SUN Education Today 2021

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Green Knight is surreal, fascinating [23]

Classrooms mask up

Local school districts deal with parents’ concerns over state COVID-19 requirements as the 2021-22 year begins [6]

AY D O T N O I T EDUCA

NEWS

Santa Maria complies with HUD on housing [4]

ARTS

Documenting VAFB’s biggest firestorm [20]

EATS

Pleasing picnics for delivery [24]

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AUGUST 5 - AUGUST 12, 2021 VOL. 22 NO. 23

I

t’s that time of year again: back to school time. And this year, kids actually get to start the year in classrooms! But due to COVID-19 lingering around like an unwanted guest, the state of California is requiring students to mask up while indoors on campus. For this year’s Education Today issue, New Times Assistant Editor Peter Johnson writes about how local school districts are dealing with parents who want more freedom for their kids [6] , while Sun Staff Writer Malea Martin talks about the state’s new preschool requirements and what it means for early education in public schools [8].

You can also read about Santa Maria’s agreement with HUD over the city’s discriminatory workforce housing ordinance [4] ; a documentary about the 1977 Honda Canyon fire [20] ; and how to get a picnic delivered to your favorite spot [24].

Camillia Lanham editor

BACK TO SCHOOL: Students will start this school year on campus, but not everything will go back to normal—California is requiring students to mask up.

Cover file image by Kasey Bubnash > Cover design by Alex Zuniga

NEWS

News Briefs ........................................................4 Political Watch ...................................................4 Spotlight...........................................................10

ARTS

Arts Briefs ........................................................20

MOVIES

Reviews ............................................................23

OPINION

Web Poll ...........................................................12 Mayfield ...........................................................12 Canary..............................................................13

CLASSIFIEDS, HOME, AND REAL ESTATE .......................................25

EVENTS CALENDAR

Hot Stuff ..........................................................16

2000 SINCE

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Determination is KEY!

EXERCISE IS ESSENTIAL 2015 S Broadway B, Santa Maria • 805-348-1888 email: wvhealthclub23@gmail.com 2 • Sun • August 5 - August 12, 2021 • www.santamariasun.com

Entry period is from July 29 through Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 by 5pm

Enter your songs online at www.NewTimesSLO.com OR FOLLOW THE STEPS AND FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW ENTER UP TO 13 SONGS & 1 ALBUM

SONG ENTRY

BY GENRE

1

(please check one box per song title to indicate song genre) SONG TITLE #1 _______________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

SONG TITLE #2 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

2 SONGWRITER CATEGORY ENTRY Upload (or include) a .doc file of lyrics with your entry.

Song Title #1 ____________________________________ Song Title #2 ____________________________________ Song Title #3 ____________________________________

LOCAL LEGEND AWARD NOMINEE

The Local Legend Award recognizes an individual or group who has contributed to help enrich, support, and further music’s reach in our community; someone whose ideas, inspiration, and dedication to this art scene have helped nurture and grow the music scene—whether it’s bringing new sounds to the area or

GENERAL RULES

• All entries must be received by 5pm on Monday, August 16, 2021, to be considered for the 2021 New Times Music Awards (NTMAs).

• Entries are $20 for each song and for the Best Album award.

• Participants may enter a maximum of 13 songs (10 genre category, 3 songwriting category) and 1 album.

• ONLINE ENTRIES ARE PREFERRED. Please fill out the entry form, upload songs, and pay for your entries with a credit card at www.NewTimesSLO.com.

• If you wish to pay with cash or check, you may drop off your entries at either the New Times or Sun offices. Bring your music entries on a CD or USB drive along with your completed entry form. Checks should be made payable to “New Times.”

• All entrants must reside primarily in San Luis Obispo County or

ATTENTION ALL LOCAL BANDS, MUSICIANS, SINGERS, & SONGWRITERS! Become a legendary New Times Music Award recipient! Enter to win amazing prizes including the custom NTMA Newtie, your name/band name on all NTMA merch, and a performing spot at the New Times Music Awards and Showcase at SLO Brew Rock on Friday, November 12th.

