division 55 mendocino county california retired … got pretty good at milking her neighbor’s...
TRANSCRIPT
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected]
FIELD TRIPS FOR RETIREES The core purpose of CalRTA you can see on the masthead above. As one of the smaller Divisions in the state our Mendocino group of 320 members spread all over the country from Florida to Hawaii has a hard time going out to give teacher grants, man booths at flea markets, raise money for libraries, etc. I believe our first obligation is to our members. We have David Walrath in Sacramento as our leg-
islative advocate and we can each con-tact our legislators on our own. See page 7 on an easy way to do that. Most of our members are in CalRTA as supporters and do
not want to take an active part in meetings or social activities.
So far the only social activities we have had are general meetings and some wine and cheese parties on the Coast and in Ukiah. Now I would like to propose that we offer day bus trips for our members. My wife and I went to Reno with Daytripping, Inc. on December 20th and 21st. For $333 each we got a 460 mile RT ride on a luxurious bus for
40 people. For a couple driving together and sharing a room here’s the value of what Daytripping paid for: cost of driving: $115, coffee and donuts on the bus: $10, hot lunch/wine on the bus: $15, cocktail party before dinner: $10 (skipped,
Division 55 Officers
Inside this issue:
Division 55 Mendocino County
California Retired Teachers Association January 2018
CalRTA.org
Core Purpose: To enhance and protect the benefits of retired educators.
Major Goal: To be the dominant authoritative voice for all retired educators
President-Ed TePas Publicity/Historian-Sharon Bianchi
President elect-open Communications-Gayle DeVries Facebook-Fiina Jolley
V. P. Programs-Marie Myers & Gayle DeVries Legislation and Insurance-Ilene Weeks
Recording Sec.-Jim Denham Scholarships-Bob Bender & Beverly Spence Sunshine Coast-I. Malone
Treasurer-Cynthia Speed Newsletter-Ed TePas Sunshine Inland-Gayle DeVries
Membership team-Chair Ed TePas, Paul Ubelhart, Allen & Marna Garcia Website Team– E. TePas, P. Ubelhart
Mark Your Calendar
Div. 55 will meet Tuesday, January 23 in Willits at Szechuan Asian
Restaurant at 47 E. Mendocino Ave. Program: Mark Westerburg,
Superintendent Willits USD (see page 2). Time: 11:30 to 1:30.
Menu: All-u-can-eat Buffet (c. p.2). Cost: $16 (includes tip).
Reservations required by January 20th. Contact:
[email protected] or 456-0908.
Non-member retirees get a free lunch!
enough at lunch), dinner at the award winning bistro, Roxy, in the El Dorado:$35, “Unbelieveables” show:$58, room in the Silver Legacy:$50, buffet breakfast : $15, lunch at Sweetpeas in Auburn: $15. Total it up and we got a rounded out value of $311
without the hassle of driving or buying any tickets. All these calculations are to assure you that traveling with Daytripping, Inc. is great value. There were 38 adults of which 14 were couples and ten were single women.
Most of the travelers looked like sen-iors except for Geri who looked 60 but was 85!
The luxury bus with a bath-
room and galley would cost upwards of a million today. Spencer cooked Sliders for lunch on the bus and was
very generous with the Sauvignon Blanc. Just like a dining car! Fun! This trip began and ended in Santa Rosa. Spencer
Gold, Tour Director, assures me that Division 55 could have their own day trips from Ukiah. Most trips could be arranged from $85 to $100 depending on meals and admission tickets if needed. Some possible desti-nations could be: Safari West, Santa Rosa; Golden Gate Park, SF; Alcatraz; cruise SF Bay; Oakland Zoo; suggestions welcome. ET, Pres. [more on page 2]
Speaker, stats, …Health……...2
Bev Kelly, Willits..……..…… ….3
Jim Schroeder, Willits……...….4
Advocacy Action. A scam.……5
Membership..Senior Tips…....6
Legislation. Pre-Retire in FB. 7
Enrollment form………………....8
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 2
In Memoriam
Gary Weinkauf, 73, Nov. 11, Ukiah
Cynthia Speed, Treasurer
Treasurer’s Report
December 23, 2017
Savings $2,755.60
Checking 7,979.76
Total $10,735.71
Scholarship Fund
September 30, 2017…
$61,436.52
9 New Members
Ukiah Unified: Lisa Bregger,
Renee Rutledge, Anne Shirako,
Debra Franks.
