December 13, 2006 - Top Stories
With the holidays fast approaching, so is a new year and the opportunity of one talented, intelligent, and well-spoken young woman to become Miss Valley Center.
The 2007 Miss Valley Center Pageant will be held Saturday, March 10 at the Maxine Theater. This year the theme will be “An American in Paris.”
Miss Valley Center serves as an ambassador of the community throughout the San Diego area, gains the admiration of fellow residents and has the opportunity to win over $3,500 in scholarships, cash, and prizes.
This will be the 40th year the unincorporated area of Valley Center will crown a queen.
Entries for the March 10, 2007 Pageant are available from the high school, Mimi’s Nails, Video Playhouse, or call Debra Jockinsen, the Pageant Director.
Get your entries in soon. You can mail your entries to the Valley Center Pageant Assn., POB 2177, Valley Center, CA 92082-2177. Deadline for entries is Jan. 13, 2007.
Orientation will be on Jan.13, 2007 at 11 a.m. at Ann’s School of Dance. It is mandatory that each contestant attend.
Contestants must be 17 years of age and no older than 25 by May 1, at least a junior at an accredited high school, never been married or pregnant and of high moral character.
The pageant includes opportunities for personal growth, scholarship funds, many prizes and experiences that last a lifetime.
Holly Hart, Miss VC 2006, has spent her reign attending many high profile community and charitable events throughout San Diego.
The Miss Valley Center Pageant is produced by the Valley Center Pageant Assn., a non-profit organization, committed to providing opportunities for the education and personal growth for young women in Valley Center. Donation of goods, services and education funds help improve the program.
For more information, contact VCPA President, Debra Jockinsen at 751-1051.
One month after the attack by two boxer dogs that so cruelly disrupted her life, Dr. Nancy Matthews is up and walking around.
The Valley Center veterinarian called The Roadrunner this week to say that she is on the mend, although “it still hurts so much. It feels like my muscles are being sawed on.”
Her fever is past. She had developed angina and a temporary heart murmur. Both have passed.
She wants to thank all of the many people who called, provided meals, sent cards and flowers, after she was attacked. “You can’t physically thank everyone in person, because there are so many of them,” she said. “Thank you for your prayers.”
She has high praise for her plastic surgeon who has been working to repair the damage done by the dogs’ jaws. There is still much work to be done. At least another additional surgery will be required.
The surgeon repaired the muscles that were hanging out and turned the ragged holes into neat lines. Dr. Matthews was also afflicted by delirium and uncontrollable muscle contractions that eventually passed.
“Exposing my vanity, I’ll admit that I get down counting the ninety scars and dents where muscle is missing, bulges where fascia (muscle coat) is missing. I’m sore in the neck and back,” she said.
“I feel like the surgeon has done a fabulous job!” she said.
She worries that her little boys, 8 and 11, who were with her at the time of the attack, may never feel comfortable around dogs again, even the gentle corgies and border collie that the family owns.
Her youngest, Heath, the one the boxers initially went for before his mother distracted them, won’t cross the yard to the sandbox without an escort.
“Right now they are petrified of dogs,” she says.
“I don’t see how Heath and Patrick will ever get over the horror entirely. Going from a happy, sunny walk-jog to almost getting killed and seeing their mom and protector get ripped apart has shaken their sense of security. For weeks Heath was afraid of our own dogs and wouldn’t go outside alone. An old dog on a leash is terrifying. It will take time. It’s really affected how they see the world.
“I think it’s important that they know what happened to them isn’t what should be expected on a walk. It’s not normal. It’s not OK. It’s important for them to know that people care about them and what happened. And most important, that because of what we went through—something has changed. Action has been taken. So this doesn’t happen to to another child, a child that could be killed.”
Dr. Matthews doesn’t entirely understand how she moved fast enough to get between the dog and Heath at the time of the attack.
The 8-year old later told her: “The dog looked at me with blood thirst in his eyes and Mommy got in the way.”
“The dog lunged past me,” recalls Dr. Matthews, “and I after the dog.
“Then it was a prolonged blur of pain and terror for the boys. I kept begging the boys to leave. I didn’t know where the boys were or how long I could keep the dogs busy. When I realized they were killing me, I didn’t want the boys to see the result. That pain was worse than being eaten alive.”
Then, for an agonizing time at the hospital, Dr. Matthews thought Heath was dead and no one was telling her.
Dr. Matthews, as a vet who specializes in treating horses, has many times treated the kinds of wounds that dogs inflict on them.
