After news came out about Cal’s Books having to permanently close due to severe damage from last month’s flooding, Quetza Perez was devastated. 

The 25-year-old moved to Redding about two years ago from Southern California. After earning her first paycheck at a new job back then, she went straight to Cal’s with her partner, a longtime Redding resident who loved the bookstore. She’s adored the store ever since. 

“When Cal’s Books flooded, both my partner and I, we kind of broke down about it,” she said. “It was really heartbreaking for us.” 

That’s when Perez had the idea to take over the bookstore and revitalize it so it wouldn’t have to close. She formed a group of five people, and after meeting with Cal’s owner, began putting a plan in action to save the bookstore. 

The flood damage from the Dec. 21, 2025 storm was so severe that Cal’s owner, Carl Anger, quickly made the decision to permanently shut down the beloved bookstore. An announcement was shared online within days, and the bookstore formally closed on Dec. 28. But after an outpouring of community support — and the efforts of a group of ambitious young locals stepping in to carry it forward — Cal’s Books is making a comeback. 

“It’s a big tragedy, and I never thought this would happen,” Carl said, referencing the flooding that prompted his store’s closure. “But I have met with this group of five people, and every time I meet with them, I’m more and more impressed with their intelligence and enthusiasm. If anybody can pull this out and make this work and even turn it into a better bookstore than it’s ever been before, these are the five people that can do it.” 

How the idea came about, and how the young team plans to achieve it

The flooding in Redding and other parts of California caused by a storm on Dec. 21 left a still-unknown number of businesses and residences severely damaged, including Cal’s Books, which opened in 1974. According to a Facebook post by Carl’s brother, Darol Anger, two feet of water flooded the 3,000 square foot-facility, causing significant damage to the store and its books. Carl estimated that between 25,000 and 40,000 books were damaged.

A GoFundMe for the bookstore was started a day after the winter storm by community member Ron Giesecke, but on the following day, Giesecke paused the fundraiser, saying the store’s owner had told him that Cal’s will be closing. The bookstore opened for what would’ve been its two final days — on Dec. 26 and 27 — to sell the salvageable books, and the store was busy throughout both days. A reporter from Shasta Scout who was on site that day noted 84 people in line during the early afternoon of Dec. 27. 

In the days following the storm, posts made on Cal’s Books’ Facebook page about the store’s damage and news of its closing were shared hundreds of times, with community members commenting about their heavy disappointment and sharing memories of their visits to Cal’s through the years.

After the announcement that Cal’s Books was closing permanently, Perez vented to her brother about how distraught she was about the store’s closure. He asked her why not “just buy the place,” to which she responded that she doesn’t have the money to do so. But after sitting on the idea for longer and talking with her partner and friends, she was inspired to make this seemingly impossible dream a reality. 

Perez formed a team of five, all 20-year-olds and each bound by their immense love for Cal’s and local, used book stores. They reached out to Carl, and Perez said his reaction was “enthusiastic” and “electric.” The group met with Carl one week after the winter storm hit with a plan to not only repair the store from the flood damage, but to also revitalize the business to make it more sustainable in the years to come. 

The group has named itself “Cal’s Books Cooperative.” It’s operating under a unique organizational structure called a worker self-directed nonprofit. Perez describes this structure as a fusion between a workplace democracy and a nonprofit organization, where each employee of the bookstore acts as an equal partner instead of having a supervisor that manages the staff. This way, there won’t be concerns about power dynamics and hierarchy, and employees will have a direct say about wages, hours and decisions about the bookstore, Perez said. 

To pay for the store’s repairs and revitalization, the group has opened a GoFundMe in hopes of raising $50,000. Of those funds, $40,000 would be used to buy the assets of the business itself — the amount has already been agreed upon between the group and Carl — with the other $10,000 being used for facility repairs and incorporation and storage costs. To reach their goal the group is doing outreach on social media, researching grants they could apply for and looking for private donors. Almost $2,500 has been raised so far. 

