Don and Holly Haws resided in Carmichael during the 1970s, while Don managed the Carmichael Park pool and was the head coach of the Carmichael Beavers Swim Team. Photo courtesy of Don Haws

Editor’s Note: This is part three of a series regarding the old Carmichael Park pool, which was recently demolished.

Back in the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was still president and bell bottoms and disco were the rage, a young college student named Don Haws began working at the Carmichael Park pool.
And although his overall time working at the pool represents a relatively short segment of his life, Haws, during an interview with this publication last week, said, “Those were some of the most memorable, pleasant and fun experiences of my life.”
But long before he became acquainted with the pool, Haws, 69, had grown up in Santa Barbara.
Haws recalled how he learned how to swim in that city during his childhood.
“When I was about 5 years, I got over my fear of water and the ocean and discovered my body was buoyant and I could dog paddle,” Haws said. “Then when my parents (Karl and Wanda) got a boat, it was mandatory that I wore a lifejacket on the boat until I learned how to swim. So, I decided to take swim lessons at a public swimming pool.”
While attending Santa Barbara High School, Haws was a member of the school’s football team, which won the 1960 California Interscholastic Federation large school, Southern Section championship at the Los Angeles Coliseum. He also lettered on the school’s swim team as a distance swimmer.
After graduating from high school in 1961, he fulfilled his general education requirements and played football at Santa Barbara City College.
In about 1963, Haws joined the Army Reserves, and from about 1965 to 1967, he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Central America in a district that covered an area from Guatemala to Panama.
After returning home from his mission, Haws continued his education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pre-law and a minor in ergonomics (physical education) in 1970.
During his time at that university, Haws married his high school sweetheart, Holly Lyons, and they eventually had three children – David, Daniel and Shelly.
After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Haws was accepted to attend the McGeorge School of Law at 3282 5th Ave.
Haws said that his time at McGeorge was a short-lived endeavor.
“After six weeks, I dropped out, because I decided that law was not the profession that I wanted to pursue for a lifetime,” Haws said.
In the process of changing his direction in life, Haws visited Carmichael resident Dr. Jerome Needy, a department chairman at Sacramento State College (now Sacramento State University).
Needy allowed Haws to become a student in the recreation and park administration program under the provision that he completed undergraduate classes prior to being accepted into the graduate program.
In 1972, Haws applied for employment at the Carmichael Recreation and Park District as a day camp leader at Carmichael Park.
In addition to his work as a day camp leader, Haws served as a part-time lifeguard at the park’s pool.
He obtained that position due to his American Red Cross lifeguard certification, swim team experience and his major.
About seven months later, Haws was hired as the pool manager at Carmichael Park by the district’s administrator, Dick Pollock.
In recalling his work as the pool’s manager in 1972 and 1973, Haws said, “It was a real reward for my service and it was an incredible experience working under a park administrator who was so well trained in the field of aquatics. He was a pro. You couldn’t ask for a better mentor. He was on the swim team at UC Berkeley and he was a great diver.”
Additionally, Haws expressed high praise for the pool’s lifeguard program during that era.
“I truly believe that we and other pools in the Sacramento area were the avant-garde of pool lifeguarding in the United States at the time,” Haws said. “At our pool, we were developing a pool manual for policies and procedures. Our lifeguards had to sign in for weekly training and were required to swim laps to keep physically fit. We ran a tight ship and we ran it well. That pool was spotless. We had some outstanding lifeguards, including Lori Worthington, Harry Powell, Linda McBeth and Marcella Payne.
Haws added that the lifeguards were quite attractive, as well.
“All of our lifeguards were attractive, even the men,” he said. “I don’t know where they came from, like modeling places or something.”
While serving as the pool’s manager in 1972, Haws began coaching the 13 to 17-year-old swimmers of the Golden Valley Swim League’s Carmichael Beavers Swim Team, which at that time held its practices and home meets at the park’s pool.
His assistant was Sharon Faulkner, who coached the 12 and under team members.
In discussing his memories of coaching the Beavers, Haws said, “It was a very fulfilling experience watching the kids improve their performances. We were fortunate to win all our dual meets. Unfortunately, I didn’t have them sufficiently prepared for the finals and I totally except responsibility.
“There were many great stories associated with my time as the Beavers’ head coach. The one that touched me the most was the only moment when I had tears in my eyes at a swim meet. It was a race involving the 6 and under swim team members. The starting gun went off and it was obvious that one of the boy swimmers was not yet a strong swimmer, and he would have to swim several strokes without taking a breath and then grab onto the lane line to catch his breath. All swimmers had completed the race about one minute ahead of this boy when he finally finished the race. During the last portion of the race, everyone in the stands stood up and applauded his diligent and heart-warming effort. As the exhausted boy was attempting to climb out of the pool, I reached down and pulled him out of the water and embraced him, as tears came to my eyes.”
Haws, who was a certified scuba diver, brought the most unique program to the pool during the summer of 1973, when he arranged for scuba diving classes to be held at the pool.
After his two years of working at the Carmichael Park pool, Haws, who was then in a wheelchair due to back spasms, was nonetheless determined to take a county test at the old La Sierra High School in an attempt to become the pool manager at Elk Grove Park.
Haws had the highest score on the test and was offered the position. But he never worked a day on the job, since it was discovered that he had testicular cancer that required an operation and radiation treatment.
Fortunately for Haws and his family, these procedures were successful.
During his time of recovery, Haws completed his master’s thesis, which he titled “A Comparative Analysis of State Lifeguard Training Standards.”
His thesis was considered a landmark project, because it admonished people responsible for public pools that mere lifeguard certification through the Red Cross was insufficient to insure public safety at swimming pools.
In discussing his thesis, Haws said, “State requirements for public pool supervision needed to be revisited and upgraded.”
After completing his thesis, Haws worked as the recreation supervisor at Arden Park for about a year, and then he worked for about two years as the recreation superintendent for the North Highlands Recreation and Park District.
In 1979, Haws returned to his hometown, where he was hired as the general program supervisor for the city of Santa Barbara’s recreation department. Among the divisions that he supervised was the beaches and swimming pools division.
Eventually, Haws was enticed by his brother, Jerry, a real estate attorney, to become a real estate agent – a position he has held for the past 29 years.
Although he changed careers, Haws, who also has a brother named Karl, said that one day he hopes to assist in his former field by helping to prevent tragic drowning incidents through some avenue such as public speaking, authoring a book or becoming a teacher at the junior college level.

