Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/356696
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS ExpectMore.Thathasbeenthemottothe past few years in Tehama County. The Red Bluff community is no different. The Expect More movement and the Red Bluff community have supported our public schools and will continue to do so. Alongwiththesupportit also expects results. Results that include all students are college and career ready. It ex- pects that education is pro- vided in a well-maintained and safe environment. It ex- pects that schools are working to eliminate the achievement gap and providing proper in- terventions for all its students. Finally, it expects that this is done in a professional and col- laborative approach using data to drive its decisions. The Red Bluff Joint Union High School District has devel- oped a strategic plan focused on three goals: 1) Ensure all students learn, 2) Build profes- sional collaboration and sup- portive relationships, and 3) Develop an effective data man- agement system. These goals are admirable and are needed to provide a road map for the future of our district and com- munity. As the new Superintendent of Red Bluff Joint Union High School District, I will be sup- portive of these goals. This fo- cus will allow us to move into the 21st century providing our students with the skills nec- essary to succeed. This means growing our CTE (Career Technical Education) and Ca- reer Pathways Program to pro- vide more opportunities for our students to make an early connection with a potential skill and career. It means pro- viding more A-G courses and AP courses that challenge our students and prepare them for a post-secondary education. It means providing a safe and positive environment with im- proved facilities to provide an effective learning environ- ment. Finally, it means pro- viding intervention for the at- risk students so they can enter the workforce with the social, emotional, and educational abilities to make them success- ful. These goals are outlined in the recent adoption of the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), which will be the district's service plan for the next three years and beyond. Accomplishing this is going to take an incredible amount of teamwork between admin- istration, staff, students, par- ents, and the community. For the High School, it will begin with its organizational health. Our first task will be to de- velop a leadership team that will work diligently to estab- lish a cohesiveness that will allow for clarity and articu- lation of the district's vision to its employees. The team needs to be committed to hold each other accountable for re- sults, which can only be estab- lished through building trust and mastering conflict. To en- sure all students learn, we must first build professional and supportive relationships. There may be differences of opinions and personalities; however, if the stakeholders have had a chance for input, only then can a true commit- ment come about. Of course, this will take time. I am reminded of the phrase, "You have to go slow to go fast," and this will be the case for RBJUHSD. How- ever, I am confident that we will soon be advancing to- wards accomplishing the goals established by the board, staff and community. I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the district, moving for- ward, learning from our mis- takes, and dealing with our conflict. We will Expect More from each other and make RB- JUHSD a top-notch district. I will end this with one simple challenge for us all; let's con- nect with "Every student, ev- ery day." ToddBroseissuperintendent of Red Bluff Joint Union High School District. Todd Brose Expectresults at Red Bluff Cartoonist's take I won't always be flogging the Tehama County Board of Su- pervisors ad infini- tum. They have fam- ily and friends and de- serve a certain amount of insulation from their inane decision to sup- port the separation of the state of California. But when we hear from others in opposition to the plan, their take on the matter shall be dutifully re- ported. For example, one as- tute observer put his opposi- tion to the 6 states Draper ab- surdity thusly: "California has two Senators back in Washing- ton DC who are perceived by many to be more than a little flaky. Why would Congress ap- prove the separation proposal and have 12 more flaky sena- tors to deal with from the west coast?" Why indeed? ••• Speaking of lack of commu- nication, are you hip to the emoji boom? It supposedly is changing the way we commu- nicate. A group called Unicode Consortium has standardized digital code so text can be ex- changed no matter the device or the language and they have coded about 250 emoji that will ensure an iPhone user can communicate with anyone in the world regardless of a lan- guage barrier. This all started with the little smiley face J symbol. Not that I would ever stoop to such abbreviations, but the King's English chal- lenged folks are using them more and more. L ••• In the DN 90 years ago, "A man named Firth was ob- served taking a saddle horse across the street from the fire department (on the cor- ner of Pine and Washington at the time) and trotting off with the steed. He returned to the same spot, dismounted, looked around, then prepared to mount again when appre- hended by undersheriff J.N. Froome." This is an endearing vignette from an earlier, more leisurely time. When I was a kid, that concrete hitching post, with an iron ring on it, was on the north east corner of the court house grounds. Wonder what happened to it? ••• Sport scribes, in an ec- stasy of anticipation prior to the Dodger/Giants games last week end ended their articles with "Can't wait!" Uh huh. Now the waiting is over and the explanations of how the dreaded Dodgers swept our boys begin. It's is all in the pitching, of course, but we landed Peavey, reunited him with his old boss Botchy when a Padre, and pitched him Sunday after- noon to no avail. Such a lovely game when all goes well. ••• A bit of trivia found in the DN tells us that in Kodiak, Alaska the average haircut costs $26.67. I get mine cut