Cal’s Books Cooperative plans to leave the “spirit and the soul of Cal’s essentially untouched,” Perez said, since many people in the community love the bookstore for its timeless look and old bookstore feel. However, the organization plans to make several changes to the business so that it can be sustainably maintained in the years to come. 

Perez said the group plans to look into other funding streams to support the business since it’s difficult for used book stores to compete with e-commerce. Sage Wagner, another member of Cal’s Books Cooperative, said Carl suggested that the group start selling books online so that sales can be extended to people outside of the Shasta region. Wagner also said they plan to host book fairs, book clubs and other community events at the store to help it become a third space — a place to hang out that’s separate from home and work — in the community. 

Eventually, when the group is able to gather enough funds, Cal’s Books Cooperative hopes to move the storefront to a different location in Redding for multiple reasons. They want Cal’s, which is currently located at 5242 Westside Rd., to be closer to town to allow people to walk, bike and bus there. They also want a building with more room to accommodate wheelchair users and for it to be located in an area less prone to flooding. 

While the group taking over Cal’s is very ambitious and enthusiastic about their plans, they also are trying to keep a realistic mindset about the challenges of running a small business, especially since they don’t have experience doing so. Perez said she understands that some people might question how a group of 20-year-olds could revive a used book store but emphasized that the team is committed to making Cal’s a place that can remain in Redding for another 50 years.

“It’s entirely fair for people to be skeptical, because with youth comes inexperience, and with inexperience comes mistakes,” she said. “But that’s part of the reason why we’re operating democratically. That’s part of the reason why we have Carl as part of the team helping us out. That’s part of the reason why we’re reaching out to people who are more experienced than us.”

She said Cal’s likely can’t reopen until the group’s funding goal is reached but hopes that can be achieved within the next couple of months. Aside from raising funds, the group’s other short-term focus is to clear the store of damaged and mildewy books and repair the inside of the facility, which is currently attached to a storage unit off South Market Street.

Overall, Perez said Cal’s impact on the community is too strong for it to be lost. Not only is it a place for people to buy affordable books, she said, but it’s also one where people can hang out with friends and meet new people. 

“That’s what real community is,” she said. “It’s the interconnective web which unites and binds all of us under a shared sense of purpose: each other. Cal’s books … the impact it’s had on the community, in many respects, is a reflection of the community itself.” 

Organizer Wagner said that he grew up in a low income family, and that Cal’s Books was one of the only places where he could afford to buy books for school and leisure. He said he wants to keep Cal’s open to give more people the ability to afford books.

“When [my family] moved up here and we found Cal’s,” he said, “suddenly little me had this whole library at home, and it was all because of Cal’s.

“Reading knowledge is our biggest asset we can have as human beings, and Cal’s just speaks for that,” he continued. “It’s an open well of knowledge and love and compassion and history throughout all the times, and anything you would ever need to know in your life.”

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It’s been a long year for English learners in the central San Joaquin Valley. 

From shuffling leadership in multiple local districts, rising test scores in the classroom and looming federal policy shifts, 2025 marked a year full of change for multilingual learners. 

But the year started on shaky ground. 

In January, the Trump Administration rescinded a law that prohibited federal immigration officers and agents from entering schools, hospitals and places of worship.

Local educational leaders and immigrant rights advocates united together against the order, with the goal of sharing resources and providing a sense of security for impacted families. In light of the new policy, various districts across the Valley reaffirmed their campuses would continue to be safe zones for all students regardless of immigration status. 

Throughout the year, Valley schools worked with local organizations to host Know Your Rights workshops and provide resources for families who could be impacted by immigration enforcement. 

Districts in the Fresno area did not report any incidents of immigration agents on campuses. The fear of immigration raids, however, caused nearly a quarter of students in five districts (Bakersfield City School District, Southern Kern Unified, Tehachapi Unified, Kerman Unified and Fresno Unified) to stay home instead of going to school, according to a study from Stanford University. 

Some students in the Valley also reconsidered their college plans because of the policy change. 

Despite the unpredictability of federal policy changes, English learners in the Valley made notable progress in 2025 that experts say will continue into the new year. 

