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Parents, teachers, administrators and community members offered pleas for their schools as well as ideas about how to save money at a board meeting in Lower Lake on Wednesday night.
About 80 people attended the meeting at Lower Lake High School's new gym. Seventeen of them spoke to the board over about a two-hour period. Board member Hank Montgomery was out of town and unable to attend the meeting.
The district is looking at options including possible school closures or school curriculum realignments in an effort to cut $1.2 million out of its 2009-10 budget. The board has hosted a series of meetings around the district to receive community response to the district's budget proposals. Board members said they intend to look at making a final decision at a meeting set for March 11.
By the end of the evening, Superintendent Dr. Bill MacDougall offered his own suggestion to the board.
He said it was his belief that the best course was for the board to close Oak Hill Middle School. That will give them the savings they need to get through the coming fiscal year, he said.
The audience members offered very different viewpoints on what was best for the district.
Carl Stewart, himself a middle school teacher at one time, said he believed the middle school model is a bad one. “I just don't think it works.”
While he taught at a middle school in Southern California, his daughter attended a K-8 school, and he said the difference was “phenomenal.” At a K-8 school, a beloved kindergarten teacher would still be available to older pupils, and the children weren't as likely to misbehave in front of such a teacher.
At the middle school, “Kids had been yanked out at the most fragile point in their lives, been lumped together, and the behavior was atrocious,” he said.
Gina Fortino Dickson, who serves on the Clearlake Planning Commission, suggested moving the Lower Lake Elementary campus to Oak Hill Middle School and utilizing it as a K-8 school. That would allow the elementary campus to be absorbed by Lower Lake High next door, which she said was landlocked and bursting at the seams.
MacDougall asked her for her thoughts on how the move would save the district money. She said it was more an issue of giving them more access to resources now and allowing them space options later.
Some of the evening's most powerful testimony came from parent Jennifer Rodgers, whose children are at Oak Hill.
Rodgers, who had attended a previous community meeting held to take community input on the school closure proposals, said she's heard a lot of bashing of Oak Hill Middle school, and she wanted to share her experience with the staff, who she praised for their compassion, understanding and for “getting” the specific needs of middle schoolers.
She said her children would be considered “problems” by some, as her son has two disorders and her daughter is dyslexic. He son's behavior was so bad at one point that she had to homeschool him.
He's now at Oak Hill. “Many changes are happening in my son's life,” she said.
The boy is mentoring other students, and rather than drawing demons he's drawing hearts. “There's been a total 180.”
Rodgers added, “I believe with all of my heart that it has everything to to do with the staff at Oak Hill Middle School.”
A lot of bad things happen at schools, and Rodgers said she believed the ultimate responsibility lies at home with parents.
She said her daughter also is passing regular classes. Rodgers said she feels like she's in a partnership with teachers, and she wanted to thank them for helping her son reach his full potential.
“I know that a decision has to be made but I just hope that stories like that get heard, too, that Oak Hill makes a difference,” said Rodgers, adding she hoped they would find a different option than closing the schools.
During the hearing, Board Clerk Anita Gordon told the audience that they wouldn't be having the hearings about closing schools if it weren't for the decisions being made by legislators in Sacramento.
She asked people to write legislators to let them know what they're doing to communities. “At some point in time they'll have to listen to us,” said Gordon. “We're mad as heck and we're not going to take it anymore, but they don't know that.”
Johnnie Hathcock suggested cutting the district's nine principals – which she said cost the district $950,000 a year – down to five in order to save $400,000 annually. She also suggested they look at encouraging early retirements.
“The district has a reserve and we should use these monies before closing the schools,” she said.
Lower Lake Elementary teacher Peggy Ustick was concerned that by closing Oak Hill the other schools would be overcrowded, and portable buildings would be necessary. She said pushing so many additional students into current schools would cause issues both for discipline and safety.
Parent Cindy Crandell, who also attended a previous meeting at Pomo, said her daughter attends Pomo Elementary, which she wants to stay as a K-8 school, and not see it go to grades fourth through eighth.
She said he was glad to hear Rodgers' story about Oak Hill. “I wish we heard more heroic stories about Oak Hill, because we know there are some phenomenal teachers at Oak Hill.”
Parent Cheryl Barnes said her son is an interdistrict transfer, and she asked if the changes in the district could affect him. MacDougall said it could, that interdistrict transfers might not get priority when it comes to school placement.
He added, “I can't tell you it would happen for certain.”
Barnes suggested fundraising ideas and having people pay for more of the components of their child's education, or at least donate time to help the schools.
MacDougall noted during the public comment period that the reasons the board was there asking for public input was the $1.2 million cut looming in the fiscal year ahead. Keeping the status quo wouldn't help the district make that big cut.
