For the 5th consecutive year CHS had the 1st place team in Junior Achievement's district business competition "Titans of Industry". Alan Walter, Clairemont Academy of Business teacher, uses the virtual business simulation in his Entrepreneurship course to educate students about the rigors of running a global business. "I had a similar business simulation my capstone year in college. It was such a great way to learn about running a company in a fun, hands-on way that I vowed if I had the opportunity I would give the same opportunity to my students. In many ways I think this is better than a textbook." Walter said.
The competition took place Dec 5th at University of Phoenix. Teams competed against each other in a virtual business simulation where they are the CEO of a media company. Based on market data and analysis teams made business decisions such as price, marketing, R&D, charitable giving and capital improvement.
Not only is this the 5th year an Academy of Business team has scored the top overall spot, but they took home 2nd, 4th and 5th places as well in the district.
Alan Walter
Teacher, Academy of Business
Clairemont High School
Way to go CHS! We are so proud of our young shinning stars in the community!
Janett Lewis
Director North
Chair, Communications Committee
As previously mentioned, Nirvana Ortanez is one of Clairemont Town Council's recipients of our Fall Grant. Nirvana, one of the top-ranked snowboarders in the world, is training and competing to become the first female Olympic athlete to represent the Philippines at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Although
we have said goodbye to summer, the holiday season started last
Thursday with Thanksgiving and retailers have started to show the
spirit by putting up lights, plugging in trees, and displaying
garland and ornaments. As commercial businesses are regulated by
local, state, and Federal safety regulations, it is up to home owners
and neighborhoods to take care and pay attention to safety!
The
Clairemont Town Council’s Public Safety Awareness Committee would
like to remind you to review the following safety concerns…
Can you believe it's Christmas time, already? Could've sworn I just put my Santa hat away from last year! That being said, it's that time of year again, and every December we bring our favorite drinks, dishes, desserts (and utensils!) to our annual Holiday Potluck Dinner.
This month we will be honoring our retiring CTC Boardmembers and their steadfast commitment to our community and Clairemont Town Council. We will also present checks to our Fall Grant recipients: Hawthorne Elementary for improvements to their school gardens, and Holmes Elementary to help send their 5th graders to a Junior Achievement-hosted event at BizTown.
Our final Fall Grant recipient, Nirvana Ortanez, was introduced at our Mayoral Forum last month. Nirvana, one of the top-ranked snowboarders in the world, is training and competing to become the first female Olympic athlete to represent the Philippines at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. If you'd like to learn more about Nirvana, please visit her website at http://makeachamp.com/nirvanao
Thursday, November 7 -- 7:00pm at Cadman Elementary -- Clairemont Town Council and Clairmeont Chamber of Commerce will host a Clairemont Mayoral Forum. The top 4 candidates have been invited: Mike Aguirre, David Alvarez, Kevin Faulconer, and Nathan Fletcher.
We've stressed the political importance for these candidates to turnout to our forum. After all, Clairemont is San Diego's most populated community, and we're home to the largest concentration of registered voters -- 13% of all precincts citywide are in Clairemont. Without sounding too pompous, it's safe to say that our community holds the keys to the Mayor's office.
Janet Miller, Publisher of Clairemont Community News, will act as the forum's moderator. If you'd like to submit questions for the candidates, please visit our website: ClairemontOnline.com
As the fire
season is already underway, the Clairemont Town Council’s Public
Safety Awareness Committee would like to remind you of the following
fire prevention and safety preparedness steps. Although there are
extensive resources relating to fire prevention, our goal is to
highlight several focus points for our neighborhoods.
In Home Fire
Safety Tips General:
Furnace,
Kerosene Heaters, Wood Stoves, and Fireplaces should be inspected
for damage, safety control triggers, emergency shutoffs, and
thermostats are operational.
It is not
recommended to use any type of flammable liquid or flame accelerator
to start an indoor fire.
Carbon
Monoxide and Smoke Detectors are operational.
Develop an
Emergency plan and Fire Escape Plan and practice it. Be sure to
establish two central meeting places one should be near the home and
two should be a few blocks away at a park, building or business.
Establish a
central communication point such as an out of the area relative.