Success in the classroom

Scores for English learners in Fresno are rising, catching up with pre-pandemic rates. Central Unified saw growth in English language proficiency using experimental methods, such as English learner bootcamps. District officials are expecting to see more gains after state tests in the coming spring. 

“I’m really proud of our leadership at the site levels, really embracing this work at their schools, and the passion that they have for our students,” said Cindy Escandon, director of curriculum and instruction at Central Unified.

Fresno Unified also saw leaps in scores, focusing on literacy and test preparation for students across the board. Results are promising, school leaders told news website Fresnoland. The district is aiming to try out new practices to continue boosting scores. 

Another major success for English learners was the expansion of dual language immersion programs. 

A recent study found that families of English learners are overwhelmingly supportive of creating more dual language immersion programs, noting the benefits of multilingual instruction in regular schoolwork, future career opportunities and cultural preservation. One common barrier, however, is the lack of access to schools that offer language immersion.

Merced City School District welcomed its first dual language cohort in the fall and will be adding grade offerings in the coming years. Bullard High School in Fresno Unified will launch its dual language program in 2026. 

Uncertainty at the federal level

Education leaders across the country are still bracing for federal changes, including major funding cuts, promised earlier this year by the Trump administration. At a recent webinar examining federal policy, leaders from various education institutions said they remain on edge for what’s to come.

“Spoiler alert, nothing has changed,” said Megan Hopkins, UC San Diego department chair of educational studies, at the webinar. “But we have seen a lot of shifts in the federal landscape.”

In May, President Donald Trump announced the closure of the Department of Education. The executive order was unexpected and sent waves of uncertainty about the fate of critical funding streams to support English learners and migrant students.

Regardless of the order, experts say all legal obligations for English learners and students remain in effect under the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act – which require state and local educational agencies to overcome language barriers and provide quality education to English learners in core instruction. 

But what has changed, Hopkins said, is how districts are incentivized to continue equity for English learners and other vulnerable student groups. 

Funding specifically for this student population is distributed to districts each summer. But this year, $5 billion in Congress-approved funds were frozen in July because of a federal review of how those dollars were going to be used. Grants were eventually released weeks later.  

Montserrat Garibay of the National Association of Bilingual Education, along with dozens of other educational advocates, at the time was outraged by the sudden freeze and release of funding – stating that it only harms vulnerable students. 

“Losing the funding…it’s going to have detrimental consequences, especially in those states that are not supporting English learners,” Garibay said.   

Districts in the Valley have not reported missing federal funds, but are anticipating some cuts in revenue in the new year. Administrators are preparing to utilize local control funding to fill in any gaps.

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North American Mental Health Services celebrated the grand opening of its new Hollister clinic on Dec. 9 after opening its doors to the public in August. 

The clinic site, located at 901 Sunset Drive, joins a growing number of NAMHS clinics in Northern California offering in-office and online psychiatry and psychotherapy to the public. 

“We are honored to serve the Hollister community and continue our mission of improving access to compassionate, patient-centered mental health care,” NAMHS said in a press release. “This new clinic represents our commitment to changing lives and strengthening the future of our communities.”

NAMHS—founded in 2011 in Redding and originally named Native American Mental Health Services—began by providing care for Native American communities and tribes, according to its marketing director, Kimberly Maricle. 

It adopted its current name after expanding its services, and continues to provide care for Native American tribes under its former name. 

Maintaining a desire to reach underserved communities, NAMHS now has clinics near or in several rural regions including Redding, Red Bluff, Monterey, Fairfield, Eureka and Salinas, where mental health services are scarce.

“We actually prefer to open where there are no services,” Maricle said. 

That includes services for homeless patients, who Maricle said make up a large part of the organization’s clientele. In those cases, she said, “We go beyond just the therapy and the medication management.”

“We try to [connect patients] with one of our partners—a shelter or another nonprofit—that can help them get a roof over their head first,” Maricle said. “Then, in tandem, we can help them deal with whatever’s going on.”

