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VOLUME 27 NUMBER 38
DM school district pays teacher’s legal costs BY MARSHA SUTTON SENIOR EDUCATION WRITER The Del Mar Union School District agreed to pay a teacher’s court costs and legal fees when the teacher filed a harassment charge last spring against a parent at her school. The teacher claimed the parent, the mother of several children at the teacher’s school, was threatening the teacher and endangering the students at the school. The teacher, and the district, lost the case when the judge ruled in favor of the defendant, the parent, after a court appearance that included testimony from the teacher, the parent and the school’s principal, Wendy Wardlow of Del Mar Heights School. The alleged erratic behavior started when the teacher began dating the mother’s now ex-husband (the mother and father were separated and in the process of divorcing at the time). After the teacher reported to the school’s principal that the mother had made offensive and threatening statements to her, Wardlow alerted DMUSD superintendent Jim Peabody, who brought the issue to the district’s lawyer Dan Shinoff, of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. Shinoff advised the school district to take the See COSTS, Page 6
JOHN R. LEFFERDINK
619-813-8222
Sept. 22, 2011
Ice cream fun at Solana Highlands
To welcome students back to school, Solana Highlands recently treated families to an ice cream social. (Above) Ben Antoniades, Jacob DiPoro and Maggie Watts. See page B14 for more. Photo/Jon Clark
Earth Song Books to close in November BY CLAIRE HARLIN Staff Writer Earth Song Books & Gifts, which has been part of the Del Mar community for more than 40 years, will close its doors in November. “For a long time, we’ve been competing with Amazon and Kindle, and our customers haven’t been supporting us in this economy,” said owner Annette Palmer. “We have to close because the funding just isn’t there. The numbers just don’t add up.” Earth Song opened in 1969, and Palmer, with the help of her fam-
ily, bought the independent bookstore in 2007, only days before wildfires began to ravish nearby areas. She was 24 when she became owner of the store, located at 1440 Camino Del Mar, which she said she fell in love with at first sight. She found out the store was for sale from a Craiglist ad, advertising a $250,000 price tag. “I was just out of college and owned a bookstore by the beach,” she said. “It was my dream.” Palmer said she has
Work to correct longtime on-ramp flooding problem now slated to begin Oct. 10 BY KAREN BILLING STAFF WRITER About a year after flooding was discovered on the Carmel Mountain Road on-ramp to Interstate 5, repair work will finally begin around Oct. 10. Dubbed “Torrey Hills Lake” by frustrated local residents, the ramp started flooding during the last rainy season and hasn’t subsided since—a pool of water has remained on the outside lane most of the year due to an underground pipe failure. While the Torrey Hills community was told the work would begin this summer and then in September, October is now the target date. “It’s quite an amazing little arduous task to figure this one out, but we’ve got it done, and got it done right despite some delays from traffic planning, from Caltrans,” said Bill Harris, spokesperson for the city of San Diego’s transportation and storm water department. Brad Fagan, vice chair of the Torrey Hills Community Planning Board and president of the Torrey Hills Master Association, said the October start date was “unacceptable.” He lamented that the city received emergency funding for December 2010 flooding in February and that the city could have gotten permits from Caltrans months ago. “I don’t think the construction will start in October but I hope it does. I
This photo of flooding at the ramp was taken earlier this year. don’t understand how the project could be ‘arduous’ because it is an inside job with emergency funds, funds that are apparently there already. It’s not a question of how much a permit costs, they’ve got it,” Fagan said. “I just think they put it on a shelf and forgot about us. I know they’re busy doing other projects but do any other projects impact a single community as much as this does?” District 1 City Councilmember Sherri Lightner agrees with Fagan that the work should be expedited, sending a memo to Mayor Jerry Sanders on Tuesday, Sept. 20. “The San Diego City Council approved funding for this project on June 7, 2011 so I request that work start immediately,” Lightner wrote. “We want to prevent further damage to the storm drain and avoid any delays due to inclement weather.”
See BOOKS, page 6
See RAMP, Page 6
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