Focus on Education: Ripon stadium boost

The Ripon High School stadium has sidewalks, its first in 70 years of hosting games and practices. The first phase of renovating the facility, mainly infrastructure, is complete, said the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation, thanks to a $10,000 donation from CoBank and hundreds of vendors who gave supplies and services.

The foundation continues to raise more than $1.25 million for the second phase of the project, which will add an all-weather track, bleachers and bathrooms. Foundation President Stephanie Hobbs said the boys' soccer team got to play a home game at its home stadium for the first time this year.

ATWATER PROGRAM:

Nearly 600 sixth-graders at Mitchell Senior Elementary in Atwater recently had a sobering experience about making tough choices. The middle school hosted the Drug Store Project, a daylong event on Oct. 26 in which students were taken through a journey of vignettes to see potential consequences of drug use. The city of Atwater and Atwater Elementary School District organized the event, which included representatives of probation, emergency medicine, clergy, National Guards and a judge.

TALL ORDER: Basketball legend and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will help lead efforts to boost after-school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has announced. Abdul-Jabbar, whose Skyhook Foundation aims in part to use STEM education "To Give Kids A Shot That Can't Be Blocked" by helping them aspire to higher educational goals, will serve as the California After School STEM ambassador.