This assists in the event family members are separated.
Maintain
a 30ft minimum distance defensible space around your home by
reducing vegetation and tree build up.
Get
an ABC rated fire extinguisher.
Remember
the word PASS when using a fire extinguisher:
P
– Pull the pin and hold the extinguisher with the nozzle pointing
away from you.
A
– Aim low. Point the extinguisher at the base of the fire.
Last month's meeting with Interim Mayor Todd Gloria, I feel, was one of the best Clairemont Town Council meetings we've ever had with nearly 200 in attendance -- a sentiment shared by several longtime CTC members and attendees. Thank you to everyone who showed up and to our CTC Board for helping to organize such an amazing turnout!
For our October 3rd meeting, nominations will close for our Board elections, and we will welcome two amazing guest speakers: Cindy Marten, the recently appointed Superintendent for San Diego Unified, and Javier Mainar, our Fire Chief for the City of San Diego.
What a whirlwind summer at City Hall! Without getting too detailed about the drama, we can only assess that this certainly has been a crisis in city government. As such, we have reached out to current City Council President, now Acting Mayor (and Madison High graduate) Todd Gloria to speak at our Clairemont Town Council meeting on Thursday, September 5.
Although Acting Mayor Todd Gloria will temporarily assume these duties, we feel it is important enough to have him attend our upcoming meeting and provide an update on the status of our city during this interesting time. Also, it will give San Diego's largest community an opportunity to hear from one of our elected leaders who, despite not directly representing Clairemont, a chance to hear our thoughts and our concerns.
By the time you read this, it'll be just in time for Clairemont Family Day at South Clairemont Rec Center. Clairemont Town Council will have a booth there, so don't be shy and stop by. We will also participate in the 2013 Politifest at Liberty Station in Point Loma, sponsored by Voice of San Diego. Both events will be held on Saturday, August 3rd.
Shout out to Papas Pizza on Moraga Ave for providing some delicious pizza for the meeting. Our previous meeting couldn't have gone any better, and our guest speakers were impressed with the turnout, considering we're in the middle of the summer. No doubt -- we are one the most active and well-attended community councils in the city, which is a testament to the hard work of our Board, and all those involved with CTC.
First off, shout out to Papa's Pizza on Moraga Ave for providing us pizza for the meeting! Our County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister provided a very good presentation on the reforms his office has done to make the tax office more user (and taxpayer) friendly. Mr. McAllister even commented on the turnout, which -- mind you -- was phenomenal, considering it wasn't held on our usual meeting day. He said were one the most active and well-attended community councils in the city, which is a testament to the hard work of our Board, and all of our community members' interests in the well-being of Clairemont. In my last President's letter I laid out a few items of interest that the Town Council is looking for, and we went into further discussion at our meeting. We're encouraging our CTC members to be active in any of our committees. Our list of committees can be found here: ClairemontOnline.com/Committees
We are encouraging anyone in the community with expertise in event planning (or knows someone with those qualities) to help the Board organize some exciting events for next year. We are looking to get started on organizing for our 2014 Garden Tour, our 60th Anniversary Dinner, and any other events we feel would help benefit the mission of our Council and our community. If you're interested, please e-mail Events@ClairemontOnline.com
Finally, we have a comprehensive set of Bylaw Amendments that the Board is soliciting input on, so that we may have the Council formally adopt at our next meeting. We've compiled all of the possible changes of the Bylaw amendments here. For comparison, our current set of Bylaws can be found on our website here. We're just working to help build a bigger, stronger Town Council. We always appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
The Clairemont Town Council has not endorsed or opposed the Balboa Mesa project, and is posting the following YouTube video and subsequent information from Care About Clairemont as an informational update. ###
FYI... There is a community meeting tomorrow (July 10) about putting a pool at Hickman Field. For more information about the meeting: click here.
There have been conflicting letters of support and opposition on this project, and city leaders have only heard from a handful of people. Clairemont Town Council has not taken any position on this, so we need to hear from you -- the community! If you could please send an e-mail in either support or opposition to the pool, or better yet -- attend the meeting, it would be greatly appreciated. Clairemont Community News had previously posted on their blog about improvements to Hickman Field earlier this year. To read that post: click here.
