Dec 28, 2022
When the alarm goes off in the morning, Kate Coulouras has good reason to get out of bed.
“The kids are my purpose,” says Coulouras, in her third year as principal of Cristo Rey High School at Jackson and Florin-Perkins roads.
“These kids work so hard and face obstacles I can’t imagine having to face in high school. Their work ethic is phenomenal. Their families are also fabulous and committed to wanting to learn and support their kids. They’ve made huge sacrifices for them to be able to be here. That really drives me to be creative and solve problems. The students deserve the absolute best education.”
Dec 28, 2022
Next time you visit Earl J. Koobs Nature Area in Carmichael near La Sierra Community Center, look for groundskeeper Linda Rose Jones.
She’ll be playing in the mud.
“I love going into the area looking for millipedes,” Jones says. “I love following little kids and watching their discovery. That’s what lifts my heart.”
Dec 28, 2022
More than 100,000 adoptable dogs and cats are killed in California animal shelters each year—second only to Texas.
California has made progress. In 1998, we destroyed a half million dogs and cats annually. That year, the Hayden Act established state policy that no adoptable or treatable dog or cat can be euthanized at an animal shelter.
The killing slowed, but didn’t stop. Breeding continues. Shelters are overwhelmed.
Recognizing that we’ve fallen short, Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $50 million in the 2020-21 state budget to make California a “no-kill” state.
Nov 28, 2022
You’ve probably driven by it countless times, a Spanish-style building shaded by trees along J Street between 52nd and 53rd streets. You’ve even stopped there at the traffic light on Rodeo Way.
An ornately painted sign identifies the building as A.W. McClaskey Adult Center. It was once El Dorado Elementary School. Today it houses various classes, several focused on adults with developmental disabilities.
When seismic regulations were ordered in the 1970s, the site was deemed too expensive to retrofit for kids but perfect for adults. In 1978, the building was repurposed as the A. Warren McClaskey Adult Center, named for a former Sacramento City Unified adult education director.
“Before legislation desecrated adult education, we used to have 10 apportionment areas,” says Susan Lytle Gilmore, principal at McClaskey since 1992.
Nov 28, 2022
Maia Evrigenis could not have known her battle with adolescent cancer would be universal, but that’s what happened when her fictional memoir “Neon Jane” was published by Koehler Books this past May.
“As a cancer survivor, I felt like I was living in a different body,” says the Arden Arcade resident, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at age 13. “Other people didn’t have bodies that made cancer cells. I felt weird and alone about being different, and that’s the part of the book people tell me they relate to the most. It’s given me the sense that my extremely personal experience is actually very universal.”
