MAY 20, 2016
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COMMUNITY NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS & EVENTS
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Local archery team shoots for the stars by Dawnmarie Fehr Correspondent The Excelsior Middle School (EMS) archery team, consisting of 17 students, spent last weekend shooting their hearts out at the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Tournament, in Louisville, Kentucky. Sherri Hyden, of Discovery Bay, coaches the team as a parent volunteer and is proud of the students’ progress. “The kids have been working hard for this,” Hyden said. “It’s good to see them realize their goals.” The EMS archery program originally began under the auspices of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s office in 2011, when it was called Project Straight Arrow. Community Service Deputy David Allain took on coaching responsibilities for the first few years. Now, the program is run solely through the school. “David got the program off to start,” Hyden said. “I took my coaching skills from him. I was there helping him while he coached, then I got certified and have been coaching for two years now.” Hyden enjoys the time she spends practicing with the students, including her own children. Under her guiding eye, EMS placed first in the NASP California State Tournament for the fourth year in a row, qualifying the team for nation-
Photo courtesy of Sherri Hyden
Members of the EMS Archery team line up in front of their targets, placed 10 and 15 meters away. als, where they ranked 195 out of 206. The team also helped break the NASP’s world record from last year’s national competition, which saw 12,045 students shoot. This year, more than 14,000 students competed, setting a new record. Michelle Grgurevic’s son, Aiden, is a sixth grader at EMS, and he attended the competition in Louisville with Hyden. Grgurevic said Aiden is very happy to have found ar-
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chery through the NASP program at his school. “He practices about three hours a week,” Grgurevic said. “If we lived on a large plot of land, he would practice daily! He was super excited when he learned he was able to go to nationals - he had a large smile from ear to ear, and plans on being there next year.” Grgurevic added that an important aspect of the team is the camaraderie with Hyden and the other coaches. Kim Basmagian, EMS Principal, attributes the popularity and success of the team to this hard-working mother. “The archery team is an integral part of the campus,” Basmagian stated. “Coach and leader Sherry Hyden has been instrumental in keeping this program going with integrity. Sherry is always trying to make the program exceptional, and when she talks about the students, she lights up with a smile. Excelsior is lucky to have an archery program where students can be part of a team.” According to its website, the NASP program was launched in Kentucky in 2001, with the goal to teach target archery skills to 24,000 students a year. It has since surpassed that goal and expanded to 48 states and provinces. Its curriculum was developed by education and target experts to enable the organization to offer core content to its participants. For more information, visit www.naspschools.org. To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
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MAY 20, 2016
Reading program kicks off at B&N For years, the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading Program has encouraged children to engage their imaginations all summer long and earn a free book by completing a reading journal about the books they read. This year, the annual, free, book giveaway is currently underway, and young readers can earn a free book by reading three books and answering questions in their summer reading journal by Sept. 6. Additionally, in celebration of the 20th anniversary, Barnes & Noble is launching a special Summer Reading Triathlon, which kicks off with a special opening ceremony on Saturday, June 4, at 11 a.m., at all stores nationwide. The new triathlon will allow young readers to vote for their favorite heroes and places from a selection of contenders that will be displayed at stores nationwide. Voting runs from June 4 through Aug. 21, with the local and national winners announced at a special closing ceremony on Aug. 27. At the opening ceremony, kids will find out who the medal contenders are, and they will be able to vote for their favorite heroes and places from books. Kids can complete a voting ballot by choosing their favorite gold-, silver- and bronze-medaled nominees in each group. They will then deposit their ballots in the voting ballot box located near the entrance or directly outside the children’s department of their local store and vote as
many times as they’d like to move their favorites to the top of their local Barnes & Noble’s leader board in the race to the finish line. Kids are encouraged to come back regularly to their local store and check the leader board to see how their nominees are doing. On Saturday, Aug. 27, at 11 a.m., kids are officially invited back to their local Barnes & Noble store to find out which favorite hero and favorite place took home the gold, at a special closing ceremony where they will receive a gold medal of their own, while supplies last. The books featuring the heroes and places that took home the gold, silver and bronze medals, locally and nationally, will be featured on a special display at the store through September. As always, kids can participate in the regular summer-reading program to earn a free book from a selection of books for grades one through six. All they have to do is read three books and visit their local Barnes & Noble store or BN.com/SummerReading to answer three of the four questions on the back of the Summer Reading Triathlon Journal. They can then bring their completed journal to their local Barnes & Noble storenow through Sept. 6 ,to get their free book. For more information, stop by your local store or visit BN.com/SummerReading.
MAY 20, 2016
COMMUNITY
Local student honored with NAACP scholarship
Photo courtesy of Cassandra Youngblood
M
yles Youngblood, a senior at Heritage High School, has been named the recipient of the 2016 Darnell Turner Memorial Scholarship from the East County NAACP. Youngblood was excited to receive the scholarship, as well as congressional recognition from Rep. Mark DeSaulnier and county recognition from Supervisor Federal Glover, at the East County NAACP awards night, held at the Lone Tree Golf Center, on Saturday, April 23. The East County NAACP was impressed with Youngblood’s essay, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” in which he showcased the importance of every person exercising their hard-earned right to vote.
