SHIRLEY KIMBERLIN Everything I list turns to SOLD! 805-886-0228 skimberlin@aol.com
This week’s listings on the back page
Teachers and district find common ground
After many months of bargaining that seemed to go nowhere, the teachers union and representatives for Carpinteria Unified School District have agreed on teacher contract terms in the 11th hour. The agreement reached in a negotiating session last week was ratified by the teachers union on June 8. The school board is scheduled to ratify the tentative agreement at its June 23 meeting. At issue were salary raises, healthcare coverage and the addition of a safety clause to the teachers’ contract. Teacher Jay Hotchner, who is president of Carpinteria Association of United School Employees (CAUSE), said the group is “pleased that we reached an agreement.” The agreement includes a 4 percent pay increase and a cost-sharing plan between employees and the district for healthcare increases starting in 2016-2017. Teacher contracts still will not contain a safety article, which Hotchner said was disappointing. This year’s negotiations dragged on longer than most and crept out from closed door negotiating sessions onto the public stage. Teachers pleaded for increased pay, secure benefits and increased safety at school board meetings and on the letters page of Coastal View News. Hotchner said that the terms “came late, very very late, and only after a tremendous amount of stress and ill will.” The agreement reached will contractualize an earlier start to bargaining that should help avoid decisions made so late in the school year. The compensation adjustment of 4 percent will be retroactive to July 1, 2014. Compensation for 2015-2016 will be negotiated during the upcoming school year. ––Lea Boyd
Stepping up to the mic
BILL SWING
Carpinteria Valley Little League held closing ceremonies on Saturday, June 6, and in addition to handing out hardware to the season’s most successful teams, coaches led players and families in a performance of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Manager Conan Horton of Cubs T-Ball had the microphone pushed in front of his voice by Gordy Hernandez, the Cubs assistant coach. At right is Mets assistant, Carter Hampton. For more coverage of the ceremony see Sports on page 15.
Deputies shoot gun-waving man at Thunderbowl
A Santa Barbara man was shot multiple times by Sheriff’s deputies early Sunday morning after brandishing a shotgun at officers near the intersection of Highway 150 and Carpinteria Avenue. Oscar Varela Moreno, 23, is recovering from multiple, non-life threatening gunshot wounds at a local hospital and was booked in absentia on charges of felony brandishing a firearm at a peace officer and felony obstructing/resisting of an executive officer. Moreno was driving in what is known as the Thunderbowl area of Carpinteria at approximately 1 a.m. on June 7, when he was pulled over by a deputy on suspicion of a traffic violation. He then got out of his car, which had been left in drive and still moving, and pulled a shotgun out of the trunk and pointed it at the deputy. The suspect’s car rolled about 50 yards until it crashed into an embankment. The deputy discharged his firearm at the suspect and was joined by a second deputy who came to his aid and also fired at the suspect. Moreno was struck multiple times and was quickly detained by the
Oscar Varela Moreno pulled this shotgun out of the trunk of his car and pointed it at deputies before being shot early Sunday morning. officers. He was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to the hospital. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau is investigating the case. The deputies
SBCSD
who were involved in the shooting are veterans of the agency and both have more than ten years of service. They have been placed on administrative leave, which is routine in cases of this nature.