July 11th -- because the first Thursday of the month falls on Independence Day (July 4th), we've obviously made the wise decision to hold our monthly meeting a week later. I hope you all enjoyed your extended holiday weekend with family, friends, and fireworks!
However, as a draw to bring you out to our July 11th meeting, we'll have an assortment of pizzas available to munch on. Plus, our guest speaker will be Dan McAllister, our county's elected Treasurer-Tax Collector. Dan's a fantastic speaker if you've never heard his presentation before, and will help answer questions about your tax bill. Come on out, and bring your tax bill if you'd like!
The Clairemont Town Council has not endorsed or opposed the Balboa Mesa project, and is posting the following information from Regency Centers as an informational update. ### Community Input Shapes Design Changes for Proposed In-N-Out Burger PDF: Map of Balboa Mesa Project Improvements In February, Regency Centers presented a renovation plan for Balboa Mesa Shopping Center, including the addition of an In-N-Out Burger, to the Clairemont Community Planning Group, which voted 9-2 to support the proposal and recommend approval to the San Diego City Council.
As part of the redevelopment process, Regency has actively sought out feedback from the community and the City. In fact, more than 350 Clairemont Mesa residents have signed support cards in favor of the project.
Simone Henriques
Director-at-Large/Historian It is with great pleasure that for the past year I have been actively involved with the Clairemont Town Council (CTC). I have also been recently appointed as Historian for the CTC. As a Historian, it is my task to reconstruct past events and speak faithfully about Clairemont Town Council History. Recently, I have been fascinated with the amount of facts and documents I found and gathered throughout my research. Facts defining the formation of Clairemont Town Council to the succession of presidents, as well as, of previous members and community events held by the council.
Clairemont Town Council History dates back to September 20, 1954 when Clairemont Boosters Club and Clairemont Civic Association decided to join forces with temporary officers elected to create the Council. The CTC first official meeting was held at the Whittier Elementary on January 24, 1955. During the meeting, Howard I. Kaufman was appointed as the first president of Clairemont Town Council.
Big THANK YOU to the homeowners, volunteers, and of course the hundreds of ticket buyers who made this year's Clairemont Garden Tour one of our most successful ever! This year we had three garden categories to vote for your favorites: Ornamental Garden winner was Mr. Leland Fletcher, Water-Wise Garden was Bruce & Marlene Miller, and Edible Garden winner was Nele & Paul Berner. Congratulations!
For those who are unaware, the annual Clairemont Garden Tour is the Town Council's single largest fundraiser of the year -- in which proceeds go to fund community grants such as funding food packages for needy families through Community Christian Service Agency, various Boy/Girl Scout projects, the Clairemont Hilltoppers, and our most recent grant award was to help replace football helmets at Clairemont High School through their booster club.
Janett Lewis
Director North
Chair, Communications Committee
From time to time we bring you a unique interview with an interesting person in the Clairemont community.
This week we got the chance to sit in with the dynamic Janet Miller, energetic and insightful publisher behind the Clairemont Community News. Janet took the time to tell us a little bit about her vision for the Clairemont community and how she became the publisher and editor-in-chief of its most stellar newspaper.
Janett Lewis: What are you most passionate about?
Janet Miller: Well, I got engaged this week; I’m excited about that. I’m very into words, reading and writing. I’m passionate about Clairemont, at least making Clairemont more of the place I’d like to live. One thing that I think is missing is public art, which is a big deal to me and I’m distressed that we don’t have anything like that in Clairemont. I’d love to see more of that happen. I’m excited about the small community theater group that started here in the last couple of years. I’m excited about helping them. I’d like Clairemont to be not so much “Squaremont,” but a little more cultural.
I am proud to have been at the forefront of solving the financial scandals that dogged the city of San Diego for nearly a decade. Now, our city faces a new challenge. The mayor and City Council must return tax dollars to our neighborhoods by continuing to reform City Hall.
That is why it’s disappointing that Mayor Bob Filner’s first proposed budget shortchanges core neighborhood services, including street repair, and seeks to repeat the financial mistakes of City Hall’s troubled past.
