Print
Canyon Crest Academy’s Amy Villanova will be honored with the 2020 California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Byron Hoyt/Don Schmeer Band Educator Award, the top award honoring excellence in instrumental education and performance in the state of California.
Amy Villanova
(Courtesy)
Eligible educators for the honor includes all music educators in public and private schools, colleges and universities in the state of California.
Villanova, the coordinator for Instrumental Music, Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Band at CCA, becomes the first educator within the San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) to be honored with the state’s Band Educator Award since its inception in 2000. She is just the third educator working in San Diego County to be selected for the award alongside Jerri Webb (2017, Westview High School) and Jeanne Christensen (2016, Mira Mesa High School).
Davison is a co-founder of the Parent Association of North County San Diego, an organization that includes school districts in Carlsbad, San Marcos, Oceanside, and Vista, as well as the San Dieguito Union High School District.
“What we ve noticed when we started talking to the parents in other districts is that we were all encountering the same problems,” Davison said.
Davison said that there has been pushback from teacher’s unions, concerns about a lack of substitute teachers, the purple tier and safety protocols being in place, all of which, he said, has been or can be addressed.
“In fact . one of our projects, as part of our association, is to hire substitutes and get parents to volunteer to be substitute teachers,” Davison said.
Print
Parents of students in five local school districts have joined forces to form the Parent Association of North County San Diego, to advocate for students’ needs amid the pandemic and beyond.
They organized in response to protracted school closures that began in March, with parents asking themselves how they could expedite the move from distance learning back to campus, said Ginny Merrifield, one of the organization’s founders.
“How can we influence decision-making so that kids can choose to go back to school now,” she said. “Out of that conversation, we needed to realize that we need to share our resources and our stories, and put a lens on the decisions to put students first.”
Print
NOTE: City councils and school boards have closed their meeting spaces to the public to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Public participation is possible by phone links to the meetings, livestreaming meetings and/or emailing comments. Visit each agency’s website for details, usually found under “Meetings” or “Agendas.”
CITY COUNCILS
CARLSBAD
The Carlsbad City Council is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday for a presentation on regional COVID-19 vaccination coordination. The council will consider using the Biotech and Beyond building as a regional point of distribution for vaccination and testing programs coordinated by emergency services agencies. The council will hear a presentation on the city’s Clean Energy Alliance power supply product offerings.
Biden and Democrats rush to reopen schools in new year as COVID-19 death toll climbs
Dozens of large urban school districts in the United States from San Diego, Tacoma and Denver to Chicago, Atlanta and Washington DC plan to restart in-person schooling in the opening weeks of the new year, even as health experts predict January will see a “surge on top of a surge” of the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed more than 340,000 US lives.
December has been the deadliest month since the pandemic began, with nearly 70,000 deaths over the past 30 days and a record 3,725 deaths on December 29, according to Johns Hopkins University. “The next couple of months are going to be awful,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN. “We re going to lose 3,000, maybe more people a day, probably until we’re well into February.”