2021-06-08 Jeremy Decker – Windsor Unified School District

With the ring of a bell President Bill Bolster offered a review of last week

We had a pledge of allegiance offered by Glenn Sugden.

Mike Merrill shared the inspiring words of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident who was imprisoned and still in line for the Nobel Peace Prize.  “Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth.”

Heather Cullen took us to Hernando’s Hideaway… olay!

Words for the day provided by Tom Boylan, and photos by Sue Nelson, and ZOOM Meister Michael Juric. 

Visitors:

Visiting Rotarian from Rotary Club of Lakeport, DGN Jennifer Strong. She invited us all to tune in this Friday for the Virtual Rotary International Convention.  Register here for the event

  • https://web.cvent.com/event/e0512b11-ccc8-4927-ae1f-68ba8a21aa8c/summary?locale=en-US&tm=YiBY9J4Quh9Gehe6T1sQHNDLP0wFzoQgMZgRo47wZ5Q

Tom Hassur introduced our scholarship recipient Sheila Alvarez from Windsor High School.

Announcements:

A long list of our club members were recognized as Rotarian of the Month because of their efforts for our Best Shot fundraiser.

ROTARY CLIPBOARD

Next week we are asked to participate in the first hybrid meeting at Charlie’s Restaurant. Costs for the breakfast is $20. Have your vaccination card ready if you plan to go live, or plan to tune in

We heard that our own youth exchange student… who never made it to Germany graduated from Windsor High School. Heather let us know the graduates of Windsor Middle School were thrilled to have Pres Bill give them a few words of wisdom. Windsor Oaks also had a graduation with Michael Juric handing out the first Kenneth Moulton Scholarship. Ken Moulton is the founder of that school.

Tom Hassur reintroduced Sheila Alvarez, our Windsor High School scholarship recipient. Sheila gave us a little of her essay that helped her receive the award. Technical difficulties gave Tom to step in and share the story of Sheila and her families troubles with her sibling being ill and Sheila having to step up and become more than a sister. As a substitute mom for her other siblings, she managed to overcome her school troubles by reaching out to others for additional counseling, which now has her heading off to college. Nice work young lady!

Barbara McChesney shared her experience as a graduate of the Leadership Academy for Rotary. She is one of 20 in the district that made it through the in depth course. Her success with the program shows that we have a future Rotary leader in our midst.

Mike Freedman reached out to allow for any of our members to get to know our new member who is having to stay away due to his wife’s medical condition. Connect with Mike to arrange a meeting on the back deck, or online. Mike_freedman@yahoo.com

The debunking is Saturday, 5:30 PM, June 26th at Maureen Merrill’s home, 9482 Vinecrest Road. Please be sure to attend a live debunking to thank our ZOOM president Bill Bolster. RSVP to Robin Resendez, rlphillips@ymail.com.

Glenn Sugden let us know we all need to be a little better versed in the DACdb website. We plan to increase our ability to use the tools that they offer to help us get a better understanding of our club and Rotary in general.  If you need some help reach out to glenn@thirdworkshop.com Text/Call: 707.696.9906

Program:

JB Leep introduced our speaker for the day, Jeremy Decker, Superintendent of Windsor Unified School District. He grew up in Santa Rosa and after graduating from College he began his education career as a high school teacher, and now sits on top of a $45 million budget as the Windsor Superintendent.

Jeremy let us know he is a former Rotarian with the Cloverdale Rotary Club and after the distant learning backs away for his daughter, he plans to rejoin… Windsor! He gave us a good overview of the various schools in the Windsor District.

In addition to reintroducing the various schools in the district we also saw that $62 million is earmarked for upgrades to various school projects, including some new classrooms designated for Mattie Washburn, and Cali Calmecac.

We took a look at a dashboard showing the improvements in 2019 over 2018, but due to COVID we ran out of stats for r updating the dashboard. Great hopes are in place for future opportunities to have State testing and data.

Reviewing several slides with stats on where we stand in comparison to State averages shows that there is room for improvement with several of the slides showing we are below State averages in English and math, but Jeremy has confidence we are moving in the right direction. Overcoming COVID will be the greatest accomplishment for students and teachers in the district.

We also found out we are losing students, which Jeremy credited to the high cost of living for families. The funding of the district is based on student enrollment, so this is a problem that can cost millions in lost revenues.

The end came for the 38 attendees at 8:30 with lasting wisdom from Pres Bill. I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure, try to please everyone.

COVID UPDATE

Total Cases:        30,493  (last week 30,336)

Recovered:    29,747    (last week  29,679)

Active Cases:   431   (last week 342)

New Cases:            Fri    32

                                Sat    39

                                Sun     0

   Mon    0

This is a total for 4 days of 71  (last week for 4 days was 67)

Deaths:  315     (last week 315)

Here in Sonoma County, we have seen over 58% of our deaths in whites, 30% in Hispanics, and 2% in African Americans and American Indians.   53% of deaths occurred in SNF’s and the remaining from community spread.

Hospitalized:  8 confirmed and 1 suspected    (last week 9 confirmed and 1 suspected)

The largest number of cases is in those unemployed or not working 21% (probably more non-social distancing and large groups exposed by those who are working), healthcare makes up 8.9%  and Service and sales have dropped to 16% with home care (my industry) at 1.8%.

We continue to see the last percentages of our community hesitant to get vaccinated.    It is reported that there are probably 15% who will not get vaccinated and another 12-15% that are in a “wait and see” mode or so hesitant / on the fence.  59% of our population are fully vaccinated, with another 12% who have gotten at least 1 shot but frustrating is the 29% of our county who have not been vaccinated.   It means continuing to wear our masks and being careful not to expose these people.   How do we know who is vaccinated and who is not?  And as one expert recently stated, “those who have chosen not to get vaccinated will get COVID and will get really sick or die”.   How do we negotiate with these folks to see the importance of protecting them and others from this terrible virus???????

Vaccines were begun….  As of June 7th, 564,303  residents in Sonoma County have received the vaccine (last week 548,203).    Fully vaccinated individuals now at 62% and adults with at least one vaccine dose is now at 10%  (last week was 57%  and adults with at least one vaccine dose 15%)     28% of our county residents are not vaccinated at all and because there seems to fewer requests for the vaccine, many of our clinics that just a while ago it was difficult to get an appointment to, are now closing.   Smaller clinics in specific areas are being provided as well as mobile clinics where the unvaccinated life.

                Governor Newsom has declared that although California has one of the lowest COVID-19 case rates, he has declared that the danger is not over and will not end the State of Emergency on June 15th.    The exact context of mask-wearing and other mandates are still being discussed.    The CDC announced new guidance allowing masks to be removed and although many have cheered it has set up mask confusion for Sonoma County.    The CDC makes decisions on a Federal level that are guidelines; it is then up to States and Counties to take that advice and develop their own regulations.   So far it appears that only unless all workers or people in a room or office are fully vaccinated will people be allowed to forego a mask.  Employers will be allowed to request and have on file their employees’ vaccination records.

Please continue to be cautious while you are enjoying our new freedoms of getting out, socializing, and feeling like we can live again.   Remember not all people are vaccinated and unless you know the people you are with have been vaccinated, wear your mask to protect others that may not be.     We want to see this over but still, need to be cautious and very careful.

Thanks

Di