April 2022 - Growing Up in Santa Cruz

March Coloring Winners

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:13:13 +0000

Emerson Age 5 Ayden Age 6 Haisley Age 12 Jovie Age 4 Lukas Age 9 Sophia Age 8 Wilder Age 7 Find More Coloring Pages

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Easter Bunny

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:05:40 +0000

Easter Bunny Submit your coloring page for a chance to be in our paper Editor@growingupsc.com More Coloring Pages

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Mom Purse

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 19:01:25 +0000

Ashton Reedy

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:57:52 +0000

Ashton Reedy Local Artist My name is Ashton Reedy, and I am 17, almost 18. I have lived all over the world, and everywhere I have been, there have always been two things in common: good food and amazing art. While I am not a great cook, I love making art, and I’ve been drawing since I was very little, from monsters to costume designs. It’s been a long road. I started off with just small sketches on the corner of a test to slowly build up my skill and eventually swap to digital and start to work as a commission artist. I specialize mainly in characters as I deeply enjoy the process of creating new characters and telling their stories. As a Dungeons and Dragons player and a big-time nerd, art is a great outlet for that creativity. It has really allowed me to explore different aspects of the things I love, and I have made quite a few new friends through my commission work, having designed many of the characters for people who are designing games. But I’m not perfect and have so much to learn; I’m still learning new things about the software I use every day. Read More Local Artist Articles

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Housing Market is Boiling Over

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:51:10 +0000

The Santa Cruz Housing Market is Boiling Over by Seb Frey This is my first column of 2022 for Growing Up in Santa Cruz, and it’s good to be back! I wrote several articles last year where I discussed buying a home in Santa Cruz. As everyone knows, the Santa Cruz real estate market in 2021 was a hot one, with the median sale price up about 25% compared to the year prior. Going into 2022, there was a sense that the market may have reached something approaching a plateau, with perhaps a modest 5-10% increase in sale prices. That may sound like something more than “modest,” but historically that’s fairly typical, and that is not adjusted for inflation which is running about 7%.The reality of the first few months of 2022 is something different altogether. Prices have taken another vigorous leap upwards – up yet another ~ 20%-ish over prices from a year ago. To say the market is brisk is an understatement. There’s less than a month’s supply of homes across the county, with over 60% of homes receiving multiple offers and an average sales-to-list-price ratio of ~ 107% for the month of February. What’s behind this depressingly robust real estate market? The root cause is lack of supply. Very few people are selling their homes, compared to historical levels of new listings and especially compared to very strong demand. The strong demand is of course coming primarily from Santa Clara County, where “work from home” has settled in for the long haul, as well-compensated Silicon Valley types continue to decide that working from a home close to the beach is very appealing. I used the word “depressingly” robust because this real estate market has become out of reach of far too many would-be Santa Cruz homebuyers. Affordability has been poor in Santa Cruz County for quite some time, but even when the market tanked in 2008 and prices sank dramatically, by the end of 2010 affordability was still only about 20%. Today, that number is likely below 8%. In case you’re wondering, a home is considered “affordable” when someone would pay no more than 30% of their income on a payment for a home, with 20% down – and today, 20% down for a median-priced home is about $250K and would mean a $1,000,000 mortgage. A $1,000,000 mortgage at today’s ~ 4% interest rate would cost $4,774 per month. When you add in property tax and insurance, the monthly payment would likely exceed $6,000 per month. For such a home to be considered affordable, the homebuyer would need to earn in excess of $200,000 per year. So many local Santa Cruz homebuyers have now been priced out of the mid-county “flat lands” close to the beach. Many of these buyers are heading for the hills of the San Lorenzo Valley, Aptos, and Soquel – only to find very strong competition there too, along with fire insurance rates that are in many cases 3-5x more expensive than in neighborhoods further from these fire-prone areas. Other buyers looking for more affordable housing are again moving south to Watsonville and Freedom. Prices there are surging as well, with a well-maintained bread-and-butter 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1,500-2,000sf homes easily fetching $850,000 and more. It’s no secret that the commute from south county to the jobs-rich areas further north is indeed miserable. However, with many locals also now being able to work at least a few days per week from home, this is becoming a more palatable option for many first-time buyers. For too many buyers, the dream of buying into the Santa Cruz real estate market has become truly a nightmare. But in any economy, there are winners and losers, and the winners today are those who already own a home in Santa Cruz. But bear in mind, 15 years ago, many of these same homeowners were facing financial ruin – or were in fact completely wiped out. While many would-be buyers are just giving up, moving further from the beach, or just moving out of town, sellers are having an absolute field day. Homes are selling far above prices most homeowners ever expected to get for their properties, receiving multiple offers even before they hit the market. Of course, selling off market isn’t something that I typically advise. I can’t begin to count the times when a client I’ve worked with has been tempted to accept a strong offer while in the pre-marketing phase…but who held firm and waited, only to be rewarded by several far-superior offers a few weeks later after exposing the home to all comers. It turns out that a bird in hand is often worth quite a bit less than 10-20 in the bush.  Seb Frey was the 2019 President of the Santa Cruz County Association of REALTORS. He’s been selling homes locally since 2003 and is the author of Get It Sold! (available at TheSoldBook.com) and stars on his own YouTube channel at YouTube.com/SebFreyTV Read More Parenting Articles