NAMHS will provide services for clients with mild to moderate mental health care symptoms, she said, in an effort to relieve San Benito County Behavioral Health of its overflow of referrals.

“Counties see more extreme cases than we do,” she said. “So we get referred a lot from counties with their mild cases.” 

Geraldine Arce with Behavioral Health agreed, adding the County “looks forward to possibly collaborating through Central California Alliance for Health with NAMHS to help serve the mental health services needs of our county.”

While Arce said the county provides mobile crisis services, therapy, substance use treatment, psychiatric support and case management services, it primarily serves Medi-Cal clients and the indigent population and does not accept private insurance. 

NAMHS accepts Medi-Cal, Medicare, and soon, TriCare, as well as most private insurance. Prospective patients with private insurance may contact NAMHS to check their eligibility for medication-management and therapy coverage.

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Efforts are being made to open a new medical school in Shasta County, though it’s uncertain exactly what that might look like. 

A group of community members started officially meeting about five months ago to develop ideas for a North State medical school, citing a local health care crisis attributed to a lack of physicians and providers in the area. 

The group — the Rural Northern California Medical Education Consortium, as they call it — is composed of eight physicians, educators, health care leaders and community partners. It includes Simpson University President Dr. Norm Hall, Redding City Council Vice Mayor and gastroenterologist Dr. Paul Dhanuka, Shasta Health and Human Services Director Christy Coleman and former Shasta Community Health Center CEO Dean Germano, among others. 

The consortium’s leaders see a medical school as a long-term strategy to strengthen rural health care in the North State and retain physicians in the region. 

“This will become an institution for generations to come,” Dhanuka said in an interview with Shasta Scout. 

Currently, the consortium hopes to open the school as part of Simpson University. But it takes years to open and establish a medical school, so the future — including if such a school will come to fruition — is still uncertain. 

How did the idea for a new medical school come about?

For years, Shasta County has faced a health care provider shortage and in June, Shasta Health Officer Dr. James Mu declared a public health crisis — which is not the same as a health emergency — due to the lack of physicians. His declaration came after the Shasta Board of Supervisors hired political commentator and activist Chriss Street as the county’s health care consultant early this year in an effort to find solutions to the provider shortage. Street’s recommendation was to open a medical school in the county. 

But conversations around starting a new medical school began even before he was hired. Dhanuka said he spoke with several community members about their frustrations with the provider shortage in Shasta while he was running for the Redding City Council in 2024, and a plan to set the concept of a medical school in motion became part of his campaign. He presented the idea of a medical school to the Redding council along with Street shortly after he became a council member.

Dhanuka said the lack of medical schools in the North State is an issue that hits close to home: He said while his daughter had an impressive GPA and received an almost perfect score on the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, she couldn’t secure a spot at a medical school in California because of a low number of spots compared to schools in other states. He also said California has fewer medical school seats than many other states — a problem he linked to the North State’s provider shortage, along with there being no medical schools nearby.

While it’s true that there are no medical schools in California north of Sacramento, the state actually has the third-most medical students in the country — though California has lower ratios of medical students per 100,000 residents than most states. And overall, there are significantly more medical schools in the eastern half of the U.S. than the western. 

Dhanuka also feels that opening a medical school in Shasta will encourage prospective medical students to stay in the North State, as well as help inspire younger generations in the region to pursue a medical degree.

“When they see they can achieve these things right here in our community,” he said, “they may not have to go outside the area, because a lot of young people here find it difficult to afford to go out for further education. Whether it’s professional or technical, it’s very expensive.” 

After speaking with community members about the provider shortage issue and the potential solution of opening a new medical school, Dhanuka started discussing the idea with local health care and government leaders. He also connected with Simpson University President Dr. Norm Hall to discuss opening the medical school as part of the university, something Hall supports — though the university president said he’d be open to considering other options that don’t involve Simpson, if need be. 

“Whether it’s Simpson University or not, I’m committed to the North State,” Hall said, “and I’ll bring whatever expertise I can to bear on that.”

