Maria Lewis

Maria Lewis, principal of Freeman Elementary School, was awarded the Pilar Andrade Award during ceremonies at the Concilio Awards night Saturday. (Jim Smith/Democrat) Galvan received the Rick Gonzales Sr. Award, Maria Lewis was presented with the Pilar Andrade Award, Betty Weir received the Concilio Lifetime Achievement Award, Rosalie Valencia earned the Senior Citizen Award, Davis City Councilman Lamar Heystek received the Elected Officials Award.
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Also recognized was Maria Lewis, who received the Pilar Andrade award to celebrate her historical contributions to the Latino community.

Lewis was educated in Woodland Schools, graduating from Woodland High School, after which she attended Sacramento State where she received her bachelor's degree, teaching credentials and master's in education administration.
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"Despite this factor, Lewis and her team have managed to raise the Academic Performance Index from 684 to 792 and pull Freeman Elementary out of Program Improvement."

"I have parents who ask me, 'Isn't penmanship less important now that you have computers?'" said Maria Lewis, principal of Freeman Elementary School.
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Freeman Elementary School implemented "Handwriting Without Tears" for the first time this year, Lewis said, both in kindergarten, when children learn to print, and third-grade, when they learn cursive.

"We noticed the curriculum was a little weak when it came to transferring from printing to cursive, so we hope this program will help with that," Lewis said.

Most Woodland elementary schools also offer students some kind of instruction in computer keyboard typing, though the structure of the lessons and their timing vary from campus to campus.

At Freeman, typing skills are first taught in third-grade along with cursive, and then students have built-in time during their day for typing in fourth- and fifth-grades, Lewis said.

Freeman Principal Maria Lewis and her staff began the full-day kindergarten initiative by studying the possibilities last year.

Freeman Principal Maria Lewis and her staff began the full day kindergarten initiative by studying the possibilities last year.

Maria Lewis, Denise Parnell and Irene Oropeza-Enriquez will serve as principals for the schools, respectively.
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Lewis, originally from Woodland, currently serves as the interim-principal for Freeman Elementary.Previously, she worked as the coordinator of literary and social studies for the school district's office.She also served as vice principal at Lee Middle School from 1998 through 2004.

She holds a bachelor of arts degree in liberal studies, a multiple subject teaching credential with a bilingual, cross-cultural, language and academic development emphasis and is a master of arts candidate at California State University, Sacramento.

Lewis told the board she intends to continue the excellence in elementary education maintained by Freeman.

"My number one priority is to increase the academic achievement of students, and improve communications with parents," said Lewis.

"I want to create an environment where students can continue learning and excelling academically," she explained.

Maria Lewis, Vice Principal