SONG TITLE #3 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

SONG TITLE #6 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

SONG TITLE #4 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

SONG TITLE #7 _______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

SONG TITLE #5 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

SONG TITLE #8 ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Name of performing artist(s) EXACTLY as it should appear on CD (band name, stage name, etc.) _____________________________________________

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

Rock/Alternative Hip-Hop/Rap

County/Americana/Folk Open

R&B/Blues Youth

BEST ALBUM ENTRY (only 1 total)

3

R&B/Blues Youth

TOTAL NUMBER OF ENTRIES ______ x $20 = _____

Album Title _______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________

giving people the tools they need to create their own. We would love your input!

Please use this space to nominate an individual, group, or organization, you feel should be considered for this award: _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Northern Santa Barbara County.

• All entrants must be able to play at the showcase event in November. Official date to be determined.

• All entrants under 18 years of age must select the Youth category and must have a parent or guardian sign the entry form.

• By entering the contest, all entrants give permission to New Times Media Group to reproduce submissions on compact disc and on the web. All entries remain the property of performers.

• New Times Music Awards is not responsible for lost, damaged, incomplete, or late entries.

• The top 3 songs in each category need to provide high-quality versions of their songs (16 Bit, 44.1 Sample Rate).

• Songs may have multiple co-writers, but please designate one contact name only on entry form.

• Winners will be chosen by a select panel of judges.

County/Americana/Folk Open

4

PAYMENT ENCLOSED ____________________________ I certify that I am the writer or co-writer of the song(s) or lyrics submitted. I also certify that I have read, understood, and accept the rules and regulations of the New Times Music Awards. If entrant is under 18 years old, the signature of a parent or guardian is required.

Signature ____________________________________________ Date ________________________________________________ ONLINE ENTRIES ARE PREFERRED, BUT YOU MAY ALSO MAIL OR DROP OFF SUBMISSIONS AT EITHER OF OUR OFFICES. Additional entry forms are available at either of our offices or on our website: www.NewTimesSLO.com.

NEW TIMES: 1010 MARSH STREET, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA 93401 SUN: 2540 SKYWAY DRIVE, SUITE A, SANTA MARIA CA 93445

• Songs will be judged on overall performance.

• Live performers will share the ‘Back Line.’

• Check NewTimesSLO.com or contact NTMA@NewTimesSLO.com for more information.

• The New Times Music Awards Showcase and Competition is an all-ages show. Performers agree to eliminate explicit lyrics during their performance.

SONGWRITER CATEGORY

GENRE CATEGORIES

ALBUM CATEGORY

• The Youth category is for anyone entering music who is under the age of 18.

• The Open genre includes reggae, world beat, jazz, classical, new age, electronic, etc.

• Each song submission must have a genre selected. If nothing is selected, the song will go into the Open genre.

• If judges determine a song to be a better fit with a different genre category than what was originally submitted, they reserve the right to recategorize it.

• You may enter up to 3 songs in the Songwriting genre, which is being judged separately.

• Upload (or include) a .doc file of lyrics with your entry.

• Albums must have been released between July 1, 2020 and August 16, 2021 to be eligible. Please deliver a hard copy to either the New Times or Sun office along with a completed entry form by 5pm on Monday, August 16, 2021 for consideration. The entire presentation will be judged, including quality of songs, sound, and packaging.

• Only 1 album per entrant total.

www.santamariasun.com • August 5 - August 12, 2021 • Sun • 3

Masks on, school’s in session

EDUCATION TODAY MASK UP: All students, teachers, and school staff will be required to wear masks indoors to start the 2021 school year, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Central Coast K-12 students will start a new school year with a mask mandate, amid a surge in the COVID-19 Delta variant

BY PETER JOHNSON

P

atsy Mitchell, a third grade teacher at Calvin Oakley Elementary School in Santa Maria, got a pretty good test run at teaching during the pandemic when her school partially reopened for in-person instruction in the spring and summer.

Even with a less-than-full classroom, the experience wasn’t easy. Indoor masking was mandatory, and that adjustment proved challenging.