lo- cally for $10, but that may be a discount for my not having much hair to cut. However, this is just another reason to live in Red Bluff rather than in Kodiak, Alaska. Of course, when I was in the army sta- tioned in Whittier, Alaska and living off base in a trailer with the Missus and our Boxer Max, the former cut my hair for free. ••• If there was a just war, it was WWII in which Nazi con- quests came to a halt with the invasion by the allies on the 6th of June, 1944. As success- ful as it was, at the conclusion of the war, sources say "regis- tration units labored to con- firm the identities of more than 250,000 American dead in 450 cemeteries scattered across 86 countries, two thirds of them in Europe or the Med- iterranean. For an estimated 44,000 lost at sea, nothing could be done." Though the to- tal number of dead is formida- ble, I had no idea that we lost that many soldiers and sail- ors at sea. That's a stagger- ing number of bodies of which their loved ones had no hopes of recovering. ••• A bit of trivia: Paul Revere, just one of three riders dis- patched the night of April 18, 1775, never made it all the way to Concord…and he appar- ently never cried, "The British are coming!" However, he was the inspiration of a memorable poem by Longfellow. ••• That fine New Yorker writer Roger Angell, a fellow dog lover, dashed off a few Hai- kus in honor of his compan- ion Andy: "Hey, why the long face, Mr. Smooth Fox Terrier? Dog jokes never die. " And, "Stay down, crazy pooch. Stop jumping all over me. Enough love…O, K?" My Haiku for our new pup who is named All That Jazz: "Jazz. Good dog you are Always ready for a romp. A joy to have you." ••• I think we shall pass on the quiz for the time being. Not enough response. ••• An elderly lady decided to give herself a treat for her 80th birthday by staying overnight in a fancy hotel. When she checked out the next morn- ing, she was shocked to receive a bill for $250. She said to the clerk, "I know it's a nice ho- tel, but the rooms aren't worth $250 for just an overnight stay…and I didn't even have breakfast. I want to speak to the manager." The manager arrived and upon hearing of her com- plaint, reeled off a number of services provided by the ho- tel by saying "Madam, this ho- tel has an Olympic-sized pool available for guests." The lit- tle old lady protested that she had not used the pool, but he answered, "Well, it is here and you could have." He continued, "We have the best entertain- ers from all over the world and if you did not see them, you could have." No matter what amenity the manager mentioned, she re- plied, "But I didn't use them" and he replied that she could have. Finally, not getting any- where, she wrote out a check and gave it to the manager. The manager was shocked when he saw the check for $50. When he protested the small amount she replied, "That's the correct amount. I charged you $200 for sleeping with me." "But I didn't," exclaimed the manager. "Well, that's too bad," the old lady replied. "I was here and you could have." Robert Minch is a lifelong res- ident of Red Bluff, former col- umnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmur- ray@hotmail.com. I say Be kind for they know not what they do Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. It's good something is going in there, but such a waste to a beautiful dealership. Barbra Stark Casteel: On interest by U-Haul in the former Red Bluff Ford dealership That would be great however, that is a very large area for a U-Haul. Maybe they're going to relocate some part of their admin too... Jobs. Deborah Curtis Vercammen: On interest by U-Haul in the former Red Bluff Ford dealership Robert Minch According to the ideas- 4writers website, Aug. 12 marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. premiere of MGM's "The Wizard of Oz." Ah, the memories start flowing. For a few years, my father made a tradition of provid- ing pizza as my brother and I watched the annual CBS air- ing of the movie. The pizza par- tially made up for the fact that my family had only a black-and- white TV until I was 20. Yes, I grew up missing the breathtak- ing impact of the transforma- tion from Kansas to Oz and be- ing bewildered by the "horse of a different color" line. A farm silo on our route to the next town was always ex- citedly greeted as the Witch's castle. We had a Boston ter- rier named Pee Wee, so it was a big deal when the Cowardly Lion told Toto, "I'll get you anyway, Pee Wee." Alas, after the first few viewings, my childhood inno- cence was muted by "National Enquirer" coverage of the sad end of Judy Garland. In the mid-90s my wife and I were awed by the panoramic Emerald City display at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Ve- gas. I can almost remember when the phrases "I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore" and "Pay no atten- tion to the man behind the curtain" hadn't been done to death. Of course I'm not alone in treasuring the film. "Why don't they make movies like that anymore?" people often ask. Um, they do still make movies that take incredi- ble liberties with the book or that feature gaping plot holes. But beyond that, modern cul- ture would require too many changes if the movie were be- ing made today. Product placement would change "Follow The Yellow Brick Road" to "Follow The Yellow Brick Road, if you're too cheap to spring for GPS." Instead of visible wires holding up the Cowardly Li- on's tail, we would have spe- cial effects wizards holding up the breasts and chins of what- ever aging starlet used her connections to get the Doro- thy role. The Lion would ask for courage — until he realized that was a real buzzkill for raising campaign contribu- tions. The Scarecrow's quest for a brain would launch the whole zombie scene. ("Munch- kins: the fun-size treat.") The Wicked Witch of the West would escape, as drought-wary Dorothy hesi- tated to throw a bucket of wa- ter on the flaming scarecrow. DANNY TYREE Wizard of Oz at 75: Memories and might-have-beens OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, August 1, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4