She knows that they go for the throat. That was why, when they attacked, she pulled herself into a ball to protect her throat and face.
“I knew what they were going for,” she said.
That’s why she finds it so amazing that she’s still alive.
She doesn’t want anyone to think that she is down on dogs in general, just on dogs that are trained, or bred to attack.
“These dogs didn’t behave normally. A dog may bite when cornered, from fear, as a herding instinct or when defending his territory—that’s understandable to me. If he was protecting his territory he should have attacked me, the biggest and most confident. But his intended target was Heath, the smallest and most vulnerable.
“It also wasn’t normal that they would not stop short of death. I realized I was soon to be dead when I heard the shrill screams from the boys, and the growls from the dogs coming from a distance away and I was seeing the scene from a different perspective. I made the mistake of getting onto my hands and knees giving the dog the opportunity to get under me where he had access to my face and neck. Thank God the woman who beat them off with a rake wasn’t a minute later.
“This kind of thing just shouldn’t happen!” she said. “But a friend just called me to say a hundred-pound rottweiler has come onto their property twice chasing her son in Escondido. It’s just a matter of time. Does it have to take an actual death before preventive action will be taken?”
But the bottom line, she said, “is that we are just extremely grateful that the kids were uninjured. Whenever my pain jolts me, thinking about that makes it bearable.”
It’s a cliche to say then when someone retires that it represents the passing of an era, but with Sarah Clayton, it’s really true.
The assistant superintendent’s retirement party Friday brought out employees from the school district stretching back over her 27-year career at the district.
They included Harry Weinberg, Jeff Mulford, Karen Jobe, Gary Wilson, Lydia Vogt and Paul Lahr.
She truly is the last of the old guard, now that almost all who worked at the district in the1970s and 80s are gone.
Dr. Clayton was praised by speakers that included two of her former bosses, retired superintendents Dr. Harry Weinberg and Dr. Jeff Mulford, and her current boss, Dr. Lou Obermeyer, who said, “You’ve truly been the wind beneath my wins and our wings.”
According to Dr. Weinberg: “She changed us all in that nice quiet way. I never heard anyone say anthing bad about Sarah.”
Dr. Mulford added, “I’m sad for you today because you have lost another great one.” He noted that in any organization there is always one or two who are guardians of its traditions. “Sarah has been that guardian. She has not been a screamer or a fighter. She just did the job well!”
All talked about how much each had depended on her good judgment.
She was credited by Olivia Leschcik with being the architect of the current very successful bilingual program She was held up as the steadying influence that held the district together, no matter who happened to be in charge at the top.
At the end of the modest tribute, a tearful Dr. Clayton (who HATES to talk in front of crowds), thanked a few people who helped her. “To Harry, who believed I could be an adminstrator. Jeff, who beleived I could be an assistant superintendent, Ev [her husband] who supported me during through all the years, and my father, who believed I could do anything.”
Ken Clark was named assistant superintendent of the VC-Pauma Unified School District at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
He replaces retiring assistant superintendent Sarah Clayton.
Clark has been with the district for eight years, three of them as principal of the high school and the last five as director of curriculum.
“I’m excited about taking on a new challenge and I look forward to serving the district in a new role,” Clark told The Roadrunner.
He will continue to serve as director of curriculum. Those duties will be rolled into the job. That will result in a cost savings of not having to backfill that position, which may save as much as $100,000 a year.
This savings will allow the district to reassign an assistant principal to the middle school, which has been without one this year.
“We’re going to redistribute a lot of the duties of other departments,” Clark said. “Two years ago we did a study of the organization of the duties of the district and recommended reorganizing responsibilities.”
Dr. Clayton had been responsible for personnel, supervision of staff and a combination of things. Some of those duties, such as transportation and maintenance and operations, will be transferred to the business office, under Pam Moe.
“We’re trying to organize the duties more so they are vertically aligned as far as responsibilities that match. Then we’ve working real hard to make sure that key responsibilities are covered,” said Clark.
In addition to curriculum, Clark will be in charge of educational services, special education, pupil personnel (suspensions, expulsions, alternative placement, student enrollment) and the Maxine Theater.
He will focus more on things having to do with the classroom.
“The key thing is that Sarah has been such a key player at the district for such a long time,” he said. The hardest thing about replacing her will be to maintain the district’s “history” or “culture.”
“Obviously there are a lot of people who have that history. I will be calling on them to help us out so that we maintain our commitment to people and students and continue to improve,” said Clark.
He officially begins his job at the first of the year. However, he and Dr. Clayton have been meeting with other department leads to begin the transition.
