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Wrong, says a group of parents and critics of the way the district has moved not just on implementing the bond but on a score of other recent decisions that have caused an uproar in town the past few months and filled the board chambers with angry faces.  What happened to that warm fuzzy feeling of a great victory that after all united a community - including persistent critics of the district - behind the goal of new educational facilities?

In past weeks it only got worse.  A petition with some 25 names was filed with the County Clerk calling for the recall of board chairman Russ Bassett and member Chuck Lindahl.  The group of Visalians led by Karen Pereira vows to get 8345 signatures to force an election next March to oust the two.  “We have four months and we feel certain we can get those signatures,” says Pereira.

What has so many people all riled up?  Pereira says the issues have piled up from the new policy on field trips, student fees, closed campuses, use of lottery money, reassignment of personnel, the loss of money meant for modernization - at least for this year - then the question of out of town architects and a underlying issue - a lack of communication.

“Parents are livid,” says School Watcher founder Jacqueline Baker, “because it seem the board doesn’t listen to us and does what they want anyway.” Some say there was arrogance about the way some board members seemed to dictate district policy.  “I think they needed to be brought down a peg or two,” says one member of the citizen organized Bond Oversite Committee.

This week board members including Bassett and Lindahl ate humble pie apologizing “for any appearance of arrogance” and promising better ways to communicate.  They responded to the petitions and said they want to keep their jobs - serving the community as best they can.

On the issues the board seems now to be determined to tackle the hot button issues one by one - sometimes revisiting them until everything is talked out.  “We signed on to be the Bond Oversite Committee - not the Hind Site Committee,” says member Jerry Jensen who has been critical of how the board has handled issues related to the expenditure of bond money.

In a hurry to break ground on at least half a dozen new school facilities, the board began talking to the architectural firm Blurock - who designed the new high school - about the other 3 elementary schools and 3 multi purpose buildings at various campuses that will be constructed over the next year.  Here, the board admittedly stumbled - by passing by the Bond Oversite Committee, admits Russ Bassett.

When faced with complaints from local architects that their off the shelf designs were not properly considered by the board they halted the discussion and retraced their steps examining all submitted drawings from firms through the Bond Oversite Committee.  This week there is consensus that Blurock’s designs are the best and the matter will likely be approved by the full board.  The need to submit drawings to the state architects office by October is pushing the process on a fast pace.

“The Bond Oversite Committee’s expertise will be listened to and the talent they have will be utilized,” promises Bassett now. “It’s a matter of process,” says board member Nina Clancy who is being targeted along with incumbent Louie Montion by the critics.  There are 10 candidates for three seats this November.

Clancy is heading up a reevaluation of a second hot button issue - in limitation of field trips - a policy many complain was not fully discussed with the public but pushed by the district last September.

Underlying this and many other issues is the fact the school district made an agreement with the Tulare County Grand Jury last year to not require “illegal” fees to participate in school activities since that is unfair to those who can’t pay the fee.  Instead the district, from band uniforms to musical instruments to field trips, wants to level the playing field and pay a base amount so that the kids at each school can go on a field trip or play a district funded musical instrument (a simple recorder is all they can afford) at the school district’s expense.  Many school field trips are paid for by fund raising and at some schools nobody fund raises.

The upshot is that some schools in the district - like Conyer - went on 64 trips last year and Washington School in the low income northside, went on 12.  In June Superintendent Linda Gonzales said this coming year the district would pay for one trip in the 4th through 6th grades but none in the K-3 grades.  The policy extended to no field trips either near nor far, eliminating trips to local places like Kaweah Oaks or the childrens’ playhouse Enchanted Theatre.  The district suggested too much time was spent in fund raising by both child and teacher and that because of dismal test scores, where nearly 2/3 of the school kids were not reading up to grade level, that time fund raising and away on trips might be better spent in the classroom.

But many parents became unglued noting that hands on experience of field trips was educational and that this change - being pushed top down - didn’t sit well with many.  Now Clancy, heading up the board policy committee, has tried to put together a compromise.  “I want people to know we’ve been listening,” says Clancy.  The policy is said to allow local trips and to offer K through 3 a field trip at school expense as well.  But the equity issue - the need of the district to pick up the tab on the trips will limit trips beyond 75 miles.

