PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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VOL. 35, N0. 20
MAY 14, 2021
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
Trustee blasts . union recall effort
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Rep. Levin proposes offshore drilling ban. A3 El Corazon developer buys land for sports arena. A5 Several homeless evicted from voucher program. A8
First BlackTHE SDUHSD official VISTA sees ‘race NEWS problem’
CSUSM to hold in-person graduation ceremony. B1
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Fair board to explore plans for Horsepark
By Bill Slane
By Bill Slane
DEL MAR — The local equestrian community may be getting closer to answers regarding the future of Del Mar Horsepark after the 22nd District Agricultural Association announced its intent to present further plans for reopening after it was shut down in December 2020. The fair board has added a meeting to their schedule for June 8 and it is expected that a recommendation for Horsepark will be on the meeting’s agenda on the Friday prior to the meeting. “We’ll have the report going out on the Friday before and I would anticipate, I don’t mean to speak for the committee, but I would anticipate that a recommendation would be in that written document,” Del Mar Fairgrounds CEO Carlene Moore said. “That is the goal.” The issues related to Horsepark began in 2015 when the California State Water Resources Control Board adopted new permit requirements that included equestrian facilities greater than 499 horses. In September 2019, the fair board submitted a notice to the Regional Water Quality Control Board to enroll in a waiver which included the fair board’s intent to stop horse shows of more than 499 in an effort to not be classified as a large operation. The costs for this waiver were estimated at $3 million. After similar operations in Orange County were told by the regional board TURN TO HORSEPARK ON A13
ENCINITAS — The San Dieguito Faculty Association has collected enough signatures to force a special election for Trustee Area 5 of the San Dieguito Union High School District after Trustee Ty Humes was RANCHO appointed to the seat last month.SFNEWS “We’re going to continue to collect signatures for a little while longer to far exceed the bare minimum of 399,” SDFA President Duncan Brown told The Coast News. “We will wait for that to go through and then we would look to see who are the candidates who would
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CRIME WAVE: Carlsbad Police Lt. Kevin Lehan addresses roughly 150 residents during an event on May 8 in the Waters End neighborhood near Poinsettia Avenue and Avenida Encinas in Carlsbad. Over the past six months, several neighborhoods have experienced a significant increase in property crimes and expressed concerns with law enforcement and city officials about how to protect themselves. Story on A10. Photo by Steve Puterski
TURN TO HUMES ON A7
How San Marcos Unified spent its COVID-19 relief funds By Tigist Layne
SAN MARCOS – The San Marcos Unified School District (SMUSD) was one of the hundreds of school districts across the state that was awarded three rounds of COVID-19 relief funding targeted at helping reopen schools. According to public records and SMUSD, the district is scheduled to receive approximately $40 million in new COVID-19 relief funds as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021. This is in addition to the more than $20 million in relief funding the district already received in 2020. The American Rescue Plan was the latest in a series of federal aid packages, starting with the $2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020 and a $900 billion aid package in December 2020. Last month, SMUSD Interim Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Campbell said
SAN MARCOS Unified School District spent more than $6 million in federal financial aid on its employees. The school district is prepared to receive $40 million in new COVID-19 relief funds as part of the American Rescue Plan. File photo
the district had not yet received the $40 million in new federal aid, which is intended to be used primarily for reopening efforts. “While the spending
plan for the new stimulus funding is still a work in progress, the funding will support in-person instruction, accelerated learning to address learning gaps, supplemental learning
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supports, logistics support, and offset any general fund expenditures attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Campbell said. According to a review of public records by Voice
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of San Diego and a recent interim budget report by SMUSD, the district spent the majority of its first round of COVID-19 relief funds on its employees, spending more than $6 million on “personnel.” The data shows other school districts in the region spent their federal awards in a similar fashion. Of the CARES Act funding, public records show that SMUSD spent $2.5 million in “other” spending for crisis counseling, while only spending about $2 million on distance learning and $800,000 on personal protective equipment (PPE). In other words, the district spent 32% of its CARES Act funding on “other,” 27% on distance learning and 10% on PPE. Michael Taylor, SMUSD’s assistant superintendent of business services, sent this statement TURN TO COVID RELIEF ON A18
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