Willits Unified: Gwen Rasmussen.
LA Unified: Jack Bothwell
Potter Valley: Tecy Banta
MCOE: Kathleen Dysert (Indiana)
Mendo-Lake CC: Holly Brackman
Szechuan Luncheon Buffet Menu
Egg rolls
Orange Beef
Almond Chicken
Vegetable Chow
Mein
Steam Rice
Szechuan String Beans
Hot Tea
Answers on Page 5
MARK WESTERBURG
JANUARY 23 LUNCHEON SPEAKER
WILLITS USD SUPERINTENDENT
Superintendent Mark Westerburg took over the position at Willits Unified School District in July 2016. Mark was born in Cleveland, Ohio but grew up in Michigan. He has four adult sons and his wife Lisa is passionately involved with animal rescues. Mr. Westerburg began his career in education as a social stud-ies teacher and coach. In 2001 Mark moved into school management, he has been a site administrator for all grades levels, a director for sev-eral different departments including, athletics, curriculum, human re-
resources, maintenance and op-erations, and technology. Westerburg also spent two years as a Superintendent in Montana and 7 years as Superintendent of New Buffalo Area Schools. He bills himself as a K-12 improve-ment specialist, creative problem solver and leader of trimesters. org.
One of the
world’s tire-
some ques-
tions is what
object one
would bring to
a desert island, because peo-
ple always answer “A deck of
cards” or “ Anna Karenina”
when the obvious answer is
“a well-equipped boat and a
crew to sail me off the island
and back home where I can
play all the card games and
read all the Russian novels I
want.” Horseradish by Lemony Snicket
ABOUT DAYTRIPPING, INC.
Founded in 1989, in 1992
John Peterson bought the company.
John is still owner and he even
drives his busses. In the early years
trips were one day only thus the
name “Daytripping.” Soon over-
nighters and longer trips were or-
ganized. About ten people are em-
ployed and Spencer has been the
tour director for nine years.
This is a well managed
company. For more informa-
tion go to:
www.daytrippingdestinations-
.com or call 707-577-8894.
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 3
Bev Kelly, Willits
B ev Kelly likes to travel so much that
she is willing to substitute teach four
days a week in Willits, , Covelo, and
Ukiah. She is a smart traveler and cuts
costs by hooking up with E. F. Tours. But
still CalSTRS alone is not enough for where
Bev wants to go. Her favorite country is
Spain even though she does not speak Spanish.
“I’m not good at foreign languages,” Bev says.
She has also been to Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, British
Isles, Egypt, Africa, China, and a cruise to Alaska.
Her sister is married to a foreign diplomat which
has facilitated much of her travels.
First let’s go back to the beginnings. Bev Morse
was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont close to 50
miles from the Canadian border. In the 1940s the
town contained three major industries. Each was
the largest in the world. One was Fairbanks
Scales, another was a maple sugar candy com-
pany, a third made candlepins for bowling. She
has an older brother and two younger sisters. The
family soon moved to East Andover, NH which is
about 90 miles north of Boston. Bev was very ac-
tive in 4-H and took piano
from age seven. There was no
money for any music program
in her high school so Bev
stepped up and became the
choir director. Besides winning
4-H awards for clothing exhib-
its and food demonstrations
Bev got pretty good at milking her neighbor’s
cows.
At the University of New Hampshire in Durham
close to the seacoast Bev majored in music educa-
tion. She was dating her future husband Don and
they married in Bev’s junior year. Her husband
was an electrical engineer and got a scholarship at
USC before Bev could start her senior year at
UNH. So it was off to LA and having three kids in
five years and spending the next ten years as a
part time student at USC and a full time mother.
During this time she sang professionally in church
choirs and with the Gregg Smith Singers and
Roger Wagner Chorale.
