The 2017 KHTS Sacramento Road Trip once again brought together community members from various fields, and they came back with a number of takeaways, according to participants.

On Tuesday  morning, the discussion was focused on lower-level education and transportation issues, and in the afternoon, the talks shifted to higher education, water and veterans issues.

Jerry Buckley, assistant superintendent and vice president of instruction for the College of the Canyons, said he was able to explore options for the college as it looks to expand its curriculum and programming to those seeking to study elder care education.

There were networking advantages,  as well as opportunities to dialogue and build coalitions addressing local issues in a relaxed atmosphere.

“I think, as always, it’s great to be able to meet people — in my particular case, in our academic affairs unit, we’re working to reach out to the elder care community,” Buckley said. “We’re trying to build a new curriculum to help residents take care of their parents and to build a curriculum…” With representatives from four different local, competing senior care providers, as well as representatives from the local senior center, on the trip, Buckley said he was able to gain different insights and work to build an advisory committee, based on the information he gleaned from discussions with both elected officials and community members.

The discussion on higher education was eye-opening for some, when Lande Ajose, the leader of California Competes, announced some of the shortcomings in the state’s collegiate projections for four-year degrees.

A Mind the Gap report showed that California expects to be about 2.5 million collegiate degrees short of its need in 2025. The report also noted that about 23 percent of degrees generated in California come from the University of California system, whereas about 43 percent come from the California State University system.

For workers compensation, Jeremy Merz of the California Chamber of Commerce, and Jerry Azevedo of the Workers Compensation Action Network, discussed challenges for business owners, not only for California, but also to the Los Angeles area.

“We spend about $5 billion on cash benefits,” Azevedo said, “$7 billion on medical benefits and $7.5 on expenses. I don’t know many businesses that could afford to operate like that.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the group also discussed water issues with representatives from the local water agencies that, in particular, were all concerned about the discussion around SB 634, which would create a valley-wide water agency.

A presentation on the Santa Clarita Valley’s latest proposal for water regulation, oversight and governance, and several other presentations presented to the community, can be viewed here.