2020: a Difficult Year That Showcased Menlo Park's Resilience
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THE HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER FOR MENLO PARK, ATHERTON, PORTOLA VALLEY AND WOODSIDE JANUARY 1, 2021 | VOL. 56 NO. 17 WWW.ALMANACNEWS.COM 2020: A difficult year that showcased Menlo Park’s resilience By Kate Bradshaw YEAR IN REVIEW Almanac Staff Writer n many ways, 2020 was family pay rent? Will we be a year made infamous by evicted? What will we eat? Iits relentless awfulness. It threw at us a global pandemic Winter and widespread economic dev- astation, new police killings In the first quarter of 2020, of unarmed Black people and we saw the world turn upside some of the largest wildfires ever down from the pandemic — and recorded in the Western U.S. experienced California’s first People struggled to adapt March primary. The biggest to new routines wrought by local election was among seven unprecedented shelter-in-place candidates seeking to replace orders enacted in mid-March state Sen. Jerry Hill when he and lasting months, learning termed out of the Legislature in how to work, study, play and 2020. The top two vote-getters grow, one homebound day at a in March were Democrat Josh time — all while a highly infec- Becker and Republican Alex tious new virus sickened and Glew. Becker won handily in the killed people at alarming rates, November general election. hitting seniors, essential front- By mid-March, the coronavi- line workers and communities rus pandemic was raging and of color especially hard. shelter-in-place orders put into The year especially highlight- effect as public health agencies Magali Gauthier ed the region’s deep inequali- scrambled to learn more about Angelina Fields holds an “End Police Brutality” sign while marching with hundreds of other protesters at ties. While some local families the virus, develop tests and Burgess Park in Menlo Park on June 1. absconded to less restrictive contact tracing capacity and areas to avoid the inconvenienc- ensure adequate hospital space Board of Supervisors enacted businesses, immigrant families We reported on how the coro- es of shelter-in-place orders, by “flattening the curve” of the temporary eviction morato- who were not eligible for federal navirus is reshaping how people others have been forced to live virus’ growing spread. riums to protect residential support, child care facilities, and mourn, how seniors cope with with painful uncertainties in Both the city of Menlo Park and commercial tenants dur- the unhoused and marginally increasing isolation, and how addition to the grueling ones and the county of San Mateo ing the initial shutdowns. The housed. the pandemic creates conditions everyone else faced. They asked expanded emergency powers supervisors poured funds into COVID-19 forced just about that could worsen the abuse that themselves questions like: When and used those powers in new programs intended to help everyone to change how they do can I work again? How will my ways. The San Mateo County those struggling: local small things. See MENLO PARK 2020, page 18 Costs staggering to reopen local schools amid pandemic By Angela Swartz required small cohorts needed health and safety measures: san- federal sources to cover COV- HEPA air filter installations, Almanac Staff Writer for on-campus learning and to itation supplies, masks, gloves, ID-related costs. Of that, the building outdoor classrooms offer a virtual academy option face shields, HVAC air filters, Portola Valley Parent-Teacher and hiring additional substitute t costs a lot to reopen a to families who are not comfort- hand-washing stations, tents, Organization and Portola Val- teachers to oversee more frag- school during a pandemic. able returning for on-campus thermometers and other sup- ley Foundation covered about mented student groups. ILocal elementary school learning, said Connie Ngo, the plies, said Ngo. Curriculum $115,000 of the additional costs, The school also installed 50 districts have reported spend- district’s chief business official, costs totaled about $33,000 for according to the district. hand sanitizer stations and four ing hundreds of thousands of in an email. The district also online curriculum, student sup- The Woodside Elementary portable outdoor hand-washing dollars — even millions — to contracted with three substi- plies and to use Edgenuity, a School District, which has 372 sinks. safely bring students back to tute teachers instead of hiring K-12 online platform for virtual students, saved close to $1 mil- The district received $180,000 campuses. day-to-day subs as in past years, learning. lion in expenses last spring in Child Care Relief Fund grant It cost nearly $1 million to to avoid substitutes mixing in Nearly $73,000 went into tech- while students were distance funds from San Mateo County reopen Portola Valley School with other communities, she nology costs like new devices learning, according to Super- to help county schools that have District classrooms this fall. said. The district hired an addi- and Chromebooks