The Buzz 02.17.22

FREE SPEECH

Back in 2018, Oasis Charter School parent Andrew Sandoval was unearthing public records revealing issues with Oasis governance. His search led him to former Oasis board member Augustine Nevarez, who is also director of student affairs at Hartnell College. Under the California Public Records Act, Sandoval filed requests with Hartnell seeking communications Nevarez had with Oasis. Hartnell denied the request, and in January 2021, Sandoval sued Hartnell and then-superintendent Raúl Rodríguez. In a decision issued Feb. 7, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Robert O’Farrell ruled in Sandoval’s favor, despite Nevarez’s claims that the emails in question were “personal,” because they did not concern Hartnell business. O’Farrell wrote: “The emails were sent to and from a Hartnell email address, were sent using Hartnell resources and are stored on servers of email accounts Hartnell owns of controls… Hartnell’s claim that Oasis emails are not public records is not well taken.” O’Farrell also objected to Hartnell’s claim that there should be an exemption for personnel-related reasons, because Nevarez is a high-ranking official.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“These aren’t Amazon jobs. These are good-paying jobs.” - Monterey-Salinas Transit CEO Carl Sedoryk speaking about bus driver job openings (Monterey County NOW intro, posted Feb. 12; at mcweekly.com).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

South Monterey County Joint Union High School District is celebrating its new Future Farmers of America building where students will learn skills to prepare them for jobs in the largest industry in the region: agriculture. This new 24,000-square-foot facility is located on the east side of King City High School. It includes floral and animal labs, classrooms and metal and wood shops, giving high school students more hands-on experience. A new farm and greenhouse are still pending, but will be built in the coming months. It will be the first center of its kind in Monterey County, says Lillian De La Torre, career and technical education coordinator for the district. The program offers different career pathways in natural resources fields including ornamental horticulture, animal science and ag business management. In 2020, FFA’s program at King City was ranked third statewide.

GREAT:

A historic surplus has made the state quite generous in recent years, and local programs have felt the benefit. The latest example is $10 million the state sent to the Coastal Commission to spend over five years for its Whale Tail Grant Program, primarily focused on initiatives that give inland, rural and disadvantaged communities a chance to learn and engage with the coast. Over the last 20 years, the grant program has given out an average of $350,000 across 20 grants. This year, they awarded $3.2 million in 91 grants, $344,000 of which went to nine Monterey County programs. Among the grantees are the local Audubon Society, Ventana Wildlife Society, Point Lobos Foundation, Western Flyer Foundation and the Ventana Wilderness Alliance. Many of the local programs, such as the one led by The Wahine Project, focus on youth education and coastal access.