The Fourth of July Pocket Parade organizing is now underway. This is a community parade. Kids, families, friends, businesses, organizations – you name it, join in. Ride your bike or build a float. The parade begins at 10 a.m. at Parkway Oaks Park (next to Lisbon Elementary on South Land Park Drive) travels down Windbridge, ending at Garcia Bend Park.

After the parade, join in festivities at Garcia Bend Park for a parade awards ceremony, local business community fair, hot dog eating contest, city animal care services adoption event and music. New this year will be food trucks!

Parade and pre-registration ends June 28. Walk-ons are gladly accepted, but pre-registering is encouraged. Parade entry forms are available at The Pocket News, 2709 Riverside Blvd. or Riverside Wesleyan Church, 6449 Riverside Blvd.

Volunteer! The Pocket Parade is made possible because of volunteers. Organizers are encouraging each parade entry to have members of their family, organization, or business volunteer. Call for a complete list of volunteer positions or email pastormike @rwcsac.org

Questions? Call Linda of the Pocket News at 429-9901 or email Linda@valcomnews.com

First place winning photograph “A Winter Morning” by Sierra Brown, senior at C.K. McClatchy High School.

Approximately 60 Pocket area students, parents and community members came out to the Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven Library on the evening of Friday, March 15, to see more than 40 photographs taken by teens not just in their community, but all over the world.

The showing was part of a photography contest held by the Teen Advisory Board (TAB) at the library. TAB members and C.K. McClatchy High School seniors Allison Yamamoto and Michelle Sarracino had come up with the idea for contest as a way for area teens to both express themselves and learn more about what the library offers.

Yamamoto hoped the event would help draw teens to the library for more than just completing school work, but to also “show that we have these events going on at the library that are open for students to participate in and get something out of,” she says.

“A Changing World”

Tracey Joe, youth services Librarian for Robbie Waters Pocket Greenhaven Library, says the library was happy to support TAB and the contest, as well as give local teens an opportunity to express themselves through art and show it to the community. “We just wanted to give them the opportunity to be creative and interpret it however they wanted to, and we thought it would be a really awesome thing that we could do for the community,” she explains.

The theme of the contest was “A Changing World,” which Yamamoto says they came up with when noticing the differences between generations that came to the library. “We thought it would be cool to see how other teens would interpret ‘A Changing World,’ whether they think it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” she explains.

Of the approximately 40 entries the photography contest received, 24 were from local students while 18 were from teens across the United States and even from other countries such as Peru and Australia. Yamamoto says she created a Facebook event for the contest, which helped spread the word to teens in other areas.

Sarracino was pleased they were able to include photos from teens all over the country as it would allow all those that attended the gala to “not just see the changing world around our community, but also expand their horizons and get a feel for how other kids see the changing world in other places,” she adds.

Kathi Windheim, president of the Friends of the Robbie Waters Pocket Greenhaven Library; Sierra Brown, senior at C.K. McClatchy High School and first place photography contest winner; Tracey Joe, youth services Librarian for Robbie Waters Pocket Greenhaven Library; Allison Yamamoto and Michelle Sarracino, both seniors at McClatchy.

And the Winners Are …

Four judges – including library staff Joe and Brendle Wells, branch supervisor; Kathi Windheim, president of the Friends of the Robbie Waters Pocket Greenhaven Library; and Corrie Pelc, reporter for Valley Community Newspapers – determined the winners of the contest, which included top three awards for local contributors, as well as an International Award, and awards for “Best Perspective” and “Most Moving.”

Top honors went to Sierra Brown, a senior at C.K. McClatchy High School who took first place for her photo “A Winter Morning.” “I found that flower in the garden and just thought it was really neat how it was a yellow flower, but had this white glistening signs of winter on it even though winter hadn’t hit yet, so I just took a picture of it,” she says.

Brown – who has been taking photos since the ninth grade – says her photo fits the theme “A Changing World” as it shows that the world is constantly changing. “We can see this best in even the most insignificant things, such as a simple yellow flower painted in winter’s frost,” she explains. “True, today winter is here and the flowers are dying. But not matter what, we can always expect that tomorrow will bring another sunrise, a new flower, and constant change.”

