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Volume 137, Number 17 — Locally owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Marge Sebastian
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Trustees select new Winters JUSD superintendent Winters JUSD Press Release
Courtesy photo
Residents from four homes located along Dry Creek Lane were evacuated due to the proximity of the fire.
Winters Fire seeks information about open field grass fire By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Winters Fire Department was dispatched to a reported grass fire in the open field across from the 700 block on Taylor Street on May 16 at 1:42 p.m. Fire Chief Brad Lopez said the grass fire was being driven by strong southwest winds at approximately 10-15 mph. He structures along Dry Creek Lane were in immediate threat and in the fires path, which triggered a second alarm response of mutual aid agencies. Responding agencies included West Plainfield FPD, Dixon Fire, Vacaville FD, Vacaville FPD, Davis Fire, UCD Fire, Madison Fire and Woodland Fire. “Our immediate priority was life safety and structure defense. We did initiate the evacuation of four residential homes along the westside of Dry Creek Lane until the fire department could bring the fire
under control,” Lopez told the Express. According to Lopez, approximately 1.5 acres were burned. There were no injuries or damage to any structures. However, a power pole and fence post were damaged in the fire. PG&E was requested to respond due to a power pole being impacted. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. WFD is asking if anyone has information relating to this incident to please contact them at 530-795-4131. With fire season here, Lopez advises residents to provide a 100 foot clearance of dry vegetation around homes and structures. “This was a fast moving fire and fortunately the fire department was able to quickly intervene and prevent homes from potentially burning,” Lopez said. “Had this fire been in the middle of summer with elevated temperatures and low humidity we might not have been as fortunate.”
Index Features ........................ B-1 Classifieds ................... B-4
Weather Date
Rain
High
Low
May 13
.02”
73˚
49˚
May 14 TRACE
68˚
53˚
May 15 TRACE
74˚
50˚
May 16
.00
82˚
55˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-4
May 17
.03”
85˚
58˚
May 18
.18”
79˚
51˚
Opinion ......................... B-5
May 19
.05”
72˚
48˚
Real Estate ................... B-6
Rain for week: 0.28 in. Season’s total: 13.37 in. Last sn. to date: 38.93 in.
Community .................. A-3
Athlete of the Week..... B-7
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/19. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
The Winters Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees has announced that Diana Jiménez, Chief Academic Officer for the Planada Elementary School District, was selected as the new Superintendent of Schools on April 24, and her employment and contract approval will take place on May 21. Her start date is July 1. The Board of Trustees selected Jiménez for her broad and established instructional leadership. “Diana Jiménez is passionate about student success, as her track record demonstrates student-based decisions supporting academic success”, said Winters JUSD Board President Rudolph Muldong. “The Board looks forward to welcoming Jiménez to our district and to the families that we serve.” Jiménez has 32 years of ex-
Courtesy photo
perience in public education and has worked in a variety of school settings from elementary school to community college. Jiménez began her career in education as a teacher’s aide. She continued to serve in an array of positions, including language assessor, English Language Arts teacher, master teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, principal
and Director of Secondary School Support for the Stanislaus County Office of Education. She moved on to become the Director of Educational Services for the South Monterey County Joint Union High School District. For the past two years, Jiménez has been the Chief Academic Officer for the Planada Elementary School District. The Planada Elementary School District is a K-8 district of approximately 850 students. The district operates a K-5 elementary school and a middle school. Nearly 50 percent of the students participate in the English Learner Program. Planada is a rural, unincorporated community of almost 4,000 located nine miles east of Merced. The area is largely agricultural. As the Chief Academic Officer, Jiménez provides district leadership in areas such as
County officials discuss next steps for indoor dining, shopping By Anne Ternus-Bellamy McNaughton Media
Rodney Orosco/Winters Express
A crew of county and city workers and volunteers helped to clean up an encampment along Putah Creek.
Homeless intervention removes camp, offers services to inhabitants By Rodney Orosco Staff Writer It took a back hoe, a front loader, a large dump truck, a smaller dump truck and five hard-working men a little over an hour to remove a homeless camp along the south side of Putah Creek, Friday, May 15. The camp had been on the Solano County Sheriff’s radar for a while and despite citizen complaints, nothing could be done about the 10-12 people who would use the area to sleep and as an occasional drug den, Deputy Sheriff Dale P. Matsuoka said. “State law says it is not a crime to camp in
public,” Matsuoka explained. However, Matsuoka made it his job to change the nature of the camp, he said. Actually, the county supervisors made it his job when they created the position of Homeless Intervention Deputy this past February. Once he received the job and his marching orders, Matsuoka began paying visits to the tent camp across the river from the Winters Community Center. “I started showing up, offering the people services, and suddenly the majority
See CAMP, Page 2
Yolo County planned to submit new documents to the state on Tuesday attesting to having met all of the public health benchmarks now required to reopen additional businesses, including indoor dining at restaurants and indoor shopping at retailers currently limited to curbside pickup and delivery. That new attestation would follow on the heels of one rejected by the state because the county had not met a key benchmark previously required: no deaths in the county within the last two weeks.
By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Superintendent Todd Cutler noted that Governor Gavin Newsom’s suggestion that schools begin in July has sparked questions within the school community. Winters Joint Unified School District intends to follow their original schedule. “We are planning to begin school as always have,” Cutler said. “We are preparing for distance learning or a hybrid model if that is what is allowed.”
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However, the state changed its epidemiological benchmarks on Monday, focusing on recent hospitalizations rather than recent deaths, and on those counts Yolo County “passes with flying colors,” according to county public health director Brian Vaughn. Vaughn expressed confidence to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning that the state will approve that attestation in the next day or two. But that doesn’t mean Yolo County restaurants and retail shops will be opening their doors to customers in a day or two.
See YOLO, Page 5
School Board News Briefs
WINTERS AGGREGATE
Restaurant: 795.4503
See SELECT, Page 2
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4499 Putah Creek Rd.
(530) 795-2994
ters JUSD Nutrition Services Director, reported to Trustees that her team was serving about 3,000 meals per week during the school closure. Which is down from the 5,000 usually served during the active school year. As of the May 7 Board of Trustees meeting, Winters JUSD had served a total of 19,348 meals. Olsen said a current challenge they are taking on is how to provide nutritional services to families who are unable to attend the lunch drop off due to not having access to a
See SCHOOL, Page 5
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