“Some students had a hard time breathing,” Mitchell remembered of those spring and summer classes. “A lot of it was anxiety ridden. Those little people—they don’t even know it’s anxiety.”

Whenever her students were having a hard time breathing in their masks, Mitchell would gently invite them to step outside, take it off, and catch their breath. Mitchell herself needed that respite at times.

“For some of us, it’s difficult. I would walk out when it was too much for me,” she said. “When they were ready, they were able to come back in. Nobody made fun of anybody.”

Despite the rough start, Mitchell said her students showed resilience and adaptability. Before too long, they had mostly adjusted to the new circumstances, she said.

“At the end of the three weeks, children were giggling through their masks and making the best of it,” she said.

Looking ahead to the full reopening of schools this month, K-12 teachers like Mitchell—as well as students, parents, and staff—are gearing up for an even more daunting challenge amid the ongoing pandemic.

FILE PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM

As communities try to achieve some normalcy by bringing back full-time, in-person school for the first time since March 2020, cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant are surging. And children under age 12 are not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, Central Coast vaccination rates lag among adults and teenagers. In a July 29 update on COVID-19, San Luis Obispo County Public Health Officer Penny Borenstein said that 42 percent of residents over age 12 are not yet fully vaccinated (about 10 percentage points higher than the statewide rate). In Santa Barbara County, about 46 percent of the county’s population, of any age, is not fully vaccinated.

Despite those circumstances, health and education officials say that K-12 schools can still safely open this fall— but with precautions. One of those precautions is that teachers, students, and staff must continue to wear masks while indoors, regardless of their vaccination status.

That is a health mandate being passed down to all school districts from the state of California.

“It’s going to be a different kind of difficult,” said Eric Prater, superintendent of San Luis Coastal Unified School District, of the reopening process. “But anything’s going to be better than what I saw last year. We need to reopen our schools.”

The mask mandate is generating mixed reactions from schools and

parents. At San Luis Coastal, which serves SLO, Avila Beach, and Morro Bay, Prater said district leaders fully agree with the state’s rules and plan to take them extremely seriously.

“This is not something we’re choosing to mess around with,” Prater said.

At San Luis Coastal, any student who shows up to school without a mask will be provided one by the school. If the student refuses to wear it, he or she will be asked to go home, and the district will follow up privately with that family.

All families have the option of enrolling their children in independent study instead of in-person school.

Prater added that a district nurse is going to review all mask exemption requests based on medical conditions and will follow a “strict protocol” in determining what constitutes a legitimate excuse to grant an exemption.

“There are some parents that are upset about this. And I just don’t agree with them,” Prater said. “As superintendent, my job is to keep students safe and staff safe, and my priority is to keep our schools open.”

The mask mandate is getting a more lukewarm reception at some other local districts, like Atascadero Unified School District. At a July 22 school board meeting, Atascadero Unified Superintendent Tom Butler fielded several questions and complaints from board members and parents about the requirement.

Parents voiced concerns ranging

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from the safety and sanitation of their kids wearing masks, to the lower fatality rate of COVID-19 in children, to their constitutional right to not wear a mask.

Parent Christa Abma pointed out that children and adults have been allowed to go places indoors without masks for most of the summer.

“They’re living their lives and they’re healthy,” Abma said. “Let our bodies work how God designed them to work.

We’re strong. We’ll overcome this.”

In response, Butler said that if the district decided to buck the state mask mandate, it risked losing state funding “to the tune of millions of dollars.” The district would also face legal liability, he said.

“The level where districts have local control is in enforcing it,” Butler said.

“We have some local control in how we engage with families and students who obviously don’t want masks.”

Butler said those situations would be dealt with politely and respectfully, with medical exemptions considered and independent study programs offered.

“This isn’t going to be something where we’re going to be a district that’s suspending students or taking some type of punitive discipline action,” he said.

Local public health officials stand behind the state mask order, calling it “key to safely reopening schools.” Tara Kennon, a public information officer with SLO County Public Health, said masking is a proven strategy to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, especially when

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New Times Assistant Editor Peter Johnson can be reached at pjohnson@newtimesslo.com.