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Social Justice Warrior

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:47:28 +0000

Mom, Principal, Social Justice Warrior Suki Wessling Welcome back to our monthly feature of moms who give back to our community while also raising their children. Research shows that even in families where both spouses are involved, women face more obstacles while attempting to juggle parenting and work. We love to celebrate you, moms! When Jen Ra’anan and her husband arrived in Santa Cruz nine years ago, she was seven months pregnant. Not a good time to look for a job as a teacher. “It was great,” Jen remembers of the unplanned time off. “It was also really necessary—I didn’t sleep for the first, I would say, nine months! I slept four hours in a 24-hour time period.” So she describes that time as lonely, but not for long. Soon she was working again as a teacher and professional development coordinator before landing at Delta Charter School, where she is now Superintendent and Principal. (See our January article about small schools that serve special needs, which features Delta.) Jen has a fierce regard for her students. “Aside from my own child, they’re the most important people in my life. If there’s a railroad track, I’ll lay down on it!” She took the job just as the train was roaring in, but perhaps not the train she expected. Her tenure started soon after Covid hit, so she’s never known life as a principal in normal times. She has had to fight every day to educate her unusual student population, making sure they had the resources they needed when they were learning at home. Jen was thankful that her husband was able to supervise their daughter’s home learning when his work went remote. She didn’t love distance learning, but she rose to the occasion. She describes her husband as a hands-on dad who didn’t necessarily relish the role he found himself in. “It probably created some tension in their relationship just because he had to be a little bit more of a taskmaster than he is comfortable being.” Now that students have returned, there are new challenges. Jen points out that the ninth-graders haven’t had a normal school year since sixth grade, and they’re “essentially feral.” Jen is also fiercely protective of her teachers, whom she describes as heroes who are stretched extra thin. “My empathy extends to all parents and especially teachers because they have such a full plate in terms of tending to their own children and other people’s children as well,” Jen explains. “That’s really tough. I mean, how do you choose between your school children and your own children?” Unlike most schools, Delta hasn’t had a single Covid shutdown since going back to in-person instruction. Given the school’s size, they have to be extra-careful.“If we’re out three teachers, we have to close our doors,” Jen points out. “So we’ve been really careful and really fortunate.” Jen loves that her daughter is old enough to come to school and help out, and that she enjoys her company and hearing about what her daughter does when they’re not together. “Another mom’s like, ‘Your kid’s been telling everybody not to go to Chick-fil-A because they’re anti-gay rights’,” she says with a laugh. “She’s a bit of a Social Justice Warrior like her mom, and I think she’s just a stellar human being.”  Suki Wessling is a local writer, educator, and mother of two adult children. Listen to the full interview with Jen Ra’anan on Suki’s podcast, The Babblery, and visit her blog: Babblery.com. Read More Moms Who Make a Difference Articles

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Annual Summit for the Planet

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:44:46 +0000

Family Fun at the 16th Annual Summit for the Planet Earth Day Festival Mount Madonna School From barn owls and bearded dragons to California kingsnakes and turkey vultures, the opportunity to get up close and hands-on with wildlife at the annual Summit for the Planet Earth Day festival is always a huge draw. Children and adults alike enjoy the many birds, reptiles and amphibians shared by the Bay Area Herpetological Society (BAHS) and Wildlife Education Rehabilitation Center (WERC). For the 16th annual Summit for the Planet, everyone is welcome to check out the wildlife and family-friendly activities on Saturday, April 23 from 9:00am to 1:30pm at Mount Madonna School. This FREE public event begins with a 5K family hike through the redwoods, and features an eco-carnival, pony rides, face painting, live wildlife and reptile area, a “trash fashion” show, model solar car races, activities, music and tasty food. Hike registration begins at 9:00am; the hike starts at 10:00am, with music and the eco-carnival starting at 11:00am. The event concludes at 1:30pm. With its unique spotlight on environmental education, the Summit for the Planet festival has grown to some 500 people of all ages, from south Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. “Summit for the Planet is a celebration of Earth Day,” commented Head of School Ann Goewert, “and honors our school’s rich tradition of teaching environmental stewardship and raising environmentally aware children.” Things to know when you go:16th annual Summit for the Planet family hike and Earth Day festival, April 23 from 9:00am-1:30pm. Hosted by Mount Madonna School, 491 Summit Road, Watsonville, located 2.5 miles off of Hwy. 152, between Gilroy and Watsonville. The celebration has FREE admission. For more event information visit: SummitforthePlanet.org.  Nestled among the redwoods on 375 acres, Mount Madonna School (MMS) is a diverse learning community dedicated to creative, intellectual, and ethical growth. MMS supports its students in becoming caring, self-aware, discerning and articulate individuals; and believe a fulfilling life includes personal accomplishments, meaningful relationships and service to society. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville. Founded in 1979. Read More Parenting Articles

