It has all the tension of Oscar night, except there is no little gold statue in the end. In fact, the results are worse than winning a Razzie. School administrators and teachers across California are waiting breathlessly today to see if they made “The List,” and are cited as the “187 worst performing schools in the state.” Superintendents and principals have already been informed, but for everyone else, the news will come at 10am this morning.
Ten Questions for Marina Sousa
The creative genius behind Capitola-based Just Cake and the winningest baker ever to rock a cake on Oprah shares some facts about her life—including one very strange irony.
Downtown Santa Cruz Businesses Slowly Picking Up
There’s good news for businesses in downtown Santa Cruz. After two and a half years of recession— National Bureau of Economic Research claims that the downward trended started in December 2007—things are finally looking up. Downtown has suffered significantly in that time not only from the recession but also because of a negative image as a center for gang members and the homeless.
The Rad Girls Punk Santa Cruz
Ramona Cash is a cute, punky looking brunette you’d expect to see modeling skirts and bikinis in a skateboard fashion catalog. Over coffee in downtown Santa Cruz, she parts a section of her professionally highlighted hair to reveal an inch-wide heart-shaped bald spot from where her friends precisely ripped the hair from her scalp.
Rally Highlights K-12 Woes
As a small procession made up mostly of university students made its way down Pacific Avenue yesterday, some onlookers were unimpressed.
“Seems pretty meager for a protest,” one man said, watching as a banner passed that read “We are the Budget Cuts.” What he, and perhaps many Santa Cruz residents, didn’t know is that the meager procession had broken off from a group of at least 400 students, faculty and workers who had been picketing since daybreak at the main entrance to UCSC. In a rare coalescence of solidarity between the town and the gowns, the university protest was, in the form of this small group, merging with a community demonstration to save public education.
Students Protest Fee Hikes at UCSC
Fed up with rising fee costs and slashed department budgets, UCSC students staged a massive protest on campus Thursday as students across the nation demonstrated against what many see as higher education becoming unaffordable. With slide show.
Synergy Clothing Comes Home to Santa Cruz
A lot has changed since Kate Fisher locked eyes with Henry Schwab at a Phish concert in 1997. She was a Deadhead peddling Indian textiles; he was a Greenpeace activist touring with Phish’s nonprofit arm the Waterwheel Foundation. And yeah, yeah—they grew up, got married and had kids, but Fisher’s clothing line Synergy grew up with them, culminating with her new downtown Santa Cruz storefront, Synergy Clothing, which opened in January.
Police Prepare for Student Protests
The SCPD has issued a traffic advisory warning drivers that they could face delays getting around town today.
School Board Approves Major Layoffs
At a meeting yesterday, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees agreed to lay off or reduce the hours of as many as 130 full-time and temporary teachers to make up for its $5.2 million deficit. The decision came after the teachers unions’ refused to offer any concessions on pay and furloughs. Teachers affected include 57 full-time and 23 part-time K-12 educators and 50 adult education teachers. The Board also voted to cut the hours on every adult education program in the county in a move described by Board President Rachel Dewey Thorsett as “the worst case scenario.”
SCPD to Start Texting
The SCPD has signed up with Nixle, a free and secure alert notification system, which will allow officers to send text messages to registered users.