“It always comes down to reduction in staff,” he said. “That's the hardest part of the decision ahead of us.”
Lacy Christensen, whose daughter is in the eighth grade at East Lake Elementary, thanked the board for being fiscally responsible.
She said the plan she could support was closing Oak Hill and making the rest of the elementary schools K-8. Christensen said it was the best plan from a business perspective. She added that Oak Hill is in a bad location and has structural problems, and that the district could sell the facility.
Assistant Prinicipal Gavin Huffmaster said if they close a school, other schools will be very full. Considering the community's growth, Huffmaster guessed that would only be a stopgap measure, and that schools eventually would need to expand.
Carle High School teacher Angela Siegel, also a former middle school teacher, suggested various ways to save money – about $500,000 in all.
She was concerned that the proposal to close at least one school wasn't about the budget.
“This is about a complete reconfiguration of the school district, and we're doing it on a very, very tight deadline,” she said.
She questioned closing Oak Hill Middle School just to reopen it elsewhere or in some other form. If the closure is programmatic, not fiscal, the district needs to say so, she said. They need to make cuts that won't directly affect the classroom, Siegel added.
“This is going so fast and it's going to have such a scattershot effect on every school in the district,” she said.
John Roddy suggested that the district needed to seek the advice of Lake County's chief administrative officer, Kelly Cox, who he said has worked to keep the county in the black for 27 years. MacDougall said Cox was on a consolidation committee.
Roddy went on to suggest that MacDougall should be the first one to take a pay cut.
MacDougall told Roddy that the Konocti Unified School District has always stayed in the black, and as long as he's superintendent it will stay that way.
Kristyn Leigh-Freeman, co-principal of Oak Hill Middle School, said she needed to start thinking about the changes to programs that would come from the board's ultimate decision. She urged them to keep to a timeline in order for changes to be made, including the logistics of moving school facilities.
Superintendent offers his perspective
Following the close of public comment, MacDougall recounted the months of meetings – beginning last September – that he and other administrators have taken part in as they've looked for solutions to meet the coming budget cuts.
He said he'd given the topic his best thinking and a lot of time.
“Financially, we only have one option,” he said, estimating it will take three to five years for the budget picture to recover.
While he agreed that Oak Hill has great teachers, he felt closing the school was the district's best option.
The district has estimated that closing Oak Hill Middle School and changing Pomo, Burns Valley and Lower Lake Elementary schools into K-8 would save between $400,000 to $968,000, while closing Oak Hill and establishing grade separation in two schools would save between $540,000 and $1 million.
MacDougall encouraged the board to keep class size reduction measures in place, which is a priority for schools and administrators. He added, “The parents want it and I desperately want it.”
Keeping class size reductions in place, which MacDougall told Lake County News on Tuesday that the state is financially supporting for this year and the next, will save the jobs of 15 teachers.
Board Chair Mary Silva thanked the public for taking part in the process.
“It was clear to me at all these meetings that people love their schools,” she said, recounting offers of parents to help and noting that many district staff members are doing additional work for free.
“We're all trying to pull together for our kids,” she said. Silva said she was proud to be part of such a community.
“We're all hurting in this,” Silva added. “Nobody wants to see a school close.”
Later in the meeting, the board voted to hand out 52 layoff notices to teachers, a large number that is meant to cover all budget options at this point. The district plans to rehire many of those teachers.
Because of the uncertainty of the situation ahead, the board also voted to give notices to several administrators that they may be released at the end of the school year from any position requiring an administrative or supervisory credential.
Those named were Oak Hill co-principals Maria de los Angeles Friedrich and Kristyn Leigh-Freeman; Ed Zander, Carle High School's new principal; Burns Valley Elementary Principal Troy Sherman; Pomo Elementary Principal April Leiferman; and Debra Sorenson Malley, principal of East Lake Elementary.
“We have some of the finest administrators in California,” said MacDougall, emphasizing the action was a formality, similar to that taken to lay off teachers.
He said the district's administrators give a lot, from their hearts to their Saturdays, to work in the best interests of children. “They love children all the way down to their toes.”
He added, “We will rectify this situation as soon as we possibly can,” and said he hoped they would remain with the district until it can ensure the action isn't needed.
At the end of the meeting, all of the named administrators came forward to receive their notices and sign for them. MacDougall and board members told the administrators they regretted having to take the action.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Lake County Sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol pursued William Cressey on land and from the air – specifically, with the help of a CHP helicopter – on Tuesday, as Lake County News has reported.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that Forestville resident Philip Wheeler drove up to a work site on top of Round Mountain and happened upon two males at his storage trailer.
When Wheeler pulled up, one of the men ran off and the other – who officials believe was Cressey – got in his black Ford Explorer and drove toward Wheeler, Bauman said.
