Clear skies and a breezy Thursday made for excellent kite flying conditions around Turlock. One Turlocker, pictured here, was flying a huge kite at Summerfaire Park, located 1350 Fulkerth Rd.

Tom BetGeorge, a graduate of Turlock High School, is becoming a household name thanks to a video of his Star Wars themed Christmas light show (shown below) that is rapidly spreading around the Internet. As of Friday afternoon, BetGeorge’s five minute show, which shows an impressive light show of around 100,000 lights synchronized with tracks from Star Wars, has been seen by more than 2.2 million people since it was posted on Monday.

High school teachers at Turlock High and Pitman High Schools are stymied by a controversial decision by Turlock Unified School District officials to eliminate the “finals week” schedule. Typically the last three days of each semester are minimum days and students attend two, two-hour classes per day to take finals. Students are guaranteed to only have to prepare for two exams, essays or projects per day. The minimum day schedule allows the students to study and have extra time to prepare for the next day, and also allows teachers an extra few hours for grading the more than 150 finals tests, essays or projects. 

Earl Elementary Third-Grade Teacher JoDee Albritton is retiring after 31 years teaching. Albritton was honored by the Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees and Earl Elementary Assistant Principal Margaret Osmer says her warm, calm, nurturing demeanor will be missed.