She also believes it’s “extremely important” for teens to have a way to express themselves, such as through photography. “The youth have such a different view of the world than do adults, and I think the best way to voice such a view is through artistic expression,” she says. “It’s great that teens have so many opportunities to share their expressions with others, such as the library’s photo show.”

Other local winners of the photography contest included Benjamin Potter, a senior at McClatchy, who took second place with his photo “Abandoned,” and Andrew Kageyama, a junior at Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove who took third place for his photo “Fall in Love.” Daniel Escobar, a junior at McClatchy, won “Most Moving” for his photo “Soarin’ Solar Dreams.” The “Best Perspective” award was given to Jonathan Beach from Los Angeles, while Ashleigh Polinelli from Perth, Australia won the International Award.

Joe says the library hopes to keep the photos from the contest on display for a few more weeks so community members who were unable to attend the gala can enjoy them.

And Sarracino hopes the contest will become an annual one, “but maybe bring in some other types of art as well,” she adds.

The city’s original street level can be seen below a section of the K Street Mall in this 2007 photograph. Photo by Lance Armstrong

Editor’s Note: This is part eight in a series about the history of the Sacramento River.

In the last article of this series, longtime Pocket resident Barbara Lagomarsino described how she became interested in the raising of the streets of Sacramento – an undertaking that created the city’s mysterious underground.
Raising the streets was far from a simple endeavor. The board of trustees of Sacramento City supported the raising of the streets and assumed the obligation to provide the necessary materials. In this case, thousands of yards of soil were to be deposited along streets in front of buildings.
Lagomarsino wrote: “Property owners were responsible for readying the length of streets, fronting on their property, for receiving the fill. Dirt was to be deposited along the streets to depths of about 10 feet, and such vast quantities of earth could not be left in heaps.”
The piles of soil would soon become piles of mud.
Continuing, Lagomarsino wrote: “To contain the dirt, each property owner arranged individually to have a brick bulkhead wall built at the edge of the street line in front of his property. The bulkheads extended from the ground up to the established grade, to which leveled dirt would later be piled in the street.”
Many of these brick bulkheads are still visible in Old Sacramento and whenever there is construction in the core downtown area.
The task of the business owner could seem arduous and expensive, but Lagomarsino wrote: “In the autumn of 1866, a bulkhead was built to high grade for only $3 a running foot.”
And while some of the bulkheads have collapsed, many are still standing more than 150 years later.
But the task of raising a building above the bulkheads was never easy.
Lagomarsino recounted the story of the St. George Hotel, which was raised in 1866.
“Two hundred and fifty (jackscrews) were put into place under that job in early August. It was about two weeks before work on the $7,450 contract was begun. By October, the whole job was finished; 160 feet by 76 feet, weighing about 1,900 tons, the building had been raised 8 feet (with very little damage inside and out).”
These massive modifications to the city’s structures also affected the infrastructure. The soil brought in to raise the streets covered fire hydrants and buried water lines beneath several feet of new soil; this made it difficult for the fire department to respond effectively. And if a water line broke, service was interrupted to the entire city.
Lagomarsino wrote, “In October 1865, a water line under newly raised 2nd Street broke.
Without warning, all water in the city was turned off at 5 o’clock in the evening.”
But it was not only underground water pipes that were affected. Because the streets were raised, buildings could not get proper water pressure from the old delivery system. In August 1867, the city water tank had to be raised 5 feet in order to provide enough pressure to carry water as high as four floors.
Lagomarsino’s research revealed that “most businesses were closed during the raising of their buildings. However, not all buildings were vacated while they were being raised.
