The Crestview Cougars have something to really roar about: The California Department of Education presented the elementary school’s educators with a California Distinguished School award at the beginning of the month. The school is on Vandenberg Air Force Base property. The award identifies schools that have demonstrated educational excellence for all students and shown progress […]
AMY ASMAN
Posted inNews
Total recall?
A group of Santa Maria residents is trying to recall school board member Will Smith
More than 70 people crowded into Shepard Hall in the Santa Maria Public Library on May 8 to hear a local group’s proposal to recall a member of the Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s board of education. Glenn Goldin—a special education teacher and parent of two children in the school district—welcomed other parents and community members […]
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Surrender your pot … and throw in the Kinkade paintings, too
Narcotics detectives with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department recently arrested a Santa Maria man on suspicion of growing and selling marijuana out of an office warehouse on West Betteravia Road. Jesse Delacruz is suspected of growing hundreds of marijuana plants and selling large amounts of marijuana outside the guidelines of the Compassionate Use Act. […]
Posted inNews
The Berns case continues
On May 8, Santa Maria Assistant City Attorney Phil Sinco sent the Sun a follow-up letter to its public records requests regarding the death of local resident Jerry Berns. Berns was shot and killed on March 9, 2011, in an alleyway behind a blacksmith shop on North Blosser Road. Police said he was robbing a […]
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Marian’s new hospital is ready for business
Doctors, nurses, and other staff members are preparing for the grand opening of the new-and-improved Marian Regional Medical Center on May 22. Hospital President Chuck Cova said hospital staffers are currently going through training to “fully understand how we will function in the [new] building.” The hospital has hired 65 new employees since January and […]
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Water is essential
Students in Laura Stenzel’s third grade class at Tunnell Elementary School recently pulled off a trifecta by winning all three of the awards for the city of Santa Maria’s 2012 Water Awareness poster contest. The Santa Maria Utilities Department invited local third graders in the school district to create water conservation posters. Participating students were […]
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Pioneer Valley’s Magni has teaching down to a science
Biology teacher Riccardo Magni’s classroom looks a little like a taxidermist’s office—but not as creepy. In one corner there’s a collection of bone-dry skulls, including a rhinoceros cranium. A stuffed pheasant perches on the cabinets, ready to take flight. There are living animals, too: two hissing cockroaches from Madagascar, a giant millipede, and three different […]
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Be the one
On May 12, students from David Dubransky’s fourth grade class at Tunnell Elementary will be asking shoppers at the Town Center mall in Santa Maria to take a quick and easy test to register for the national bone marrow donor list. The students will be stationed outside Claire’s jewelry shop on the lower level of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Puppy love
As National Greyhound Adoption Month comes to a close, a writer reflects on what it’s like to own a ’45-mile-per-hour couch potato’
A couple of months ago, my husband and I took our dog, Sadie, to the Laguna Lake dog park in San Luis Obispo. A woman we know from around town was there with her dog, and as we walked up to her, she smiled bemusedly and asked, “Why does your dog look like a deer?” […]
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Good Sam starts construction on a new permanent housing facility
Santa Maria’s Good Samaritan Shelter is one of the first homeless services agencies in the country to offer three stages of transitional housing, the nonprofit’s leaders announced at a groundbreaking ceremony on April 18. The shelter, in partnership with the county and city of Santa Maria, is building 16 units of permanent housing at its […]
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Have fun this summer at Circle V Ranch
Nowadays there are summer camps of all different kinds for children focusing on everything from cooking to fashion design. Located across the street from Cachuma Lake, Circle V Ranch is offering a more traditional, but nonetheless exciting, summer camp experience for children ages 7 to 13. There will be a free open house tour and […]
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C&D Zodiac brings art to Fairlawn Elementary
Fairlawn Elementary School is looking much brighter and more inviting thanks to the addition of some murals painted by volunteers from C&D Zodiac Aerospace on April 19. More than 100 C&D Zodiac employees and volunteers personally created and painted outdoor and indoor murals for the school. The company also funded the project through its very […]
