GOOD NEWS. REAL NEWS. HOMETOWN NEWS.
SINCE 1916 Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CV, NO. VIII
THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
atascaderonews.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
BLUEPRINT FOR A SAFER ECONOMY
GOVERNMENT
EDUCATION
Newsom Visits Cuesta College Vaccination Clinic Hours After County Moves to Red Tier
District Confirms Reopening of Secondary Schools on Mar. 8
Supervisors Discuss Water Resources and Amendments
District talks vaccination priority list
Penny Borenstein, County Health Officer, announces move into the red tier and loosening of restrictions
By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com ATASCADERO — The Atascadero Unified School Board of Trustees came together on Tuesday night and confirmed that Atascadero Secondary Schools would be reopening on Monday for in-person education for students and families that choose to return on campus in the last parent survey. Assistant Superintendent Curt Eichperger also covered the topic of vaccines, reporting that the local school district’s in the county would be receiving 10 percent of the allotment to vaccinate their employees. The meeting began with a word from the President of the Atascadero District Teachers Asso-
By MELISSA MATTSON melissa@atascaderonews.com S A N LU I S O B I S P O COUNTY — The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors met for a regularly scheduled meeting on Mar. 2 at 9 a.m. The Board started with approving the consent agenda, which was approved 5-0. The next item for discussion was the COVID-19 update from County Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein. Borenstein explained the accelerated progression into the Red Tier and what new changes that brings, including all schools of all grades being opened. “Obviously, COVID is still with us, but I’m here with a lot of good news,” stated Borenstein. Borenstein went on to say that there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of cases. While still high, they are nowhere near the spike of just a month ago. In addition, the positivity rate has come down to 3.2 percent. The number of individuals in the hospital is 19, which is the first time in a while that it has been below 20. Read more about this in “SLO County Moves to Red Tier Effective Mar. 3” Additionally, she spoke on the current numbers of vaccinated individuals, the process to get on the list, and that some pharmacies were now able to offer vaccines, currently only in Arroyo Grande, but as more vaccines become available, she expects to see this increase. Following this, the Board moved on to submittal of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 County and State Budget update and the Infrastructure and CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
California Governor Gavin Newsom (second from left) visited the Cuesta College COVID vaccination clinic on Tues. Mar. 2. Joining Governor Newsom from left to right was County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg (District 3), Cuesta College President Jill Stearns, San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon, County Supervisors Bruce Gibson (District 2), and Lynn Compton (District 4). Photo by Camille DeVaul. Full story on A5
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JOURNALISM
Young Journalists Produce The Bengal Bugle
San Benito Elementary School starts student newspaper club By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com
ATASCADERO — There is a new monthly newspaper in Atascadero that is starting to catch readers’ attention. It’s named the “Bengal Bugle,” produced by a student newspaper club at San Benito Elementary School of 12 aspiring journalists and graphic artists and assisted by fourthgrade teacher Kaylie Edgar. The team club is made up of fourth and fifth graders and is genuinely a studentdriven organization from selecting stories all the way
down to editing. Cooper Cohen, Audrey Warren, and Karis Dadson make up the fifth grades in the club and are joined by Autumn Anderson, Alyssa Heredia, Charlotte Barazza, Luke Rigby, Coen Myracle, Bear King, Landon Chubon, Valerie Hubbard and Ariana Gomez who are in fourth grade. The newspaper began in January of 2021 as part of an idea that Ms. Edgar had to help the kids feel more connected to the school while dealing with distance learning. What began as a fun idea was quickly grabbed by the excited students who now sacrifice their lunch breaks once a week to meet and discuss their next issue and prepare for virtual publication.
“It was something I had been thinking about doing; before this, I taught second grade, so this was my first year with the upper grades, which are a lot more capable of writing,” Edgar told the Atascadero News. “This is something that I have always wanted to do, and with distance learning and students being separated from each other, it seemed like there was no better time to start. Now they have become more connected with what is happening at the school, and it provides something for really our whole school to feel connected together.” Not only does the Bengal Bugle produce great articles with insight into how students CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
Four of the young journalists producing the Bengal Bugle. Top left, Autumn Anderson, top right, Bear King, bottom left, Charlotte Barazza, botttom right, Alyssa Heredia. Contributed photos
YOUTH SPORTS
Prep Sports Spring into Action After a Pandemic Hibernation North County Football teams have begun holding practices and weekend two-a-days By CONNOR ALLEN connor@atascaderonews.com
ened season of around five or six games. Track and field, baseball, and softball will also be returning to the field soon as local high schools will soon be full of athletes from sun up to sun down as they try and accommodate multiple sports that use the same fields during the spring.
Atascadero High School
Atascadero High School Boys varsity cross country team takes a warm-up lap before the race on Saturday morning. Photo courtesy of Roger Warnes
HIGH SCHOOL
NORTH COUNTY — Sports are back in the North County, and with each passing day, it seems a new one is kicking off the start of their season. Friday afternoon, at Atascadero High School, the Greyhounds and Bearcats dove into swim season with a friendly dual meet to knock the rust off. While swim is just beginning its season, other sports like tennis and cross country are nearing some important games in their league schedule. North County Football teams have begun holding practices and weekend two-a-days as they prepare for a short-
SPORTS
COVID-19 UPDATE
The Arroyo Grande boys took each of the top five places in the race on Saturday, followed by Atascadero sophomore Kyle Shatwell in sixth place with a time of 10:30.61. Tyson Rigby came in second for the Hounds and eighth overall with a time of 10:38.45. Faith Rocha was the only Greyhound able to crack the top five against Arroyo Grande and came in fourth with a time of 12:18.41. One of the performances of the day went to freshman Kelsie Rigby who finished seventh and set a personal record with a time of 13:00.80. Rigby was followed by fellow Greyhound Anna Archibald, who finished eighth with a time of 13:05.22.
The Greyhounds swim team held their first competition of the year on Friday afternoon when they welcomed the Bearcats for a dual meet. Atascadero swam hard, but Paso Robles came out with a victory for both the boys and girls. The Bearcats boys team beat the Hounds 136-13 while the girls won 102-65. Atascadero’s cross country teams were also in action this past weekend Templeton High School and traveled to Arroyo Grande to face The Templeton Eagles girls tennis team the Eagles. The two teams took on a is fully in the swing of things as they have two-mile course, but in the end, the played three matches already this season Eagles took home the victory in both the girl’s and boy’s races. CONTINUED ON PAGE A12
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2021 BEST OF RESULTS
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AHS PLANS FOR IN-PERSON BEARCATS AND GREYHOUNDS prom and graduation while holding many kick off their first competition since last outdoor events to end the year | A3 year with a swim meet | A3
SLO COUNTY MOVES TO RED TIER BEST OF NORTH SLO COUNTY allowing movie theaters, restaurants, and results are in! Check out the list of you museums to reopen at 25% capacity | A5 winning favorite businesses | B1
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