Village Rotary hears about elementary education

FALLBROOK – On April 12, the Fallbrook Village Rotary Club was visited by Candice Singh, the superintendent of Fallbrook Union Elementary School District (FUESD); Lea Curcio, director of curriculum and instruction, and Emily Larson, library technician at Mary Fay Elementary School, Camp Pendleton.

Singh brought the club up to speed on the district's scholastic activities. Its goal is to have all children equipped with an electronic Chromebook to help bring them into the computer age.

Two of the elementary schools in the district, Mary Fay Pendleton and William Frazier, have been awarded Lighthouse status, a very selective award. Only 168 elementary schools in the United States have been given this status. The award carries a significant amount of money, which was given to FUESD.

In place of the club's contribution of English/Spanish - Spanish/English dictionaries to all the district's third graders, a different tact was taken. As emphasis is placed on reading, the club's Dictionary Committee, comprised of Gordon Stone, Debbi Peters, and Steve Achard, researched numerous books and chose to donate copies of "Now and Ben" which describes Ben Franklin's inventions, such as bifocal glasses and lightning rods.

The committee took turns reading "Now and Ben" aloud to the third grade classes, then presented each student a copy of the book. The committee members demonstrated their presentation at the Rotary meeting.