By 1967, in her tenth year at USC, it was “finish
your degree work or lose all your credits.” She fin-
ished with a vocal music education major. She
taught vocal music for LA Unified for two years
and followed her husband to MIT in Cambridge,
Mass. where he worked on the Polaris missile pro-
ject for Hughes Aircraft. In 1968 they returned to
LA where Bev did general education teaching. In
1970 they were divorced and Bev did long-
term subbing mainly as elementary choral
music teacher for five years. When choral
music jobs opened up in Lodi, she hauled
her two high school boys up north and
worked for nine years there. In Lodi the
three Kellys enjoyed a lot of swimming, ski-
ing, and camping.
During this time Bev bought a lot in Ran-
cho Murieta, a gated community of about
2,000, 45 minutes north of Lodi. She designed
the 1,800 square foot passive solar home with the
help of a home designer. She drove to the site al-
most daily after school to make sure the contrac-
tors where doing things right. She also swept up
the daily contractors’ messes . She quit her job in
Lodi after hurting her back hauling heavy loads of
books upstairs in her new home. She taught pi-
ano, voice, and guitar in her new home in a bowl-
like cul-de-sac with five neighbors within 150 feet.
Her five neighbors declared the music a “public
nuisance.” So it was off to the sunshine of Tampa,
FL. She likes to swim and took advantage of a
condo pool five minutes away. Her frequent tres-
passing was never questioned. In Tampa she
taught elementary vocal music and began a Boliv-
ian import business with the help of her sister who
was living in Bolivia.
With the desire to be close to her son Scott’s
family in Point Arena, Bev moved to Mendocino
after two years. With no teaching work
on the coast, Bev worked on her import
business of Bolivian fabric products like
backpacks and table cloths. Alas the
business became a non-profit and had
to be shut down.
A break came in 1998 with a job in
Covelo teaching elementary choral, band, and
string music. While renting in Covelo, Bev bought
a home in Brooktrails near Sherwood Road. As a
retiree Bev served for seven years as music direc-
tor at the Fort Bragg Presbyterian Church. Bev has
been playing the organ for 15 years and likes the
sound and the atmosphere of a church.
She will be off to some faraway place this sum-
mer with her two fun sisters.
1956
Grand dau Kaitlyn, Dau-in-law Lynsey, son Scott, Bev, dau Dawn
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 4
Jim Schroeder WILLITS
J im was born in 1949 in Wichita, KS
but his mom took Jim and his four
younger siblings to El Paso after a di-
vorce. In school he was very active in just
about every sport. In his sophomore year
Jim went to live with his father in Sunny-
vale. He played his last days of football at
De Anza JC in Cupertino. He spent one quarter of his
junior year at Cal Poly as a walk-on football player
but was too short to be the tight end they were look-
ing for. He found a home at SF State as a wide re-
ceiver but that came to an end with a serious knee
injury. He ended up graduating from San Jose State
with a major in PE and a minor in social studies.
Because of Affirmative Action in 1975 he could
not find a job in California and went to Melbourne,
Australia After two years teaching PE in an all boys
tech school he returned to San Jose and did substi-
tute teaching when a light came on regarding the
preponderance of female Special Ed teachers for a
preponderance of male students. Looking down the
road, Jim saw an opportunity in the special education
field and got the credentials to teach it from Santa
Cruz University.
His first job in the U.S. was at Milpitas High School
where he was the varsity football coach. At the Fort
Bragg Salmon Festival he heard about a Special Ed
teacher/football coach job at Willits High School.
From 1981 to 2011 Jim was the Resource Specialist
teacher at WHS. This meant getting his students
ready to make it in the world. He also did a lot of
coaching. His 1993 football team won the NCL I
championship. He won five girls basketball champi-
onships in six years. “Not the first year, I didn’t know
what I was doing,” Jim says. He
learned fast watching hours of vid-
eos of the best college coaches. I
asked him who his best basketball
player was. He said it was hard to
say but he is very proud of Allison
Binney who came from a humble
start in life to graduating from Ari-
zona State, getting a law degree,
and working in D.C. for Native
American causes.
As a resource specialist Jim’s goal was to enable
his Special Education students to get a piece of the
American pie by practicing job interviews, punctual-
ity, and responsibility—e.g. call in if you can’t work.