While critics of the schools like Jacqueline Baker welcome changes to policy, she wonders “why does it take a recall or an election to get them to act?”  Clancy and others say the issue is process and the desire to unite the community on tough policy issues that need to be addressed. “If you think we are going to raise test scores by simply keeping the status quo, you are wrong,” says Chuck Lindahl.

This week the board takes up the issue of closed campuses that the critics have said was ordered too quick last year without parent input.  “We want input” at the board meeting Thursday August 19 says Bassett, to decide if the high school campuses will remain closed during lunch hours - a policy many believe adds security to the campus.
Underlying the quick pace of changes is a new state mandate to increase kids educational level as measured by reading and math test scores.  That’s where the board feels they are tackling an issue that has festered for years that has not been faced in the past.  In the case of student fees, the Grand Jury raised the question with the district back in 1995 and prior administration had not addressed it.

Last Fall an outside Curriculum Audit dealt harshly with poor organization at the district and lack of adequate assessment over whether the way we were teaching our kids was working.  The audit outlined test scores for some schools as low as 4, 13 and 15 on the SAT test where 50% is considered proficient.  It faulted the highly touted early literacy program as not being adequately assessed, that the “written curriculum in the classroom is haphazard and few connections between what is taught and what is tested for,” that there was inadequate communication between the district and school sites and that “race, socio-economic levels and the ethnicity impact opportunities and access in the Visalia Unified School District.”  It goes on to say that there are “questions regarding the fair and equitable treatment of every student and opportunity go to every student to have access to the entire scope of the educational program.”

The push by the new state mandated demand to perform or face possible takeover of the district by the state and the admonitions of the Curriculum Audit, there is and was a fire lit under the Board of Education to act decisively and make changes.  That’s where the district reorganization - the resignation of some school officials around the district that raised eyebrows - is coming from “new regulations and guidelines that are now in place throughout California like none in my 22 year career,” says Doug Bartsch, Principal of Hurley Elementary in a letter to parents June 18.

The test scores are the wake up call for the board, “we know we aren’t reaching them,” admits Chuck Lindahl.  But critics like Jerry Jensen says it’s just a matter of competence of lack of it in not applying for modernization, most available from the state until June by which time LA had gobbled up this coming year’s allotment.  Bassett says because of the BIA lawsuit against the old school board - here the builders claim the district was hiding where they were spending developer fee money - the district had not found it could allocate for a local match to apply earlier but has to wait until the local bond passed.  The BIA lawsuit was not settled until June 18, 1999 and the district decided it needed to retain money from the developer fee fund in case the bond did not pass to build a new elementary school if need be.  BIA officials had made it clear they wanted money they paid into the fund used on new construction since the money came from new growth.  But Jensen submits the district dropped the ball and could have qualified for those modernization funds, that would fix up Redwood High, for example.

“It makes me angry that my children will be sweltering at Redwood without air conditioning because they did not get modernization money,” says Karen Periera.  Jensen says the developer fee monies were not frozen by the lawsuit and they spent $2.2 million by the end of the fiscal year.  He says there is over $6 million in the account.  He says while the district may get $23 million in state modernization funds next year or the next, the district only needs to provide $5.75 million on deposit they could have used.

Then there is the lottery money debate.  The district uses lottery money it receives for all types of expenses including, critics say, insurance and car allowance.  “That money should go directly to kids,” says Periera.

These are some of the issues that has put us where we are today.

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“We know the seismic issue is part of the problem,” in expanding downtown says Yahn but the hospital has no choice but to “roll up our sleeves” because of the need to tie new beds with all the services available at the downtown campus.  “We could not do these procedures at some other location,” she believes.

Last year the hospital board bought 100 acres out on Caldwell buy has said it plans nothing out there in the near term.  That means the hospital is looking at adding some square footage - probably to the west or northwest of the main hospital, says Ed Sullivan VP of engineering.  Sullivan cautions that the downtown campus could make room by moving some services elsewhere like maternity.

Sullivan estimates that one nursing station covering 20 to 30 beds might add up to 18,000 sq. ft.  Three stories might add up the number of beds.

