Outdoor exercise, care for the children and elderly, and more
By Roberta Millstein
Last night at around 10:30 PM, the Office of the Governor of California tweeted that there was new information available for the Governor’s Stay-at-home rule. You can find those online at: https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/
For example, many people had wondered whether they could still go outside for exercise. The webpage clarifies that:
Schools to stay closed indefinitely
By Colin Walsh
On March 20, 2020 the Davis School District announced that they, "expect DJUSD schools to remain closed after Spring Break and for an undetermined amount of time." You can find the announcement here.
The District is working to address the ongoing education at a time when kids can not physically attend school. they are "focused on the development of an equitable, accessible, and innovative solution to serve all of our students’ academic growth and social-emotional needs through a Distance Learning model."
The District announced, "the launch of our first Phase One of continued learning with a new Learning@Home website for students and families with links to educational websites and our core curriculum that can be accessed voluntarily. These resources are not designed to replace or replicate classroom instruction; they were compiled to build a habit for learning at home, keep students engaged and curious in learning, and provide DJUSD with time to design a thoughtful Distance Learning plan for all District teachers and students, which will launch on April 13, 2020."
The district is also making efforts to provide computers and internet connection to students who do not have access at home. "If you have a computer that your child can use at home, please provide that access. Our Instructional Technology team has a plan in place to provide Chromebooks and Internet Access to students who lack these resources."
The District is providing 3 options for students that do not have computers:
Option #1
Fill out the Chromebook Loaner Request Form. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below.
Option #2
Call the DJUSD Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117. Leave a voicemail with your full name, student's full name, and a contact phone number or email. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below.
Option #3
Show up to the pick up location during the hours below, fill out our Chromebook information and agreement form and be on your way. Please bring your child’s DJUSD Student ID #.
Pick up locations will be at Harper, Montgomery and Patwin. more details can be found here.
The District is also making arrangements for students who do not have at home internet access. They request families of students in need of internet access call, "DJUSD’s Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117 and leave a voicemail with your name and contact information. A DJUSD representative will contact you within 24 hours."
The District also urges anyone who knows of a student that needs a computer or internet access to also call and inform the district.
DJUSD will als be providing tech support for DJUSD Chromebooks, just call Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117.
The District announcement includes no information for specialized instruction for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) but does promise that, "DJUSD is committed to providing appropriate resources and strategies focused on making distance learning both engaging and accessible for all English Learners and students with disabilities. Our teachers will receive professional development on designing distance learning and instruction with all learners’ needs in mind (Universal Design for Learning)."
(From press release) The sixth annual Davis Pride Festival, originally scheduled for Sunday, May 17, is postponed. For a new date, organizers are considering a Sunday in September or October.
The decision to delay the event is prompted by public health officials’ guidance on preventing spread of the novel coronavirus. The move follows steps recommended to organizers of large public gatherings to ensure the health of the larger community.
By Don Saylor
(From press release) Valley Clean Energy (VCE) is our local community choice energy program serving electricity customers in the communities of Woodland, Davis and unincorporated Yolo County. The purpose of VCE is to provide customers with higher levels of renewable electricity, encourage energy efficiency and local generation, and offer rates that are competitive with PG&E, the region’s investor-owned electricity provider.
Decisions on rates, energy resources, programs and finances are made locally, in public, by a local board composed of people elected by the residents of our communities.
Most electricity customers in our area have been receiving their electricity from VCE since June 2018. Their monthly bills display VCE’s electric generation charges and PG&E’s electricity delivery charges.
Based on changes to state regulations, the VCE board decided to delay until 2020 the enrollment of solar customers who had installed solar panels on their homes or businesses before we launched in June 2018. In 2020, these energy-conservation pioneers will begin receiving their electric power from our local agency.
Being a bit of an information addict, I subscribe to several newspapers/journals and read lots others in the library or online. One paper I do subscribe to is the Washington Post which has added quite a few reporters in the last couple of years. They do a particularly good job of following health and public health issues.
So, I read this article which came out about 4 p.m. (Pacific Time) yesterday about the national CV death toll ………with some great interest:
The Washington Post folks do a daily count which they keep updated and just sent me an email answer to this question: "Have there been any confirmed deaths of CHILDREN from CV?"
Their answer: NO.
So, no deaths to children…. which further reinforces the likelihood that they are "the perfect transmitters"…… they get the bug, they carry the bug, they feel no symptoms or few, they don't die from it and therefore are fully available to then transmit the bug…. increasingly to their grandparents and other caregivers who are taking care of them now that school is out.
Dispersing them from school, especially in the absence of test data, may have been a less than optimal choice (being nice here).
Again, these are challenging times especially with the lack of testing data and I am confident everyone is acting with the best interest of the kids and families in mind.
It is just my opinion that maybe that decision should be re-visited…..
John Troidl
But Wednesday and Saturday Farmers Market will continue
(From Press release) The Davis Farmers Market announced Monday it will delay the start of Picnic in the Park until at least May 13.
The decision to postpone the extended Wednesday evening hours is prompted by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recommendation on Sunday to eliminate public gatherings of more than 50 people for a minimum of eight weeks, to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. On Monday, President Trump said the same for gatherings of 10 or more.
Yolo County Issues Shelter in Place Order to Reduce Spread of COVID-19
(Woodland, CA) - On March 18, the Yolo County Public Health Officer issued a countywide health order for residents to shelter in place from March 19 to April 7, unless extended by the Public Health Officer. This order limits activity, travel and business functions to only the most essential needs and is intended to slow the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), protect those most vulnerable to the disease, and preserve local healthcare capacity.