When is the last time you heard math students singing a popular song as a class during a fraction lesson? Or building an ancient city out of clay during history class? These are just a few ways teachers in San Juan Unified are changing the way their students learn.

The San Juan Unified School District is proud to have preserved the arts throughout its schools. In a quest to continue to find new and effective ways of teaching, Visual and Performing Arts coordinator Craig Faniani has spearheaded an effort called Arts Integration, and it’s already seen a lot of interest from principals, staff, teachers and students alike.

Teachers are using music, sculpting, drawing, drama, technology, movement and a variety of other types of art to engage students and create a different and effective learning environment. Arts Integration is much more than the typical ‘art project.’

Tony Asaro isn’t a teacher by trade, but in San Juan Unified, he’s as recognizable on campus as school staff.

Entering his 14th year overseeing community relations for the Sacramento River Cats minor league baseball club, Asaro spends the bulk of his time working to improve the lives of children and families throughout the region.

That work began in San Juan Unified schools, from which Asaro, his wife and four children all graduated and where he began his career.

Today, he’s an enthusiastic and constant figure in schools, preaching the importance of strong character, attendance and academic success to scores of students.

“San Juan schools are fortunate to have such a committed community leader in Tony,” said Superintendent Glynn Thompson. “Tony’s dedication to our students, unwavering energy and positive attitude are an inspiration.”

from Asaro in his own words:

…on how Asaro blends passion for baseball with teaching and inspiring students:

“To be able to take what my passion is, which is baseball, and use that as the teaching element, that’s so powerful. … I believe that we teach our children through the games we play. And I love the game of baseball because if you’re the greatest player that ever played the game, you’re a .300 hitter, you fail seven out of 10 times. There’s no game that we teach our children or play that you fail that often and yet, you’re the best. It’s through those failures that you learn.