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social distancing is not possible, such as in a full classroom, and when many unvaccinated individuals are gathered.

“A robust body of scientific evidence supports masking as a safe and effective strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including among children over the age of 2,” Kennon said via email. “Virtually all grade school children are unable to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and universal masking provides a level playing field that protects all students, teachers, and school staff.”

While COVID-19 is most deadly among older people, local pediatrician Rene Bravo said children and teenagers don’t go unaffected by the virus. As the Delta variant spreads throughout the unvaccinated population, the average age of hospitalized patients has dropped from 63 to 51.

“Please get your teens vaccinated,” Bravo said during SLO County’s July 29 press briefing. “They do spread it.

There are complications that occur in teenagers. I’ve seen that. You don’t know which child, who’s going to be that person. I don’t want to take that chance.”

Jose Rodriguez, an eighth grade U.S. history teacher at El Camino Junior High School in Santa Maria, said he’s seen the pandemic, masks, and vaccines unnecessarily politicized. He said he plans to talk about the history of pandemics and vaccines in his classes this fall, and expects that his classrooms will do just fine with the mask mandate.

“I want to go back and show them that you don’t have to contend with smallpox, measles, and polio because these vaccinations have worked in the past,” Rodriguez said. “This is not a game. It’s not an abstract political discussion. We’re not interested in politicizing health. For us, it’s the public health. It’s the common good.”

Mitchell, who taught third-grade classes in Santa Maria this past spring and summer, said the best thing teachers and parents can do going into this uncertain school year is to stay patient and model good behavior by following the science where it leads.

“This is very emotional and political, unfortunately,” she said. “Everybody wants the kids to go back. The entire world lost a year of education. All we can do as teachers is to reinforce the importance of understanding science.

This is what we know now. We’ll do the best we can today. Those are great lessons to teach the children.” m

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www.santamariasun.com • August 5 - August 12, 2021 • Sun • 7

Preschool for all

EDUCATION TODAY EARLY LEARNING: Local school district leaders say preschool is an equity issue, and new legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will expand pre-kindergarten opportunities in California in the coming years.

Local school districts are ahead of the curve in offering pre- and transitional kindergarten, and state legislation will soon expand these efforts

BY MALEA MARTIN

U

niversal public preschool is a concept long-discussed, and recently politicians started making serious policy proposals in pursuit of preschool for all.

President Joe Biden’s American Family Plan released in late April proposes universal, high quality preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.

In early July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation to make transitional kindergarten available to every 4-yearold in the state, and he hopes to expand preschool for even younger kids in the future.

On the Central Coast, public preschool for some students has already been an option for a while.

And though it’s not universal yet, local school officials say Newsom’s push for expanded transitional and prekindergarten could change the early learning landscape in the very near future. In the meantime, local public school districts are doing what they can to provide early learning opportunities to as many kids as possible—and they’re approaching it through an equity lens. This means offering preschool to kids whose families couldn’t afford it otherwise.

Santa Maria-Bonita School District (SMBSD) has had preschools in the district since 1997. The first one was implemented at Fairlawn Elementary, and today, the district has a preschool at all but five of its 17 elementary school sites.

“It’s our goal to have a prekindergarten program at each of our elementary school sites,” district Director of Teaching and Learning Jennifer Loftus said. “For the last school year, we added Liberty and Libbon Elementary, and then going into this next school year we’re adding Arellanes Elementary School.”

Raquel Valdez, director of preschools at SMBSD, said funding for the district’s preschools historically has been through the California State Preschool Program (CSPP) and the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) funds. And in late June, the district was awarded a First 5 grant that

will allow it to add the new preschool at Arellanes Elementary School. The grant gives the district $150,000 annually for the next four years.

“The CSPP funding that we receive from the state does have requirements with it,” Loftus said. “Students are eligible for pre-kindergarten if they meet certain eligibility criteria, and the primary factor is income.”

San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) has run a preschool program called Success for All since 2013, paid for out of the school’s general fund. Like SMBSD’s program, it aims to reach “a specific targeted audience of students who otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to attend preschool,” SLCUSD Director of Learning and Achievement Rick Mayfield said.