Yahn says the services of the heart surgery program now up to an estimated 500 open heart surgeries a year, more than double the number its first year number and population growth are driving the need to add more critical care beds.  In the winter of 1998 a strong flu season pushed capacity to the max that year - a problem the hospital district wants to plan for.  Most critical care patients come from the ER or the cardiac care facility downtown and need to have close-connected access, she says.  There are currently some 311 beds at the downtown campus, Yahn says.  A staff recommendation on how to accommodate the additional need should be ready by the end of the year.

Recently the County said they wanted all MediCal mothers to deliver at Kaweah Delta from TDDH.  In addition new state law mandated mothers be allowed a 2 day stay at hospitals potentially impacting bed capacity.

A new initiative could bring even more County indigent patients here as well.

Complicating any expansion plan downtown is the need to upgrade facilities by the year 2030 to a higher earthquake standard.  If the new addition was tied to the old core building it would not meet the standard.

Space is tight in downtown where a new 226 car parking garage may begin construction the first of the year and there are plans to expand the Cancer Care Center across the street from the ambulance drive up.  Sullivan suggests a place the hospital could expand is to the west where physicians park currently since they will be able to park in the parking structure on the east side.

Waiting in the wings is the offer by the City of Visalia to sell the district the city hall property for expansion - a plan that doesn’t fit in the need to be tied closely to the ER and current ICU units.

Sullivan believes the district could juggle the need which he characterizes as some 10 beds a year of additional demand.  A plan to re-use the old Visalia Community campus for long term care could take some pressure off the main campus as well.  The addition of Exeter is meant to serve skilled nursing patients.

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Those initiatives include: New Cancer Center: The district is funding a study to expand the Cancer Care Center on Willow at Floral to the east likely with a multi story complex.  “We want our oncology service to remain cutting edge,” says Lindsay Mann, the hospital’s VP.  The study will develop a strategic plan for expansion of the hospital’s Cancer Center of excellence and broaden its affiliation with Stanford and UCSF.  “We’re looking at offering a range of services, educational complex with library, a surgical suite and physician offices,” says Mann.  The hospital’s oncology program is already top notch, says Dennis Lipson a member of the hospital’s foundation board.  “They have unbeatable technology.”  But a larger complex with more services “will put Visalia on the map and have broad regional appeal,” he believes.  He likens the plan to the building of the district’s cardiac care program attracting world class surgeons to the program.  “This could bring in lots of new doctors, help our economy and improve the care people get here,” says Lipson.  Plans to expand along Willow could get a boost for the fact a new parking garage will be built on the corner of Willow and Locust that will in turn be tied by a pedestrian bridge to the parking garage to the east.  For those that worry the hospital is vacating downtown, the study is proof enough that downtown remains a major focus of the health care district.

Long Term Care Hospital: The district is looking at providing long term care to acutely ill people - those with an average stay of 25 days or so - a stay too expensive and not suited for the main Kaweah District Hospital, says VP Lindsay Mann.  “Medicare realizes the need and provides separate funding for this type of care on a cost basis,” says Mann.  That would mean the district would have a more sure funding source for many of these patients instead of just getting partial payments as is the case in a number of programs and insurances that reimburse the district at a low rate.  The number of funding sources including Medicare and MediCal and HMOs who offer the district sometimes cents on the dollar for their services has hurt the district’s bottom line as it has all hospitals in the county.  No wonder that the district is now emphasizing these speciality units that offer a more suitable funding source and added service to the community.

The focus of this plan is the former Visalia Community Hospital which is rated at 51 beds.  Currently the district uses 19 beds for their geri-psychiatric unit that may move to the hospital’s new Psychiatric hospital on Akers.  But Mann says if the unit is transferred “there would be demand to use all 51 beds at the Court Street campus, now called the Visalia Health Center.  It isn’t clear what happens in that case to the Urgent Care Center now housed on Court St.

