Burl J. Bradbury, 84, passed away from heart failure on November 30, 2021, at Mad River Hospital. He was born April 26, 1937 in Tulare, the son of Arthur and Viola (Bentley) Bradbury.

Burl attended grades 1-8 at Surprise Elementary School in Tulare. He attended several East SF Bay Area High Schools until he joined the U.S. National Guard, where he served for three years. He married his first true love, Marlene Rodrigues, in 1958. They settled in Humboldt County in 1960. He and his wife raised 3 children, and remained married for 51 years.

Burl was widowed in early 2009, and ended up in the hospital soon after. He was visited by a longtime friend of 40 years, Inez Orlandi, also a recent widow. Their rekindled friendship soon turned to love. The two became “Pension Partners,” living together on Essex Lane near Blue Lake until his passing.

Burl worked with his dad and brothers in construction operating heavy equipment. The last 27 years of his career he worked for City of Arcata Maintenance. He was a loyal member of Operating Engineers #3 for over 50 years. He was a volunteer in the Arcata Fire Department for 17 years, and a member of the Moose Lodge in McKinleyville from 1999 until his death.

Throughout his life, Burl enjoyed Nascar, hunting, football and family gatherings (reunions). He was involved with the Redwood Acres Raceway, helping his brother Jerry keep the cars running while his brother Dan and nephew Mike terrorized the track. He coached youth football for the Bobcats while his son Kenny was a team member.

Burl enjoyed traveling. He fondly remembered a trip to England, and a trip up the Mississippi in a paddle boat.

In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his wife Marlene Rodrigues Bradbury, daughter Patricia (Patti) Sullivan, brother John T (Jerry) Bradbury, twin sisters Janice Bradbury and Annice (Annie) Williamson, cousin Boyce Dykes, nephews Michael Bradbury and Michael Ketchum, great grandson Michael Monteil, as well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

In addition to his second love, Inez Felt Orlandi, Burl is survived by daughter Robin Bradbury (Pat) of Medford; son Kenny Bradbury (Kim) of Couer D’Alene; brother Dan Bradbury (Maureen) of McKinleyville. He had numerous nieces & nephews who loved him very much — Linda Bradbury (Claude), Jim Bradbury (Shonnie), Darin Bradbury (Marcy), Michelle Ketchum, Jessica Maciel (Jordan), Dalton Bradbury, Miranda Russell, Ronnie Bradbury (Sydney), Sarah Bradbury, Jamie Knight, and Ryan Knight (Amber), Laura Dykes, Russell Dykes and Stephanie Peterson (Shane); grandchildren Tami DeMille Campos (Ritchie), Leanna Cari (Randy), Katie Leighton (Angelo), and Crystal Monteil; great-grandchildren Adrain Campos, Cristian Campos, Michelle Cari, Rose Cari, Sage Dalka, Andrea Leighton, Craig Leighton, Daniel Leighton, Alerick Tate, Garin Aberle; great-great-grandson Coen Leighton, as well as many extended family members.

A celebration of Burl’s Life will be held on Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 1-4 p.m. at Azalea Hall in McKinleyville.

Those who wish to remember Burl in a special way may make gifts in his memory to the Arcata Volunteer Firefighters’ Association, 631 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521.

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A beautiful soul, Vicki June Aubrey, age 71, a loving mother of eight, a doting wife to Loren H. Aubrey (Papa), passed away peacefully in her sleep the morning of December 23, 2021. Vicki was born May 10, 1950 to Arliss Roberts and Edmund Sherman.

She was known as Grandma Queen to all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, being the strong independent woman she was. She was the rock to our family. Living in Hoopa for over 20+ years, moving from Fairhaven. In her early life she was a tomboy, playing with snakes, lizards and bugs. She chased the boys away with them. Not liking peas as a child her mom would often find them in her pockets on laundry day, a trait that seemed to be passed down to her grandchildren.

Vicki was willing to help anyone from family to friends, even strangers. Her door was always open to all the same. She often had people over just to talk, and she always had a prayer or advice or food to eat. Grandma Queen loved thrift shops, yard sales (any bargains) — she loved church, and also loved camping (Dillon Creek, mostly). She could camp for weeks at a time, playing cards, board games, dice, dominoes — just being around her family, and being able to see her children and grandkids happy and laughing, their rising up and sometimes falling down. She was always there. She had her life-long friends Chris and Sedgie Stogner, who were always there and seen her grow into a strong Christian woman. She became a faithful servant of the Lord along with the love of her life, Loren H. Aubrey, over 25 years ago.

