“The governor last year declared 2008 to be the ‘Year of Education,’” commented the school district’s finance director Pam Moe with more than a hint of irony Thursday night as she laid out for the school board just what that term means for Valley Center’s classrooms, students and teachers.
Mrs. Moe said that this may be the greatest impact on educational funding since Prop. 13 was adopted in 1979.
For starters, it means that each classroom in California will be cut an average of $24,000. There’s no reason to suppose that things will improve next year or the one after that.
With Governor Schwarze-negger’s proposed emergency budget cutting 10% across the board, the VC-Pauma Unified School District faces losing between $2-4 million in next year’s budget.
Since it is known that the entire budget will be cut 10%, we asked Mrs. Moe why the district couldn’t be more precise about the impact on VC schools.
She replied, “The ten percent is to the entire state budget and we don’t believe that all of those cuts will hit education. It is very confusing and not likely to become any clearer for some time to come.”
California is looking at making up a $1.4 billion shortfall in the current year with across the board cuts. This includes $400 million in cuts to education, with $360 million for K-12 education.
In January the governor declared a fiscal emergency under the provisions of Prop. 58 and called the legislature into emergency session.
Voters adopted Prop. 58 in 2004. It authorizes the governor to declare a fiscal emergency when the state faces substantial revenue shortfalls or spending deficiencies during the course of a fiscal year. The is the first time its provisions have been implemented.
Once a fiscal emergency is declared the Governor is required to issue a proclamation that identifies the nature of the emergency and to propose a plan to address the problem.
The legislature is required to address the fiscal emergency within 45 days. If it fails to do so, it is prohibited from acting on any other legislation or from adjourning until it does.
Schwarzenegger has pledged to eliminate the budget gap through cuts, with no tax increases.
Although there are many unknowns, this much IS known:
• Districts must notify teachers by March 15 that they may not have a job next year, and must finalize those cuts in May.
• Districts must, unlike the Governor and Uncle Sam, submit a balanced budget.
• Districts must submit their balanced budget by June 30 and it must include a 3% reserve.
• BUT, districts will not have final numbers for at least five months, and many are speculating that this year will not be an on-time budget.
After Mrs. Moe completed her rundown, Board Pres. Lori Johnson summed up many observer’s reactions by breathing, “Wow!”
Trustee Doug Dechairo asked if the recent passage of four Indian casino compacts might not help the situation.
Mrs. Moe said that will bring in $9 billion over the next 20 years and this year’s deficit is $14 billion.
Supt. Lou Obermeyer told the board, “We have so far been able to cut our budget without cutting any students, and while not giving full cost-of-living (COLA) increases. We will be working with all of our employees as we pursue this.”
The Valley Center Planning Group Monday night sided with the developers of a small shopping center and voted to ask the Board of Supervisors to revise the TIF (Traffic Impact Fees) so they don’t penalize a development that will decrease traffic rather than generating it.
TIF are fees that a developer pays in order to mitigate increased traffic caused by the development. TIF for commercial developments in San Diego County are typically higher than for residential.
Bell Enterprises Chief Operating Officer Steve Flynn, who wants to build a medium-sized development centered around a Major Market, has been complaining that when the Board of Supervisors revised the fees two weeks ago they gave on the one hand while taking away with the other.
TIF was decreased by 40%, but credit for road improvements to serve the area was removed at the same time.
Bell Enterprises is looking at spending perhaps $1.5 million in road improvements. Under the old TIF that would have been credited against what they owe in fees. Under the new rules, it won’t.
“The TIF fee as it is today is flawed,” said Flynn Monday night. “What they call a reduction is for us no reduction.”
Planning group members agreed with Flynn and his architect Bill Lewis, who presented their calculations that the shopping center will cause traffic to decrease 8 million miles per year.
They arrived at this figure by taking the number of households in Valley Center, currently estimated at 8,100 and assuming that the market will cause those residents to drive 1,000 miles less per house per year, or 2.7 miles per day.
“The center will reduce the amount of travel by eight million miles a year. That’s a conservative number,” said Lewis.
Both Lewis and Flynn argued that Valley Center has far less commercial serving it than most communities this size. This forces many people to travel to Escondido or Fallbrook for basic services.
According to Lewis VC has been growing residentially but not commercially.
“The basic services have remainly constantly small,” he said.
Solana Beach, which has a similar population, has a Vons, Albertsons and Henry’s Market shopping centers.
