The official electricity provider for San Mateo County and the City of Los Banos, Peninsula Clean Energy is seeking members for its Citizens Advisory Committee, offering residents a way to learn about and gain experience in the growing field of community energy and climate action.

Thus, the company is encouraging anyone interested in being part of its committee as a volunteer, Please submit your application no later than March 31st. 

Peninsula Clean Energy stressed that if you are interested in joining the committee but already work with a nonprofit funded by Peninsula Clean Energy, this is not a problem as it is not considered a conflict of interest. 

The only criteria that is unappealable, he said, is living or working in San Mateo County, or in the city of Los Baños. 

She added that no experience in the energy sector is necessary; “it just takes a sincere interest and a desire to learn more. We are especially interested in recruiting more members of our Latino communities who are involved in local community outreach.” 

The committee, which only holds sessions in English and does not offer pay, Meets in person in Redwood City, usually the second Thursday of every month at 6:30 p.m.However, Los Baños members can join remotely via a web link.

Candidates will be reviewed by Peninsula Clean Energy staff, and the top candidates will be interviewed by a committee of the company's Board of Directors, which will make nominations to the full Board in May.

Those interested who have questions can send an email to vshin@peninsulacleanenergy.com. 

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Workers in unincorporated San Mateo County will earn a minimum of $16.50 per hour starting April 1, 2023, which must be implemented for jobs ranging from commercial corridors to coastal agricultural lands.

The minimum wage must be paid to employees who work at least two hours a week, with few exceptions, the city council said in a statement.

The agency also said businesses of any size must pay workers at least $16.50 per hour for all time worked within the unincorporated geographic boundaries of San Mateo County.

This includes North Fair Oaks, farmland stretching from south of Pacifica to Pescadero, Broadmoor Village in north county, and other unincorporated areas.

The Board of Supervisors in November 2022 approved setting the minimum wage at $16.50 per hour to put more money in the pockets of fast food employees, farmworkers, and other workers who typically earn low wages.

It is worth noting that this new minimum wage is one dollar per hour above the minimum wage established by the state of California, which increased on January 1, 2023.

“The Board is proud to stand up for the workers who are the backbone of our community,” said Dave Pine, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. “Many of these workers were deemed essential during COVID, and it is absolutely critical that we do what we can for them.”

This minimum wage for unincorporated areas of the county will apply to all workers, regardless of immigration status.

For its part, the California Labor Commissioner's Office He said it will enforce the minimum wage, which will avoid the establishment of a new local enforcement agency while providing consistency across jurisdictions. The ordinance also allows an individual employee to sue his or her employer for noncompliance.

The new minimum wage applies to so-called gig workers, those who receive tips, and both adults and children. 

Mirroring the state's minimum wage requirements, there is an exception for "apprentices," who can earn 85 percent of the minimum wage for the first 160 hours of employment, then the full $16.50 per hour.

However, beginning Jan. 1, 2024, and annually thereafter, the county's minimum wage will be set based on a formula involving the Consumer Price Index, which tracks prices for goods and services, and the increase from the previous year.

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In order to review the redistricting efforts in San Mateo County and its cities, as well as to ensure that the new district maps are fair, the Leagues of Women Voters of South, North and Central San Mateo County will hold a joint meeting this coming Saturday, March 25.

It is worth remembering that redistricting, the process of redrawing electoral boundaries, occurs every ten years after the census and ensures that districts have the same population. 

However, these lines can affect whether vulnerable communities are represented in local government and whether their interests are prioritized in decision-making.

According to a statement, Helen Hutchison, director of government and former president of the California League of Women Voters, will discuss the outcome and effects of the Fair Maps Act on local redistricting in the 2022 elections and how implementing those requirements will help the upcoming redistricting.

The Fair Maps Act was signed into law in 2019 and is the most significant and comprehensive overhaul of the city and county redistricting process in California history.

For the 2021 cycle, 22 cities and counties used IRCs — Independent Redistricting Commissions — covering 42 percent of the state’s population. This law was passed to ensure that redistricting was taken out of the hands of local legislatures.

The Leagues of Women Voters said that during the meeting, participants will review explicit actions throughout the county that have affected fair redistricting. 

"Our Leagues and involved citizens will explore ways to work together to achieve a greater number of Independent Redistricting Commissions," they said.

The meeting, which is free and open to the public, will be held on Saturday, March 25 from 10 a.m. to noon in the Redwood Room at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center, located at 1455 Madison in Redwood City.

For more information, interested parties can send an email to vpprogram@lwvssmc.org. 

You may be interested in: Are children collateral damage in California's culture wars?