Later they moved to Hoopa and started a church there, starting in their own house with pastor Guy and sister Cindy. They would have weekly Bible studies and dinner. They were faithful in church and picked up and dropped off many fellow church members. Vicki and Loren also took on raising grandkids Eagle, Monique, Annette and Edmund, and took part in raising Cherri, David, Josh, Katie and Jerry when they were young — also Jaime, Chyanne, Windy, Lil Vick, and many of papa’s grandkids to.

Survived by her three remaining children — Geraldine Moon, Cassandra Moon, Shelly Noneo — her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, too many to name. They know who they are.

Preceded in death by her husband, Loren Aubrey; five of her children, Cheri Moon, Lil Wayne Moon, Edmund Hayden, Arliss Goodman and Margarett Moon; granddaughter Lil Shelly Moon; son-in-law Nikki Metcalf; and other close family members Lil Debbie Sherman, Sharky Sherman, Norma Jean and Ike Carter, Joy and Chuck Burkhart, Pat and Leroy Bean.

Services will be held on Saturday the 22nd of January 2022 at 12 p.m. at Eureka the Pentecostal Church located 1060 Hoover St., Eureka (Myrtletown). Followed by a celebration of life (food and drinks will be provided) which will be held at 266 Keisner Rd., Loleta at the Bear River Recreation Center from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. If anybody wishes to send their condolences through card or flowers if you could send it there during that time.

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Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis will issue a ruling within two weeks on whether possible evidence-tampering justifies dismissing animal cruelty charges against Arcata rancher Ray Christie.

Today Charles Adams, an expert in extracting data from electronic devices, said some photos taken at Christie’s ranch during a March 2018 raid were missing. Others had been re-named. A few of the photos were actually taken in January 2018, two months before the multi-agency raid on Christie’s various properties.

Defense attorney Rick Richmond sent subpoenas to a number of law enforcement officers involved with the raid. One of them was sheriff’s Deputy Travis Mendes, who was the livestock deputy at the time and who led the operation.

Mendes testified he took a number of photos and submitted them — along with photos and videos by another officer — as evidence. He said a total of three devices were used, including his department-issued camera and cellphone and a video camera used by another officer..

But defense expert Adams said he was able to identify eight different devices used, along with about nine more he couldn’t identify. Adams said some photos were missing. There was evidence that “metadata” had been stripped from some pictures so no information could be gleaned.

“Somewhere along the line those photos had been altered,” Richmond told the judge today.

Most of the photos show cow carcasses or animals down and too weak to get up.

Adams also pointed out today there was no information on the “chain of custody” for evidence. He said it should be meticulously documented: who checked out the evidence, when it was returned, why it was checked out.

Instead, there was one line in Mendes’s report, stating that he had booked the photos into evidence.

There was also testimony today about six electronic devices seized from Christie and his girlfriend during the raid. One of the computer laptops was wiped clean of all information, possibly by someone doing a “factory reset.”

The defense believes this was nefarious, though it also was suggested today that Christie wiped the computer before it was seized.

Some of the photos in question were dated on Oct. 23, the day federal agents conducted their own raid on Christie’s ranch. Adams said it’s possible someone may have opened the photos on that day.

Deputy District Attorney Steven Steward argued the defense has to prove any missing or altered evidence was exculpatory (benefiting Christie).

“There is no evidence other than speculation from Mr. Adams and Mr. Richmond about exculpatory evidence out there,” Steward said. “ … The question isn’t whether evidence was destroyed. The question is whether any of that evidence had exculpatory value.”

Elvine-Kreis made several comments during the day-long hearing that indicated he was skeptical of the defense position. He would have to find law enforcement acted in “bad faith,” and he didn’t see evidence of that. He noted that Mendes wrote in his report that he gathered evidence and booked it.

“That’s not bad faith,” the judge said.

Mendes was in the courtroom during the testimony of other witnesses, including Adams.

Elvine-Kreis said he is concerned about photos that were taken in January 2018, yet were portrayed as being taken during the March raid.

“Where did they come from?” he asked.

Steward informed him the investigation into Christie’s doings began in January, which would explain the mix-up.

Elvine-Kreis attempted throughout the day to narrow the scope of the hearing, saying this is a simple felony case that has been needlessly complicated.

One of the attorneys subpoenaed today was Adrian Kamada, who is now a public defender but prosecuted Christie during his first trial. Kamada filed a motion asking the judge to quash the subpoena, which Elvine-Kreis did.

As a prosecutor Kamada simply wrote a search warrant for the six devices seized from Christie, and a judge issued the warrant.

In court today, Kamada argued “there has to be substantial proof that this (evidence in question) exists and that it is exculpatory … this is really an abuse of the court’s time.”

Elvine-Kreis responded by telling Richmond “You threw a huge wide net over a very old case at the last minute.”

Richmond, though, said more than once that the District Attorney’s Office is hoping to be clever enough to hide evidence and get away with it.

As of now the trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 31, with a trial confirmation on Jan. 18. Now Jan. 18 will likely consist of the judge issuing his ruling, along with setting a new trial date. Richmond has said he has medical issues to deal with and can’t be prepared by Jan. 31.

Christie’s first trial ended with the jury convicting Christie of about two dozen misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. The jury deadlocked 11-1 for guilt on four counts of animal cruelty.

Press release from the DA’s Office:

Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming announced today that she will not seek a third term as District Attorney in the 2022 election.  Fleming said: “It has been a privilege to serve the people of Humboldt County; I thank the voters for the opportunity.  I believe that during my tenure as D.A., the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has made many important advances in its efforts to achieve justice and enhance public safety.  The current people in the Office are a dedicated, collaborative group that provides excellent service to the County – it has been an honor to work with them.”  

Please see the attached letter [reproduced below] District Attorney Maggie Fleming shared with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office.

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Here’s the text of Fleming’s letter:

January 7, 2022

To the amazing members of the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office,

I will not seek re-election as Humboldt County District Attorney this year, so my time in the job will end in early January 2023. At that point, my career will include 32 years as a prosecutor, 25 of those in Humboldt County,

Never in my wildest thoughts did I imagine being an elected District Attorney when I started in 1986 as a Deputy D.A. in Contra Costa County. I am humbled by, and appreciative of, the trust placed in me by Humboldt County voters.

I can’t thank each of you enough for all of your phenomenal contributions to what we have accomplished since the beginning of my first term in January 2015, including honoring the commitments I made as a candidate, to: consistently and vigorously represent the People of the State of California; improve the timeliness of justice; effectively communicate with all involved in criminal justice, particularly victims; conduct outreach efforts on crime prevention; and do all of our work with total disregard for political considerations.

I also thank you for the dedication, flexibility, and extra time and effort needed to advance the accomplishment of our mission to achieve justice and promote public safety by: collaborating with other agencies to form a team focused on assisting elder and vulnerable adults; developing an environmental task force; restructuring and increasing staffing for sexual assault and domestic violence cases; improving use of information technology to increase efficiency; productively collaborating with Tribal representatives and Tribal courts, and bringing the Victim Witness and Child Abuse Services offices into the courthouse to better support people affected by crime.

Your dedication has allowed us to stand up to many challenges which have included: a rapidly changing legal landscape; our inability to remain fully staffed, and the various pandemic-related constraints on our work. Because everyone here often went above and beyond, we were able to vigorously represent the People in every case, while respecting the rights of the accused and being respectful of everyone involved in the criminal justice process.

It has been an honor to work with you and I cannot express enough my appreciation for your work as advocates for victims and witnesses, investigators, office assistants, support staff, and prosecutors. I look forward to continuing our efforts to serve Humboldt County throughout the next year.

With gratitude,

[Signed]

Maggie

UPDATE, 7:50 p.m.: Apparently Thomas Koors has taken himself out of contention. A couple of hours after the story below went up, a post appeared on the Thomas Koors campaign page. It reads:

Unfortunately what we want for ourselves is not always what our family wants so my campaign will end here.

Thanks to all the people I talked with and supported getting my name on the ballot. It was fun to work toward this every night while I did.

— Hank Sims

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Thomas Koors. | Submitted.

Thomas Koors, a 39-year-old maintenance supervisor, has launched a campaign to become Humboldt County’s next Fourth District supervisor. On Wednesday he submitted his candidate intention statement with the county elections office, and he has a campaign page up on Facebook.

Koors, who joins Eureka City Councilmembers Natalie Arroyo and Kim Bergel in the race to succeed departing supervisor Virginia Bass, identifies himself as a married father of two and a Republican.

The statement, which was posted to his Facebook campaign page before Bass’s announcement on Friday that she won’t be running for re-election, says, “I chose to run for the Humboldt County Board of Supervisor position because I am against the mask and vaccine mandates. I am also genuinely concerned that the current District 4 Supervisor of Humboldt County, Virginia Bass, would impose or not object to vaccine passports nor do I trust anything that she would say on this matter in order to win re-election.”

Late Thursday night he posted the following image to the page:

“It was bad enough living amongst rampant homelessness, public drug use [and] walking among the empty store fronts of old town,” his statement continues. “Now, people like Virginia Bass have passed and continue to pass emergency resolutions to keep us in this locked down state.”

It should be pointed out that Humboldt County is not under any lockdown orders. When it was, in late 2020 and again in mid 2021, the orders came from either California Governor Gavin Newsom or the Humboldt County Health Officer, not the Board of Supervisors.

Koors’s statement continues:

The lock downs, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates have weakened Eureka’s economy even further than it already was. It has made life more depressing than it already was, and it in no way made our lives safer. I want to live a free life again, and I want the horrific psychosis that has inflicted the people of Humboldt County to end. The leaders of Humboldt County during this “Pandemic” have destroyed many lives and livelihoods. If we are to have a brighter future in Humboldt County, it will not be living our lives treating other human beings as external threats to our lives.

Lastly, he lists four things he would focus on as supervisor: 

1. Mandates
2. Homelessness
3. Business Growth
4. Safety and Security

We reached Koors by phone Friday afternoon. During our brief interview he said he’d prefer not to disclose who his employer is. Below is a transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for clarity. 

Lost Coast Outpost: I was just hoping you could tell me a little bit more about yourself. Did you grow up here in Humboldt? 

Koors: I grew up in Santa Rosa until I was 19. And I moved up here to go to Humboldt State University. And then I got married, have kids and now work, et cetera. 

What would you have done differently than Virginia if you had been supervisor?

Well, I mean, it may have been that Virginia didn’t have as much control, you know, so maybe she just kind of went with the flow, I’m not exactly sure. I do know that I think she didn’t oppose it, as far as I know. And so what I would have done is I would have fought a lot harder to oppose it.

To oppose what, exactly?

To oppose the vaccine mandates. And I definitely would not have required that, you know, the county employees have to be vaccinated.

My understanding is that it’s not a requirement that [county employees] have to be vaccinated. If they’re not vaccinated, they just have to undergo weekly testing. Is that what you’re opposed to?

Well, that too. I understand people want to be careful, but as far as I know a lot of people actually did get the vaccine because they felt like it was being imposed, even if it’s not outright. I would have to double-check. But my wife works in a similar situation. It was pretty heavy ​​when it comes to trying to force people to get vaccinated. I think that forcing testing every week, I think it’s a bit over the top. I think, if they were really going to go through with it they would just force testing every time someone didn’t feel well to make sure that it wasn’t COVID. 

So what policy would you advocate for county employees?

Mostly just, you know, do what you feel is necessary for your own safety. That’d be pretty much it.

I saw on John Chiv’s blog he quoted you about going door-to-door. And it sounds like it’s been a little rough. Have you encountered some pushback?

Oh, well, you know, I expected as much. I guess I was hoping that some people — if they realized I was there to get a signature and I was willing to talk with them, even if it did feel confrontational or they were arguing with me and I was arguing with them — that, you know, when they sign the paper, it’s not saying that they’re going to vote for me or anything. It’s just saying that my name is going to be on the ballot. But obviously, you know, if they don’t agree with it at all, I suppose and they just want to make sure that doesn’t even happen. I mean, it’s to be expected.

So this was pushback about your stance on COVID and masks and vaccines?

Not just that. Also the homeless issue. I would say that, in general, most people agree with a lot of the problems that we have, but they don’t necessarily agree with how to solve them. And I think the homeless issue is one of those things that, I think some people on the left think that there’s a way to overcome it and I just, I don’t see how it’s possible to prevent people from becoming homeless. You know, it’s like the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”

I have personal experience with people in my family who have had issues with that and it becomes an impossible thing to deal with. And the question is how much time and capital and resources you want to spend trying to fix a problem that isn’t your own problem but it’s theirs that they have to overcome themselves. Or it may be impossible for them to overcome because of their mental state. And I don’t see letting them live out in the open in our places of community where we come together to shop and try to live as a positive. I think that ends up creating victims of communities themselves.

So what would you do to address the homeless issue?

I don’t know if it’d be possible to do as a supervisor but, I mean, ideally I think we need to reinstate mental institutions. I think a majority of them are mentally unstable and they need to be dealt with that way. I mean, if people were going to be very worried about where they’re going to live versus, you know, them staying on the streets in town versus just pushing them out of the boundaries of the cities and county, I think the only way to deal with it properly would be to have a controlled environment.

I think you’re right that reinstating [mental] institutions would have to be done at the state level. What would your approach be as a county supervisor?

Well, I would try to get funds directed toward that approach. I would try to do my best to figure out a way to find someplace to have a controlled area for them that was supervised, that would make it so that, you know, Eureka wasn’t like an open-air asylum.

I’ve never been a supervisor so I don’t know the boundaries. And you know, it’s like, when you try to look for the job description, what a supervisor is and what they do, you’re not really gonna find one. You don’t really know until you’re in it. So that’s why I was saying, even though I disagree with a lot of the things Virginia Bass did, I’m not sure exactly how much her hands were tied or not. But I don’t feel like she did people like myself any favors, and that’s how I feel about it.

Besides COVID, are there any other specific issues that you disagree with her about?

