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.
In the first of what most likely will be a series of special meetings to discuss the search for a new superintendent, the Fremont school board on Tuesday decided it would look at external candidates as well as current district employees (at least for now). The last time the board conducted a full search was in 2002, when it eventually hired John Rieckewald, an outsider, as schools chief. The two superintendents after him were hired from within the district.
Milt Werner, the current superintendent who’s retiring in June, said he favored a thorough search. “Without question, we have excellent internal candidates, but it’s healthy” to do a search, he said. “It looks long; it looks arduous, but you have more than 32,000 kids on your hands. You have an awesome responsibility.”
During the meeting, the head of the district’s management association said the group would like the board to conduct a full search to ensure it was not overlooking qualified candidates. Meanwhile, the president of the California School Employees Association said an internal candidate was preferred and singled out Parvin Ahmadi, assistant superintendent of instruction, as “excellent.”
It’s not clear yet how much hiring a firm to conduct a search would set the district back. The board tentatively is scheduled to vote Monday (during its joint meeting with the City Council) whether to advertise that it’s looking to hire a search firm.
UPDATE (8:18 p.m.): The school board voted 3-2 not to transfer Curtis from MSJE. Trustees Ivy Wu, Lily Mei and Larry Sweeney voted not to move her. Trustees Bryan Gebhardt and Lara York were the “no” votes.
The regular board meeting also started nearly 1.5 hours late — a new record! I don’t know if the hold-up was due to the board not coming to an agreement over this decision or if it had to do with another issue.
(ORIGINAL ENTRY): Here’s a photo that someone submitted from Tuesday’s picket at Mission San Jose Elementary. A group of parents say their principal, Bonnie Curtis, is being forced to transfer to another campus, even though the administrator said it ultimately was her decision. Read the full story by clicking here.
The school board is scheduled to vote on the possible reassignment tonight.
For the second time in recent months, I’ve been tripped up by police scanner traffic that led me to believe there was an active SWAT incident going on in the Tri-City area.
In May I heard SWAT action on the Fremont police radio channels, and it turned out to be nothing more than a training exercise at a defunct car dealership. And today I heard similar static on the Union City radio channels. One big difference though: I didn’t race out there today with my notebook and press pass in hand. Instead I was able to confirm by telephone that stuff I was hearing was indeed a training exercise.
I suppose it’s a dead give away when you hear an officer calmly say “shots fired,” instead of screaming it as would be the case if the incident were real.
For you scanner junkies, be aware that this training will also be taking place tomorrow.
What was supposed to be a united rally against state budget cuts and a push for local school funding turned into an attack on the Fremont teachers’ union and the no-layoff clause for permanent teachers in its contract during last night’s education/budget forum.
Overall, the event was a tame affair. Three or four dozen people attended — about half of which I recognized as elected officials, school administrators or the super-involved parents who serve on various school committees. A couple of the organizers said after the event that they had hoped for a larger turnout and agreed that perhaps they had been preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, they’re hoping those who heard their message will pass it on to others in the community.
That message being that the fiscal crisis the district finds itself in (about a $20 million deficit) is the fault of the state Legislature which keeps making cuts to education; that there needs to be a Constitutional amendment so that state budgets no longer need two-thirds legislative approval to pass; and that it behooves everyone in the community to support a local schools parcel tax. Read the rest of this entry »
Although investigators have not released the name of the teen believed to have been shot to death by her ex-boyfriend before turning the gun on himself Friday, multiple outside sources have identified the girl as Amanda Caravantes and the suspect as Erik Petersen, both 17.
Both teens attended Newark Memorial High at some point, and Petersen still is enrolled there, according to sources.
Community members have called a candlelight vigil at 7 tonight near Newark Junior High (at Lafayette Ave./Newark Blvd.).
The text in blue is a statement from the Newark school district:
The Newark Unified School District and the Newark Memorial High School community are saddened by the tragic loss and injury of two young people on Friday night in Fremont.
In order to provide support to students and staff who may know these families, the District will have counselors and psychologists on call this week.Parents and students are encouraged to contact school staff if they need, or know of anyone who needs support regarding this incident.
Please join us in keeping these young people and their families in your thoughts.
Last night I did a live blog of the council meeting. Since it’s now a day old, I’ve reversed the order so it reads chronologically. Highlights were a union contract squabble, a dig at Union City and “cutting edge” traffic analysis.
7 p.m. — The chamber is full and very purple. SEIU union members are here to say they won’t sign their no-raise contract unless the get assurances that top management folks won’t get raises, while they’re stuck with nada. They want what’s called a “me too” clause. If management gets a raise, they would too.
I arrived just in time to here an SEIU fight song. I’m always saddened how other unions have better songs and chants than the my union, the Newspaper Guild. In our defense, we don’t wear purple and we have super cool shop steward pins. I have two pins — one for both members of my shop.
7:19 — Nina Moore of the Chamber of Commerce just stopped by to tease me for my poor council attendance of late. I took it like a man and complimented her shoes. A former colleague of mine would have called them spunky.
7:20 — Irvington man says bad traffic issues. Lots of skidding and trouble with Kirby’s, he says. They want speed bumps or signage.
7:25 — SEIU got in their two cents about their contract. They left with a chant of “What do we want? We want a contract.” I’ll ask Diaz about why the city won’t commit to no raises for top management. Chamber is now almost empty. Ishan Shah is here. So is Dirk Lorenz and Nina Moore.
As an acolyte of New York tabloid sports reporters, it was my duty to play up Mayor Wasserman’s tax hike suggestion for all it’s worth in tomorrow’s paper. But my sense is it’s not going to happen.
I just talked to Bob Wieckowski, who called me after my very early deadline. All our deadlines are very early these days.
Wieckowksi wasn’t too keen on the tax proposal. Considering that he’s been the council’s most vocal advocate for higher taxes and better services, that doesn’t bode well for tax fans.
Wieckowski said Wasserman’s suggestion came out of nowhere, and questioned whether there’s “the political mojo” to pass a tax measure.
Mayor Wasserman just spiced up an otherwise dull City Council meeting by bringing up the idea of proposing some kind of tax hike.
“I think it’s something the council should think about,” he said. “If there’s a desire to do it, I’m 99 percent sure there’s an opportunity before the next general election”
It didn’t appear that Wasserman has done a lot of homework on this. He first asked about the deadline for a November ballot. He was told it had passed, although I’m not sure there even will be an election in Fremont this November.
Then he asked if there was a vote in March. The primary is in June, but the school district might choose to ask for a special parcel tax in that election. A city tax proposal wouldn’t help the schools’ tax hike bid one bit.
Councilmember Sue Chan asked about the potential conflict. She said, “It would probably be a good idea to monitor that.” Everyone seemed to agree.
But since then Men’s Health named Fremont one of the drunkest cities (Please don’t blame Niles) and now, Fremont is near the top of the list as one of the most fast food dependent cities in the country.
If my co-workers are any indication, Men’s Health has finally hit hit the nail on the head.
