Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 10

A-10 Friday, December 11, 1998 Sentinel Beach access still an issue at Hollister Ranch Update ed lifestyle behind the gates. There are about 100 homes, but none along the property closest to the beachfront owned by the association collective. There are no signs on the highway that might direct tourists to the place. Full-time guards staff a gate at the only road entrance, making sites specifically named in the 1976 Coastal Act. "We don't question the owners' right to use the land and live there," Douglas said.

"What we're saying is that this is a public treasure and it belongs to the public and there should be access." On most mornings, some surfers make use of the boat landing at Gaviota State Beach to launch dinghies, Jet Skis and other small craft into the water, moving several miles along the coast to the best surfing spots. They sail back in the late afternoon. Their arrival at Gaviota Beach looks a bit like the Normandy landing in miniature, an army of men in wetsuits pushing small boats onto the sand as waves crash around them, their surfboards perched atop the vessels. "It's like a rite of passage," said a fortysomething surfer after he and a friend had labored several minutes to push their craft over the sand. Decades ago, as a teen-ager, the surfer had been arrested for trespassing at Hollister Ranch.

The surfer, like others at the beach, requested that his name not be published. He was afraid that he might burn bridges with ranch residents, some of whom are avid surfers. Douglas, of the Coastal Commission, says that his office has received reports of people being chased off the beach. "It continues to be a space from which the public is locked out," he said. Twenty-two years after the state Legislature wrote public access to Hollister Ranch into law, "there is no movement," Douglas said.

"I don't think the county is interested in doing battle with Hollister Ranch property owners. I think the status quo will remain until who knows?" Continued front Page A1 niented, keeping their stretch of coastline private. The very beauty of Hollister Ranch's beaches has helped feed the long-simmering conflict over its fate. Surfers resent the property owners who have kept the Valhalla of good waves for themselves and their friends. Ranch residents, who see themselves as custodians of the ranch's environmental wonders, worry that their property will lose its fragile, untouched luster if officials at the Coastal Commission succeed in their long-proclaimed goal of opening the area to everyone.

"No one at the ranch disputes the right of the Coastal Conservancy and the Coastal Commission to take the land (for access)," said Andy Mills, a spokesman for Hollister Ranch. Mills said the state has yet to offer owners "just compensation" in exchange for creating a public right-of-way through their properties. Still, Mills acknowledges that ranch owners would prefer to see no change at all. "The ranch would like to see things stay as they are." Under the law, the sands on Hollister Ranch are public up to the "mean high-tide line." But for those without access to the ranch's private roads, the only way to get to those beaches is via the ocean. For ranch residents, the very exclusivity of the property is what protects it.

The ranch beaches are known for their abundant flora and fauna, for their great blue herons and coyote brush, for their mallards and the salt grass. There are sand dunes, lagoons and tide pools. Much might be lost, they argue, if such a sensitive environment were open to greater human contact. Ranch residents enjoy a quiet if somewhat isolat- The Associated Pre it nearly impossible for outsiders to visit its beaches, although the homeowners association does run field trips for students and scientists. And there is no mention of the ranch on most road maps.

"People at Hollister Ranch don't even want the name put anywhere," said Use the force, Luke LOS ANGELES Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in 'Star Wars', plays Nintendo with patient Erica Davis, 10, at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA as part of the Starlight Children's Foundation. It provides Nintendo Fun Centers in more than 600 children's hospitals worldwide. A Barbara 4 Jeff Kruthers, a real estate agent and ranch resident. Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, feels he has a mandate to open the beaches. Hollister Ranch is one of a handful of Palestine Charter school The Boss is boss of his songs LONDON Bruce Springsteen won a battle against music pirates Thursday when a judge blocked the release of an unauthorized collection of songs recorded early in his career.

The rocker argued that release of "Before the Fame" would damage his artistic integrity because the songs don't meet his high standards. "I came over here to defend the ownership of my music," Springsteen said outside the courtroom. "It's something I fought for since I was young, and I'm really satisfied." London-based Masquerade Music said it had a license for the songs recorded between 1972-74 from Jim Cretecos, a member of Springsteen's former management team who claimed to own the rights. But Judge Francis Ferris ruled that Springsteen owned the 19 songs. Bobby pursues septic tanks "7T WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.

Septic tanks are the new battleground for environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy is representing a group suing for tighter restrictions on septic tanks in the Christiane Young, who has taught at the private Kirby Prep School, said students would be immersed in French. Eugene Lewis, music director for the "Wind of the Willows" production at UCSC, said he would lead a jazz band and orchestra. The school doesn't yet have a building or approval from the Santa Cruz City Schools.

