Lunch: Meatloaf, green beans, salad bar pasta
Alfredo,chocolate cake S&P 500: 1640.
Our second
semi permanent meeting at the Elk's Lodge was called to order on a beautiful
sunny Eureka day by President Ziggy Ziegenfuss.
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| Ziggy rings the bell |
The microphone continues to put
off a pleasant, echoing, high-pitched whine throughout the meeting. Richard
Whittaker led the Pledge of Allegiance.
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| Lisa Slack invocates. She was fined $50 |
Lisa Slack led the invocation. President
Ziggy's phone rang right before the Pledge. He fined himself $30. Past
President Jim Davis introduced guest Kathy Smith, president of College of the
Redwoods. Matthew Owen introduced the exchange kids. Bruce Smith
introduced his daughter Nicky, and his cousin Saboudeed Masimoff. Carlton
Nielsen introduced a past exchange student from Denmark. Jason Eads
introduced Scott Icanitch, an intern at his law office. Birthdays and
anniversaries are in the book, congratulations to all.
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| Matt Messner learns he's on the clean-up committee |
New Rotary
directories came out today. Please review at your leisure and find out which
club committees you've been added to. You might have duties you aren't even
aware of. I did! Lisa Slack just returned from six weeks in Europe.
$50.
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| Our exchange students |
Our local outbound exchange students came to the front and discussed
where they are going on exchange. Italy, Thailand, Sweden and Hungary. Sounds
like a lot of fun, enjoy guys. There was a vote on table linens for an extra $1. It
didn't pass. Paper placemats will continue to rule the day. Carol Riche
went on a cruise in Scandinavia. $50.
GAMBLING INTERLUDE (Spengler Raffle for
the Science Fair) $10 Bruce Emad $10 Dale Warmuth.
President Elect Gregg Gardiner
introduced today's speaker. He made at least one joke that got no laughs. No
worries Gregg, happens to me every day.
Our speaker today is our fellow Rotarian
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| Dr. Fred Van Vleck |
Dr. Fred VanVleck, Superintendent of Eureka City Schools. Dr. VanVleck
polled the room on their belief that our youth have employment opportunities to
stay in the community. A little less than half the room raised their hands. Dr. VanVleck
agrees with the minority, that our youth have opportunities to stay and thrive
in our community.
He went through the last year’s accomplishments. No
teacher layoffs, opening Winship, a 19:1 ratio of students to teachers at the
elementary level, and moving students into their neighborhood schools.
Contracts are settled with teachers, locker rooms at Eureka High have
been updated, and custodial and instructional standards are being standardized
across the district. Those two are only tangentially related. They've
applied for grants, partnered with HSU on teacher curriculum, allowed
enrollment at school sites, built a PR campaign, adopted Google as their cloud
platform. There was more stuff too.
ALARMING FACT: The population of Eureka
grew by 1,000 from 2000 to 2012. The students in Eureka City Schools dropped by
over 40%. Fred has been gone from Humboldt County for 20 years,
and he came back because he believes in our community. The school
board has 22 defined goals for the next several years in their strategic plan.
Contact him or a school board member for a copy of the goals statement. Fred
discussed some of the negotiations with the teachers union. The union is asking
for just over a 15% raise for the most senior teachers by length of service.
The district is currently offering across the board 3% raises. Expect some
modest disagreements over this negotiating point going forward.
Dr. VanVleck
thanked our club and the community for our help in the project at Winship
Middle School. Q&A I asked why
Winship was reopening with the long-term loss of students in the district. Fred
explained that essentially the district closed too many schools over the past
decade, causing severe overcrowding in the primary schools. Fred recommended
Winship reopen to deal with this overcrowding. Penmanship and handwriting have
been eliminated. You'll just need to get a smartphone and learn about
emoticons. LOL! Ask your grandkids.
Counseling at
Eureka High has been a hot button issue, so the job was restructured to ensure
that good communication and counseling is provided to students and clearly
telegraphed to parents. Ebooks? It's a state-level decision. Call/email/bribe
your local congressman. Music programs? They make the cut. The school is
focused on offering them. Auto shop? Not next year, there's not enough
enrollment past the introductory level.
Comparing our educational system with
other nations? The measurement metrics aren't comparing apples to apples.
There's a new assessment standard going into effect for 48 of 50 states. We'll
get back to you in a decade or so with the results. The guest was
thanked, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended on time.
Respectfully Submitted,
John Harper
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