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The catch is that these schools, though part of local school districts, are on stateside bases and 94 percent of their students are military children.
There are 160 public schools on stateside bases, evidence of a bygone era when the only way to send military children to racially integrated schools was to build them on base. Other public schools are on bases because local communities lacked means to ensure military kids got a quality education.
All of these public schools on base were at one time under control of the Department of Education.
Twenty are still “owned” by the Department of Education even though all are run now by local school districts, explained Robert Gordon, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy.
The feeling on Capitol Hill is that military families suffer enough stress, with multiple war deployments of parents, that they shouldn’t have to watch public-run schools on base deteriorate because local school budgets have been hit hard by a deep recession and slow economic recovery.
So as part of the fiscal 2011 defense appropriations bill, Congress took the unprecedented step of adding a quarter of a billion dollars to be used to repair, renovate or replace schools previously thought to be the sole responsibility of local school systems and local taxpayers.
Working with local education agencies, the $250 million will be aimed at 30 or fewer schools whose facilities are rated by DoD engineering teams as “failing” due to rundown conditions or inadequate capacity, or as “poor” both in physical condition and in limited space, Gordon said.
More than half of schools found to be in most need of renovation are on rural Army bases including Fort Sill, Okla., Fort Bliss, Texas, Fort Polk, La., and Fort Riley, Kan. Public schools in need also are on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Naval Support Activity, Norfolk, Va., Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Wheeler/Schofield Army Airfield, Hawaii and other bases.
Here’s a link to a full list of the schools, where red and yellow bars indicate facility conditions of “failing” or “poor” and over capacity greater than 30 percent or 16 percent: http://cs.mhf.dod.mil/content/dav/mhf/QOL-Library/Project%20Documents/MilitaryHOMEFRONT/Leadership/Public%20Schools%20on%20Military%20Installations%20Priority%20List.pdf.
An assessment that place base schools into lower tiers of disrepair is concerning but not surprising, said Candace Wheeler, deputy director of government relations for the National Military Family Association. A lot of public schools on base are just very old, she said.
“Although many need upgrading or renovating, that doesn’t speak to the quality of education going on inside,” Wheeler added. “Many of them are doing an excellent job of educating our military children.”
Gordon said quality of education in these schools varies by district, as is true across the country. A point he preferred to emphasize is that every school on a military base is safe to attend, even those rated as failing.
“We don’t put our kids in unsafe schools,” Gordon said.
Wheeler said NMFA feel it’s time for public schools on base to be a “shared responsibility” of DoD and local districts. They are, after all, “on their installations [and] educating military children.”
In setting aside $250 million, Congress made “a very good start,” she said. NMFA hopes that isn’t viewed as a one-and-done appropriation.
DoD did not seek money to repair public schools on base and doesn’t plan to, Gordon suggested. But the $250 million is now “part of a larger strategic blueprint to increase quality education for our military children.”
He doesn’t know how far the money will go to address needed repairs. Defense officials won’t start allocating cash to projects until they meet with school districts to learn more about school needs.
“I can tell you that on the list of 160 schools, almost 50 percent of them are in good condition and have no capacity issues,” Gordon said.
When we noted that half of the schools were not in good shape, Gordon acknowledged that the condition of facilities could impact learning. But more important factors, he said, are “are good teachers, good curriculum, good principals [and] good superintendents.”
Wheeler made a similar point.
More than a million of 1.2 million military school-age children are educated off base, mostly in public schools, and unaffected by these plans.
The House Appropriations Committee first sounded an alarm on physically deteriorating schools for military children in 2008, focusing then on 195 schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity. DoDEA schools educate 86,000 military children in 12 foreign countries, seven states and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rica and Guam.
DoD teams rating the physical conditions at DoDEA schools gave a “failing” grade to 40 percent and an “under-maintained” rating to another 39 percent. Those statistics were shared with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a July letter from a dozen U.S. senators who urged him to work with Congress to help give military children the schools they deserve.
Defense officials say they are in the second year now of a six-year plan to repair or replace 134 DoDEA schools in poor or failing physical condition. The fiscal 2012 budget request seeks $550 million to “recapitalize” 15 schools, a figure that hints at how far $250 million might go toward reviving 30 or so public schools on base.