“There’s a tremendous need in the community,” said Lewis.
The Bell family has owned the property on the east side of Valley Center Road & Mirar De Valle since 1981.
“We haven’t been able to do much with it but pay taxes and kind of mow it,” said Flynn.
“The County has given us a new moratorium,” with the TIF fees, he said.
“There hasn’t been anything new in Valley Center in commercial for thirty years. This fee is punative and it does not help with traffic, especially in Valley Center. It forces people to get into their cars and drive for services,” said Flynn.
“Commercial doesn’t generate traffic, residential generates traffic,” commented planner Keith Simpson, who made the motion to request that the supervisors revise the fees.
TIF fees are different depending on where you are. Every community has different rates and VC’s “is one of the highest if not the highest,” said Simpson.
His motion said, in part, “that we support making the TIF fees work.”
Sunday morning a 10-year-old boy whose foot was trapped under a boulder was rescued from a canyon in the area of North Lake Wohlford Road & Ahern Ranch Roads.
Firefighters got the 911 call about 11:21 a.m. on Sunday, according to VC Fire Chief John Kremensky.
VC Battalion Chief 3317, Engine 73, Medic 73, San Pasqual Reservation 6711, Brush 67, and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. were dispatched to a rescue call by Cal Fire.
First on scene, deputies found the boy and his father about 300 feet down a steep canyon. They reported that a boulder weighing about 500 pounds was on top of the boy’s left ankle. The three deputies and the dad were able to move the boulder off the ankle.
Paramedics reached the patient and conducted an evaluation. They determined that the boy had a possible fracture of his right ankle, so they stabilized the ankle in a splint.
Because of the remote location and steepness of the hillside, Incident Commander Nick Bishop assigned Eng. 73, Engine 6711 and Brush 67 to set up a rope rescue system and the boy was hauled up to the top of the hill.
The initial contact with the patient happened within five minutes, but because of the complexity of extrication from the canyon, the incident lasted nearly two hours.
After talking with the paramedics, the boy’s parents chose to take him to hospital themselves rather than by ambulance.
After the rescue fire crews took a quick break and hydration, and were back in service.
Several parents Thursday night stood with tears in their eyes and asked the school board not to close their school on Palomar Mountain.
School board members, equally grim and with voices hoarse with emotion, said that they had no choice.
“It is a very difficult decision. We as trustees are responsible for making fiscally prudent decisions,” said board Pres. Lori Johnson.
And so the Valley Center Pauma school board Thursday night voted unanimously to close down the one-room Palomar Mountain School at the end of the school year.
The school is the victim of declining enrollment, which is projected to be three or four students next fall, and budget realities.
Before the board made its decision trustees first heard grim news from financial director Pam Moe, who reported that the district faces losing between $2-4 million from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget which proposes cutting all school districts 10% across the board.
Then Supt. Lou Obermeyer reviewed the district’s efforts to save the school. These included asking State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth to sponsor a bill in Sacramento that would have provided “necessary small school” funding to make up for the $50,000 plus that the district is losing on the school (this year it will be $80,000). But the governor’s office indicated that he opposed the funding and the best deal they were able to get was money from the state for this year only.
When the school’s enrollment was at 11 students the district was able to make the numbers work. But at three or four students, the red ink cannot be washed away.
“It’s a very difficult thing but we need to consider what this means. We have been in a deficit for the last five years. Next year it would be under eighty thousand dollars.”
The mountain school has lost the district $240,000 over those several years.
“I recommend closing the school at the end of the school year,” she said.
Then the board heard from several speakers who asked the board not to close the school. They included two parents who have disabled students that the schools’ special attention to the basics have helped, they said.
Another parent, whose two children had successfully attended the mountain school spoke about how much that education had meant to his family.
Another speaker said he felt that the district had not done enough to recruit the many home schooled students that live on the mountain.
“If the school had made an effort to recruit it would have made a difference,” he said.
The property on which the school is located is owned by Cal Tech, which runs Palomar Observatory. It was deeded to the Pauma Elementary School District in 1950 with the stipulation that an education facility be maintained there. The buildings on the property belong to the district.
This year’s Western Days committee is planning a parade that will lead off with representatives of Valley Center’s military families, The Roadrunner has learned.
It will be in keeping with the theme of Western Days 2008, which will celebrate Valley Center’s armed services personnel serving abroad.
