By DAVID ROSS
In the fifth and final year of SAT9 testing most grade levels in the Valley Center-Pauma K-12 system showed positive growth in the four academic subjects tested: reading, math, language and spelling for most grade levels, according to a report to the school board Thursday by Asst. Supt. Sarah Clayton.
Please see the SAT9 chart on this page for complete scores, including comparisons for the past five years.
Ten grade levels were tested last April, beginning in second grade and continuing to grade 11.
Grade levels not showing improvements this year were 6, 8, 9 and 11.
Tests were administered to 3754 students, 96% of those eligible to take them. Seventy-six special day students did not take the test and 72 parents chose for their children not to take the test. These numbers are almost identical to last year.
“The majority of grade levels have shown positive growth from 1998-2002,” said Dr. Clayton.
Because the school district did not complete unification until 2000, when it included Pauma Elementary and the high school, scores before then are “comparing apples and oranges,” said Dr. Clayton.
“In spite of bringing in socio-economically low students into the district [from Pauma school], we still made some gains,” she said.
Spelling remains a stubborn area where improvements have been scant.
“We’ve made gains but the scores have consistently been below the 50 percentile,” said Dr. Clayton.
She pointed out that if you look at scores “longitudinally, over the five year period, every single grade made positive gains, some as low as 2 percent and some as much as 20 percent.”
What that means is if you follow the progress of a class over time, beginning when it was a second grade class, and then looking at it when it was a third grade class, and so forth, that positive gains have always been realized.
One puzzle in the scores is a drop in scores from eighth to ninth grade.
“This is true county wide and there is some speculation that the ‘norming population’ might have been flawed,” said Dr. Clayton
She also noted that “Valley Center High School does consistently score above the county average.”
Although SAT9 scores are viewed as important, the score schools watch even closer is the Academic Performance Index (API), which compares school performance to a target figure and to other schools. Schools that improve beyond their target figure are rewarded with cash grants.
The API number, coming in January, “is one number and you can see it and compare it to other schools,” said Supt. Jeff Mulford. He asked Dr. Clayton, “Do we have a guess yet what those scores will be?”
“No,” she replied.
The student population of Valley Center-Pauma is 20% limited English (compared to 23% in the county and 25% in the state), 36% economically disadvantaged (compared to 43% in the county and 47% in the state) and 42% minority (compared to 59% in the county and 65% in the state).
Next year students will be tested under an entirely new testing system, called CAP9.
New Mello-Roos
The school district is the lead agency in negotiating a Mello-Roos taxing agreement with Newland Homes, builders of Woods Valley Ranch (the development with the golf course off Woods Valley Road).
It is negotiating an agreement to provide taxes for schools, roads, sewers and water.
In the past the school district alone has negotiated Mello-Roos agreements with developers in Valley Center.
The new arrangement is being done at the request of Newland, Dr. Mulford told the board.
“Newland would like to bond the money up front,” said Mulford, who said the district is asking for $7500 per home.
The district would get about $2 million up front prior to construction of the homes. Under existing Mello-Roos plans they get the money after the building permit is pulled.
“If this works well it may well become a model for future Mello-Roos agreements in Valley Center,” Dr. Mulford said.
By DAVID ROSS
The final price estimate for Lilac Elementary School is $8.19 million, up from the original estimate of $7.2 million in 1999.
The VC-Pauma School Board Thursday approved the final cost on the recommendation of Supt. Jeff Mulford.
The school is being constructed near the corner of Lilac & Old Castle roads under a new construction system known as “design build.”
This is a concept used in industry, but rarely used in government projects. It intimately involves the architect and builder in planning a school that gets “the most bang for the buck.”
Under this mode of operations, the district subleases the school property to John Bailey Construction to begin work.
Bailey explained to the board why the construction numbers were higher than originally anticipated.
Because of required environmental mitigation, the cost of the bridge crossing the creek to the property went from $100,000 to $500,000. Environmental constraints also required that the parking lot be placed in a different place than originally planned.
Another $100,000 had to be spent for creekbed work.
There was also $300,000 more in offsite costs (the final total was $1 million). Offsite costs include widening of Lilac Road in front of the school, widening the intersection of Lilac & Old Castle roads and drainage under Old Castle & Lilac roads.
“Dr. Mulford asked me this morning how I thought that design build was working and I think that it’s working great,” Bailey told the board. “Design build is a very good thing and we’re still saving millions of dollars.”
The school district hopes to get $5.6 million in matching funds from the state if Prop. 47 passes in November.
Meantime it will take $3 million from its own reserves of developer fees collected through Mello Roos agreements.
“If the bond passes that will bring us another $5.3 million, which won’t be enough, but will be close,” said Dr. Mulford.
