EL SEGUNDO HERALD January 28, 2021 Page 11
Gingerbread Newton Zeus Sasha
and dote on him.
Zeus is a sweet little boy who will lap up
all the love and affection you can offer and
will return it ten-fold with purrs and biscuits!
And all he will ask of you is time to adjust
slowly to his new family and home environment.
After his initial transition, he’ll explore
and get into all sorts of teenage kitty antics,
but will always make time to cuddle on the
couch with you. When Zeus is not running
around, napping, or eating, he loves to play
video games for cats on your iPad/tablet – you
could say he’s an avid gamer! Zeus would
love a home with another playful cat who he
can slowly get to know. If you do not have
another cat, he can be paired up with lots of
other adoptable kitties.
Sasha is a spunky little creature who loves to
have her back scratched once she gets to know
you. She is timid, but you can win her over by
spoiling her with endless treats. Sasha loves to
parade around and be admired. Her gorgeous
orange, black and white coat makes her the
center of attention. Although she is thinking of
competing in beauty pageants where she can
prance around and flaunt her stuff, she would
rather spend time with a family that will dote
on her and give her the love and affection she
deserves. Are you the lucky chosen one(s) that
will make her part of your family?
These cats and kittens are available for adoption
through Kitten Rescue, one of the largest
cat rescue groups in Southern California. All
our kitties are spayed/neutered, microchipped,
tested for FeLV and FIV, dewormed and current
on their vaccinations. Temporarily, adoption
events are suspended. For additional information
and to see these or our other kittens and cats,
please check our website www.kittenrescue.
org or email us at mail@kittenrescue.org. •
Purrrfect Companions
A new year brings new beginnings. Bring
new joy into your home with a new feline
friend. If you are unable to adopt at this time,
consider fostering or donating to support the
foster program. Along with spay and neutering,
if just 2% of the pet-owning households
in America fostered one pet a year, we could
stop euthanizing healthy pets in shelters.
Gingerbread was rescued with his siblings,
Snickerdoodle and Shortbread, as three-weekold
bottle babies. Gingerbread loves other cats
more than anything, especially the big kitties in
his foster home. He can often be found curled
up with one of the resident cats, preferring to
hang out with them rather than romping around.
He is not a huge fan of being held and prefers
to come for attention when he wants it. He
loves to crawl around under the covers and
slither around, burrowing under blankets and
napping against your side. Gingerbread must
be adopted with another kitten, or to a home
with a resident kitty who will play with him
and let him cuddle with them. He loves the
two resident older adults in his foster home
and would do great with kitties of any age.
Newton is a beautiful, Flame Point Siamese
recently rescued from the frantic Koreatown
streets where he was living in a parking lot.
He seeks affection and attention once he feels
secure in his surroundings. When comfortable,
Newton enjoys settling onto your lap for neck
rubs and treats. He will roll upside down and
purr looking to get his belly scratched. Newton
loves playing with his toys, especially wand
toys, which he enjoys chasing and catching.
This shy, sensitive guy would best thrive as a
single cat in a quiet home with a cat-experienced
adopter who has a patient understanding of
Newton’s sweet, but complex nature. His goal
is to be adopted by someone who can just love
Miller-Zarneke from front page
is doing a terrific job. She stepped right up and
took command seamlessly,” emailed Caudill.
“We are experiencing so many unusual events
with the coronavirus pandemic, Measure ES
modernization, along with the day-to-day
workings of the school district. She is doing an
amazing job guiding us through these turbulent
waters. It is my honor to be working with her.”
Board member Dieema Wheaton, along with
Michael Wagner, won election to the Board
in 2020, beginning their four-year terms last
November. Wheaton said that she is “really
excited” to have Miller-Zarnecke leading the
School Board, “not only because she is a really
solid person,” calling her “tried-and-true”
in the community, citing her past volunteer
work in the ESUSD, commenting that “she
has always exercised a level of kindness and
compassion. She is hardworking and can get
the job done. I don’t think that you can find
a better leader.” Wheaton noted the “tough
decisions” that come with the school board
president position and that Miller-Zarneke has
“handled it well, and with grace.”
For his part, Wagner said that Miller-Zarneke
has “been really good about (the members)
being on-boarded with all of the information
that we need,” noting how she has made it
paramount to get the new Board members fully
briefed and up-to-speed in tackling their new
positions. “She is very balanced, in that she
will listen and be objective,” Wagner said, “and
I think that is a good place to be for a leader.”
Miller-Zarneke moved to California from the
Garden State of New Jersey when her parents
finally decided that they had “had enough of
horrible winters” in the Garden State. The
Miller family had briefly traveled West in 1975
to visit a relative who lived in Palos Verdes.
Once returning to New Jersey and suffering
through “another terrible winter,” they asked
themselves, “why do we live here when California
is so beautiful?” The family moved to
Fountain Valley, where Miller-Zarneke attended
Los Amigos High School. Post-graduation, she
matriculated to UCLA, exiting the Westwood
campus confines with a Bachelor of Arts degree
in English/American Studies and a minor in
Business Administration.
