Subject:Encina (history/booster club/athletic support/store/missing/what's new) Date:Fri, 20 Nov 1998 17:57:24 -0800 Encina alumni, I thought I was done for the week but I got some interesting responses to my mailing yesterday. HISTORY Michael Babayco '72 writes: "Encina was ALMOST closed down because of the low enrollment! I think what happened was that the first development in the area (I was raised in the same house for my entire life and the house was 8 houses down from the basketball courts!) were some of the first suburbs northeast of the American River. Little Greer Elementary School (which I went to) was built before Encina and I remember walking through the field (the future Encina site) to go there. (I also remember taking my skateboard and my Sting Ray bike up and down the halls on the weekends. Put some great skid marks doing "brodies"!) From then on, many more subdivisions were built and that helped to push Encina's student population up to the 1600 - 1800 range. Then came commercial development and started taking over housing developments and creating less of a "neighborhood" community and more of a commercial one. Results? Less houses and less of an attraction for families with children to move into the area. I think the same effects were felt at El Camino and other San Juan District schools... I remember hearing (and maybe it was just a rumor...) that at the time they were thinking about closing it down (population was down to 500, I think), they experimented with having half of the school as a program for gifted kids and the other half for special education. Then they changed it to it present status. But this was just passed on to me and I'm not even sure if that is how it really happened." Diane Schoenborn '73 writes: "At our (25th) reunion, Mr. Carey told the story of how Encina lost enrollment & went downhill. Sometime in the early 80's, to "save" El Camino, it was turned into a fundamental high school with high achiever classes. Mr. Carey said that the first year of that program, about 10 Encina students left. The second year, 100 students, Encina's best & brightest, left Encina & the school was never able to recover. I know that most of Amanda's friends from the high-achiever middle school were evenly divided between El Camino (for the fundamental aspect & for the great music program) & Mira Loma for the International Baccalaureate program. Sometime after Encina lost population, it was saved by becoming a Tech School for kids not going to college. In the early 90's, there was a rumor that Encina was going to close, but it was saved again by becoming an Academy School-within-a-school concept; kids are in Business Academy, Health, Art, etc. " If you were at Encina during the 80s, I would be interested in a first hand description of what happened to Encina and how the students felt during this period. BOOSTER CLUB Deborah Young, secretary of the Encina Booster Club writes: "The Encina Booster Club was established in the early 70s to subsidize financial assistance to the sports and academic programs at Encina. What we suffer the worst from is lack of parent participation.  Currently we have only three active Booster Club members who actually have children attending Encina. We have been actively recruiting for Freshman parents to get involved. It has been very difficult, the parents don't even attend the sports activities, as you witnessed at Homecoming. We have the same 3-5 parents involved in everything at Encina. We have 6-10 loyal parents and grandparents of previous students who are still very active, mostly in the Bingo. If there were some way to attract the Alumni population in volunteering, we would be so grateful. The Booster Club has a lease with Fantasia Bingo Hall on Arden Way that will expire the end of this year. The remaining loyal members are burning out with working every Sunday from 10:00 to 4:30pm. If anyone would like to volunteer and work any of the remaining Sundays before the end of the year, we would welcome them with smiling faces and gratitude! We are striving to change our program, and recruit more parent participation to extend the current lease! This weekend is the Basketball group. The newly elected President is Jennifer Peterson (Freshman parent), Vice President is Donna Fraser (Junior parent), Treasure is Lesley Perkins (Junior parent), and myself, Secretary Deborah Young (Junior parent). We have a parent office at Encina High School. We can be reached at 916-971-5801. Unfortunately, we don't have access to the Internet from our computer in the office." ATHLETIC SUPPORT Deborah Young writes: "Is it possible, or could you advise me as to the availability or reasonableness of advertising on your website for the financial support with some sports related opportunities for current athletes at Encina?  The long and short of it, is my son who is a Junior at Encina, has been nominated by the Head Coach at Encina, and selected by the HOOPSMART U.S.A. to participate in the National Invitational Tournament (basketball) to be held in Hawaii on July 8 through 17, 1998. This tournament is a prestigious opportunity for my son, but will cost us around $3,000.00 to participate. Do you have any suggestions as to fundraisers, or contacts to sponsor my son? My son (Melvin "Neil" Young II) is somewhere between 6'9" and 6'10", I haven't measured lately and he keeps growing. He wears a size 18 shoe, and has recently received two pairs of shoes from the Sacramento Kings. I'm not sure if your readers are aware of the income level of students who now attend Encina. We are considered a very poor area, with many transient migrant families. Monies allocated to Encina are based on enrollment figures, and as you mentioned in your most recent message, enrollment is half what it use to be. We get very little monies from the school district, the Booster Club is not doing well, and the possibility of no sports program at Encina is just around the corner.  My son is in the Basketball program at Encina, and on the schedule there are three pre-season tournaments schedule, and no money to pay for them. Our school is constantly scrambling for monies to support our athletic programs. Any ideas!" When I submitted the idea of linking to amazon.com to defer website expenses a few weeks ago, many of you wrote saying you would be glad to contribute towards maintaining the website. Here's another opportunity to support Encina and Encina's student athletes. The Encinan Booster Club is a non-profit organization. Encina alumni who wish to contribute to the Encina Booster Club can send their contributions to: Encina Booster Club 1400 Bell Street Sacramento,CA 95825 916-971-5801 I've added a Booster Club page to the Encina website which contains the above information. I'm going to talk with their treasurer about administering website monies under their non-profit umbrella. STORE I've added links to barnesandnoble.com and CDNow. barnesandnoble.com is probably the second largest online bookstore after amazon.com and also sells software and magazines. CDNow is reputed to be the largest music store on the internet. Please support the Encina website by accessing amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and CDNow from the Encina store. If you've never shopped on the internet you're missing an experience. amazon.com is more than a store, it's a community. You can review books you've read, read reviews other shoppers have written, read interviews with uthors. They have a service called "Eyes" which notifies me whenever new books by my favorite authors are published. It's a truly amazing website. MISSING Connie Hall 73 found Greg Roeszler 74, who is her oldest son's godfather. Jayne Van Horn '73 was found by Debbie Burruss '73. Cindy Rea 68 talked with Jack Bassett and Bill Derderian while inviting them to the class of 68's 30th reunion in October. Jack Bassett says Cornelia Whitaker is retired in Sacramento. Cindy gathered a wealth of data on many teachers which I will be adding to the Teachers page. No new names so I'll skip the list today. WHAT'S NEW 11/19/98: Jayne Van Horn 73, Sam Bess 82/bio, David Bess 78, Toni Hinkle 82, Lisa Elrod 82, Kurt Pearsall 74, Geoff Robles 75, Glenn Robles 80, Shannon Engle 86, Jennifer Engle 87, Greg Roeszler 74, Kent Randles 69 bio, Mark Zoeller 80, Melissa Zoeller 80 Teachers: Susan McGuire Store: Added links to CDNow, barnesandnoble.com History: Added comments about Encina's declining enrollment. Booster Club: added page for the Encina Booster Club. Have a good weekend. I'll be gone next Monday and Tuesday at a company retreat and won't be checking mail until Wednesday. I will be checking my home email: harlanlau@yahoo.com Harlan Encina webmaster