enterprise THE DAVIS
SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 2022
Mask dispute cancels school board meeting By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer
Yolo Superior Court Judge Peter Williams welcomes Plainfield Elementary School’s debate team and their teacher, Christy Johnson, to his courtroom Wednesday. Lauren Keene/ Enterprise photo
Judge looks to sharpen minds Debate program offers life skills By Lauren Keene Enterprise staff writer WOODLAND — Is screen time beneficial for children under age 12? Just ask the fifth and sixth graders of Plainfield Elementary School’s debate team. That was their topic for a mock debate held last week
before Yolo Superior Court Judge Peter Williams, who recently resurrected a pilot program he launched two years ago. His goal: to introduce more young students to public speaking, a skill he says he struggled with in his youth. “Kids just don’t have the
and it all went away,” he said. As schools went back into session last spring, Williams sought to give the program another shot. Plainfield Elementary in rural Woodland took him up on his offer. Sixth-grade teacher Christy Johnson, who heads up Plainfield’s debate team of fifth and sixth-graders, said the experience not only has taught them
See DEBATE, Back page
See DISPUTE, Page A6
City Council to resume in-person meetings May 10
County rescinds quarantine order
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy
Enterprise staff writer
Enterprise staff writer More than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic forced City Council meetings into a remote format, the city plans to resume in-person meetings on May 10. “(It’s) long-awaited, I know,” City Manager Mike Webb said during Tuesday’s remote council meeting. “We’re going on over two years now,” he noted. “We now have a target date of returning to inperson City Council meetings May 10. Our team is working to make sure everything is in place (for)
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opportunity to practice public speaking nowadays. I didn’t when I was younger,” Williams said. “The earlier that kids can start will serve them well in the future.” Williams started the program early 2020 by reaching out to the Woodland, Davis and West Sacramento school districts to find schools interested in forming debate teams. Six schools took part in the project, “and then Covid hit
The regularly scheduled Davis School board meeting on Thursday, April 7, abruptly ended before it got started due to a disruption in the audience. Much like in the beginning of every board meeting, Board President Tom Adams was about to take roll when he spotted members of the audience not wearing masks. He promptly asked them to put on masks and was met with refusal. This refusal, however, comes in the wake of California lifting its mask mandates as of March 1. Adams asked multiple times for the audience members to put on masks, but to no avail. Subsequently, he addressed a disgruntled audience member directly, who then began shouting back their noncompliance. After multiple bangs of the gavel and failed attempts at de-escalation, the meeting was put into a recess. Minutes later, the board reconvened and announced that the meeting would be adjourned due to the disruption. This follows a similar disruption about 10 minutes into the March 17
INDEX
Business ���������� A5 Forum ��������������B2 Op-Ed ��������������B3 Classifieds ������B6 Living ����������������B4 Sports ��������������B1 Comics ������������B7 Obituaries �������� A4 The Wary I �������� A2
that return to our community chambers with the council.” As was the case prior to the onset of the pandemic, meetings will be streamed online and recorded, and those recordings posted on the city web site. Meetings are also broadcast live on cable TV, “so folks will still be able to access the meetings via multiple methods, live and recorded,” said Webb. Still to be determined is how public comment will be handled. Currently members of
See MEETINGS, Back page
WEATHER Today: Sunny and breezy. High 74. Low 45.
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Effective immediately, Yolo County residents who have been in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19 and have no symptoms are no longer required to quarantine, regardless of vaccination status, unless they live or work in a high-risk setting. Such settings include homeless and emergency shelters, healthcare settings, correctional facilities and longterm care facilities. Previously, unvaccinated individuals were expected to quarantine following a close contact. Exposed individuals should still get tested for
COVID-19 three to five days after an exposure and wear a mask around others for 10 days, but can continue to work, go to school, and participate in normal activities as long as they have no symptoms, according to a statement from the county announcing the mass quarantine order was being rescinded. The mass isolation order remains in effect, requiring isolation for individuals who have tested positive. “I am rescinding the local quarantine order in order to reduce confusion created by having different guidance at the local and state levels,” said Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. “The change recognizes that
COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, with transmission levels decreasing and safe, effective vaccines available.” As the incubation period of circulating variants of the virus has grown shorter (now averaging two to three days), quarantine has become less useful, with many exposed individuals receiving notification of an exposure after their incubation period ended, Sisson said. ———— Safe, effective vaccines may be available, but not all eligible Yolo County residents are taking advantage of them.
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