Page 8 December 8, 2016 EL SEGUNDO HERALD School Board from front page Eagles from page 5 The impressive group of freshmen added to the roster means Logan Pismopulos, Casey Lund and Christopher Charles will be seeing significant playing time. Each has a special skill set that should continue to reload the soccer program. The schedule that the Eagles face this year is no walk in the park. They’ve already played Bishop Montgomery to a 1-1 tie and lost to early league favorite Peninsula Bay in the first week of the season. The Eagles faced Mira Costa on Tuesday and battle Animo--one of the top programs in Southern California—today (December 8). The Aztec Eagles haven’t lost a league game in five years. The Eagles return home next Thursday to face St. Bernard at 3 p.m. The Lady Eagles soccer program welcomes a new head coach. Skip Jones takes over for Tony Hobbs, who directed the Eagles for four seasons. Coach Jones is a former player who attended El Segundo High. His wife is also an alumni and his two daughters attend the school. He has coached for 25 years at various levels. He was instrumental in getting the El Segundo Gunners local club soccer program started. For the past eight years, Jones has been the frosh/soph coach and stepped into the varsity job when Coach Hobbs stepped down. Jones inherited a senior-laden team. Of the 18 players on the roster, 13 are seniors--but the team has just six returning varsity players. The lack of experience, at least at the varsity level, shouldn’t be a challenge. According to Jones, most if not all the players on the roster play year-round at some level. The backline/defense for the Eagles will be anchored by goalkeepers Kate Rausch and Kartrina Matthews. Sweeper Gaby Worrell plays an aggressive style of soccer and is supported by defenders Amy Kattan, Taylor Stevens and Sophie Long. According to Jones, the “engine” of the team will be the play of the midfield. Cierra Kessler and Emma Burner have tremendous energy and the ability to work up and down the field all game long. Nette Saldana provides skilled distribution off the ball from the midfield position and may have the best power shot on the team. Wing midfield players are Domo Saldana, Gaby Esquer, Italia Passante, Elena Guerrero, Natalia Ramirez and Taylor Stone. Each of them brings a slightly different style of play from the other and this will provide many options when it comes to team strategy. The attacking frontline players Kendall Rollins, Kaylin Lunsford and Claire Mahon all possess a wonderful combination of skill and speed. Jones expects their play to be one of the strengths of the team. According to Jones, the future of the program looks spectacular with the incoming freshman class. He says if this were a collegiate recruiting class, he would rate them as Five- Star Blue Chip. At least six of them will be game-changers for the frosh/soph and junior varsity teams. Jones expects most if not all to have a great impact on the program. The non-league schedule pits the Eagles up against some of the top teams in the South Bay including West Torrance, San Pedro, Peninsula and Mira Costa. Notwithstanding a rigorous schedule, the Lady Eagles should be able to place themselves in a position to vie for an Ocean League title. Winning the league title would give the Lady Eagles their first since the 2008-09 season. • Undetectable New Cars Told to Make Some Noise By Rob McCarthy We can’t hear you! That’s the message the federal government has sent to car companies that make electric and hybrid vehicles. Alternative fuel vehicles are so quiet when the motor’s running that 2,400 pedestrians a year are struck in crosswalks, streets and parking lots, according to estimates. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just added a sound requirement for new hybrid and electric light-duty vehicles. The safety standard, put in place to protect pedestrians who are blind or have low vision, will help prevent as many as 2,400 pedestrian injuries per year once all hybrids on U.S. roads are properly equipped. Protecting pedestrians is near the top of the agency’s to-do list now that vehicular deaths are on the rise, ending a 50-year decline in the nation. Drivers are more distracted than ever, and cell phones and mobile devices are getting most of the blame. Pedestrians play a role in traffic safety, and it just makes sense they should be looking out for danger instead of at their phones. “This is a common-sense tool to help pedestrians — especially folks who are blind or have low vision — make their way safely,” said NHTSA Administrator Dr. Mark Rosekind. “With pedestrian fatalities on the rise, it is vitally important we take every action to protect the most vulnerable road users.” Under the new rule, all hybrid and electric passenger vehicles will be required to make audible noise when they’re moving at speeds below 20 mph, either forward or in reverse. The government says tire and wind noise would drown out the engine’s sound at higher speeds. Carmakers may choose to install external speakers in the front grill. When an electric or hybrid is in motion, a recording of a car engine would begin to play. The lack of sound made by electric cars especially has been discussed since the early 2000s, which Edmunds.com noted in a January 2015 article titled “The Danger of Too-Quiet Car.” The website, used by car buyers looking for pricing and reviews about car models, admonished the automakers and the driving public that “you can have too much of a good thing. Take silence.” Three studies were done and each one confirmed the dangers to pedestrians of silent cars driving at low speeds. A 2009 study found that at low speeds, hybrids and electrics were twice as likely as non-hybrids to be involved in a pedestrian crash. A 2011 federal study reported that pedestrian crashes were 35 percent higher with hybrids and electrics versus combustion-engine cars. A third study by the Highway Loss Data Institute concluded hybrids are up to 20 percent more likely to be involved in injuring pedestrians than other cars. Not all automakers waited for the government to come to the foregone conclusion that an approaching vehicle should make a familiar sound. Nissan installed a vehicle sound warning for pedestrians on its electric Leaf, starting last year. The plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt also has an alert noise, which the driver can activate, Edmunds.com reported. The government wants the sounds coming from electrics and hybrids to be recognizable--not a jumble of noises like phone ringtones. Carmakers have until September 1, 2019 to equip all new hybrid and electric vehicles with sounds that meet the new federal