Filling in the duties of president today, was Past President Bill Pucciarelli who called our virtual meeting to order at 7:35am.
Roger Ridley shared many historical events during his Moment in History presentation. Here are a few samples of what occurred on this day, some being many, many years ago:
1539: Hernando de Soto of Spain claims what is now known as Florida
1781: John Jouett warns Thomas Jefferson of a pending attack by British forces
1946: First bikini “revealed” in Paris, France
1948: Sculpture of Crazy Horse commences
1955: Stan the Man hits his 300th home run with the St. Louis Cardinals
1967: Aretha Franklin releases what will be a #1 hit: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
1972: Sally Priesand becomes the first ordained female rabbi
2018: Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers by 3 points in Game 3 of the NBA finals
For our Rotary Minute, Ed Harris referred to the ABCs of Rotary publication on how there are always opportunities for fellowship in Rotary. Weekly meetings hold special privileges for members to greet friends, meet guests and get to know new members. Rotary clubs that have a reputation for being "friendly clubs" usually follow a few simple steps: First, members are encouraged to sit in a different seat or at a different table each week. Second, Rotarians are urged to sit with a member they may not know as well as their long-time personal friends. Third, members invite new members or visitors to join their table just by saying: "Come join us, we have an empty chair at this table."
Good reminder for us Ed. Thanks!
Our guest speaker today was Andy Stenson. In addition to being the Superintendent of Lucia Mar Unified School District, he is a member of the Arroyo Grande Rotary Club.
Andy updated us on the use of bond funds that have been provided by our community. As an example, recently there were 16 dilapidated classrooms replaced with new modular classrooms at Dana Elementary. For complete information on bond projects, please see: https://www.luciamarschools.org/apps/pages/BondProjects
Andy focused most of his time on the impact to the district caused by the Coronavirus and what the future holds. School will commence August 13th under one of three models. The best-case scenario is that state and local health officials will determine it is safe to resume full session school. No social distancing required. The second scenario would be a split schedule of some sort allowing for partial day attendance of school, possibly combined with some distance learning. And the last scenario, worst case, would be to continue with full distance learning. This option, while better than nothing, is not a good long-term situation for student learning.
Andy acknowledged the challenges for working parents set forth by a split schedule and said the district is considering how they can assist. Other considerations he mentioned included, more frequent sanitization of classrooms and restrooms and possibly eliminating use of playgrounds and playground equipment. Cafeteria use won’t look the same either.
As with many other areas of our society, school districts must be forward thinking and remain fluid to adapt, depending on how the Coronavirus continues to impact us.
Very informative. Thank you for your time, Andy.