Redding School District

Partnership Educators, This week it is with great sorrow that I tell you of a loss to our Redding School District family. A young man who has been at Juniper as an instructional assistant for many years passed away this last week. Alex Mosteller was a kind and gentle soul that was loved by all. A former student at Manzanita, Sequoia, New Tech High School, and a recent Bachelor in Psychology graduate from The University of California at Davis. He worked at the Juniper School

Partnership Educators, Early on the morning of May 3, 1915, John sat wearily near his field dressing station, a crude bunker cut into the slopes of a bank near the Ypres-Yser Canal in Belgium. A Canadian military surgeon, he had been at the French line for 12 days under incessant German bombardment, and the toll of dead and wounded had been appalling.

Partnership Educators, Joseph Gompers had been friends with Lawerance Hummel longer than with anyone, fifty-eight years in fact. It came as no surprise to Joseph when Mr. Hummel left the bulk of his fortune to Bethany College. Hummel was eighty-two when he passed. He had been associated with the college for thirty years and in the will the respected West Virginian institution was designated to receive a million dollars and Joe Gompers was expecting that. Joseph had been

Partnership Educators, I am happy to share with you a "Stories of Us" episode from a guest author, Andy Mills (4th - 8th Teacher at Igo Ono School). Thank you Andy for this powerful submission. Enjoy everyone and have a great weekend. Rob Young Emmitt was busily playing

Teacher Appreciation Week: Today is the Friday of Teacher Appreciation Week. I want to say thank you to all of our dedicated teachers, Psychologists, Speech Therapists, Nurses, and Counselors who work hard every day to build powerful connections with our students. Some students do not always seem to show appreciation for your efforts, but someday those efforts of planting seeds

Partnership Educators, In 2017, when I was selected as the Superintendent of our great partnership, I noted that Redding, Shasta, and Igo Ono Elementary Districts have quite the stories. These stories have continued from 1873 for Redding and older for Shasta. What a pleasure it is to celebrate the accomplishments of our districts. It has been an amazing journey as we have continued to work hard to help our students grow, to sharpen our vision, and reach for the higher stars over our long and laudable histories.

Partnership Educators, Lawerance was a gunner's mate assigned to the attack transport USS Bayfield. As a gunner's mate, Lawerance was responsible for the operation and maintenance of weapons and other ordnance equipment, as well as small arms and magazines.

Partnership Educators, It was early in the morning, on an isolated rural road in Colorado. A furious storm raged, with heavy rain and wind. A 9-year-old boy was in the car with his mother, who was driving him to school. Treacherous road conditions sent the

Partnership Educators, In the late 1960s, Fred Smith was a student at Yale. He was trying, without much success, to make a particularly good impression on his economics professor. Then Fred got this idea for a brief economic thesis. Something a whole lot more interesting than you might expect from a college paper. The topic of Fred’s original idea was

Partnership Educators, It was on April 1, of all days, the WJZTV news director called Gale into his office. If only it could have been an April 1st gag because it was Gary who hired this 22-year-old reporter in the first place. "You are no longer co-anchoring the news," he said grimly. I am sorry, it just did not work out. Oh, she had seen it coming

Partnership Educators, Ben’s nephew was sixty-five years old and living in London when he became interested in rare books. He was so interested that he invited a rare book dealer to his home. The gentleman brought with him many different types of books. Ben’s nephew glanced through the books looking at illustrations and small passages when he stopped cold. What attracted his attention was what was written in the margins of a pamphlet within one of the books. It was a handwritten message from

Partnership Educators, It was a cold rainy March night in Hershey, Pennsylvania when a sparse crowd shuffled in to watch the two professional basketball teams play their scheduled game that night. It was estimated that a bit more than 4000 fans came out to watch the game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Nicks. In 1962, the Warriors were playing in Hershey in order to facilitate larger crowds at their games. There were

Partnership Educators, It is with great pleasure that I have the ability to deliver stories each week. The stories of our lives are intertwined with the story of our district. Moments of elation and extreme happiness can quickly be followed by moments of sorrow.

Partnership Educators, Cal was an animal lover. His house was virtually overrun with dogs, cats, and canaries. Then one autumn some of Cal's friends in Mississippi got together and sent him the main course for a Thanksgiving dinner. They sent it alive so it could be fresh when prepared for Cal’s table. It wasn’t a turkey but a raccoon. Cal took one look at

Partnership Educators, Self-confidence is often the starting place for continued perseverance. We give a lot of effort to motivating students within our system but motivation comes from the self-confidence to try. Grit has been a very popular word that has been used in a wide variety of ways to restate "perseverance" and I think many people think this

Partnership Educators, ​ Joanne takes the long walk to the second-floor bleak apartment and thinks to herself, “How did I get here.” The deep depression that she is feeling as she considers her circumstances just makes the vision of her living conditions that much more depressing. Everything had gone wrong for Joanne for her entire life

Partnership Educators, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr. left a lasting legacy ninety-three years after his birth on January 15, 1929, and fifty-eight years after his historic "I have a Dream" speech. His stirring words and

Partnership Educators, Happy Holidays to everyone in the partnership. I wish you a restful and joyous time with your friends and families. Stories can be powerful because they take serious, confusing, and threatening subjects and make them clear and approachable. Stories can be memorable, unlike so much of the information that bombards us today and is forgotten tomorrow. They can