Success for All is hosted at Baywood, Hawthorne, and Pacheco elementary schools.

“There are a lot of preschool programs out there and available in the community,” Mayfield said. “But it’s very challenging for families these days to be able to afford preschool programs, and if you have multiple children, it’s really difficult.”

While California districts are not required to offer the preschool programs, they are required to offer transitional kindergarten (TK) to some students. Preschool is an umbrella term under which pre-K and TK fall, and the difference between the two isn’t that substantial in terms of curriculum. But, Mayfield said, the distinction more comes down to age differences, when a child is born, and what schools are required to provide.

Current law requires school districts across California to offer TK to kids who turn 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2, because Sept. 2 is the cutoff for kindergarten enrollment, Mayfield said. Newsom expanded that criteria when he signed Assembly Bill 130 into law on July 9, which will provide “free, high-quality, inclusive pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds, beginning incrementally in 2022-23 and with full implementation anticipated by 202526,” according to the governor’s office.

“Right now, it’s only limited to those students who [turn 5] in the fall,”

PHOTO COURTESY OF SLCUSD

Mayfield said of existing law. “Let’s say you turn 5 in January. You would be in preschool, as opposed to kindergarten.

But what the state is saying is any 4-year old needs to be in a TK program. It’ll mean there’s TK programs at every school, and probably equal to the number of kindergarten classes that are there.”

Loftus at Santa Maria-Bonita said she and her fellow school district leaders are “kind of in a holding pattern” as they await details on what the roll-out of expanded TK will look like.

“If we are offering transitional kindergarten to all of our students, [we’re] thinking of blending prekindergarten with transitional kindergarten, because our prekindergarten [currently] serves primarily all 4-year-olds, and our transitional kindergarten serves those students who are not 5 in time to start kindergarten,” Loftus said.

This leads to questions around what early learning would look like if TK expands to cover all 4-year olds.

“Are we then serving 3-year olds? Is

FPCS offers personalized learning options, flexible scheduling, and instruction and support from credentialed teachers

establishes a relationship between the school district and families.

“In the program, we focus a lot on the social-emotional, and having those partnerships with families to support them and to get them ready for kindergarten,” SMBSD Preschool Director Valdez said.

Mayfield said that the standards set for kindergarten are quite rigorous, so having kids in pre-K or TK helps set them up for success. Not having access to preschool can affect a child for years to come.

“By the end of kindergarten, students need to be reading at a fairly high level; they need to have math skills,” he said. “So getting them at 4 years old gives us the opportunity to help form their learning and prepare them for successful kindergarten experiences, and also to identify needs that students have and be able to plug them into programs, interventions that will serve their needs.” m Reach Staff Writer Malea Martin at mmartin@santamariasun.com.

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that happening in the school system or is that happening more in a centerbased child care, day care center type setting?” Loftus asked. “There’s really just a lot up in the air because we don’t know yet what it’s going to look like.”

But what district officials do know is that preschool—whether required by the state or not—is about increasing accessibility and equity. That’s why both SLCUSD and SMBSD have made efforts to offer preschool to some children, even before being required to by the state.

“Traditionally, students who are underserved are coming from households that have lower income, their parents might be both working full time, it might be a single parent household, and just all of the different challenges that go along with being in that low-income threshold,” Loftus said. “Before there’s an achievement gap, there’s a readiness gap. Many students of poverty are not ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.”

Not only does preschool get kids ready for kindergarten, but it also

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SPOTLIGHT

NEWS

Successful students Camino Scholars program at People’s Self-Help Housing sites helps kids succeed at school—even after the pandemic year

BY MALEA MARTIN

T

he Camino Scholars program, quite literally, meets kids where they’re at.

People’s Self-Help Housing (PSHH), the biggest affordable housing organization on the Central Coast, offers a variety of free, site-based services to its residents. One of those services is Camino Scholars, an after-school education program offered on-site at PSHH properties.

“We have 11 learning centers throughout the Central Coast, all the way from Carpinteria to Paso Robles,” PSHH Director of Education Joanna Dominguez said. “We offer after-school programming and then we also offer college readiness programming for our students once they get into high school.”

