Seventeen new hires and one position change.

Human Resources Manager Krista Galvan announced that at Monday’s Ripon Unified school board meeting.

Jesus Alvarez will move over to Ripon High as the Data Technician for the 2022-2023 school year.

The list of new hires, as approved by the school board, included Jandy Lauderdale as a Food Service Supervisor, David Yonan as an English teacher at Ripon High, and Kristen Robertson as a Math instructor at Ripon Elementary School.

The other newcomers to the district are Morgan Lander (teacher), Yicel Padilla (teacher), Emanuel Areias (teacher), Patricia Freitas (RSP teacher), Kailyn Barton (Account technician), Sarah Oblin (site secretary, Ripona Elementary), Christina Savage (site secretary, Ripon Elementary), Kelly Kiser (Attendance secretary, Ripon High), Leticia Jauregui (Bilingual family liaison / Bilingual Instruction Aide, Park View Elementary), Stephanie Saldate (Instructional Aide), Yaneth Contreras (Instructional Aide), Caroline Burke-Baker (Mariachi technician), Karen DePrater (HR substitute), and Matthew Schwertfeger (substitute bus driver).

Trustees, earlier, accepted the retirement of 11 employees.

Enrollment at 3,212

Recent enrollment numbers at Ripon Unified appear to be inching towards pre-COVID-19 pandemic figures.

That’s based on latest report from last week’s school board meeting. The total tally for the eighth month – March 7 through April 1 – was 3,212.

In 2019 during that same span, RUSD enrollment was 3,250 – 2020 was distance learning while last year’s tally was 3,198.

At the elementary school sites, Colony Oak led the way with 460 students. Not too far behind were Weston (451) and Ripona 450) followed by Park View (442) and Ripon El. (431).

Ripon High’s enrollment was at 962, with Harvest High (12) and Independent Study (4) rounding out the report.