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A Glimpse Through the Keyhole

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:37:40 +0000

A Glimpse Through the Keyhole Fake News, Free Press and Education By Lisa Catterall …the only path to lasting global peace will be education, of the unbiased sort that provides a scaffolding for the soul, a habit of critical thought, a passion for truth, and the humility to keep on learning for a lifetime. With guns you can kill terrorists. With education you can kill terrorism.– Malala Yousafzai Yesterday a friend of mine showed me an image of a train station in Poland that had baby strollers lined up across the station platform. The strollers were loaded with bottles, blankets, diapers, and supplies. Mothers in the town in Poland knew that Ukrainian refugees would be arriving after fleeing their towns with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and left the strollers there to receive babies and ease parents and babies’ flight out of their country. When I close my eyes, I see images of what it could be like in the war. I have five children in my home right now; I try to imagine fleeing ahead of bombs raining down over my neighborhood. How could this happen? How could the Russian soldiers push the button that drops those bombs? Many years ago, we took a group of students to South Africa. We were hosted and guided by a charitable Afrikaner gentleman who delighted in showing us his beautiful country. He was happy to shepherd us through orphanages and projects dedicated to improving the lot of the many citizens there who continue to live in extreme poverty. One day, we took him to a place we’d heard about in the US. It was a university museum that was dedicated to preserving photographs of the apartheid era. One photograph showed Black South Africans unpacking their things from large, flatbed trucks onto an empty savannah with a row of outhouses. It was a giant poster, and it was at the beginning of the gallery. He asked me what it was. I explained that during apartheid, Black people were forced into “Bantustans” or “homelands,” areas with no services and no infrastructure. The world community considered this tantamount to genocide, and it was a primary factor in the protests, boycotts and sanctions that were widespread in the U.S. and Europe at the time. “This did not happen,” said our host. “This cannot have happened.” I remember his face turning bright red and him looking around for support, then balling his fists into white knuckles. Not only was he among 26 Americans who knew the truth, but there was a large picture of it happening. There was a university professor standing there assuring him that it had happened. He bit his thumb. He teared up. He exclaimed at the tragedy. He never knew. A prominent, charitable citizen who followed the news. The government had never let its citizens find out what really happened. Some 10 years later, I was invited to train educators in Beijing. My job was to show them how to innovate; China was ready to stop putting “made in China” labels on everything. They wanted everything to say “invented in China.” They were ready to pull up the nails holding down rows and rows of desks in their classrooms and add something more creative to the experience for their population. The first class I taught had the important-sounding title, Neuroscience and Learning. I was to teach that, while modeling “Western classroom experiences.” I could not teach neuroscience in relation to education without discussing the current influence of mindfulness and meditation techniques in the classroom. That brought me to the Dalai Lama. I proudly added a photograph of myself with His Holiness to my slideshow and talked about the magic of meeting him. I wondered why my translator paused and giggled nervously when I got to that part. In China, the Dalai Lama is a public enemy. I got to know my team of Chinese assistants there very well over two years of traveling back and forth for workshops. They were smart, kind, deep-thinking and moral humans. The only explanation I ever heard for their dim view of His Holiness was that “he wants to divide our nation.” After that first class, I was asked to sign a document stating I would never again discuss the Dalai Lama. I didn’t sign it, and I kept talking about him and his positive influence on American education. When I traveled to China, I brought an American cell phone with me that connected to roaming LTE service. I used that to connect to my laptop. That means I never used the Wi-Fi in China. If I had, I would not have been able to see anything I normally use on the internet. Free press is blocked in China, all information is controlled by the government. There is no Google, no Facebook, no New York Times. And no equivalent. I worked there through the unthinkable travesty of false information that led up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and at the time, I pondered whether limiting social media might be a good idea. Information and education make such a big difference. I can empathize with the soldiers working for Putin’s government because I know that they have been carefully set up to see their surroundings a certain way. Maybe even from birth. Their world view is a set up, I can’t surmise exactly how it was done, but it was done. My heart aches for Ukraine. My heart also grieves for anyone, anywhere in the world, who has had an education that doesn’t even allow a glimpse through a keyhole into the truths of this world. In many ways, the full potential and value of those world citizens who are kept in the dark has been lost to the global village of humanity. Teachers everywhere fight the battles they can to shine truth and light into their classrooms, but they can be limited by how much light they enjoyed themselves throughout their own education. Politics can sometimes keep countries out of war. But the only path to lasting global peace will be education, of the unbiased sort that provides a scaffolding for the soul, a habit of critical thought, a passion for truth, and the humility to keep on learning for a lifetime.  Lisa Catterall teaches STEAM, math, science, and art at Mount Madonna School and is a senior associate of the Centers for Research on Creativity. She lectures and trains teachers and administrators on innovation in education in Beijing, China. Lisa has five children and lives in Santa Cruz County. Read More Parenting Articles