Patients receiving care at the new long term care facility might include stroke victims, people with head injuries or infectious diseases.  Those with less serious recovery problems requiring a skilled nursing facility would use the hospital at the Exeter campus.  In the health care jargon, the district is trying to complete its “continuum of care.”  Mann says the study on this project could be done as early as early October.  The new hospital unit would clearly provide a significant number of new jobs.  Like its other initiatives Mann believes the complex “would have regional appeal.”
The third major project underway is the new Psychiatric Hospital planned on Akers at the old Charter Hospital location.  Mann says the district board approved purchase of the property (currently housing Cypress Villa) in the past week pending the outcome of conditional use permits at the City of Visalia.

Those conditional use permits include the capability of the hospital to house involuntary patients - a plan that has upset some residents worried about potential violent patients let loose in the neighborhood.  Mann says those concerns have been overblown but proposed to meet the concerns of the community.  “The facility will be designed to secure that patient and enhance both patient and community safety,” he says.  That was enough for the City Planning Commission who turned down the district’s request to allow involuntary patients at the 50 bed facility.  Now the district has appealed to the city council Sept. 7th.  Mann says Tulare County hasn’t had any local mental health service for a long time - “having those services here is the right thing to do,” he insists.  Local patients and their families currently have to travel all over the Valley because care is not available locally.

Responding to suggestions the hospital build a new psychiatric facility elsewhere Mann says that would not pencil out.  “It would cost us 4 times as much to build a new campus and this project would not be feasible,” he says, the project also needs to have the involuntary patients.  “Without them the project will not go forward.”  The new unit would add some 90 jobs.

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Many of these people depend on agriculture, which with the exception of the dairy sector, continue to hurt.  The winter freeze decimated our orange crop - source of income for farmworkers during the winter months and now poor plum prices despite a good crop - make it barely pay to pick the crop, some farmers are saying.

The state EDD figures for July 99 tell the tale.  While the state booms with unemployment down to 5.2% - a rate that has not been seen in California since 1969 and almost everywhere counties enjoy improved employment from a year ago.  Statewide that rate has dropped from nearly 6% last year.  Tulare County bucks the trend (see chart) with the second highest unemployment rate in the state behind Imperial County on the border of Mexico.

The number of unemployed in the County is some 30,000 people.  But the state admits that does not include a huge number of people it calls “Not in the Labor Force” who are not seeking jobs and therefore are not unemployed.  So the number of people without jobs is higher than 30,000 - much higher.  In 1990 the State Dept. of Finance estimated the number to be 89,000 - over 16 years old including housewives who may not work, the disabled and elderly but also those on welfare who until recent changes in the law, were not actively looking for work.

Many of them are now doing just that helping to bulge the workforce even as the local economy tries to recover and in many sectors like construction is recovering.  Statewide, there is 100,000 fewer unemployed today than at this time last year.
The frustrating part for leaders trying to cope with the task is that Tulare County’s workforce has grown by 50,000 according to EDD figures from 1983 to July 1999 while the number of jobs has grown by only 35,000 - a 15,000 job shortfall.

No wonder they are offering people here jobs in Kansas City if they would just move there.  Companies are coming here seeking workers in other parts of the US because of the tight labor market there.  The US unemployment rate is now 4.3% - part of the reason the Fed is worried about inflation.

Meanwhile Tulare County is in a world of its own.  The two big freezes of the 1990s have clearly hurt the economy and local business people will tell you that they think we still haven’t recovered from the Christmas Freeze of 1990, which most agree was a devastating blow.

EDD analyst Vic Cohelo says there may be other reasons why we are seeing an influx of new people.  As the Coast and the rest of the US become more expensive, Tulare County housing prices look awfully attractive with a house payment that can be a half or a third of what it is elsewhere.  In addition EDC President Bill Evans says 60% of the population increase is coming from local population growth - we continue to make lots of babies.

Cohelo says there may be a fact not considered, that is the teachers who are not working in July are counted as unemployed.  By September all of them will be working.  Still the same thing is happening in all counties and they don’t experience high unemployment rates.