The city’s finances affect every service it provides: public safety, clean drinking water, paved streets and much more. A financially sound city can provide these services. A mismanaged city cannot. Instead of continuing with fiscal discipline, accountability and voter-approved reforms, the mayor’s proposed budget contains major flaws that, combined and left unchecked, will impede the city’s turnaround.
I need to build an emergency kit Making sure I put the right stuff in it Water, at least a three-day supply A non-electric radio for news to get by And, of course, I’ll need my trusty flashlight And batteries to keep it burning so bright Food lasting awhile, can opener too A sleeping bag or some blankets, a few A first aid kit in case someone gets hurt Extra car keys, if they’re lost in the dirt Some cash money, gotta have that And meds for everyone, including the cat Warm clothing, sturdy shoes, TP I’ll need Documents in oilskin, include the house deed Put it all together in a little backpack Spare for the car, prepared with my sack.
By the time you read this, the 17th Annual Clairemont Garden Tour will be in full swing! Special THANK YOU to all the homeowners, volunteers, and the Garden Tour Committee who have put in hours upon hours of work to make this year's tour extra special. If it is not already May 4, then you can still pick up tickets for the tour. Visit our website: ClairemontOnline.com for more information.
FYI... If you've already purchased tickets for the Garden Tour and need your maps and programs, they will be available on Friday and Saturday (May 3rd and 4th) for pick-up at the following locations: Sandwich Emporium at 3054 Clairemont Dr., and The UPS Store at Clairemont Town Square. Please Remember: bring your receipt with you to any location. Additional maps and programs will also be available day-of at Cadman Elementary (4370 Kamloop Avenue).
Commentary by Julee Jenkins, Clairemont Community Schools
The Revitalization of Balboa Mesa
Shopping Center is Right for the Clairemont Community
The Balboa Mesa Shopping Center
renovation proposed by Regency Centers will invest $10 million,
bringing new life to the shopping center and to our community with
new shops and restaurants, including a drive-thru In-N-Out Burger.
The renovation is LEED® certified and includes an updated parking
lot design which will improve traffic movement within the center.
Other elements of the proposed revitalization are outdoor seating
areas, pedestrian pathways, new exterior signage and stone accents,
and new shopping center lighting and landscaping. Some
community members have raised questions about the potential traffic
related to the project. The good news is the plans call for a total
overhaul of the parking lot at the center to enhance circulation. In
addition, Regency has worked closely with the City to minimize
impacts and ensure better access to and from Balboa Avenue.
The gardens have been selected, the programs are going to print, and tickets for the 17th Annual Clairemont Garden Tour are on sale now! As you may know, the Clairemont Garden Tour is an annual fundraiser that benefits our community through grant funding. This self-guided tour presents the most beautiful and exquisite homes and gardens of our neighborhood.
This year's Garden Tour will present a variety of creative, unique and sustainable gardens displaying tropical and native plants. We hope to provide you with inspirational ideas for your own garden! For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit our website: ClairemontOnline.com
Also, we are still looking for volunteers for our Preview Tour (the Saturday before) and day-of event (May 4). If you'd like to volunteer for either weekend, please contact Dana Sortwell at GardenTour@ClairemontOnline.com
There's a lot going on at our April meeting! SANDAG will present an update on the Mid-Coast Trolley. Also, we'll hear from guest speakers Supervisor Ron Roberts and Assemblyman Brian Maienschein.
We look forward to seeing you at 7:00pm on Thursday, April 4th, in the Cadman Elementary cafeteria.
This year's Garden Tour on May 4th will be an event you won't want to miss! The Clairemont Garden Tour boasts an amazing set of gardens handpicked by the Clairemont Town Council's Board of Directors. This year's bounty of beautiful new gardens that promises to be even more breathtaking than last year’s, when some gardens were so enthralling they were difficult to leave. Clear your day so you can linger in each garden until you experience the joy and fulfillment only nature inspires.
Last year’s first-place winner, Jim, will showcase his garden again this year for those of you who may have missed it in 2012. Jim's garden consists of many orchids, lush tropical palms and exotic bromeliads. The varieties of plants are far too numerous to list, as he has been tending his garden with love for several decades. This marks the first time in Garden Tour history that we're showcasing a previous year’s winner. Don't miss this opportunity to see Jim's garden.