Clark has a broad background in education and considerable experience both within this district and at other districts.
This, he feels, provides him with some perspective to take on the new role.
“I very much appreciate the confidence that the board has demonstrated and I look forward to working with Dr. Obermeyer, building on the accomplishments of the past, and growing into a very positive future,” he said.
Clark lives in Temecula with his wife, Helen, who is principal of the Helen Hunt Jackson Independent Studies School in Hemet.
Larry Glavinic, the grand old man of the VC planning group (well, he might object to that, so how about “the dean”?) retired Monday after 16 years at the job.
He was honored with a little ceremony, and three former members of the planning group, Mel Schuler, Jim Yerdon and Craig Adams, spoke glowingly of his service.
“It’s been a better place because you donated your time,” said Yerdon.
“Every time he speaks to an issue he was always well researched and well prepared. He was always polite and a great example for people to follow. He was always sticking up for the little guy,” observed Adams.
Schuler said, “I try to think why anybody would do that for sixteen years and it can’t be any other reason than that you want your community to be better.”
His wife, Susan, thanked the group, “for keeping him out of my hair for sixteen years!”
Not to be outdone, Glavinic presented the group with a “tombstone,” on which retiring members who complete their terms can inscribe their names.
During Glavinic’s four terms he spent five years as chairman. He was always one of the most active and outspoken members.
Glavinic first ran for the group during a very controversial time, when much of the community was split over the VC sewer issue.
“My wife’s boss said nobody knows you, so you ought to run,” Glavinic recalls.
He did so and won in 1990.
Nobody would ever say that serving on the planning group is a glorious or glamorous job. What motivated him?
“It’s easy to be a taker. I’ve been a taker my whole life and I felt it was time to give back. Further, I come from the Los Angeles basin, and was born there. So I saw it going from little communities to a megalopolis, and communities losing their identify. I hoped I might be able to help guide Valley Center away from the loss of total community identify.”
He feels reasonably successful about that goal, “although probably not because of me, but because of topography and a real no growth attitude in the County of San Diego.”
When he first joined the planning group Glavinic worked to not have a total adversarial relationship with the County. “I wanted the planning group to be a team player with the decision makers in the county.”
That, too, was somewhat successful, he feels. “The unfortunate thing is that the county planners that came to Valley Center had little power and some cases were not Valley Center’s best advocates.
The result, he says, “was the ‘smart growth’ mantra, which was a urban mantra trying to be superimposed on Valley Center.
“The County ultimately realized that in the nine years that General Plan 2020 has gone on, that their first blush at it, Alt. 3, got thrown out and the subsequent six years they worked with it has been with a lot of discontent in the whole county, including Valley Center.
“They did not do as good a job working with communities like Valley Center that wanted to be team players, and the controversy continues to this late date.”
The most rewarding thing about the job is the people. “Valley Center has got a hell of a lot of great people. Just having the opportunity to rub elbows with them was very good. Not just members of the planning group, but the citizens of Valley Center who came forward with their projects.”
Glavinic has some thoughts on how to make the planning groups more effective:
“If I was the Board of Supervisors, the first thing I would do is reduce the size from fifteen to maybe eleven. I would make them territorial, divisions. In the event the planning group has a supermajority on a vote, if the planning commission overrules that, I would require that it go to the Board of Supervisors.”
Of course, he is a realist, and concedes that no supervisor really wants planning groups to be effective, because it would dilute their political power.
“Bottom line is that they want input but they don’t want to hear what the input is.”
The long term issue VC faces, “is that we have a definitive plan which is the overriding document for Valley Center. Yet every time the County updates its general plan, the key concepts and guidelines seem to be at risk.
“An example: during the first blush of GP 2020, Valley Center was one huge village, when historically there were two villages.
“Trying to retain VC’s rural character is at odds with the circulation methodologies the County uses, i.e. they will widen the road from two to four lanes before they will ever build a new road.”
Lastly, he says, “Something has gotten out of proportion. Planning needs to be balanced, however if you need to cross a blue line, a creek or riparian area, the county will not execute smart judgment in doing so, in fear of being sued by one of the eight regulatory bodies that looks after blue lines.”
Glavinic will continue to be involved with the “tribal forum” (North County Inland Regional Leadership), which he helped found.
“Over time we have been divided and conquered and the attempt with the tribal forum is to get people with like interests together to champion things good for our region,” he says.
“There is no mechanism right now to allow related planning groups together to address regional issues. This to me is the key to future planning.”
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
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