If the state bond election DOES NOT pass, the district will go out and borrow on a certificate of participation at 3%, which is about as low as interest rates have been in a year. It will then wait for a state bond to pass and pay the money back when the state reimburses the district.
“I don’t think you are, in any way, endangering the district,” said Dr. Mulford.
The square foot cost for the school will be about $165.
Commenting on the increase in price, the superintendent said, “I’m a little bit disappointed at all the offsites, but I think it will be a very pretty school and that we will come back with a much less expensive elementary school than is normal..”
He noted that Bailey previously built San Pasqual Elementary and is now building San Marcos High School.
On October 5 the VC Firefighters Association will hold its tenth annual Pancake Breakfast and Safety Expo to benefit the Burn Institute of San Diego, and the Valley Center Firefighters Assoc. at the Lilac Fire Station.
The Burn Institute of San Diego offers many programs throughout the country including a camp program for burn-injured children, a holiday party for burn-injured children, a burn survivor support group, emergency funds, a school re-entry program, and fire prevention education for all ages. In 1972 the Burn Institute helped establish the regional burn center at the University of California San Diego Medical Center. The Institute continues to provide funding for the burn center.
The expo, which will also benefit the Firefighters’ Assoc., will include balloons, hats and stickers, fire extinguisher classes, children finger painting and stranger alert safety tips, the Fire Coach Crown Club, Children’s 10 Mobile, the Burn Institute, Sheriff’s Dept., MADD, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), American Lung Assoc., American Heart Assoc., Palomar Hospital Stroke & Heart screening, Valley Center Water District, Barona Fire, Sycuan Fire, San Pasqual Fire, Red Cross, San Diego County Haz Mat, SDG&E, Border Patrol, S.D. Disaster Preparedness, and S.D. Mountain Rescue. Also scheduled are special appearances by Smokey the Bear and Sparky the Dog and, if available, Mercy Air, Sheriff, CHP and Border Patrol Helicopters.
Breakfast will be from 7 a.m.-10 a.m. Tickets cost $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 3-11. The Safety Expo will run from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. and is FREE.
Tickets and information are available at Valley Center Station 72 or by calling 751-7600.
A schedule of events is below:
7-10 a.m., Breakfast Begins in gazebo; 8 a.m., CHP helicopter arrival at baseball field; 8:30 a.m., Fire Extinguisher Class behind Community Hall; 8:45 a.m., CHP helicopter departs from baseball field; 9 a.m., Borestar helicopter arrival at baseball field; 9:15 a.m., Sheriff K-9 demonstration in baseball field; 9:30 a.m., Child Lures Puppet Show behind the Community Hall; 9:30, Mercy helicopter arrival at baseball field; 9:45 a.m., Fire Extinguisher Class behind Community Hall; 10 a.m., Borestar helicopter departs from baseball field; 10:15 a.m., vehicle extrication demonstration behind Fire Station; 10:30 a.m., Astria helicopter arrival at baseball field; 10:45 a.m., firefighter competition behind Community Hall; 11 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., lunch begins in gazebo; 11:05 a.m., Mercy helicopter departs from baseball field; 11:10 a.m., Child Lures Puppet Show behind Community Hall; 11:30 a.m., Astria helicopter departs from baseball field; 11:45 a.m., Fire Extinguisher Class behind Community Hall; 12 p.m., Foxtrot helicopter arrival in baseball field; 12:15 p.m., Sheriff K-9 demonstration in baseball field; 12:45 p.m., Foxtrot helicopter departs from baseball field; 1 p.m., Code 3 Caravan exit at Valley Center Road.
(Helicopter arrivals and departures are subject to change.)
By DAVID ROSS
A few weeks ago when water district Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant recommended testing the water to accommodate requests by a group of residents who believe there is a cancer cluster in VC, the estimated price tag was $2500.
Now the cost estimate is approaching $35,000, and directors want to make sure the cost doesn’t get any higher.
Arant gave the report at Monday’s VC Municipal Water District board meeting.
In August the Cancer Registry (The San Diego/Imperial Organization for Cancer Control) based at the University of California, Irvine, sent the district a list of 89 pesticides and requested the district test for them.
This occurred after the local citizens liaison group had asked the district to test the water, and Arant insisted that request come from the SANDIOCC.
Once it was given a list, Arant sent the list to the Metropolitan Water District, the big agency that sells water to all of Southern California.
Of the group, only about 49 have Environmental Protection Agency testing methods for determining their presence in the water. The Met did an analysis of EPA rankings for cancer-causing chemicals, and the acceptable levels.
The total list breaks down into three groups:
The A list: constituents that are suspected carcinogens.
The B list: constituents are probably carcinogens.
The C list: includes chemicals that are not suspected of being carcinogens or they don’t know. For this group there is the greatest absence of analytical method, said Arant.
The district has asked the County Dept. of Agriculture to say which pesticides are not in use any more, so the district can focus the testing on pesticides that are likely to be in existence here.