safety standard. Half of new hybrid and electric vehicles must be in compliance one year before the final deadline. Advocates for the blind say the noise requirement on cars is needed because Americans who can’t see are living active lifestyles nonetheless. More than 20 million Americans, close to 10 percent, say they have trouble seeing or are blind. “This regulation will ensure that blind Americans can continue to travel safely and independently as we work, learn, shop and engage in all facets of community life,” said Mark A. Riccobono, president of the National Federation of the Blind. What about current owners of these tooquiet cars who want to give bicyclists and pedestrians warning that a car is approaching? The National Highway Traffic Safety agency isn’t recommending that electrics and hybrids on the road now install any noise devices. The experts at Edmunds.com said not to expect to find aftermarket sound-making devices anytime soon. Alternative fuel cars represent a small fraction of U.S. vehicles in use today, though that number was expected to reach four percent this year. California is leading the charge, so to speak. Governor Jerry Brown’s administration has set a goal of 1.5 million electric cars in the state by 2025 as part of a pledge to reduce emissions and slow the effects of global climate change. Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Inglewood, is pushing the auto industry to make that happen. There are more than 200,000 electric vehicles being driven in California, according to a group calling itself the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Unless we take action, the state won’t come close to meeting this goal,” Burke said. “That’s why we need to reform the rules to require that 15 percent of all cars sold in California have zero emissions by 2025.” Burke introduced last summer what she calls the “15 by 25” plan. It would direct the California Air Resources Board to require at least 15 percent of all new passenger cars sold in California be zero emissions by 2025. Burke’s bill is currently inactive, having been heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and in the Senate Rules Committee. No action has been taken on the South Bay lawmaker’s bill since August 17. • Studies found that pedestrians who can’t hear a car approaching are struck more often. Photo credit: U.S. Department of Transportation. the Carty presentation, “This information is pertinent as the Board of Education and District administration explore a future bond down the line. In order to perform our due diligence, it would be the District’s intent to perform some community outreach moving forward, and hear from various stakeholders. With the completion of the long-range facility master plan and greater emphasis on safety and security, the governing teams will explore possibilities to fund these important future ventures.” Carty, who worked on 13 of the November 8 school bond elections, then spoke about his “takeaways” from the results of the election. He noted that the type of district projects that resonated with the voters who supported school bond proposals last month included upgrades involving safety and security; career technological upgrades; basic repairs including roofs, plumbing and electrical systems; and technology infrastructure improvement. He also mentioned that some school districts in the recent elections “went big,” asking for a higher bond dollar amount than polling recommended, and still won. Carty next detailed the items, in his opinion, that were key to the successful results in most California school district bond issue triumphs last month. He delineated that successful districts need to start their bond programs early; have a plan that is thoroughly vetted; button down “what are you going to do with the money;” and involve all of the stakeholders--including parents, teachers and business leaders--in the early planning of the proposal. He also counseled the Board to “think big--don’t play small ball” on their bond considerations. And Carty also counseled to follow the poll results to be provided as the exploration process moves forward. He mentioned that a positive message to be portrayed to the community is that “all money stays local.” Board President Jim Garza, thanking Carty, said, “We are in a little unique situation in that we are sitting on approximately $22 million that the community doesn’t understand.” Garza mentioned the restrictions and caps by which the Imperial Avenue site money is governed. Board members discussed the need to connect with the voters about the improvements that a bond measure would provide at all of the District’s campuses. Next on Carty’s presentation were some of the players who would be involved if the District opts to explore a 2018 bond measure. He noted the need for a financial advisor as well as legal counsel, a political strategist, and pollster. After Carty finished, the Board members discussed the timeline of placing a bond issue on an upcoming ballot, whether it be in June 2018 or in November of the same year. A little background on El Segundo School Board bond measures: The 1997 measure was placed on the ballot to “renovate, construct and improve school facilities, to accommodate modern technology, repair leaky roofs, repair and upgrade fire, safety electrical, plumbing and heating systems…” The bond size of the 1997 Measure C was $24 million and garnered an approval rate of 77.3 percent. Currently, a bond must receive voter approval of 55 percent in order to pass. Dubbed Measure E and presented to El Segundo voters in 2001, that year’s bond indicated that funding would allow the District to “make necessary health and safety improvements to benefit all students, and provide competitive academic programs through the construction of a new academic science center.” With a bond size of $25 million, Measure E passed overwhelmingly at a 75.2 percent clip. The final bond measure that Carty detailed in his presentation was on the ballot in El Segundo in 2008. Measure M, with a $14 million program size, received approval by a little more than two-thirds of the voters, comfortably collecting a tick over 67 percent of the ballots cast. Measure M was to “support high academic achievement, enhance student safety, and improve the 80-year-old auditorium and the athletic facilities frequently used by the community, by repairing outdated wiring and plumbing, improving energy efficiency, reducing water usage, and mitigating safety hazards and accessibility issues.” The next regularly scheduled El Segundo School Board meeting is on the docket for Tuesday evening, December 13. •
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