Schools

A fire at Calaveras School damaged the playground Jan. 9, while Hollister police investigators believe it was arson.

It's not just the free lunch program that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is reworking, as the division continues to roll out increasing demands on student nutrition.

Parents at certain Hollister schools aren’t sending lunch money with students this year.

The newest item on the lunch menu at San Benito High School is a do-it-yourself salad bar that includes legumes, sweet pea sprouts, hard-boiled eggs and turkey bacon bits along with a heavy dose of personalization.

An advocacy organization that represents 40,000 part-time college instructors across California is asking part-timers to symbolically walk out of the classrooms to draw attention to what they call a significant pay disparity. The move comes in the wake of a proposal the CPFA sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, asking for legislative reform to establish a living wage for part-timers, among other requests.

Ringing in the New Year means a host of resolutions along with new laws such as those on fracking and social media. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the following into law for 2015:

Hollister School District trustees are holding upcoming forums to get input on possible expansion of the dual language academy.

Aromas-San Juan Unified School District trustees are still looking to fill a board position that opened in late November.

San Benito County and City of Hollister officials are taking it up a gear by adding bike paths and safer crosswalks near local schools.

In 2014, Hollister became what actor Mark Ruffalo called “ground zero” in California for the fierce debate over fracking. Ruffalo's tweet sent Oct. 14—in which he made the local fracking reference—underscored the broad reach of the debate in San Benito County over Measure J.