Those are schools with “urgent” needs, Gordon said.
“We do take this seriously,” Gordon said about conditions at these schools. “But we feel our kids are getting [a good] education.”
Meanwhile, DoD continues to assess the quality of education at DoDEA schools, reviewing curriculums to measure strength of studies in technology, mathematics and language skills, and weighing the effect of frequent deployments by parents on their children’s education, Gordon said.
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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – After nine months of planning, the transformation of the area around the Anderson Marsh Ranch House into a comfortable and pleasant place to have a great bluegrass experience is almost complete.
An enormous cargo parachute is hung between the huge trees in front of the Ranch House stage, creating a gigantic shady area for the audience as well as the picnic tables. There are two stages so the music is non-stop.
The sixth annual Old Time Bluegrass Festival is being held from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
The festival is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association (AMIA) and supports AMIA’s educational and preservation work at the Park .
The musical lineup is spectacular, with the opportunity to see headliners twice – once between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m., and again between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Enjoy Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands (two sets: 1:20 p.m. and 5 p.m.), The Stairwell Sisters (two sets: 2:30 p.m. and a dance set at 6 p.m.), and Pat Ikes and Bound to Ride (two sets: 12:40 p.m. and 3:40 p.m.).
Also performing are Mighty Chiplings (one set at noon), Fur Dixon & Steve Werner (4:20 p.m.), Three Deep (12:40 p.m.) and the Two Rock Ramblers (3:10 p.m.), plus local favorites The Cobb Stompers, The Konocti Fiddle Club and The Clear Lake Clikkers.
There are also areas created for musician’s workshops, children’s activities, food and craft vendors, a wine and beer garden, and art displays.
Local Explorer Scouts help with parking. Community volunteers welcome you at the entrance, take your ticket and staff booths. Students from Carle High School keep the grounds clean during the event, as well as assist with set-up and breakdown. Kiwanis Club of Clearlake volunteers at the beer and wine garden. Local law enforcement and emergency rescue is ready to assist if needed.
“The regional support for producing this event has been outstanding,” said Henry Bornstein, event coordinator. “We really appreciate the time and commitment put in by all of our volunteers that will help insure everybody has a great time. Come on out and join us.”
Advanced tickets can be purchased from one of the following businesses/organizations: in Clearlake at Marie’s Lakeshore Feed, Bob’s Vacuum and Highlands Senior Center; in Middletown at Earth Goods (formerly Moontide); in Lucerne at Lakeview Supermarket & Deli; in Lakeport at Strings & Things, The Band Box, Watershed Books and the Lakeport Senior Center; in Ukiah at Dig! Music; in Sebastopol at People’s Music and in Santa Rosa at The Last Record Store.
Seniors (60+) can get 20 percent off ($12 for each ticket) if purchasing advance tickets from either the Lakeport Senior Center, Lakeport, the Highlands Senior Center, Clearlake or from the Lakeview Supermarket & Deli in Lucerne.
To get advance tickets on line, go to www.andersonmarsh.org and follow the bluegrass link to purchase tickets.
If ordering advance tickets by mail, be sure to include your mailing address and phone number and send your check made out to AMIA to PO Box 672, Lower Lake, CA 95457. There is an additional $3 service charge (per total order) if tickets are purchased on-line or by mail.
Tickets ordered the last week will be held at will-call at the entrance.
More information about the Old Time Bluegrass Festival at www.andersonmarsh.org or call 707-995-2658 or email
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The grant funding will be used for Habitat’s Jobs-For-Homes Project, the organization reported.
The project will repair homes for low-income homeowners who cannot afford to pay for the needed work on their residence.
In addition, the project also is designed to hire and train local unemployed individuals to do the repair work.
“This is a win-win for Lake County, putting people to work and helping to improve the living conditions of our local citizens,” said Habitat for Humanity Lake County President Richard Birk.
Birk said the project will be augmented with the group's energy conservation Weatherization Pilot Program.”
