There’s an article in today’s paper about Fremont Unified eliminating the two traditional parent conference days as part of this year’s budget cuts. Teachers had their work year reduced by five days (equivalent to about a 2.67 percent pay cut), so they’re not meeting with every parent. Some will still meet with parents who request a conference, but there are reports that other teachers are refusing to set up face-to-face meetings, opting instead to communicate by phone or e-mail. (District officials say they expect that if a parent specifically requests a meeting, that teachers would still honor that request.)

Some parents feel they’re not missing much by not having conferences, while others are outraged. Some feel the elimination of face-to-face time with teachers is a step back for a district whose leaders say they want to improve communication with stakeholders.

What do you think?

I know a few people wanted an update on the Water Park’s first season.

I don’t have specific stats – those will be released next month – but the city said it was profitable even though average daily attendance didn’t reach 1,100.

Here’s the explanation:

 The attendance ended up at 70,000. 1,100/day was not a magic  break even number. It was what the studies projected the attendance to be based on the facility having maximum occupancy of 1,500 and the geographic region. Once we were up and running, we determined that the maximum occupancy for safety was 1,250.

Does better infrastructure beget more happening streets? Fremont is about to find out.

The city is pumping more than $8 million for streetscape improvements to Bay Street, Papazian Way and Trimboli Way in the Irvington District.

They’re going to widen sidewalks, install a traffic circle with a coastal live oak tree in the middle, plant 43 other trees, install bike racks and steel benches, and construct decorative street lights.

And, of course, no urban design project is complete without sideway bulb-outs to make it easier for folks to cross the street.

The hope is that all the improvements, and some looser zoning rules,  will persuade property owners to build more “intense” development in the area.  A couple of years ago, the city built a new parking lot there in hopes that all the infrastructure improvements would lead to a parking shortage. We’ll see.

Milpitas Mayor Bob Livengood has dropped this evening out of the Assembly race and endorsed Ohlone College Trustee Garrett Yee over his lone opponent, Fremont City Councilman Bob Wieckowski.

Yee and Livengood held a press confrence outside Milpitas City Hall and then sent emails out about it to folks like me. I’ll call them for comments tomorrow, but it just so happens I was in the same room as Bob Wieckowski when the emails were sent.

Wieckowski was less loquacious than usual. He said it doesn’t change much for him and that Milpitas is now open territory. Meanwhile Bill Harrison, who got a text message about the endorsement during Tuesday’s council meeting, said that Livengood’s departure means his man Wieckowski can debate Yee one-one-one, mano-a-mano without Livengood to get in the way.

When Bob Wieckowski runs for Assembly next year, he’ll be doing it as Fremont’s vice mayor, a meaningless title that still sounds better than councilman.

It wouldn’t be unheard of for a council to name its favorite son as Vice Mayor to help him out in a regional campaign: I think Richard Valle skipped ahead when he was running for County Supervisor in 2006.

But that isn’t the case here. Under Council rules, it would have been either Wieckowski or Sue Chan, but Wieckowski got the nod because he got more votes in last year’s election. Wieckowski was appointed unanimously.

The Bay Area’s biggest and best country western bar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week

The Saddle Rack isn’t closing its doors just yet, but it’s going to a Wednesday through Saturday schedule.

Apparently, its been a bad year for the bar. Not only are revenues down, but it’s appealing a six-figure  judgement from a personal injury complaint against it and contesting about $100,000 in taxes the state says it owes.

To make matters worse, two months ago, burglars made off with the bar’s ATM machine.

In brighter news, I recently chickened out of riding the mechanical bull, which surely would have resulted in another personal injury lawsuit.  I still marvel that our photographer can walk after his dismount.

All the news stuff is from our business reporter George Avalos. He should have a full story in our business page/section tomorrow.

It only took a few days after Fremont opened the new Paseo Padre underpass for Union Pacific to take down the railroad crossing equipment and flashing red crossing lights along Paseo Padre just south of Central Park.

How long will it take for train drivers to stop blowing their whistles and pissing people off at a crossing that no longer exists? Apparently, longer than it should. I’ve been getting emails about the train horns persisting. One driver blew his horn at a 3 a.m. in the morning at the now phantom crossing.

Fremont recently completed a new road survey. Not good news. The city’s roads have gone from “good” to “fair” and in more than a decade they’ll probably be “poor”

On a scale of 1 to 100 Fremont rates a 64, although a small boo-boo by the consultant might have cost the city a point. Seven years ago the city was a smooth 79.

They things are going by 2018 Fremont will be an even 50. That’ll be like having Oakland’s streets, but not its baseball team.

Apparently, the cost of maintenance is up and the money to do street repairs is stagnant. The city would need about $15 million a year just to keep the streets in their “fair” state. It doesn’t even have half that.

In brighter news, Union City expects its new rating to be a 78. Newark expects to be a 71.

Ohlone is laying off several classified workers. It’s hard to tell how many, but it’s the equivalent of nearly 5 full-time employees., none of whom are teachers.

I’ve talked to several people recently who want to teach at community colleges. It seems getting a pension and avoiding contact with rowdy high school kids is the new American Deam.

There are even people who apply to Journalism School in hopes of being able to one day teach journalism in a Community College.

President Obama’s Car Tzar and a gaggle of federal  officials were in Newark to talk about the demise of NUMMI, and, of course, tour the new Ohlone College campus, which for all its high tech greenery gets terrible Blackberry reception.

The Tzar, Ed Montgomery, didn’t make any promises but he said Fremont potentially was in line for grants to replan/rezone the NUMMI site. Mayor Wasserman said a federal agency had contacted the city about a planning grant.

Meanwhile union folks and county officials like Supervisor Keith Carson kept saying they weren’t giving up on keeping the facility open for a new car manufacturer. That way the workers could keep there jobs and NUMMI wouldn’t have to deconominate the land around the plant.