“That (relates) to the whole ‘attendance, attitude and academics’ (message): You’ve got be there every day for your teammates and bring what you have to bring. You have to have a positive attitude no matter how many times you get knocked down, no matter how many times you fail, you’ve got to get up one more time than that. Those are the kind of things we talk to kids about.”

… on how his visits to schools motivate him:

“I’ve been very, very fortunate. That’s the inspiration. When I go to a school at 8:30 in the morning, and I put on an assembly, and that starts my day, I’m sure I’ve jazzed them up, I’ve gotten them excited, but I am so pumped. So that when I do one at noon and 2, and then go and give a speaking engagement that night to a Rotary club, that excitement just builds and builds and builds.”

… on how one San Juan Unified leader – his sixth grade teacher – shaped who he is today:

“I was very shy. I could not speak in front of people; I could not make a presentation. (My teacher) brought that out. He said ‘You’re going to be our emcee at our talent show.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ He said, ‘I see you doing impressions of Ed Sullivan and John Wayne for your friends. You can do this.’ He then entered me in a Rotary speaking contest and helped me with that as a sixth grader. It’s one of the two trophies I own in life. … It changed who I was.”

… his thoughts on the meaning of leadership:

“I was asked as a junior in high school to be the captain of the baseball team. I was not the best player on the team. I was able to help motivate the team to be good, but I knew I was not the best player. And there was a reason they asked me to do that.

“And I think that leadership can be someone who stands up and motivates – inspires – but I also think leadership is (being a) role model that people want to follow. I believe that we all have a reputation – those are other people’s ideas of who we are. I believe that the character of who we are makes a difference. And what I urge young people to do, what I urge everyone to do, is to look to the character within themselves. That’s how you become a leader. You are a role model no matter where you are in whatever you do, whether you’re the CEO or the person cleaning the place up, you can show leadership.

“I can’t tell you how many schools I’ve been into, where the multipurpose room looks immaculate. These schools were built in the 1940s, 50s, 60s. That person who’s controlling that, who’s the person of influence there, can’t teach English, can’t teach science or math. But he can make those kids feel good about where they’re at, make that staff feel good about where they’re at. And that’s what they’re contributing.

“The scale is not north to south, the scale goes east to west. We’re all leaders. Step up and be the best you can be at whatever you do.”

Have a gently (or not so gently) used guitar gathering dust in a closet or in the garage?  McClatchy’s after school enrichment program (ASSETS) has 20 students signed up for guitar class, but only a handful of guitars. We are in desperate need of instruments, so if you have one you can donate, even if strings need replacing and other minor repairs are needed, please deliver them to the front office and they will get to the classroom for new musicians!

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.

Eddy – therapy dog of Lend A Heart President Barbara Street – listens while a young reader practices their reading. // Photo courtesy of Maryann Farmar/Lend A Heart.

Every Tuesday, about 25 children ranging in ages from five to 10 come to the Carmichael Library after school to work on their reading skills.

They’re not reading to a librarian, or a tutor or a teacher. Instead, they’re reading to one of the trained therapy dogs that calmly sits for an hour and lets the children read to them.

“It’s really fun and the kids just love it,” says Shelley Andrews, branch supervisor for the Carmichael Library. “Everybody enjoys it – the kids love it, the staff loves it because we love to see the dogs, the owners of the dogs love it, and of course the dogs love it with all the attention they’re getting. It’s just really fantastic.”

Read to Rover

Carmichael Library began offering what they call the “Read to Rover” program back in 2007 when Carmichael resident Ellen Wildfeuer presented the idea to the library. A retired nurse, Wildfeuer knew of the benefits of pet therapy, and had a dog that had gone through the process of becoming a certified therapy dog.

To start the program, Wildfeuer used her connections to therapy dog associations to find other volunteers to bring their therapy dogs to the program. Currently they have 13 teams of therapy dogs and handlers that rotate coming to the library each week, with at least seven of those teams coming every single week, she says. “In 2011, we donated almost 2,000 hours of volunteer time,” Wildfeuer adds.