The school district plans a public hearing on the charter request Jan. 13, and a decision is expected Feb. 10. David Hodges, who runs an Internet business and volunteers at Pacific School in Davenport, said he expected to secure a lease for the charter school in January. He is working with Jeffry Nochimson, a real estate agent with Colliers International, to find a Westside location.

Answers to questions most frequently raised by parents will be posted on the school's Web site. Most had to do with sports and admissions requirements. Gill said a gym is planned to accommodate sports and theatrical productions. Cross country, track, tennis and swimming are planned. As for larger team sports, she said she hopes Santa Cruz will allow students to compete on its high school teams.

Transfer requests will not be necessary for students applying from other schools, but they will need to submit copies of their grades along with the enrollment form. Students will be required to take placement tests. Organizers said they are now recruiting minorities. "We very much want to do outreach to all parts of the community." Gill said. "It's better for the kids and the school culture." Another meeting for prospective parents is planned from 7-9 p.m.

Jan. 7 at the doivntown library. For more information, call 479-7785 or check the Web site at http:llwww.PacificCollegiate.org -r- Continued from Page A1 Heather Haight, a sixth grader at Bay View Elementary, said she was mostly interested in plans to offer the fine arts and French. "You'd be more likely to into get college." she said. Chris LaRue said he was interested in an academic challenge for his daughter, an eighth grader at Scotts Valley Middle School.

Plans are for the school to open in September with 200 students. Two sections of 20 students each are planned for grades 7, 8, 9, and 10. One section is planned for 11th and one for 12th. The school is designed for "motivated" students who are working at grade level and who want a college-preparatory education. Students working at below grade-level in any area would be encouraged to improve their skills and reapply.

Gill said. "That doesn't mean we won't let in kids who may need a lot of help," she said. She said students would get tutoring and assistance in study skills. The deadline to turn in enrollment forms is Feb. 15.

and students will be selected by lottery on Feb. 19. Gill said. Younger siblings will be given preference, so it's possible a sibling could bump another applicant onto the waiting list. Students need not reapply year after year.

Teachers working on the curriculum described what students could expect: Harbor High teacher Dean Miinmack said the math courses would enable students to he successful at UC Berkeley or Princeton. Santa Cruz High teacher Dave Ptak said students would be able to pass the UC entrance exam in chemistry. Continued from Page A1 ots sparked by Israel's refusal to release prisoners jailed on anti-Israel charges. Selim Zanoun, who announced the decision by the Palestine Central Council to nullify the offending passages, said the larger Palestine National Council will not vote again on the matter when it meets Monday. Israel insists the full council formally vote to void the passages and has said that if there is no vote on Monday, it will not implement the next troop withdrawal scheduled under the Wye Agreement.

The Monday meeting "will be only to listen to President Clinton's speech and President Arafat. There will be no vote," said Zanoun, chairman of the PNC. Clinton is arriving Saturday night for a three-day visit meant to celebrate Wye, but that has turned into an effort to salvage it. David Bar-Illan, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, praised Thursday's vote, but warned that Israel hasn't dropped its demand for a PNC vote on Monday. "We expect that they will vote in an unequivocal matter," Bar-Illan said, if Israel is to continue to implement the Wye agreement.

The Palestinians have said that the meeting Monday will "affirm" the annulment of the offensive passages but have not said exactly what that means. Arafat said the procedure was an internal Palestinian matter: "It's not their business." It is unlikely Clinton would side with Israel in such a dispute because it would mean that the main purpose of his visit, to usher in the next stage of the Wye agreement, has failed. cuys waiersneu ana accuses state officials of "dirty tricks" I jtM iur investigating ins own sepuc I 'I tank in Westchester County. County records show the Kennedy Kennedy tank in Bedford meets the standards he demands in the lawsuit. Kennedy is legal counsel for Wants tighter restrictions Riverkeeper, which wants the city to require that septic tanks in the watershed be banned on slopes greater than 15 degrees.

The steeper the hill, the less effectively septic tanks work in draining sewage loaded with pollutants into the ground, according to the suit. After the suit was filed in October, the state Health Department asked Westchester County for records on Kennedy's property. "It appears to be an effort to intimidate me," Kennedy said. County attorney Alan Scheinkman said he advised that the records not be given up and that Kennedy be alerted because "this was a back-channel request that seemed to be solely to embarrass Mr. Kennedy." Phonics Quote of the day Students in kindergarten through third grade should have at least 2V4 hours of reading instruction each day, with emphasis on phonics so they can decode words.

