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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Last September Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 1133, which establishes the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) of 2006.
The legislation arose out of the terms of a settlement between the California Teachers Association (CTA) and Schwarzenegger. CTA sued the governor over Proposition 98 monies that were due to state schools, but not paid, in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.
Using the $3 billion in Proposition 98 funds, QEIA seeks to assist the state's lowest performing schools in increasing student achievement.
Schools whose 2005 Academic Performance Index (API) are ranked in deciles 1 to 2 – which is the lowest 20 percent – are eligible for the funds.
County schools that are eligible to apply for funds are Upper Lake High School, and in the Konocti Unified School District, Pomo Elementary, Burns Valley Elementary and Oak Hill Middle School, reported Patrick Iaccino, principal and superintendent of Upper Lake High, and Dr. Louise Nan, superintendent of the Konocti Unified School District.
The California Department of Education (CDE) reports that the appropriations begin in fiscal year 2007-08 and continue through 2013-14. School districts around the state will receive approximately $268,000,000 in fiscal year 2007-08 and $402,000,000 for each fiscal year thereafter until 2013-14.
“We've been told it's an experiment the state is doing to see if higher levels of funding can actually make a difference in schools,” said Nan.
Iaccino attended a conference in Sacramento in January to find out more about the funding.
He reported that 1,470 schools statewide – elementary, middle and high schools – are eligible, with 400 of those schools located in the Los Angeles Unified School District alone.
Chris Thomas, Lake County Office of Education's assistant superintendent of educational services, also attended the QEIA conference.
She explained that not all schools will receive funds, but that the state has guaranteed that each county will have at least one school funded through a lottery process. Thomas added that state officials have said that 30 percent of the schools that apply will receive money.
Thomas said the money must be used for very specific reasons, including lowering class sizes, lowering the ratio of students to credentialed counselors (in high schools), increasing numbers of qualified teachers, and offering more teacher training and development.
All of that effort, she said, is meant to result in increased student achievement.
Iaccino said for Upper Lake High, the school would be eligible for between $400,000 and $450,000 annually, or between $2.8 million and $3.1 million.
Compare that with the school's overall annual budget, which Mike Casey, business management for the Lake County Office of Education, reported is $4.7 million.
Funds in the 2007-08 school year would be earmarked for facilities, Iaccino said, in order to reduce class sizes.
Applications for the funds must be completed by the end of March, Iaccino said. The school is also in the process of formulating a plan for how the money would be spent, he said.
For districts with more than one school applying, the district must prioritize which schools it wants to see receive the money. “We don't have to worry about that,” he said.
KUSD has three schools eligible, said Nan. “We're going to apply for the funding for all three schools,” she said.
However, they've had to prioritize because it's unlikely all three schools would receive the money, she said.
“Our first priority right now is Oak Hill Middle School, then we'll be taking a look at the elementary schools in a different order,” she said.
Oak Hill, said Nan, is in year four of its program improvement status, which the No Child Left Behind Act requires for those schools that don't make adequate yearly progress. The district, she said, is in the process of looking at restructuring Oak Hill in response to government guidelines.
Second in line would be Pomo Elementary, said Nan, followed by Burns Valley, which already has a high priority schools grant.
If Oak Hill was funded, it would receive $352,800 in the first year and $533,000 annually for the following six years, amounting to nearly $3.5 million.
The district's overall budget is $29 million, said Casey.
The grant, said Nan, “would be a significant funding source.”
Nan said the state is very clear that the money must be used for class size reduction. In grades fourth through eighth, she said, the goal is to have a ratio of 25 students to one teacher. Most of the money would be directed toward the increase in personnel costs to meet that ratio, she said.
Iaccino said the funds – $2.8 to $3.15 million over seven years – could help with textbooks and supplemental materials, as well as adding teachers and counselors to serve the school's 430 students. “It gives you so many options to do some of the things you need to do to help kids,” he said.
Thomas said the money will be available for seven years, but there's no guarantee from the state that there will be additional help to maintain staff levels or programs once the money runs out.
Schools will need to do a plan for ramping down eventually, Thomas said. “There's hope that there might be more money to follow this, but there's no guarantee.”
Nan said KUSD will need a plan that looks at how to meet those costs after the funding runs out.