Carmichael Library is one of five branches of Sacramento Public Library that offers a “read to a dog” program. Another is Belle Cooledge Library in Land Park, which has been offering their “Read to a Dog” program for about three years and is currently held the last Tuesday evening of each month, according to Youth Services Librarian Donna Zick.

Zick says they can have upwards to 30 children at each monthly session, who have the opportunity to read to one of five to 10 therapy dogs. She says the focus is on kids in grades kindergarten through fourth grade, “because we know now that’s an important marker for kids’ reading levels and we want them to be reading at that stage and want them to be fluent and comfortable with reading.”

ReadToDog_Carmichael.jpg: “Read to Rover” volunteer Cathy French and her therapy dog, Kalie, listen to a young reader. // Photo courtesy of Ellen Wildfeuer.

Belle Cooledge’s program is run by volunteers through Lend A Heart Lend A Hand Animal-Assisted Therapy. According to President Barbara Street, Lend A Heart began in 1987 and is an organization of volunteer therapy dogs, cats and rabbits and their handlers that serve hospitals, assisted living centers and memory care centers. Street says Lend A Heart had started a “Read to a Dog” program at Rancho Cordova Library nine years ago, and the success of that program caught the attention of Belle Cooledge Library, who then her to start the program at their library.

Relaxed & Fun

So how does a program like this work?

At Belle Cooledge Library, Street says the dogs are in large dog beds in a circle in the children’s corner of the library. She says the hour normally starts with the children petting the dogs, then they select a book they want to read and a dog they want to read it to. “Sometimes two children will read to the same dog, sometimes they’ll just rotate around the room or find the one dog that they really want to spend more time with,” she adds.

A similar situation happens at Carmichael Library, where the therapy dogs and their handlers are in the library’s community room. Andrews says once a child signs up for the session, they can select a book they would like to read or bring their own book, then sit down and read to a dog. Once they are finished, they can sign up again to read to another dog. “Many times they come in and read to two or three dogs,” she adds.

And during this time, Zick says parents are able to sit by to watch or visit with other parents while their child is practicing their reading. “It’s a very relaxed environment,” she adds.

A Lend A Heart volunteer and therapy dog work with a young reader at the “Read to a Dog” program at Belle Cooledge Library. // Photo courtesy of Maryann Farmar/Lend A Heart.

Learning Curve

Many parents may be asking how can a child improve their reading skills by reading to a dog?

First off, Street says it gives children an opportunity to practice their reading in a relaxed, non-classroom environment with a non-judgmental companion. “It’s more of building that really good feeling about reading and then being able to sit there and read out loud to a dog that doesn’t care if you mispronounce word or is not judging you if you’re reading too slow,” she explains.

Wildfeuer agrees, and says this is a fun way for children who have difficulty reading to gain personal confidence. “It’s an enhancement of how the children are learning to read in school in a less structured, more fun, atmosphere,” she adds.

Zick says she has seen the positive impact of the program through a seven year old boy who when he came to his first program did not want to participate, saying he didn’t feel he could read well and didn’t like to read. “He was there the whole hour reading to the dogs, just completely engrossed in it,” she recalls. “He had convinced himself he wasn’t a good reader. Reading is just practice, so this is just another way to practice.”

Although the children are there to read to the dogs, Wildfeuer says the dog handlers are there to help if a child asks for it. “We’ll tell the kids if they need help, let us know and we’ll help them sound out a word,” she adds.

Plus children who participate in the Read to a Dog program can also learn about how to properly behave around animals and how to be more comfortable around dogs, says Andrews. She says the therapy dogs range in sizes from little lap dogs to Great Pyrenees, so for some kids it takes a while for them to be comfortable around the larger dogs. “But they’re all learning after they come for a while and they start feeling comfortable reading to the big dogs, so that’s also a very positive part of it,” Andrews says.

The Read to Rover program at Carmichael Library is held every Tuesday from 3:30-4:30pm. The Read to a Dog program at Belle Cooledge Library is held the fourth Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30pm. For more information on these programs, visit www.saclibrary.org.

Students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary marched from campus and around the block across from campus in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s memory on his birthday, Jan. 15. The march was a “Freedom March” and held different meanings to each student. Carrying signs “freedom from bullying”, “freedom of education” and “freedom for all” the students were fully engaged.