By Diana Lambert. EdSource.

Counterfeit dollar bills with a caricature of a black man and racist remarks circulated at a Sacramento high school. A 10-year-old girl was called a “slave” by a classmate in Orange County. Bay Area high school students filmed themselves laughing and repeating a racial slur against black people. All this month in California.

They are children who are collateral damage in the culture wars, with Black students more often the targets of racial hostility than any other student group, according to “Educating for a Diverse Democracy in California,” a joint report by the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and the UC Riverside Civic Engagement Research Group. As part of the study, researchers surveyed 150 California principals about how the political dynamics of their communities have impacted their schools.

Sixty-six percent of principals reported they are aware of racist comments made against black students on their campuses; one-third said such incidents are frequent. These verbal attacks speak to the presence of anti-black racism that undermines young people's ability to learn, said John Rogers, one of the study's authors.

"We cannot normalize the fact that these (attacks) have become commonplace in our public schools," he said.

Political polarization and conflicts over racial and gender equity are now commonplace at school board meetings and on school campuses across the state. They are negatively impacting school staff, undermining school governance and increasing anxiety and hostility among students, the report said.

“The ground shifted beneath their feet for a year and a half, and significant political events occurred: the murder of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, etc., the rise of Black Lives Matter and protests, the responses to protest, the blue line flag, the 2020 election, and January 6,” noted one California student director. “All of these things happened while kids were in spaces that weren’t with us.”

Students, most in distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were unable to discuss these events at school with a diverse community of students. Instead, they either didn't have these conversations or had them around the dinner table, hearing only their family's perspective, the principal said.

“So our kids came back to school with this very narrow perspective,” she said. “It was something we hadn’t necessarily seen in the past. We didn’t necessarily have kids running around with political statements on their hats or T-shirts, but I do think they struggled a little bit to have empathy for groups they didn’t necessarily understand.”

Political polarization grows

Nearly two-thirds of California principals surveyed reported substantial local political conflicts over educational issues in their schools. In many school districts, community members have sought to limit or challenge teaching about race, policies related to LGBTQ students, and access to social-emotional learning or certain books in the library.

Political partisanship began to boil over after COVID school closures. Parents and other activists showed up at school board meetings to demand that schools reopen. They returned to protest mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and other safety requirements. Once COVID-19 protocols were loosened, conservative activists began fighting education policies on gender identity and racial equity.

“It seems like political polarization and conflict continues to grow,” Rogers said. “More recently there seems to be a focus on rolling back LGBTQ rights or anything resembling gender issues, such as the recent protests over a program at an Elk Grove high school where students were wearing gender-based clothing.”

The performance at a multicultural assembly at Pleasant Grove High School on March 3 sparked protests from parents at a district school board meeting, according to SFGate. A similar performance planned at a Roseville high school in Placer County was canceled this month after it sparked anger from parents and local political groups, according to The Sacramento Bee.

Three-quarters of California principals surveyed say LGBTQ students in their schools have been subjected to verbal attacks.

The California analysis follows a national survey released last year. Researchers interviewed principals in blue, red and purple congressional districts during the summer of 2022 to determine how the partisan divide has affected schools. Principals’ names were not included in the report.

Researchers labeled districts blue if fewer than 45 percent of voters voted for Donald Trump for president in 2020, purple if between 45 and 54.9 percent voted for Trump, and red if more than 55 percent of voters chose Trump.

The national study found that uncivil speech and hostile political rhetoric have seeped into the nation’s classrooms, leading to a decline in support for teaching about race and racism and a sharp rise in bullying of LGBTQ youth. Principals in politically divided communities were twice as likely to report multiple instances of conflict in their schools related to LGBTQ topics or learning about race and racism.

Political division affecting student education

"Much of the political dynamic that has played out in conservative grassroots activism is also occurring in many California communities, with serious consequences for education," Rogers said.

At least one California principal has told his teachers to avoid talking about politics, elections and current events.

Students must understand the history of various groups to have respectful, evidence-based dialogue to help build a diverse democracy, the report said.

In California, educators in purple and blue communities were equally likely to support LGBTQ students’ rights compared to the rest of the country. Principals in purple communities were 5 percent more likely than those in blue communities to offer training to teachers and staff to support learning about literature and history by people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“It’s refreshing to hear that while California is experiencing these issues, many educators and school staff are not backing down when it comes to racial and gender equity,” Rogers said. “Unfortunately, certain individuals representing particular segments of the Republican Party believe that highlighting culturally divisive issues and attacking schools for teaching the full history of American society and protecting LGBTQ rights is in their partisan interest.”

You can read the original text by giving clic here.

This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.

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