Inland edition, february 27, 2015

Page 1

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94

The Coast News

INLAND EDITION

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VISTA, SAN MARCOS, ESCONDIDO

VOL. 2, N0. 5

FEB. 27, 2015

The San Marcos Unified School District says that it will delay the opening of the Kindergarten through 8th grade Double Peak School. Photo by Aaron Burgin

District delays opening of school By Aaron Burgin

Magical re-opening Children check out one of the many totems at the center of the Queen Califia’s Magical Circle garden. The sculpture garden in Kit Carson Park re-opens to the public the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. after undergoing maintenance. See full story on page 2 Photo by Ellen Wright

Health clinics stand to lose federal funding for underserved populations By Promise Yee

VISTA — Vista Community Clinic has served North County migrant farm workers for close to 30 years. Clinic CEO Fernando Sañudo said the community clinic has an outstanding reputation for its migrant worker health program, but now stands to lose 70 percent of its federal funding along with other clinics. Congress is considering severely reducing funds because more patients now have medical coverage through Covered California and Medical. This leaves out migrant farm workers and others who do not qualify for health insurance. “There’s currently what we’re calling the fiscal cliff,” Sañudo said. “That congress if they don’t reappropriate the funds into these health centers, we have the risk of losing 70 percent of our fed-

The

Migrant farm workers harvest sunflowers in Carlsbad. Employment opportunities for many migrant workers is limited to fieldwork and day labor. Photo by Promise Yee

eral dollars.” Consequences of loss of funds are outreach services and health education programs for migrant workers and other underserved patients would be reduced or stopped. Sañudo said without a county health department to provide these services they could become nonexis-

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tent. Sañudo said the majority of North County migrant farm workers are men who are working to make money to send home to their families. Most are from rural villages of Oaxaca, Mexico, have a limited education, and speak a native dialect. In the U.S. they earn

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minimum wage as field workers and day laborers, which often limits their housing options to make shift encampment structures pieced together from scrap wood and sheets of plastic. The health risks are high for this vulnerable population. In addition to the toil of manual labor and lack of quality housing, they have limited access to fresh water, and most of their food comes from lunch trucks that stop at the job site. Getting medical attention is something migrant farm workers are reluctant to do unless it is a severe emergency. Home remedies are often tried, and in some cases penicillin and syringes are requested and brought to them by food truck drivers. Vista Community Clinic began outreach services to agriculture fields and enTURN TO CLINICS ON 15

SAN MARCOS — The San Marcos Unified School District announced that it would delay the opening of a highly anticipated and somewhat controversial K-8 school at the top of San Elijo Hills, but one group in town is hoping the school will not be built at all. Double Peak K-8, which is currently under construction at the intersection of San Elijo Road and Ledge Street, was supposed to open at the start of the 2015-2016 school year in August to alleviate overcrowding at San Elijo’s other two schools, San Elijo Elementary and San Elijo Middle School. Planning for the $75 million project started four years ago, and originally was scheduled to be built closer to Cal State San Marcos, but school officials were forced to select the current site after they discovered that the former site contained high levels of arsenic. To date, the district has spent $21 million on site grading and pre construction. The district recently said that it couldn’t maintain the original timeline due to prolonged negotiations with nearby property owners as well as changes to the plans mandated by the Division of the State Architect, that must be submitted and approved by the division before the school district moves for-

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ward with the project. Rather than spending an additional $8 million to $10 million in overtime to rush the opening, school officials said delaying would be the more prudent option. “It was the decision of the school district that the $8 (million) to $10 million could be best used on other school projects,” district spokeswoman Anna Lucia Roybal said. Nearly 1,000 residents attended a school district informational meeting on Feb. 11 where the district outlined three options for opening the school: 1) Cluster students at their home schools and transfer them into the school in January 2016 at the start of the spring semester 2) Move students from various grade groups to three schools- San Elijo, Discovery and Twin Oaks elementary schools. 3) Delay the opening until August 2016 School officials said that the majority of the people in attendance signaled support for delaying the opening by a year, though it wasn’t entirely unanimous. Melanie Flaim, who said she attended the meeting, said she preferred Option 1, opening the school in January 2016. While some expressed concerns about pulling students from a school TURN TO SCHOOL ON 15


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