LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Student of the week for last week was Jose Carrillo. All of the teachers agreed Jose deserved to be nominated.

I asked all of the teachers why they nominated him and they all said, “Jose is a great student, always on task and is sure to get his work done as quick as possible.” Great job, Jose, on becoming student of the week.

Olga Paselk, our school’s bilingual paraprofessional, has worked at Carlé since 2015 and worked in the district since 2002. She has decided to retire from being a paraprofessional.

Olga came to Carlé after being a judge in Costa Rica for three years. I asked Olga how she felt about Carlé and its students and she replied, “I love working with students of Carlé, I feel like I can help them more than I would at a larger school, I enjoy working at Carlé it's more individualized and we are able to develop personal relationships with the students which motivated me.”

I then asked her what her fondest memory of Carlé was, she responded with, “My fondest memory of Carlé was about one month into working at Carlé and the staff and students made me a welcome plaque and mug. They made me feel very welcome which other schools didn’t offer.”

Also, I asked her for a statement for students, “Do your best, never quit, and be a man or woman of honor.”

I then asked some student and staff on how they felt about Olga and her retirement, Michael Naber said, “Olga is very nice, she always greets me in the morning outside when I get to school she puts a smile on my face and I will truly miss her.”

I asked Heather Koehler for a final quote. “Carlé High School staff and students will be sad to see Olga retire,” she said. “Olga is a real fixture around campus, she greets student each morning, rain or shine. In the summer she will be found outside under her rainbow umbrella and in the winter wrapped in one of her hand knitted hats and scarves. She cares deeply for student’s success and growth in learning and supports all students and staff. She has known some of our students since birth and a student said the other say that she remembered Olga all the way back to kindergarten being a part of her school career. The spot she leaves at Carlé will be hard to fill but we are glad to have had you here.”

All students and staff will miss you dearly and we hope to see you in the future, you are an inspiration.

Olga plans to spend part of each year of retirement in Costa Rica and part here in Lake County. She looks forward to volunteering for groups like Totes for Teens and working as a volunteer in her grandchild’s school.

The week of this article's release student council will be holding spirit week. Monday’s theme is pajamas so make sure to wear your PJs. Tuesday is Candy Cane themed where you dress in red and white like a candy cane. Wednesday’s theme is frozen and we encourage you to wear winter clothes like skiing gear. Thursday’s theme is family flannel day. Finally, Friday is ugly sweater day, wear the ugliest holiday sweater you have.

As mentioned in the last article Totes for Teens is a volunteer organization in which they put together care packages for kids, including clothes, scarves and even a toothbrush.

We mentioned some of the volunteers that assisted putting together these care packages, here are the volunteers that we failed to mention: Sue Cameron, Peggy Foster, Claudette Oriol, Jan Solari, Tyra LaMar, Marla Perterson and Judy Knight. Thank you so much all of you, all of you are saints.

Teacher Alan Siegel met the wonderful Barry Munitz when they both served on a state committee known as the P16 council. Dr. Munitz was the chair of this group, which developed strategies to better coordinate and improves education for grades K-16.

Dr. Munitz has been personally donating to Carlé since 2007 to fund the production of all the individual plaques that help make Carlé’s graduation so special.

Starting in the year 2016 Dr. Munitz enlisted the Cotsen Foundation to help update and reenergize our whole student based enterprise for donations that now total $9,000.

We are now not only able to fund all the grad plaques but we have updated all equipment and been able to show our appreciation for groups such as Totes for Teens and the firefighters and first responders who put in so much effort over the last three years to help our community.

We cannot thank you enough for all your support for our school and the difference you have made in our school and community.

Nicholas Phipps is a student at Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake.