Dinuba Sentinel 3-15-18 E-edition
P. 1
Dinuba Sentinel Serving the communities of Dinuba, Cutler-Orosi and Monson-Sultana
Established 1909, Dinuba, California
National FFA Week
Dinuba High chapter hosts festivities on campus
Back Page, Page A6
Thursday, March 15, 2018
50 Cents
Kissing for a cause
coming
down
By Rick Curiel Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Today a new chapter for Orosi High School begins as construction for the new Cardinals' stadium starts with the demolition of the old burm where the home bleachers sit. But before the community can say hello to the new stadium one last walkthrough was made.
Yesterday a group of Cutler-Orosi dignitaries were scheduled to gather on Ed Coats Field at George Millhorn Stadium to say one last goodbye to a stadium that has housed so much history over the years.
Expected to attend yesterday’s walkthrough were Larry Edwards, Cecil Reed and Mike Mikelian, some of the community members who helped put up the stadium burm in the early 70’s. Efforts were also made to reach out to former Cardinals football coach Ed Coats, however, it was unknown at the time of publication if he would attend.
The school district also reached out to Gene Ethredge, who currently resides in Arizona, but he was unable to attend.
Earlier this week, maintenance crews from the Cutler-Orosi school district were busy making last-minute preparations for the project.
Said district head of Maintenance and Operations Raffi Saghomonian, “We’ve been disconnecting electrical and water, removing aluminum.”
The project is expected to last throughout the summer and is expected to be completed by Sept. 26.
“With any luck,” said Saghomonian, “we will be done sooner.”
Saghomonian’s hope is that the stadium is ready to use for Orosi High School’s homecoming football game. That game is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Original plans for the stadium called for a renovation project that would have added ADA compliant ramps to the current stadium. However, after the plans were submitted to the Department of the State Architect, blueprints were requested to show that the standing burm complied with state codes and regulations.
After some research, it was soon realized that the burm was not constructed by a contracted construction company. As it turns out, the stadium was constructed by community members, who saw the need and put in the time and effort themselves to build what currently stands now.
Said Cutler-Orosi School Superintendent Yolanda Valdez about the revelation back in August, “Based on that, we know that it’s not compliant. We are certain there was no formal architecture and certifications.”
The district then decided that the burm would come down and a whole new
See Stadium, Page A2
Culture
Orosi
stadium
change
at WIS
By Jackson Moore News@thedinubasentinel.com
It is not often that the Lions Club deems one of their members worthy of the Melvin Jones Fellowship. Earlier this month Dinuba Lions Club member Roy Cotton joined the distinguished list by receiving the rare honor.
Cotton, 82, has been a integral part of the Dinuba Lions Club for nearly 40 years, serving as treasurer for close to 30 of those years.
Cotton said that he was “overwhelmed” and “surprised” by the honor. He said, “They really pulled it on me ... Apparently some people thought enough to not only put up their vote but to put the money where it counted. It’s something I hope to put on display on one of my walls in the house where it can be seen."
Added Cotton, “To my knowledge there have been four,
maybe five, since 1980 when I joined the Lions Club that have been awarded the Melvin Jones Honor. It’s a humanitarian honor and it’s quite rare. I feel honored. I did not realize that I had done enough to deserve recognition, but some of the Lions feel that I have.”
According to the Lions Club, the honor “recognizes a commitment to humanitarian service” and is “symbolized by such attributes as generosity, compassion and concern for others."
Cotton’s service for the Dinuba community is not limited to the Lions, however. He is also a longtime member of the Alta District Historical Society and church board at Dinuba First Baptist Church.
“I think the reason I do things for the community is that I feel the need to put something back,” Cotton said. “That’s
See Cotton, Back Page
Contributed
Dinuba Unified School District Superintendent Joe Hernandez leans in for a kiss with “Oscar” the pig. DUSD and Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District competed to raise money for mental illness awareness, with the losing district’s superintendent having to kiss a pig as the consequence. The schools raised more than $3,000 in all.
Dinuba, Cutler-Orosi schools team up to raise awareness for mental illness
By Jackson Moore News@thedinubasentinel.com
Orosi High School recently hosted one of the strangest sites one may see as Dinuba Unified School District Superintendent Joe Hernandez locked lips with a pig.
The stunt was orchestrated for a good cause, however. Dinuba Unified and Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District challenged one another to a fundraising contest for NAMI - National Alliance on Mental Illness. The losing school district’s superintendent would have to kiss a pig in front of the winning student body.
COJUSD raised $2,598.37 to DUSD’s $658 - So Hernandez took the stage at the Orosi High quad on March 7 and planted a kiss on the pig.
Hernandez said the experience was “really mushy - pigs are messy. But it wasn’t too bad. I had lip gloss and he had lipstick, so I think it all worked out.
