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County supports animal shelter expansion News, Page 5
Stewardship events give community a chance to act Features, Page 1
Volume 141, Number 10 — Locally-owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Gina Kato
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, April 10, 2024
City staff address proposed camping ordinance By Amelia Biscardi and Crystal Apilado Express staff In the shortest city council since 2022, at 15 minutes long, the Winters City Council had a single public comment and only consent calendar items. On April 2, the city council met — with council member Jesse Loren absent. The council members provided updates on meetings they attended, approved the consent calendar and addressed a public comment. City Manager Jeremy Craig requested that Agenda Item E on the Consent Agenda be removed and continued later saying, “We had some additional information we needed to research so we would like to push that to another meeting.” Item E was Res-
olution 2024-23 — “Approving a Professional Services Agreement with Davids Engineering, Inc. to Conduct Two Groundwater Feasibility Studies in the Not-ToExceed Amount of $579,268 and Authorizing the City Manager to Execute the Agreement.” The sole public comment made by Winters resident Jeff TenPas was in regards to the proposed camping ordinance designed to protect Putah Creek by preventing homeless people from camping there. TenPas said he has walked his dog along the creek about twice a day for the last 30 years and has not felt threatened or bothered by individuals and asked for clarification regarding where in the city
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
A crew carefully works to move the Japanese Monument via crane from a truck bed to its designated area.
Japanese monument installed downtown torical society on June 20. The monument features a 1930 Japantown photograph of the community gathered for a funeral. The monument is placed so that when looking at it, the viewer faces the Winters Community Center — the same perspective as the 1930 photograph — with the trestle bridge visible in the background on the right side.
The community is invited to attend the Japantown Monument Dedication Ceremony on Saturday, May 4 at the Rotary Park gazebo at 2 p.m. At that time, the monument will officially be unveiled to the public. Additionally, on Saturday morning a Buddhist service will be hosted at the Winters Cemetery at 11 a.m. and a Taiko
Anti-bullying committee presents bullying manual, incident reporting forms, procedures to school board
Bullet found at middle school
By Logan Chrisp Express staff writer
EXPRESS
On Thursday, April 4, the Winters Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees was presented with the new anti-bullying program developed by the school district’s anti-bullying committee. The information item will come back to the board for approval on April 18. The anti-bullying committee was an assembly of faculty, students and families totaling 22 members.
See CITY, Page 3
The committee met for 4 meetings in which it reviewed bullying prevention policies, school prevention strategies as well as Winters JUSD data to help understand student needs. The mission of the anti-bullying program is to create a safe, respectful, and nurturing environment for all students, emphasizing a zero-tolerance stance against bullying. This includes prevention policies and resources available to students and parents. Winters Middle School Vice Principal Oscar Garcia presented to the board what the anti-bullying committee discussed during its meetings,
By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief On Tuesday morning, a small group of community members gathered at Rotary Park to watch as a crew worked to install the finished Japanese monument. The completion of the Japanese monument was emotional and celebratory for all in attendance. The project was initiated following the work of
Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-2
By Crystal Apilado
things were being handled,” said Cooper. One of the several new prevention methods laid out by Garcia that the committee developed was a bullying prevention manual to be utilized district-wide. The manual has six chapters and defines what is — and isn’t — bullying, prevention tips and reporting procedures for students, teachers and parents. Chapter 6 of the manual explains how Winters JUSD will respond to bullying, which includes counseling, behavioral intervention and education, and if the bullying is severe
On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 2, Winters Middle School Principal Jose A. Bermudez notified families through the ParentSquare app that a bullet had been discovered by a student earlier in the school day. Winters Police Department was notified and officers investigated the incident on the middle school campus. “The bullet was discovered by a student during instructional time. As soon as it was brought to our attention, we took immediate action to ensure the safety of our students and staff,” Bermudez told the Express. Police Chief John P. Miller said there was no reason to lock down the school based on the circumstances. The 22-caliber round that was found loose in a classroom was obtained by Winters PD. Their investigation did not find it to be associated with any
See MANUAL, Page 3
See BULLET, Page 3
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
(Right) Oscar Garcia, Winters Middle School Vice Principal, presents the final products of the AntiBullying Committee’s efforts to the school board alongside middle school students Jax Cooper, Isabella Banuelos and Sophia Bermudez. as well as the bullying prevention strategies Winters JUSD should be utilizing to protect and support students. Three WMS stu-
We at he r Date
Rain
High
Apr. 03
.00
77˚
47˚
Apr. 04 0.06”
76˚
43˚
Apr. 05
54˚
37˚ 32˚
0.21”
Low
Apr. 06
0.15”
55˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
Apr. 07
0.01”
64˚
36˚
Apr. 08
.00
66˚
43˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Apr. 09
.00
72˚
44˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 0.43 in. Season’s total: 22.51 in. Last sn. to date: 36.99 in.
Sports ........................... B-5
See MONUMENT, Page 5
Editor-in-Chief
Index Features ........................ B-1
the Historical Society of Winters to highlight the lives and experiences of Winters Japanese residents in “The Lost Japanese Community” exhibit at the Winters Museum in the fall of 2021. The Winters City Council unanimously approved the placement of the Japanese monument in Rotary Park as presented by the Flloyd Shimomura and Woody Fridae on behalf of the his-
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/23. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
dents joined Garcia. Isabella Banuelos, Sophia Bermudez and Jax Cooper were part of the anti-bullying community and provided a student perspective on what the school district could do differently to help prevent bullying. The trio are Winters Girl Scout Troop 1125 Cadettes who initially spoke to the board about bullying in public comments at the Oct. 19 meeting. Jax Cooper, a seventh-grader at WMS, shared her perspective as a middle school student. “Winters Middle School didn’t have a good plan to prevent bullying. We weren’t satisfied with how YOUR
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