Volume XV, Issue 35
■ Singing coach said to save voices. Page B5.
■ Torrey Pines graduates’ Blush Botanicals sees growth. Page 9.
■ Aviation rescue specialist swims ‘so others may live.’ Page B4.
■ Donors ‘rewarded’ with a course in Marine chow. Page B1
www.solanabeachsun.com
Pawing it forward
High graduation rates reported for San Dieguito BY MARSHA SUTTON Senior Education Writer Using a new tracking and reporting system, the California Department of Education released graduation and dropout rates this month for the class of 2009-2010 that show that the San Dieguito Union High School District had a graduation rate of 94.4 percent, compared to a statewide rate of 74.4 percent. The dropout rate was 3.1 percent for the district and 18.2 percent for the state. The difference between the graduation and dropout rates – 2.5 percent for San Dieguito and 7.4 percent for the state – represents students removed from the cohort for a number of reasons. They may have transferred to a private school, enrolled in a school out of the district, transferred to an institution or health facility, are being home-schooled, moved out of the state or country, or died. Students remained in the cohort if they dropped out during that four-year period, completed SEE RATES, PAGE 18
Data suspicious on list of best high schools BY MARSHA SUTTON Senior Education Writer Self-reported data may be responsible for the disparity in rankings between Torrey Pines High School and Canyon Crest Academy on Newsweek’s latest annual list of Best High Schools, San Dieguito Union High School District officials say. The list continues to draw criticism, even though the publication says it revamped its methodology and no longer considers only the number of Advanced Placement exams and the number of graduating seniors at each school. Now there are six components: graduation rate (worth 25 percent), college matriculation rate (25 percent), AP tests taken SEE DATA, PAGE 6
Ricochet, the “SURFice” dog, reunites with 16-year-old quadriplegic Patrick Ivison at Dog Beach in Del Mar on Aug. 20. Patrick and Ricochet first surfed tandem together at a fundraiser two years ago. The Helen Woodward Animal Center also held a surf dog clinic for its upcoming event, the Surf Dog Surf-a-thon in Del Mar on Sept. 11. Ricochet will participate in the event. See page B2. PHOTO: JON CLARK
Incomplete chart includes Skyline School on list of most under-vaccinated kindergartners
Amid a budget deficit, Solana Beach Firefighters concerned about staffing
BY MARSHA SUTTON SENIOR EDUCATION WRITER
BY CLAIRE HARLIN STAFF WRITER As the City of Solana Beach faces a nearly $700,000 budget deficit, local firefighters asked the community to come together at the Aug. 24 City Council meeting in opposition of a proposal that could reduce fire engine staffing. As of yet, no such cuts have been recommended or approved by the city, and the hearing
A report published Aug. 17 stating that Solana Beach School District’s Skyline School has 25.9 percent of its kindergartners opting out of required vaccinations is technically accurate, but the fact that Skyline primarily serves students in grades 4-6 was not noted. “I do think that only looking at a small grade lev-
JOHN R. LEFFERDINK
619-813-8222
Aug. 25, 2011 Published Weekly
el in isolation might be misleading,” said SBSD superintendent Leslie Fausset. Fausset said there are 20 students out of a total enrollment of 491 who have waived vaccinations, which is about 4 percent. The article, published in the San Diego Union-Tribune based on data collected by the Watchdog Institute at
SEE SKYLINE, PAGE 6
had not yet taken place at press time for this newspaper. The standard and current staffing model requires teams of six firefighters — three per apparatus. In the case that a team member is on leave or calls in, the proposed model wouldn’t bring in an overtime firefighter as a replacement, dropping the number of responders to five. City Manager David
Ott said this overtime shift generally pays about $800 to $900. Concern comes as the city is trying to approve its 2011-12 budget. For the first time in history, Ott said, the council in June postponed the adoption of the budget so that city staff could form committees, in the meantime, to come up with possi-
SEE FIREFIGHTERS, PAGE 6
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