Pocket Online presents another gallery of life in the Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods. These were the scenes Thursday evening July 22 along the Sacramento River levee. So if you’re into bicycling, running, boogie-boarding or swinging from a rope into the cool river, this gallery is for you. Enjoy.

Life along the Sacramento River levee

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“Lisbon is open again,” says Dr. Dennis Mah, “We will offer more than the district was able to provide.” If you haven’t seen the signs of activity around the former Lisbon school campus (here is a map) you may not know the Yav Pem Suab Academy Charter School is about to open and they are still accepting students. (Dr. Mah pronounces the name for those who do not speak the Hmong language: Ya Bay Shwa.)

Mah is the Board President for the Urban Charter Schools Collective (UCSC) and spent decades within the Sacramento City Unified School District as a teacher and principal. “I’ve been at three schools as a principal: William Land, Bolling Green Charter School and Fruitridge. Fruitridge was a nice way to end a career. I decided to go there for two years as a program improvement school in year five. Which means it had been going down hill. We turned the school around, the staff and I worked hard to turn it around in two years. I knew I couldn’t do any more at that school because of the bureaucratic constraints, budgetary constraints, curriculum constraints of how the central office thought kids should be educated.” It was that opinion about the way the city district is run that informed Mah’s decision to gather people together to for the UCSC. Yav Pem Suab is the first school opened by Mah and the UCSC.

Mah is putting his faith, as well as the reputation and future for Yav Pem Suab, in what is called Brain Compatible Instruction. According to records from the U.S. Department of  Education, Brain Compatible Learning has been used only a few times throughout a school since 2002. Mah says Brain Compatible Instruction is based on an understanding of “how kids learn.” Mah believes, “A kid learns when they’re engaged. We know that intelligence is a function of experience.” So Mah and the leaders of the UCSC propose showing students the world through fields trips at the beginning of terms and then using the experiences as learning tools throughout the year. Mah says the fourth grade teachers are putting together a field trip to Coloma, where gold was discovered, so students can see both geography and geology first hand.  ”[We're] looking to go to Lake Tahoe to experience what it’s like in the Sierras,” Mah continues. “How can you study California without understanding the Sierras and Lake Tahoe and the concept of water? Water is crucial in California.”

Mah wants parents to know that instruction at Yav Pem Suab comes with a plan to help kids who sometimes have trouble in school. “Scholars come to school to learn,” contends Mah. “What is a scholar? They come to school, they work hard and they get smart. Not all students are scholars but they can become scholars. So if you’re out there messing around, pulling girls hair, getting into trouble, raising hell. Michael, are you a student or a scholar? What do you want to be? So we have a character education program for kids that need help that way. Emotionally and mentally.”

Mah points out that Yav Pem Suab will also include classes that have been cut out of public school budgets. “Then they start 3 periods of enrichment from two to five [in the afternoon]. One hour will be Hmong language development. Second hour do performing arts and the third period will be sports, athletic and movement like dance, soccer.” Mah continues, “music is really important so we want to let that be a part of the curriculum. How can you live life without music?”

The UCSC Board President says their charter school has a lot more flexibility with how they spend their money and how they teach children. “We’re very careful about what we spend. We get the same amount of state money per kid as the Sacramento City School District. But we have flexibility in using it. For example, we offer benefits to our full –time employees and we have a cap of $7,400. Sac City, bless their heart, has a plan negotiated with the union that costs about $18,000 per teacher.” Mah says board members tell the 15 teachers and administrators at Yav Pem Suab “Listen guys when health insurance was cheap that wasn’t a problem. But it costs money today so we’ll cover you and your children and spouse but you gotta pay part of it.” Mah says the staff, which is made up mostly of teachers laid off in other districts, understand. “Our money is for the kids. So that’s one way we save money.”

The opening of Yav Pem Suab has not come without some accusations of exclusionary practices. “Early on we were criticized for being segregationist,” admits Mah. “Our target was under-served Hmong kids because they are the lowest performing kids in the whole district. The traditional Achievement Gap has been defined by Hispanic/Latino and African American kids. But we found that Hmong kids were even lower. The

Following his dad to sign up for classes

lowest.” (Data compiled by the State of California doesn’t classify Hmong performance state-wide. Hmong student performance is aggregated together with all Southeast Asian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other Asian students.) Mah says though the UCSC launched Yav Pem Suab to specifically help under-performing Hmong students and their families, they accept any student. “What’s happened, call it fate or whatever, now neighborhoods kids here are signing up to go to school. You saw the African American dad in there. There is a large African American community around this area. Early last week we had a mom sign up her daughter for the fourth grade, Spanish speaking only. So we’re developing a diversity here.”

One thing is certain: Yav Pem Suab Charter School will start instruction August 2. Mah says the maximum enrollment this year is 300 students. The day Pocket Online was on campus, 191 seats were filled. If you are interested in learning more about the newest charter school in the Pocket area you can visit the campus at the former Lisbon Elementary School during business hours, visit their website or call 916.433.5057. “That’s why we opened this school,” Mah says as we finish the interview. “To offer kids more than they had before.”