Students in grades four through eight should have two hours of language arts instruction each day and high schoolers should take at least one English course per semester, the framework says. The curriculum above third grade should include spelling, vocabulary, writing, listening and speaking skills. Reading teacher Sharon Zinke of Hayward said good teachers already use phonics, along with other methods, "based on the needs of the students." The new standards can force teachers to use "a rigid sequence of decodable books" that use phonics but make no sense to children, she said. Backers said the new emphasis on phonics would reverse California students' poor reading scores. "We performed a heinous experiment," said Bill Lucia, the board's executive director.

"Since 1988, 4 million kids have been subject to it." He noted that scores of second through six-graders in California's statewide test last spring were lower than comparable reading scores for students in West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Washington, D.C. "I think it's going to go a long way in assuring California has a literate population," said board President Yvonne Larsen. "Reading is the basis of all education. Kids that get into trouble are kids that can't read." The language framework says "children must be fluent readers at least by the end of grade three." Continued from Page A1 sciences. The guidelines detail how that knuwledge should be taught.

Frameworks for science and social science won't be approved until next year. While the standards and frameworks are not mandatory, school districts are likely to use them because the required annual statewide test will have questions based on the math and language standards beginning this spring. Critics said the new language standards and framework put too much emphasis on one teaching method, phonics, while children learn in a variety of ways. "This limits teachers' ability to teach," said reading teacher Marjorie Knox of Turlock. "Children learn from real language." "We performed a heinous experiment.

Since 1988, 4 million kids have been subject to it." Bill Lucia, California Board of Education executive director, referring to the whole language reading method. Story begins, Page A1 Compiled from Sentinel wre services National weather Satellite From 6 pm Thursday 3 tUA Temperatures for Thursday -oa Oa toa 20a 30a 40a 50a 60a 70 eoa 90a 100a noa Banda aeparale hajh hampafafcw zon lor thai day. Vl Temperatures Eureka 5538 A V-i II for Thursday I 51 fl .1 IIS Fi I II. Red Bluff 5332 Bonnyt)oon56 32 Tahoe Valley 4512 ana Rosa 5835 DOM lUIIIWIU 11 Sacramento 53.32 Vswanton5Wff Valley 6429 San Froncisco 5745 Stockton 5332 uamano ou4 I a MI I DavenDOrt 6040 Yosemits Valley 4324 Fresno 5632 FRONTS A high over Oregon is expected to continue to strengthen and move east into Paso Robles 6525 San Luis Obispo 6530 I I P.nltnt. Ktm VV I II the Great Basin by this morning.

This high will likely further strengthen to 1045 mb or greater by this evening, effectively steering any Pacific storms well north of the California waters lor the duration of the week. E3 E33 E3 Sunny Daaeryieio 39dU a Santa Rarhara film Pt CKfcKty Cloudy Tpr Ri Mar S-J. La Selva Beach 5533 I Barstow 5529 Los Angeles 7044 National temperatures High 85 at Punta Gorda, Ha. Low -20 at West Yellowstone, Mont. Palm Springs 6849 San Diego6Q4A.

Previous day high and low as ol 5 m. POT yesterday. no I Monterey Bay "1 IT- Surf forecast 1 1 I I I Westnortnwest ami Northwest tjiJ OOO I swells Waves head high, some o3l naS DZOO sets double overhead hi to Pm nut Pre 011k HI le Albanv.N.Y 46 25 Regional forecasts lor today cdy clr cdy cdy clr Albuquerque 37 20 Anchorage 19 16 Atlanta 57 45 Atlantic City 50 27 Kansas City 47 29 clr Las Vegas 54 41 cdy Little Rock 42 40 .60 rn Louisville 45 31 clr Memphis 42 40 .88 rn Miami Beach 82 73 .13 cdy Milwaukee 36 33 clr Mpls-St Paul 38 25 clr Nashville 44 29 .05 cdy 5 6233 fl Marina forecast Wind variable 15 knots or less Wind waves 2 fee; Swell northwest 2 to 7 feet Highest in the outer bay Night: Wind easterly 15 knots or less I I Amos NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA Mostly cloudy north with rain likely and a chance ol showers over the northern mountains. NORTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA Mostly cloudy with a chance of ram. mainly north.

