August 17, 2005 - Top Stories
The Maxine Theater is three quarters of the way constructed and moving towards completion by November 4, and a Theater Premiere is planned for Saturday, November 19. The facility will provide 550 seats in an intimate theater setting, with a state of the art rigging system for flying sets. The theater project still needs $250,000 in funding to complete the $1.7 million match from the State. There is a possible $75,000 grant being pursued, but the school district is looking at ways to complete the remainder of the match by the November Premiere event. Donors may also purchase a brass sign on a theater chair with a $500 donation. Those interested in contributing to this final fund raising effort are asked to contact Karen Jobe, Superintendent, at 749-0464.
By DAVID ROSS
For the next few months motorists will see unfamiliar squad cars on Hwy 76 and the South and East grades of Palomar Mountain.
Sheriff’s deputies, police from Escondido and Oceanside, as well as California Highway Patrol cars will all be taking part in a series of 14 enforcements, with half of them on the mountain.
“Motorcyclists, beware! We’re going to be there!” announced Lt. Rich Rennie at a press conference held near the summit of the mountain on Wednesday. “Citizens, slow down, be patient. We’re taking care of it,” he said, speaking to the mountain residents who have been terrorized by racing bikers.
Sheriff’s Lt. Sean Gerrity, commander of the VC substation, was also at the press conference. He noted that VC deputies will be actively participating in the crackdown.
“We’re aware of many problems we’ve had along Hwy 76 and on Valley Center Road,” he said. “We will bring additional personnel from other stations to our station.”
This beefed up police presence will be paid for out of a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety. The CHP has also been authorized to allocate additional overtime to the enforcement effort.
Between August of 2003 and August of this year 61 motorcycle crashes took place on Palomar Mountain. And that’s just the crashes that were reported.
None of them were fatalities, but the number of crashes is clearly on the rise.
Motorcyclists have been racing on Palomar Mountain for many years, said Rennie, but it has reached a level on the mountain and in surrounding areas, that authorities worry that the sort of crime that accompanies racers will also rise. This includes drunken driving, fights and drug use.
Because such crime is, by its nature, mobile, the response has to be mobile. That’s why so many allied agencies will be involved in the crackdown, he said.
The California Highway Patrol has received a grant to crack down on the rice rocket joy riders, sideshows and street racing between now and March of 2006.
It will be assisted by “allied agencies” such as the VC Sheriff’s Dept.
Although it is not a party to the grant, the County’s Dept. of Public Works will be contributing to the safety push by putting signs at the bottom and top of the grade that urge bikers to ride safely.
And as if that weren’t enough, DPW Traffic Engineer Hank Morris added that the County will be adding mile markers every .2 of a mile, instead of every half mile, as it is now. This will make it easier to pinpoint the location of an accident, said Morris.
As to measures that might force motorcycles to moderate their speeds (such as “dots” on the double yellow line), Morris said the County is limited in what it can do.
“We’re not looking to injure anybody,” he said, adding that the job of actually slowing down the joyriders is the responsibility of law enforcement. “We’re here to support them.”
A curriculum audit of the All Tribes American Indian Charter School a year before its charter comes up for renewal shows serious flaws in the Indian school.
However, it has also inspired Indian students to attend classes more regularly than before, improved academic performance, and created more interest in school.
Students are drawn by smaller classes and studies in Indian culture and language.
The audit, performed by a team composed of Ken Clark, director of curriculum, Andy Andreoli and Jane Hozmann, was presented to the school board at its Aug. 9 meeting.
According to the audit, one of the positive things the school is doing is “creating a positive option for students who are not comfortable, or have not experienced success in the regular school environment. Parents consistently voiced support for the teachers and school leadership. Student performance on STAR has improved to a 511 API.”
The team also noted a growing interest from the Rincon Tribal Council to provide more funding for the school.”
However, the audit also identified several areas of concern:
• “Parents are concerned about the level of academic rigor and consistent communication with the school and teachers on student performance related to state content standards.”
• “The Team is concerned that parents were not able to demonstrate knowledge of the ‘Three-Way Contract’ described in the Charter.”
• “The Team is concerned that the Governenance Council is not functioning within the guidelines described in the charter, nor is the Board exercising oversight necessary to insure [sic] the school becomes a viable organization.”