“These are extremely difficult times. The COVID-19 virus continues to spread around the world and in our local communities,” said Yolo County Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman. “We need to do everything we can to protect our most vulnerable people from the harmful impacts of the virus.”
The shelter-at-home order follows increasing transmission of COVID-19 in California counties, including four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Yolo County to date that acquired the disease through travel and community transmission. In response, communities in Yolo County have implemented mitigation efforts to slow the spread of the disease, such as encouraging social distancing and cancelling non-essential gatherings. A similar health officer order was released among the bay area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties as well as the City of Berkeley on March 16 and is in line with best practices seen from health officials around the world.
So, we are ALL dealing (even those in denial) with the corona virus threat. And I believe that everyone is trying to be as conscientious as possible in our decision making. Which is a bit of a challenge given that we have so very, very, very little testing data to know "how big this thing is" and that includes we lack community level data regarding who has the virus.
Even with the lack of large scale data which has been done in South Korea, we seem reasonably confident in some "knowns":
So, work with me on this one. If you think there is a flaw in my thinking, please bring it up. (But do your homework and think rigorously, I have been working on this and run it past some very smart people who think I might have a good point here.).
If the most vulnerable are our seniors and the least harmed are our children…. and the children can be/are unwitting transmitters…. then when we look at the decision to suspend school we have two main options:
It is also novel because I don't think that this situation…. send the kids home for a month has ever happened before. No big deal if it has, I just don't recall it in 30+ years in Davis.
Ok, so it looks like the School District, at the urging of the Yolo County Public Health Department chose Option 2: Send the kids home. This seemed reasonable, the desire was to implement "social distancing" which would theoretically "flatten the case curve" which would delay, but not reduce, the incidence of illness.
But theoretically is theoretically and we live in the real world, don't we?
So, how does this work? Let's examine a "theory of action" or take it step by step in the implementation phase.
So, with essentially no warning or time for preparation, the parents are told "Take 'em, they're yours for the next month" and last Saturday received their children for the duration…. estimated to be one month or until April 12th. How are the families going to manage this?
The families that I talked to are scrambling. Some families have a stay at home parent (Mom or Dad) who can step up to have the kids full time (and don't think that this new situation is an easy adjustment or stress free). In some families, both parents are working but they have a baby sitter for at least some of the time the kids will now be at home. For some families, their kids are old enough and responsible enough to be left home alone (some estimates are that there are approximately two families in Davis that meet this criteria). And for the rest of the families, the strategy is "call in the grandparents"!
Across the US almost 40% of grandparents already care for their grandchildren and the percentage is expected to go up during this corona virus crisis. (https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241226456.html)
So, let me ask you…. and I'd love to be wrong….. did we just create the circumstances to give our seniors in this community the MAXIMUM exposure to the corona virus by dismissing the kids from school before any of them could be tested? Instead of "flattening the curve" have we, by spreading out the kids into the community and in heightened contact with their grandparents, actually accelerated the curve?
I am sure that all of you have seen the kids in Davis out and about… and of course spending more time at home. Is the "law of unintended consequences" gonna come and bite us on the rear end as our elders, with this heightened exposure from the kids who have been sent home from school, come down with this disease in increasing numbers?
All thoughtful comments, reflections, and even rebuttals are welcome. I'm just concerned and wanted to share that with you.
Regards,
John
Dear Davis City Council,
Thank you for considering declaring a local emergency. I am fully in support of that. I am writing to strongly urge that you add (something like) the following to the “Proclamation of a Local Emergency in Response to COVID-19”:
“The City will not take action on any major development projects during the emergency, including but not limited to the Aggie Research Campus (ARC).”
My reasons are as follows:
Council asked to give broad and ill-defined powers to City Manager
By Colin Walsh
The City of Davis has announced a “special meeting” for tomorrow evening to address the COVID-19 virus and local situation. The agenda contains only 3 action items:
The proclamation of emergency grants considerable authority to the City Manager.
The City Manager or their designee is to be the head of the local emergency response and they will have latitude to purchase supplies as needed and to “to ensure the continued operations of essential city services, including but not limited to police, fire, water, streets and highways, wastewater, or solid waste services.”
“The City Manager is further authorized to take any necessary actions to approve plans and specifications; to award and execute construction contracts, amendments, and equipment purchase contracts where sufficient funds have already been budgeted in appropriate programs for these purposes or where appropriate funds can be identified; to approve subdivision improvements, final maps, and parcel maps; to accept modify, or quit claim easements; to apply for or accept grants, and to approve budget adjustments.”
This ordinance gives the City Manager latitude to address the potential looming COVID-19 health crisis, by giving the ability to approve emergency development without council approval, like a new hospital for example.
The language “to approve plans and specifications,” and “to approve subdivision improvements, final maps, and parcel maps; to accept modify, or quit claim easements,” also seems to give the City Manager the authority to advance new non-emergency development, like new apartment complexes, housing subdivisions, or business developments.
[edit 3/17/2020 12:15am] – much of the language cited in the paragraph above "The City Manager is further authorized… budget adjustments." is largely the same as resolutions the council passes when they take a summer recess, for example this one from the summer of 2018 and actually grants fairly limited power to the City manager as it relates to new development.
What is most notable here is instead this language, "In order to reduce the number of necessary public City Council meetings." The City Council will be considering whether or not to essentially take a recess or at least to meet less for an undefined period of time. Usually recess resolutions like this have a defined end date, but in the case of the emergency resolution, no end date is defined. Instead, the City Managers extra authorities only ends when the council votes to end the declaration of emergency.
Thank you to Council Member Frerichs for explaining some of this. [end edit]
Davisite 