Arant intends to set up a meeting with the local cancer liaison group, Community Committee for the Valley Center Community Project, whose members are Kerry Carr, Penny Gipson, Judith Silverman and Michael Cooper.
“We want to look at their maps to see where their cancer cases are and lay down our map.”
Because the individual tests could cost as much as $2000 a piece (per substance being tested for), Arant wants to concentrate the testing on the alleged problem areas, which are mainly in the eastern part of town.
Arant had originally predicted about $2500 for the battery of tests proposed.
“Maybe we didn’t hear them right and they were telling us $2000 a sample,” admitted Arant.
“We think we could be looking at a cost as high as $30,000-$35,000 but we can minimize that if we concentrate the testing on the areas of greatest concern.”
The district would hire an independent third party to do the testing, Arant said.
At the same time Arant wants to replicate the testing that the Met does to see if there is any difference in the water’s contents once it leaves the main aqueduct that feeds San Diego County and enters the VC system.
It took from the end of August, when the board voted to do the tests, until now to begin getting the bids from laboratories to do the tests.
“Many of these chemicals on the list are things for which there are no tests,” said Arant. “We want to sample for what makes sense. Instead of a shotgun approach, we want to narrow it down to constituents that are carcinogens.”
He said staff may be ready to begin testing by next week, and possibly have the results within two weeks after that.
Director Robert Polito said he was surprised that the SANDIOCC wasn’t aware that many of the chemicals it wanted tested had no methodology for testing.
“Well, while the people in Irvine are not at an arm’s length relationship with our local group, they are not directly involved with the group in Valley Center,” Arant told his board.
“There seems to be a little disconnect in what is involved locally and what Irvine wants to be involved with,” he said.
“Nobody is denying that some of those pesticides are here, it’s whether they are in our water system,” commented Director Chuck Stone.
Arant added, “Some people might say, if you don’t test for all of them, how do you know they are not there?” However, he said, if any of them are present in higher than normal amounts, “it would indicate a method of transport that might mean others are also present.”
In addition to the testing, Arant also wants to hire some environmental consultants to bring in to look over the district’s procedures as it does the testing.
“We’re learning a lot but this is taking us beyond our area of expertise,” said Arant.
Director Merle Aleshire, who made the motion setting the upward limit on the test cost, said, “We want to put this to bed. We don’t want to test this forever. Before we test we should get an agreement from the local group as to what should be tested for. And once that is met, we are done testing. There should be a firm agreement with them before we spend dollar one to do the testing.”
Arant agreed. “Not only are we going to agree on what chemicals we test for, we are going to agree on where we test, and we are going to agree on the laboratories. We are not going to go to this expense only to have some other question crop up.”
Pump Charges
The board also approved lowering pump charges an average of 15% in the district’s ten pump zones.
The pump charges were increased a total of 75% two years ago after the electrical deregulation sent prices skyrocketing.
Although electrical prices are still high, staff felt that at least some of the increases could be returned.
During the time that the higher pump charges have been in effect, the district was able to restock the rate stabilization reserve, which had holes shot in it two years ago and was completely spent.
The reserve is now back to over $1 million.
“We think it’s prudent to reduce the rate rather than continue to build up the reserve,” said Arant.
The first of what will be an annual event, Harvest 4Kids will be hosted At Bell Gardens Farm on Saturday, Sept. 21, 3-10 p.m. This effort will support the education projects of both Bell Gardens Farm and the San Diego County 4-H Youth Education Foundation, celebrating 100 years of service.
These non-profit organizations have come together for the first time. The celebration will honor retired, Marine veteran, Glen W. Bell Jr. and B. Diane Wallace for their contributions to the community.
Bell Gardens Farm was established in 1993 by Taco Bell founder Glen W. Bell Jr.—a philanthropist with a desire to educate others about America’s rich agricultural heritage. 4-H has been a San Diego County staple since 1914 and B. Diane Wallace has been instrumental in 4-H programs since 1982.
Harvest 4Kids will take place on the 115 acres of Bell Gardens Farm and will include a wine tasting, a silent auction, and dancing under the moonlit stars featuring Hill Country and the KSON Roadshow and new recording artists Hatfield Rain.
Guests will dine on hors d’ouvres, a full-course barbecue dinner, dessert, and get the chance to see the farm by train, hayride or pulled by a team of horses on the Wells Fargo’s infamous stagecoach.
The Orpha Family Cloggers, Four Winds and the Inter-Tribal Dancers and the Ahkinmai Ballet Folk Lorico dancers are just a few of the exhibitions that will be featured as part of this first annual event.
Tickets are $75. For information visit the Bell Gardens websiteat <http://www.bellgardensfarm.com/>www.bellgardensfarm.com or call 749-4053.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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