By TOM HICKEY
Whether you’re standing line at the post office or out for dinner at Jag’s Diner, the whole town is talking football.
And, why not?
The Jaguars are undefeated at 10-0-2.
They are the reigning Valley League Champions.
They have beaten two of the top high school teams in the county to make it to the championship game.
Last week’s stunning victory with Monte Vista was seen as a huge upset as the Monarchs were picked as the number one team in San Diego County by many of the polls.
Finally, they made the school’s first trip to Qualcomm Stadium for the Division III football finals.
It was definitely a storybook year for the Jaguars.
To illustrate how special it is to make it to the CIF Division Championship Game: Since 1993, when the San Diego CIF Section went to four divisions, only two of the current Valley League football teams have made it to the Q.
Escondido, a Division II school, made it only once back in 1995 when they lost to Monte Vista 13-12.
San Pasqual, also a Division II school, has made three trips to Qualcomm.
In 1993, they lost to El Camino 24-14, in 1997, they beat Castle Park 47-13, and in 2000, they lost to Helix 24-14.
No Division III team from the Valley League has made it to the Championship Game. In fact, the only other North County team to make it to the “Q” is Oceanside who has made it three times in Division III before moving up to Division II in 2000.
It has been a banner year for Jaguars football.
See how the team did yesterday on this page. We’re saving some space to report the results.
The VC-P school board Thursday gave the high school the go ahead to apply for recognition as a California Distinguished School.
Principal Lucy Haines told the board that the school learned that it was eligible to apply for the honor on Nov. 12. Deadline to submit was Dec. 10.
“Equally exciting to the football game was the fax that we received0 saying that the high school has qualified to apply for a ‘distinguished school’ recognition,” said Haines.
Every year 200 high schools out of a total of 2,200 in the state are selected to be Distinguished Schools. About 600 schools are anticipated to be eligible, and of these, from 300-400 are expected to submit an application.
In order to be eligible, a school must meet the eligibility criteria for AYP (Average Yearly Progress) and API (Academic Performance Index).
To qualify, schools must meet API criteria:
• High schools with a 2004 growth API of at least 659 and not greater than 799.
• 2004 growth API must meet or exceed the schools’ growth target.
• All numerically significant subgroups must make 80% of the school’s growth target.
“VCHS met all targets for AYP and API and we are very, very proud of that,” said Haines.
She added, “Clearly we feel it validates the school’s efforts towards excellence, provides community connection and positive publicity and gives the school the ability to be called “a distinguished school.”
The timeline for the program is as follows: The applications from
the schools that apply are read during the third week in January. Officials of the program will visit the campuses of the nominees in the spring. Finalists will be announced in mid-April and the awards ceremony will be held in May.
There was an “unanticipated outcome” for completing the process, said the principal.
We discovered that we are doing an awful lot of good stuff here at the high school. We looked at all of the things that are going on at the high school and it was astounding!
“Does anyone here at Valley Center High School think we have arrived? No! But we are sure on a good start.”
Cast members of the VC high school production of “The Wiz” performed a few songs from the show for members of the school board and audience on Thursday. The show will be playing Jan. 12, 13, 14 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Tickets, which cost $12, are available from the CCAE box office.
By DAVID ROSS
The VC-Pauma School board elected Barbara Rohrer to be president of the board— her third time at the job. She took the gavel from outgoing president Wendy Zeugschmidt.
The trustee, who has served for 22 years on the board, on both the union and unified school boards, was president in 1998 and 1983.
The unanimous election of Mrs. Rohrer was followed by the election of Henry Van Wyk, as vice president and Lori Johnson as clerk.
The board also voted to continue with its long established practice of holding meetings on the second Thursday of the month, at 7:30 p.m., at the high school media center (library).
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The board recognized a $5000 donation to the high school joint use theater by Jack & Carolyn Bose.
Later in the meeting Mrs. Rohrer was renominated by the board to be a candidate to the California School Boards Assn. Delegate Assembly. She has been a delegate for many years to this statewide organization of school boards.
“It helps to keep us in touch. We are out from the center of things so it helps to stay n touch,” she said, assenting to have her name forwarded for the position.
Trustees and audience members took a break during the meeting to walk over to the drama department to see a “sneak preview” of the production of The Wiz, which will be staged at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, Jan. 12, 13 and 14, 7 p.m.,in the small theater,
Tickets will be available at the box office at California Center, $12.
The board also approved a 1.14% cola (cost of living allocation) for employees, which was added to the 1% that was approved with the new contract in July. The board had promised that if expected money from Sacramento was forthcoming that employees would get the cola increase.
The increase is retroactive to July 1.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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