 You're tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT-LP, 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Audemars Labé Renaud, and today is Tuesday, November 17, 2020. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a matter of fact, I started this show eight months to the day, March 17, and here we are still going strong. I did take a short break while I was busy dealing with election programming here at Davis Media Access, and in that short timeframe, COVID numbers have continued to spiral upward by the numbers, and these are of yesterday. Nationwide, we've crossed the 11 million mark in cases, and nearly 250,000 deaths. In California, we're over 1 million cases and over 18,000 deaths. And in Yolo County, we're approaching the 4,000 mark on cases with 70 deaths. Effective today, November 17, Yolo County has been officially moved back to the more restrictive purple or widespread tier after the California Department of Public Health announced changes to its blueprint framework yesterday. Due to rising cases statewide, CDPH is pulling the emergency break and requiring counties to move backward after only one week of meeting a more restrictive tiers metric instead of the usual two weeks they use. And Yolo County also experienced an outbreak this week at the River Bend Nursing Facility in West Sacramento. Locally, our adjusted case rate in the county is 17.4, which is well above the purple tier threshold of 7%. Yolo County is not alone. The move impacts roughly three-quarters of California's 58 counties, nearby Solano, Placer, and Napa counties are also affected. So what that means is a return to the purple tier drastically impacts many local businesses that will now have to close indoor business operations or reduce capacity. Effective today, the following businesses will be open outdoors only and with modifications. Family entertainment centers, gyms and fitness centers, movie theaters, museums, zoos and aquariums, places of worship and restaurants, and retail and shopping centers may be open indoors but with a maximum of 25% occupancy. And then further, personal care services, nail salons, hair salons, and barber shops can still remain open indoors with modifications in the purple tier. But let's just say they're highly modified, lots of distancing, lots of space between appointments, and they must follow the state's industry guidance. Any schools that have reopened for in-person or hybrid learning while Yolo County was in the red tier or with an approved waiver are not required to close and can remain open. Schools that have not yet opened will need to receive a waiver to reopen under the purple tier or wait until Yolo County has moved back into the red tier. I'm going to be talking to educators in the weeks ahead and that's one of the hardest hit areas is schools. Frankly, this is really hard news as we approach the holidays and experience the onset of our cold and rainy season. And I know we just want this all to be done but it's not unexpected and caution is justified. It's not just the death metrics that matter. For one, that metric does not account for the long-term deleterious effects reported by many survivors and with such heavy case numbers we need to act out a slow spread of coronavirus or we may soon find our local hospitals like those in other parts of the country completely overwhelmed. So the advice remains don't gather. If you gather, do it in a small way outside with your pod. Stay home if you have symptoms of illness or high risk and wear a face covering. Keep your distance, wash your hands. For more information about Yolo County's roadmap to recovery and to see which businesses are currently open, visit YoloCounty.org. All the COVID information is spotlighted on the front page. And we are going to be back in just a moment with our first interview. Lorraine Nail Vischer is president of the Davis School Arts Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that believes arts and cultural education is crucial to the development of all children. DSAF provides partnership and support of culturally relevant arts education for children in the Davis Public Schools through a variety of means that we are going to talk about. Welcome, Lorraine. Thanks for joining me. You bet. I'm happy to be here. Autumn, thanks for inviting me. You bet. So you have been involved with the foundation for some time. Let's start with when and how did Davis School Arts Foundation start? Well, the Davis School Arts Foundation began with Proposition 13 on the change in the property taxes several years ago, about almost 40 years ago to be exact. And it was a response by our Davis community to help our schools who lost a great deal of funding. And what was particularly suffering and was noticed was the arts in our schools. And so it was formed then by a group of teachers. Finally, it was made more official and more effective by Patricia Hirschberger. And a sort of an endowment was created for the foundation which we have and protect and draw from in addition to donations to fund grants in the schools every year. We've been doing that for almost 40 years. Right. Yeah, as you mentioned, many schools across the state lack enrichment programs for things like arts and music, and that's really not the case in Davis. That's in large part thanks to things like parcel taxes and also organizations like your foundation. That's correct. So talk to me a bit more about your mission. What do you mean by culturally relevant arts education? Well, one of the things that the Davis Arts Foundation has noticed in recent years is that in art education, a lot of it was kind of turning towards artsy