By VINCE REMBULAT

The Bulletin

At Tuesday’s Ripon Unified school board meeting, three students and a teacher in the district are scheduled to be recognized for their recent accomplishments.

Austin O’Sullivan (grades 4-6, Ripon Elementary), Het Trivedi (grades 7-8, Ripon Elementary), and Steven Kilpatrick (Weston) are among the Bob Camden Inspirational Essay Contest winners.

This writing event is an annual project of Give Every Child A Chance. It honors the memory of Robert “Bob” Camden, who was an English teacher for the Manteca Unified School District for many years.

He was viewed by students and his fellow teachers as an individual who could challenge those around him to appreciate the classics and beauty of the written word. Camden was also longtime columnist for the Manteca News and, later, the Manteca Bulletin.

The GECAC writing contest had been limited to MUSD until the recent addition of Ripon Unified.

Evelyn Moore of GECAC will be on hand for the presentation.

This year’s topic was: “If I could create a holiday, what would it be?”

The board, in addition, will recognize Patty Goeppert as the RUSD nominee to the San Joaquin county Teacher of the Year program.

She’s a K-5 teacher at Colony Oak School.

The district submitted three names for this honor, including elementary, middle and high school teachers.

Nominees for teacher of the year along with classified employees of the year will be recognized at a celebration dinner on June 7.

The monthly school board meeting will take place at the Ripon City Hall Council Chambers, 259 Wilma Ave.

The open session begins at 7 p.m.

Other items on the agenda include:

• Stephanie Hobbs, president of the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation, providing the recent goings on with the group working on the revitalization of Stouffer Field.

• The board reviewing and discussing a sample of the master facilities plan and sample grade configuration options for the district.

• Trustees possibly adopting a policy regarding drug testing for student athletes.

• The board accepting new hires Deborah Jackson as Coordinator of Instructional Improvement and Dante Alvarez as Ripona School principal.

• The district employing an additional psychologist / counselor for the 2013-14 school year for at-risk students.  RUSD currently employees two full-time school psychologists.

For more information, call the district office at 209-599-2131 or log on to www.riponusd.net.