It was a march that Principal Reginald Brown said was “open to interpretation. We have some of the nicest, caring, compassionate kids.”

This is the fifth year that Brown has been the principal at the school, but it’s the first time they’ve held a march in honor of MLK Jr.’s birthday. Each year, they’ve celebrated MLK Jr.’s memory differently. They’ve held essay contests, always held some kind of assembly, but this year, one of the teachers brought up the idea of a march. And on Friday, Jan. 11, permission slips went home and organization for the march came together quickly.

“It is a way to solidify our namesake,” Brown said, by holding his vision. “(MLK) is a top American in our history.”

Imagine a school transformed into a magical winter wonderland with King Winter, gingerbread houses, holiday activities, festive live music, mulled cider and delicious hearty food! Camellia Waldorf School invited the public to attend its 24th annual Winter Faire on Saturday, Dec. 8. The Winter Faire featured puppet shows, crafts for kids, candle-dipping, local vendors and artisans, a soup competition, home-baked treats, and our traditional “Children’s Store” (where children had an opportunity to shop for small treasures). http://www.camelliawaldorf.org/calendar/

Volunteers participate in the recent front lawn beautification project at Crocker/Riverside PTA. / Photos courtesy of Crocker/Riverside PTA

With school districts facing major budget cuts, school PTAs are playing a more vital role than ever in helping schools keep or bring back programs that help enrich their students’ educational experience.

Case in point – the PTA for Crocker/Riverside Elementary School in Land Park. Thanks to the work of more than 500 members, over the years this active PTA has been able to help the school keep existing programs and start new ones.

“I value the PTA,” says Alvin Lee, past principal for Crocker/Riverside for 19 years and now interim principal. “It would be very difficult to provide many of the things that we currently provide without the support of our PTA and their funding. The PTA’s support, finances, people and resources really help us.”

“The PTA is essential to active parent involvement in any school – it’s a key ingredient to the success of the school and the success of students,” says Anne Hawley, Crocker/Riverside PTA president. “We’re very fortunate to have high parent involvement in our school.”

Front Lawn Beautification

A recent way the PTA has helped improve Crocker/Riverside is through the front lawn beautification program.

According to Hawley the idea came from parents who wanted to improve the front lawn, which had fallen into disrepair due to district budget cuts. “We decided to create an effort to pull together a group of volunteers who (were) eager and interested,” she says.

Hawley says more than 35 parents came out to take part in the project on Saturday, Oct. 20. And according to Hawley, the PTA contributed about $2,500 towards plants and other materials that were needed for the refurbishment. “It was really a great day – it was kind of like a barn raising except it was cleaning up the front lawn,” Hawley adds.

Lee adds the volunteers “did a beautiful job,” and it shows their parent involvement is not just in the classroom, but encompasses the whole campus. “If they see there’s a need to do something or improve something, they are always there,” he adds.

Reading Rebounders

Another way the PTA is helping the school achieve this mission is through the Reading Rebounders program. According to Lee, five years ago, the PTA started the program for students who would benefit from extra help in reading. Lee says younger students are tutored during their lunch by volunteer sixth graders, who receive training to be tutors.

Lee says some parents also volunteer to be tutors in case more tutors are needed, and its the parents in the PTA that coordinate the tutors with the kids who need help.

Hawley says the PTA also supports Reading Rebounders by providing funding for reading materials and student incentives that are given out to students that participate in and complete the program.

She believes the program is a win-win as it gives sixth graders an opportunity to mentor younger children in first and second grade that need a little extra help with their reading. “It also creates a neat way where the younger kids have a bond with some of the upper grade students,” Hawley explains. “It’s worked out to be a very positive program.”

The Library

In addition to Reading Rebounders, the Crocker/Riverside PTA also helps support reading in the school through its work with the school’s library.

According to Lee, while the school had a library, it was small and was not meeting the needs of students. “We want our kids to extend reading beyond the classroom, and one of the things the staff and the parents felt strongly about was to give kids access to pleasure reading books …  to have some place on campus where they could get books to practice and improve their reading,” he explains.

