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August 23, 2001
How
did your school do?
The results of the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) program's Stanford Achievement Test
administered this spring in all California schools are posted
at star.cde.ca.gov.
The numbers represent the average
scores in each grade and subject by percentile. For example,
if a school's second-graders scored at the 45th percentile in
reading, it means that the "average" second-grade student
at that school did better than 45 percent of the nation's second-graders.
Schools or grade levels with 10 or fewer tested students are
not listed.
Here is a chart showing how
scores in Humboldt County compare to the state's average scores.
HUMBOLDT
COUNTY SCORES
vs. STATE AVERAGE SCORES |
|
Humboldt County
(left) - State (right) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Grade |
Read |
Math |
Lang. |
Spelling |
Science |
Soc. Sci. |
| 2 |
59 50 |
64 59 |
56 51 |
51 52 |
-- |
-- |
| 3 |
58 46 |
64 61 |
55 53 |
49 53 |
-- |
-- |
| 4 |
62 48 |
59 54 |
55 49 |
50 49 |
-- |
-- |
| 5 |
58 45 |
62 55 |
58 52 |
47 47 |
-- |
-- |
| 6 |
62 48 |
69 60 |
60 54 |
55 49 |
-- |
-- |
| 7 |
60 46 |
62 53 |
66 56 |
55 47 |
-- |
-- |
| 8 |
60 48 |
60 51 |
61 52 |
45 40 |
-- |
-- |
| 9 |
46 35 |
63 54 |
58 54 |
-- |
55 45 |
56 45 |
| 10 |
44 33 |
54 47 |
49 47 |
-- |
56 45 |
50 38 |
| 11 |
45 37 |
55 50 |
52 50 |
-- |
57 45 |
63 57 |
Willow
Creek to `cool down'
Thanks to some Caltrans funds
earmarked for "transportation enhancement activities,"
work will begin soon to transform downtown Willow Creek into
a cooler, lovelier place.
"We're just getting started
on a $700,000-to-$800,000 project to redo Main Street,"
said Mark Rowley, owner of Bigfoot Rafting Co. and district manager
for the Willow Creek Community Services District.
"We are going to narrow
the highway to slow traffic and plant a ton of trees." Rowley
said it's called the "shade project," which will be
particularly welcome as summer temperatures often hit the 100-degree
mark.
"There will still be single
lanes in either direction and a center turn lane, but the wide
parking shoulders will be redone," said Ken Omsberg of Omsberg
and Co., an engineering and survey company in Eureka.
Natzler Cunningham Designs of
Eureka was selected to do the landscape design.
"The whole idea is to get
shade in that town," said Jo Cunningham. "We're just
starting on the conceptual design next week."
There are a number of other
road-related projects beginning soon after lengthy planning periods.
Blue Lake expects to receive $680,000, which will likely be used
to make improvements on a footbridge used by schoolchildren along
Second Street. Improvements to gutters, curbs and sidewalks are
also planned.
HSU faculty
to picket
Humboldt State University faculty
representatives met in Long Beach with a bargaining team from
the CSU Chancellor's Office last week and again Wednesday over
a continuing contract dispute -- but negotiations are going badly
enough that faculty plan to picket a university ceremony.
"This is the third time
we have faced an impasse over negotiations," said CFA Chapter
President John Travis, a professor of politics and government,
in a telephone call from Long Beach.
The California Faculty Association
has a list of demands that include increased compensation, smaller
class sizes and faster resolution of complaints against the university.
"We're pretty far away
from CSU on all those issues," Travis said.
Now that an impasse has been
reached, the parties will proceed to mediation. Travis said negotiations
"have gotten uglier this time than in the past, so we have
a serious battle here."
The CFA Chapter at HSU was planning
to picket the convocation Wednesday that signals the official
opening of the 2001-2002 school year.
CR budget
cut by Davis
The College of the Redwoods
received a nasty surprise in this year's state budget: $350,000
in funding for equipment purchases was vetoed by Gov. Davis before
he signed the budget into law.
The money was to be used to
buy computers, printers and other instructional equipment, said
Scott Thomason, vice president of business services for the college.
Another $100,000 was earmarked for a new computer lab, the future
of which is now uncertain.
