First things first, thank you to the Mountain Messenger for allowing Downieville School to write an article! It is so exciting that the community will finally be able to keep up on what’s happening with its youngest members.

Faculty-wise, there are currently no new teachers or other staff, but some formerly retired teachers have been brought back to continue teaching, as their current positions have yet to be filled with new teachers.

There have been improvements happening school-wide that faculty members have been anticipating. One of the most exciting things is the PA system. This will allow Darcy to yell at people from her office instead of walking all the way down to their classrooms, but also allow us to make important announcements such as assembly notices or field trip permission slip deadlines.

This year, our annual Back to School Night was held on August 30th. The Student Council made and sold some delicious homemade mac & cheese.

There have been many field trips already planned for this school year. On September 18th, Freshman through Senior students will be going on a trip to Ashland, Oregon, to see the play Romeo and Juliet. In October, the school club Friday Night Live offered members a trip to Anaheim, California, for a convention as well as the Disneyland amusement park. Other future field trips include visits with the local CYRCL organization and going to study local wildlife and geography.

In early September, the local drug prevention organization worked with the Tobacco Use Prevention Education Program (TUPE) to bring in a BMX bicycle group that gave students an anti-drug pep-talk and showed off some of their amazing tricks, including standing on their handlebars and doing a backflip off of a ramp on their bike.

This year’s student involvement has been great. There has been more competition for Student Council offices and class leadership positions alike. The Student Council has been interactive with the student body and is getting their opinion on things happening around the school this year. Currently, there is talk about putting up mental health posters created by students to support each other in their struggles, as well as more frequent reminders that bullying and mistreating people will not be tolerated.

Downieville School also gained a principal this year. Mr. Berardi stepped down from the role of district Superintendent to focus on helping run the school. So now everyone can focus on helping students learn and not worry about what the next problem to deal with will be. Although Ms. Bosworth is the technology coordinator and has had to deal with many broken computers, it is likely easier than being an acting principal as well as a teacher as she has in the past. So, thank you, Mr. Berardi, for helping run our school, and thank you, Ms. Bosworth, for keeping our online learning going as smoothly as possible.

As the school year progresses, so will the improvements. So, we’ll try our best to keep the community updated and informed on what’s going on in Downieville school and continue writing these student-run newspaper articles!

On a last note, this year’s yearbook class is getting a head start, so watch for more information on advertising your businesses and purchasing this year’s yearbook!