In 1864, a wooden tenement in the Chinese section of town in (sic) I Street, between 2nd and 3rd (streets) was being raised during gale winds when it toppled over, scattering its occupants as it fell.”
Ultimately, Lagomarsino’s research concluded “such catastrophes were extremely rare. Most buildings were raised without problems and stood solidly afterwards.”
But even in the 19th century, buyers had to beware of nefarious and unscrupulous contractors who could not complete the jobs that they promised they would finish at certain arranged times.
Lagomarsino told the story of a house that was owned by Mary Esqueval on the block bounded by 2nd, 3rd, K and L streets.
Esqueval had arranged for a builder named Joel Johnson to raise her home and make elaborate changes that would significantly upgrade the beauty and condition of the house.
“The whole process was to take two weeks. The total cost was $500 in gold and silver, $100 to be paid when the screws were set, $200 more when the brickwork and sidewalks were finished and the final $200 when the job was completed. Unfortunately, the work was not so craftsmen-like as the agreement suggested it would be. He did not finish the work and she had to hire someone to raise the kitchen as well as to repair damage caused by raising the main house. All doors had to be re-hung; the whole house had to be painted and papered; the roof on the main building had to be fixed; and various other jobs had to be finished. The house settled several inches and developed cracks within a few months after he left the job. Both water and gas pipes were injured. Johnson had obviously not satisfied this customer.”
Shoddy construction was not the only problem with raising Sacramento.
While the responsibility of the city and the property owners was outlined in the raising of the streets and buildings, it was never clearly defined.
For instance, the sidewalks became the responsibility of the individual property owner. Hence, the completion of sidewalks at building level was very inconsistent.
In some cases, the sidewalks were not completed and a gapping hole existed in front of the building.
In other cases, the sidewalks were completed to street level, but the buildings had not yet been raised.
Lagomarsino wrote: “Under the best of conditions, a walk through Sacramento’s rising downtown area could be a hazardous up and down affair, especially at night. Among complaints, made editorially by local papers about dangerous sidewalks during the years of raising was one when a man fell 12 feet off a sidewalk to a vacant lot below. Another one, a man fell off a raised sidewalk onto an unraised street, and another when a man, ‘said to be perfectly sober’ following a sidewalk under construction, walked off the end of it and fell 9 or 10 feet onto the sidewalk below.”
All of this integrated construction to raise the city in order to achieve flood protection took several years and during those years, the streets were a perilous obstacle course for pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles. Even today, the dangers of Sacramento’s underground are still visible even if the surface barriers have been gone for more than 150 years.
By 1873, the grading, raising and reconstruction was finished.
The lives of the citizenry and businesses had been disrupted for a decade. But was it worth it to the residents of Sacramento?
The answer may be found in the fact that Sacramento has not experienced any of the devastating floods that were common before the raising of the city and the creation of the underground.
The indomitable city once again displayed its courage, creativity and cooperation in the face of natural disaster.
But is the big flood still coming? The next article of this series will address the ultimate conclusion of the threat from hydraulic mining, some dangers that threatened severe damaged, the introduction of more modern mechanisms for flood control and the efforts of citizens and government agencies to partner in the control of rising waters.
Evidence of the Sacramento underground is still visible in many places and the Sacramento History Museum at 101 I St. in Old Sacramento now offers guided tours of some areas of the abandoned lower city.
Tickets are currently on sale on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and tours leave every half hour. Beginning June 1, tours will be offered daily.
The costs of the tours are $15/adults and $10/youth, 6 to 17 years old.
For additional information regarding these tours, call (916) 808-7059.