"This impacts the direct
classroom participation of the students," Thomason said.
The effect could spread to other
parts of the college's budget, Thomason said, if the administration
made the decision to go forward with the purchases using other
funds. "We would have to cut other areas to go forward with
this," he said.
It could be worse, Thomason
said. While the college has been receiving funds for purchases
of equipment consistently for the past 15 years, the exact amount
is unknown until the budget is passed. Because of that uncertainty,
Thomason said, the funds aren't used for wages or other contractual
obligations.
No court
order for PL
A request for a temporary restraining
order to stop logging in the Bear Creek watershed was denied
by a federal judge last week.
The Environmental Protection
Information Center of Garberville sought the restraining order
as part of a suit which alleges the Pacific Lumber Co. has violated
the federal Clean Water Act.
According to EPIC, the culverts,
gullies and drainage ditches through which runoff flows when
it rains are "point sources" of pollution, like the
outflows of factories or wastewater treatment plants. If the
court were to agree, PL would have to obtain waste discharge
permits under the act.
There are four active timber
harvest plans in the Bear Creek watershed and "several others"
working their way through the approval process, according to
a PL statement.
General
ER open a little longer
The planned consolidation of
emergency room services at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka is being
postponed.
St. Joseph announced Aug. 7
that the two emergency rooms it operates in Eureka -- one on
the St. Joseph campus and one at General Hospital, purchased
by St. Joseph last year -- would be consolidated into one. The
emergency room at St. Joseph will remain open while General's
emergency room will be changed into an Urgent Care center.
The Urgent Care is designed
to deal with health care problems that do not pose an immediate
threat to the patient's life. The transformation of the emergency
room into an Urgent Care center has been postponed indefinitely
while licensing issues are addressed.
Local tuna
makes NY Times
Everyone at Lazio Seafood Co.
in Eureka knows that their tuna is the favorite of one of the
world's favorite chefs, Julia Child. But since the 89-year-old
Child does not endorse products, they are forbidden to mention
that she always uses Lazio for her Salade Niçoise.
Last month New York Times
writer John Leland visited Child's home in Boston and she promised
to make him a tuna sandwich. At the end of the lengthy visit,
according to a July 26 article, Child reneged on her promise
of the tuna sandwich, substituting leftover lobster instead.
But at the end of the visit, not wanting LeLand to leave disappointed,
she pressed a can of Lazio tuna, packed in oil, in his hand.
Excavation
at Beaver Lumber
Kasey Ashley doesn't know exactly
what pentachlorophenol is, but she does know its most important
characteristic: "It's bad."
Ashley, an associate engineering
geologist with the Water Quality Control Board, also knows how
to go about removing the toxic wood preservative from the groundwater.
And that's what Arcata Redwoods is being ordered to do -- excavate
soil from a site containing the chemical so that it doesn't end
up contaminating the area's groundwater.
The site is located at the western
terminus of Fifth Street, just past K Street. Beaver Lumber used
the space in the '80s to remanufacture wood products, and the
site still carries its name in all water board documents.
It has been used to make wooden
barrels, plywood, hardwood flooring and outdoor treated lumber.
It is that last product which has caused problems -- the wood
preservative PCP, used by Arcata Redwood to treat glue-laminated
beams, is a carcinogen.
Some remediation has already
been done on the site. In 1990 soil from around the building
was excavated and shipped to a hazardous waste landfill in Idaho.
Wells were installed in 1993 to extract contaminated groundwater,
But those wells are no longer
pulling up the contamination, Ashley said. The remaining contaminated
soil is under the building that housed the lumber mill -- away
from where the wells are situated.
The water quality board could
order Quebecor, which as the parent company of Arcata Redwood
is responsible for the cleanup, to put in new wells, Ashley said.
But excavation is easier and provides "more bang for your
buck," she said.
The site presents no danger
to the public in its current state, she said. Because existing
wells surround the building, there is no way for contaminated
water to get into the drinking water supply.
"Unless," she added,
"you dig a hole at Beaver Lumber and drink the water from
it. And we won't let you do that."
COVER
STORY | CALENDAR
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© Copyright 2001, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
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