As Jim puts it, “Reading, writing, and staying out of
jail.” He is pleased with the legalization of marijuana
for a couple of reasons: let the growers pay taxes
like the rest of us, and now their kids don’t have to
lie about what their parents do for a liv-
ing. He was married for twelve years and
had a daughter and a son. He has been
married to Rachel for 22 years. They met
in a most unusual way. Jim’s friends from
Santa Cruz set him up on a blind date in
Sacramento. They went to a karaoke bar
and grill where Jim was blown away by
the looks of a very attractive woman. He
ditched his blind date and followed the
one who caught his eye, Rachel, into the
ladies’ room and leaned back on the sink and said,
“I’m Jim Schroeder from Willits.” Needless to say Ra-
chel was not blown away then and there but eventu-
ally she was. Jim’s Santa Cruz friends were not
happy about how he treated his blind date.
The Kids. His daugh-
ter Cheyenne, 34, is
assistant purchasing
manager for Spare
Time Supply in Willits
and is single. His son
Tyler, 30, is an intelli-
gence tech for Ricoh in
SF and lives in Pied-
mont with his beautiful
Zambian wife and
Jim’s first grandchild.
His stepson Wyatt, 33,
works for Hewlett Packard in San Diego as project
manager and IT. Cheyenne and Tyler were captains
on almost every team they played for at WHS. All
three of these young people graduated from Chico
State without any debts by work-
ing through school and some help
from mom and dad.
Jim and Rachel play golf a couple
times a week in Ukiah. He subs
mostly at WHS because that’s
where he feels most comfortable.
He works out at a fitness center
walking and lifting weights. They
like to travel with Arizona and New
Orleans their favorites. Jim likes to
read Civil War history and cur-
rently is reading
Steinbeck’s Travels
with Charley.
Finally, I can-
not end without men-
tioning his very cute
noisy little dogs
Bronson and Jaxon
(the feisty one). ■ et
1997
Wyatt, Cheyenne, and Tyler down Mexico way
Allison 1990
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 5
INSURANCE
Click on CalRTA’s new ADVOCACY ACTION PAGE. It’s now easier to keep up on legislation that affects
YOU! Click on the link below or copy and paste to get involved. https://calrta.org/advocacy-action/
Congress has passed a tax reform bill and many of the proposed items will affect seniors. One of the most devastating is repealing the Medical Ex-pense Deductions that allowed for taxpayers 65 years and older from deducting medical expenses greater than 10% of their income. The proposal would repeal this needed deduction. While already struggling with high health care cost, this repeal will potentially cost the oldest, sickest and lowest income citizens thousands of dollars annu-ally in higher federal taxes. Please call, or email your Representatives and demand they remove tax increases for seniors from the proposed budget. Go to the link above to do this.
Answers to page 2 graphic
Consumer Reports (Nov. 2017)
If You Ever Hear This Four-Word Phrase When
You Pick Up the Phone, Hang Up Immediately.
If you receive a call and immediately hear the phrase 'Can
you hear me?' hang up. The phrase is used to coax you into
saying 'yes,' a word that, if said in your voice, is as good as
gold for con artists.
The person on the other end will be record-
ing the call, and can now use the track of
you saying 'yes' to access your sensitive in-
formation. But how? you may ask. The three
letter word is used frequently by companies
to confirm account changes, security set-
tings, and purchases, and now this hacker has extensive ac-
cess to your stuff.
To avoid these calls, be wary of unknown or unrecognizable
numbers, always keep your personal information private, and
don’t be afraid to question the legitimacy of the caller. Al-
though countering back with 'Can YOU
hear me now?' may seem like the ideal
way to really stick it to the scammer, it’s
probably best to resist that urge. [Golden- Hinde Sight, November 2017 CalRTA Div. 37]
CalRTA continues to offer the Emergency Loan Fund. If you have suffered a fire loss,
go to: https://calrta.org/wp-content/uploads/Emergency-Loan-Fund-Application-
2017-10-20-1.pdf
This has to be the best book I read in
2017. Had JFK lived tens of thousands
of GIs would not have died and the
Cold War would have ended but the
voice for peace had to be silenced.
