FAIRFIELD — Two local school districts welcome new faces to the helm as Solano County schools see a brighter financial future.
Kenneth Jacopetti leads the Vacaville United School District. He will oversee 12,000 students in 10 elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools and two other schools.
He replaces John Niederkorn, who stepped down earlier this year.
Jacopetti sees challenges but looks optimistically at the future of the school district. His focus will be on student achievement.
Having cut $30 million over the past five years, the Fairfield-Suisun School District is excited about the possibility of seeing a surplus in five years.
New superintendent Kris Corey leads the district. Taking over Corey’s post as assistant superintendent is Malcom Butler.
Corey replaced Jacki Cottingim-Dias, who retired after 43 years in education, the past five as superintendent of the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District.
Both school districts will deal with significant changes as Common Core State Standards are introduced as well as Smart Balanced Assessments.
Sullivan Middle School will begin to find life again as a youth services center. The Matt Garcia Youth Center will relocate there over time. The current lease is up in 2017.
Armijo High School will have a new look after the beginning of the year, when a new administration building is finished. It’s being paid for with the remainder of Measure C money from the 2002 bond.
Suisun Valley School has begun welcoming new students to its campus. About 130 students will be added over the next few years as the modular classrooms are being added.
New high school boundaries were also drawn earlier this year to create uniform feeder schools.
The Fairfield-Suisun School District also approved the idea of moving to a new system that splits the district’s governing board boundaries into seven districts, one for each of the seven seats on the board.
In Vacaville, the Vacaville School District partnered with Solano Community College for middle college high school. The idea is for high school students to earn college credit in high school and possibly graduate with an associate degree.
The Travis Unified School District may see new faces by year’s end as three members of the governing board have terms that expire.
The district has five elementary schools. one middle school, one high school and one alternative high school.
Kate Wren Galvak is the district superintendent. The district serves about 5,400 students.
