Prepping for school

With most students in the area returning to school on Monday, families have been busy shopping for back-to-school clothing and supplies.

Such was the case Saturday with Pearl Flores as she shopped at Target with four young children — three of them preparing to return to school.
Dreanna Aguilera, 9, held several colorful outfits in each hand, debating which one she wanted her mother to buy.

“I like cute little outfits,” she said. “I’ll be going into fourth grade at West Putnam School.”

Next to her was Precious Aguilera, 7, who will attend Los Robles Elementary, and Evander Aguilera, 5, who will enter first grade at West Putnam.

A fourth child sat in the shopping cart, oblivious to what his siblings were shopping for and appearing unaware of the clothing finding its way into the cart.

“They are very excited about returning to school,” Flores said. “But I don’t know who is more excited — them or me.”

In the school-supplies area, Christine Cook-Floyd, stocked up on paper and binders and her two sons — Christopher Floyd, an incoming freshman at Monache High and Parker Floyd, who will be in eighth grade at Burton Middle School — looked through backpacks and other supplies.

“We’re picking up binders, backpacks, paper, all the essentials,” Cook-Floyd said. “I’m also a teacher. I teach third grade at Alta Vista Elementary, so I’m also stacking up for my own class.”

Cook-Floyd said she does not like to wait until the last minute and has most of the back-to-school shopping completed.

Several local residents posted similar sentiments on the Recorder’s facebook page.
Sherry Skiles Miller, who has 10 grandchildren, said she’s been hitting a lot of sales over the past two weeks.

Many parents admitted to shopping through the summer, or online. Many others spent most of the weekend preparing for school. For some parents, the experience has been exhausting.

“Shopping is overwhelming when you have to supply seven kids with school supplies, back packs and clothes — trying to see what they need and then to make sure it fits,” she wrote. “I’m hanging on a thread.”

Victoria Martinez Tenchavez said she was done shopping for her first and third graders and was ready to settle into her routine.

As some families continue shopping through the week, others admit that they are done and will enjoy the week with their young ones before sending them back to school.

“I waited too late last year and did last-minute shopping and drove myself crazy. So this year, [I] got a head start and glad to be done with school shopping. My family also helped out a lot by buying them clothes, shoes and school supplies,” wrote Amy Tristan about her two daughters who are entering second and third grade. “My girls are excited to go back to school and lets just say, so am I.”

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045. Follow her on twitter @Avila_recorder.


School begins on the following dates for the following schools:
° August 9 — Strathmore Union Elementary School District.
° August 13 — Porterville Unified School District, Lindsay Unified, Rockford School District, Springville Union, Terra Bella Union; College of the Sequoias, Visalia.
° August 14 — Ducor Elementary, Pleasant View School District.
° August 15 — Burton School District, Alta Vista Elementary (TK to 8th only), Sunnyside Union.
° August 16 — Hope Elementary, Citrus South Tule.
° Aug. 20 — Porterville College, Alta Vista Preschool, Hot Springs District.

“New” Principal for many students:
When students return to PUSD schools next Monday, many of them will need to get used to seeing a new face in the office, as several principals have been relocated to different schools, among them:
° Lorenzo Cruz moved from John J. Doyle School to Belleview School.
° Angel Valdez moved from Santa Fe School to John J. Doyle School.
° Julissa Leyvam moved from Roche School to Santa Fe School.
° Patty Jorgensen was promoted and is now the principal at Roche School.
° Israel Longoria moved from SHS and is now the program manager at Westfield School.
° Fernando Carrera, director of the adult school is now also the principal at Citrus High School.
° Christine Ahman was promoted to be assistant principal at Porterville High School.
° Andy Plyman was promoted to counseling dean at Strathmore High School.
° Jeff Brown has returned to PUSD, after a brief stint in Visalia, to be the principal of Harmony Magnet Academy.
° Jeff Bottoms, former Granite Hills High School principal, is the new PUSD director of Curriculum and Instructional Technology.
° Nate Nelson was recently appointed to the position of assistant superintendent for Human Resources after several years as the director of Technology for the Porterville Unified School District.