National Night Out 2009

If you or your block are planning a get-together to mark National Night Out Tuesday August 3 the office of Councilman Robbie Waters would like to hear from you. So far only four Neighborhood Watch groups have registered their plans with the city: Lazy River, Old Pocket Road, Vista Alegre Court and Park Place South Association. If you are planning an event to mark National Night Out, email Pat Clark with the councilman’s office at pclark@cityofsacramento.org. If you would like a speak from the Sacramento Police Department or other city office for your event, we have included a list of possible people below.

National Night Out is designed to bring neighbors together across the country raise awareness about crime in their neighborhoods and arm them with information to make communities safer. Last year Pocket Online visited a half-dozen of the many neighborhoods that marked the occasion. (Click here to see what people did.) We plan to visit as many get-togethers as we can this year so email editor@inourpocket.com with your plan or leave them for your neighbors to see in the comments section below.

Greenhaven and Pocket area teenagers have until Friday to submit an application to join the Sacramento Youth Commission. The Commission is looking for one member to represent Council District 7, which includes the Pocket area, and another at-large member from this area to represent young people in the city as a whole.

Commissioners will become part of the decision-making process by listening to your peers and offering advice to the City Council members on issues that affect the life of young people in Sacramento. Commissioners meet every week for an hour and a half and are paid $50 a month for their service. Commissioners serve for a two-year term.

Click here to download the application which you must turn in to the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall by 4:30pm Friday, July 16. If you have any questions, call the Youth Resource Coordinator at 916.808.8879

Thousands of Greenhaven and Pocket households rely upon the state government for some or all of their income. Once again lawmakers are having trouble coming to an accord for California’s budget so once again they are giving out IOUs to some state workers and contractors. Pocket Online gathered information from the local banks who will offer some sort of financial relief for struggling families.

First of all: there is no automatic process that will sign you up for a short-term loan. You must talk with someone at your bank or credit union to get some assistance.

Golden 1 Credit Union- According to the Assembly Rules Committee Golden 1 staff will be at the State Capitol Wednesday to assist employees of the Assembly. You can also visit the two branches near the Capitol or our local branches in the Promenade Shopping Center on Rush River Drive or on Florin Road across I-5. Click here for their flier on 0% payroll loans or click here to download and fill out an application, courtesy of Pocket Online. 

Wells Fargo Bank – Wells Fargo tells the Senate and Assembly they are willing to extend temporary payroll loans to state employees on two conditions: 1) the employee must have direct deposit into a Wells Fargo account; and 2) the employee must have their entire pay deferred. Call Wells Fargo from July 13-15 at 800.838.8111 to request the payroll advance and click here to read all of their conditions in a memo to the Senate and Assembly Rule Committee.

SAFE Credit Union – SAFE is offering interest free loans to their members affected by the state budget deadlock. They offer no-fee, interest-free loans for the net amount of your paycheck. Call 916.979.7233 or click here for more information about the program.

USE Credit Union – USE Credit Union is offering loans even for state employees who are not having their entire check deferred. If you have an account with USE, fill out and send in this deposit authorization to get a short-term loan. If you don’t have direct deposit or aren’t a member, you must become a member then fill out a full loan application. (Here is the USE Credit Union website.) If you have a loan with USE only, you may be eligible to get your loan payments deferred and should call USE at 866.873.4968.

Here is a list of all the financial institutions offering help for state employees:

• Bank of the West
• Redwood Credit Union
• Sacramento Credit Union
• California Bear Credit Union
• Educational Employees Credit Union
• El Dorado Savings Bank
• Heritage Community Credit Union
• Kern Schools Federal Credit Union
• Ocean Crest Credit Union
• Pasadena Federal Credit Union
• Patelco Credit Union
• San Francisco Federal Credit Union
• Santa Clara Federal Credit Union
• Schools First FCU (Formerly Orange Co Teachers FCU)
• Schools Financial Credit Union
• Union Bank
• Umpqua Bank
• Yolo Federal Credit Union
• US Bank

If you know of any other programs or have tips for you fellow workers leave your advice in the comments section below. We can come together and help each other out during these times of need.

The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control announced plans Monday to spray pesticide over a large part of southern Sacramento County Tuesday and Wednesday evening. The spraying is designed to kill adult mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus.

There has so far been no indication of infected birds or mosquitoes in the Pocket or Greenhaven neighborhoods but as previously reported Vector Control began to get concerned about the spread of the disease weeks ago. (Read the previous Pocket Online story.) “Our surveillance efforts indicate high infection rates and that aerial treatments to reduce the number of infected adult mosquitoes are necessary in order to protect public health,” District Manager David Brown said in a statement to Pocket Online.

Vector Control inspectors have found 14 dead birds and 44 mosquitoes that have tested positive for West Nile within the last few weeks. The map below shows each of the findings. The red area is the part of the county planes will fly over Tuesday and Wednesday to spray insecticide.

You can get more details and sign-up to get email notifications of mosquito spraying in our neighborhood when you click on the map or visit www.FightTheBite.net. Pocket Online will closely follow the measures taken by the Vector Control District to slow the spread of animals and insects infected with West Nile Virus and will report developments immediately.