The gardens range widely in form and purpose: there are decorative gardens, tropical gardens, food gardens, and methodically crafted sustainable gardens. The Clairemont Garden Tour also promises to exhibit myriad returning artists as well as people showcasing their work for the first time.
You won’t want to miss the 17th Annual Clairemont Garden Tour this May 4th. These fastidiously kept gardens are reflective of an aesthetic sensitivity and dedication that is reflective of the spirit of the Clairemont community. Each gardener undoubtedly spends months, even decades, tending their gardens, elevating the activity of gardening from the mundane drudgery of manual labor to a constantly changing, living work of art.
The Clairemont community is centrally located in beautiful San Diego, California. Many homes have breathtaking canyon and ocean views. This topography creates the perfect backdrop for our Garden Tour. The Clairemont Town Council works diligently to create a forum for discussing the issues that arise in our community and is firmly committed to improving the community in every way we can. By offering a platform to review the conflicts and issues that face the Clairemont community, the Town Council creates the kind of discourse that allows the people of Clairemont to address and amend these problems.
The Clairemont Garden Tour is our main fundraiser and provides the funds our community grants every year. It’s still early enough to submit your garden and contribute in many other ways. It truly takes a village! Email: GardenTour@ClairemontOnline.com to let us know how you can help out.
One of the other ways the Town Council works to improve the community is by bringing the whole of Clairemont together to celebrate holidays and the seasons. Well, spring is in the air and summer is riding fast its tail. The gardens will be in full bloom. These colorful gardens will be a welcome relief after our long, cold, and rainy winter. Be sure to kick your summer off right with your family and friends and usher in the new seasons with our invigorating Clairemont Garden Tour!
Clairemont Town Council is underway working to plan a fantastic 2013 Garden Tour & Expo, and we would love to have you volunteer for this effort. As you may know, Garden Tour is one of our community's treasured annual events (going on 17 years this year) -- it also happens to be our largest fundraiser of the year.
Without Garden Tour, the Clairemont Town Council wouldn't be able to fund our all-important community grants every year. If there's any chance you can help out in anyway, it'd be much appreciated. We are looking for volunteers to help in the following areas: Garden Exhibitors, Marketing, Ticket Sales, Sponsors, the Expo, the Preview Tour, and to help manage and schedule other Volunteers.
Clairemont Town Council is preparing for the 2013 Garden Tour and we need you to help make it a success.
We have the structure outlined and now we need you to add your touch and make the Tour truly a reflection of the 'Village within the City'. The Garden Tour Committee is seeking volunteers for the following areas:
Garden Exhibitors: Locate and select the best gardens available, ensure the garden exhibitors are informed and tended to with the utmost of care and serve as the point person for the exhibitors and sellers in the gardens.
Marketing-Print: Generate the print marketing such as emails, newspaper and journal articles, fliers and posters and distribute as appropriate.
Marketing-Banners and Signs: Maintain and post banners and signs as appropriate.
Marketing-Web/TV/Radio: Host the school competitions, confirm media outlets to post electronic media generated by the schools.
Marketing-Day of Event Signage: Post and remove signage on the day of the Tour.
Tickets: Generate and sell tickets, ensuring that all monies and tickets are accounted for.
Volunteers: Solicit, schedule, and take care of the volunteers throughout the Tour.
Sponsors: Solicit sponsors and ensure that all agreements are met per each sponsorship package.
Expo: Manage the Expo, including location, participants, food, set up and clean up.
Preview Tour: Manage the Preview Tour, including the invitations, bus confirmation, refreshments, and schedule.
If you'd like to volunteer, feature your garden, be a sponsor, or want to inquire further about this year's Garden Tour & Expo, contact GardenTour@ClairemontOnline.com, or you can also contact me personally.
Below is a video that Janett Lewis produced of last year's Garden Tour & Expo. Janett helped sponsor last year's tour.
Speaking from personal experience, working on the Garden Tour is a very fulfilling way to impact the community. The tasks are clearly defined and we know what needs to get done when. With each new committee member's influence, the Tour grows a bit more, just like the gardens it highlights.