Elaine Lederer volunteers at the food closet behind Bethany Church on Fruitridge Road every Tuesday and she reported that the Pocket Area Churches Together donated 400 bags of food to The SSIP (South Sacramento Interfaith Partnership) Food Closet in March. She said the food closet serves about 90 families. “It’s nice to see our shelves full,” Lederer said.

The community brought in: Canned vegetables (include green beans), canned beans and chili, tomato products, (tomato sauce, paste, canned tomatoes, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, etc.), canned soup, canned fruit, ramen and dry soup (include cup of noodles, Lipton soup, etc.), canned meats and fish (include canned stew), dry pasta and rice (include Rice-a-Roni, Hamburger Helper, Macaroni & Cheese, etc.), canned pasta (include Spaghetti Os, ravioli, etc.), peanut butter, jams and jellies (include almond butter), holiday foods (canned cranberry, canned pumpkin, canned yams, canned gravy and stuffing mix), miscellaneous (including: canned milk, cake mixes, crackers, etc.)

PACT includes: Faith Presbyterian Church, Greenhaven Lutheran Church, Greenhaven Neighborhood Church, Riverside Wesleyan Church, and St. Anthony Church.

World War 2 veteran and Pocket resident Richard Moss will turn 90 years old on March 27.

He will be honored this month with a resolution from the Sacramento City Council, a recognition certificate from Senator Darrell Steinberg and a letter of recognition from Congresswoman Doris Matsui whose office is working with the White House to get one signed by the president.

One could easily write a whole book on Moss’s life. During the past 90 years, he has been as brave during wartimes as he has been an ambassador of peace since then.

Moss was enlisted in the US Army at age 19 to serve in the U.S. Army 86th Infantry, Blackhawk Division which was named after the famous Sauk Indian Chief Black Hawk of Illinois.

Moss completed training at Camp Crowder, Missouri as a signal corp operator charged with insuring communication among the divisions using the first FM backpack radios and other technology. These multi-channel radio broadcasts allowed for increased security and signal boosting that supported and enhanced U.S. military success.

He was active duty in the European Theater Operations arriving in France on March 4, 1945 and then reliving the 86th infantry, Blackhawk division while crossing the Rhine River to Elbelhausen Germany in April. Thereafter, he advanced successfully across German to Oberndorf, Austria and finally assisted the processing of German prisoners of war.

Moss’s service continued with deployment to the Philippine Islands in August 1945. His division was still aboard ship in Leyte Harbor when the Japanese surrendered. The division completed closing efforts in Angeles, north of Manila until his return and honorary discharge in 1946.

Moss received the Good Conduct Medal, and he and his unit were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and the Victory Medal.

Thirty-five years later, he returned to the village of Oberndorf, in peace, and met with the adult children of townspeople he met during the war.

Besides his accomplishments as a war veteran, his professional and community service to the city of Sacramento is unwavering.

Moss began his employment as an auditor with the California State Board of Equalization in June 1948 until his advancement to Chief, of Special Contracts and Provider Standards with the Department of Health Care Services.

He became an unwilling expert in the emerging process of dialysis and
worked long and diligently to develop regulatory criteria and fiscal impact at the state level from 1966 to 1973.

Moss was promoted to Chief, Provider Participation Section, Health Services for the State of California and continued to develop regulations for the safe administration of care and fiscal management of dialysis centers and nursing homes leaving his position to embrace retirement in July 1973.

Moss’s efforts at retirement failed dismally, so he began a tax and accounting practice to further occupy his professional skills until his second retirement in 1986.

During his many years of professional practice he also gave willingly of his time and energy to promote the well being of the community through his involvement in a membership drive for the YMCA, the Boy Scouts of America, Jobs Daughters, the Order of DeMolay and his Masonic Lodge. Richard enjoys spending time with his family, friends, golf and Masonic activities.

His family and friends couldn’t be more proud of him.

Born Richard Levick Moss on March 27, 1923, in Belleville, Illinois, the WW2 veteran married Margaret Schweitzer on July 20, 1946 and they were married for 56 years. They had four daughters: Janet Moss of Boise, Idaho, Elaine Weathersbee who lives in the Pocket, Kathy Garcia who lives in the Pocket and Phyllis Katich who lives in Alameda. He has four grandsons and one great granddaughter. After losing his wife, Margaret, he remarried four years ago to Inez Perrine.

Over the month of April 100 more pear trees will be removed from Pocket Road as the second phase of the Ornamental Pear Tree Replacement Project gets underway. The replacement project will begin at Silva Ranch Way and end at Backwater Way. One hundred were removed late last fall. Nearly all of the ornamental pear trees are infected with mistletoe.

According to City Councilmember Darrell Fong’s office, the removal will take about 10 days and new trees will be planted by April 30.  The trees will be replaced with 15 gallon Emerald Sunshine Elms.  The Emerald Sunshine is a vase-shaped shade tree, highly resistant to disease and insect attack, and adapts to varied growing conditions. It provides a cool green canopy, retaining a green appearance through the hot days of summer. The trees fall color is rich yellow, sometimes with purple tints on the tips and along the margins.

Several years ago a campaign was launched to trim the mistletoe. The campaign was successful, but much of the mistletoe returned. Ornamental pear trees are a susceptible species to mistletoe and other disease. Mistletoe attaches to the branches of a tree and eventually kills the host tree.  The City’s Arborist, the Riverlake Community Association, and Fong believe this will provide a long-term solution to restore the canopy along Pocket Road.

