Martinez Student Places in Top 5 for Countywide School Essay Contest

By Jonathan B. Lance, 
Contra Costa County Office of Education

Tara Adkisson, a 12th grader at Briones Independent Study in Martinez, was one of 12 local students recently rewarded for their skills and creativity with the inaugural Contra Costa County Attendance Awareness Poster and Essay Contest.

 This contest is part of the Every School Day Counts campaign. Dozier-Libbey High School (Antioch) senior Marc Castillo was the grand prize winner for the Poster Contest, and DeAnza High School sophomore Sanilie Foster took top honors in the Essay Contest. The two winners will each receive a $200 Target gift card. 

There were more than 200 submissions (174 posters and 56 essays), and the first 100 students each received a $10 Target gift card. Along with the two grand prize winners, the top five winners in each category received $100 Target gift cards. 

These generous prizes were sponsored by a donation from the United Way of the East Bay and Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Region 6.

 The contest winners will also be honored at a County Board of Education meeting in September, and their posters and essays will be used extensively to promote Attendance Awareness Month, held in September. 

Every School Day Counts: Attend today, Achieve for a Lifetime! is an awareness campaign advocated by Contra Costa County’s Superintendent of Schools Joseph A. Ovick, Ed.D., and District Attorney Mark Peterson. This campaign is designed to provide communication resources to schools, engage school communities, and boost student attendance as soon as children enter school.