Highs in the 50s. SACRAMENTO VALLEY Partly cloudy in the morning, mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Highs mid-50s. Light winds. IRn nmnnrf I Newuneans si iJ New York 49 42 Norfolk.Va 53 41 Okla City 50 44 Omaha 47 23 Philadelphia 50 32 Phoenix 65 44 I(fr Cieek clr cdy cdy clr clr clr clr 776 1063 La Selva Beach 0 661 1043 11 01 17 94 Nat Bridges 0 5 53 10 57 12 57 21.89 Rio del Mar 0 6 96 12 26 12 79 16 76 Santa Cruz 5 7 85 10 52 7 58 11.72 Scotts Valley 0 13 25 15 72 7 65 11 24 Soquel 0 6 75 10 99 6 10 16 66 Swanton 0 6 95 15 40 106" 1524 Watsonville 0 6 09 10 17 10 41 1617 Tyarite 8 91 12 40 CaprtoM 4iT.

Cofralilos World temperatures Temperatures and weather conditions from midnight to midnight, previous HI lo Wthi Athens 50 34 clr Auckland 70 59 rn Bangkok 86 70 clr Barbados 86 77 rn Beiiing 41 19 clr Berlin 27 16 clr Budapest 30 18 cdy Aires 81 59 clr Cairo 63 54 pedy Calgary 43 32 cdy Caracas 86 70 pedy Dublin 54 48 clr Havana 84 63 petty Helsinki 28 23 cdy Hong Kong 66 59 clr Istanbul 34 30 cdy Jerusalem 55 48 cdy London 54 46 cdy Madrid 52 30 pedy Manila 84 75 cdy Mexico City 73 43 clr Montreal 39 28 cdy Moscow 18 16 cdy Nairobi 75 57 pedy New Delhi 79 55 clr Paris 43 41 pedy Roma 54 37 cdy San Juan 82 75 pedy Santiago 86 57 clr Sao Paulo 86 66 Singapore 90 77 Stockholm 30 21 cdy Sydney 79 72 clr Tokyo 52 41 cdy Toronto 45 32 cdy Zurich 36 27 sn 0 0 Pittsburgh 42 24 Prtlnd Maine 42 21 cdy Prtlnd Ore 45 40 .22 Austin 48 47 .79 rn Baltimore 51 27 clr 36 17 cdy Boise 34 21 cdy Boston 48 35 cdy Buffalo 45 33 cdy Burlington.Vt 43 22 sn Casper 30 7 clr Chrltte.N 57 34 cdy Cheyenne 27 1 .01 cdy Chicago 40 32 cdy Cincinnati 43 24 clr Cleveland 45 28 clr Concord.NH 46 19 cdy Dallas 46 461.06 Denver 32 14 .05 cdy Des Moines 44 24 clr Detroii 46 26 clr Duluth 34 20 cdy El Paso 45 38 cdy Fargo 42 14 clr Flagstaff 32 21 clr Grand Rapids ....39 33 clr Great Falls 42 26 clr Hartford Spglld 49 29 cdy Helena 29 13 cdy Honolulu 82 72 .04 clr Houston 51 50 .73 Indianapolis 44 25 clr Jcksnvilk) 69 55 cdy Juneau 42 351 39 SunrlM SiMMt 7:08 am 4 54 pm MoottrtM Moomet 1:07 pm PtuttM of moon First 01r Dec. 26 Full: Jan. 1 Last Qtr: Dec. 10 Tides inr" High Low 5:10 am; 4.9 11:35 am; 2.1 4 56 pm: 3 5 1058 "Mi" u. 3 5:51 am: 5 0 12:41 pm; 16 6:17 pm: 34 11 50pm; 17 Providence 48 26 Raleigh 56 28 Reno 39 19 Richmond 53 33 Salt Lake City ....31 12 San Antonio 49 46 Santa Fe 37 26 cdy cdy clr cdy cdy .29 rn clr Patchy brief morning fog in the valleys, otherwise sunny with some high clouds.

Highs upper 50s to low 60s. Seattle 47 40 .15 'm SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Wind variable 15 knots or less. Areas ot dense morning fog in the delta. LOS ANGELES Sunny. Breezy below passes and canyons, mainly in the morning.

Night Clear. S. SIERRA NEVA0AY0SEMITE Mostly sunny in the morning, becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. Shreveport 47 441.57 Sunday Monday cdy cdy sn cdy clr clr cir warning Wax: Sioux Falls 43 19 Spokane 36 25 Syracuse 49 31 Tampa ......83 66 Topeka 48 28 Tucson 56 33 Tuna 50 37 Wash DC 51 35 Man, cunchirw Mncflu rlnnrfu with 'I UVI atpuauta tA Di TT rmtPAwloaowa Knm se 1 4 I MM 01 'V highs upper 50s W-ev rain spreadino Partly cloudy with lingering morning showers. to around 60.

1 1 over the area..