Our 164th Year
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F R I DAY, M AY 15, 2 0 2 0
Gauchos still optimistic UCSB remains hopeful of playing fall sports By MARK PATTON NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
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he California State University system sent shock waves through the collegiate sports world on Tuesday when it announced that classes at its 23 campuses will be held almost exclusively online during the upcoming fall semester because of the coronavirus pandemic. It could be the first domino to fall toward the cancellation of the fall sports seasons at those schools, five of which play soccer with UCSB in the Big West Conference. CSU chancellor Timothy White didn’t want to kick the COVID-19 can down the road, but coaches at the nine University of California schools are still waiting for the other shoe to drop. “I think that everything is still on the table, and that’s across the NCAA,” Gaucho men’s soccer coach Tim Vom Steeg said. UCSB, which finished with a 15-5-4 record while advancing to last year’s NCAA quarterfinals, has even more to lose than its own fall season. Harder Stadium
is scheduled to play host to the College Cup — soccer’s Final Four — on Dec. 11 and 13. But Vom Steeg said “the smoke cleared a little bit today” during a UCSB Zoom call conducted on Wednesday by athletic director John McCutcheon. “The athletic departments of some of the Big West Conference schools, and (Big West commissioner) Dennis Farrell put out statements saying that there is every intention to play sports in the fall,” he said. “I think each campus has a little bit of autonomy with their situation because of where they’re located and the plans they’ve been able to make. “This is the case at the UCs. Every UC school is in the process of figuring out how to make this whole thing work.” The athletic departments at the CSU schools are also reportedly negotiating with White’s office to allow their student-athletes on campus. None have cancelled their seasons so far, although the California Collegiate Athletic Association — an NCAA Division II conference — has decided not Please see OPTIMISTIC on A8
COURTESY PHOTOS
Mahana Peralta recreates her kindergarten classroom at home.
Learning by doing
Crane Country Day School’s online program stresses flexibility, independent learning By PAUL GONZALEZ NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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rane Country Day School’s classes look a little different, but teachers and administrators have managed to hold onto the school’s mission to provide an experiential education experience. “It’s sort of hands-on activities or ‘learning by doing,’ and so there’s a lot of trial-and-error. There’s a lot of student involvement, there’s experimenting, prototyping, things of that sort,” Peggy Smith said. Ms. Smith is the head of Crane’s upper school, which serves grades 6 through 8. The coronavirus outbreak forced Crane to move classes online and
rearrange its school day to give students larger blocks of time with each subject. Ms. Smith said school administrators decided on a block schedule to allow students to focus on three subjects every day instead of six. Students take online classes over video calls from 9 a.m. to noon on school days. Each upper school section has 12 to 15 students. Ms. Smith said students quickly learned how to mute and unmute themselves during video calls and how to utilize the text chat function to ask questions. “As you can imagine, kids are more sophisticated or more comfortable with technology than some of their teachers, but we are learning right alongside them. Sometimes the roles are flipped,
you know, they’ll say to a teacher, ‘This is what you have to do, click on this.’ There’s a sweetness to that in that sometimes the roles are reversed, they become the teacher, and we become the student,” Ms. Smith said. In the afternoon, the students attend virtual office hours with their teachers or continue with independent study. “It’s sort of like a combination of office hours or study hall or homework time and so kids are doing their assignments they were given that morning. If they need extra help or want to check in with teachers about something for clarification, they can just contact those teachers, and they’re all available for them,” Ms. Smith said. The independent learning
program ties into experiential education because it gives students the opportunity to experience work-like professional responsibilities. Crane students were up to the challenge and are thriving under the program, Ms. Smith said. “They are learning executive functioning skills, in terms of they’re learning, ‘OK, I have to respond to emails’ and ‘I have to read the entire email’ before immediately responding because the answer might be in there. In many ways they’re kind of growing up and maturing, not really in front of our eyes, but right in front of us on the screen,” Ms. Smith said. Parents and teachers are Please see LEARNING on A8
At left, Addie Root holds a study session with her home school buddy. At right, Olivia Fox used her laptop to connect with her second grade teacher remotely.
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Home to poppies and other California natives, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is part of 805 Inspires, a new video project.
805 Inspires TVSB partners with museums, gardens on videos
By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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anta Barbara County museums remain closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have teamed up with TV Santa Barbara for 805 Inspires. It’s a collaborative effort to produce online videos that bring museum exhibits and gardens into the homes of members of the public. 805 Inspires involves 20 organizations such as the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Lotusland, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, MOXI and the Mission Archive Library. The new project has supplied the museums and gardens with equipment and training to create online videos focused on their respective missions. This effort was spearheaded by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden executive director Steve Windhager. Dr. Windhager told the NewsPress that the idea of increasing the museums’ online video
content came during the most recent quarterly meeting held between the county’s museum and garden directors. These meetings allow the directors to exchange ideas on the best ways to run their organizations, discuss the challenges they face and how those challenges can best be addressed. The last meeting’s discussions centered on how museums are faring with the shutdowns, and the directors ultimately agreed that their institutions should find a way of connecting to the community during the shutdown. “The idea came up that we should try to do something to reach out to the general public we serve since they can’t come to our museums,” Dr. Windhager said. Through the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture, the museums applied for a $10,000 Santa Barbara Foundation grant that was formally awarded on Wednesday. Split 20 ways between the participating museums, each received $500 to pay for lights, Please see INSPIRES on A8
INS IDE
LOTTERY RESULTS
Comics................. A6 Local................. A 2-8 Obituaries............. A8
Wednesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 4-10-20-22-23 Meganumber: 23
Thursday’s DAILY 4: 2-1-8-8
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 7-16-27-44-52 Meganumber: 5
Thursday’s FANTASY 5: 12-28-34-37-39
Thursday’s DAILY DERBY: 01-05-11 Time: 1:47.06
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Soduku................. A5 Weather................ A8
Thursday’s DAILY 3: 2-2-7 / Midday 7-9-1