Partnership Educators, Team manager for Coronado High School Mitchell Marcus has a developmental disability but he far surpasses everyone on the team for the love of basketball. Coach Morales says, “He is just an amazing person that our basketball team loves to be around.” Mitchell’s mother Amy says

artnership Educators, Jimmy had that accordion since he was sixteen. Ever since his father had gotten it from their hardware store from a member of a traveling carnival. It seems that the carnival worker had purchased more than he could pay for and used the accordion to settle his debt. Dad then bought the instrument and brought it home to his son. Jimmy and the accordion were inseparable from then on. This was a true story

Partnership Educators, There was a fair-haired farm boy named Jim who had twenty-five cats. Most of them lived out in the barn and chased mice. A few were beloved house pets and all of them had names. Jim’s cats were more than farm animals to him, they were family. Each was distinctly recognizable

Partnership Educators, Every fall, the trees begin to change colors and turn beautiful shades of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. This color change makes for beautiful scenery for a weekend drive or a masterful painting of this great county we live in. While we enjoy the masterpiece that Mother Nature has

Partnership Educators, Lord Francis Rawdon gazing from a window in his quarters could hardly believe his eyes. There through the main gate of the stockade strode a tiny red-haired blue-eyed woman. She was unarmed and unaccompanied and yet issuing orders to the prison camp guards as though she might be the King of England herself. She insisted on

Partnership Educators, Howard Hill was acclaimed only once in his life. When he was a small boy, he sang at Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria. Shortly thereafter, his voice changed and that was the end of his singing career. Yet he still demonstrated a degree of artistic talent. After a while, he was supporting himself as a portrait painter. In fact, Howard promised

Partnership Educators, Zoey is the child of TJ and Courtney Thomas in Atlanta, Georgia. Back in 2020 she was three years old and diagnosed with leukemia. Because her immune system was compromised she couldn’t go trick or treat with all the other kids and in fact, her parents put up a sign to keep others from coming to the door. The sign read, “Cool Costume. Sorry, no candy. child with cancer. See you next year! Have fun!” As mom puts it

Partnership Educators, ​ The intelligent fourteen-year-old boy knew that his mother wasn’t coming back. Still, Jimmy sobbed himself to sleep asking for some kind of miracle so he could have his mother. She was taken away so suddenly. Mary, Jimmy’s mother, had

Partnership Educators, Bob was born in Brooklyn, New York. As early as he could remember, his fondest desire was to explore the frozen north. He answered the call of the wild when he was still a young man and headed into the wastelands with his indomitable spirit. Off the northern coast of Newfoundland, across the straight of Bell Island, and on for over 700 miles are the highlands of Labrador. Labrador Peninsula extends

Partnership Educators, Bob was raised in Evansville, Indiana. The responsibilities of manhood were thrust upon him early as his father died when he was ten. Otherwise, his childhood was mostly normal. Bob attended an elementary school and each year the same medical professional would come

Partnership Educators, When I was a child, summertime meant sitting in my home plum tree and eating the freshly ripened plums until my hands were purple with juice. How I loved eating those plums and laughing with my brother and the other neighborhood kids who would join us in gorging on the fruit. Summer was a time of outside play, trips to the lake, late-night fishing, and sleeping in the backyard under the stars. I am a huge summer person. I do accept that summer gives way to Autumn every year

Partnership Educators, The lighthouse was doomed from the start. Fourteen miles from land and leaning into the wildest winds and made of wood. It was only a matter of time before she toppled into the English Channel. One mighty storm in 1703, Eddystone Lighthouse vanished into the darkness. Her architect, Henry Winstanley, was swept away with her. The task of rebuilding and redesigning

Partnership Educators, Dr. Kevin was enjoying a cup of coffee and shooting the bull when the light tone of the front door opening made its way to the back office. The signal meant that a new patient had made their way to the office and it was time to get to work. As the intake personnel went through the check-in procedures the patient quietly sat in the light brown shoe box in the hands of a tall dark haired twenty-year-old whom seemed calm but concerned. You see, Dr. Kevin is a veterinarian and so having a patient

Partnership Educators, On the gravestone in the Bronx is a name of a sports writer that you never knew. Bill Barclay grew up on farms in the east and Midwest. His family moved to Wichita, Kansas when he was seventeen. A year later he got a job with the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad but it was only after he married and after he settled in Denver that he took a passionate interest in athletics. He had always been a vigorous

Partnership Educators, Disembarking from the 4-hour delayed flight helped to raise my spirits for the trip. Waving goodbye to the attendants and pilot, I slowly made my way to the baggage claim. The anxious moments watching the variety of colored bags fall down the ramp kept me on edge. I hate waiting for the bag to arrive. I am always afraid that it won’t arrive. It has never happened but

Partnership Educators, There was once a stretch of Coney Island Boardwalk that ran all the way from Feltman's Astroland to Steeplechase Park. It was a wooden planked pathway prowled by a stiltwalker named Archie. He was an absurd appearing creature in his pink and white costume with a striped top hat, cutaway jacket, and enormous bell bottom trousers concealing his stilts. This absurdity was

Partnership Educators, What a great start to the year. Kids were playing on the playground first thing in the morning and smiles were abundant. Great job everyone pulling together and making this start another great one. The first day of school is exciting