The Buzz 10.06.16

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD:

It’s a great week for local students. Community Partnership for Youth, or CPY, was established in 1991 after student-athlete Ramon Avila was murdered in Seaside, to provide local underserved students with after-school mentoring, tutoring and character-building activities. Twenty-five years later, on Oct. 1, CPY dedicated its new Ramon Avila Technology and Design Center to his memory. “He changed all our lives,” says Shari Hastey, CPY’s executive director. The center and its bank of laptops and PCs provide a place for CPY students to boost computer literacy and develop other skills: The other day students designed solar-powered model cars; planning for workshops on things like coding, web design and computer literacy for parents is underway. Some 350 students are currently in CPY’s programs, learning CPY Standards including, “Greet each other with a smile and a handshake to strengthen the relationship between us.”

BAD:

It was a bad week for consensus on pesticide policy. On Sept. 29, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation released new draft regulations that would further protect children in daycares and schools near farming operations by prohibiting any application by aircraft, sprinklers, air-blast or fumigation on fields within a quarter mile of schools. Assistant County Agricultural Commissioner Bob Roach says that under existing regulations the buffer zones required for fumigations are much less than one-quarter mile, and that this new regulation would provide additional protections (beyond label requirements) for schoolkids. Pesticides would also be banned from use from 6am-6pm on weekdays. DPR made the change following “extensive public input” and in an effort to reduce the “risk of short-term pesticide exposure.” It’s a step forward, but some parents and teachers don’t think it’s enough. They are demanding a full-time 1-mile buffer near schools. Californians for Pesticide Reform says that the regulations do not go far enough, despite steps taken locally; the county Agricultural Commissioner has assembled a team of experts to launch a pilot project to provide information to schools and parents about the use of pesticides near schools.