What’s good, Lookout friends? It’s Thursday, April 11, and Santa Cruz County has another day of sun and 70s-plus before a shift in the weather pattern cools us down Friday and brings weekend rain chances.
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Hillary Ojeda gets us caught up with a controversy in Pajaro Valley Unified School District, where students and teachers have been pushing back on a decision by the board of trustees not to renew the contract of a consulting firm that helped guide the district’s ethnic studies curriculum. A new superintendent starts May 1, and she says she plans to do her due diligence on the issues.
In another blow to the local fishing industry, there will again be no commercial salmon season this year in California. That was the word from a regional fisheries council Wednesday, and comes after not only the 2023 season was canceled but also after the most recent Dungeness crab season was ended a month earlier than usual.
A son of the San Lorenzo is set for a return to his old stomping grounds, and Wallace Baine catches up with country singer-songwriter Jesse Daniel ahead of Friday’s show at The Catalyst.
I got a postcard in the mail about this just Wednesday (as perhaps you have), and now in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, the current foreperson of Santa Cruz County’s civil grand jury details her experience and urges fellow citizens to follow in her footsteps. “It’s an amazing and often underappreciated piece of local democracy,” Kim Horowitz writes.
Headlines? Headlines.
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New PVUSD superintendent will ‘listen and learn’ before deciding on ethnic studies contract controversy
Incoming Pajaro Valley Unified School District superintendent Heather Contreras says she plans to do her due diligence on whether the district should reconsider a controversial decision not to renew its contract with a consultant who helped guide the creation of its ethnic studies curriculum. Many students and teachers say the district has taken too long to reconsider that decision. Hillary Ojeda reports.
On the road and at home, at the same time: Jesse Daniel plays Santa Cruz
Austin-based country singer-songwriter Jesse Daniel, originally from Ben Lomond, has a new album coming in June and continues his West Coast tour with a stop Friday at The Catalyst, an annual visit that always feels like home. Wallace Baine checks in with a son of the San Lorenzo Valley.
DAILY DIGEST
It’s a busy Thursday around Lookout, and Wallace Baine’s latest newsletter covering Santa Cruz County arts and entertainment, replete with recommendations, is among what’s still out there. Sign up here for Weekender and the rest of Lookout’s newsletters, plus breaking news alerts via email and text. You social media mavens can keep up with our local coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Threads (just, you know, be civil).
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A pleasant day to one and all, and please join me back here Friday.
Will McCahill