$1
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Children’s Festival event is back News, Page 7
ARC Guitar celebrating 16 years Features, Page 1
Volume 139, Number 37 — Locally-owned since 1884
8th Nov TE VO
The hometown paper of Bruce & Nadia Chapman
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Richard Casavecchia for Winters City Council Experienced Leader. Community Focused. Real World Experience. Endorsed by
Winters Downtown Business Association
Angela Stone Chuck Pearce Don Jordan Gar House Rudolph Muldong, former School Board Member Steve Brown
Brock Neil Corinne Martinez David and Kelly Lowrie Jenny Ramos John Rodriguez, 2020 Citizen of the Year And More
Paid for by Richard Casavecchia for Winters City Council 2022 | FPPC # 1454483
Trustees approve Boonchouy as new Superintendent By Angela Underwood Express staff writer And the new Winters Joint Unified School District Superintendent is Dr. Rody Boonchouy. After months of seeking out a stellar superintendent that included a nationwide search spearheaded by McPherson & Jacobson, LLC., the Winters JUSD board and staff welcomed the new district leader, who was chosen with great precision, including community input provided by an online survey and in-person engagement sessions offered in English or Spanish.
See LEADER, Page 5
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Dr. Rody Boonchouy officially steps into his role as the new Winters JUSD Superintendent on Nov. 30.
City awarded for transparent financial reporting, again By Angela Underwood Express staff writer
EXPRESS
Winning awards for financial transparency is par for the course in Winters. For nearly 20 years, Winters has walked away with the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. “We want to be completely transparent and open about where our taxpayer dollars are being spent and
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why,” Mayor Cowan said. The mayor added he believes local government is the only level of government that currently provides an honest accounting of where dollars are spent. Winters is proud to receive the accolade, according to Cowan, who said the 20-year winning streak speaks to the city’s limited staff’s tremendous hard work and dedication. Winter’s financial reports are judged by an impartial panel that looks for a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to communicate its economic story and motivate potential users and us-
ers to read the report. Police Chief John P. Miller credits Winters retired and current Finance Officers Shelly Gunby and Cathy Matthews for excellent financial reporting. “Municipal finances are difficult to fully grasp and digest, even in a small city like Winters,” Chief Miller said. “These audits and reports assure our city’s financial information is accessible and we are accountable, thereby maintaining public trust.” Sometimes maintaining that public trust with limited
See AWARD, Page 3
Index Features ........................ B-1
We at he r Date
Rain
High
Low
Oct. 05
.00
89˚
53˚
Oct. 06
.00
90˚
56˚
Oct. 07
.00
91˚
58˚
Oct. 08
.00
95˚
58˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-6
Oct. 09
.00
95˚
55˚
Oct. 10
.00
91˚
55˚
Opinion ......................... B-5
Oct. 11
.00
92˚
55˚
Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-7
Real Estate ................... B-2 Sports ........................... A-2
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 0.99 in. Last sn. to date: 0.05 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/22. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
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Residents to gain knowledge about Council Candidates at Oct. 13 forum Winters voters have an opportunity to ask questions about the issues they think are important at the upcoming Winters City Council Candidates Forum on Thursday, Oct. 13 from 6–8 p.m. in the Margaret Parsons Room at the Winters Community Library (708 Railroad Ave.). The non-partison, in-person forum will also be live streamed and is hosted in collaboration by the Winters Express and Democracy Winters. The Forum’s planning committee of Winters Express Editor-in-Chief Crystal Apilado, and Democracy Winters’ Kate Laddish and Shep Harper, have been working diligently to create an
unbiased, community-focused forum that will bring valuable information to residents. Apilado and Laddish are teaming up to moderate the twopart event. All five City Council candidates will respond to questions on topics of interest submitted by community members. Winters residents will also have a chance to submit additional questions during the event for all of the candidates to answer during the Community Q&A session. “The planning committee’s goal is to provide voters with an opportunity to learn more about the candidates so voters can make informed decisions
about which candidates they will chose to support,” said Laddish. The five City Council candidates vying for three open seats in the November election to represent Winters residents include Albert Vallecillo, Lisa Baker, Carol Scianna, Michael Olivas and Richard Casavecchia. Candidates will be given equal opportunity to share their stances on local issues and approaches to City-related tasks. “The goal of the forum is for the community to learn new and valuable information about each candidate to help voters make a well-rounded
See FORUM, Page 3
Students’ efforts to narrow achievement gaps under review By Angela Underwood Express staff writer The Winters Unified School District discussed student testing assessments and hiring an education specialist at the Oct. 6 meeting. Acting Superintendent Phoebe Girimonte broke down precisely what i-Ready testing is, informing officials about the online English Language Arts and Math program with tools for screening and placement, intervention, classroom assessment, instruction and effectiveness metrics. “This year, we have invested at all sites in the teacher toolbox, and that toolbox allows teachers to look at student groups based on performance in different standard strains and then to implement lessons that differentiate and respond to those student needs,” Girimonte said. Board Trustee Kristin Trott wanted to know if the testing program successfully served Span-
ish-speaking students. While there is no formal mechanism for Spanish-speaking students to break down mathematical formulas in English into their native language, the district is working on making that possible, according to educator Delia Espinoza. “As of now, the results will represent the mathematical thinking and not the language area, and that’s why we have begun talking to the representatives about how they can help us support the English language learners whether they are in a bilingual classroom or not,” Espinoza said. Board Clerk Joedy Michael wanted to know how the i-Ready ratios compared to the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019. While testing scores “are not great still,” Michael said he hopes learning loss from COVID did not make numbers worse. Girimonte said teachers are still reinforcing “prior grade-level stan-
dards and embedding them into grade-level instruction” while closely monitoring students during testing to ensure the best possible concentration. “While we want to present the realities of student performance, we also want to recognize that our students are showing up and striving every single day, and the teachers that are serving them are doing their very best to help close these gaps that widened during the pandemic,” Girmonte said. Board President Carrie Green agrees. “You have a group of students who don’t take the test quite seriously enough or are just not in the mood because they are that age group where it could be a little more challenging,” Green said. Girimonte said there is a lot of vulnerability in sharing the data, but the school district recognizes
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