Where's Rocky now?

Sonoma State professor Rocky Rohwedder is spending his summer teaching through Semester at Sea.

Follow his voyage here: www.sonoma.edu/ensp/rocky.

Sonoma State University will offer a one-day course on sustainability and the built environment on July 25.

The all day course runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Darwin Hall 102 and will go over "a snapshot view of the current state of the global environment, the concept of sustainability, and the critical role that our land-use play in fossil fuel consumption and climate change," according to organizers.

The class will be taught by Alex Hinds and John Shurtz.

The fee is $175 and deadline for registration is July 22.

For more information go to www.sonoma.edu/socsci

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hosted the 21st annual Scholarship Awards Gala For a Better Tomorrow on June 20 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Rohnert Park. Eight scholars were honored:

Maria Linda Burola of Cloverdale High

Rosalva Favila of Santa Rosa Junior College

Blanca R. Flores of Sonoma State University

Gisela Garcia of Sonoma Valley High

Roberto Gonzalez-Huerta of Petaluma High

Fabian Santiago of Santa Rosa Junior College

Nicole Tafoya of Empire College

Luis M. Urena of Santa Rosa Junior College

The event was hosted by master of ceremonies Brent Farris and included performances by Ballet Folklorico Sonatlan and Salsamania Dance Company. The keynote speaker was Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo.

There is a 54-page report on Wednesday's Santa Rosa City Schools agenda on the proposed number of minutes elementary schoolers should be given instruction. It's heavy on data and largely a procedural item, but a few things popped out at me.

Like this: In 1982-82 kindergartners had 31,680 instruction minutes per year. In 2008-09, that number jumped to between 42,355 and 42,920. First through third graders in '82-'83 had instructional minutes totaling 42,240 while last year that number was between 54,020 and 55,105 minutes. Fourth through sixth graders jumped from 49,280 to between 54,020 and 55,105.

Does that mean the school day is getting longer or the hours/minutes in each day are more and more being devoted to core instruction rather than arts, music, physical education and the so-called "extras"?

And if you think counting the minutes doesn't matter, check out this story. The Los Angeles reported last week on a school district in Chino that had to forgo summer vacation because a district bureaucratic mistake. Click here to read the story.

I recently wrote about Sonoma State professor Rocky Rohwedder's summer teaching through Semester at Sea.

Well, his blog is up and running. Follow his voyage here: www.sonoma.edu/ensp/rocky,

Recent blogs on the debate over the California High School Exit Exam has generated a lot of response. Here is one from a Sonoma County mom of two high school students:

"Thank you for bringing to light some of the issues of the High School Exit Exam in conjunction with our state deficit.

"As a mother of two high school students, one being a Special Ed. student, I have personally seen how this test, as well as the STAR test, have become a waste of time and money.

"Just to start with, Special Ed. students have to have these tests specially modified for them to take, which costs money as well as valuable classroom time. And speaking of the classroom time loss, the Exit Exam, on its own, takes at least two weeks of testing time, if not more, time that could be better spent learning.

"Also, the Exit Exam as well as the STAR test, prove nothing. There is no proof that students have or do not have the knowledge they need to succeed in society based on these tests. What these tests prove, is that a fraction of our student population can take a test.

"What we need to do, in my opinion, is expect higher standards of education on the college level for students going into the educational field. All too often I experienced administrators and teachers, who haven't the training, ability or knowledge to be teaching or over seeing education and frankly, this isn't their fault. College standards have dropped, to some extend, in the teaching field.

"For example, I have run into young teachers who have never taken Latin and are teaching English. How can we expect them to teach our children English if they, themselves, don't know the origin of our language?

"Unfortunately there are to many flaws with the educational system of our state, as well as our country, just too many to point out. And a lot of great programs, ie. Shop and Industrial Arts, that are being cut.

"But, I do think that we as a society need to make education a priority in our communities and work together to solve these problems. For these young people, some day, will be the ones we will have to put our trust in to make decisions for us all and wouldn't we like them to be able to make an educated decision?"

The mood was light at the Doyle Park picnic where the Maria Carrillo class of 1999 gathered Saturday to celebrate their 10-year reunion. In the days leading up to the event, students filled me in on the trials of opening a new school, but also the fun of exploring unchartered territory.

They had no idea who their rival was or really, what high school should be like. So they said they made it what they wanted (within reason, said founding Principal Pam Devlin).

On Saturday, Devlin was on hand to greet her former students and read a passage from Lillian Hellman's Pentimento. Here it is:

"Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter 'repented,' changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again. That is all I mean about the people in this book. The paint has aged and I wanted to see what was there for me once, what is there for me now. "

Jennifer and John Webley of Santa Rosa have given $50,000 to the new "Bridging the Doyle" scholarship campaign at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Blog readers will remember reading about the new campaign in coverage of the annual community luncheon (replete with quiz) and address given by SRJC president Robert Agrella in May.

The Webleys have committed $50,000 to the program that is meant to provide scholarships to students who have lost out on their chance for a Doyle Scholarship.

The Doyle Scholarship has awarded $76 million to nearly 120,000 students in six decades of scholarships funded by Exchange Bank stock dividends.

But Exchange Bank has suspended its dividend payments this year and no new Doyle applications are being accepted.

Agrella said last month that generating $1.2 million for the bridge fund is achievable.

See that story here

John Webley founded Advanced Fibre Communications in Petaluma, as well as Turin Networks and now manages Pax Streamline, a clean tech startup in Novato.

For more on the fundraising campaign, check out their website at www.santarosa.edu/bridgingthedoyle or by calling the SRJC Foundation at 527-4348.

Schools Plus, a 20-year-old organization once known primarily for its annual telethon that generated heaps of money for music, athletic and art programs in Santa Rosa City Schools is back. Well, they never went away, but the telethon died in 2008 and with it went much of the exposure for the non-profit group.

In the face of deep budget cuts and a struggling California economy, the group has re-emerged with a new website (they are even on Facebook!) and a higher profile push for support. Backers hope locals will give to the group despite the emergence of individual fundraising groups for nearly every campus in the city.

The new website is at www.schoolsplus.org and you can friend the group on Facebook (they had five friends as of Friday night...I'll check back later to see how they are doing).

Since 1991, the group has raised more than $2 million to restore and maintain programs that would have fallen victim to budget cuts. Meantime, the Schools Plus endowment has steadily grown year after year thanks in large part to a successful golf tournament.

Giving the group some of its renewed energy is John Bribiescas, a now-retired English teacher from Santa Rosa High. Bribiescas left the classroom in May but is spearheading the Schools Plus push.