For questions contact: Noah Painter, District Director at: npainter@cityofsacramento.org or 916 808-7338

For much of his life, Tony Lutfi has had the goal of owning 50 restaurants before turning 50 years old. He was recently on the cover of Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine with the headline: Mega 99: Tony Lutfi soars from 52 to 134 units in three years.

Far surpassing his goals, Lutfi, whose corporate headquarters are in the Pocket area, is among the top 55 multi-unit franchises in the nation.

Born in 1960 in Amman Jordan as the youngest child for a refugee Palestinian family who then lived in Jordan, Lutfi immigrated to the United States in 1976 with hopes to pursue higher education in the medical field. He attended high school in Lodi and graduated in 1977, then quickly moved to Stockton and attended Delta College while sharing an apartment with his cousin.

“I did not want to be a burden to my family that struggled financially and I knew that I needed to work and make it on my own at age 16,” he said. He worked at a 7-11 for a short period of time and then was offered a position with Jack in the Box for the graveyard shift, which worked out well allowing me to attend classes in the day and work at night.

Life quickly took its course. Lutfi quit college and decided to accept a shift manager position with Jack in the Box. In 1980, the rest of his family immigrated to the U.S. and they decided to purchase a corner grocery store in Stockton. He quit his position with Jack in the Box and worked for the family business for two years while his family became more accustomed to the life style and learned English.

In 1993, Lutfi applied to work for a franchise and was given an opportunity with Rax Roast Beef as an assistant manager making $925 per month.

In 1984 Lutfi married to Anna, whom I dated for five years. He did not want to pay rent for a home and decided to purchase his first home by borrowing money on credit cards.

“I knew that I will work hard to pay the cards off and hoped that I will build enough equity in my home to use it later to buy a business. Life took its course again and our first son was born in 1985 and the second in 1987. I was right with my first investment, the house appreciated in value and the credit cards were paid off,” Lutfi said.

In 1988, he attempted to buy four restaurants from his employer, but lost the opportunity to another company who purchased the entire company and agreed to employ him.

A few years later, the president of the company decided to start a new company and asked him to be a partner operator. They purchased four Church’s Chicken restaurants in Sacramento and partnered up with a local Pocket area dentist, Greg Maroni DDS.

They remodeled the restaurants and started the company while he continued his employment with company. In 1998, Maroni and he decided to purchase the entire company and committed to a partnership.

“My goal has always been to own 50 restaurants before I turned 50. Time was running out as I turned 38 and had only a total of 11 which included three Long John Silver’s in the Bay Area, four Church’s Chicken in Sacramento and four Arby’s in Sacramento, Modesto and Tracy.

Maroni had two Arby’s, which he owned since the late 80’s in Auburn and Grass Valley.

They agreed to form a partnership and operate the 13 units.

They opened four restaurants between 1998 and 2000, one was Arby’s in the Pocket area Promenade Shopping Center. They either sold or closed all four locations within two years and decided that the only way they can grow is by way of acquisition minimizing risk.

In 2001 just before Sept. 11, they agreed to acquire four Church’s Chicken restaurants in Las Vegas. They took over the operations on Oct. 22.

“Naturally, the world changed after Sept. 11, especially in Las Vegas. Tourism came to quick halt and businesses suffered including our new acquired restaurants. I remember driving to Las Vegas weekly and working in the restaurants just to save labor and try to save the business. Luckily, we had great managers that maintained and quickly rebounded by 2003,” Lutfi said.

They paid off the loan for the Las Vegas stores in 2006 and began a journey of growth.

In 2006, they acquired 11 Church’s Chicken in Stockton and Tucson.

In 2007, they acquired 15 Church’s Chicken in Phoenix and opened their first Little Caesars Restaurant in Orangevale.

In 2008, they acquired 11 Church’s Chicken restaurants and opened their second little Caesars Restaurant in Carmichael.

In 2009, they opened another Little Caesars restaurant and a Church’s Chicken in Las Vegas

In 2010, Lutfi acquired 21 Jack in the Box restaurants in Modesto, Los Banos, Oroville, Marysville, Placerville and Sacramento.

