies! Students raise over $1,800 district-wide to support our local Rotary in their work to address worldwide Polio eradication
• The Todd Trust donates $25,000 as a matching grant to community donations (also $25,000) towards our Summer School Programs
• Flowery receives a $5,000 grant from Walsh Vineyard Management to support garden instruction in Grades K-5
• District staff hosts over 20 meetings with staff, parents and community as part of the budget reduction process
• C&I creates a Community Planning Council (CPC) to advise the selection of the inaugural linked learning pathway at SVHS
• The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa donates $10,000 to our SVHS Ag Program
• Sonoma Charter School works with Josh Deis from SCOE, using the Common Core Standards in math, and incorporating MARS tasks (Silicon Valley Math Initiative)
• With support from the SVEF, SVUSD receives a First 5 Sonoma County $310,000 grant to open an AVANCE program that will serve 125 families over the next three years

• Sassarini School completes year one as partners in the Student Teacher Program with Sonoma State University
• Woodland Star receives a $15,000 gardening grant from Lowe's for their middle school garden program which is in full swing
• Classified Employees of the Year – Andrea Deely, Richard Piskulic, Jennifer Maldonado, JoAnn Merritt and Joyce Miller receive local and county-wide recognition
• Dunbar celebrates its third “Read Across America” year, inviting community into the school to stop, drop and read with the Cat in the Hat.  Students record more minutes read than ever before!
• Adele Harrison receives recognition from Jared Huffman and receives the honor from the California State Department of Education as a California School to Watch 2012
• Transportation receives a state-of-the-art new school bus via a California State Grant
• SVHS announces their Engineering, Design and Technology Pathway beginning with sophomore students in 2012-2013
• Creekside teachers attend a workshop at the Buck Institute and began implementation of Project Based Learning across the curriculum
• Elementary sites across the district host successful After School Intervention programs with fantastic results in student participation and achievement
• Altimira raises over $1,500 for Leukemia research during their Pennies for Patients Fundraiser
• SVUSD embarks on a Strategic Planning Process.  Over 960 surveys are completed by parents, staff and community as part of our work
• Prestwood receives a Bright Ideas Grant from PG&E for $2,500 (Thank you, Kristi Draluck!)

Spring 2012

• El Verano School receives a $15,000 grant from UC Davis to focus on professional development and teacher practice
• Sonoma Valley International Film Festival features films from Sonoma Valley High School students (Thank you, Peter Hansen!) with incredibly positive community response and the showing of a student film in the main festival
• Republic of Thrift opens shop in Boyes Springs and donates over $6,000 to district programs
• Facilities Master Plans are developed for 10 school sites
• Nineteen Focus Group Meetings have been held as part of our Strategic Planning Process including over 200 participants
• A Third Grade Reading Academy is starting this summer for all district third grade students who need additional learning time – completely funded by community donations
• Dunbar School hosts its first Annual Art Show at the ARTHouse Gallery in Glen Ellen and celebrates the 20^th year of its fifth grade Melodrama Production
• The annual Gym Jam successfully celebrates our K-12 districtwide Music Program
• SVHS staff administers 489 AP tests (WOW!!)
• The Sonoma Valley Education Foundations honors teacher leaders for their work on The Exploratorium Science Project, Visual Thinking Strategies, Teacher Support Network and The Garden Project
• Flowery hosts  the first annual Literacy Luau in conjunction with the Book Fair raising over $5,000 for the library
• Altimira discipline numbers drop by over 65% in almost all categories
• Creekside High School students create 4 large original art installations for the Sonoma Film Festival, including the famous SONOMAWOOD sign
• SVHS students and staff are wildly successful at the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce Education and Business Breakfast Event
• 10,000 Degrees accepts 15 new students into its program which supports students with preparing for and attending college with both time and financial support
• Adele Harrison and Altimira Middle Schools host successful after school programs (ASM and ASPIRES) over the course of the school year
• “Save our Sports” raises over $30,000 for Middle School Sports
• El Verano School increases the number of incoming kinder students with preschool experience. In 2007, 30% of students had preschool experience.  So far, for 2012, 82% have preschool experience
• All Prestwood second grade classes participate in the Sonoma County Agriculture Day art and writing contests.  Three classes and 15 students receive awards
• All Adele Harrison Faculty participate in at least one Instructional Round. Nearly all Faculty members participate in both Instructional Rounds sessions

• Maintenance and Operations finishes building sheds for the district garden program

• Adele Harrison hosts College Tour Days:  6^th grade to SRJC, 7^th and 8^th to SSU with 90% student participation
• The SVHS Booster’s Club hosts a new fundraising event at Hanna Boys Center with great success

• Over $400,000 in scholarships from our local community are awarded to graduating seniors
• M&O remodels and builds rockin’ new tables for the K-6 computer lab at SVHS
• SVHS publishes its second Career Technical Education (CTE) Newsletter highlighting the great successes of our CTE program (Thank you, Kathleen Hawing and volunteer Andy Gray!)
• Sassarini School is selected to participate in the competitive 21st Century Summer Leadership Institute at Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) this summer