Carson City School District trustee Joe Cacioppo hopes he and his fellow board members can put many minds at ease before bringing students back for the start of school officially on Aug. 24. They’ve been taking in a number of concerns in the past few months, and this month he hopes site administrators, staff members and parents will be especially careful as 2020-21 begins in the midst of a pandemic.
Approximately 25 percent of Carson City families prefer the 100 percent online option, according to responses received from the Carson City School District’s recent parent intent form seeking feedback on choice about enrolling children in method of learning for the 2020-21 school year, Superintendent Richard Stokes reported at the Carson City School Board meeting.
Eagle Scout John-Aaron Bozanic of Fountain Valley, Calif., is on a quest to pick up 1 million pieces of trash. He collected about 5,000 pieces of random items and shards of broken glass in Northern Nevada alone last week while stopping at Grimes Point and the Hidden Cave east of Fallon taking in the site’s historic petroglyphs at the same time.
The Carson City School District is seeking input from parents and families about whether they intend to participate in school through full-time online learning or a hybrid learning model in which students would attend class in-person twice a week and remotely three days a week.
The Carson City School Board on Tuesday approved a hybrid model for its school reopening plan in a 4-3 vote after a lengthy discussion covering special considerations such as sanitizing school campuses or how the district might support working parents.
Robots, sports complexes and water purification systems came to life in the hands of creative campers this week at Bethlehem Lutheran School’s Camp Invention, a nonprofit summer enrichment program for youth. The summer science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program conducted with the National Inventors Hall of Fame along with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Reno transportation planning firm Headway Transportation LLC presented its Safe Routes to School draft master plan to the Carson City School Board demonstrating areas to improve walking and biking safety measures around some of the district’s public schools.
The Carson City School Board of Trustees meets Tuesday to provide an update on the 31st special session of the Nevada Legislature, with district chief financial officer Andrew Feuling leading the discussion.
In Northern Nevada, local experts having been developing programs to combat social isolation and to continue meeting basic physical needs for seniors who are unable to easily leave their own homes. Lyon County’s Senior Services Division Manager Rebecca Williams looks forward to the possibilities some new grant funding will provide in helping its older population to socialize through the use of tablets.
Carson City resident Mary Liveratti’s father Edwin Burns lived to be 95. A Marine for 22 years and a teacher, he was a lifelong learner, grabbing an encyclopedia and always engaging in conversation with others at every chance, his daughter recalled.
Carson City School District Superintendent Richard Stokes presented a draft plan from his Reopening Instructional Committee during Tuesday’s school board meeting that includes a hybrid model combining on-campus and distance learning for all levels.
A new online petition is available for parents and community members asking the Carson City School District to open schools full-time in the fall for the 2020-21 school year. The petition is collecting signatures ahead of the school board’s meeting Tuesday during which trustees will hear the first draft of Superintendent Richard Stokes’ reopening instructional committee’s plan.
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees has approved a food service management contract with Chartwells for 2020-21 not to exceed a $50,000 administrative fee and a management fee not to surpass 8 cents per meal for 10 months with funding to be provided from the district’s nutrition fund. The contract also includes a guaranteed subsidy of $280,138 that Chartwells agrees to cover as the district typically runs a deficit in its nutrition services program on an annual basis. If the program generates a larger deficit at a cost of $300,000, hypothetically, Chartwells would cover the $20,000 balance, district chief financial officer AJ Feuling said.
Franceska Quintana of Carson City knows how challenging it is to keep kids on top of their homework. This past year, she would scan her first-grade daughter’s assignments every day from Bordewich Bray Elementary School with an app on her phone. When her seventh-grade daughter had to complete reading assignments or work packets for Carson Middle School or if her son or daughter attending Carson High School were submitting their own papers through Google Classroom or Docs, she would make sure they were checking in regularly through Zoom.
Six students from Carson High School took part in the Online National Speech and Debate Tournament between June 14 and 20 featuring more than 5,300 students across the nation and ranked among the highest in the school’s participation in the event in 20 years, according to speech and debate coach Patrick Mobley.
