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THE COAST NEWS
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MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
DEC. 26, 2014
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
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The new Carlsbad sign awaits installation at the intersection of Carlsbad Boulevard and Carlsbad Village Drive, which is slated for Dec. 29. The sign has been a passion project for Carlsbad realtor Carlton Lund. Photo by Carlton Lund
Carlsbad sign: 14 years in the RANCHO making By Ellen Wright
From left: Luke Kleinrath, Alexander Poroy, Daniel Gurholt and Adam Olander showcase their project during Ada Harris School’s second annual Toy Fair. The team created an action figure called “Legends of Jhiaxus.” Photos by Aaron Burgin
Young inventors voyage into the toy realm By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — From the “Luvable Huggable” to the “Hot Dog Hammock” and all of the zombies, board games, plush animals and action figures in between, the 6th grade students at Ada Harris Elementary School want you to buy their toys. To assist in selling his wiener-based hammock, Parker created a minute-long commercial that included the catch phrase, “It’s fun in a bun!” that generated laughs from parents and people who visited his exhibit. Audrey Smith, Brooke Cardinale and Natalie Cutri created a flashy poster board complete with information about their “huggable” product, a large chair draped with a giant plush stuffed animal that wraps its arms around the person seated in the chair. Ingenuity, craftsmanship, mathematics and entrepreneurial spirit were all on display last Friday afternoon at the school’s second-annual Toy Fair, which doubles as the end of a semester-long project for the school’s senior pupils. The objective: each 6th grader, either by themselves or in a group, had three months to design a toy, develop a prototype and create the marketing materials to make the case that their toy would be a hot seller this holiday season, said Matthew Jewell, a 6th grade teacher at the Cardiff campus. Additionally, students had to price their toy and explain, using charts and graphs with names such as box-whisker graphs and histograms,
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SFNEWS CARLSBAD— A day after the lighting of the Encinitas sign in October 2000, realtor Carlton Lund realized Carlsbad’s need for one as well. He embarked on a 14-year mission to get the city a sign, which is about to be realized. The Carlsbad sign weighs more than 19,000 pounds and scheduled to be installed in the late hours on Dec. 29. The project saw six different variations of the sign and was narrowly denied by city council once, and eventually approved this past June. Lund said the first denial turned out to be a good TURN TO SIGN ON A19
Olivia Kleinrath stands next to one of the students’ projects — the “Hot Dog Hammock.”
showing how they arrived at the price point. Finally, they had to write a pitch letter to the company of their choice explaining why they believed their toy should be on the store’s shelves. Most of the kids wrote letters to Target, Wal-Mart, Toys ‘R Us and Geppetto’s. While the finished project was important, Jewell said equally important was the process each student engaged in to reach the final stage, which represents a shift in educational philosophy that has been emphasized under the new Common Core
standards, Jewell said. “We really wanted to see the kid’s process from start to finish,” Jewell said. “As we are going through this philosophical shift, I am optimistic you are going to see more projects like these, which is not also helping the kids, it’s helping us as teachers become better learners.” A special guest attending the event was Mark Rappaport, the Escondido Toymaker behind the “Marky Sparky” toy line who took notes as the kids pitched him their ideas. Rappaport said he wasn’t going to TURN TO INVENTORS ON A19
The Pacific View site is now in the hands of the city of Encinitas following the closing of escrow late last week. File photo
Pacific View site purchase is finalized By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — The Pacific View Elementary School site is officially in the hands of the city of Encinitas, as escrow on the property closed last week, the city announced. The closing of escrow finalizes the $10 million purchase, which has been a point of controversy citywide, as critics believe the city overpaid the Encini-
tas Union School District for the land. Those critics included current Mayor Kristin Gaspar and Councilman Mark Muir, who were on the short end of 3-2 votes supporting the purchase. City officials paid for the property through the issuance of $10 million in bonds, which was part of a $13 million bond package. TURN TO PACIFIC VIEW ON A19