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MAY 20, 2016
COMMUNITY
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MOB celebrates moms, community by Megan Folkman Correspondent Local community women’s organization, Mothers of Brentwood (MOB), held their 11th-annual Mother’s Day Brunch, on May 15, to enhance their community outreach and fundraising efforts. The event, held at Club Los Meganos, at Trilogy at the Vineyards, and attended by more than 75 Brentwood mothers, raises money through donated raffle and live-auction items. The money gets funneled back into the community in various ways through the MOB Community Outreach Program. “In an effort to streamline fundraising for three of our yearly community-outreach efforts, the MOB decided early on to start holding this annual brunch,” said President Lisa Richmond. “Not only do we get to recognize and honor the moms in the area, but we can also give back to families and children in need.” Moms were first treated to an array of delicious brunch and dessert items, then they purchased raffle tickets and participated in a live auction for a chance to win more than 160 prizes donated by 110 businesses throughout the Bay Area. All the proceeds benefit the Community Outreach Program, which provides approximately 144
Photo by Melissa van Ruiten Photography
Brunch attendees enter their tickets into raffle drawings for various prizes benefiting the MOB Community Outreach Program. backpacks filled with school supplies and 71 Thanksgiving dinners to students and families in need throughout Brentwood. In addition, MOB also provides Christmas gifts to eight families.
“Community outreach is the heart of the Mothers of Brentwood group,” said the program’s co-director Melissa Van Ruiten. “As moms, (we) believe that helping others is inherent, so to have such a great group of women who
are willing to donate their time and money for events like our Backpack Drive, Turkey Drive, and Adopt-AFamily, is an awesome, amazing thing.” This year’s brunch raised more than $5,700 for these events. Ron Nunn Elementary School’s Principal Amy Wallace echoes Van Ruiten’s sentiments. The brunch’s featured speaker and mother of three, Wallace has seen firsthand how the MOB’s community outreach efforts effect the children it helps. “As a mom, you want your child to feel confident when they’re going to school,” said Wallace. “I’ve been a part of distributing more than 100 backpacks to students, so I’ve seen how it’s really impacted the lives of kids.” MOB was founded in 2005, as an independently run and member-driven organization striving to meet the diverse and changing needs of mothers in the Brentwood community. The group provides support to all mothers throughout all walks of life, whether they stay at home, work full or part time, are trying to conceive or are expecting. They offer a variety of activities for children of all ages, moms, and their families. Activities include playgroups, Bunco, book clubs and more. For more information or to become a member, visit www.mothersofbrentwood.com. To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
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MAY 20, 2016
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LAFCO policies worry Brentwood officials by Kyle Szymanski Staff Writer City officials are objecting to a series of proposed agricultural and openspace preservation policies they feel will stifle local control. The policies, put fourth by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a state agency that encourages orderly growth and boundaries, discourages urban sprawl and preserves agriculture and open space, set a series of policies and guidelines that could govern future growth proposals, impacting agricultural and open-space lands. The agency must approve all future growth of the city when it involves annexing land or impacting areas outside its borders. “We are trying to do this as a partnership,” said LAFCO Commissioner Don Tatzin. “The goal of this policy is to provide information, so people can make intelligent decisions. We understand there is going to be growth
Petition from page 1A asked if I would write a letter that she could take, and I said yes. From there, I had the idea for the petition. Maybe there are other parents who can’t make the meeting, so if I get signatures from other parents that want the same thing for their children, it can all be presented.” Luark’s two children attend Discovery Bay Elementary, and she originally wrote the petition with just that school in mind. But after speaking to other concerned parents whose children attended Timber Point, she expanded the petition to include both elementary schools. The petition calls for each class to be in the
Transgender from page 1A there as they please. If they feel uncomfortable going into the bathroom they identify with, then we make other arrangements.” Although they invoke the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on sex, the DOJ guidelines
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and some of that will occur in existing boundaries and some will occur outside.” Tatzin said that the plan aims in part to discourage urban sprawl, preserve agricultural and open-space lands and guide development toward urban vacant land - away from agricultural and open space. LAFCO began working on the guidelines in March and plans to bring them back to the full board in June. Just some of the proposed guidelines include prioritizing the development of vacant land within urban areas, over annexation of agricultural land for nonagricultural purposes; generally discouraging urban development in agricultural areas; and prioritizing annexation of nonprime farmland over prime farmland. “We realize that LAFCO’s goal is to balance orderly growth with a desire to preserve agricultural land,” Tatzin said. City leaders, who saw the plan for the first time last week, believe it will