I’m not sure. I don’t know her full history. I really don’t. The COVID thing was just something that set me off because, you know, it’s hard. It’s hard enough living in the conditions that exist in Eureka, let alone feeling like you’re being oppressed everywhere you go. It just made it to where I was thinking about it nonstop, and so I thought the only way I could alleviate that was to try and do something about it.

I noticed in your statement you put the word pandemic in quotes. What was the reason for that?

Just because when you say pandemic, you know, you have a lot of people that think about it differently. There’s some people that think it’s a hoax. There’s some people that think, well, it’s not that the virus isn’t real or something like that. It’s just that it’s not as infectious as people think it is, or so on and so forth. That’s the only reason why I put it in quotes.

Do you feel it’s not a pandemic?

I feel that it’s overblown. I don’t believe that, you know, it’s something that doesn’t exist or that it’s not a problem, if that makes sense.

I mean, it’s responsible for millions of deaths. Do you dispute that?

Millions of deaths worldwide. And if you look at how different communities have tried to solve the problem, I mean, they’ve done better with, you know, better management. So, I mean, you take Florida and if you look at how they’ve dealt with the pandemic, they’ve been much more free and open, and they’ve been much less restrictive. And their death counts are much lower. So I think I just looked at a snapshot and California is 3.6 times worse than Florida is. That was a snapshot, today or yesterday. The seven-day moving average. And, you know, I don’t know if that’s throughout the pandemic, but I’m pretty sure it’s pretty close. The two states with the worst of the pandemic have been California and New York.

[Note: While it’s true that Florida had a lower COVID-19 case rate than California’s for much of last year — a trend that experts attributed to a variety of factors, including lower housing density, warmer weather and the way Florida counts COVID-19 cases — the rate has since exploded, nearly tripling over the past two weeks as the Omicron variant spreads. Florida’s current daily case rate is 264 per 100,000 residents while California’s is 157 per 100,000.]

Your statement also mentioned business growth. What would you do to promote business growth?

Well, I’m pro-business, anti global corporation. But business-wise, reducing taxes as much as humanly possible for local and small business and small, local corporations. I think that the marijuana industry here is overburdened with taxes and regulations. I think other industries are also overburdened. But like I said, I don’t know what would be available to me to fix those issues.

What about the Measure Z tax? Would you want to repeal that?

Remind me again what Measure Z tax is?

That’s the countywide half-percent sales tax that goes toward public safety and essential services.

Unless that tax is going directly to the police force, yes.

Some of it goes to law enforcement. The Board of Supervisors decides each year how to allocate it, so it gets spread to emergency services and a bunch of different community organizations.

I probably would, in general, yes. 

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At this point in the interview, Koors said he had to get going. “I hope that was enough information for you,” he said.

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It’s a tense and unfamiliar moment for several South Bay Union School District staff, who fear their small, family-like district will soon merge with Eureka City Schools, Humboldt’s largest school system. 

“There’s a lot on the line,” one employee said at a South Bay board meeting in December. “And trust is a big one.” 

In November the South Bay Union School District Board struck a shared services agreement with Eureka City Schools – a deal that includes bringing ECS Superintendent Fred Van Vleck in to serve as superintendent of South Bay. Staff have been suspicious that their small district’s independence is at stake ever since.

SBUSD is a K-8 district of three schools (including one charter) that serves about 500 students; ECS, a pre-K-12 district, oversees 10 schools (including one charter and a preschool) and enrolls 3,600 students. SBUSD spans from just south of Eureka to Loleta, including the neighborhoods of Pine Hill, Humboldt Hill, King Salmon, Elk River and Fields Landing.

After Eureka City Schools’ former assistant superintendent of educational services, Michael Davies-Hughes, left his position in October, ECS hired South Bay’s superintendent Gary Storts to fill the vacancy, leaving South Bay without a superintendent mid-school year. Because it’s not an ideal time to find a qualified applicant for the superintendent position, the school boards at Eureka City Schools and South Bay agreed that a shared-services-and-shared-superintendent agreement for the remainder of the school year was a fair solution. It might be temporary, Van Vleck and board members have said. 

But at South Bay’s December board meeting, more than a dozen employees and parents (but mostly employees) appeared to protest the shared services agreement. Some voiced concerns about what a merger could mean for their students, job security and work life; others vehemently asked the board to seek an alternative to Van Vleck now. People are upset because the agreement was developed behind closed doors, which, they say, is concerning in itself. But they’re further alarmed by Van Vleck’s involvement as a dual superintendent, which they believe indicates groundwork for a merger – the very last thing these staff want. 

When the agreement expires in June, South Bay’s school board will have three choices: hire a new superintendent, extend the shared services agreement, or merge with Eureka City Schools. South Bay staff are making clear which option they support. 

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On Nov. 10, Storts gathered South Bay staff after school and announced his resignation, one employee told the Outpost. That evening, the shared services agreement was solidified during closed session of a regular board meeting. Minutes before open session, Storts announced the deal to staff via email. 

“There was none of this brought to our attention when he resigned. Nobody saw this. This is completely unprecedented,” said one staff member. (Three South Bay employees spoke with the Outpost for this story, and each asked not to be named.) “We were all just like, ‘What the heck happened?’”

The agreement doesn’t specify what services the two districts will share. It outlines the duties of the superintendent, conditions of termination of the agreement and “general provisions” of the agreement, such as how to modify it. 

A press release issued later that day by Eureka City Schools was more specific. The districts might share services related to nursing, social-emotional health and students with disabilities, as well as business and personnel services in maintenance, transportation, construction, technology and food services, the press release said. 

“It is important to note, no current employees will lose their jobs.”

The press release also provided more background about the agreement. Though excited for the new ECS position, Storts left South Bay hoping to continue supporting the small district. Van Vleck also has a history with South Bay — his mother worked there for more than 40 years as a teacher and administrator. 

“Dr. Van Vleck and Mr. Storts both have an incredible interest in making this agreement work,” the press release said. 

At the December board meeting, prior to public comment, South Bay board member Jacob Coan read a statement on behalf of the board. Coan clarified that when Storts informed the board of his plans to resign (some time prior to his staff-wide announcement), the board discussed finding an interim superintendent. Van Vleck offered to step in and suggested a shared services agreement in tandem. At a special board meeting on Nov. 3, the board discussed the potential agreement in closed session (no action was taken). 

In an email to the Outpost, Van Vleck clarified that ECS will be compensated for its services with the remaining superintendent salary. 

The vagueness of the agreement alarmed staff. During public comment in December, some people requested a breakdown of how the arrangement and those funds to ECS will actually serve South Bay. 

“I am wondering if there have been any reports or analysis done that we could see at this point of how shared services or merging would benefit us,” said one employee. “I would just love to see a lot more information, and I wonder if that information even exists.”

The shared services agreement is muddy, one employee told the Outpost. “There’s really not any clarity on how this is even supposed to take place. What services are you trying to share?” she said. “I have yet to see any way that they could provide any services to either aid or improve what we’re already doing.”

That said, once ECS does provide some amount of services, “isn’t that going to give them more fuel to say, ‘See? You need us.’” That would only boost an argument for merging, the employee said. “I know that that’s what they want to do.”

Van Vleck told the Outpost in an email that the shared services are a work in progress. 

“Any positions that are shared other than administrative must be negotiated with the respective association first. Thus far, ECS has our network administrator assisting in the installation of the new South Bay phone system over the [winter] break. Since their network is down, we also have some South Bay employees continuing to work using the ECS network. In the area of fiscal services, buildings, transportation and food services, the ECS Assistant Superintendent of Business Services has visited both South Bay sites with the ECS Directors. They had some preliminary conversations on areas where it makes sense to share services,” Van Vleck said, adding that “the scope and magnitude of the shared services are still being developed.”

Van Vleck and Storts have underlined that students are to benefit from the deal. The employees we spoke with said that, at best, nothing has changed for students, and, at worst, teachers’ stress from the situation has affected their capacity to be available for students. 

“I haven’t seen anything really happen, except that I know that our principals meet and go to meetings with Eureka City Schools now. So if there is, it’s behind closed doors, from my perspective,” a teacher said. 

“I’m doing the same exact thing. So nothing has changed for me. If anything, it’s caused me more stress and fear, which impacts my ability to be a good teacher…there hasn’t really been a big change except for maybe the mindset and vibe around the campus.”

Another employee suggested that students might not have noticed Storts’ departure on its own.

“This administrator, he was not really engaged with students as a whole. He didn’t go around and observe classrooms or talk to kids in the hall, or anything that would have a direct effect on the children,” she said. 

“You could get 10 kids in a row here and ask them if they knew who this person was, and they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you.” 

Not having a superintendent for a month or two during a recruitment period? The students would be none the wiser, this employee guessed. 

“However, rocking these teachers and support staff to the core, to where now they’re scared, they’re terrified for their jobs or the future of our district? And now they’re supposed to just pull it all together and go into a classroom and provide the care and education for these kids?” she said. 

“That’s asking a lot of any human being that has been shaken this way. These are the kinds of things that will affect students.”

###

After seeking clarifications about the agreement and its necessity, some staff said they felt unheard.

“The lack of transparency and the feeling that our concerns are not being taken seriously when they are heard at all is troubling,” one employee said at the December meeting. “If that’s not what you meant, it’s definitely the way it has come across. From the very beginning, this has been handled poorly.”