“I love chile verde so I didn’t really mind kissing him.”
COJUSD Superintendent Yolanda Valdez, who once worked for Hernandez, was armed with perfume for the pig prior to the kiss. Meanwhile, OHS Principal Roberto Vaca applied lipstick to the pig.
Valdez said, “Dr. Hernandez and I are great buddies. I was just glad he
was a good sport. I would have had to kiss a pig if we would have lost, so I know he would have been very nurturing to me as well. I wanted to make sure his pig smelled good, his pig had lipstick, and I wanted to make sure he had mints and a nice washcloth to wipe his mouth off. That’s what buddies do.”
Once the festivities were over, Hernandez and Valdez took pictures with NAMI representatives who were the beneficiary of the event, and students who helped make it possible. HOSA-Future Health Professionals clubs at Dinuba and Orosi high schools helped spearhead the fundraising efforts. The DHS club traveled to the Orosi High campus for the event, along with DHS principal Mike Roberts.
Valdez said, “All of our district, I want to thank our principals who rallied their staffs who rallied the students. And all our kids who felt this was an important cause to get after because mental illness is very real. It’s very real in America and all we have to do is turn on the news and we know exactly how it impacts us.”
Hernandez added, “Obviously we are aware that in our country, and in our county, there are a lot of our students that have mental illness. To raise awareness about these needs is really important. NAMI is a great cause, and our kids picked the cause and fundraiser. I hope this is the
beginning of something they can carry forward, but hopefully they choose something other than kissing a pig.”
DHS duo goes above and beyond
Although Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District won the head-to-head competition, a pair of Dinuba High School students have remarkably led an effort to raise mental illness awareness on their own.
Among the distinguished representatives who spoke to the crowd at OHS on March 7 were Dinuba High seniors Maria Chavez and Joanne Rubalcaba. Chavez and Rubalcaba made and distributed boxes to classrooms across DHS to collect donations, resulting in $658.
Their project on suicide awareness for HOSA placed first in the HOSA state competition last year. They moved onto the internationals in Florida where they placed fifth.
The competition offers different categories such as first aid, public speaking and public awareness. Their public awareness project included a portfolio and presentation on a year’s worth of efforts for suicide awareness. Over the previous school year the two DHS students brought guest speakers to campus, distributed brochures and flyers at many community events,
See NAMI, Back Page
St. Patrick's Day Classic DHS boys track wins, sporting another strong team.
Sports, Page B1
Jackson Moore | The Sentinel
By Jackson Moore News@thedinubasentinel.com
Washington Intermediate School students will be held to a higher academic standard starting in 2018- 19.
The Dinuba Unified School District Board of Trustees approved recommended changes to the school’s promotion requirements at the March 8 board meeting.
“We need to change that academic culture at Washington Intermediate," WIS Principal Jonathan Torres said. "This is a step in the right direction.”
Going forward, WIS will require students to pass all core classes - English, math, history and science - with a D or better to move onto the next grade. A grade recovery opportunity will be offered during summer school. Students who do not pass the summer school course would be required to take an intervention class the following school year. Previously, students needed only a 2.0 grade point average.
However, additional requirements will be placed on students in order to participate in the promotion ceremony and event activities for eighth graders moving onto high school.
Students must pass all core classes with a C or better in core classes and a D or better in other classes, have no more than one in-home suspension, no more than 15 tardy incidents, have at least 95 percent attendance and score at least “nearly met grade level standard” on the seventh-grade state English Language Arts and Math assessments.
WIS had not held any consequences for students due to poor performance on state assessments, known as CAASPP SBAC. The “nearly met grade level standard” is the third best score out of four possible categories. The Board was told that 40 percent of seventh grade students missed the mark last year.
Torres told the Board, “We are setting that bar that students need to nearly meet the grade-level standard. It has never been aligned with promotion requirements or activities, but here we feel we really need to hold our students accountable academically in how they perform within the class as well as the CAASPP SBAC assessment.”
The Board was also told that about 100 eighth-graders entered the year on the non-promote list.
The board unanimously approved the changes, as well as changes to the Dinuba High School graduation requirements, detailed in the March 8 Sentinel.
WIS will also have a new principal for the 2018-19 school year. The board unanimously voted to promote Jesse Sanchez, currently the principal at Wilson Elementary School, to the position.
See DUSD, Page A2
Dinuban Roy Cotton honored with Melvin Jones Fellowship
Roy Cotton, center, was presented with the Melvin Jones Fellowship Honor at a recent Dinuba Lions Club meeting.
thedinubasentinel.com Inside | Lights and SirensA2 | ObituariesA2 | OpinionA4 | SportsB1 | Classi edsB4