The plan that is under discussion is to have vehicles with military flags of each branch with a local family featured whose child, parent, spouse or significant other is serving abroad, OR multiple families representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and National Guard.
Families that have members serving overseas are encouraged to contact the Western Days committee through the VC Chamber of Commerce office: 749-8472.
Sunday’s events (part of the overall three-day Memorial Day Weekend) will have its own theme: “Celebrating Our Nation’s Great Heritage.” It will feature an area for the Hispanic population, serving Mexican food with a mariachi band, churros, etc., and an area featuring Native American cultural highlights such as the pow wow, bird singing, story telling, etc.
It is expected that several musical groups will perform during the parade and after, including the VCHS Marching Band, Orange Glen High School Band, Oceanside High School Band, Thunderhawk Roaring Jazz Band and the strings group with Rita Steele.
Once again the bands will be given cash stipends to encourage their participation.
Wires and powerlines down at the intersection of Valley Center & Lilac Roads Thursday morning shut down traffic for about four hours.
About 1:58 a.m. a large semi hauling a modular home encountered problems when it turned out to be higher than the wires supporting the traffic lights at the intersection.
The truck company pulling the load was from out of town from a company based in Riverside and had no connection to Valley Center.
The truck and its load made it about halfway through the intersection as it was turning left from Lilac onto VC Road before it became entangled. It brought down the overhead lights onto the north and west side of the intersection, according to Engineer Andrew King of the VC Fire Dept.
This is a County maintained road, so the Dept. of Public Works turned the repairs over to Archer Western, the contractor that is doing the road widening of VC Road.
There was some confusion later in the morning as motorists saw signs that warned that Lilac would be closed all day.
A Valley Center businesswoman, Maia Prinsen, who transports homes, told the Valley Center Planning Group Monday that the accident highlights a much larger problem: that of illegal, non-licensed truckers moving homes during times when it is illegal to do so.
According to her, it is only legal to move houses between the hours of 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
The woman, who has operated a trucking operation in VC for 14 years, said that she has been the target complaints about the accident ever since it happened, even though she had nothing to do with it. The Roadrunner received a call from one other trucking operation in town that made the same complaint.
“It’s unfair that people like myself abide by the rules, when others do not,” Prinsen told the planning group. “We need to get these people who are doing this and make them play by the rules. It’s a very dangerous job transporting these houses. We as a community need to rally to put a stop to this.”
This has become more of a problem since last year’s wildfires. People are moving new homes to replace those that were burned.
The Valley Center History Museum has started a campaign to raise $250,000 to give the museum a permanent endowment fund that it can draw on in perpetuity.
But the Valley Center Museum Guardian Fund is starting from the enviable position of already having raised $125,000.
That amount starts out on the large wooden thermometer that the museum had built and which will be visiting various locations in town.
The fund-raising slogan is “Preserving the Future of Valley Center’s Past.”
The museum, which is located next to the county library, has been very popular since opening in 2003. Since that time over 12,000 people have passed through its doors and under the shadow of its huge stuffed California grizzly bear.
That has included hundreds of school children and scouts. They have come from 33 states and 17 nations.
It is run entirely by volunteers with no admission charge. However it does pay a hefty rent of $1,680 per month to the County, although the museum itself was built entirely with donated funds. It also pays about $2,000 annually in insurance and $1,800 annually in utilities.
It does keep annual expenses to about $10,000.
Wayne Hilbig, a member of the museum’s board of directors, has started to take the thermometer around to various civic groups. Monday night he appeared before the VC planning group.
“We think the museum is a real cultural jewel for the community,” he said. The purpose of the Guardian fund, he said, is to raise enough money to perpetuate the museum forever.
“At the moment everyone is very dedicated but we don’t know what the future will hold. We want to create a fund where the museum can live off the interest without touching the principal.”
Any donation is tax deductible and every dollar will go into the endowment fund. The VC History Museum is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. Its tax ID# is 01-0606766. The museum’s address is 29200 Cole Grade Rd., Valley Center CA 92082.
For information call the museum at 749-2993. Or call the fund raiser’s chairman, Steve Harris at 749-0423.
Donors so far are the Coates family, $100,000; Rincon Band of San Luiseño Indians, $10,000; Alti/Butterfield Trails Ranch, $5,000; Bell Charitable Foundation, $5,000; VC Lions Club, $500.
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 © 2008, 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.