by 
By Nathaniel A. Lopez
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, during the Oracle Fire District’s monthly meeting at the Oracle Fire Station, this year’s Oracle Firewise award winners were presented their signs.
Co-Chair of the Oracle Firewise Board, Rachel Opinsky presented the awards along with Mary Harris.
The winner for Most Firewise Residential Property was Margaret Guyton, and the winner for Most Firewise Commercial Property was Mt. Vista School, and there to accept the award on behalf of the school were Superintendent Crystle Nehrmeyer, Principal Shannon Soule, and school board members Edie Crall, and Linda Lyon.
“We are just so touched that you recognize the work that we’re doing,” began Superintendent Nehrmeyer. “We do it for two different reasons. First, of course we want to be Firewise, and we want to take care of our campus, and our community. We want the students to be proud. But I have this belief that you can improve reading scores, math scores and writing scores by having rake marks in your gravel (and) the data proves my point. We’ve really made some great changes on our campus with our facilities due to the capitol bond, with our staffing. I say this to our maintenance team often, ‘rake marks equal math scores’, and I believe it to be true. When the kids see we care about the campus and we have pride in who we are as a school, it translates down to them, and therefore they’re proud of our school, and they’re proud of what they’re doing.”
Congratulations to the two winners of the 2023 Firewise awards! Thank you for being an example of fire-safety!
by by