Map Courtesy Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control

Photo Courtesy EMD

“A well is a conduit for anything on the surface to get down to the groundwater table. It’s a straight shot.” Barry Marcus is the Supervising Environmental Specialist with the Sacramento County Department of Environmental Management (EMD) and he’s concerned about innocuous looking holes in the ground all over the city. These wells, all dug before 1950, aren’t on any maps but could allow chemicals and bacteria into our drinking water supply.

EMD engineers say nearly half of the people who live in Sacramento County rely upon groundwater for their daily needs. The Pocket and Greenhaven neighborhoods were, until the 1980′s, largely farmland and Marcus says wells could be anywhere. “Typically it is a steel pipe that sticks out of the ground. Usually larger than four inches in diameter. It may or may not have a steel plate welded over the top of it.  Occasionally it’s surrounded by a concrete apron. Which could be a small circle or a square or a rectangle.”

What lies beneath?

Marcus admits inspectors with EMD haven’t yet been out to the Pocket area but they will send someone out if you want to report a possible well. Marcus says it’s important to note well heads could be partially buried.  If you know that a windmill once existed on your property chances are good the windmill powered a well. Marcus also advises, “If someone has an area in their yard that keeps sinking and they don’t really know why it keeps sinking and they keep having to put dirt in that area, it’s possible there’s a well-casing there.”

Why is EMD so worried about forgotten wells in our community? Many wells are so old, says Marcus, they may have deteriorated and now allow runoff water with bacteria, pesticides, herbicides and other pollutants to flow right into the groundwater supply. That groundwater is just under the surface for homes next to the Sacramento River levee and only five feet under the dirt in neighborhoods near the edges of the Pocket area. The water table is only up to 20 feet deep through most of our neighborhoods and about forty feet deep next to I-5.

There is another concern that Marcus recounts as he tells the story of a Land Park grandmother who found her two-year old granddaughter playing near an 18-inch wide well she didn’t know was there. The girl didn’t fall in but Marcus says she easily could have fit through the loosely covered hole. In fact, earlier this year two dogs fell into a twenty-foot well near Franklin Boulevard.

If you wonder whether a steel plate or hole in your yard might be an abandoned well you can visit www.emd.saccounty.net, call the Abandoned Well Line at 916.875.8532 or email EMD-abndwells@saccounty.net.

Mobile Food Permit

We have all likely seen the men and women standing on street corners around the Pocket and Greenhaven  neighborhoods selling baskets of delicious look strawberries. Judging by the frequency these salespeople are seen in the Pocket area, many of us have bought produce from them. Tuesday Sacramento County issued a warning about a rise in unlicensed food vendors and an easy way we can tell if the mouthwatering fruit is clean and safe.

“With the downturn in the economy, many people are looking for a way to make ends meet, and often a food cart seems like a quick and easy way to earn additional income,” says John Rogers, Environmental Division Chief for the county Department of Environmental Management (EMD) in a news release. Rogers further says you should ask anyone selling food on-the-go to see their green permit from Sacramento County. (Pictured above.) So just what does a permit from the county ensure? An EMD spokesperson says the permits verify that county inspectors have made sure it is kept at the right temperature and that those selling and preparing the food wash their hands. Rogers says “lack of a hand wash sink means unwashed hands, and unwashed hands are the leading cause of food contamination.”

This warning also applies to mobile food selling trucks. If you see a street vendor without a permit in the same location more than once, you can call EMD at 916.875.8440 or email foodprogram@saccounty.net to report it. (Editor’s note: EMD wants you to let them know the time of day and location where you see the feed seller.)

Wow. We are usually not prone to hyperbole but demand for photos of the 2010 Pocket Parade has been, in a word, incredible. The gallary posted Saturday has been seen more than 17,000 times. With so much interest in our big neighborhood event for the year, we decided to post an additional 108 photos not previously published. Enjoy, compliments of Pocket Online.

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Otto Ducey, Officer Gary Dahl, Bandit and Tyler Rock (l-r)

Watching the Pocket Parade and festival at Garcia Bend Park afterward, the parade Grand Marshall probably didn’t understand all the attention focused on him. Grand Marshall and Sacramento Police Officer Bandit though would likely appreciate Otto Ducey’s senior project. Ducey and several others are raising money to buy cooling units for Bandit and the other K9 officers on the Sacramento Police force so they can withstand the ‘dog days’ of summer.

The group Bandit’s Buddies is now within $200 of their fundraising goal for the cooling units. Ducey and other students spent their time Saturday raising awareness about the project with Bandit on hand to demonstrate the need. You can support Bandit and his fellow K9 officers with a donation, accepted through July, sent to “Bandit’s Buddies” c/o 6781 Frates Way, Sacramento, CA 95831.  Please make checks out to ‘SPDK9 Association.’ Later this month, Ducey and Bandit’s Buddies will hold a fundraising night at Dude Where’s My Yogurt and you can also purchase a red, white and blue “Bandit’s Buddies” wristband for $1.00. (Date and time are not yet determined but will be added to the Pocket Online events calendar as soon as the information is available.)