interfere with their local control, stymie economic-development opportunities and ignore the city’s agriculturalmitigation polices that are already in place. The guidelines were dropped in the city’s lap as it works on a community build-out plan involving several pieces of land LAFCO would need to weigh in on, including 180 acres along Marsh Creek Road; unincorporated lands outside of Brentwood south of Oakley; and an area along the west side of Sellers Road south of the Delta. That plan, which started in the fall, is slated to take 18 months to complete. “(The LAFCO policies) come off pretty strongly that (the city is) not going to develop anything out here,” said City Councilman Gene Clare. Mayor Bob Taylor said that the guidelines are not needed, because the city already strives to preserve agricultural lands, as is evidenced by the agricultural easements put on 980 acres of land. Vice Mayor Joel Bryant pointed
out that the long-term preservation of agricultural lands hinge on new economic-development ideas, such as community kitchens in agricultural areas that don’t infringe on the land, but expand on their ability to survive. Clare added that the policies could infringe upon the infrastructure changes the city needs to make as it grows. “We want to create a partnership, since the city wants to preserve agricultural lands, but maybe not in the areas that LAFCO dictates,” said Clare. City leaders plan to formally craft a letter to LAFCO stating their concerns about the proposed guidelines prior to June when the full LAFCO board will discuss the plan. Taylor warned the city plans to fight the regulations if they are put in place. “If you put handcuffs on us, it will be a fight and a bitter fight until the very end,” he said. To view the complete proposed guidelines, visit bit.ly/1YA33vm. To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
range of 20 to 25 students, rather than the 30 or more students that currently populate existing classes. Luark is asking for lower studentto-teacher ratios to improve the learning environment. Some parents who signed the petition left comments echoing these sentiments. “My child has been in kindergarten and first grade with 30 (or more) children in her class each year,” said Jacquie Ganem of Discovery Bay. “It’s time for change in class size. Class size reduction seems like a start in the right direction!” Other parents agreed. “A larger class size does not benefit
anyone,” said Angela Williams of Discovery Bay. “If our school would like to continue its high ratings and test scores, I would think about reducing class sizes.
Our school could face declining scores on tests and that’s not good for students or our school.” The California Department of Education set limits on class sizes in its education code in 1964. According to these limits, California schools cannot have classes larger than 32 students in first through third grade, without inflicting penalties on themselves. BUSD Superintendent Debbie Gold said she was not aware of the petition and had no comment on class sizes in the district. To view the petition, visit https://goo. gl/eh1RcA. To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
do not carry the enforcement of actual law that AB 1266 does. Because only Congress can authorize that, the DOJ guidelines instead threaten lawsuits and a withholding of federal funds from any of the roughly 100,000 public schools in the U.S. that do not comply. The battle has become protracted as several states, most notably North Carolina, push back against the emboldened transgender movement on several fronts, including outside school districts. Even in California, a divergence between parents and officials from the state and school levels has become apparent. Tameka Bluebaugh, the mother of two Oakley school children and a PTA board member at Laurel Elementary School, is one example. She sees the unfolding transgender debate as nothing more than federal recognition of an already wayward state policy catering to a small minority at the expense of the vast majority. “It’s getting ridiculous … we are conforming to situations that will ultimately cause more problems, especially when you have children involved,” she said. “This is much larger than a trans-
gender student using a bathroom of their choice. It is about the part of the policy where there are no questions asked and it is simply based on what a child ‘identifies’ with or ‘relates’ to. Kids are kids, (but) there are responsible kids, and then there are some that will break a rule or push the limits just because they can.” Bluebaugh added that she believes that AB 1266 came into the picture under quieter circumstances. The current situation that is taking social media by storm might push schools to advertise the issue even more, especially with talk of discrimination lawsuits at the hands of the DOJ. “This is where the real chaos will begin,” she said. However, school officials stress that things have been going well, as they do everything they can to foster an environment of tolerance and safety. Greg Hetrick, director of student support services for the Brentwood Union School District, which serves students from the prekindergarten to eighth-grade level, wanted to assure parents and the community that his district takes the well-being of all
students very seriously. “We’re aware of our students, and it would stand out pretty quickly if someone was just pulling a prank,” he said. “It varies from person to person as to what they want to do regarding their identity … that’s what we’re trying to protect, what we want to support.” Moreover, like Volta, Hetrick pointed out that he is unaware of any serious disturbance arising to date. He also stated that if a situation should come up where a student took advantage of the regulations for the purpose of a joke or for entertainment it would have to be dealt with, though he did not specify how the district would do so. For Bluebaugh, she doesn’t think the process should be complicated or that it’s in need of any serious remedies. “There is one thing in this whole controversy that can’t be changed and that is your birth certificate,” she said. “If you are a boy … then you are to use the boy’s bathroom. If you are a girl … you use the girl’s bathroom. It’s as simple as that. We have (it this way) for a reason.” To comment, visit www.thepress.net.
“ It’s time for a change in class size. Class size reduction seems like a start in the right direction.
”
Angela Williams Discovery Bay