The shared services agreement and its seemingly secretive conception left some staff feeling certain that its only purpose is to pave the way for a merger. 

“I feel like our district isn’t broken, and so there’s nothing to fix. And this is messing with things that aren’t broken,” said one employee, who added she has loved working at South Bay. “Like, ‘Here, we’re gonna give you this right now, and then down the road, don’t be surprised when we absorb you.’… It doesn’t really seem like there’s any other way it would go.”

It’s the sudden possibility that a merger could be on the table that seems to be what’s most alarming to staff. 

“I applied to work at a small school district on purpose,” said one staff member at the December meeting. “I never applied to work at Eureka City Schools on purpose.” 

Why the staunch opposition to joining ECS?

“I think what makes us unique and one of our strengths is that we are so small,” one employee said. “You really do get a chance to know them (the students) and what makes each one of them unique. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it feels like a family.”

 And families, too, choose South Bay for its size, employees said.  

“They’ve made that choice for a reason. I’m one of those parents,” said a South Bay employee. “I do not live in the district, but I chose this district because that’s what I wanted my kids to experience – a small community feel, and not get lost in the shuffle.”

After going through South Bay, both her kids went to Eureka High, which went okay for one of them, but not well for the other, who was injured at the beginning of the school year and left unattended when requesting a 504 plan for his recovery period. 

“They wouldn’t even schedule a meeting until sometime in November, when school starts in August. And at that point, he would have already been through an entire trimester of school and wouldn’t be able to keep up like the rest of his peers. That’s unacceptable. And I’m just one person that has experienced this kind of treatment with ECS,” she said. She ultimately sent her son elsewhere.

“We have our finger on the pulse of what’s going on with all of our kids – the ones that need the most help, the ones that are doing fantastic – we know all of them. And that doesn’t happen in a big school system, and I think that’s why parents choose South Bay School District.”

Other employees said the same. 

“I’ve heard about issues, I’ve heard what happens – it’s not something that I want to be a part of as an employee and it’s not something that I’m interested in for my child,” one employee said. “There are so many families even that have come from ECS – they specifically want to be part of a small district – people who aren’t interested in being part of the ECS, I guess, machine, for lack of a better word.”

Keeping housing insecure kids in particular from falling through the cracks is a main concern for Cassi Le-Hue, the district’s Family Resource Center coordinator, who spoke at the December meeting. Between one-fourth and one-fifth of South Bay students are identified as Mckinney-Vento, or homeless, which is very high, Le-Hue said. These families are hard to keep track of and it can be challenging to connect them with resources.

“Families and staff at Eureka City Schools, when we’ve shared families, tell me they’re glad that kids have ended up in my district, because we didn’t lose them, and that’s really hard,” Le-Hue said. “I don’t want to lose these families if we merge. I’m afraid of that. It took a long time to identify them and it took even longer to build that trust to get them willing to come in and ask for those resources. And now with COVID I think it’s more important than ever that we keep those paths open and we continue supporting them in our small district.”

Employees are also worried about job security. They predict that if the two districts were to merge, some South Bay positions would become obsolete.

“They keep saying that nobody’s jobs are at risk right now. Okay, what does that mean? Does that mean you’re just going to find some spot for somebody to do something that is not typically what they already do? Are you going to pay them the same salary that we’re getting paid here? Are we gonna have the same benefits?” one employee wondered. “It’s so muddy. When they say blanket phrases like that – that’s not reassuring.”

With a merger, it would make the most sense for ECS to just add South Bay’s campuses to its list of duties, that employee speculated, which could eliminate some positions, like department heads.

“These are some people that have been here for a very long time. Their retirement is completely invested in this district,” she said. “To have that potentially stripped away at this point is pretty frightening.”

A South Bay teacher said that ECS is “notorious for seeing their teachers as being expendable.” 

“I mean, there are amazing teachers at Eureka City Schools that have been there for years,” she said. “But at the same time, the district isn’t known for loving their teachers.” 

Last month, Van Vleck told Redheaded Blackbelt that “unequivocally, no jobs are at risk at this point.” Both districts are understaffed and struggling to hire people. “We are trying to hire people, not trying to lay off people,” he said. 

Lathe Gill, Humboldt’s regional California Teachers Association representative, is familiar with the situation. Noting that he doesn’t have strong feelings about it one way or the other, Gill said that it seems as though opposition to a merger is mostly rooted in concerns about workplace culture. There are significant distinctions in culture and politics between Humboldt’s school districts, he said, especially between large and small districts. But in terms of overall teacher happiness, Gill said, ECS is “not a model.”

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One employee we spoke with claimed that ECS has wanted to absorb South Bay for a long time. That employee has discussed ECS’s interest with Storts in the past, and Storts was “very much opposed” to joining the larger district. 

