The Davis Enterprise Sunday, May 17, 2020

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enterprise THE DAVIS

SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2020

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Weeds, parking on council agenda

Dreams undimmed UCD student pushes on despite crisis BY CALEB HAMPTON Enterprise staff writer The COVID-19 pandemic has clouded the future for everyone, especially for students who are at the point of embarking on a professional or academic career. Despite the unpredictable circumstances, Rosalina Burton, a human development major at UC Davis, has her sights set on the road ahead. The pandemic is not the first obstacle Burton has faced. Earlier this month, her perseverance and academic achievements won her a $10,000 Dream Award from Scholarship America. The award was created in 2014 for students with financial need “who have overcome significant barriers to make it to college,” according to the Scholarship America website.

BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY Enterprise staff writer

“This is a remarkable group of academic achievers with ambitious goals for their future,” said Robert C. Ballard, president and CEO of Scholarship America. Burton said the Dream Award came as a surprise. The scholarship means that when she graduates next year, she will be debtfree. “That’s huge,” she said. “I feel incredibly blessed for an organization like Scholarship America to recognize my hard work.” Growing up in the foster care system in the San Diego area, Burton said it was a struggle for her to graduate from high school. “I bounced around so much,” she said. When she did graduate, she didn’t think she was smart enough for college. In California, only 50 percent of foster youths graduate from high school. Just 3 percent go on to earn a degree. As Burton transitioned out of foster care, she struggled with depression. “I realized all the people in

COURTESY PHOTO

After aging out of the foster-care system, Rosalina Burton graduated from Palomar College with an associate’s degree in 2019. Now, she’s enrolled at UC Davis with an eventual goal of earning a Ph.D. my life had been paid to be there,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone who cared about me personally. It affected my confidence.” She also was struggling financially. Instead of continuing with school, she found a job as a mentalhealth worker in Escondido. After a while, she noticed she was getting paid $3 less an hour than her coworkers because she

did not have a degree. “I thought that was ridiculous,” she said. Having worked the same job, Burton knew she was as capable as her coworkers. That realization gave her the confidence and ambition to go back to school. “If they could do it, then I can do it,” she said. She enrolled in Palomar College and earned an

SEE DREAMS, PAGE A5

SEE AGENDA, PAGE A5

High-school graduations will be online only

Shape of things to come? Sheila Kelly, owner of Powell’s Steamer Co & Pub in downtown Placerville, serves up a beer as patrons sit at the bar between makeshift protective barriers as Placer County moved into Stage 2 of California’s reopening protocols.

BY JEFF HUDSON Enterprise staff writer

KEVIN CHRISTENSEN/ MCNAUGHTON NEWSPAPERS PHOTO

County submits reopening plan to state BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY Enterprise staff writer Restaurants began serving meals in house in several Northern California counties last week, drawing diners from throughout the region hungry for a dinner out nearly two months after restaurants were closed to all but take-out and delivery under California’s stay-at-home health order. Those counties that have met all of the public health benchmarks required by the state to reopen dinein restaurants are doing so under guidelines that alter the dining experience by requiring masks on servers, tables at least 6 feet apart and more. So far, 23 counties have been approved to reopen both dine-in

VOL. 123, NO. 60

Weed abatement, parking in Old East Davis and an economic analysis of an aquatics facility are on the agenda for Tuesday’s Davis City Council meeting. Not on the agenda: The city budget. City staff had previously planned to introduce a proposed 2020-21 budget to the council on Tuesday but that has been pushed back to June 2 to give staff more time to grapple with a major revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s financial consultant, Bob Leland, projected at the council’s last meeting a $22 million loss from the pandemic and shelter in place that has sharply curtailed tax revenue. Among the options that may be presented to the council in June are staff pay cuts, a hiring freeze and reduced spending on capital improvement projects. Meanwhile, the council will consider on Tuesday moving to a second phase of the aquatics economic

and financial analysis process, one which would cost about $60,000 if an outside consultant is hired. Staff is recommending that the city reach out to the Davis Joint Unified School District about sharing the cost of that analysis as the next phase would further explore the feasibility of a joint-use facility. Also on Tuesday the council will conduct a public hearing for property owners who wish to protest weed abatement on their property. The hearing follows the council’s decision last month adopting the 2020 Weed Abatement Resolution which declares weeds growing on private property within the city a fire hazard and authorized the fire chief to notify those property owners they must remove them. Property owners have been notified and during Tuesday’s public hearing can formally protest weed abatement on their property. The council also will conduct a public hearing

restaurants as well as destination shopping like malls and swap meets under stage two of the governor’s reopening schedule. Yolo County, meanwhile, has submitted its local readiness plan to the state attesting to having reached the benchmarks required to proceed further as well. However, the state had not signed off on Yolo County’s plan as of Saturday. The county had been preparing to submit its plan early last week despite having not met one of the key benchmarks set by the governor’s plan: no COVID-19 deaths in the previous 14 days. There had been five deaths in the last two weeks, but all were at the Stollwood Convalescent Hospital in

INDEX

Business . . . . . A3 Forum . . . . . . . A4 Sports . . . . . . .B2 Classifieds . . . .B2 Ground-Up . . . . A6 The Wary I . . . . A2 Comics . . . . . . .B4 Obituaries . . . . A5 Weather . . . . . .B3

Woodland. Stollwood was the site of a coronavirus outbreak that sickened more than 60 residents and staff members and has taken 15 lives to date. But Yolo County officials believed those deaths should not be considered as far as the local readiness plan is concerned because they are not an indication of ongoing community spread. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, health officials told the board they planned to submit the plan as soon as that afternoon. However, before that could happen, two more deaths were reported by the county, neither of which involved

WEATHER Tod Showers Today: likely. High 72. lik Low 54. Lo

SEE REOPENING, PAGE A3

Owing to shelter-inplace orders stemming from the coronavirus situation, this year’s end-ofyear graduation and promotion ceremonies in the Davis school district will not be able to take place in-person, in the traditional manner. However, over the last few months, school district staff, students, parents and community partners have thought creatively on different ways to celebrate and highlight these special moments. For the school district’s high school programs, each campus has worked independently with an outside production company to develop and produce a high-quality, virtual graduation video that will be available for viewing on each school website or Facebook account. These recorded graduation videos, unique to each high school, will feature speakers, graduate video clips, and other features to make the event special and personalized. The community can share in the joy and

celebration with the graduation information below: ■ Davis Senior High School: Virtual Graduation Video, June 12 at 7 p.m. — link provided on DSHS website. ■ Da Vinci Charter Academy: Live Virtual Graduation, June 11 at 7:01 p.m. — link provided on DVCA website. ■ Martin Luther King Jr. High School: Virtual Graduation Video, June 10 at 6:30 p.m. — link provided on King website and Facebook. ■ Davis School for Independent Study: Virtual Graduation Video, June 11 at 5 p.m. link provided on DSIS website and Facebook. ■ Davis Adult Education: Virtual Graduation Video, June 8 — provided on Adult Ed Facebook. Across the school district, other grades and classes will share special moments through virtual celebrations, with each school creating and sharing their unique content in a variety of ways. Visit school websites for more information about what is happening to celebrate students as the school year concludes.

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