The following events, organizations and people deserve either a
Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down this week:
THUMBS UP: Twelve outstanding educators were honored this week as the San Benito County Office of Education’s teachers of the year. Recipients include Mayra Flores-Crump of the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, Donna Berry of Calaveras School, Lisa Uccello of Cerra Vista School, Amy Holland of Gabilan Hills School, Laura Munoz-Velasquez of Ladd Lane School, Carole Lewis of R.O. Hardin School, Linda Polo of Sunnyslope School, Shari Vanderpool of Marguerite Maze Middle School, Kathy Larabell of Rancho San Justo Middle School, Rachel Flores-Zepeda of San Benito High School, Reena Sharma of Chamberlains, and Colleen Grimes of the San Benito County Office of Education. Congratulations – and thank you – to all. As county Superintendent Tim Floyd said, “All of us have a teacher that we can look back on that was a special person in our lives.”
THUMBS DOWN: The state released Academic Performance Index scores this week and San Benito High School did not fare well. The high school’s 2006 API score – based on a battery of standardized tests given to students – fell from 695 in 2005 to 675 last year. In addition, its similar schools ranking – which measures the high school against schools of like size and demographics statewide – dropped from 5 to 2, meaning that SBHS ranks in the bottom 20 percent of all similar schools in California. This surely isn’t anybody’s idea of “Baler Pride.”
THUMBS UP: Paul Armbruster, volunteer manager of Sacred Heart Catholic Church’s Fishes and Loaves food bank program, was honored this week as “Hunger Fighter of the Year” in San Benito and Santa Cruz counties. Armbruster, 73, is a retired distribution manager for Seagram’s Beverage Co. The Hollister resident has been volunteering for eight years at Fishes and Loaves, which provides fresh, healthy food to those in need. Last year, it served more than 3,300 individuals. At the awards ceremony where he was honored, Armbruster deflected praise for the organization’s success to those who support it with donations and expressed compassion for those it serves. “We don’t give them a hodge podge of canned food that people give you. We start with Foster Farms chicken and a dozen eggs,” he said. “We’re just fortunate that we have really good food that you and I would go to the store to buy.”
THUMBS DOWN: Some of San Benito County history is disappearing bit by bit because of theft and vandalism at the abandoned New Idria mining and town site south of the Panoche Valley. The New Idria mine, the top supplier of mercury for the U.S. Department of Defense during World War I, shut down years ago and afterward the town withered up, too, but New Idria remains a state historic landmark, with many buildings and other relics representing the past still on site for visitors to enjoy. Unfortunately, some visitors are damaging what they find there or even stealing it.