Carson City School District Superintendent Richard Stokes says its Instructional Reopening Committee, tasked with determining how school will operate in the fall, continues to meet, but all present indications with COVID-19 demonstrate the struggle to offer complete social distancing capabilities for a safe return to physical classrooms.
Local Girl Scout Emilee Elzy, 11, discovered a zeal for archery and was given a bow this past Christmas. Since then, she’s been eager to keep trying her hand at it whenever she gets the chance, and being part of the Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada helps her along with that, she says.
Reno resident and former teacher Robert Gardner says his personal views on the American economy have changed since his youth, and since his time in the classroom and even more recently since COVID-19 has come to light, he’s felt compelled to make an argument on why changing his mind has been for the better.
Anticipating growth and seeking to keep an easement for emergency vehicles near the complex, the Carson City school board on Tuesday decided against selling the property to the north of the Professional Development Center at 604 W. Musser St.
The potential sale of a portion of Carson City School District property north of the Professional Development Center and proposed changes to the district’s homework policy will be up for discussion among other items at Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Carson City School Board.
The members of Carson High School’s Class of 2020 completed their year in style Saturday, walking proudly to collect their diplomas after exiting their family cars, elbow bumping with administrators and taking their official photos before rejoining their families.
Four top students in Carson High School’s Class of 2020 all came from different paths and will head off on individual futures, but they all agree on at least one thing: The past semester was decidedly unconventional – and memorable. COVID-19 changed their final push to the finish line in a number of ways, but they remained successful.
Carson High School’s graduation on Saturday won’t be the typical ceremony for the Class of 2020. Graduates, students, families and friends preparing for the end of the school year and graduation itself planning to attend Saturday’s activities should plan in advance for new procedures due to social distancing guidelines, according to communications from high school Principal Gavin Ward.
The Carson City School District will be changing its nutrition services vendor come July 1 after the Board of Trustees approved a new contract with Chartwells as its food service management consultant, ending a decade-long relationship with Aramark.
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday passed a balanced budget that reflects significant reductions to prevent what would have been a $3.2 million shortfall for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
It was a challenge for Sierra Lutheran High School’s 28 graduates on Saturday to keep tassels, caps and cords on while they marched to get their diplomas or tossed their caps at the end. Their gowns and hair wavered constantly, but their smiles always remained. When it came time to cheer as their kids crossed “the stage,” parents honked their car horns with enthusiasm.
The Carson City School District recently announced this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian honors for Carson High School and Pioneer High School.
The people who know Carson High School’s band director best still get a little stumped when someone else asks for “Mr. Zabelsky.” He’s simply “Mr. Z” or just “Z” in his own e-mail signature. “Mr. Z was my music teacher when I went to Gardnerville Elementary School long, long ago, so I still have a tough time calling him by his first name because he will always be Mr. Z to me,” Principal Gavin Ward said. “He has a heart for music, teaching and students. It is a huge commitment to lead a band program at a large comprehensive high school. It is amazing that he has done this for so long.”
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday tabled action on authorizing Superintendent Richard Stokes to negotiate the purchase of the 1600 Snyder Ave. property and delayed the item until further budget discussions have been completed.
The Purple Avocado owner Sue Jones usually sets out one or two chairs before Mother’s Day each year for last-minute shoppers looking for that something special. For 2020, with COVID-19 taking its toll, today might be unusual if it makes the staff spread some chairs more than 6 feet apart for an even longer line and more extended waits. Jones and her husband Stan on Friday scurried quickly with their preparations after Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Thursday he would ease restrictions for Phase 1 and allow certain retailers to reopen as of midnight today.
Carson City School District teachers couldn’t just grab their books and materials from their classrooms and set up a computer at home when they learned schools were shutting down in March.
Sierra Lutheran High School senior Rosalie Antonucci gets out of the house and runs about two hours a day. She had looked forward to starting up her fourth and final track season with a first meet scheduled for March 20, but an emergency announcement just five days prior changed all of that. “That was a hard day,” Rosalie said about March 15 when she heard Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decision to close down schools due to COVID-19.