for students, intendent Steve Frank. But this been adversely impacted by The bulk of the money — over tional instructional aide, and hot spots for families, additional fall it has taken on half a million COVID, Frank said. $580,000 — went toward staff- the school nurse increased from teaching software and Zoom dollars in costs for new COVID- Despite the costs, school offi- ing increases. The two-school, working just one day a week to upgrades. related safety precautions, which cials have accomplished their 495-student district hired three three. The district received about include the administrative costs additional teachers to meet the More than $118,000 went into $300,000 from local, state and of testing staff members weekly, See SCHOOLS REOPENING, page 19 INSIDE OUR NEIGHBORHOODS 2021 HOLIDAY FUND 10 | ARTS 20 | FOOD 22 WHY SUPPORT LOCALLOCAL JOURNALISM?JOURNALISM? Our subscribing members say it best... “ I am impressed with your staff reporting the local news exactly as it happens without a biased agenda. As a senior citizen, I have seen journalism degenerate to becoming a platform for the personal biases of the writer and presented in that way ... I will stick with you. ” - Ann S. Will you join the thousands of others supporting local journalism? Now’s your moment to step up when we need you the most. Subscribe now at AlmanacNews.com/join You can also subscribe for one year by mailing a check for $120 ($60 for seniors and students) to us at 450 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto 94306. 2QThe AlmanacQAlmanacNews.comQJanuary 1, 2021 2021 ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE In the midst of unprecedented usage of the word “unprecedented,” the 140 agents in the Silicon Valley and Peninsula offices of Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty were better than ever at making dreams come true, closing a record-setting 904 transactions totaling $2.2 billion dollars. If they can do that in a year like this last one, imagine what could happen in 2021. BURLINGAME MENLO PARK COME SEE WHAT’S POSSIBLE: SILICON VALLEY SAN CARLOS PALO ALTO AND PENINSULA REDWOOD CITY LOS ALTOS GoldenGateSIR.com OFFICE LOCATIONS WOODSIDE LOS GATOS All offices are independently owned and operated. January 1, 2021QAlmanacNews.comQThe AlmanacQ3 May 2021 bring good health, happiness and a renewed spirit. Not pictured: Linda Atilano, Elaine Clark, Sue Dremann, Rick Eymer, Kevin Forestieri, Andrea Gemmet, Janice Hoogner, Lloyd Lee, Kevin Legnon, Nico Navarrete, Chris Planessi, Charlie Russo, Alicia Santillan, Mike Schmidt and Heather Zimmerman. With gratitude for your support from all of us at 4 ■ The Almanac ■ AlmanacNews.com ■ January 1, 2021 Local News M ENLO PARK | ATHERTON | WOODSIDE | PORTOLA V ALLEY Two Menlo firefighters among first in county to receive COVID vaccine By Angela Swartz leadership,” said fire Chief Har- Almanac Staff Writer old Schapelhouman. “That’s why we put them at the front wo firefighters were of the line of our front-line fire among the first in San personnel to be vaccinated, if TMateo County to receive they wanted to do this, and one of the COVID-19 vaccines trust me, everyone in our orga- last week. nization gets it and appreciated They were part of a group it.” of six firefighters and para- Over the last nine months, medics who volunteered to nearly half of the district’s 100 staff a two-person Pandemic first responders have been tested Emergency Response Unit for and/or quarantined due to pos- the Menlo Park Fire Protec- sible exposure to the virus. Two tion District, which serves firefighters contracted the virus Menlo Park, Atherton, East and both survived, according to Palo Alto and surrounding the press release. Magali Gauthier unincorporated communities, The pandemic team respond- UPS driver Lew Hess speaks to the crowd of Portola Valley residents who have come to thank him according to a Dec. 24 district ed to care facilities, homeless for his decades of work in the town on July 31. press release. The team was encampments and cramped equipped with an upgraded housing conditions, where level of personal protective entire families tested positive Portola Valley examines its history equipment and protocols to for the virus, to car accidents, respond to possible COVID-19 suicides, stabbings, overdoses while looking toward the future medical incidents. and difficulty breathing calls “Having our six personnel in which the patients’ actual By Julia Brown and went on alert as the CZU who volunteered to put them- medical conditions were less YEAR IN REVIEW Almanac Assistant Editor wildfires prompted evacuation selves at a higher risk in known. Some 10% of the medi- warnings in nearby La Honda. order to protect others, when cal responses over the last nine hile 2020 will always for the Sequoias retirement The Town Council and resi- we knew so little, was an months were flagged as patients be remembered as community — aided by local dents also waded through a important moment that showed Wthe year marked by volunteers bagging their orders number of weighty issues.