Simpson University has been a primary focus in the consortium’s plan for the medical school because it’s the only four-year university in Shasta, Dhanuka said, a requirement to receive accreditation. Hall added that the university has other benefits, including a successful nursing program, the upcoming launching of a doctor of psychology degree program and what he described as connections and “expertise” with federal grants. 

The consortium is also considering other options, including partnering with the University of California Davis to bring a branch campus to Shasta. 

Dhanuka formed a group of interested community members, and they started meeting in July of this year to develop their plan. The Rural Northern California Medical Education Consortium was formed over the following months. Street, the county health care consultant, is not involved with the consortium or the project. 

Is a medical school the answer to Shasta’s provider shortage? 

Dr. Irene Salter, a neuroscientist, educator and leadership coach — and Shasta Scout board member — is also involved in the consortium for the new medical school. She said people living in the North State who are interested in becoming a physician have to travel elsewhere, oftentimes to other states, in order to receive their medical education, making it less likely for them to return to Shasta to work.

“What if instead, we could educate our own and keep them here?” Salter said. “Then they have this long term commitment to our community.”

But the state or region where a physician went to medical school isn’t the only, or even the primary, determining factor of where they’re likely to settle down after their training.

It’s actually more likely that a physician stays in the state where they completed residency, not medical school. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, almost 60% of physicians stay in the state where they completed residency. However, it’s most likely that physicians who complete all of their training in one state, including both medical school and residency, stay in that state. 

While California does have more residency programs, as well as medical schools, than most other states, there are significantly more medical residency and fellowship programs in the eastern half of the U.S. than the western. For example, only about 20% of some of the most popular residency programs and crucial areas of medical practice — internal medicine, family medicine and surgery — are located in the western half of the country. 

So why not add more residency programs out west? It turns out it’s not that simple.

The largest federal funding source for residencies and fellowships is Medicare. In its inception of Medicare in the 1960s, Congress allocated funding for residencies through the Graduate Medical Education program to support teaching hospitals that train physicians. In 1997 the funding was capped, limiting the number of positions that teaching hospitals receive funding for.

Despite the cap on Medicare-funded GME that ensures residency training, the number of medical school graduates has significantly increased over the last two decades, meaning more people are getting a medical education than there are Medicare-funded residency slots. In 2022, more than 3,300 medical school graduates did not receive residency slots.

When confronted with research that shows physicians are more likely to settle down where they did residency, not medical school, Dhanuka demurred, saying, “That data gets quoted a lot, but it’s not the hard reality.” He explained that residency and fellowship programs must be sponsored by institutions, like medical schools, and that the entities go hand-in-hand, citing the fact that physicians are more likely to stay in the area where they completed both medical school and residency. 

Dhanuka said he sees the medical school as a long-term solution for Shasta’s provider shortage, but that the consortium is also working to expand residency and fellowship programs in the area. The medical school would also sponsor more residency and fellowship programs in the North State once it’s established, he said. 

Shasta Supervisor Matt Plummer was initially involved in conversations about establishing a medical school in the county because he wanted to address the medical provider shortage problem. He still feels the idea of a medical school is worth looking into as a long-term strategy, but acknowledges that it won’t be a viable solution if there aren’t similar investments made into the residency programs and clinical rotations that will help students stay in the North State.

Plummer is advocating for further conversations with UC Davis establishing a medical school in Redding as a branch campus, something the consortium is considering. But Dhanuka said the UC system is a large institution with a lot of state involvement, meaning the process of getting a UC Davis branch established here might be slow, and it wouldn’t have as much of a focus on rural northern California as a brand new medical school launched here would. 

Shasta HHSA Director Christy Coleman is also involved in the consortium as a representative from the county. She said since the county is very focused on improving the health of Shasta residents, especially when it comes to mental and behavioral health, the county supports the consortium’s efforts.

What’s the current vision for the medical school? 

Since it takes several years to open and establish a medical school and conversations are in very early stages, there are still a lot of uncertainties when it comes to the specifics of a potential project. 