In 2011, Lutfi acquired 14 Sears Hardware stores in Houston and St. Louis, and Sears Appliance Showrooms in Dallas and St. Louis, but also opened two restaurants, one in Galt and another in Las Vegas. Lutfi also acquired five Sizzlers in Auburn, Sacramento and the Bay Area.

In 2012, Lutfi opened another restaurant in Las Vegas and another in North Highlands and added a Sears location in Chino, Calif.

Lutfi and Maroni closed last year with their largest acquisition to date, 42 Arby’s restaurants in Oregon and Washington.

Today, Lutfi operates the following: five Sizzler restaurants, 21 Jack in the Box, eight Sears Appliance Showrooms, and six Sears Appliance & Hardware Stores.

With Maroni, Lutfi owns five Little Caesars, 43 Arby’s, 46 Church’s Chicken,

Lutfi and Maroni also offer management and consulting services to several organizations in Texas and California who operate 117 restaurants of various brands.

Lutfi is still married to the love of his life who worked with him years ago at the Jack in the Box. They were married in 1984 and had three boys, Metri 27, in the business operating the Jack in the Box Company and attended Fresno State, Stephen 25, a graduate from Fresno State as a civil Engineer; he also joined our company a few weeks ago and is currently our analyst; and Ramsey 20, in his third year at Fresno State pursuing his degree in Business.

Although the business has grown to near 150 in seven states, Lutfi says they remain a family business with several of the family leading and serving the business. Starting with my nephew Nader who has been an integral part of our continued growth and many others including Dr. Maroni who has remained committed for the entire ride.

Pocket area resident and attorney Shane Singh has been representing the MarLu Investment Group for over 11 years and handles a majority of their legal work.

The MarLu Investment Group office is in the Pocket area, 1531 Corporate Way.

The Board has been working hard to get ready for our upcoming season and we are all really excited to see the girls hit the field!

Official rosters are in the works so your coach should be contacting you within the next couple of days and practices can start as early as February 24.  Your coach will let you know your specific practice schedule.

The Second Annual Season Kick-Off Dinner is Sunday, Feb 24.  Pocket Girls Softball secured a couple of exciting motivational speakers and have lots of fun planned.  Buy tickets in advance so the group can plan for the appropriate amount of food.  Visit the store to purchase your tickets.

Pocket Girls Softball needs you.

First, one of our most important Board positions is still empty – Sponsorship/Fundraising Coordinator.  Second, help is needed for the kick-off dinner. There are volunteer openings for tasks such as coordinating the dessert auction, raffle, drink sales, etc. as well as jobs such as set up, food service, etc.  Please let the group know ASAP if you can help with this event. Finally, we will be collecting raffle items for our Kick-Off Dinner.

Contact:  Board@pocketgirlssoftball.org for more information.

A wise man named Dr. Seuss once said, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

An organization making sure that children in the Sacramento area have a chance to build the early reading skills they will need for the rest of their lives is Reading Partners – a nonprofit that provides volunteer-led, one-on-one literacy tutoring to students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade in low-income elementary schools.

According to Deanna Berg, Sacramento/Chico regional executive director for Reading Partners, the organization works in local communities to provide early intervention for children who are behind six months to two and-a-half years in reading abilities.

“Statistics show that kids who aren’t reading on grade level by third grade is an indicator for high school drop out rates and their ability to be successful as they move on through their school years,” she explains. “So we really focus on those early years with the belief that if we can catch them in that first part of their education, we’re going to get more impact in the long-run.”

Between the Lines

Reading Partners currently operates 11 programs in the Sacramento area, including two schools in the Arden area – D.W. Babcock Elementary School and Thomas Edison Elementary School – and Caroline Wenzel Elementary School in the Pocket.

Betty von Werlhof, principal of D.W. Babcock Elementary School, says this is the second year they have had the Reading Partners program at the school. She says last year, 33 students took part in the program, and this year they have 29 students enrolled so far. “That list is growing, we’re adding students every month – as we get more tutors, we get more students,” she adds.

According to von Werlhof, Reading Partners is a “wonderful program” and they received “fantastic data” from last year – of the 33 students enrolled in the program 93 percent of students accelerated their rate of learning. “The average gain for every month the child was tutored, they gained two months of reading, so they were doubling their rate of progress while they were being tutored,” von Werlhof says. “It’s really exciting. Programs like this are helping us to get kids up to grade level. Not only do they learn to read, but they can use their reading skills to learn everything else they need to know.”