Visalia remains the bright spot in the County experiencing perhaps a record dollar year for new building permits if the trend continues.  City Manager Steve Salomon points to efforts to secure Cigna - the town’s largest private employer - in a new office complex to break ground next week on Akers.  The city had to provide a subsidy of a little over $1 million to keep the big company here where they are likely to grow to 1200 jobs.  Salomon points out that the size of the payroll, workforce and the spin offs of this investment the company generates about 8% of the revenue for the local economy.  “Sometimes to compete for jobs you need to do this,” he says, where the promise of a major community benefit can be shown.  The city has done this in only one other case - Frito Lay where the city manager expects further expansion to take place.  Right now there is tremendous efforts to secure a new $200 million Leprino mozzarella plant that will likely be sited somewhere in Tulare County.  The place may be so big it would require milk from 80,000 cows to supply it, sources say.

The dairy industry is the only ag commodity that has attracted major new investments on the processing side here, while other commodities don’t attract processing or are actually in decline.  For example Musco Olives has closed their Visalia olive plant this year throwing about 100 out of work and has put a big for sale sign on it.  Meanwhile the new Console Foods vegetable plant is shut down and may not open unless it can work out new financing.  In Porterville there is a new chicken processing facility that will open up.  However, look at the top 20 crops in the County show limited prospects for processing growth with the exception of milk.

Nobody is building new orange processing plants, cotton is facing the worst price in years and the owner of one of the largest pig ranches in the County has left the farm to become a broker for A.G. Edwards.

Nobody is giving up but efforts to stimulate the economy probably need to be beefed up.  Lack of agreement over the direction of the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation has been one of the victims of all this bad news.  But EDC President Bill Evans believes we may be on the verge of some very good job news likely to be announced in the next few months and jobs numbering some 3500 with 4 new “mega companies” locating here.

These jobs are likely to be in food processing, call centers and distribution.  “We’re going to have some very good news,” predicts Evans.  Part of the reason this is happening now is that the rest of the country is experiencing good times and there is a huge demand Tulare County may be able to satisfy, he believes.

On the educational front, the schools are trying to turn around the revolving door of poverty with low income kids growing up without learning to read, dropping out of school and becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution.  In the 1990 Department of Finance study of the 30,500 economically disadvantaged residents of the County in the prime working years - two thirds or 20,500 had dropped out of school prior to graduating.  Figures showing nearly two thirds of Visalia school kids were not reading at grade level show how schools are on the front lines of Tulare County’s fight against poverty.  If there is a battle in Visalia over how to fix this problem it is because there is a real crisis.

That Tulare County presents a special case is clear from the new report “The State of the Great Central Valley” sponsored by Modesto based think tank Great Valley Center.  First of all - why is the think tank in Modesto instead of down here.  The same question we ask about the new University of California - in Merced - not in the south valley where we have no 4 year school?  The July 99 report shows that Sacramento and the northern valley fare much better on major economic indicators including unemployment than the Central Valley.  It says that Central Valley unemployment has gone down from 16% in 1993 to about 13% in 1997 following the trend line of the rest of the state.  Not in Tulare County folks.

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The program originally funded by a grant, now is funded through the County Probation Dept. and partially by Health and Human Services.  In the past month, due to budget cuts, 27.5 positions were eliminated at Probation.  The funding cut meant that one of the two probation officers assigned to Drug Court would be lost - a program that covers the whole county.  In addition, Silveira says the program is scrambling for money to fund the drug testing it takes to keep the kids off the illegal substances.

“I was told that Probation lost all money to do drug testing (for adults too).  I don’t know how you can run a criminal justice system like that.”The cuts are in effect now, says the judge.  “We’re already having to turn away participants in the south County because I have only one probation officer available.  If we don’t have money for drug testing the whole program is dead anyway,” says an incredulous judge who has done battle over probation issues before with County leaders, including chief budget cutter, Tom Campanella.

The goal of the program is reduce the number of repeat offenders who end up in the criminal justice system.  Silveira says Drug Court aims to hold youth offenders “accountable” through joint intervention with the parent and the juvenile.  Both must sign a contract that mandates attendance at school in the 9 month period that they are enrolled.  “They learn to be clean and sober,” says Silveira.

Silveira tells the story that one young lady using Heroin and prostituting.  She came to Drug Court, stopped using drugs and returned to school.  After graduating from the program she had a baby boy that was born drug free and is now a responsible parent. Kids who were on drugs and turned their lives around include two valedictorians who graduated from Drug Court.

