Schools

When County Superintendent Mike Sanchez retires from his position after more than 40 years in education, San Benito High School Principal Krystal Lomanto is set to take his place at the helm of the county's public school system.

Eighty-seven Gavilan College students earned a place on the President's Honor Roll for Fall Semester 2013. To be placed on the President's Honor roll, a student must earn a 3.5 or higher grade point average in at least 15 units during a single semester. This honor is noted on students' transcripts.

Hollister School District’s Pam Little took home the award for the Elementary School Principal of the Year for San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.

Faced with a trend of slightly tardy students, the Hollister School District will roll out a new policy next year: letters home to the parents of students who are chronically late to class by one to 29 minutes.

Hollister School District trustees this week gave authority to post more than $1.3 million worth of new staff positions ahead of the approval for next school year's budget so they could advertise the jobs before summertime and get the largest possible candidate pool.

Hollister council members may be on the way to approving an ordinance that would ban smoking from licensed home daycares 24 hours a day – meaning there would be no fumes at the sites even after children go home.

The San Benito County Office of Education recognized 16 Teachers of the Year at the regularly scheduled Wednesday school board meeting, including instructors from the Aromas San Juan Unified School District, the Hollister School District and the North County Joint Union School District.

Hollister School District board trustees increased pay of substitutes, discussed the possibility of restoring stipends for after-school sports programs and addressed goals and plans for next year at the regularly scheduled school board meeting Tuesday.

The Hollister School District may be on the way to restoring stipends for coaches and athletic directors of after-school sports programs next school year – if trustees vote to restore funding for the programs at the next school board meeting.

When Hollister's Haylie Stelling takes to the saddle, she plays country music on her iPhone, tucks it into her cowboy boot and rides toward a dream. The teen wants to be the first woman to compete in team roping at a professional level while also competing in barrel racing, the only rodeo event open to women at a professional level.