The report also noted that while electricity is provided to the classrooms, it isn’t provided to several other buildings, including the administrative office. “The frustration with getting approval from the Rincon Tribal Council to increase the electrical supply continues.”
Another problem is that classrooms are not cleaned regularly. “The impression that you get is one of disorder,” says the report.
While the main campus is trash free, “The areas behind the main buildings are littered with old boxes and metal banding material. The areas behind the main buildings are littered with pieces of wood and other cast-off materials.”
Another criticism was a lax classroom climate.
“There was a consistent evidence of a lack of professionalism in the office and in interactions between staff and students. Attire worn by staff does not always represent the image appropriate for school employees. . . . Students demonstrate disrespect for staff, and are not consistently confronted with their behavior,” said the report.
One damning assessment was of “standards in the classroom,” where the report proclaimed: “There is no evidence of a school-wide process to review student performance data for improvement of instruction.”
It also criticizes the leadership of the school by noting that “The Director, [Mary Ann Donahue] is unable to devote the time necessary to develop curriculum, supervise instruction, communicate effectively with parents, community members and the governance council members and build collaboratives to support student success while maintaining other responsibilities including driving the bus and cleaning rest rooms.”
On the progress side, employees from Home Depot have “adopted” the campus and are coming this month to set up a library and computer lab.
Mary Ann Donahue, the charter school’s principal, counters that the school is getting its financial house in order.
The audit included interviews with students and staff of the school, governance council members, parents and residents, examination of documents and observation.
Mary Ann Donahue, the principal of the school, responded to many of the criticisms, pointing out that the school’s improvement in test results, “was the second highest improvement in San Diego County. . .”
The “concern with academic rigor,” she declared, was felt by parents to be Ken Clark’s “agenda.”
According to Donahue, the report leaves off support of many tribal organizations, including All Mission Indian Housing Authority, Pauma Reservation, the Palomar College Luiseno class, the Tribal Digital Village, Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Assn., the Indian Health Council Clinic and Viejas Indian Reservation.
She shrugs off criticisms of debris and trash lying about by stating that classroom cleaning happens on weekends and that one instance where the team found a spider web in the corner was actually a classroom science project.
“Regarding the disorganization issue, that would again be me, Ms. Donohue. As there is not electricity in the office and I spend most of my time teaching, my classroom, can become cluttered with not only classroom materials, but also a lot of the administrative business that I must keep up with day to day. Mr. Andreoli, I believe describes it best when he referred to it as ‘an organized, disorganization.’ The room appearance has taken a back seat to the more pressing issues such as instruction and keeping up with administrative needs.”
Donahue also defended teachers’ appearance: “What is the ‘image appropriate for school employees’? By whose standard is this determined? An administrator of mine once told me, ‘If they (students) can’t relate to you, they won’t relate to you.’
“Our students relate to our staff very well. They are comfortable on this campus. They will come to us if they need help. This is an unfair evaluation. The attire is different depending on whether Ms. Parada is going to be working with the pigs, or if Ann Mollica is working in the non air conditioned office in 100 degree weather.”
She concluded: “For a school our size the number of Community partners and extra curriculum activities is very high. If finances were not an issue, a full time teacher could be hired and the Administrator could spend more time on the Administrative role during the regular work day.
“This year we have paid the initial $250,000 revolving loan back to the State of California in full. That took three years. We have purchased the relocatable classrooms that we are now occupying. We no longer have lease payments of $5,000 a month on the trailers we initially leased. This coming year, once we receive the Impact Aid funds in December or January will have us financially in a very good position.
“At that time, additional teachers and a custodian may be hired. But until all the bills are paid, we have to tighten our belt. We have approached some Indian Tribes to seek assistance. If there is a response. These goals may be accomplished earlier.”
The Roach family, which lost a daughter to the Paradise fire of October 2003, and whose other daughter was badly burned , claims that the Rincon tribe is “stonewalling” them in their pursuit of a hearing for damages.
The family (John & Lori Roach, their son, Jason, 24, and daughter, Allyson, 22), claims the alleged delaying tactics are intended to help Harrah’s Entertainment which they are suing separately.
The Roaches have sued both the tribe and Harrah’s Entertainment, developers of the Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort, in federal court.
The original lawsuit asked the Rincon Band to waive the sovereign immunity that shields it from being sued without its tribal council’s consent.