What is proposed is that the school would have a rural, community focus, aiming to transform rural and tribal health care in the North State region by training generations of physicians and, hopefully, retaining many of them in the process. The project organizers hope building a school and expanding residency and fellowship programs would also lead to overall improvements in health care access across the North State. 

Consortium leaders plan to form a nonprofit entity and pursue large federal grants as a jumpstart for funding. 

Among many remaining questions, the consortium has not yet decided whether to launch a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) school, determined how much funding it’ll take to open the school, decided whether the school will be part of Simpson University or not and planned for when the school might open.

The press release explained that in general terms, establishing a medical school takes around seven to 10 years, and that a minimum of $30 million to $50 million would need to be raised in startup funds. As part of the launch process, proper accreditation would also need to be secured, a monumental task in itself.

Dhanuka said some people in the community have been skeptical about Shasta having enough of the needed professionals to provide faculty options for the medical school to successfully operate. While staffing may be a challenge, he feels there’s enough talent in the area for the school and residency programs, and that the school itself will likely attract people from all over the nation. Overall, Dhanuka feels that the school would act as a hub for the North State that would bring major impacts in a variety of ways, including to the local economy. 

As next steps, along with gaining nonprofit status, the consortium plans to develop a formal feasibility study and multi-year strategic plan for the project, then seek letters of support from various entities, including hospitals, clinics, tribal nations, regional stakeholders, educational institutions and economic leaders. 

Meanwhile, consortium members are organizing site visits to rural medical schools in other parts of the country to learn about how they operate. In February, Simpson President Hall plans to take a small group to the University of Pikeville-Kentucky, which hosts a medical school that was created to address a physician shortage in central Appalachia, according to the consortium’s press release. 

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MENDOCINO CO., 12/19/25 –A state audit of Mendocino County released Thursday found that the county is facing persistent budget deficits, has not had sufficient oversight of spending, and had faulty processes that led to ballot errors in the 2024 primary election.

The state Legislature passed a bill last year requiring the California State Auditor to perform an audit of Mendocino County by the start of 2026. The audit cited media reports that “indicated that Mendocino has struggled financially and that errors occurred in the county’s administration of the 2024 presidential primary election.”

On the issue of the county’s finances, the nearly 100-page report audit found that Mendocino as of this month had $30.6 million in uncollected taxes, penalties, interest and fees related to default properties, and also “will continue to face persistent deficits if it does not take additional action to address its budget deficit, such as raising tax rates.”

Mendocino County also “has not exercised sufficient oversight of staff spending that would best protect it against waste, fraud, and abuse,” according to the audit, which alleged that the county District Attorney’s Office may have violated state laws when $3,600 in public asset forfeiture funds were spent on an end-of-year event at a steakhouse for staff and their guests.

The audit also highlighted problems with the county’s administration of the 2024 primary election, in which its ballot printing vendor issued incorrect ballots to nearly every one of the more than 50,000 voters in the county. Shortly after resolving that error, another problem was found in which some voters were not placed in their correct districts, so more corrected ballots had to be sent out.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors plans to hold a public workshop in mid-January to discuss the audit and its recommendations, though the board’s response to the audit noted that some of the recommendations involve independently elected county officials.

District Attorney David Eyster’s response to the allegations involving his office said its use of asset forfeiture funds was legal since the use of those funds is “within the prosecution core functions and discretion afforded to elected district attorneys statewide.”

The response said, “The District Attorney and his staff will continue to evaluate the audit’s recommendations, implement improvements where appropriate, and ensure that all financial and operational practices remain firmly within the bounds of law.”

County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison in her response said she largely agrees with the audit’s recommendations and noted her office “was understaffed for most of the reviewed period and experienced several changes in leadership, the loss of decades of institutional knowledge and changes in leadership styles and priorities.”

The county elections office in its response to the audit said it is working with contractors to remedy errors in time for elections in 2026.

Yesterday, Shasta College made a successful pitch to the board of supervisors, which voted 4-1 to provide $889,000 over three years toward two college programs focused on opioid use prevention. The first is the community college’s Alcohol and Drug Studies program. The other is STEP-UP, a program that helps provide financial and logistical assistance to recently incarcerated students, a significant number of whom have been affected by substance use disorder.

