Good day Santaneros! It’s Saturday, December 21st, also known as the busiest start of the weekend for last-minute shopping ahead of the holidays.

As announced on Friday, this is The Santanero’s first ever combined edition of the Recap Series involving this week’s city council and school board meetings.

Your 3-Day Outlook:

Sunday: Cloudy ☁️, 66°F high, 48°F low

Monday: Partly sunny 🌥️, 68°F, 49°F low

Christmas Eve: Chance of showers, cloudy 🌦️, 64ºF high, 52ºF low

Source: National Weather Service, San Diego

City votes unanimously to ban encampments, unhoused addicts in public areas

The Santa Ana City Council voted 7-0 to ban encampments and unhoused addicts from remaining in public right-of-ways on Tuesday.

What does this mean? We explain it here.

Gerardo Mouet Park opens

Santa Ana’s newest park, built in memory of former Parks and Recreation Director Gerardo Mouet, opened up last week to a community that has patiently waited for years for the City to do something with the acre land.

See our Instagram post here.

City formally apologizes to family of Edgar Vargas

Over 10 years have passed since the initial beating by Santa Ana police officers of Edgar Vargas. Now, the City has come to terms with its past and passed a resolution that formally apologizes to the family of Edgar Vargas.

Though, Vargas could not be there to see it as he passed away in 2022. Despite the Council sparring at eachother in November over this same item, they voted to make amends, even after a last minute attempt by Councilmember Vazquez to add a line reaffirming the City’s sanctuary status, which did not sit well with a few other Councilmembers despite a few agreeing with the status as a standalone item.

To read our previous article on this, click here.

SAUSD School Board — Recap

District school board approves ‘stabilization plan’ to cut 351 certificated staff, spares management

The SAUSD school board voted 4-1 to lay off—at minimum—351 employees, including 169 teachers and 57 counselors in order to avoid budget deficits that would render the Board irresponsible and taken over by the County or State. The District could not say what the max amount of staff layoffs could be.

Who's being laid off? Why is this happening? We explain here.

SAUSD to pay $1.2 million to install traffic light by Saddleback

The Santa Ana Unified School District partnered with the City of Santa Ana’s Pubic Works department to win their bid to install a traffic light on the intersection of Segerstrom Avenue and Rosewood Street, costing the District to pay out $1.2 million.

The plan from the beginning to install a traffic signal after the District declared the construction of Saddleback High School’s new stadium, which will be taking place in 2025.

SAUSD to partner with immigration groups to educate undocumented students and families

As the Trump administration readies its agenda for the next four years, Santa Ana Unified is racing against time to educate its undocumented students and their families on their immigration rights.

The City has maintained its sanctuary city status since the first Trump administration and the District voted 4-1 (Lebsack abstained) to reaffirm its commitment to providing guidance, education, and to undocumented students and families.

They’ll soon connect with immigration groups to help teach the SAUSD community on their rights and what to do if ICE knocks on their door.

The State of California also has considered itself to be a sanctuary state. With the three entities in line of sanctuary status, they’ve limited their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities.

The plan to educate the community will come back in about 45 days to be voted on by the Board.

Lebsack restates she posed as suicidal teen, found online vulnerabilities in District resource

Newly elected Board Member Brenda Lebsack told her colleagues Thursday of a time she logged into a now-former District mental health resources for students called the Trevor Project.

The Project serves a one of the nation’s top LGBTQ+ mental health resource and 24/7 suicidal hotline, in which the District partnered with a few years ago.

Until Lebsack was easily able to infiltrate the resource.

She told her fellow board members that she lied about her date of birth and posed as a 13-year old girl that was ‘gender-confused’ and wanted to unalive herself.

Lebsack explained the Trevor Project hotline ensured she wasn’t going to unalive herself and referred her to a landing page called TrevorSpace with a few supportive chatrooms, to which she said had sexually suggestive names.

All in all, the District ceased to promote the Trevor Project hotline. After a nationwide hotline number was established, the District promoted that instead.

She spoke of this while asking about the new telehealth service the District offers while also adding anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, which was most of what she ran her campaign on.

If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises, or are worried about a friend or loved one, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

Message from The Santanero

Hello, I'm Daniel Diaz, co-founder of The Santanero. I'd like to take this time to thank you for being a free subscriber.

This year, we doubled our Instagram following, established a new website, and began issuing weekly Leaflets.

Next year we have a few new things we're opening up, including columns, guest pieces, and a revamped graphics design for our Instagram posts.

Until next week Santaneros! Stay safe and have a happy holiday season.

Respectfully,

Daniel Diaz