Stanislaus Students in the Spotlight: Science Olympiad, local musicians and avid readers
Academic Decathlon and Science Olympiad
Cristian Cornejo Plascencia, Jack Byron, Brenna Franca and Allison Speiller from Oakdale High School had individual high scores among various topics in the 2026 California Academic Decathlon State Championship, held March 20-22 at the Santa Clara Marriot Hotel.
In the Science Olympiad, Enochs High School won, with Gregori in second place, Modesto High in third and Turlock in fourth.
For the junior high schools, La Loma won, Roosevelt came in second, Hickman Charter was third and Blaker Kinser came in fourth.
Ceres Unified’s Superintendent Book Club
Caswell Elementary Dual Language Academy sixth-grader Angelina Valencia is the first member of Ceres Unified’s Superintendent’s Book Club to read and review over 100 books this school year.
Superintendent Amy Peterman launched the book club last year, and students beat their collective reading from the last school year by more than 1,000 books as of November 2025.
Turlock Unified’s Superintendent Music Award
Last weekend, Turlock Unified held a music festival featuring its high school bands, choirs and orchestras, performing fsongs including l“And So it Goes” by Billy Joel, “Sweet Tea,” by Paul Baker, “Power Rock” by Michael Sweeney, “Best of Beethoven” arranged by John O’Reilly, and more.
Student musicians were recognized with the Superintendent’s Music Awards.
In choir, the honorees were Caitlin Andrews, Emma Capps, Andrew Castaneda, Alison Coughlin, Brianna Kowtko, Ashli Mendoza,Andrew Padilla, Gail Ramirez, Rachel Wagner, Rachel Waln from Pitman High School and Amy Alvis from Turlock High School.
In band, the honorees were Jackeline Baires, Gavin Beard, Naomi Brown, Angelli Campos, David Cisneros, Caio Cullison-Assunção, Urijah Garcia, Diego Garfias-Osornio, Ingrid Gonzalez, Jonas Henley, Garrett Holt, Carter Ippolito, Liam Littlepage, Nayeli Mattison, Jada Mier, Ayden Newcomb, Everett Partridge and Kiara Velazquez from Pitman High School. Damian Acosta, Peter Buie, Kohen Fuller, Aaron Meraz, Giovanni Perez and Landon Tilby from Turlock High were also honored.
In orchestra, the honorees were Saja Arafat, Presley Hernandez, Yeyra Herrera Arteaga, Keerit Kaeley, Calvin Lin, Brisa Mendes, David Rios, Kamalpreet Sandhu, Madison Staley, Allie Vickroy, Zera Welch and Jonathan Woodill from Pitman High School. From Turlock High School, the honorees were Erin Arevalo, Kaylen Curnette, Briel Delgadillo, Ethan Early, Deven Flores, Elise Fripp, Isabella Gomez, Azair Hernandez, Mariana Fuentes Leon, Alex McGowan, Anahi Morales, Matthue Nolan, Logan Rainwater and Leonardo Rangel.