I met some unforgettably amazing people and am excited to lead the effort again this year. I hope you'll join us!
“A Little School Where Big Things
Happen” – Principal Elizabeth Ballard
By Simone Henriques, Director-At-Large
Do you know who Charles Wakefield
Cadman was? Elizabeth Ballard and her staff want to make sure you do
and that the community knows that Cadman was destined to be a fine
arts school because of its namesake.
Ballard became Principal of Cadman
Elementary School in April of 2011. After meeting with each staff
member, it was clear to Ballard that Cadman needed to be a fine arts
school, so the focus of the school was changed and the arts were
incorporated. She was surprised to learn that the students did not
know who Mr. Cadman was, so Brian McDonald, a
staff member did a presentation to the student body on this great man
and his music.
Cadman (1888-1946) was an American
composer and his music was highly influenced by American Indian
music. His most well-known songs are “From the Land of the Sky-Blue
Water” (which was actually featured in a Hamms beer commercial)
and “At Dawning.”
Dear San Diego Planning Commission and the Honorable Lorie Zapf,
It is with great urgency that I request that IN’ N OUT Burger NOT be allowed permits to occupy the Balboa Mesa shopping center until complete and exhaustive environmental impact reports, quality of life reports, traffic studies are conducted, and traffic mitigation standards have been established. It is imperative that the people who live, work, go to school, and play in Clairemont have the full and complete protection of the City of San Diego against the horrendous safety and traffic impact that this restaurant will bring into our community. I believe that through proper planning this restaurant can co-exist without causing major problems in our community, but until adequate measures of protection are in place I stand firmly against the project.
Congestion on northbound Genesee, just south of Balboa Avenue is already so busy that many cars are already turning eastbound on Mt Alifan into a residential neighborhood in order to avoid the traffic on northbound Genesee. They turn onto Mt Alifan in order to make their way eastbound to the 805 Freeway and to the many large and successful businesses in Clairemont and Kearny Mesa. Due to the already increased traffic on Mt Alifan the City of San Diego made Mt. Alifan a single lane road in order to better serve the safety of the residents and pedestrians on Mt. Alifan who live in the condominiums and low income housing, as well as the school children who go to Horizon.
One of our projects this year is to research our organization's history, so we can compile and celebrate that information with you and the community. We want to know: Where did we first meet? Who served on our board? When did they serve? What issues have we supported and endorsed? All great questions, but with few obvious answers given our 60 years worth of history. To help compile this "timeline of service," we've appointed Director-at-Large Simone Henriques to be our Council's "Historian."
At our next meeting, we will officially celebrate and honor the James Madison High School Warhawks football team and their first-ever state championship. We will hear a few words from Head Coach and Madison Athletic Director, Rick Jackson.
Also, we will hear from Regency Centers who own the Balboa Mesa Shopping Center (where Vons and Kohls are located). They will present their plans to update and remodel that location.
We look forward to seeing you at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 7th, in the Cadman Elementary cafeteria.
Walking down Clairemont Dr.
I spotted this one day. Clairemont
Is so beautiful!
Things are changing in Clairemont. We will be releasing our newsletter the Monday before the general meeting. It will serve as a reminder and an update to the community! Be sure your name is on the email signup if you are not getting our newsletters.
We will be interviewing a person of interest monthly. Someone not well known but effective & influential in the community. Please let us know if you have anyone in mind or if you would like to be interviewed and spotlighted in our newsletter.
If you haven't already liked our Facebook Pageplease do. It's probably the best way to stay up to date on all things Clairemont Town Council! There are some special plans in the works, a Clairemont Beautification Project. We are actually trying to come up with a name. Some of the words we like are renaissance, beautification, restoration and rejuvenation. Do you have a creative mind? If so please let us know what you think would be a great name for a project that will make Clairemont more beautiful. As the project progresses we will be reaching out to the community to help put it together. Stay tuned... Our brochure is currently getting a face lift! Once they are all printed and ready to go, I invite you to pick some up at the meetings and distribute to your neighbors. Let's get Clairemont together. Being the largest community in San Diego is great but bringing the community together is what we are all about. Let's get to know each other and support one another in creating the greatest community is San Diego.