Over at Caroline Wenzel, Dennalia Harris, onsite coordinator for Reading Partners at the school, says this year the program has 38 students enrolled, however she hopes to hit her 55 enrollment goal by the first week of March. She says the students know they are behind, and through a one-on-one environment students can go at their own pace and see their progress.

“Reading Partners does make a difference — when I did the mid-year review, I saw the difference and it’s amazing,” she explains. “It’s outstanding how much (the students have) grown in just three months. And that’s because of tutors – without tutors we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

ReadingPartners_Pic2

Read All About It

So how does Reading Partners work?

Berg says the program uses volunteer tutors that provide one-on-one tutoring sessions to each child in the program twice a week. Reading Partners uses its own curriculum created and developed by education and literacy experts. There are two tracks — one for beginning readers that focuses on phonics and early reading skills, and a comprehension track for kids who are able to read, but not necessarily comprehending what they’re reading.

Teachers refer students to Reading Partners, Berg says. “When a child is referred to our program, we do an assessment to determine where they are reading, and that places them in the curriculum,” she explains. “They start there and they move through the lessons sequentially, each one builds on the next, so it’s really a highly organized system that’s really effective by our research that we’re doing.”

In addition to the initial assessment, Reading Partners also conducts assessments mid-year and at the end of year. “Our data shows for every month that they receive tutoring in our program, they make 1.6 months worth of gain in readability, so we’re really helping to move them along,” Berg adds.

The Reading Partners’ onsite coordinators at each school also work closely with the teachers and principal to keep them informed of each student’s progress. According to Tina Khatcherian, community builder and onsite coordinator for the Reading Partners program at Babcock Elementary, teachers are given the results of the students’ initial assessments, plus what strategies and goals Reading Partners will be working with. Additionally, she provides progress reports for each student when report cards are due.

“There’s not only written forms of communication, but I sit down and I observe classes in the beginning of the year, and I also find out what things they are studying so that I can do what I can to reiterate what they’re learning in class and support the teachers,” Khatcherian adds.

Helping Hand

To keep a program like this going, a strong set of volunteers is needed. Berg says their goal is to have 750 volunteers in the Sacramento area, which serve 575 children, and their volunteers range from high school students to business professionals to retirees.

Berg says they look for volunteers that are willing to make a commitment to a child for at least one hour a week for one semester, and volunteers do not have to be a literacy expert or credentialed teacher to help out. “The nice thing is our curriculum is really designed to where each lesson has one concept that’s being explored, and it has step-by-step instructions for a tutor to be able to pull out the instruction sheet and be able to teach that lesson following the steps in the packet they’re given,” she explains. Volunteer tutors participate in a new tutor orientation and a shadow session to get started.

Khatcherian says anybody can volunteer, and they provide constant coaching, feedback and ongoing training throughout the year “in order to make that volunteer the best tutor they can be.”

And von Werlhof says the tutors also provide a support for the children, as they are able to form strong relationships with an adult. “It’s just wonderful to see the relationships that the children are forming with these tutors that come, and care about them and support them, not just in the 90 minutes a week — I’ve even heard of tutors going to some of their sporting games and other events in their lives,” she explains. “It’s very heartwarming.”

For sign up to become a volunteer for Reading Partners or learn more about how you can help through financial contributions or children’s book donations, visit  http://readingpartners.org/.

Unless you’re a music teacher at Sacramento City Unified School District, chances are you’ve never heard of the district’s Music Library – considered a “hidden gem” tucked away in Leonardo da Vinci K-8 School in South Land Park.

Started in the 1950s, the library has continued to be a resource for music teachers, housing thousands of pieces of sheet music, both loaning and repairing instruments, and providing music teachers with a place for them to meet and network.

“This is the most wonderful resource,” says Ilda Ballin, who has been music librarian at the SCUSD Music Library since 1986. “I don’t believe there is any resource like this in the state of California.”

Music Maker

The Music Library is known for its vast collection of sheet music. According to Jennifer Nakayama – a music teacher at Leonardo da Vinci K-8 in Land Park, and Rosa Parks Middle School and Fern Bacon Middle School in South Sacramento – library houses music for all abilities from elementary through high school that music teachers can check out to use.