“I know where Eureka wants to go with this. And for some reason, at this point, [Storts is] on board with it,” the employee said. “We’re all scared because we don’t know what’s going to happen.” 

Gill said that, in some ways, a merger between the two districts would make sense, given an overlap in student demographics. 

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that [Van Vleck] would be interested in absorbing South Bay,” Gill said, noting that Eureka is facing declining enrollment, which reduces the scope of offerings the district can provide. 

Led by Van Vleck, Eureka City Schools has a history of pursuing legal action to try and hold onto students. 

In 2017, for instance, Eureka City Schools and Cutten School District came to a settlement agreement after CSD violated education code by enrolling 25% of their student body with students residing in the ECS district. At the time, ECS wanted to resolve the conflict with an implementation of “enrollment management practices” but in the end, CSD ended up paying $260,000, which was the smaller district’s preference. 

Also in 2017, Van Vleck pursued a cap on inter-district transfers, which would have forced most Eureka families to enroll their kids in the school nearest their home. 

And twice – once in 2016 and again in 2018 – ECS filed or threatened litigation against out-of-district charter schools because they were operating facilities within ECS district boundaries, despite being chartered by other districts. In the 2016 case, ECS and Pacific View Charter School came to a settlement agreement that capped the number of Eureka-based students the charter was allowed to enroll. The following year, Pacific View became rechartered by its former adversary, and has since been a part of ECS. 

Asked about his interest in absorbing South Bay, Van Vleck clarified that it’s not up to him. “ECS and South Bay merging is controlled by the ECS and South Bay Boards, not by me,” he told the Outpost. “As such, I will follow their direction. In the meantime, it is my desire and responsibility to provide the best possible student learning for both school Districts.” 

Is there hope for South Bay’s worried staff? It probably depends on how committed they are to keeping the district independent, Gill predicted – how loud they are for the remainder of the shared services agreement. 

Staff are hopeful that folks invested in the situation will keep tabs on it. 

“It doesn’t take very long before things start to cool down and then people start to forget or don’t show up to as many meetings as they should,” an employee said. “And this is going to be an ongoing thing for the next six months that we really need to keep an eye on and be active in convincing our school board to do the right thing and keep South Bay School [District] intact.” 

A teacher told the Outpost she is hopeful that the ECS will run into legal roadblocks in a potential consolidation effort. 

“I’m really hoping that when it comes down to all of the legal aspects, that it’s going to be too difficult for them to do it. And hopefully, they won’t.”

Staff will likely be speaking out against a merger again at this month’s board meeting, scheduled for Jan. 11. An agenda and location for the meeting should be posted here 72 hours prior. The board recently rescinded the option to email public comment, and so folks interested in sharing their view will have to go in person, unless that policy is revoked before then. (One person said the new policy seems like a silencing tactic, given the record-breaking COVID surge underway.)

“I just encourage the community to pay attention to what’s going on, attend board meetings, and to ask questions,” one employee said. “And to not stop.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Humboldt State University Hires School’s First African American Police Chief
• Humboldt State University Police Department to Create New Unarmed Campus Patrol Position

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Press release from Humboldt State University:

University Police Chief Anthony Morgan has accepted a position as Chief of Police at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. The University thanks Chief Morgan for his dedicated service over the past year.

“It has been an honor to work in service of the students, faculty, staff, and guests of Humboldt State University. I have enjoyed many of the relationships we were able to solidify over the last year. The ongoing pandemic continues to present some unique challenges. It has not stopped our ability to interact in a positive manner with the campus community. I am grateful for my team’s increased efforts to engage the community and the overwhelmingly positive response to those efforts. I am confident the department will stay the course of service to the community,” says Morgan.

Morgan developed several programs and services during his time at Humboldt State, helping to enhance relations between the University Police Department and students. He created an advisory panel of campus community members and met with a wide range of people and groups. He also developed a non-sworn officer position to respond to mental health crises and other incidents, in an effort to improve campus safety. Most notably, Chief Morgan led efforts to get to know all of the resident students in housing, utilizing campus partnerships to enhance officer training, and shifting the culture within UPD to one that embraces change.

“I appreciate Chief Morgan’s commitment to safety and community building, especially during this challenging past year. I wish him well on this move and future endeavors,” says Shahrooz Roohparvar, Vice President of Administration & Finance.

Morgan’s last day will be Jan. 28. HSU has begun the search for an interim police chief and will be engaging a search firm to assist in filling the permanent position. The University aims for a July 1 start of the new permanent chief. The selection process will be inclusive and transparent with opportunities for our campus community to participate in selecting the right Chief for HSU. Additional information about filling the Chief position will be shared in the near future.