August 24, 2005 - Top Stories
Valley Center/Pauma schools will begin Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005.
School Hours:
Primary School
• Kindergarten, early morning session — 8:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
• Kindergarten, late morning session — 10 a.m. to 2:05 p.m.
• Grades 1-2 — 8:20 a.m. to 2:05 p.m.
Elementary Lower School
• Grades 2-3 — 8:15 a.m. to 1:55 p.m.
• Grade 4 — 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Elementary Upper School
• Grades 5-6 — 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Middle School
• Grades 7-8 — 8:25 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
High School
• Grades 9-12 — 7:37 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, & Friday (traditional schedule days)
• 7:37 a.m. to 2:07 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday (block days)
Pauma School
• Grades K-8 — 8:20 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Lilac School
• Kindergarten, early morning session — 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Kindergarten, late morning session — 10:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
• Grades 1-3 — 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
• Grades 4-5 — 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Playground supervision begins at 7:30 a.m. at the K-8 schools.
Traffic congestion around the schools the first day is always a problem. Parents wishing to transport their children the first day should plan on arriving well before school begins.
School lunches will be $1.50 for grades K-8 and $2 for grades 9-12. Milk will also be available for students bringing their lunches at a cost of 25¢. Breakfast will be served at a cost of 75¢ for grades K-8 and $1 for grades 9-12. It is highly recommended parents pre-pay their children’s lunches. Schools may be called for more information.
Classroom assignments for grades 2-6 were posted at their respective schools beginning Aug. 19. Classroom assignments for grades 7-8 will be posted at the middle school, Friday, Aug. 26 at 3 p.m. Parents of students K-1 will receive a letter notifying them of their child’s placement. Students and parents are encouraged to review the posted listings prior to school opening. This will familiarize students with their homeroom assignments prior to the first day.
Parents will receive a packet of information at the end of the first day of school for grades K-8. They should take time and care to fill out this paperwork. Included in the package will be two cards — a data & a health card — advising how we can reach parents in case a child becomes ill at school or in case of emergency. New data cards are required for each student each year, K-12 grade.
Kindergarten teachers will be holding “Getting Acquainted” meetings with their prospective students the week of Aug. 22. Just a reminder that K-1 students who ride the school bus home will be brought back to school if a parent is not at the bus stop to pick them up, or unless they have a note on file with the school district.
Pauma Elementary School will be offering both an extended day kindergarten and an early admission kindergarten program. For more information call Pauma Elementary at 742-3741.
The YMCA and Boys & Girls Club sponsor after school child care and recreation programs. Their phone numbers are 749-7951 (YMCA) and 749-9822 (Boys & Girls Club). A Head Start Program for 3 & 4 year olds is also available. Their phone number is 751-0865. We will be providing after school day care at Pauma and Lilac this year. Prices will be comparable to the YMCA. Contact the school office if you are interested.
Those with questions regarding the start of school may call their child’s school. The telephone numbers for the schools are: Primary School — 749-8282; Elementary Lower — 749-1631; Elementary Upper — 749-8555; Middle School — 751-4295; Pauma School — 742-3741; Lilac School — 751-1041; High School — 751-5500; Oak Glen High School — 751-0455. You can also visit our we page: www.vcpusd.net
Bus schedules are published in the Back To School magazine being mailed to all area homes this week. Clip and save. Bus Evacuation Week is scheduled for the weeks of Sept. 19 and Sept. 26.
The very first charity golf tournament to be held at Woods Valley Golf Course is coming your way!
The Valley Center High School Foundation is hosting the 2nd Annual VCHS Foundation Charity Golf Tournament on Thursday, Sept. 15, at Woods Valley Golf Club.
Sign in starts at noon with a 1 p.m. shotgun start (scramble format). Lunch will be served at noon.
Enjoy a day of fun, golf and prizes while benefiting the Valley Center High School Foundation.
The Valley Center High School Foundation is a broad based non-profit community organization whose purpose is to support, promote and help maintain quality educational and extracurricular welfare of all students within Valley Center High School.
The price for an individual golfer is $95, which includes 18 holes of golf with cart (scramble format), two drink coupons, lunch and dinner, “goody” bag and post-tournament festivities.
There are many fun and exciting ways you or your business can help with this year’s charity event. It’s not too late! Become an event sponsor.
For details or questions regarding the tournament sign up or sponsorship, call Sean Murphy at (760) 801-2378 or email murphyclan@vcweb.org.
Everybody gets a new set a clothes every once in a while, and so it is with newspapers.