The money to support those programs will come from the nearly $40 million Shasta County has or will receive as the result of a number of opioid settlement cases. According to the stipulations of the settlements, which have been given out to many jurisdictions nationwide, the money must be spent on any one of a number of approved opioid prevention and treatment needs. 

In Shasta, decisions about how local opioid funds will be allocated has been an ongoing process over the last year, with several youth organizations and healthcare providers bidding for their share of the funds. In addition to Shasta College, the board has allocated $4 million toward organizations focused on substance use prevention among youth, and $2.2 million toward the Good News Rescue Mission’s forthcoming drug treatment program.        

The agenda item promoting the use of opioid funds for Shasta College was sponsored by Supervisor Chris Kelstrom, who said he was inspired to support the college’s work after a past conversation with a STEP-UP graduate, who participated in the program as an alternative to jail time.

“She went through the STEP-UP program, she got some college credits and totally cleaned up. Now she’s a very productive member of society … ever since then, STEP-UP has kind of been my favorite program,” Kelstrom said.

During yesterday’s board meeting, Dean of Students Sandra Hamilton and STEP-UP program manager Robert Bowman collaborated on a presentation describing the two programs, and outlining how they would use opioid funds. 

Shasta College’s Alcohol and Drug Studies program was founded two years ago. It offers certificates in both alcohol studies and addiction studies, and is designed for students aiming to work in clinical settings that provide treatment for substance use disorders or work as counselors working with those affected. Hamilton noted that many people enrolled in the program are already teachers, therapists, or paraprofessionals who have returned to school in order to focus on this particular field of study. 

With the potential opening of True North, as well as other local Prop 1- funded treatment centers like Visions of the Cross and the Good News Rescue Mission, Hamilton added, the need for addiction specialists will likely increase.  

The college’s Alcohol and Drug Studies program includes an internship and Shasta College petitioned the board to use some of Shasta’s opioid funding to provide students a stipend for internship hours, equivalent to minimum wage. “We don’t want to see students go backwards in their financial standing as they’re getting ready to graduate and move into our job industry,” Hamilton said. 

Supervisor Allen Long inquired if the students themselves have to be personally affected by substance use in order for the county to allocate opioid money toward their education needs. In response, Deputy County Executive Officer Erin Bertain indicated that the approved spending outlined in opioid settlement documentation “also applies to increasing the availability of treatment within our area, regardless of whether those treatment providers have substance use issues.”

Shasta College’s STEP-UP program stands for Shasta Technical Education Program-Unified Partnership. It provides a specialized pathway for both formerly incarcerated students, and also those recovering from substance use disorder, to pursue technical training certificates or an associates degree with added support. The goal of the program is to reduce recidivism rates, which Bowman said are lower among STEP-UP graduates than the state and national averages. According to the presentation, 30% of students who have enrolled in STEP-UP have been impacted by SUD.

The program is facilitated in collaboration with the probation departments of Shasta, Trinity, and Tehama as well as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But not all formerly incarcerated people who apply to STEP-UP can be admitted, Bowman explained, in part due to a lack of funding. 

“Every semester we turn away students,” he said. With the extra opioid funding, Hamilton indicated that STEP-UP could add an additional 25 students to the STEP-UP program per semester, at a cost of about $2000 each. “We like to give them wrap-around support,” Hamilton said. “To help buy some of their equipment and materials, make sure they have the laptops and technology they need, as well as helping to support their basic needs around food and transportation.”

Board members voted to approve funding for the two programs for a single year, with Supervisor Matt Plummer providing the only dissenting vote. He suggested that the board should only approve opioid funding to support the STEP-UP program, because in his assessment, it seemed that the Alcohol and Drug Studies program was functioning adequately with current funding sources and did not require additional support.  

Plummer added that he’d like the board to be more selective about the use of opioid money, advocating for using opioid dollars for Sheriff Johnson’s proposed expansion to the county’s Alternative Custody Program in future.

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