Hometown News Since 1916 Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CIV, NO. XXXII
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020
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AUSD
Parents, Staff Vote For Distance Learning In Recent Survey By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com
DeJoy, (who replaced Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan, who announced her intent to retire effective in January 2020 but stayed on while the USPS Board of Governors searched for her replacement) issued a statement explaining that “the Postal Service is in a financially unsustainable position, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, and a broken business model.” He went on to say that “we are currently unable to balance their costs with available funding sources to fulfill both our universal service mission and other legal obligations and because of this, the Postal Service has experienced over a decade of financial losses, with no end in sight, and we face an impending liquidity crisis.” This began a series of evaluations of all the postal services and protocols to see where they could operate more efficiently and effectively. As reports explain, this is usual and customary when a new head takes over, and should be done quarterly and annually each year. Right away, DeJoy addressed the existing operating plans and the financial impacts of some of the current USPS procedures. One of the critical areas of focus was employee overtime. According to the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) report entitled “U.S. Postal Service’s Processing Network Optimization and Service Impacts,” indicated that the Postal Service spent $1.1 billion in mail processing overtime and penalty overtime, $280 million in late and extra transportation, and $2.9 billion in delivery overtime and penalty overtime costs in the fiscal year of 2019.
TEMPLETON — Templeton Unified School District outlined what parents and students can expect when school begins on Tuesday, Aug. 25, in distance learning. “While we all sincerely desire to be back together in-person experiencing all the wonderful aspects of our schools, our challenge now is to embrace the circumstances and opportunities ahead of us,” stated TUSD Superintendent Aaron Asplund. Andy Burnett, TUSD Assistant Superintendent of Education Services, provided information on distance learning, alternative education programs, special education services and learning pods. All students, including special education, will begin the school year in distance learning. San Luis Obispo County schools are starting the 2020-21 school year with distance learning after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed all school districts in counties on the state’s watchlist to do so. Districts finished the 2019-20 school year with distance learning due to COVID-19 pandemic guidelines.
ATA S C A D E R O — Atascadero Unified School District Board of Trustees met on Tuesday as the District began the 2020-2021 school year in full distance learning on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Prior to the meeting, the District sent out a survey to all parents and teachers within the community to establish a baseline as to what the majority of those working in AUSD schools or sending their children to schools feel about the board’s decisions thus far. The District will look to readminister the survey in the coming weeks with more questions to access how they are doing and what parents and staff want going forward, but as of now, the results were varied. “I recommend we use this as a baseline,” said AUSD Superintendent Tom Butler. “We don’t need to make any final determinations from this now, but it is good to help inform the future decisions we will need to make as a Board.” The survey that was sent out had only two questions. The first asked parents to identify the age of their child (children). The second asked parents to select which educational format they wanted to see their child experience given the current COVID-19 status in the state and community. The survey was also sent to staff, both classified and certificated. In each of the three levels, elementary school, middle school, and high school, full distance learning was the top choice among the 966 parents that responded with the highest percentage coming from parents with high school-aged children at 41.3 percent. Traditional in-person schooling finished with the second-most votes for high school, with 33 percent of parents in support of it, while only 25.7 percent voted for a blended model. Middle school parents favored full distance learning, 39.3 percent, followed by 31.1 percent selecting the blended
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The Wayne Cooper Memorial Lighthouse Golf Tournament will be played at Chalk Mountain Golf Course in Atascadero on Oct. 10. Photo by Nicholas Mattson
Wayne Cooper Memorial Lighthouse Golf Tournament Set for October 10 fundraising event that the Greyhound Foundation has hosted in support of the Lighthouse programs and resources. “Lighthouse Atascadero aims to raise awareness of the dangers of drug addiction and use with educational resources, a reality tour, mentoring, and more. It also offers intervention for those battling addiction. That includes therapy during school hours and a wellness center.” Donn Clickard, Executive Director of the Greyhound Foundation, explained.
By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com
T
he Atascadero Greyhound Foundation announced that the Wayne Cooper Memorial Golf Tournament that benefits Lighthouse Atascadero has not been canceled amidst the pandemic. This year’s annual fundraiser will take place on October 10 at Chalk Mountain Golf Course in Atascadero. The Golf Tournament has been an annual
In August 2018, Wayne Cooper, then sitting President of the Foundation, passed away suddenly after attending their annual summer track and field event. “For anyone that knew Wayne knew that he dedicated his time and energy to the kids of Atascadero,” Clickard said. “He was a crucial part of the organization’s start, and his endless efforts helped us get to where we are today.” Clickard shared, “There was an empty chair after Wayne passed, and it is still empty, but
the Board wanted to find a way to honor his memory, and that is when the annual Golf Tournament adopted his name.” The Golf Tournament will be the first fundraiser that the Greyhound Foundation has put on since the start of the pandemic. “We have lost three fundraisers this year, so this one is extremely important for us to be able to provide the Lighthouse resources to the community,” Clickard said. CONTINUED ON PAGE A15
POSTAL SERVICE
EDUCATION
USPS Responds to Removal of Blue-Steel Mailboxes By HAYLEY MATTSON hayley@atascaderonews.com
T
he United States Postal Service (USPS) blue-steel mailboxes have received a lot of attention over the past week when it was reported nationwide that the blue mailboxes were disappearing. According to the USPS, the blue-steel box mail collection is consistently audited every year. USPS evaluates the boxes that receive small amounts of correspondence for removal. This allows the branch to save on the cost of fuel and work hours linked to that mailbox that is not worth the time and effort of its mail carriers. Over the years, USPS has routinely evaluated the installation and removal of these boxes based on volume. The boxes that do not receive a lot of mail can be relocated and installed in areas of increasing populations or removed altogether. Currently, there are nearly 142,000 blue-steel collection boxes nationwide. Decisions to remove these boxes are also made on a case-by-case basis, so if that box is the only means for sending correspondence in a neighborhood, complex, or business center, it will most likely be kept. The USPS stated in a report last year that “over the last few years a greater emphasis has been placed on stabilizing the number of collection boxes in use and relocating low-use boxes to high traffic areas such as shopping centers, business parks, grocery stores, etc. for increased customer convenience.” On July 27, the new Postmaster General, and CEO Louis
LOCAL NEWS
LOCAL NEWS
COVID UPDATE
TUSD Outlines Distance Learning to Begin School Year First day for Templeton students is Tuesday, Aug. 25 By BRIAN WILLIAMS brian@atascaderonews.com
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