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Volume 137, Number 28 — Locally owned since 1884
The hometown paper of John & Debbie Lopez
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, August 5, 2020
School board moves first day of school to August 26 By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the proposed changes to the 2020-21 school year calendar at a Winters Joint Unified School District special board meeting conducted on July 30. Highlights of new changes from the approved revisions to the calendar include: • The students’ school start date was moved from Aug. 13 to Aug. 26. Students will return to school via distance learning in late August.
• Teachers will return to school on Aug. 18. • The last day of school for students is now scheduled for June 10. The two-week period will provide teachers and staff with an opportunity to receive training on the virtual educational platforms, professional development and tech support to help ensure they will be comfortable and confident delivering remote instruction when students begin virtual learning. Assistant Superintendent Sandra Ayón said the learn-
ing experience is site specific since each site has its set of platforms and goals to navigate through in a distance learning environment. “There’s a lot of new learning that has to happen. We want to make sure that they have time to learn it and practice it for a little bit,” Ayón said. In a message to families Superintendent Diana Jiménez said the calendar adjustment gives teachers and staff additional “runway” to prepare for the start of a unique school year due to limitations presented by the cur-
rent coronavirus pandemic. “The dedicated teachers in our District want to hit the ground running when they welcome students back to distance learning. In order to do so, we will use this time to deliver professional development, so all teachers can grow more comfortable with distance learning instruction tools and strategies, and share practices for ensuring student engagement,” Jiménez stated in the media release.
McNaughton Media The extent of the spread of COVID-19 in Yolo County is not only worse than it would appear from the latest numbers but actually has been worse than reported for a while, county supervisors were told Tuesday. Due to delays in receiving test results, as well as problems with the state’s electronic reporting system, cases have been significantly under-reported, according to Brian Vaughn, the county’s director of public health. In fact, Vaughn told supervisors, Yolo County was placed on the state’s monitoring list on July 8 but data now shows it exceeded the threshold for cases on June 21. Meanwhile, during the board’s July 21 meeting, Vaughn presented data showing Yolo County had a rate of 146 cases per 100,000 residents.
I ndex Features ........................ B-1 Classifieds ................... B-4
“Now that the data has caught up, the actual rate on that date … is well above 200,” he said. “The problem’s been much worse than we’ve been presenting but we haven’t had all the data collected yet when we were presenting these results,” he said. “We have a rate in the middle of July that’s close to 250 cases per 100,000 residents, which is significantly higher than what we’ve thought. “It’s much, much worse than we’ve been saying.” More recent numbers reported by the county also do not reflect what’s actually happening, he said, given the enormous delay in test results. For example, the 183 new cases reported in the past two weeks “is completely an undercount,” Vaughn said. “The data in the last two weeks should be taken with a grain of
See DELAYS, Page 4
Weather Date
Rain High Low
July 29
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100˚ 55˚
July 30
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July 31
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99˚ 53˚ 96˚ 55˚
Community .................. A-5
Aug. 01
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Opinion ......................... B-3
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Real Estate ................... B-2 Athlete of the Week.... B-5
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 0.00 in. Last sn. to date: 0.00 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/20. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
Winters Community Library curbside pickup and book returns services are temporarily suspended.
See SCHOOL, Page 4
Yolo County Library temporarily suspends services
Data lag in electronic reporting suggests COVID undercount By Anne Ternus-Bellamy
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief On Tuesday afternoon the Yolo County Library announced on their website that out of an abundance of caution regarding potential COVID-19 exposure, all Yolo County Library curbside and phone services are temporarily canceled until further notice.
Suspended Services
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
The sidewalk in front of the Depot building businesses will be converted into an outdoor dining area.
Preserve, Chuy’s Taqueria to expand outdoor seating
In an email to the Express Mark Fink, County Librarian, confirmed the following library services have been temporarily suspended until
County to host free COVID testing events in August By Anne Ternus-Bellamy McNaughton Media
By Rodney Orosco Staff Writer The Depot building, home to Chuy’s Taqueria and Preserve, will be expanding its outdoor seating by moving onto the sidewalk and pushing the sidewalk into existing parking spots, according to plans submitted to the city. The Planning Commission, by a unanimous vote at their July 28 meeting, approved the expansion plans as a way to help the local eateries adapt to the realities brought about by the current pandemic. The expansion will remove two parking spots in front of the building along Rail-
road Avenue and two along Russell Street. The al fresco seating areas will be separated from traffic by decorative walls.
New affordable houses
The Planning Commission unanimously approved a 24-unit socalled “sweat equity” subdivision in the Stones Throw Development. The single story, affordable homes, will be from 1,360 to 1,735 square feet in size. Home buyers will be expected to assist in the construction of each of the homes, thereby, reducing their costs. The development will be on two acres between Taylor Street and Wyatt Lane.
Free coronavirus testing will be offered throughout Yolo County in August, including on four separate dates in Davis. The Davis Senior Center will host COVID-19 testing every Thursday afternoon during August. Four hundred tests will be available each day, according to Jenny Tan, the county’s public information officer. Additional testing days will be held in West Sacramento, Winters, Madison, Knights Landing, Dunnigan, Clarksburg and Esparto. Testing will also be taking place all month long at Woodland Community Col-
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further notice including: Telephone assistance, accepting book returns, Link+ service, and Yolo Library branch curbside pickup. The Friends of the Davis Library outdoor book sale is also currently suspended. For further updates follow the Yolo County Library’s social media accounts at http:// www.facebook.com/ yolocountylibrary.org or http://www.instagram.com/yolocountylibrary/. Questions can also be submitted on their Contact Us form at http://yolocountylibrary.org/contact/.
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lege. Testing at the Davis Senior Center, 646 A St., will take place Aug. 6, 13, 20 and 27 from 3 to 7 p.m. The testing is offered on a first come, first served basis and will end when all the tests are gone for that day. Participants must be residents of Yolo County and will need to provide proof of residency in the form of a document displaying their name and address, such as a driver’s license, identification card, utility bill or rental agreement. All ages are accepted. Registration is recommended in order to speed up the process but is not required and does not
See TESTS, Page 4
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