Tulare County middle and high school advisors are encouraged to register their students by December 10 to attend the annual CHOICES Anti-Bullying Symposium. The event will be held Thursday, January 28, 2027, at the Galaxy Theatres in Tulare from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

Each school may bring one advisor and up to eight students. The purpose of the Anti-Bullying Symposium is to develop youth leaders to be agents of change on their campuses this year. The theme of this year's symposium is resilience.

Fabian Ramirez will serve as the keynote speaker. Ramirez is a noted anti-bullying speaker and drug prevention specialist who has delivered powerful messages to students and educators in all 50 states and across Canada.

Symposium attendees will be involved in a full day of breakout sessions on topics including resilience, illicit and underage cannabis prevention, cyberbullying, online safety, student voice, and more to engage students in improving campus culture.

To register, visit https://bit.ly/AntiBullying2027.

Yesterday, 49 Tulare County educators and school employees were honored at the 32nd annual Excellence in Education Awards — an event co-hosted by EECU.

The awards breakfast was attended by nearly 400 colleagues and family members to honor the nominees, finalists, and winners in three categories — Administrator/Manager of the Year, Teacher of the Year, and School Employee of the Year. In the spring, a committee of Tulare County business and education leaders reviewed and scored nominations to determine the winners, who were announced in April.

The Administrator/Manager of the Year is Josie Velazquez, principal of Kennedy Elementary School in Dinuba. The Tulare County Teacher of the Year is Michael Bedoya, a middle school social science teacher from Dinuba. Bedoya was nominated while teaching at Washington Intermediate School last year. He has since moved to the new Dinuba Intermediate School. Placido Flores is the 2026 Tulare County School Employee of the Year. Flores was nominated while serving as an academy assistant/job developer with the Porterville Academy of Business and Finance at Porterville High School. This year, he has transitioned to the position of Registered Behavior Technician, serving students in middle schools within the Porterville Unified School District.

To read more about the nominees, finalists, and winners, and to see the video created about the winners, visit https://tcoe.org/Awards.

Photo above:

~ (l-r) EECU President/CEO Beth Dooley, Administrator/Manager of the Year Josie Velazquez, Teacher of the Year Micael Bedoya, School Employee of the Year Placido Flores, and TCOE Assistant Superintendent Chris Meyer.

In its final certification report presented last week, the California Outdoor School Association (COSA) gave TCOE’s SCICON program full certification.

COSA conducts its Residential Outdoor Science School (ROSS) certification visits to California outdoor education programs every five years, presenting commendations and recommendations in three areas – Operational Standards and Personnel, Teaching and Learning, and Social and Emotional Learning.

“SCICON has something truly special: generations of community investment, a remarkable natural setting, and a team that clearly believes in what it does,” the report said. “With longstanding support from the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE), Friends of SCICON, and the wider Tulare County community, the program continues to offer meaningful, hands-on science and conservation experiences.”

The California Department of Education (CDE) recently launched its Geo-Regional Experts for Multilingual Students (GEMS) initiative, a program designed to strengthen support for English learners (EL) and long-term English learners across the state.  Established through a competitive grant program for county offices of education (COEs), GEMS awarded funding for three years to seven lead agencies to develop resources, provide technical assistance, and expand professional learning opportunities tailored to English learner success. GEMS is part of the Statewide System of Support that develops coordinated actions for improved student achievement.

The CDE selected COEs in the counties of Contra Costa, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, Tehama, and Tulare to serve as official GEMS agencies, offering support in their respective regions. The TCOE GEMS team will support agencies in Inyo, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Santa Benito, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.   

At TCOE, leadership for the GEMS initiative is anchored within the Leadership Support Services (LSS) department. LSS Administrator Gabriela Guzman will serve as the program lead with Melisa Duarte and Isabel Flores, staff development and curriculum specialists from Educational Resource Services, as core members of the implementation team.

To assist local educational agencies in aligning instructional practices and implementing the California EL Roadmap, the TCOE GEMS team will provide a variety of universal and targeted supports. These key offerings include:

In-Person and Virtual EL Networks: Collaborative spaces designed for COE leaders, school districts, and educators to share best practices, exchange resources, and address regional priorities in English learner education. Ongoing EL Network sessions will be offered throughout the year.

ELPAC Workshops: This dedicated professional learning session has been designed to deepen understanding of the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) and leverage data to support language acquisition. This full-day training will be held November 12 at the TCOE Administration Building in Visalia.

Office Hours: Direct, accessible consultation opportunities for COE, district, and school personnel to receive individualized guidance, strategy feedback, and technical assistance. Office hours will also begin November 12 via Zoom with additional sessions offered throughout the year.

Through these comprehensive services and team expertise, TCOE will work to strengthen capacity across the region to ensure equitable, high-quality learning outcomes for English learners.

For more information and to register for the GEMS supports, visit https://tcoe.org/Leadership/PL. 

Editor: Robert Herman, Communications Director
Contributors: Nayirah Dosu, Jennifer Fisher, Jaime Burnitzki, Brittaney Quinonez, Gabriela Guzman