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Cabot Yerxa Elementary School

GROUND-BREAKING FOR CABOT YERXA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

TWO MORE SCHOOLS SLATED TO BE BUILT

BY JACKIE DEVEREAUX DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA - Officials gathered here to celebrate the much-awaited ground-breaking for the Cabot Yerxa Elementary School. About 70 people attended the ceremony at the newly leveled plot of land at the southeast corner of Desert View and Verbena. The school is expected to open in August 2009. Two more schools are planned - another elementary school and a middle school, officials said. Members from the Palm Springs Unified School District, the city and private architectural and construction companies, building the site each took turns at the podium applauding the new school's name choice and site location. "It's a very fitting name and much-needed,? said Shari Stewart, president of the Palm Springs Unified School Board. Scott Gaudineer, of Pasedenabased Flewelling & Moody architects, who specialize in education, spoke eloquently about the history of Desert Hot Springs and how Cabot first dug wells in 1933 finding hot and warm mineral water here. Gaudineer said he hopes, "The spirit of Cabot will be instilled in the children of the next generation.? The new elementary school site is a 60,000 square foot facility of classroom buildings, a library building, an administration building and multipurpose room. The facility will have 34 classrooms and can accommodate 810 students. The site is designed as a California High Performance School, which means it will save up to 20-percent on energy costs annually. Strategic placement of the library building will provide protection from the wind to the lunch courtyard area; and building roofs are designed to direct prevailing winds up and over the buildings while reflecting heat from the sun. Views windows from the principal's office allow visibility of the main courtyard, the main student entrance to the campus and main classroom buildings. The school buildings will be provided with clerestory windows and light fixtures that take advantage of natural daylight. The school makes use of recycled materials items such as carpeting and acoustical ceiling tiles

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BY LESLIE ANDREWS LA QUINTA- At least 100 teachers can breathe a sigh of relief and sleep easy at night. The Desert Sands Unified School District board made a decision to cut only 16 jobs from payroll for the upcoming school year. Originally, back in March, the district anticipated the layoffs of 116.6 positions, and that many teachers were given notice of possible job losses for the upcoming 2008-2009 school year. After careful planning and study sessions, district officials were able to save a lot of jobs. Still, they wished that no positions should have to be cut, period. "I feel relieved that we were able to save these jobs, but I'm still very sad that we're laying off any teachers,? said Board President Amy Ammons. Areas that had to be trimmed dramatically were in class reduction sizes and in athletic programs in the middle schools. Plus, there were a number of teachers that had resigned or retired, thus leaving more holes in payroll to be filled. Cuts were also based on seniority. Personnel director Jon Gaffney added, "Hopefully, there will be more resignations or retirements so that we could hire those number of layoffs back.? Teachers weren't the only ones facing layoffs. School counselors were also considered on the chopping block, but fortunately, most of them will still have employment come the following school year, especially in the elementary schools. The DSUSD had to trim $7.3 million from its budget in order to save itself from a deficit. Some of its reserve money was able to be freed up in order to fund some jobs, but as Gaffney described, the district is only

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allowed to spend so much of its $7 million in mandated reserve funds. However, Desert Sands is not alone in having to lay off any teachers. Across the state, 18,000 layoffs have taken place and schools statewide have had to face $4.8 billion in cuts. Tom Burbank, a resident of Indio, commented, "We are already 46th out of 50 states in funding per student. We oppose the governor's proposal. California students did not cause the budget crisis.? Mr. Burbank was also one who read a lot of ideas submitted from parents and residents of the DSUSD area. Gaffney stated during the meeting, "We brainstormed as many ideas as we can. It's a very impersonal process but it's one I hope to never go through again.? Mary Alice Alberg, Principal of Lyndon Johnson Elementary, has one teacher who is losing her job due to the layoffs. She said, "Hopefully, over the summer there will be some vacancies and more students coming, and that the state will balance their budget. We seriously need to fund Proposition 98.? Dianne Romero's husband, a first-year teacher, was worried about his job, but was glad to know he was still employed. "We've come to all the meetings just to figure out what's going to happen,? she mentioned. "He left a good job just to come to teach. Now he will get a notice that his layoff has rescinded. We're really excited about that.?

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