Recently, Habitat for Humanity Lake County has embarked on several programs to help existing homeowners through its home repair program while at the same time maintaining its traditional self-help core mission of building new homes for families in need of a decent place to live.
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Since watermelon is a big player at summer picnics and backyard barbecues, it seems the perfect topic for Labor Day weekend.
No doubt many readers will enjoy its pink, juicy fleshiness during summer’s last hurrah, and I’ll be among them.
The watermelons of my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s were a different animal than most seen in today’s markets.
The huge and heavy deep green beauties of days gone by were only available in the summer and were chock full of slippery black seeds. The seeds were so plentiful, in fact, that they might’ve hindered one’s enjoyment of the sweet flesh, had they not been so fun to spit.
My first memory of eating watermelon was during a summer picnic in upstate New York when I was about 4 or 5 years old. The blissful juiciness of that experience landed watermelon on the top of my list of favorite foods for years afterward. It almost eclipsed the pony rides at the picnic, but not quite.
Today there are more than 1,200 varieties of watermelon, ranging in weight from less than a pound to more than 200 pounds, with flesh in colors that range from pink to red to orange, yellow or white. More and more seedless varieties appear on the market each year.
The world record weight for a watermelon is a bulky 262 pounds, grown by a Tennessee farmer in 1990. Extra large watermelons at 200 pounds resemble the bodies of mid-sized pigs. At 60 pounds plus that, it would seem granddaddy hog entered the room.
The always-clever Japanese have devised a way to create square watermelons by growing them in glass boxes, where the fruits naturally assume that shape. They may be convenient for stacking on supermarket shelves, but the hefty price tag – about the equivalent of $83 in U.S. dollars in Japan – keeps most consumers away. They’re typically bought as a novelty.
Pyramid-shaped watermelons have also been developed, and any polyhedron (a geometric shape with flat faces and straight edges) may be used to fashion them as they grow.
While they’re not polyhedrons, I’ve seen photos of heart-shaped watermelons in Japanese stores.
The shape, bright skin, thick rind and beautiful flesh of these melons make them perfect for artful carving, and the intricacies of the craft are amazing. From baskets for melon balls to exquisite details in complex floral patterns, the handiwork is available for viewing via a Google search online.
Watermelon is thought to be native to southern Africa, and famed Victorian era explorer David Livingstone reported that watermelon grew abundantly in the Kalahari Desert of that region.
In a land named for its lack of water (Kalahari is derived from Tswana words meaning “great thirst” and “waterless place”), the 92 percent water content in watermelon becomes a life-giving boon for denizens of that arid land.
Watermelon reaches maximum genetic density in southern Africa, with all its forms, sweet, bland and bitter, found growing in the wild there.
It was first cultivated on the opposite end of the African continent, in the north, where the fertile Nile valley was home to the watermelon farms of ancient Egypt.
Records indicate that watermelons were cultivated there from at least as early as the second millennium B.C. It was a popular fruit in that culture, evidenced by the watermelon seeds found in Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Watermelons have reportedly been grown in the U.S. since the 1500s, when French explorers saw American Indians cultivating them in Mississippi. Others put the first watermelon arrival in the U.S. about 100 years later, when they were brought by boat to Massachusetts.
However and whenever they got here, they were brought to our shores by European explorers, as well as African slaves.
They arrived in Europe via the Moor invasion in the 1200s, with the word “watermelon” making its way into English dictionaries by the year 1615, and they’ve been cultivated in Asia since the 9th century A.D.
Pickled watermelon rind is a tradition in the southern U.S., but it's also been popular in Chinese cuisine for centuries, where it's used in appetizers and stir fried dishes.
Choosing a good watermelon can be a mysterious process, as one can’t choose “by nose” as with other melons. They don’t emit a smell when ripe, nor do they ripen off the vine, as cantaloupes do. Here are some tips:
First, look for a symmetrical watermelon free of bruises or cuts.
Second, lift it. If it feels heavy for its size, that’s good.
Third, turn it over and check for the “ground spot.” The bottom should reveal a creamy yellow spot from where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun. The more yellow the spot, the longer it was allowed to ripen in the field. If there is no spot, or if it’s white or pale green, it was picked prior to maturity.