The tribe refused and sought unsuccessfully to extend its immunity to Harrah’s, which then became the sole defendant in the federal court lawsuit.
In September of 2004, the court agreed with Harrah’s contention that the Roaches had not gone through the tribe’s judicial review before suing the casino giant in federal court. It ruled that the Roaches’ complaint against Harrah’s must first be exhausted through a hearing process before the Rincon Tribal Council before taking it to federal court.
On July 15 the tribe issued a tentative ruling that denied the claim. This was expected, but at the end of the ruling the tribe agreed to hear 20 minutes of oral arguments on Aug. 18.
The Roaches now claim that Rincon is attempting to stonewall them by first setting a hearing date, and then rescheduling it on a date (Sept. 6) when their attorneys said they could not attend.
According to their attorney Dean Broyles, “We feel we are totally being stonewalled. They keep trying to make it inconvenient. Not returning phone calls is not cooperating and setting dates that people can’t attend is not cooperating.”
“Our concern is that they are trying to manipulate the process. It appears to be a shell game,” Broyles told The Roadrunner. He views this as an attempt to help Harrah’s in its lawsuit with the Roaches.
Lori Roach told The Roadrunner: “We are extremely disappointed that the tribe has taken so long to respond to our claims, has so far refused to give us a fair hearing, and is refusing to cooperate with our legal counsel on a hearing date. By ignoring our requests, failing to respond and moving dates at the last minute, we feel that they are continuing to stonewall our case.”
She added: “Our authorities have still not arrested the arsonist. The arsonist that started the Cedar Fire has already been prosecuted and ours remains free . . .ready to strike again. Which way will the fire burn next time? How many other homes will he be allowed to destroy? How many other people will he kill, after all, he's responsible for two deaths right now. We need to put public pressure on the witnesses who refuse to come forward and give testimony against this person.”
The family is very frustrated that the arsonist has not been brought to justice.
“For two years, my family and I have been standing up, doing what we can to stop this person,” Mrs. Roach said.
“We’ve been trying to represent a community who is afraid to stand up with us. We aren’t going to quit, our daughters deserve better than that. The entire community deserves to have the man put behind bars for the rest of his life,” she said.
* * *
The family originally filed suit against Harrah’s and a separate claim against the Rincon Tribal Council for personal injuries suffered by the family members and the wrongful death of their 16-year-old daughter, Ashleigh.
She was one of two who died in the fire set by one or more suspected arsonists a half mile from the resort early the morning of October 26, 2003.
Several hours later, the unchecked fire spread beyond the reservation’s boundaries into Valley Center, consuming nearly 57,000 acres and destroying 221 homes, including the home the Roach family had lived in for seven years.
Two crows infected with the West Nile Virus were found in the back yard of a Valley Center home last week, according to County Vector Control.
Four other infected birds were found in the county in other communities, including El Cajon, Scripps Ranch, Oceanside and Solana Beach.
This is more than double the amount of infected birds found last year in the County.
San Diego County has been more successful in combating West Nile Virus than neighboring counties, and so far no cases have been reported this year.
However, the County’s supervising ecologist, Chris Conlan, advised residents to start taking precautions immediately.
This includes reporting fresh dead birds to the County. They should be birds that have apparently died of natural causes, not birds that have been shot or killed by other animals.
“Certain species of dead birds are the best indicators that the virus is active the area. They are very susceptible to the virus,” said Gary Erbeck, Director of the Department of Environmental Health. “It is important that the community continues reporting dead birds. It allows us to focus our resources where the virus is found.”
The bird species the County is interested in are crows, ravens, jays, hawks or owls
It is particularly important to avoid mosquitoes when they are most active, which is at dusk and dawn. Use a good mosquito repellent, whose active ingredient is DEET Picaridin or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus. Cover up your extremities with long sleeved shirts and long pants.
Another precaution is to eliminate standing pools of water, where mosquitoes breed.
West Nile Virus is spread by mosquitoes. It infects both humans and horses.
To report dead birds, mosquito breeding areas or inoperative swimming pools, or for more information about the West Nile virus and how to obtain mosquito fish, please call the County’s West Nile virus information line at 1-888-551-INFO (4636) or visit the official County West Nile virus website at www.SDFightTheBite.com.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
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Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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