Through the support of the PTA, Lee says the library was updated to a modern media center library, including computers and an updated book selection. And he says each year the PTA raises money to let the school’s librarian buy new books to update the library’s selection.

In addition to the books, the PTA also pays for a part-time librarian, which the school had lost a few years ago due to budget cuts, Hawley says. “We feel very fortunate as a community that we are able to provide that type of funding to keep our library open and to keep it well maintained at a high level of quality,” she adds.

Technology

In addition to computers in the library, the Crocker/Riverside PTA is also helping bring technology to classrooms in the school. “We feel that to help best prepare students for success in this 21st century, we feel like we need to try and get them the best tools possible,” Hawley says.

To help with this, Hawley says last year the PTA was able to purchase a class set of Barnes & Noble Nooks through a Wells Fargo technology grant. The intent was to expand, enhance, and supplement the reading opportunities students have in the classroom.

“With Nooks, you can load multiple sets of novels and different reading materials on there, so it was a good way to best utilize technology and enhance the reading opportunities that they have in class,” Hawley adds.

Coming Up

In addition to its current programs, Hawley says the Crocker/Riverside PTA is already working on new programs. For instance, one of their new programs this year is a music appreciation program for first through third grade, which they hope to expand to other grades in the future. Additionally, the PTA is looking at ways to enhance technology in the classroom for students.

To help raise funds for all these programs, the PTA has some fundraising events coming up. From December 3-7, Hawley says the PTA will hold its annual Scholastic Book Fair. And on May 17, 2013, the PTA will hold its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Spring Jubilee. Information for these and other events can be found at  HYPERLINK “http://www.crockerriverside.org/”www.crockerriverside.org.

Overall, Hawley says the PTA has a number one goal of supporting Crocker/Riverside’s principal, teachers and students, and both the PTA and school share a common end of meeting high expectations and standards for students. “We just want to do what we can to support that mission,” she adds.

Measures Q and R were local school bond measures to upgrade and renovate local school facilities that were both passed in the November election. According to the Sacramento City Unified School District, the average age of the local schools is 50 years and need significant updating.

All money raised by Measures Q and R will stay in our community and cannot be taken away by the State. No money can be spent on school administrator salaries. An independent citizens’ oversight committee will monitor expenditures and ensure all funds are spent properly.

If you are interested in being on the committee, contact Gabe Ross, Chief Information Officer at 643-9145 or email improvesacramentoschools@gmail.com

Here are breakdowns of how your neighborhood schools fare and how they should be improved.

DAVID LUBIN

David Lubin Elementary School was constructed in 1975. During the 2006 modernization, renovation and upgrades were made in the following areas: health and safety, site exterior and miscellaneous upgrades. The school’s facilities received high ratings for completion of maintenance and safety procedures. The frontage street inhibits ability for a gracious welcome. The unsafe environment posed by overlapping bus and parent drop off leads to unsafe arrival and departure. There is no flashing light to indicate a pedestrian crosswalk.

Visitor and staff parking is inadequate. Accessible parking stalls and path of travel needs reconfiguring/relocating. Irrigation and drainage at the play fields needs to be reworked to resolve flooding and muddy conditions. Refurbishing of the blacktop, shaded small group seating areas, and clear definition of specific hardscape uses based on age-appropriate activities would be a positive upgrade. Providing a shade structure would improve the stage presence and encourage additional activity use such as outdoor learning and lunchtime dining.

Poorly patched flooring needs new finishes at Kit Carson Middle School. This is one of many examples of physical improvements that can be made because of the passage of measures Q and R. / photo courtesy

KIT CARSON

The site is just more than nine acres in a fully developed residential neighborhood just off Folsom Boulevard. The site is small but appears adequate for this school that was built in 1976, This existing Middle School campus is in generally fair condition and has been looked at as a viable candidate to be converted into an IB Program to support Grades 7-12.

The buses currently bring about 70 percent of the students to school and create some traffic issues within the neighborhood. The buses must route through the neighborhood to enter and exit the school but are able to loop from Folsom Boulevard and back with reasonable convenience. There are, however, no designated passenger loading and unloading zones, no separation for parents and buses and no barrier free drop off spaces.
Drop offs take place along the “N” Street frontage and in the staff parking lot at the west side of the campus. Both locations currently generate traffic conflicts and unsafe conditions. At a minimum, a barrier free drop off space is required and a designated drop off lane is recommended. The public and main entrance to the school and administrative offices is located along “N” Street and at some distance from the available visitor parking.

