Elementary school students at South San Francisco Unified School District’s Martin Elementary School received a virtual visit from civil rights icon Ruby Bridges during a morning assembly Nov. 18 in observance of Ruby Bridges Day. The virtual visit consisted of an exclusive video message from Ruby Bridges, in which she will recognize the efforts of the students of Martin Elementary School in making Ruby Bridges Day a reality in South San Francisco and beyond.
Ruby Bridges Day came to be when students in Martin Elementary fifth grade teacher Deborah Carlino’s class successfully lobbied the district in 2017 to designate Nov. 14 as Ruby Bridges Day. The students subsequently petitioned the San Mateo County Office of Education in 2018 and the city of South San Francisco in 2019 with the same request. Since then, observance of Ruby Bridges Day has spread in California and even made its way to other states like Colorado.
Ruby Bridges was 6 years old in 1960 when she helped desegregate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
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The Jefferson Union High School District Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Toni Presta as the new superintendent. Ms. Presta is beginning her third year with the JUHSD, where she has served as associate superintendent of human resources. A San Francisco native, Ms. Presta taught elementary and middle school in Daly City and the Brisbane school district, and was principal of Panorama School for seven years. She was director of educational services at Hillsborough City School District and served as superintendent of Brisbane School District for eight years.
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This past week, the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) named several Carlmont students as finalists for its Individual Pacemaker Awards. The Pacemaker is the highest national honor for high school journalism, and the Individual Awards highlight the best individual work in scholastic journalism in the country each year. Entries are submitted to 11 different categories and are judged by teams of professionals in the specified field. Carlmont’s journalism program produced 14 finalists. They are: Kiana George, Broadcast Feature Story; Kasey Liu, Comics Journalism; Lexi Romanowsky, Comic Strip/Panel; Ava Richards, Literary/Specialty Magazine Cover; Brianna Cheng, Zachary Khouri, Miki Nguyen, Auva Soheili, Maddy Ting, Multimedia News Story; Saya Deshpande, Kiana George, Multimedia Feature Story; Allison Raisner, Multimedia Sports Story; Rachel McCrea, News Photo; Ava Richards, Ruya Yaman, Podcast; Maddy Ting, Marketer of the Year; Ava Richards, Broadcaster of the Year; Francesca D’Urzo, Designer of the Year; Phoebe Gulsen, COVID-19 Broadcast: News or Features; and Camille Kay, Audrey Swenson, Local Climate Change Reporting.
The official results announcing the winners will be released at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, as part of the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention. A list of all finalists can be found on the NSPA website.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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