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W E DN E SDAY, M AY 19, 2 021
County narrowly misses yellow tier Board of Supervisors discuss state’s mask guidance By MADISON HIRNEISEN NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
COURTESY PHOTO
Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, the Santa Barbara County public health director, informed supervisors that the state’s mask mandate will remain in effect until June 15 despite updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As Santa Barbara County narrowly missed yellow tier criteria Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors weighed in on the state’s current mask policy, which state officials say will remain in effect until June 15. On Tuesday, the county’s adjusted case rate stood at 2.1 per 100,000. While this is the lowest case rate the county has seen in many months, it wasn’t enough to qualify the county for the least restrictive yellow tier. Yellow tier criteria requires
counties to maintain a case rate of less than 2 per 100,000 for at least two weeks, meaning that Santa Barbara County missed the first week qualification by only two tenths of a percent. Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, the county public health director, told the supervisors Tuesday that if case rates continue to trend downward, the county could meet the first week of yellow tier criteria next week, putting the region on track to qualify June 1. Yet it can be hard to project where the county’s case rate will stand even just two weeks from now, she added.
“Given what we know today, it is hard to predict when we will actually hit the yellow given that the threshold is so low,” Dr. DoReynoso told Supervisors. “If there is an outbreak in the next couple of days, that could keep us in the orange tier a little longer.” In addition to this update, Dr. Do-Reynoso also informed supervisors that the state’s mask mandate would remain in place until June 15 despite updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that says people who are fully vaccinated can go without a mask in most circumstances.
The state’s stance received some pushback from Bob Nelson, the chairman of the board and 4th District supervisor, who said the state’s current measures should align with the science brought forth by the CDC. “The CDC has come out and said this is not necessary if you’re vaccinated, and the state of California is failing to recognize that,” Mr. Nelson said. He continued, “I think as the science evolves, we should react to it, and I think it sends the wrong message. It’s a huge mistake for the state not to recognize this right now — especially with
Students return to campus Santa Maria Joint Union schools welcome back students under hybrid model By ANNELISE HANSHAW NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
All grades are back at Ernest Righetti High School as of Tuesday, just a month before the last day of school. High schools in the Santa Maria Joint Union School District are some of the last schools in the county to open campuses and are currently operating on a hybrid schedule. District officials will reevaluate the hybrid model at the end of the school year. The biggest obstacle to reopening was frequently shifting public health guidelines, Righetti’s Principal Karen Rotondi told the News-Press. “It’s like we’re wedding planners every year, and it’s hard to plan when you don’t have the answers until right beforehand. It takes a while to, you know, put things into action,” she said. “Definitely the biggest challenge is just having the pivot so many times.” Seniors have been on campus for nearly a month, and freshmen re-entered last week. “We’re just really happy that whoever wants to be here can be here right now. Because for some kids, it’s something they need right now — and even if it’s only for a short few weeks,” Principal Rotondi said. A little over 30% of the district’s students chose to return to campus and are separated into two schedules, Tuesday and Thursday or Wednesday and Friday. Students said it felt a bit bare. School staff tried to make the day special, as they had when seniors and freshmen came back to school. Counselors blared pop music and cheered, some armed with pom-poms. They distributed masks with students’ graduating class printed on them as they checked in with each English class. “The student engagement piece, you don’t realize how important and how powerful it is until you don’t have it. Now that they’re coming back, it’s so so awesome to see their emotions, and it’s really boosted their energy,” Eric Blanco, a school counselor, said. Students chatted with friends during lunchtime, smiling around lunch tables and bleachers. They didn’t keep far apart, and many masks were below noses. Still, the students interviewed
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
ANNELISE HANSHAW / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Leonardo Felix, right, a freshman at Ernest Righetti High School, talks to his friend during their lunch break. He is glad to be back on campus, as it makes school easier for him.
Ernest Righetti High School Principal Karen Rotondi wears a “Warriors 2021” mask. Each graduating class received masks with their year of graduation.
by the News-Press felt safe. Arieanna Clarke, a junior at Righetti, said school was “way easier” now that she’s back on campus. Leonardo Felix, a freshman, held the same opinion. He said it was calmer now and he could better organize his work. Arieanna said it’s “hard to get the help that you need” at home. For her chemistry class, she built a molecule model but struggled to find the materials Please see SCHOOLS on A4
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Art teacher Melissa Johnson shows her class student artwork created from home.
In what Santa Barbara City Council members referred to as a “big,” “exciting” and “momentous” day, the council unanimously passed a Historic Resources Ordinance and Historic Resource Design Guidelines on Tuesday. The guidelines inform property owners of historic resources, historic preservation principles, appropriate treatment of historic resources and the city’s architectural design review process before beginning a project, which the city hopes can lessen the number of steps property owners must take to get project approval. “I think we all appreciate how important this ordinance is,” Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon said. “I think it’s been priority No. 1 in the City Attorney’s Office for at least as many years as I’ve been on council. This is a really big day for it to have gone through this public process and the iterations that it’s been through for review.” Four major sections dictate the guidelines: introduction, standards and regulations; preservation of historic resources; additions and alterations; and streetscape, landscape and lighting elements. The 320-page document outlines the purpose of the guidelines, changes that can be made, the policy and regulatory foundation of the guidelines, city landmarks, overlay zones, the design review process, preservation principles, benefits and incentives, additions and alterations, and where to find the architectural styles, historic districts and boundary maps. Councilman Mike Jordan said he “loves the resource,” although he “doesn’t care for most of it.” “I love the resource manual part of it — like, if you’re going to play with the window, here’s how you do it, and the examples of how you do something somewhere, that you can open up this inch-and-a-half worth of documents and actually go find the subject matter and it helps you do it, rather than just some words on a piece of paper that say, ‘Here’s what we’d like to see, but we’re not telling you what that looks like,’ ” he said. “It narrows the gap between people in the know and people who are struggling to be in the know, and I just think it’s a remarkable piece of work.” There are 13 acceptable architectural styles according to the document: Adobe, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick, Queen Anne, Queen Anne Free Classic, Folk Victorian, English Vernacular and Tudor, American Colonial Revival, Italian Mediterranean, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Craftsman. Property owners building or doing any construction project within designated historic district overlay zones or developing a historic resource, historic structures of merit or city landmarks will be able to use the document to guide them before starting the design review process. City staff recommends that any projects subject to design review — including exterior alterations Please see COUNCIL on A4
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Council passes Historic Resource Guidelines By GRAYCE MCCORMICK
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having that incentive right now for people to get vaccinated. If that’s the goal, then get the carrot. “Because like I said last week, people don’t believe us anymore. People don’t believe the government is going to give away that authority that they have taken during those emergency measures.” In response to Mr. Nelson, Dr. Do-Reynoso said the county’s Public Health Department did vote to align with CDC guidance during a meeting with state officials, but the department’s Please see MASKS on A4
Sudoku................. B3 Sports ................... A3 Weather................ A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 6-18-27-35-36 Mega: 25
Tuesday’s DAILY 4: 9-1-0-4
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Tuesday’s DAILY 3: 9-3-3 / Midday 9-4-0