Longtime friend and El Segundo resident
Lance Bustrom on his friendship with Miller-
Zarneke: “Yes, I am a longtime friend of
Tracey’s, as we’ve been friends since we met
in 6th grade. She transferred to my elementary
school, and we became friends quickly. What has
been amazing is how close we have stayed over
all these years. There are not many moments
in my life that Tracey is not connected to; she
has been such a presence for over 38 years!
“People sometimes talk about friends that
become family, and Tracey is an example of
that for me. She has basically been my sister
since I was 12.
“When Tracey decided to run for school
board, it made perfect sense to me. She is
smart, empathetic, and a good listener - she
does not believe that she has all the answers,
but I know I can trust her to make the right
decisions after hearing all sides. That is what
I want in a school board president, for sure.
“Personally, I value Tracey’s loyalty and
commitment to the people that matter to her.
I have been the beneficiary of that for over
38 years, and I know that she feels strongly
about the El Segundo community. They should
know that they have someone as school board
president who will show them that same loyalty
and commitment.”
Miller-Zarneke moved to El Segundo in 1997,
smitten with, after occasional local forays, the
charms of “that cute town” bordered by LAX,
the massive Chevron refinery campus, and the
Pacific Ocean. She lives in town with her husband,
Mike, and sons Joshua and Ryan. Together
they enjoy world travel, great meals shared
with family and friends, and coaching, participating
in and cheering on local youth sports teams.
On the professional side, Miller-Zarneke’s
career began in public relations and later
somewhat pivoted into animation production.
In the last decade-and-a-half, her work-related
efforts have shifted between public relations
and animation forays. A published writer,
Miller-Zarneke has penned twelve “art of”
books supporting various animated films, also
drawing paychecks as an editorial advisor and
technical editor.
After more than a decade volunteering in El
Segundo (Miller-Zarneke refers to herself as a
‘serial volunteer’), she said that she has always
been drawn to participating in community
service endeavors, going as far back as her
junior high days. During her stint at UCLA,
she was a four-year member of the Bruin Belles
philanthropic organization, which, coupled with
her volunteer work with various facets of the
ESUSD, led her to run for a position on the
School Board in 2018.
Miller-Zarneke said that her first couple of
years of School Board service taught her that
“there is always more to learn. I learned to
be a really good listener,” she said, “and push
myself to dig deeper before making decisions,
and make sure that I am hearing all sides of
whatever topics we are dealing with,” noting
the “feisty input” of 2020 that has bled into
2021 regarding both science and politics. “It
has been challenging,” she said, mentioning
that “listening, patience and research have all
been key” in implementing her game-plan to
become an effective Board President.
With the School Board meetings now being
held remotely, Miller-Zarneke said that she
“misses the general camaraderie” with Board
members that occurred before and after inperson
meetings. She cited an “intense” recent
Zoom Board meeting that involved the Public
Health “strong recommendation” to halt any
on-campus instruction until, at the earliest,
the first week in February that has caused
consternation.
Miller-Zarneke said she was “extremely
frustrated” by the recent Public Health edicts,
saying that “our schools have had no spread
of the disease.” The ESUSD had opened some
of the classrooms in early December for their
youngest learners, only to be shut down again.
A somewhat perplexed Miller-Zarneke noted
a “big-box store down the road” which, according
to her numbers, has had more than
70 employees come down with COVID-19
symptoms, but has been allowed to conduct
crowded business as usual.
Miller-Zarneke thinks many school districts
are stuck in limbo, in what she terms “a
bureaucratic rock and a hard place. We are
doing the best to serve our community in the
best way we can, in the safest way that we
can. But it is so hard,” she said, when the
guidelines from Public Health are vague and
constantly changing.
With District parents having few options,
she said that her family had done their best
to embrace distance learning tenets. “It is not
for everyone,” she said but did cite some data
points that show an actual uptick in some reading
levels. “There are teachers,” she said, “who
are teaching very well in this environment.”
When time allows, Miller-Zarneke, a staunch
proponent of “eco-mindful living,” strives to
participate in Yoga, cook, and spend family time
with her husband, her sons, and her dogs. When
prudent, she likes her recreational activities to
revolve around outdoor pursuits. “Anything I
can do to have trees, and sunlight, and ocean
around me,” she said.
Miller-Zarnecke is happy to be a longtime
El Segundo resident. She is “grateful that fate
or friends brought me to this town. I feel so
lucky to be raising my family here. To be in
this place, at this time. It’s a special place, a
hidden gem.”
Like all of us affected, in-one-way-or another
by the lockdown, Miller-Zarneke yearns to get
back to some semblance of the way things
were at the start of March 2020. “We want
to get back to serving our community” she
said, referring to the ESUSD School Board
members, “the best, the way we know how to.”
Amen to that sentiment! •
The Zarneke Family in their happy place, the North Shore of Kauai.