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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The school’s administration successfully applied for a California Partnership Academy and Renewable Energy Grant for 2011-12 from the California Department of Education.
Upper Lake High was among 21 schools in the state to receive the funding, according to Patrick Iaccino, Upper Lake High’s principal and superintendent.
Iaccino called getting the grant – which focuses on alternative energy and sustainable agriculture – “unbelievable.”
“We’re really excited about it because it really is going to provide our kids with some opportunities, we believe, down the road,” Iaccino said.
According to grant documents, SBX1 1, a bill that passed the California Legislature this year, provides support for the development and operation of “California Partnership Academies” to prepare students for careers in the clean technology and renewable energy fields.
Among the industry sectors identified in the grant application as most aligned with SBX1 1’s intent are agriculture and natural resources, building trades and construction, energy and utilities, engineering and design, manufacturing and product development, transportation, and marketing, sales and services.
Upper Lake High School has received a $15,000 planning grant, which Iaccino said will be used to plan how to structure an academy to prepare students for clean technology and sustainable agriculture jobs.
The grant wants recipient schools to try to have between 120 and 150 students involved in the academy over a three- to four-year period, Iaccino said.
For every student enrolled in the academy, the school receives $1,000, for a maximum amount of $45,000 in the first year, $80,000 in the second, $120,000 in the third year and $150,000 in the fourth year, according to grant documents. The funding is available through 2017.
Iaccino said he worked with John Woods, the school’s science department chair, and agriculture teacher Erica Boomer to put together the grant application.
The application was helped by the support letters written by about 20 businesses, organizations and individuals, Iaccino said.
Among those who wrote in support of the proposal were Mendocino College, the Lake County Office of Education and Lake County District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing, he said.
Rushing, who has worked in clean tech for most of her adult life, said that up until now there has not been a focused clean technology training/job preparation program in California schools, which have been focused on college preparation and standardized testing, not vocational preparation.
She said that educational gap has been filled at the high technology end by the industry itself, with the advantage going to the very large companies who can build training campuses.
In addition, the Solar Living Center in Hopland has trained small scale operators and individuals in skills ranging from solar design and installation to ecological gardening, training programs that community colleges recently have begun to offer, she said.
Rushing said the grant is significant for Lake County, and it offers students a chance to prepare for an industry that she said is going to continue to grow.
The grant also will benefit the county, further positioning Lake County – which in recent years has won Green California leadership awards for innovation and solar infrastructure – as a leader in developing the state’s green economy, Rushing said.
The community support Upper Lake High received in making its grant application, along with the feasibility of having a four-year college locate at the Lucerne Hotel – where Marymount College is working with the county on an agreement to locate a campus – has created an atmosphere of optimism for Upper Lake’s educators.
Iaccino said the school believes they can create a program to prepare students for successful, and well paying, careers.
The grant arrives as the school has been putting together a school farm and community garden on a two-acre section at the back of the campus. Iaccino said they just put in a well for the farm and garden this year.
Iaccino believes the academy will eventually serve up to 50 percent of the school’s 330 students.
That high of a percentage of involvement appeared to intrigue the state, Iaccino said.
As part of the planning, Iaccino said he, Woods, Boomer and Upper Lake High’s head counselor, Rebecca Carter, will travel to Sacramento for a training that takes place Feb. 12-15.
When they get back from the training, Iaccino said they will start to piece the academy together.
Part of their planning will involve visiting Lucerne Elementary School and Upper Lake Middle School, where Iaccino said they will talk to eighth graders about their interests.
The goal is to roll out the academy in the next school year, involving not just incoming freshmen but some sophomores, Iaccino said.
Another program goal is to have students in their senior year fulfill an internship with a local agricultural or clean technology business or organization, Iaccino said.
Woods teaches classes on the environment and biology, and Iaccino said Woods is interested in alternative energy from an environmental perspective. “We’re going to try to marry the two if we can.”
Scheduling will be a challenge, with freshmen and sophomores at the school – who already are required to take two to three science courses – only getting one elective in each of those years. Iaccino said Carter will help figure out how to put the schedules together.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
On Dec. 14, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a survey revealing that nearly one in two women – or 44.6 percent – and one in five men, or 22.2 percent, experience sexual violence other than rape throughout their lifetime.
The 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey shows an increased need for rape crisis centers and rape prevention programs, with approximately 1.3 million women reported being raped in the 12 months prior to taking the survey.
According to LeMon Perales, program manager for the Lake Family Resource Center Rape Crisis Center, classically low reporting rates for this sexual violence make it extremely difficult to calculate an accurate rate of sexual violence in Lake County.
However, Perales said there were more than 200 such cases reported in 2010 in Lake County.
“It is always difficult, especially with the economy as it is currently, but this report clearly demonstrates that California must commit to supporting funding for rape crisis center programs that work to reduce the incidence of and provide support and treatment of sexual crimes. In the end, the dollars spent up front on prevention, early intervention, and treatment will reduce long term negative health consequences which, in turn, will save the state money in the long run,” said Lake Family Resource Center Executive Director Gloria Flaherty.
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey is an ongoing, nationally representative survey that assesses experiences of sexual violence, stalking and intimate partner violence among adult women and men in the United States.