“We have thousands of arrangements here for both band and orchestra, and teachers are able to check out arrangements for their students to try and play,” she explains. “Students have been playing them for years and years.”

Ballin says the various arrangements are for orchestras, bands, and string orchestras, as well as choral music. She says many of the arrangements the library holds are permanently out of print, making them irreplaceable. Additionally, Ballin says music teachers can borrow method books for students.

Keeping track of the thousands of arrangements is quite a task, and it was learning more about the arrangements in the library that drew Nakayama to become a volunteer at the Music Library for the past three years, which just a few months ago became a part-time employment position for her.

“I really enjoy looking through the arrangements, and really enjoy being part of the upkeep and making it still accessible for all of the teachers,” she adds. “It’s really quite a place when you come in.”

Strike Up the Band

Another job of the Music Library is to send out the school’s instruments for repair, and provide loaner instruments for students who need them.

According to Ballin, each school in SCUSD has its own inventory of instruments that students can use.  However, if a school is lacking in a particular instrument, the music teacher can come to the Music Library to see if there is one available for the student to borrow. “We provide so many instruments and usually it suffices for everybody – it’s very seldom that a student goes without playing the instrument of their choice,” she says.

As a music teacher herself, Nakayama has used the instruments available through the library on more than one occasion and feels they are indispensable to making sure all students have an instrument to play. “If a student can’t afford an instrument, then there’s no way for them to be in a class,” she explains. “Most of my students use school instruments – it’s essential for us.”

Then if a school instrument needs to be fixed, music teachers can bring them to the Music Library, who then handles sending them out to various repair technicians, Nakayama says. “We have a repair technician we work with at Kline Music for band instruments, and then there’s a string repair technician as well,” she adds.

Having the Music Library take care instrument repairs has been a big help for George Miles, band director at John F. Kennedy High School in the Pocket. “It’s a really valuable thing,” he explains. “There’s a lot of accounting and dealing with that, dropping it off and picking it up at the repair shop that they handle there that we don’t have to deal with.”

Meet & Greet

And the other major role the SCUSD Music Library plays is one of a central meeting place for district music teachers.

Nakayama says music teachers will meet at the library to collaborate and plan events since they do not see each other throughout the day. “It’s a place where we can let our hair down and work together and really work for the kids,” she explains. “We’ve had some great ideas here over the years. It’s nice to be able to pull (an arrangement) off the shelf, show it to each other, and collaborate in order to make events like that happen.”

The Music Library is also a place where music teachers can receive further education, according to Gayle Carrick, fine arts training specialist at SCUSD, who says she conducts trainings there for the teachers.

And Miles says having a central place like this to network has helped him further his career during his past 26 years at the district. “(It’s) really a sounding board, able to provide a lot of ideas on how to deal with certain problems that come up in the classroom musically,”  he adds. “It’s just been a really valuable asset for us.”

Up Tempo

As with everything in schools today, the Music Library has also been impacted by budget cuts. Once open five days a week, Miles says, now it is only open two days a week on Monday and Thursday.

And Ballin says due to budget cuts, she has no longer been able to purchase new arrangements for the library, as her limited budget has been going to furnish supplies students need to play their instruments, such as  drumsticks, reeds, mouthpieces, and strings.

So how can the community help support this valuable resource?

Nakayama says they are always looking for donations of both music and instruments, from violins to even pianos. “You would be amazed how many instruments that somebody’s grandfather might have used and sat in a closet for years, somebody found it and brought it to the library,” she says. “If there’s repair work that needs to be done, it’s done and it’s put into use.”

Carrick – who is currently working on grants to find additional funding for the Music Library – says in addition to monetary funds, they are looking for volunteers to help keep the library organized and extend its open hours. “People who have been involved in the music program and have been involved with the music library really have an understanding and attachment to what it represents, and a lot of people have been happy to add their energy to keep it going,” she says.

And Miles hopes the Music Library continues to keep its doors open, as it provides the educational materials, equipment and support music teachers need to be successful in the classroom. “Without it, it would really make it difficult to do our jobs,” he adds.