How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
“The governor wants to slash funding to schools at unprecedented amounts and it’s really quite scary,” she told a solemn audience of 23 teachers, staff and parents.
The board agreed unanimously to a list of money-saving cuts and adjustments topped by closure of Natural High School.
No programs there will be eliminated, but all will be relocated, Superintendent Erin Smith-Hagberg was quick to explain.
The board also agreed to eliminate three teaching positions as well as five other aide, clerical and custodial jobs throughout the district.
Smith-Hagberg and Slockbower recommended the board make the reductions in planned spending following Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to reduce the schools’ funding a net 6.5 percent following cost of living adjustments and other factors.
Slockbower said 86 percent of the district’s funding comes from the state.
The governor also is proposing to “borrow” from the schools by not paying revenues due in July until September, a move Slockbower called “devastating.”
In the third stroke of a triple-whammy, the district also is affected by declining enrollment, having lost 59 students since the beginning of the current school year, a continuation of a multi-year trend. Those students moved out of county or out of state, Smith-Hagberg said.
Lakeport's K-12 enrollment was down to 1,668 students in February from a high of 1,918 in 2001-02, district officials reported.
With revenues apportioned by average daily attendance figures, the cuts required by enrollment declines are immediate, Slockbower explained, in an “interim” budget revision.
During a different agenda item at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, Slockbower told trustees cuts would reduce the district’s balance next year (aside from legally requisite reserves) to just $75,000. And for the 2009-10 budget, Slockbower’s figures showed a negative $162,000 balance.
The Lakeport district has an annual budget of about $10 million. The “permanent until revoked” state funding cut reduces that figure by almost $700,000.
“We cannot sustain our budget two years out with this level of income,” Slockbower said.
Although no audience members made public comment on the action, school board members were vociferous.
School Board Trustee Bob Weiss called the state’s move “disgusting,” commenting that it “irritates the hell out of me” that the governor is taking away from communities to “play politics somewhere else.”
Trustee Tom Powers commented that good fiscal management in the Lakeport district in recent years has made the budget crisis easier than it would have been. “If we hadn’t been doing things right, it would be a much bleaker picture,” he said.
Trustee Robyn Stevenson encouraged people to contact the governor to complain. “The only thing we can do is be vocal,” she said.
Smith-Hagberg noted gravely that all the cuts were valuable and that in recent years the “easier” budget cuts had already been made. She noted that the middle schools combined last year to eliminate a principal position.
The superintendent described the process behind the recommendations as “very uncomfortable.”
Smith-Hagberg – who has two children in the district where she has been a student, a teacher and a principal – said she solicited anonymous suggestions from staff via email and presented those ideas to a budget committee made up of teachers, parents, administrators and site representatives.
That committee prioritized potential cuts, which were then reviewed by Smith-Hagberg. The superintendent then compared positions of district staff to those of three other districts of similar size before submitting her proposed cuts to the school board. She noted her own office staff numbers one fewer than the other comparable districts.
The approximately 20 cuts, which range from elimination of a basketball league for third- through sixth-graders to transportation for athletic and band groups, as well as a districtwide reduction in material and supply budgets, are not simple.
Smith-Hagberg described the shuffling of duties and program restructuring as a “reorganization of the educational community.”
E-mail Maile Field at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
A preliminary estimate by organizers put the amount of money the event raised at more than $45,000.
The overwhelming turnout – the Rob Roy parking lots overflowed onto surrounding roads – was a tribute to Patrick's years of community service to the Cobb area and Lake County.
Patrick has been diagnosed with a rare form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a neuromuscular disease that attacks the bodies nerves and muscles.
The Bulbar ALS that Patrick suffers from initially interferes with the motor neurons in the neck and throat area. It's a particularly cruel diagnosis in light of Patrick's years as a radio personality, performer and musician.
Bandmates from the Prather Brothers entertained as well as others from CAM, the Cobb Area Musicians, which Patrick has performed with at a number of venues around Lake County.
By 7 p.m. 170 guests had squeezed into a banquet room for a live auction. Items included dinners at local bistros and weekend trips to Napa Valley day trips that include sailing and wine tasting.
The big auction item of the night was a weeklong getaway vacation for two including airfare to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Supervisor Rob Brown won the trip with a $4,000 bid.
The golf course and its other facilities were closed for the afternoon giving the staff and near two dozen other volunteers ample time to help manage the crowd’s arrival and registration and a half dozen youngsters served as bus persons during two dinner sittings.
All the food as well as staffing by Rob Roy personnel was donated, allowing all the proceeds to go to the Eric Patrick Fund.
Laura and Eric Patrick, as well as hundreds of their friends, were visibly moved by the event.