Wheeler tried to block Cressey's path but he drove around him and Wheeler followed him down the mountain until Cressey reportedly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at him, Bauman said.
Bauman said Wheeler then backed off, called 911 on his cell phone, and followed the Explorer at a distance until it turned onto Red Rock Road. Wheeler waited there for law enforcement.
A sheriff's deputy and a CHP officer met Wheeler and as they started up a dirt road to look for the Explorer, a dirt bike came down the road towards them, said Bauman. The rider matched the description of the driver of the Explorer so they turned and pursued the bike.
The dirt bike was able to evade sheriff's and CHP cruisers, said Bauman. During the subsequent search of the area, one of the deputies determined Cressey had been staying at a residence on Red Rock Road and apparently switched from the Explorer to a dirt bike he had at the house which he used to get away.
Bauman said deputies eventually found the dirt bike but never located Cressey, who they determined had a warrant for parole violation out of Colorado.
CHP ground units and one of their aircraft assisted in the search, which lasted from about 1:30 p.m. to about 6 p.m., Bauman said.
Cressey is described as a white male, blonde hair and blue eyes, 5 feet 7 inches in height with a thin build.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts should call the Lake County Sheriff's Office, 262-4200.
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Eric James Joaquin, 37, was found murdered on the morning of Feb. 28 in the Clear Lake Riviera home that he shared with roommates including John Robert Gray, 43, who was arrested later that same day and charged with murder.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that an autopsy was performed on Joaquin on Tuesday at the Napa County Coroner's Office.
While the final autopsy report is pending and will not be completed for several weeks, Bauman said a preliminary cause of death has been determined to be multiple blunt force trauma.
No other patterns of injury, including gunshot wounds, were identified, Bauman added.
Bauman said it's not known why initial reports speculated that Joaquin “may have been shot” but there is no evidence at this point that a firearm was involved in the homicide.
The sheriff's office said the men had an altercation on Feb. 26.
Gray made his first court appearance on Tuesday, as Lake County News has reported. He remains in the Lake County Jail on $500,000 bail.
The case remains pending further investigation and no other information on the case is available at this time, Bauman said.
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The meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the Lower Lake High School gym, 9430 A Lake St. in Lower Lake.
At a meeting last month, the KUSD Board of Trustees hosted presentations by two committees formed late last year – one that looked at improving district revenues and the other that explored consolidating services and cutting costs.
The services consolidation committee made four recommendations that variously proposed closing Oak Hill Middle School and East Lake Elementary, and changing many of the other elementary and middle schools to serve kindergarten through eighth grade, as Lake County News has reported.
Konocti school board members made clear they didn't take any of the suggestions lightly.
President Mary Silva, Clerk Anita Gordon and board members Carolynn Jarrett, Herb Gura and Hank Montgomery also emphasized to community members that they didn't pretend to know the answers to how Konocti Unified would cut its budget in the coming fiscal year.
Over the last few weeks, KUSD officials have been holding public meetings throughout the district to find out the priorities of parents, students and the community at large.
“The biggest thing we've found is that people really love their schools and that they would prefer that nothing be done,” District Superintendent Bill MacDougall told Lake County News on Tuesday.
However, doing nothing isn't an option, said MacDougall. “We need to prepare for next year.”
While the district isn't expecting a big cut for the rest of this budget year, they're facing a staggering $1.2 million cut in the 2009-10 budget, MacDougall said.
At Wednesday's meeting, the board will offer the community another chance to give input in what is expected to be a much bigger meeting, said MacDougall. As a result, the meeting will move from the normal venue of the district office to the high school gym.
During the meeting, MacDougall said the district also will be formally giving out pink slips to teachers. Districts must give the notices by March 15.
In all, the district will give the layoff notices to 52 teachers, said MacDougall.
MacDougall said he expects that the vast majority of those teachers will be rehired once the board makes it budget decisions for the coming year. Once a decision is made regarding school consolidation, they can rescind some of those notices.
They want to be able to rescind those notices to teachers as soon as possible, said MacDougall. “We understand that it is disruptive to their lives.”
One decision that would be fairly easy to make at this point is we want to continue with class size reduction in the K-3 grades, he said.
The district recently received information that the state will fund class size reduction for this year and the next in the recently adopted state budget.
“It's a priority of our board so that is something I think they will choose to approve,” he said.
That school size funding will allow the district to keep 15 teachers they might otherwise lose, according to MacDougall.
The board is expected to discuss the budget situation again at a March 11 meeting. MacDougall said it's ultimately up to the board when a final budget decision will be made.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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She began taking the oral contraceptive YAZ, also known as Yasmin (drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol), a product of Bayer Corp., in Oct. 2007. She took the pill for two months.