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 6
MEMBERSHIP
Ed TePas We keep trying and the new
members trickle in. I think there are
many retirees out there who are sitting
on the fence and one day the fence col-
lapses and they say to themselves, “You know, I think
it’s about time I supported CalRTA and took care of my-
self.”
Current unofficial membership count is 320. In Sep-
tember we mailed 600 Redwood Barks and an additional
35 separate appeal letters. The shocking result, to me
at least, is only nine of these recipients joined. On the
positive side, there are a lot of people seeing our news-
letter and we will be there when they fall or jump off
the fence.
Some interesting stats for some of you. The 635 ap-
peals resulted in 56 (8.8%) returns to sender. Of the 56
returns: 10 were deceased, 27 were resent to an up-
dated address, and 19 were untraceable and deleted
from our data base. We have gone from hours of hand-
written addresses to using Avery labels. Bulk mailing is
not a savings for us so postage is a major expense at 49¢ a mailing. Folding, labeling, and stamping is done
by a group of volunteers especially Marna and Allan
Garcia, Barbara Elsberry, Sharon Bianchi, Geri Lusnia,
Helen TePas, and Paul Ubelhart.
The biggest donor of all is the Mendocino County
Office of Education that provides us with their magical
color printer four times a year to print the Bark.
We will send another 600 mailings after Christmas to
all our non-member retirees. Have you got more money
than you need? Give a retiree a one year membership.
If you are not in CalRTA and are reading this I am
delighted you are interested. What is holding you back
from supporting all the retired educators in California?
Dues? Can’t be that at $4.50/month. Meetings? Can’t
be that--come only if you like. Politics? CalRTA does
not endorse political candidates. We do not tell you who
to vote for. CalRTA only fights for causes related to your
pension or education. (next column)
I even know a member who voted for and loves
Trump. You are all welcome. Some people say, “I
went to a meeting and everyone looked so old.”
My answer to that is, “Someday you will look like
that and so what?” You do not have to be a so-
cialite to benefit from CalRTA. You have a pension.
There’s a lot of
money in the
CalSTRS vault and
some people
(politicians and
others) think it is
too much and are
trying to take it
away. Look at
WEP and GPO. The current political situation does
not look good for public employees’ pensions. If
you decide to support CalRTA now you can relax
knowing you are helping advocates in Sacramento
protect your future security so you can enjoy your
golden years.
CalRTA Division 55 has a
Facebook page Press “Control” and click below.
https://www.facebook.com/CalRTADiv55
Teacher: Tell me a sentence
that starts with an "I".
Student: I is the....
Teacher: Stop! Never put 'is'
after an "I". Always put 'am'
after an "I".
Student: OK. I am the ninth
letter of the alphabet.
Some Women’s Rules for Men
17. All men hate to
hear "We need to talk
about our relation-
ship." These seven
words strike fear in the
heart of even Tom
Brady (NFL quarter-
back) .
18. Men are sensitive
in strange ways. If a man has built a fire and the last
log does not burn, he will take it personally.
“Chat” for Seniors Do you ever have to call AT&T? I will let them
do most anything to my service before I will
suffer the pain of sitting on hold and then talk-
ing to someone whose English is unintelligible.
I have a solution for you. Go to “Contact Us”
on their (i.e. anybody’s) website and select
“Chat” if available. No more need to say,
“Would you repeat that, please,” because the
person is from some part of the world where
English is a poor second language. Usually
Chats are much quicker to respond and you
have time to think before you type your ques-
tion or response.
I is
Oh no!
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 7
LEGISLATION
If you’ve tried to call your senator
since Trump took office, you may
have gotten a busy signal, or a
message that the office voicemail is
full because of the overwhelming
number of people calling. A new
app offers another way to get in
touch that’s arguably even easier
than sending an email: If you
send a few texts, a bot will convert your message
into an old-fashioned fax.
The process is simple. You text “resist” to 50409 on
your cell, Resistbot responds and asks for your zip
code to identify your senators. On your computer go
to https://resistbot.io/ and click on the blue box
“Message Me.” Follow the
prompts and type whatever
you want to say, the bot for-
mats it into a letter, and min-
utes later, the fax is deliv-
ered and you receive a pic-
ture of it. The next day, the
bot follows up to ask for your full address and con-
firms who your House representative is so that it can
also fax your letters to them.