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Kids Day Downtown Map

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:35:45 +0000

Downtown Santa Cruz April 23 | Noon to 4pm Exhibitors will be lined up on Cooper Street and Pacific Ave. (between Church St. & Locust St.) Almost every exhibitor will have a free, family activity. There will also be performances and demonstrations all day long in Abbott Square. Plus, many Downtown businesses will be offering discounts and specials just for kids. Bring your family down to enjoy face painting, music, dancing, bubbles, foosball, crafts & more! Kids Day Downtown is proudly presented by Downtown Santa Cruz, along with our partners Growing Up In Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Museum of Art And History. Read More Parenting Articles

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Teen’s Eye View

growingupsc — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:27:26 +0000

Teen’s Eye View By Grace Timan Senior year is the year of freedom, all of the stress of high school is over, and we can finally take it easy and relax. This is what we’ve been told since freshman year, always looking forward to this year of “fun,” and yet here we are as seniors, and the anxiety is more apparent than ever, and submitting our college apps was only the first step in a long and extensive journey. Looking into the future is confusing. In a year’s time, I have no idea what life will look like; all I know is that it won’t look the same. For the majority of my life, I knew what came next, a set of expectations I’ve had since childhood of what my life would look like through the years. As a senior, I have realized that I have no real way of knowing as much as I can try to picture myself next year until decisions are laid down. As seniors, we spend months in this limbo period of sorts, not applying to colleges anymore but not knowing which one we will attend. I have spent my entire education at the same school, K-12. Not only have I always attended the same school, but many of the people around me I have grown up with as well. We are used to one another, as comfortable in each other’s company as a family. We may fight like siblings, but we love each other with that same unconditional care. It’s difficult to think that this is my last few months around the people I grew up with; while we will see each other again, we won’t see each other in the same way. For these final, approaching months of senior year, we are encouraged by those around us to “live in the moment” and not waste this last bit of time together. Living in the moment is easier said than done. It’s hard to appreciate each day when in the back of my mind is asking what my future will be like. At times it can feel as if this anxiety clouds my vision. One of my biggest fears regarding these final months of my senior year is wasting important time. Sitting in the classroom as a senior is flinching every time someone hears their email chime. Whenever I get a college-related decision back during class, it’s an internal dilemma of whether I should open it right then and there. It’s hard not to let college decisions affect my self-worth. Since I was 14, I have taken the idea of college very seriously, trying to learn everything I could about the college admissions process. I tried to accumulate the perfect profile to submit to all my top choice schools. Through high school, I tried to become the perfect applicant. When I started to submit applications, I learned that the things worth submitting as extracurriculars are things I truly am passionate about. At the end of high school, I found that seniors spend a lot of time worrying about things out of their control. As college decisions slowly roll out, I’ve come to understand and accept that it is out of my hands, and there is no point worrying about what might or might not be. Looking back through each year, I’ve found that the things that show my merit were not the things I did from the anxiety of college decisions, but instead, the things I did for myself. The biggest advice I can offer underclassmen is to worry less about what a college may want from you and instead focus on figuring out what exactly you want to do with your time in high school. Parents and teachers trying to help seniors in their final days may stop reminding us how limited our time is and instead encourage us to use it to its fullest potential.  Grace Timan attends Mount Madonna School in Watsonville. She’s been going to Mount Madonna since she was 2 years old and will be graduating this year. She loves the beach, journaling, and yoga. She’s very excited to be attending UCLA in the fall and majoring in pre-public affairs. Read More Parenting Articles

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