••• The Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center opens May 15. “Interactive exhibits share important Chumash locations on the Central Coast along with details about basket weaving, tomol (Chumash plank canoe), members’ military service and more. Over the years, the tribe has amassed a collection of more than 24,000 objects.” —Noozhawk (photo by Patrick W. Price, courtesy the museum)
••• “Is Santa Barbara’s Homeless Day Center Too Successful for Its Own Good? FARO Center Stirs Serious Backlash over Unresolved Security Problems.” It’s at 621 Chapala Street (Cota/Ortega). —Independent
••• “The Santa Barbara Unified school district rescinded almost all 85 pink slips that were sent out to staff in March. […] In the district’s announcement, it said that it was able to avoid the large-scale layoffs but still meet its obligation to reduce its $9.4 million budget deficit. It did that by looking elsewhere for cuts.” —Independent
••• “The Isla Vista Food Co-op sent out an SOS on May 6, asking for donations to make up an impending $50,000 shortfall in mid-May. […] The Co-op is fundraising to hold on to the stores and their 28 employees, with the $50,000 goal to cover immediate expenses and debt payments, and a second goal of $500,000 to set the Co-op back on its feet by the end of the year.” —Independent
••• What’s on Broadway in Santa Barbara‘s 2025-26 slate: The Book of Mormon, Hadestown, Kinky Boots, and Pilobolus’s Other Worlds Collection. —Independent
••• The removal of the Los Patos offramp has long been part of the Highway 101 widening project, but I guess Noozhawk just caught wind of it. The news in the post is what might replace the offramp. At a Planning Commission meeting, a city staffer “presented a rendering of what the offramp would look like, showing a nicely paved driveway for service workers at the end of a cul-de-sac. ‘That is city land that is being used for basically for the lowest order of use I can think of, as an access driveway for service personnel that already has access,’ [commissioner Brian] Barnwell said.” […] The project also involves the removal of about 100 trees. Those trees will be replanted, although the city does not know where yet.”
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The sad truth about being a public school teacher in CA is that your employment contract is only for one school year. So, every spring, teachers go through the stress and angst of wondering whether or not they will get a contract for the following school year.
Teachers are shuffled around all the time — to a different subject, a different grade — depending on the needs of the district. It’s like a big chess game & the teachers are pawns.
I taught for 15 years (10 years in CA) and I know firsthand how incredibly stressful this is. On top of that, spring is when you are handling CA standardized testing, field trips, IEP meetings, conferences, wrapping up the school year and making sure students are well prepared for the next school year.
Unless I missed it, I guess the Anacapa/Gutierrez road modification near REI made IG but not the newsletter. I feel it’s one of the more fantastic and no brainer mods in years for so many reasons.
That’s in today’s Odds & Ends post, which will run in the email newsletter that comes out on Wednesday.