Dear MTUESD Community,
I am incredibly excited to announce that we have two amazing additions to our staff coming on board for the 25/26 school year. You know by now, I like to fish, and boy did we make some gigantic catches!
MTUESD is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Bill Redford as the new teacher for the Learners, Empowered Academic Progress (LEAP) for the 2025-26 school year. After six years at Calaveras County Office of Education (CCOE) serving as the Principal of Mountain Oaks School and then Director III at CCOE, Bill has shared his great enthusiasm to begin teaching students enrolled in MTUESD's LEAP Independent Study Program. In his farewell notice to colleagues at CCOE Bill stated "While this is likely a pause in my career serving in administration, I am genuinely thrilled about the opportunity to teach again. I've always felt that a strong connection to the classroom is vital for effective school leadership, and I'm excited to experience that firsthand once again. In short, I look forward to continuing to grow as a professional educator from this experience."
Bill comes to MTUESD with a great deal of charter school experience as well as teaching for California State University, Stanislaus and Fresno State’s CalTeach. Bill's past roles at the K12 level include principal, director, Associate Superintendent and Superintendent during his 26-year tenure in public education. Dr. Redford has shared he looks forward to using what he has learned in these roles to help shape LEAP Independent Study as an innovative Personalized Learning Opportunity for students who choose to enroll.
Dr. Redford is married to Jennifer Redford who is a Program Specialist with the Calaveras County Special Education Local Plan (SELPA). He is the father of two daughters (Cassidy 3rd grade at Mark Twain) and Adalene (Freshman at Bret Harte).
We are also over the moon to welcome nurse Logan Robbins. Many of you have had the pleasure of working with Nurse Logan, as she has served Copperopolis this year and Mark Twain last year. We were delighted that she has decided to join our team and she will be an enormous asset to our program with her ability to connect with kids and families and provide wonderful medical expertise. She’s also an integral member of our IEP teams, and we are delighted to welcome her. Nurse Logan is dedicated, dependable, and so very skilled and always goes the extra mile for kids, staff, and families! Logan and her husband will be GREAT additions to our MTUESD family.
Do you feel the mojo? Mark Twain is attracting top talent to join the stellar staff we already have.
Summer school has been incredible and a huge shout out to Tessa Pyle and Kel-Lee Felix for their lead roles and Jessika St. Louis and Debbie Richards for support in the office. It has been wonderful to see the crafts and activities planned by afternoon coordinator Emily Anderson-Mucks. Kids have been enjoying the opportunity to go swimming at Bret Harte and to engage in the Fire Tech class experience, which was for middle school students and was a huge hit. Chief John Parks and his crew are doing a magnificent job on the two-week camp. Just a reminder, even though Mark Twain is shut today and tomorrow, there is FIRE CAMP going on if your student is in that program. However, there is no district transportation to get the kids there, so please make arrangements to drop and pick up directly at Bret Harte.
School at Mark Twain will be back in business on Monday. The only other holiday affecting summer school will be July 4 itself. I just want to take a moment to remind you that on days where the students are at the pool, you always have the option to pick them up at 4:00 p.m. at the pool. This will save them a walk home back to school. They have such a great time swimming, but they get tired and staving off that walk home is a good idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have buses available that late in the day. However, our staff does load up their backpacks in a vehicle so at least they aren’t carrying their stuff.
As I reflect on summer school next year, I am wondering if maybe we should hold two sessions at each site. I would love more Copperopolis students to participate in this program, and I think the only way to do it is to make it closer to home. I also think we need to look at a brand new TK Boot Camp, so we can give those little ones time to get used to school. It might be shorter than the regular summer session, but it would give kids a chance to get the nerves out and learn the routines of school. If you might be interested in a program at Copperilois, I’m going to be sending out a survey after our current summer school session, so we can plan for next year. It all depends on whether I can get it staffed as well.
In other news, the parking lot work at Mark Twain is well underway, and the kitchen at Copperopolis is being steam cleaned top to bottom. I appreciate Sam Austin and all of the amazing culinary staff that are deep cleaning and also making sure our kids have meals during summer session. It’s a big lift. We are also doing some work on the Copperopolis gym bathrooms.
For ELOP next fall, make sure please you are returning those intent/registration forms. As soon as they get to you, please complete them and return them. My biggest challenge is I have to meet the staffing ratios. There is a criterion for who gets accepted first and those aren’t my rules, those are the state’s rules. We will try to serve as many as we can.
The Board approved the new playground designs for both sites, and we have gotten those ordered and I will keep you posted on installation. I’m thinking it will be just after school starts, but it only takes about a week each, so it’ll be fast. Kids always love to see that kind of stuff go on because it involves bulldozers and it’s highly entertaining. The Leadership class at MT was integral to picking the unit for the 4th-8th grade playground and we sent out an upper grade vote on it as well.
If you’re in Angels Camp on Friday evening, be sure to stop by and enjoy the Farmers Market. There’s great music, food, and tons of fruit and other products for sale. It was a nice place to run into so many people enjoying the evening. My dog Elvis had a good time too.
Enjoy your four-day weekend off. Thank you to everyone that is so consistently sending their students to school. Thank you to the staff that are going above and beyond to provide an incredible enrichment opportunity along with deep academics. The kids are having a great time. I can’t wait to see what strong improvement they will have in their coming year school start.
Sincerely yours
Louise Simson
Superintendent
650–996–3290