This week we’d like to start off by thanking Mike Boyce and the Clearlake Machine Shop for fixing Carlé's coffee mug press for free, accepting no money for his time.

What he did was an extremely nice thing for us and we would just like to let him know how much we appreciate what he did, especially since it wasn’t something easy to fix and it took quite a bit of time.  

In addition, Mike and his fellows have repeatedly helped their community and show way more than people realize how we all work together to make our community a better place. Our local small businesses go out of their way repeatedly for the schools.

On Tuesday, Jan. 22, the hazmat (hazardous materials) course here at Carlé came to a close. Science teacher Angie Siegel was the course instructor.  

Seventeen students were trained to become state certified at the HazMat First Responder Operations level, so if a case were to arise they would be ready to respond to a hazardous materials release.

Among those that need HazMat FRO training are firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, truckers and other workers who might encounter a hazardous materials release.

Two men graciously gave the hazmat students here at Carlé their time; these men were firefighter Mark Hill and Fire Chief Willie Sapeta. Hill and Sapeta both trained the students in hazmat protocol.

Hill, a hazmat specialist and paramedic/engineer, taught the kids how to use several standard tools used in hazmat incidents. The tools that were covered were the dregor tube, CGI meters (combustible gas indictors), and the chameleon wrist bands (which change color when in the presence of chemicals).  

Fire Chief Sapeta, who has been working with Carlé students for more than 16 years, gave the students a lecture and a general overview of information covered in the HazMat FRO course, teaching the basics of what they needed to know for the field exercise that was performed.

Hill and Sapeta took the kids through a step-by-step training process and supervised a hazmat field exercise. During the exercise the students participated in a simulated decontamination corridor activity.  Students who volunteered were given a chance to experience life in a level Level B HazMat suit.

All in all the course was a great learning experience for those who took it, including Cody Beers, Jay Brown, Nura Brown, Cameron Carrillo, Chelsea Cherney, Paige Finely, Junior Garcia, Summer Gunn, Joshua Kennedy, Marla Mitchell, James Mora, Mayra Pentoja, Marco Antonio Rosiles, Roxie Purdum-White, Lucas Stickel, Carlos Trujillo, and Trevor Wilson.

Congratulations to each and every one of you, you should most certainly be proud of yourselves.

Congratulations to the Student of the Week, Emilio Gonzales. Emilio is a very hard working and diligent student, we here are very proud of him and are filled with joy to give him this award. As usual he’ll receive a free DJ’s small pizza and a front of the lunch line pass.

Another winner is Andrew Subjack, who won the CHILY this week. He chose a blanket.

We’d like to send a very big “get well soon” to our principal, Dr. Jim Burger. Recently Dr. Burger became quite ill so we just wanted to show our love and support towards him. We hope that you begin to feel much better soon, and we can’t wait to see you back here at Carlé in full force Dr. Burger.

Finally, on Friday, Barbara, Alan and Angie made the difficult but correct decision to put student favorite Scabby the dog down. He was found and rescued during community service with Russell Rustici almost 13 years ago. The next article will tell the much-loved Scabby story.

Jesse Harrell attends Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.