I had the pleasure to meet all of the candidates during my campaign and I believe we will see some changes in the coming years in our District. I also believe that the number of candidates interested in making a difference speaks volumes to the interest our community has taken in our schools. I hope that together we will continue to express those interests and stay connected to the education process.

There are some tough challenges facing our newly elected Board of Trustees and I wish them all success in their new positions. I assure you that I will continue my involvement and build on the connections I have made during this process. I look forward to working with many of you by my side. I believe that together we can all make a change and give Hayward a new direction.

Again, congratulations to the Board!

Kelly Rocchio

# 5 was a pick up on # 4 which escaped the screen while I typed. # 5 was an attempt alert readers to pick up on the the mis-spellings in # 4 were pretty severe. it was inadvertant since there is apparently no way to re-enter a posted blog and “spell Check” is absent from the program.

If you think the advice about visting the website of the Chicago School was an attempt to PUSH CATHOLICISM..
…. I AM INCREDULOUS AT YOUR ASSUMPTION.

The School in Chicago was the recipient of a very generous donation by a man I do not think is Catholic.
Being an adherent of another belif system does not mean the donor is unable to recogonize a worthy idea.

Had an adherent of another faith done as much for Alameda County as that donor did for Chicago, I would be one of the early volunteers even if the opportunity meant mopping out the latrines at the end of the day!

The whole point being good ideas ought to be introduced at HUSD if and I repeat if, they aid resolution of the drop out or transiency rates in Hayward.

So there, take that and use it as a target!

For well over a year I have advocated that the new theater in ‘down’-town Hayward, be asked to include in their scheduling, some films which are imported from areas of the world where English does not predominate nor find usage except as ‘sub-titles- on cultural films intended for export.

Had our Civic and Business leadership picked up on this there might have been at least one screen using the spoken language of another culture with English Sub-titles.

In the 1960′s the old Centerville District Movie house, (built well berfore WW II) had a capacity of 500 seats. Where a smart entreprenuer began showing films in Farsi, Hindu and languages used by the emigres who flocked to US Colleges and then found their significant talents in demand within Silicon Valley.

A big problem developed in Centerville ( Now known as Fremont) when the fire marshall had a expressed objection to over sold seats. Seems he had this contentious idea that 550 people in a 500 seat theater had life threatening potential in event of fire or earthquake.

Little Kabul sprang up in that area offering restaurants and other shopping opportunity when folks either arrived early to secure tickets for first showing or tickets fot the late show, after dinner & shopping.

Now, some of those folks are no dummies, they wound up contolling some major electronic gadget companies; worse yet they own nice homes and have incredibly smart kids. The one thing they seem to lack is enough opportunity to see movies which remind themselves and/or introduce to offspring the culture of their rootstock.

They have money in their pocket and I see no reason why they should not be induced to seek entertainment, or employment such as in the English as a second language classes of HUSD.

Geez, they might even introduce construtive thought on parental involvment and partcipation at HUSD.

Nah, It is all for naught! “Haywardians” are not smart enough to grasp the idea! Even dumber, we continue to flaunt ourselves as being a ‘diverse community’!
30

Just the name Purple Lotus suggests that there is some sort of race separation in Union City. But to be fair, it would be well to provide some clues, such as a website address AND/or the location of the Purple Lotus.

Here in Hayward it is seldom seen that folks do investigation based on a name alone without some sort of effective ‘teaser’ such as you see in the electronic medis when ‘teasers’ are used to attract folks to newscasts. So, is it charter school or montessori? Perhaps an association with the Buddist facility in Union City? Common Chan, give us a few words to wet curiosity!

One of the odd ocurrences in Union City was their practice, during the early 1990′s, to provide a course in the curriculum not found in HUSD. That device gave impetus (‘PERMISSION’) to students in HUSD to ‘transfer’ thus aiding Union City to fill empty seats and gain the ADA money associated with high ocupancy. It baskfired and put HUSD at a major disadvantage when suddenly, Union City, in response to new development in residential housing, found that it needed to push 250 students back into HUSD. That must have had a poor affect upon those students who lost acquaintencships as well as familiarity with teachers. It put HUSD in a hell of a bind looking for desk spaces around THE VARIOUS SCHOOLS AND A BUDGET PROBLEM SPENT IN MORE PORTABLES.

What you really have to keep in mind is the relatively young age of the Union City residential tracts. It does not have a lot of ill advised apartment complexes created in the 1950 1965 period 5hat occurred in unincorporated areas in the area between Harder and Tennyson. Those low quality structures sprang up before Hayward annexed it to combat the antics of County Supervisors who over rode their own planning commission recommendations in a high percentahe of occasions. Now hayward IS JAMMED WITH STUDENTS WHOSE TRANSIENT FAMILIES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO A HIGH CLASSROOM TRANSIENCY RATE! HOW DO YOU RAISE SCORES WHEN YOU DEAL WITH YOUNGSTERS WHO MOVE IN AND OUT OF THE DISTRICT ON A FAIRLY FREQUENT BASIS?