Some people thump on melons to check for a hollow sound, which they claim indicates a ripe melon. It’s an unproven method, but I do it anyway, maybe just because I like hearing the differing tonal thumps and knocks of makeshift watermelon drums.
Watermelons are in season and stacked high in local stores now. I’d suggest bringing home a couple of them, one to slice and eat fresh, and the other to experiment with in the kitchen. From salsas and salads to main dishes and desserts, there are some very creative ways to use them.
I’ll share some ideas of my own, but if you’d like other inspiration, visit www.watermelon.org, the National Watermelon Promotion Board.
Freeze watermelon balls or squares, then puree for instant sorbet.
Blend watermelon with cantaloupe and kiwi, and then swirl in a little plain or vanilla yogurt for a refreshing summer soup.
Watermelon is routinely served with feta cheese in the Mediterranean region. Mix it with thinly sliced red onion, feta cheese, salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil for an interesting salad. Or leave out the cheese and olive oil and enjoy the contrast of the melon and onions on their own.
Make a “fire and ice” salsa by mixing finely cubed watermelon and green pepper. Add some fresh lime juice, cilantro, scallions and jalapeño pepper to taste.
Grill watermelon wedges till caramelized and grill marks appear. Sprinkle a little sugar – or drizzle a little honey – on them first and finish with a variety of dressings, like basil-mint or cilantro-lime. They can be marinated in white balsamic vinegar first to enhance the sweet-sour taste.
Add a little watermelon to black bean or corn salad.
Skewer watermelon with seafood like shrimp or scallops to make kebobs.
Make watermelon “crackers and cheese” by stacking thin slices of it with Havarti cheese.
Try it spread with fresh goat cheese and sprinkled with dill.
Blend watermelon with lime, honey and mint and mix with club soda.
If watermelon’s sliced or cubed and stored sealed in the fridge, it retains its nutritional content for up to nine days, a nice thing to know if you’re preparing things ahead of time.
Watermelon is extremely nutritious, with high stores of vitamins C and A, as well as energy-producing vitamins B6 and B1. It contains very powerful antioxidants and is a good source of beta-carotene if the flesh is pink.
Like tomatoes, it’s rich in lycopene, which is known to be a cancer preventative, and its high antioxidant contents helps prevent macular degeneration.
In addition, it helps squelch the inflammation that contributes to conditions like asthma, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and arthritis.
Today’s recipe is a salad that includes watermelon, fresh mozzarella cheese, and purple basil; in other words, a combination of some of my favorite tastes. If purple basil is difficult to find, substitute a more easily found variety, such as Genovese basil, the type that’s typically stocked on supermarket shelves or sold at farmers’ markets. Enjoy!
Fresh mozzarella watermelon salad with purple basil
2 cups seeded watermelon balls
2 cups fresh mozzarella pieces
1 cup fresh basil (purple or green)
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch salt
Pepper to taste
A drizzle of balsamic vinegar to taste
Toss together the watermelon, mozzarella, basil, scallions and oil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve over a bed of baby greens with crostini on the side.
Drizzle balsamic vinegar over to taste.
Serves six to eight.
Recipe courtesy of www.watermelon.org, the National Watermelon Promotion Board.
Esther’s notes: A pinch of something denotes 1/8 teaspoon, the amount typically able to be pinched between two fingers.
The creamy texture of fresh mozzarella is very different from that of the shrink-wrapped balls of mozzarella used in lasagna or on pizza and is a beautiful contrast to bright, fresh watermelon. Tubs of fresh mozzarella can sometimes be found among the artisan cheeses in the supermarket. If formed into small balls, they’re packaged suspended in water so they hold their shape.
Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel teaches culinary classes at Chic Le Chef in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., and The Kitchen Gallery in Lakeport, Calif., and gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at
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The fire was reported at 3395 Old Highway 53 at about 1:15 a.m., according to radio reports.
Firefighters arriving on scene minutes later reported finding the structure fully involved, with the occupants out of the home.
The fire was reported to be controlled at 1:30 p.m., with mop up set to continue for another hour, according to radio reports.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at