crafts, simple art projects, and we wanted to see things brought in that were more culturally relevant to all people everywhere, not just in Davis, but throughout the greater community in the world that the children of Davis are likely to come in contact with in their lifetimes. So we wanted to bring in more indigenous cultures, more of the Hispanic culture, and we've done some of that with our grants and it's something we want to bring in more to encourage a broader world view, especially in these times when there's so much divisiveness in our world. So in normal, that is non-COVID times, what do your grants to the school district look like and what kinds of things do they help fund? Sure. In the past, the Davis School Arts Foundation has given a site grant to every school where the principals are allowed to use that amount to fund activities of their choice or in cooperation with teachers. Teachers can apply for individual classroom grants or multiple classroom grants. They sometimes use that to do art projects of their own that they create. They sometimes use it to bring in artists in the community to do projects with the kids. We also provide funding for elementary school choirs to encourage choirs at the elementary level, which is not funded by the district, and that is funded by what we call our Brunel grants, which are in honor of Brunel, who the Brunel Performing Arts Center is named for at the high school. We also provide grants to some of the high school programs and the junior high programs and the music and the orchestras, so there's a pretty big variety. However, those grants are relatively small, and one of the things that DSAF is looking at right now, in fact right before COVID, we were working on a strategic plan to start changing our process a bit and meeting our new mission statement, which you are familiar with and which the cultural awareness comes from. We'd like to see ourselves being able to expand those grants. We'd like to be able to give bigger grants to provide more direction for teachers on how those grants can be used and really reach out more, and that's something we were just moving to when COVID hit. We've had to slow down on our plans, but that is still our goal because in the past the grants have been relatively small. And that's a familiar story too, having plans and having them scuttled or needing to pivot, needing to slow down. I mean, for example, I know that again in normal years we have the wonderful Davis Music Festival, and they've made a lot of generous donations to the Davis School Arts Foundation, so absent the ability of fundraisers and festivals to happen, that trickles down and impacts nonprofits. Yes, it does. We all know this. So again, in normal times, how else would you usually raise money that help feed these grants that you give to schools? Well, we've been very, very grateful. As you've mentioned, the Davis Music Fest, that was an event that was funding us. The Watermelon Music has been a wonderful supporter. They're fabulous supporters to us, and they still donate every year. They intend to be supportive of us this year, and we're very, very grateful for that. We have private donors who give some of the businesses around town donate to us. And individual donors are really important to us. We have a regular donation area on our website. We encourage people to donate, and we participate in the Big Day of Giving for donations. And we also, the Home for the Holidays concert has always been a fundraiser for us, and I'm really excited because Bill Fairfield is going to be producing that, as you know, because it's going to be on K-Dirt. We'll be doing the online production of Home for the Holidays this year, and although there won't be tickets, so that will be again asking donations towards DSAF. Because there are a variety of places that it comes from, and it changes over time, but we rely heavily on those donations, and then as I say, we have an endowment that we can draw from based on the gains that we have from our investments, but those are small, and we do rely more on the donations. Yeah, and as you know, the work of nonprofits is so often comes down to fundraising, so we can keep doing the good work we do. Yeah, it does. Let me give two bits of information here. Let's give the website, DavisSchoolArtsFoundation.org. That's correct. That's where you can learn more, support, and do all that good stuff, and because you mentioned the Home for the Holidays concert, always a wonderful event, virtual this year on December 17th, and yes, K-Dirt and Davis Media Access are thrilled that we can help support that effort this year. All right, you have announced a significant pivot for what you're doing this year. Let's talk about the art kits, the collaboration you have going there, and how that's going to work. Yeah, I'm really excited about this, and so is Stacey Ferricks at the Art Center. They reached out to us about this project. We agreed to work with them, and given when we started looking at our grants this year, we were simply going to divide the money between all the schools this year is what we had decided to do, but then we began to look at that and feel that in our new mission and our new direction and our desire for more equity in the classrooms and more cultural relevance, we really wanted to do something different, and the art kit hit the mark. We're really excited because it isn't another burden for teachers. It's not something added to their workload. It's something to help them. That's important. It's not something to make things harder for the kids, but to give them more joy and more pleasure, something they can do