The Patricks said they felt “overwhelmed” by the outpouring of love, support and friendship.
Persons unable to attend but wishing to make a donation may send a check to RAKE at P.O. Box 290 Cobb CA 95426, and indicate Eric Patrick as the recipient.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
Cathy Wilson went to the council with her proposal to organize the cleanup, which is scheduled to take place along Lakeshore and Olympic drives on April 19.
Wilson told the council that the cleanup is based on the Keep California Beautiful campaign.
The idea, which has support from the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, is to put together teams of people to pick up trash, pull weeds, sweep sidewalks, knock down cob webs on vacant buildings and wash down an estimated 137 street signs, said Wilson.
Wilson has so far done an amazing amount of preparation. She has spoken with Bruce McCracken of Clearlake Waste Solutions about providing a street sweeper on the event day, and added that McCracken said he would send a truck to pick up the collected bags of trash from the cleanup's headquarters at Austin Park.
In addition, she has contacted Caltrans about spraying weeds at Highway 53 at Lakeshore, the county's transit services about cleaning their covered rider enclosures (which is done monthly but will be done specially for the event) and is drafting a letter to area merchants asking them to participating in the event by cleaning up their storefronts to the street.
“Maybe we can all do this together,” Wilson said of the volunteer effort.
She said there will be waivers of liability for volunteers, who she'll be seeking out in the next month.
Signups also will take place the day of the event, which will get started at about 9 a.m. and last until between noon and 1 p.m.
Wilson also suggested the city could repaint crosswalks, many of which aren't in bad shape but could use some sprucing up.
On April 19, Wilson plans to assign participants to teams, which will work along the streets accompanied by small pickups, which will bring supplies – drinking water, trash bags, first aid kits – and also pick up trash.
Local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts may also take part, and would work in Austin Park, said Wilson.
“Kudos to you for getting involved,” said Council member Judy Thein. “I applaud you for wanting to do this project.”
Thein asked about Wilson's plans to clean up Lakeshore Drive. Wilson said she intends to start at the intersection with Highway 53 and have groups work along lengths of the street. If they have time, they'll also do feed streets. But if they don't have enough people, Wilson said they'll concentrate on pickup up trash.
“When it's all said and done I hope the public will notice and they'll realize we're all working together,” said Wilson.
She said her focus is to encourage business owners to take part and think about the areas in front of their stores.
Overton asked City Administrator Dale Neiman about putting up city signs to make the day safer for volunteers, which Neiman said they could do.
The council voted unanimously to authorize staff to help the effort.
For more information contact the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, 994-3600.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:3}
Hail was reported in areas of the county Saturday, including the Northshore and Cobb in the early afternoon and near Lakeport later in the day.
One cloud burst of hail saw cars sliding on Highway 29 and led to at least one traffic collision with no injuries shortly before 5 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
In the Cobb area, resident Roger Kinney reported the temperature dropped 12 degrees between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. A light, wet snow began to fall, followed by heavier snow and hail. He estimated the snow and hail continued for about 30 minutes.
Ice that formed on local roadways later in the evening was blamed for a two-car collision on Highway 20 just east of Highway 53 just after 8 p.m.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
Morgan Matthew Jack, 31, was in court Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to allegations that he killed Paul Womachka last summer, according to his attorney, Stephen Carter.
Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who is handling the prosecution but was unable to attend the Friday court appearance, said Jack is facing a murder charge plus a special allegation of using a knife in the crime's commission.
Hinchcliff said Gary Luck, the retired district attorney who now works with the District Attorney's Office on a part-time basis, stood in for him at Jack's hearing.
Carter, who currently is representing James Roberts in his murder case, said Jack is due to return to court for a preliminary hearing on April 8.
It's estimated that the preliminary hearing will last about three days, said Carter.
“That's a fairly long preliminary hearing,” he said, adding that such hearings usually only take two hours.
As to the specifics of what the District Attorney's Office is alleging, Carter said he didn't want to discuss those at this point because he feels there already has been a lot of pretrial publicity, and more could hurt Jack's chance of getting a fair trial here.
“I hope he can get a fair trial in this county,” said Carter. “We haven't examined that very closely yet.”
Carter said he hasn't ever had to take a trial out of Lake County, and is a firm believer in the fairness of local juries.
The process of determining if Jack can get a fair trial locally will begin following the preliminary hearing.
Last month the Lake County Sheriff's Office received an arrest warrant for Jack in the Womachka case. He was booked into the Lake County Jail on Feb. 28 after being returned to the county from San Quentin State Prison, where he was held on a parole violation.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
{mos_sb_discuss:2}
Education
Health
Business
Obituaries
Veterans
Recreation
Religion
Arts & Life
Government & Politics