It confirms what advocates and educators already know about the prevalence of sexual violence, intimate partner violence and stalking. It also sheds new light on the scope and context of these forms of violence.
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey revealed that close to 22 million people are victims of rape; more than two million of these survivors live in California.
In 2010-11, about 30,000 people accessed crisis intervention services from one of California’s 63 rape crisis centers, according to the findings.
A majority of funding dedicated to rape crisis centers is delivered from the federal budget, not from the state budget. The state of California only dedicated $45,000 to sexual violence programs, which means that the state of California allotted $1.50 for each individual who accessed services.
In order to decrease rates of violence and foster healthier communities, the study concludes that it is imperative that California develops a funding initiative for rape crisis centers.
The California Coalition Against Sexual Assault said that social norms that contribute to violence and the response to violence can be changed, and rape crisis centers and other anti-violence programs need support to help create that transformation.
Such agencies need resources to continue to provide counseling, legal advocacy, community education, prevention programming, shelter and policy advocacy, CALCASA reported.
“Rape crisis centers are doing phenomenal work to support survivors and prevent sexual violence, but there is still so much more that needs to be done,” said CALCASA’s Executive Director Sandra Henriquez. “It’s essential that advocates have the resources and capacity to reach more survivors and to create communities that are healthier and free from interpersonal violence.”
The federal budget crisis has resulted in a 40 percent reduction to rape prevention education awards, which has undermined critical efforts in California to prevent sexual assault throughout the state, according to the organization. California’s rape crisis centers and service providers could stand to lose more than $800,000 as a result of federal budget disputes.
Lake Family Resource Center said it’s a crucial time for its rape crisis center to reach out to members of community on the issues raised in the report.
Perales said Lake County is classified as a rural, underserved area with multiple “at risk” populations for sexual violence. Children, elderly, disabled, ethnic, mentally ill and economically disadvantaged all are at high risk of becoming victims of violence, especially sexual violence.
The prevention and intervention of rape must be a priority in Lake County, California and throughout the nation, according to Perales.
Lake Family Resource Center’s Rape Crisis Center Advocates are available 24 hours/day, seven days per week to serve families in Lake County.
They have received extensive training to enable them to share accurate information about trauma, victim rights and community resources and will support the victim and the family as they deal with this crime. There is no charge and no time limit for these services.
Lake Family Resource Center also operates the Community Crisis Line – 1-888-485-7733 – which is available 24/7.
The center can be visited online at http://lakefrc.org/.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The Clear Lake Area California Highway Patrol will offer a free “Start Smart” traffic safety classes for teenage drivers and their parents.
The class will run approximately two hours and will be offered on Monday, Jan. 9, at 6:30 p.m. at the CHP office, located at 5700 Live Oak Dr., at the corner of Highway 29 and Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.
Traffic collisions are the No. 1 killer of teenagers in America.
Nationally about 5,000 teens will die in automobile crashes. About 10 percent of those deaths are in California alone.
In California in 2009, there were 61,029 collisions involving teenage drivers statewide, of which 346 resulted in fatalities, the CHP reported.
In Lake County during that time period, there were 41 injury or fatal crashes involving teen drivers, of which 34 of those teen drivers were ruled at fault, according to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System. Among those crashes, there was one fatality.
The Start Smart program aims to help future and newly-licensed teenage drivers learn the responsibilities that accompany the privilege of being a licensed driver.
The program is an educational tool for parents and teens to reduce the number of teen injuries and deaths resulting from traffic collisions.
It provides information on defensive driving, state traffic laws, dynamics of traffic collisions, tips on avoiding collisions and DUI awareness.
Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP office, 707-279-0103.
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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
… because everyone was outside watching the planets align?
It's true. On Monday, Dec. 26, the night after Christmas, Venus and the slender crescent Moon will gather for a jaw-dropping conjunction in the western sky.
The action begins shortly before sunset.
Around 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. local time, just as the sky is assuming its evening hue, Venus will pop into view, glistening bright in the deepening twilight.
No more than 6 degrees to the right lies the crescent Moon, exquisitely slender, grinning like the Cheshire cat with his head cocked at humorous attention.
This is a wonderful time to look; there are very few sights in the heavens as splendid as Venus and the Moon gathered close and surrounded by twilight blue.
But don't go inside yet, because the view is about to improve. As the sky fades to black, a ghostly image of the full Moon materializes within the horns of the lunar crescent.
This is caused by Earthshine, a delicate veil of sunlight reflected from our own blue planet onto the dusty-dark lunar terrain. Also known as "the da Vinci glow," after Leonardo da Vinci who first understood it 500 years ago, Earthshine pushes the beauty of the conjunction over the top.
Meanwhile, Jupiter will be looking down on it all from a perch overhead in the constellation Pisces.
In ascending order, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon are the three brightest objects in the night sky, able to pierce city lights and even thin clouds. Almost everyone, everywhere will be able to see them.
Although no telescope is required to enjoy the show, if one happens to be under your Christmas tree, take it outside.
With a simple triangular sweep, you can see the clouds and moons of Jupiter, mountains and craters on the Moon, and the fat gibbous form of Venus. (Like the Moon, Venus has phases, and at the moment she is 83 percent illuminated.) Rarely can so much amateur astronomy be done with so little effort.
Some people find the night after Christmas to be a bit of a letdown. This year, it's not so bad.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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