Thank you, Bob Nanninga

As I drove down the coast this morning looking for surf, I drove past the farmer's market setting up at Central School, Cottonwood Creek Park, the new library, Milk playing at the La Paloma and the SRF. All the while thinking, is there a better place to live? Got some fun waves this morning and came home. My wife told me the news about Bob Nanninga passing. He is one of the many great people in our community that was never satisfied with the status quo. Thank you Bob for working tirelessly for the kids and residents of Encinitas. Think globally, act locally!

Character Counts

I got to attend the Character Counts award assembly on Friday. This month's theme was 'fairness' and one of my boys was recognized for being fair!  Character education is required curriculum in California and different organizations offer different materials for it, the Seven Traits of Character being one of them. With all the weight put on kids, teachers, schools and districts to get those test scores up and meet NCLB, character education often gets left in the dust. Just ask Bernie Madoff's teacher. I was especially impressed with Principal Adriana Chavarin's presence and clear enjoyment of getting to reward PEC kids for their effort. To close the assembly, teachers joined in with students to do the character counts song. PEC then made the local news later in the day when students visited a tree sitter protecting a Tipu tree set for removal in Orpheus Park, a park much of the school community walks through and that classes visit regularly. The comments from the article in the UT are pretty funny. I was stoked my oldest son came home and said they got to sing some Dylan songs with Jru today. Time to bust out Dr. Seuss' Lorax for a reread.

Walking to school in 2009!

I was happy to read this from the NC Times on the Leucadia Blog this morning! Of the three applications for the state funded Safe Routes to School Program, this location was the only one selected.  I spoke to the city about the grant back in May before any decision was made and was told that once the city selected the engineer for the proposed improvement site, the next step would be a public forum on design. Imagine our kids and families safely walking, skating, biking and even riding Segways to school!

Welcome to the Encinitas Union School District Observer

Greetings and welcome to what I hope will become an ever-expanding collaboration between parents, teachers and administrators of Paul Ecke Central School and the Encinitas Union School District. There was some discussion at last Thursday’s meeting about difficulties with communication between all of us. I hope this web log can become a one-stop information shop to remedy that problem. Check in here when you can for dates of meetings, events and general discussions about our school and district. Please email me with anything you feel needs to get posted on the calendar or topics you think need to be discussed.  Spread the word and welcome to the EUSD Observer.