GET EDUCATED CHAN!

IF THE RESIDENTS, THE STAKEHOLDERS OF HUSD WISH TO SUPPORT THE IDEA OF IMPROVING THE IMAGE AND EFFECTIVNESS OF OUR SCHOOLS, THEY MUST GET INVOLOVED WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE A PARENT …. IT’S A MORAL OBLIGATION AS WELL AS THE SMART THING TO DO IF YOU WISH TO SEE PROPERTY VALUES RE-BOUND WHILE SALVAGING SALES TAX REVNUE AT PLACES SUCH AS SOUTHLAND… WHERE THE ‘DROP OUTS’ GATHER FOR INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR!

WANT TO SEE SOMETHING INTERESTING? GO TO ‘GOOGLE’ AND SEARCH : Cristo Rey School, Chicago Illinois.
See something which is taking off like wildfire since the 1994 inception of this activity started by an elderly Jesuit. There are now about 20 such schools spread across the country; San Francisco is being subjected to a feasability study for another.

IMPORTNT THAT WHEN YOU GET TO THE WEBSITE< CLICK ON THE LINK AT LOWER LEFT INDICATED AS “CBS 60 Minutes:” it is a 12 minute expenditure of time which can be copied by a determined community!

Manu of their parents look back to the time when they were active in ‘parents group actibity in and outside the classrooms durinhg school hours. Many others are active in fund raising activities.

Recently St. Joachim’s celebrated the 50th anniverary of the School opening and All Saint’s, also In Hayward will be celbrating the 60th anniversary. Those that you see attending are not only the students but their parents who look for old faces with whom they were so closely associated during the days that many regard as their happiest because they sacrifices they made in terma of time as wealth were their happiest moments largely because the center of their effort was ‘outside’ themselves. Expressed another way, for parents, it was their least selfish moments that made them happy and fun in their reminiscence of those days.

What the folks in the HUSD service area fail to understand that the many retirees would come forward to aid in resolution of the current difficulties if they had but the chance to participate.

As an activist at St Joachim’s some 25 to 45 years ago I sat on a parents club activity involved in examining applicants who desired to enter their children at the 7th grade level in a desired transfer from public school. The standard question which I posed was; Why now at this late moment, was it money or some other problem?

You would be astonished at the answers which included the idea of the lack of PTA or other opportunity to become involved. Reputedly, the answer suggested that they felt excluded!.

Fortunately, our teachers who supplemeted the shortage of nuns, in the days wheh new parochial schools were rising faster than the numbers of nuns, we hired teachers who stayed, particpated with parents in various activity and in many cases were ex-public school employess. Noe we find exhausted teachers in HUSd ravelling some distances to rfind affordable housing and devoid of any idea of returning in the evening to associate with parents.

Evidence? Look at HEA and ask yourself why the President and vice president perioically trade off the pheir positions and in one case, the Husband of one took a job with satte education offices so he no longer seem sirectly involved with HUSD.

The real irony, in my mind is that had we taken up the idea of establishing ‘commissions’; ( in the fashion of Hayward City Hall, that a lot more volunteers would cojme forward if they were granted some formal opportunity to work on solutions to various need outside the classroom. It would be cost effective and would place the commissions in a relationship of reporting directly to Trustees without much time taken away from administration.

I point to the site resident ides wher we would invite one effecttive individual from each service area of our various schools to determine need, and provide follow through on all aspects of selection of prosepective residents, implementation of residence standards and quality of the Manufactured home intro duced to the chosen sites etc.

A site resident would become involved with students after school and on Saturdays or Sundays dependent upon need; the important thing is that the very presence of a site residence discourages vandalism and illict night use of the grounds for drinkinh and whatever…..

The next on the list of commissions would be the sports and promotions committee which would endeavor to engage itself in two or three actvities that would not only be entertaining but would be capable of raising funds to supplement the sports equipment [art of the HUSD Budget.

I could suggest others if you had the time to inquire….!

Nothing happens unle3ss you make it happen and it is my personal opinion that administration has Trustees so involved that they have no time to think outside the box….IF THE RESIDENTS, THE STAKEHOLDERS OF HUSD,

Observer, your post really cements things for me. Ms. Heredia has been less than truthful during the whole campain. She misrepresented her position on charter schools. She says that she is against them and thinks they are bad for the public schools. Yet, her daughter is enrolled in one. She says that she feels lied to about teacher qualifications. Now, Ms. Heredia calls herself a teacher. If you check her credentials, she has an emergency 30-day substitute teaching credential. She is NOT a teacher and should not call herself one. Observer’s post really shows Ms. Heredia for what she is. A phony and a fraud.