The Davis Enterprise Wednesday, April 13, 2022

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Sports

The Hub

Aggie quarterbacks building camaraderie

Living

DHS arts, literary mag returns

— Page B8

Humble Pie: Putting the picnic back in Picnic Day — Page A3

— Page B1

enterprise THE DAVIS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2022

School Board picks Best as superintendent By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer

Richard Barrera, a board trustee at San Diego Unified, the state’s second largest district, said families were moving out of the district, especially those in gentrifying areas, resulting in disproportionate losses for schools in those

Although the rescheduled Davis school board meeting on Monday, April 11, was brief, big news was announced as Interim Superintendent Matt Best will lose the “interim” in his official title. After eight months of a painstaking, nationwide search and thorough consideration, it was BEST announced in the Will take over beginning of the as permanent meeting that Matt superintendent Best will be the new district superintendent. “I’m happy to announce that in terms of the superintendent search, Interim Superintendent Matt Best is our top choice,” said school board President, Tom Adams at the meeting. “His contract will be finalized at the April 21st meeting of the DJUSD board.” The announcement was met with applause that filled the big conference room at the DJUSD administrative building. A UCD alumnus, Best has been around Davis since 1995. Since then, he’s been a student teacher at Davis

See ENROLLMENT, Page A6

See BEST, Page A6

Students gather in new classroom in pre-pandemic days at Burnt Ranch Elementary School in Trinity County in 2019. Dave Woody/ CalMatters photo

Public-school enrollment drops below 6 million By Joe Hong CalMatters For the first time since the start of the century, California has fewer than 6 million students attending public schools. According to new data released by the California Department of Education, enrollment in public schools continues to drop more quickly than it did before the pandemic, stirring fears of more

budget cuts and long-term financial instability for schools. Among key takeaways from the newly released data: n Statewide enrollment has dropped by more than 110,000 students to 5,892,240 during the current school year, a 1.8% dip from last year but less steep than the 2.6% decline during the first year of the pandemic. n Charter school enrollment also is down for the first time since at least 2014.

n Kindergarten enrollment is up, though nowhere near prepandemic levels. n And 9,000 more students are enrolled in private schools, a 1.7% increase, but that doesn’t explain much of the exodus from public schools. For the better part of a decade, public school enrollment was in steady decline in California mostly due to a lack of affordable housing, education officials across the state

said. When the pandemic reached California, early job losses collided with that trend, making the decline worse.

Supervisors back drug-treatment bill By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to support legislation that would allow for a secured drug treatment facility to be established in the county where felony offenders could be sent for substance abuse treatment rather than serving a prison sentence. This is the second goround for the legislation, now AB 1928, which was overwhelmingly supported by state lawmakers in 2021 but was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newson, who echoed the concerns of opponents that the treatment would be coercive. Assemblyman Kevin

VOL. 124 NO. 44

INDEX

Classifieds ������B3 Green Page ������ A8 Obituary ���������� A6 Comics ������������B4 The Hub ������������B1 Sports ��������������B8 Forum ��������������B2 Living ���������������� A3 The Wary I �������� A2

McCarty, D-Sacramento, introduced a modified version of the bill earlier this year which would expand the pilot project to include not just Yolo County but also San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties. If approved, all three counties would be authorized to establish pilot projects offering secured residential treatment for individuals suffering from substance use disorders who have been convicted of drug-motivated felony crimes. Those individuals would be given the option of participating in the treatment program, rather than be incarcerated, at the time of sentencing. Yolo County supervisors

WEATHER

supported McCarty’s previous bill and voted 4-1 on Tuesday to do so again, with SAYLOR Supervisor Yolo County Don Saylor supervisor of Davis again voting against sending a letter of support for the measure. Saylor said he agreed that “there’s a need to do something, we need more tools,” but that he was compelled the “by the universe of people who work in treatment coming forward with opposition.”

See BILL, Page A6

UC Davis prevails in PETA lawsuit over monkeys By Caleb Hampton Enterprise staff writer UC Davis has prevailed in a civil lawsuit brought by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the campus announced Monday in a press release. PETA filed suit in January 2019, seeking to compel disclosure under the California Public Records Act of research video recordings made at UC Davis’ California National Primate Research Center. “Our tax dollars are being used to terrorize infant monkeys, and UC Davis is trying to keep it

secret,” PETA senior vice president Kathy Guillermo said in a 2019 press release. “The university is obligated under the law to release this video footage, and they’re fighting it because they apparently don’t want the public to see these monkeys’ misery.” On Jan. 11, 2022, the Superior Court of California in Yolo County ruled that releasing the videos would not serve the public interest and would undermine the academic freedom of the researchers. The court also determined that releasing the

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See MONKEYS, Page A6

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