Iaccino said Upper Lake High will definitely seek the funds. “It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
In November, California voters approved Proposition 1B – the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality and Port Security Bond Act of 2006 – by a 61.4-38.6 percent margin, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office.
In Lake County, according to Secretary of State numbers, the measure actually failed by a slim margin, with 49.1 percent of local voters voting for it, and 50.9 against it.
The bond had several aims, one of them being to make improvements and repairs to state highways, according to California's voter information guide. Nearly $20 billion in bonds will be sold to fund the measure.
Lisa Davey-Bates, executive director of Lake County's Area Planning Council, said the bond set aside $4.5 billion for state highway projects. Locally, there were hopes that the Highway 29 Expressway project, which would be located between Lower Lake and Kelseyville, would be one of the projects considered.
Late last month, the California Transportation Commission set about choosing the projects to make the funding list, Davey-Bates explained.
She said Caltrans staff from the state's various districts created a list of recommendations for projects that they felt should be funded.
Caltrans District 1 staff recommended Lake County's expressway project, Davey-Bates said, but Caltrans headquarters cut the project from the list before it went before the Transportation Commission.
The Area Planning Council, which is the regional transportation planning agency, submitted its own applications to have the commission consider the expressway project, Bates said.
“It didn't make that list, either,” she noted.
Davey-Bates said Lake County was competing with projects in other rural areas, such as the Willits Bypass, which are further along in their development. In the case of Willits, she said they have already completed an environmental process on the project.
In the end, the expressway had to be ready for construction by 2012 to be considered, said Davey-Bates.
“There's question if it could really happen by 2012,” she said.
That's because endangered plants were found along the expressway's intended route, she said, which is resulting in additional biological studies that have put the project behind.
Ann Jones of Caltrans said the endangered plants found in the expressway area are wooly meadowfoam, Burke's goldfields, Lake County stonecrop and few-flowered Navarretia.
The end result, Davey-Bates said, is the project will cost more money and need more time.
“We're hoping to have the draft environmental process completed by January 2009, even with delays,” she said.
Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Patty Berg, in the days leading up to a final decision on the project list, asked North Coast residents to lobby the Transportation Commission to leave the $177 million Willits Bypass project on the list and reject a call from Bay Area leaders to send the money there instead.
Berg said the project would remove a major bottleneck along the 200-mile stretch from Santa Rosa to Eureka.
When the Transportation Commission reissued its final list on Feb. 26, even Willits didn't make the cut, said Davey-Bates, with the main focus going to the state's urban areas and dealing with traffic congestion.
“This may be what Bay Area voters had in mind, but it’s not what the rest of us wanted,” Berg said of that decision. “It’s almost as if they’re saying that if you don’t live in the Bay Area or Los Angeles, you don’t matter in this state. And that’s just plain offensive.”
Although the special pot of funding now has projects assigned to it, there is still State Transportation Improvement Project funds available, said Davey-Bates. The Area Planning Council will continue pursuing that funding as it works to move the expressway project forward, she added.
“We'll continue to gather our little eggs, if you will, until we can get the resources to fully fund the construction project,” she said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Wiggins said she was honored to be named chair of the joint committee, which is charged with “protecting and enhancing fishery resources as well as consumers in an industry that continues to contribute to our state’s economy.”
“We’ll also oversee state and local activities related to fishing and aquaculture to address problems and ensure that those activities are in the best interest of industry and the public,” Wiggins noted.
In addition to chairing the joint committee, Wiggins has also introduced a measure – Senate Joint Resolution 4 – that would put the Legislature on record as supporting an effort in Congress to assist fishing communities, businesses, and individuals to mitigate the economic losses caused by declining Klamath River fall chinook salmon.
In brief, SJR 4 seeks to build support for legislation by Sen. Barbara Boxer and Congressman Mike Thompson to provide $60 million in relief for commercial fishermen and related industries due to the failure of the 2006 salmon fishing season.
Wiggins has also introduced a bill, SB 695, to help address the issue of understaffing of game warden positions at the state Department of Fish and Game. DFG has had difficulties recruiting and retaining game wardens, in part due to a disparity in pay compared to other law enforcement agencies. SB 695 would bring game wardens’ salaries to within 5 percent of those earned by California Highway Patrol officers.
Wiggins noted that DFG wardens are highly-trained law enforcement officers who perform a wide range of public safety and environmental protection duties throughout California and along the state's coast.