Students, in particular like to go to their new classes in new threads.
So it is quite appropriate that in two weeks, just in time for the first week of school, The Roadrunner will premiere a new look.
Our art director Kelly Effinger has been working on the new look all summer, and she’s ready to unveil it.
It’s clean. It’s more modern looking. It’s less busy. It’s NOT more uptown, because, let’s face it, we’re not uptown. We’re country. But it is fresh, breezy and stimulating, like a spring breeze.
Look for it on Sept. 7 and take a whiff!
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.
By LISA SHARP
At the age of 23, Nick Bishop already has four years of firefighting experience under his belt.
Most people his age just graduated from college and are wondering what the heck they are going to do with that liberal arts degree. Not him, though. He decided what the rest of his life would look like at 15.
“When I was younger, my parents got into an accident and they received a lot of help from the fire department,” said Bishop. “And I thought that would be cool to do, so when I was 15, I checked out the Fire Explorer Program in Temecula.”
The Fire Explorer Program exposes young adults to the different aspects of firefighting and career choices within the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection system.
A week or two into the program, Bishop knew firefighting was it for him. He finished out his last year of the Fire Explorer Program at 18 and put himself through the Fire Academy in Northern California.
That background helped prepare him for the realities of firefighting.
“I knew at least somewhat, what to expect,” he said. “But there is still so much to learn and it is just a really different atmosphere [to be working at the fire station in Valley Center].
“I came from a more [urban] area so there are some definite differences being here in a rural area. One of the first things I had to do was learn the roads. If we make a wrong turn out here and we are on our way to a life-threatening medical emergency, seconds count, and that really weighs heavy on you.”
At some point Bishop would like to make his way back to the more urban areas, preferably the ones a little closer to the coast. But for now he’s content in VC.
“The people here are great. We are [at the station] more than at home so we make it fun,” he said.
Working four 24-hour shifts in a row is a lot of time to put in at the office.
The live-in atmosphere is one of the many things that sets firefighting apart from other occupations. Their schedules don’t run like most, with the 8 a.m. coffee followed up by a meeting, some time spent spacing out in front of a computer and then a long commute home.
They are up at 6 a.m. for an hour-long workout, usually hiking, then they all have breakfast together and spend the majority of the morning cleaning the station. Late mornings and afternoons are spent training for a variety of things from structural fire drills to medical emergencies. At night they study and relax.
One person cooks for everyone each day and they even have smaller cabin-like buildings for each activity.
Sounds like camp doesn’t it?
Camp with an emphasis on savings lives and land. Calm afternoons spent training are often broken up with a call over dispatch, which is just what happened last Tuesday.
A fire on the La Jolla Reservation called the firefighters out of their heat induced comas around 12:30 p.m.
After a brief check on directions to ensure no wrong turns, they were suited up and on the fire engine headed north on Valley Center Road.
Along with Bishop’s engine, an air support supervisor, two air tankers (to drop fire retardant), two helicopters, four other fire engines, two hand crews, a bulldozer and a battalion chief were also dispatched. All that for a fire that “wasn’t that big.”
So really, it is not funny to make 911 calls about fires that don’t exist.
“Every time someone calls 911 and says ‘I see a fire in Valley Center,’ [that’s] who shows up,” said Bishop. “People aren’t aware [of who is] responding. That is standard for any call out.”
Upon arrival to the one-acre fire, Valley Center firefighters worked with the Rincon engine, fighting the fire from the ground while the air crews dropped fire retardant to contain it. Hand crews cut a line around the fire for containment and after surrounding it, they “mop up” making sure all the ashes have been put out and the heat is gone.
OK, so maybe not like camp after all.
Bishop’s days are more often like this than not, despite the record rains of last winter.
“People think that things are calm this year,” he said. “But that is because unless it is a really big fire, no one really knows about it. We have actually had an increase in smaller fires than last year because of the rain. It produced a lot more grass than we haven’t had before. [With more to burn] there is a better chance of there being a fire.”
No matter the size of the fire, the VC crews are throwing everything they’ve got at it.
“Basically they stay busy all day long,” said Rick Johnson, an engineer from the VC district fire station. “At our stations in Valley Center, we lean on the firefighters a lot more than some places. They have to know their stuff and be alert so they are always studying and training.”
A few tips for this fire season from Bishop:
Don’t be careless with cigarettes, candles, etc.
Always have a fire extinguisher on hand.
And should a fire start, call 911 not the fire station.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
Copyright © 2005, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.