The recidivism rate for kids going through Drug Court is 15% for misdemeanor offences and less than 3% for felony offences.  Before that rate was 100%, says the judge.

Before Drug Court almost a third of juveniles repeated a felony offence.  Instead of repeat crime these kids go on to school or the workforce.While not disputing the worth of the program, Supervisor Bill Maples has responded to criticism in the community over potential loss of the programs.  Drug Court is popular with law enforcement and community people alike because it is one of the few programs out there that stresses intervention and prevention.  “I hate to see them pull the rug on this just to save a little money,” says former police chief Bruce McDermott.

To bring this issue into perspective, Maples wrote a letter this week to the head of the County Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission Jim Oakley.  The Commission meets late this month and is likely to address the issue.

In the letter Maples points out that “Regarding the Juvenile Drug Court, specifically, there were 7.5 County positions allocated to support this program, at an estimated cost of $430,000.  The positions allocated to this program are:
1.0 Prevention Services Coordinator II
3.5 AOD Specialists
1.0 Office Assistant III
2.0 Probation Officers
7.5 Total

The Final Budget eliminates one Probation Officer, leaving 6.5 staff positions to work with 60 juveniles. The Juvenile Drug Court was originally funded by a grant.  When the grant expired the Probation Department re-allocated resources which drove caseloads up in other programs, some were over 250 probationers per officer.

It is also important to put into perspective the cost of this program, since we are always dealing with limited resources and funding priorities.  This program’s cost of $430,000 would pay for more than six months of mental health and drug and alcohol services art the new Juvenile Detention Facility for some 210 juveniles.”

Silveira says he needs 2 probation officers because only law enforcement officers are able to search kids who may be hiding drugs or guns.  The other people are counselors.  “This a marriage of law and counseling - you take away either one and you weaken the program.”

Silveira says the amount to carry on with the program is only $60,000 and can’t understand out of $550 million budget the County can’t come up with this small amount to keep a program that has received national recognition and is saving tax dollars.
But Oakley says while he supports the program, he is open “to more cost effective ways of delivering the same service” suggesting the Commission may try to come up with some compromise proposal to get the program funded.

Silveira points out that if a participant drops out of the program or there is no program more than half will end up in group homes at costs ranging from $3000 to 4500 per month.  The other option is the kid goes to Boot Camp at a $2200 a month cost and a recidivism rate that ranges from 30 to 40%.

He says the cost of the Drug Court is $4100 per participant over 9 months while the cost for boot camp is over $13,000 for 6 months.  “Just today I had to sentence a juvenile to a second stay at the Alternative Sentencing program (boot camp) because he didn’t get the message the first time.”  The difference is Drug Court provides face to face contact - targeted intervention, he insists.

The judge, credited with rallying support to build the new Juvenile Hall through a tax increase is outspoken on this issue too, and not afraid to knock heads with the executive officer or the Board itself.  But Silveira doesn’t control the purse strings.

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The Lonestar project is on 216 between 198 and Dry Creek Road on pasture land on the north side of the road.  Some of the site has been mined in the past and there are remnants of an old gravel plant on part of the land.

The Lonestar plan has some differences to the Kaweah River Rock project, notes McCauley.  First it is smaller and its five phases would each be smaller.  Most of the 156 acres would end up being reclaimed into a lake as the project goes forward over the years.  It would excavate to 40 ft. - compared to 45 ft. for the Kaweah project.  McCauley says Lonestar would haul rock from the site to the existing processing plant south of the road.  “There is the issue of truck traffic and aesthetics,” she says, since the project will be visible from 198 as you head up to Terminus Dam.

The hot button issue will remain digging gravel near the Kaweah although the project stays out of riparian areas.  There are strong feelings by locals against digging in the Kaweah aquifer in this area.  Lonestar and Kaweah River Rock are competitors who have existing plants in the area but both claim that rock is running out in coming years and cite the need for additional material to supply local building and road needs.

Besides this new project, the County has received notice of proposal for a dry rock mine near the Reservation off Highway 190.

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The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher. 

August 18, 1999