Additional parking area is recommended and should be located in reasonable proximity to the school’s entrance and administrative office. There have been recent path of travel upgrades to the staff parking lots but more is needed to be fully code compliant.
The campus is a pleasant homogenous design with good internal circulation and the core secured by ornamental steel gates. The campus is well planned for a compact facility and suited to the neighborhood. However an updated color scheme would be more appropriate for the age group. Some modernization has been completed to upgrade restrooms for code compliance but has left unsightly patches in tile finishes. Additional upgrades for code compliance are needed throughout the campus.

The school buildings were built with little consideration for energy efficiency and improvements could be made through the use of more efficient windows and mechanical systems. Benefits could also be gained through more efficient lighting and effective energy control systems. The student gathering areas of the campus are primarily associated with the Quad. This area is well located, adequate and in reasonably good condition. The student snack bar is adjacent to the Quad.

The athletic fields and paved play courts are adequate for the current enrollment but in fair condition. Resurfacing is needed for some areas of the courts and water efficient irrigation recommended for the play fields.

Based on the opportunities, facility conditions and code issues identified in this report, the Kit Carson School appears to be a fair candidate to support the facility and programmatic transformation to a 7-12 IB School.

SUTTER

The site is 7.5 acres in a confined fully developed semi-urban location and is unsuitably small for this middle school. A typical suburban site for this size school would be at least twice the area. The school was built in 1958 and serves just more than 1,200 students with most of the classrooms on second and third floors.
Access to the campus is along I Street just off Alhambra Boulevard. A drop off lane was added along “I” Street but conflicts with traffic into and out of the parking areas remain. There is no convenient turn a round or loop routing for buses. Parking is less than adequate and adversely affects student circulation. In addition to street, parking and drive conflicts there are significant “path of travel” issues around and within the campus. While the area is served by public transportation, there is no fully compliant path of travel to the campus. These are apt to become major circumstances with future modernization.

The upper floors are served by stairs and a single elevator. The fifty plus year old school was built with little consideration for energy efficiency and improvements could be made through the use of more efficient windows, wall systems and mechanical systems.

Benefits could also be gained through more efficient lighting and effective energy control systems. The structure is primarily steel and masonry with large areas of window wall systems including awning windows and spandrel panels.

The condition and age of the windows and window system shows signs of deterioration and has numerous leaks. In addition to the overall condition issues, the windows and panels are single glazed un-insulated and inefficient. The interior corridors on the second and third floors of the main classroom building are wide and lined with lockers, but access to and from the classrooms does not comply with code.

These conditions will likely require significant upgrades with any future modernization. The design of the school is dated and the classrooms and amenity areas reflect the age of the school with some deterioration and many barrier free access issues. The student snack bar has access to the Quad for outdoor eating. The gathering areas of the campus appear adequate and in reasonably good condition. The campus core has a small “Quad” area that appears underutilized.
The campus core is secured by unsightly ornamental steel gates and fencing.

THEODORE JUDAH

Theodore Judah is a historical structure built in 1937, and is the oldest continuously used elementary school in the district. The original building has been renovated to improve HVAC, technology capability, and classroom casework / sink accessibility, but a considerable amount of site and building accessibility non-compliance issues remain. Outdated and unused heating radiators in classrooms could be removed to gain additional casework and storage.

The buildings, including the portable classrooms, are in need of renovation and repairs. The cafeteria, kitchen, staff lounge, auditorium, and administration area all require refurbishing and modernization for code compliance.

The core of the campus has many instructional gardens and potential outdoor learning areas. Efforts are in progress to improve landscaping, but irrigation and drainage is in poor condition at the entry turf areas and playing field. The current orientation of the
portable classroom buildings makes site supervision difficult. Bus and parent drop-off is provided curbside only. The absence of accessible paths of travel should be resolved.

Information for this story is courtesy of SCUSD.