As such, they are on the front lines of protecting endangered, threatened, and critical species, and protecting species targeted by poachers – including deer, bear, crab, reptiles, sturgeon, abalone, and other species – as well as protecting California's land and water resources from dumping, pollution, and destruction.
Recent laws have added substantial new responsibilities for game wardens, yet at the same time warden vacancies are soaring. As of January warden ranks have plummeted and there are about 75 vacancies in a workforce of approximately 250.
“While California is a leader with respect to wildlife and natural resource laws, we have fallen far behind other states in our support for wardens,” Wiggins said. “California now has only one warden per 185,000, compared to one warden per 46,500 residents in Texas and one per 24,600 residents in Florida.
“Recent pay increases for wardens have been insufficient to ease the recruitment and retention crisis,” Wiggins adds. “I am convinced that we would go a long way towards solving this problem by compensating our wardens at levels comparable to those attained by other state law enforcement personnel.”
In addition to this position appointment, Wiggins also chairs the Senate Committee on Public Employment and Retirement and the Senate Select Committee on California’s Wine Industry.
Wiggins represents the state’s six-county 2nd Senate District, which includes Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. Visit her Web site at www.dist02.casen.govoffice.com.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Hughes, 22, is charged with the double homicide of two of his companions who were allegedly involved in the alleged pre-dawn break-in and attempted robbery of marijuana at the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds on Dec. 7, 2005.
Hughes is being held responsible for the shooting deaths of Rashad Williams and Christian Foster under a statute holding perpetrators of a felony liable for deaths occurring during a felonious act if the act is likely to result in a lethal response. In this case, it was Edmonds who allegedly did the shooting.
Hanlon had sought a change of venue based on his concerns regarding the possibility of racial bias in the Lake County justice system and the perceived difficulty of selecting a jury here that would give his defendant a "fair trial.”
Hughes is black, as were the shooting victims. Hanlon supported his motion by citing Lake County's limited number of black citizens – the county, he says, has a population that is only 2.3 percent black – and pretrial publicity.
The San Francisco attorney, who has taken a zealous approach to defending Hughes, was respectful of Mann and, in fact, lauded him, but said immediately after the decision that he would appeal it.
"We will take it to the Court of Appeals and then if you don't win, you go from there," he said. "I think the judge showed an awareness of racial bias and unconscious racism, which is quite a statement.
"A lot of judges don't see that, so I was real happy about that. Happy is the wrong word. The judge (Mann) had a sensitivity in this case that made me hopeful."
Hanlon was not as generous in his appraisal of prosecuting District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
"He is a creatively intelligent man – the judge – but not the District Attorney," said Hanlon. "I like Jon, but not in court."
Hopkins, in turn, declined to comment on the statement.
The decision concluded nearly 14 hours of testimony and arguments by the attorneys over a period of three days.
Hughes' mother elected not to comment on Mann's edict, but a leader of the local black community said she was "not surprised" the change of venue motion was denied.
"I was hopeful that the evidence presented by Mr. (Bryan A.) Stevenson and Mr. (Craig) Haney would have been seriously considered by Judge Mann," said Aqeela El-Amin Bakheit, president of the Lake County NAACP.
"I was in the courtroom and I think the evidence was very persuasive, although I know there were other factors to consider besides the testimony of those two experts," Bakheit added in reference to Stevenson, who is the executive director of an Alabama civil rights organization and Haney, who is a professor in the University of California system with a doctorate in psychology and a law degree.
Bakheit, however, said she is hopeful that Hughes will get a fair trial here.
"We know that statistics tell only part of the story ... and there are a lot of people who don't necessarily look at a person's color," she asserted. "They will look at the evidence and they will come up with a fair assessment and evaluation and base their decision simply on that."
Hopkins anticipates that Hanlon will present a writ to the Court of Appeals in San Francisco requesting that Mann's decision be negated.
"But we will prepare ourselves for the start of a jury trial on May 1," he added. "The Court of Appeals is kind of a wild card in all of this."
If the San Francisco court upholds Mann's decision, the trial, Hopkins believes, would proceed on schedule.
"The judge raised some really good issues and he showed a sensitivity to the race issue that we need in this case in the jury selection and the trial," Hanlon observed. "That was really positive. You don't always win when you think you ought to, but the issue was recognized and I believe he'll give us a fair trial if we end up here."
E-mail John Lindblom at
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