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO LET PEOPLE
VOTE IN CALIFORNIA The call to action is to convince California’s election
officials to make same day registration a reality for all
of California’s eligible voters in the 2018 elections by
making it available in communities that need it the
most.
California has a new same day registration (SDR) law
that allows voters who miss the 15-day voter regis-
tration deadline to register and vote in the two weeks
before and on Election Day. But there is a HUGE
catch: the law only requires counties to offer SDR at
the county elections office. This means, unless eligi-
ble voters have the time and means to get to the
elections office, in most counties SDR isn’t a real op-
tion for them, especially those who face long-
standing barriers to registration and voting.
By supporting robust SDR implementation, People
Power activists and volunteers can make voter regis-
tration and voting a reality for the more than 5.5 mil-
lion Californians who are eligible to vote, but still
aren’t registered. And that’s not even counting thou-
sands of people who get shut out of elections be-
cause they moved and forgot to update their voter
registration before Election Day. Think of it as a mas-
sive voter registration drive that translates into im-
mediate results: states with SDR have, on average,
a 10% higher voter turnout!
For more information go to:
https://vote.peoplepower.org/CA
PRE-RETIREMENT
WORKSHOP IN FORT BRAGG FEB.
10 Vicky Holden from CalSTRS in
Santa Rosa will be presenter.
Open to CalSTRS participants
of any age. The younger the better.
Where:
Pacific Textiles, 450 Alger St.
Fort Bragg (end of E. Laurel St)
Time: 9:00 a.m. to noon (Saturday)
Coffee and snacks will be provided.
THIS IS A FREE WORKSHOP
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED
CONTACT: [email protected] 707-456-0908
Ilene Weeks
The expression “those who
can’t do, teach” is a curious
one, because if you look at
the world, you’ll see that
teachers are not particularly
worse at doing things than
anyone else, so perhaps the expression might be
better worded as “nobody can do anything.”
Horseradish page 36
Recess is part of the
school day
designed to
give children
a break from
the more un-
pleasant as-
pects of the
educational
system, but so many school yards are full of vil-
lainous students that recess can often turn out to
be the most unpleasant part of the day.
Horseradish page 39
Redwood Bark January 2018 To get this on line, Contact: [email protected] 8
Area I Division 55
Mendocino Edmund TePas
20851 Locust St.
Willits, CA 95490
Division 55 Luncheon at To:
Szechuan Asian Restaurant 47 E. Mendocino Ave.
Willits Tuesday January 23rd
www.div55.calrta.org
Enrollment Form *Soc. Sec. No.: _______________________or call Sacramento office.º Div.: 55
First name: ____________________ Middle initial: ___Last: ___________________________________
Address:__________________________________________________________________________
City:______________________________________State:______________________Zip:_________
Phone: (_______) __________________ E-mail: ____________________________________________
Year of retirement: _________ District retired from:_______________________________________
Indicate payment method on section below and mail to:
Ed TePas, Membership, 20851 Locust St., Willits, CA 95490 *required only for dues deduction option so you won’t need annual reminders
Please circle your selected payment method after filling the above section:
Div. 55 will pay your first six months dues if you join Method 1 ($27 one time reimbursement).
Method 1: Monthly dues deduction*. Circle one: $4.50 $9.00 (for self and spouse) I authorize CalSTRS to deduct my Association dues. Should the amount of dues be adjusted, I authorize
that the adjusted deductions shall continue unless I notify the CalRTA business office in writing to the con-
trary. To terminate dues deductions, I agree to make my request in writing to the CalRTA office.
Method 2: Cash. $54.00 annually Make checks payable to CalRTA.
Signature: ____________________________________________ Date: ________________________
Spouse’s name if joining:_______________________________________________________________
ºFor social security number concerns you can call it in before mailing this form. Call Johanna Hobbs, CalRTA
Membership Executive Chief at 916-923-2200 or Ed TePas at 707-456-0908 and he will call Johanna for you.
If you call Johanna, write “phoned in” in place of your social security number.