With Artsy Fartsy Art Gallery’s virtual wine walk this Saturday, art lovers who still have an appetite for the inspiring, the eclectic and unusual can take a tour of Jeffery Pace’s collection without setting foot in his shop. Pace is offering another chance from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Facebook to take a virtual tour of his artists’ work in his gallery by posting videos on the social media site and keeping his shop accessible in the time of COVID-19 while it remains closed to the public for now.
Molly Walt, a mother of four children with three attending Carson High School and the fourth going to Carson Middle School, says Carson City School District’s transition to remote learning in March wasn’t difficult. Being a former educator herself and now working for the state, she anticipated the recent shelter-in-place mandates concerning the COVID-19 pandemic were bound to happen.
Carson High School twins Kaden and Chloe Walt hoped their senior celebrations wouldn’t end up forfeit to COVID-19, but they wanted to make the last few months of it special anyway. In the past few weeks, they’ve been capturing the work their friends put into their academics and activities in photos and on social media.
Centuria Foods, a manufacturer of dietary supplements and cannabidiol based in Carson City, has repurposed its facility on Arrowhead Drive and its equipment to produce hand sanitizer in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. Next week, the company will provide 100 gallons of its new product to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, according to Dr. Jason Hastings, the company’s senior director of science and manufacturing.
The Carson City School Board received more information clarifying the roles of the district’s teachers on special assignment and paraprofessionals and how they provide instructional support in specific ways at the April 7 meeting of the trustees.
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees approved an agreement between the school district and Carson City to continue its School Resource Officers program to split the cost of three officers for approximately $$430,438 for 2020-21.
Carson City School District is on track to submitting its tentative budget to the state Department of Taxation for the April 15 deadline after adjusting for expected staff reassignments, reductions and attrition for fiscal year 2020-21.
The Carson City School District announced it will move to a pass/fail grading system for students for the second semester of the 2019-20 school year, according to a memo dated Thursday. The decision for the transition was made with input from principals, instructional leads and other administrators at the district-level, the memo states.
Speech pathologists are using teletherapy to help improve students’ skills. Teachers are creating or using videos on Zoom meetings. They’re reading favorite books online and showing favorite stuffed animals or toys, calling and talking to students daily, making sure they’re doing their homework, continuing to learn and build their skills.
Conditions in Lyon County these days seem to be generally quiet, if monotonous, particularly in Commissioner Ken Gray’s district covering Dayton. The county had made about 6,000 calls the week of March 25 checking on residents and there was a common need for most residents in that outreach.
Local senior centers have closed their dining rooms to social opportunities for mealtimes. Schools are closed and children are doing their schoolwork through distance learning, talking to their teachers online. Churches are worshipping via Facebook Live or recording their Bible studies.
Troops of the Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada aren’t letting a little quarantine get in the way of community service. Actually, it might be motivating them to help others more from the confines of their homes.
The Carson City School District Board of Trustees is moving its April 14 meeting to April 7 to finalize its tentative budget and complete any changes before submitting it to the Nevada Department of Taxation by the April 15 deadline.
Carson City residents Steve and Zita Waclo, former passengers recently quarantined on the Grand Princess cruise ship and at the Marine Corps Station Miramar in San Diego, were informed Monday their COVID-19 test results came back negative.
When Carson City resident Marge Dolan took a terrible tumble in her home Feb. 6 resulting in a broken neck, Purple Avocado owner Stan Jones would be there to offer a generous gesture to help her and her husband in a bind.
The Carson City School Board of Trustees is considering the sale of a portion of district property north of the Professional Development Center at 604 W. Musser St.
Come Monday, Carson City students will have more resources available to them on www.carsoncityschools.com to continue their education at home while school closures remain in place through at least April 6.
Valley Christian Fellowship of Minden has never closed its doors on a Sunday for worship. This Sunday, though, when the church’s worship team takes the stage to sing and Pastor Leo Kruger delivers his message, they’ll address an empty room.