on their own time and not attach to a screen. It's going to be very culturally diverse. There's lots of different lessons. Stacey and her crew are doing a great job of working with other teachers and getting information about the curriculum, and we're targeting just great. We're targeting approximately somewhere between 750 to 800 kids who are going to get these art kits that will be full of wonderful art materials and lessons on what to do with them. The teachers will get the kits as well, so will all the science teachers for those kids, and they can be used independently. They can be used in connection with the lesson. They can be used whether our schools are in session online or whether they are able to get back into the classroom so they provide a lot of flexibility. So we're really excited about it. So why fifth graders? Well, because that's kind of an in-between year. The elementary school kids, it's a different developmental level. Their small motor coordination and the direct instruction they need is greater in some ways, and their ability to work independently is less. And for you get into the upper grade, it becomes a little more complicated. Fifth grade is a nice independent age level. There's a lot of really interesting things going on in the curriculum that can incorporate art, and so we decided that was the best place to focus our attention at this time. We'd love to expand it. We don't have the means to do that this year unless we get more donations. Right. Okay, so what's in the kits? Oh, gosh, there's going to be... Well, I just spoke with Stacey Ferrick, who's the director of the Art Center yesterday, and she was explaining there's going to be watercolors. There's going to be color chalk pastels. There's going to be some unusual items as well. She wasn't too explicit about what those would be, but they might include things like foil. There will probably be scissors and glues and all kinds of different materials that the kids can use. And the nice thing is the lessons will be set up so that the watercolors might be used for one lesson, and then in some other lesson, they might be used in a different way. So it's not only using the materials, not just using the materials once, but showing them different ways of using them as well, which is really nice. Do you need to apply to get one if you are a family with a fifth grader? No, you don't. They will be given automatically to every fifth grader in the district. They will be provided through the drop-off points where kids are picking up their materials for online schooling right now. And we are still working out the details around that, but we hope to roll them out around January 11th. Okay. Hope to get them to the teachers before that so they can see what's in there, and then roll them out to the kids around January 11th. Now, this is a wonderful effort, Lorraine. I'm just kind of bummed you have to be a fifth grader. I mean, I kind of want one now. I know what you mean, you too. All right. So beyond this effort, which sounds like it's going to be a pretty heavy lift in January, what can you, in the last couple of minutes we have, what can you envision is coming next for Davis School Arts Foundation? You've mentioned, you know, wanting to, you have a new mission statement. You've mentioned wanting to expand. Any idea what that might look like? Sure. I see it looking as more collaboration with other groups like the Davis Arts Center. I see it including continued collaboration with the Davis Arts Center and with the school district. That, you know, if we want to do more and on a bigger scale, then we have to work with others. It's not possible to do it alone. And it isn't practical. It isn't sustainable. And so I see us doing a lot more of that. I'd like to see us having more of the community involved with us directly. And not necessarily having to serve on our board of directors, but being volunteers who come and engage with us and work with us on specific projects. I see that happening in the future. I'd like to see our donor base increasing so that we can count on more donations on a regular basis from a pool of donors that we can look towards. So those are all things I'd like to and directions I'd like to see us going. Great. Well, you have been providing leadership, as I said earlier, for some time. I know you're a former teacher. I know you're a singer. You're deeply involved in our community. And again, thanks for joining me today. And I want to just give the website one more time. davisschoolartsfoundation.org There are two S's in there. Davis School. And you can also email question to dsafstudio at gmail.com. And there's a donation page of the website. And I look at every email and answer them personally. So I'll be watching. Good care. Thank you, Autumn. All right. We're going to be back in just a couple of seconds here. I had to pre-record my second interview because my guest is 14 and is in school at the moment. Be right back. My next guest is a 14-year-old who lives in Davis and is a ninth grader at Da Vinci Junior High. He was poised to start a new venture just as the pandemic struck. Here to give us a little insight into his world and what he's up to right now. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Autumn. Right before the pandemic struck, you got trained as a DJ here at KDRT. And then what happened? I got training from KDRT because I wanted to start my own radio show to give you a little backstory. A couple of years ago, my dad gave me a radio. I would use this when I was bored or had nothing to do. I just got hooked because I was stuck to my radio. I would listen to sports news and music. This just led me to want to start my own radio show because I got inspired by the people I would listen to on the radio who would share their experiences and want to share their passion with others. I wanted to do the same. I wanted to share what I love with others. You went ahead and started a show called Time Out Radio. You've been doing it from home. Tell us how you put a show together each week or every other week. Yes. First, when I first started my Time Out Radio, I had to first learn technology and radio production pretty fast. I've been using Audacity and Edit my show. I've been using Zoom to interview my guests. I get my guests from either people I've known from past experiences or I've read either in the news somewhere. I think that that guest would be a good person to have on or share their information about either their organization or their experiences. I get their contact information to be a guest on my show. The show theme, each show has a theme and that's based on where the interview leads us. If the interviewer tells where they're from or where their organization is held, then we have a place of the week which we visit a city that either, as I mentioned, where the organization is from or where they are from. We get to know a little bit about that city and what's interesting there. That's basically how our radio show works. Additionally, we have a bowcard segment which either is about since I love sports so much, I either give a sports update or I give a little history or fun facts about something to do with the interview. That's a little bit about how a show on timeout radio goes. In normal times, you'd be coming into KDRT to record the show, but you just kind of went ahead and figured it out at home, maybe with a little help and you're making it happen, which is cool. You also did another really cool thing. Tell us briefly about the Pitch Contest for Points of Light Foundation. Yeah, so Points of Light is a national foundation that helps promote community engagement around the country. So there were Points of Light held a pitch contest this past summer for youth and teens would submit proposals that would help schools and their community adjust to the new normal of the COVID-19 pandemic. So I submitted a 90-second pitch video and a written proposal as well to bring in voices of youth teachers and coaches and additionally community organizations to timeout radio to basically overcome challenges of social distancing. So timeout radio will use these funds for additional radio training equipment and promotion. And I think it's really worth mentioning. You were one of 10 finalists or 10 winners of the Pitch Contest nationwide, not just in California and not just in one area, but nationwide. So hats off to you for that. Yeah, thanks. We also want to hear a little bit about just what it's like to be a 14-year-old person. I know you talk about this on your show, the things you love are sports and travel and music and a lot of those are kind of hard to do during a pandemic. And you're a ninth grader and you're doing distance learning at home. So are there good things about that or is it just really challenging? Well, the new normal is strange to say the least. Everyone's not used to being with their friends all the time and what's been challenging for me the most is doing school on a screen because you're just staring at a screen for like half a day and it just couldn't sometimes be hard to concentrate and be organized. That was the hardest for me back in spring when the COVID-19 restrictions started. We started school in April and that was really a stressful time to me because I wasn't used to this just really hard to get organized but now that we start school again in September it was a lot easier for me because one, the structure was different and the teachers had an idea of what it's going to look like and two, I just had the idea of what things are going to be and while it is sometimes stressful I feel like this is the safest thing and that the teachers are doing what's safe for them and the kids. Absolutely. I think your generation is going to walk away from this experience with just a radically different perspective than generations that came before you. We haven't lived through this in the same way that you're living it right now and I think it's going to change who you are and what you decide to do in the world and what kind of change you decide to make. Before we run out of time I know that you recently put out a call for people who would like to be interviewed or guest on your show and we've really interviewed a wide variety of folks so let's make sure we tell people where they can find that information and how they can reach you. Yes, so for anyone in the community who wants to recommend a guest for Time Out Radio to interview you can go to Time Out Radio's website on KDRT's webpage and go to programs and select Time Out Radio's program and in the description there will be a link to a form and that form will lead you to a survey of questions getting the guest contact information and why you chose them and so Time Out Radio will use that and get a guest of all sorts of backgrounds and to reach Time Out Radio make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date. Great, thanks so much for sharing a little insight into how you put your show together we appreciate it Rohan, take good care. Yep, thank you so much. Alright, that was the wonderful Rohan Bakshi 14 year old radio host of Time Out Radio here on KDRT thanks for tuning in you have been listening to the COVID-19 community report live from the K-Dirt Studio Tuesday, November 17th see you next week.