“I started experiencing tremors in my hands in November,” she said. “The tremors moved from my hands to my arms and legs. I'm told by my spouse that I tremble at night in my sleep.
“The symptoms continued to add up: tremors, fatigue, insomnia, muscle weakness, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, excessive perspiration, light periods, irritability and insatiable hunger. I thought I was losing my mind,” Minor said.
Her symptoms began after taking the pill for six weeks.
Minor went to her doctor who diagnosed her with Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism). Her thyroid levels are three to four times what they're supposed to be.
Another side effect of Graves' disease is difficulty getting pregnant. She took YAZ to “jump-start” her reproductive system, in order to become pregnant following the advice of her physician.
She reported her disease to MedWatch, the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) reporting site, Minor said.
Though her symptoms matched with listed possible side effects of YAZ, there is no medical evidence that Graves Disease is connected to the use of the drug.
“I never had any of these symptoms prior to taking the drug YAZ. It is painfully frustrating how my life has been impacted; there are days I cannot lift my toddler,” Minor said.
Minor discovered she wasn’t alone. She found a discussion forum online and received the following e-mail.
“My name is Erin Brockovich and I am in receipt of your e-mail forwarded onto me from Alex. I see that you are experiencing some health problems and have been on the pill YAZ,” the e-mail stated.
According to a Feb. 9 press release from Attorney General Jerry Brown, Bayer is required to launch a $20 million ad campaign to correct misleading information about YAZ.
Brown announced an agreement requiring Bayer Corp. to stop a “deceptive ad campaign” and publicly correct misleading assertions about the product.
“Bayer's deceptive ad campaign led young women to believe that its oral contraceptive would cure symptoms for which it was not approved for use,” Brown said. “This judgment modification forces the company to stop making those claims and spend $20 million correcting misleading assertions about the
product.”
Bayer claimed the drug could treat symptoms related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and acne, in addition to anxiety, tension, irritability, moodiness, fatigue, headaches and muscle aches. None of those claims were approved by the FDA.
The press release states, “The Attorney General's Office contends that the advertisements for YAZ violated a 2007 agreement with Bayer after the company failed to adequately disclose safety risks associated with the use of Baycol, a drug used to lower cholesterol, which was pulled from the market in August 2001. The agreement required future marketing, sale, and promotion of pharmaceutical and biological products to comply with all legal requirements, and prohibited Bayer from making false or misleading claims relating to any products sold in the United States.”
The states joining California's agreement are Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Minor is participating in a class-action lawsuit as a result of her experiences with YAZ. She wants to make others aware of her symptoms to shed some light on the possibility that others may be suffering the same health problems.
“The lawsuit includes the heart and lung problems that are being reported too,” Minor said.
According to YAZ Web site at www.yaz-us.com/home.jsp the most frequent side effects, listed in descending order, reported with the use of the contraception in clinical trials, include upper respiratory infection, headache, breast pain, vaginal moniliasis, leukorrhea, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, vaginitis, abdominal pain, flu syndrome, dysmenorrhea, moniliasis, allergic reaction, urinary tract infection, accidental injury, cystitis, tooth disorder, sore throat, infection, fever, surgery, sinusitis, back pain, emotional lability, migraine, suspicious Papanicolaou smear, dyspepsia, rhinitis, acne, gastroenteritis, bronchitis, pharyngitis, skin disorder, intermenstrual bleeding, decreased libido, weight gain, pain, depression, increased cough, dizziness, menstrual disorder, pain in extremity, pelvic pain and asthenia.
E-mail Mandy Feder at
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Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said that shortly before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday a man called to report that a male subject in a green Ford Explorer had pulled a handgun on him near Morine Ranch Road in Clearlake Oaks.
The case was unfolding all afternoon, as officials tried to determine if what occurred was a road rage incident or a basic case of brandishing a weapon.
Both sheriff's deputies and CHP officers responded to the scene only to find the suspect had fled into the west entrance of the Clearlake Cinder Chip Co.'s quarry, said Bauman.
The sheriff's office received information that the suspect in question was 22-year-old William Cressey, with whom the agency has had previous contacts, Bauman said. Cressey also appeared to have an out-of-state warrant for his arrest.
Deputies and officers found the green Explorer with no weapon inside, said Bauman. The suspect was believed to be on foot from that time forward, although one deputy was reported to be in pursuit of a dirt bike. Later the bike also was found abandoned.
Bauman said five deputies were on scene, with CHP Officer Steve Tanguay reporting that five CHP units also were assisting.
Shortly before 2 p.m. the CHP requested air support. At that point the place was mostly surrounded, said Bauman.
Bauman said before the close of business on Tuesday that he didn't know the severity of the initial crime.
The search was later called off, apparently without an arrest of a subject. There was no information on the status of the case at day's end.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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