These programs can look like tutoring, group-based homework help, and other educational support to boost students’ school success.

When the pandemic hit last year, Dominguez said the demand for the Camino Scholars program shot up.

“We were getting referrals left and right,” she said. “So just during that first month, we increased our enrollment by 100 students.”

Now more than a year later, it’s evident that the Camino Scholars program works: PSHH recently released end-ofyear data that shows vast improvements over the past school year, even with kids learning mostly at a distance.

According to the data, at the start of last school year, only 35 percent of students enrolled in the program were reading at grade level, with 32 percent being two or more grade levels behind. At the end of the year, 61 percent of students were reading at grade level or higher, and just 13 percent still needed greater assistance. Overall, the data shows that students’ scores improved by 74 percent over the course of the school year.

Dominguez said the program uses a web-based math and literacy platform called iReady to assess its students.

“Why we utilize that platform is because it’s very predictive of their school success,” she said. “It’s totally in line with the SBAC [Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium] testing that the school districts use. We’re able to see where our students will progress academically with the school district. … Even during COVID times, we kept working with them for the whole entire time.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF PEOPLE’S SELF-HELP HOUSING

And while at school, students typically get a new teacher every year, the Camino Scholar program has kids working with the same instructors as they get older.

“The reason why we were able to fill that gap [during the pandemic] is because we have such a strong relationship established with our parents and our students,” Dominguez said.

“They’re coming to us year after year after year, and it’s the same teachers in the after-school programs on-site. …

Normally they just walk over from their apartment to our classroom right in the middle of the [housing] complex.”

Amid the pandemic, of course, things looked a little different: Camino Scholars went virtual during the lockdown. But as things open up, the program is now back in person.

Dominguez added that while PSHH residents get priority in the program, other kids can join, too, if there’s additional space.

“We do very frequently enroll additional students in the community,” she said. “A lot of times that looks like other family members of our students who are enrolled with us. Other times it’s the local school that’s in our area, they’ll refer students that don’t live onsite, because they know of us through other students that they have that do live on-site.”

The service is completely free to anyone who enrolls. Right now, Camino Scholars has about 350 students enrolled, and the program typically serves 600 students over the course of a school year.

“As a result of the pandemic we’ve

EASY ACCESS: The Camino Scholars program makes homework help accessible with program sites located on People’s Self-Help Housing properties across the Central Coast.

actually expanded our partnerships,” Dominguez said. “For example, Templeton Unified [School District] is the first to ask us to open up a Camino Scholars program on campus. So last semester, we did the first ever Camino Scholars program on campus at Templeton Middle School, and this upcoming school year we’re planning to open up an additional two sites at Templeton Elementary School and Vineyard Elementary School.”

To find out more about Camino Scholars, visit pshhc.org/education.

Highlight • The city of Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department and the Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Safety are joining forces to throw a teen pool party on

Aug. 7. The free event for youth in grades seven through 12 will feature a DJ, snacks, and some summer pool fun.

“The mission of the Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Safety is to prevent violence through safe and healthy opportunities,” according to the Recreation and Parks Department. “In partnership with the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department, resources and programs are offered to youth to prevent their involvement in criminal activity, drug use, and gangs.” The teen pool party doesn’t require registration, and it will go from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Paul Nelson Aquatic Center, located at 600 South McClelland St. m Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send business and nonprofit tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.

Volunteers Make the Difference!

Volunteers donate over 275 hours a month to support the work of the Center. Without this valuable service we would be hard pressed to meet the needs in our community. If you are interested in empowering survivors of sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking then perhaps now is the time to get involved. Advocate training will be starting soon and we encourage you to call now to speak with our Hotline Services Coordinator and sign up for the training which will be held virtually in the Fall of 2021.

Email Liz at liz@ncrccpc.org for more information.

North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center 24-Hour Support Line (805) 736-7273 www.sbcountyrapecrisis.org

KNOW MORE | DO MORE | NO MORE! 10 • Sun • August 5 - August 12, 2021 • www.santamariasun.com