UPDATE (8/14/08): The registrar has confirmed the eligibility status of all the candidates below.

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This blog has been inundated with comments about some Fremont council candidates. But let’s not forget there are other races in the Tri-City area.

The extended filing period for certain races ended this evening. Below are the updated lists. Names with an asterisk next to them are candidates whose eligibility to run have not been confirmed by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office. Read the rest of this entry »

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell unveiled his “Algebra I Success Initiative” today in response to the state Board of Education’s recent decision to require all eighth-graders to take Algebra I starting in three years.

O’Connell opposed the decision but said in a statement that “given the State Board’s decision, I believe it is imperative we focus on ensuring our students are now given the resources they need to successfully reach this mandate.”

His plan calls for $3.1 billion in state funding to lower seventh- and eighth-grade math class sizes, increase instructional time, expand afterschool and weekend tutorial programs, provide professional development and instructional materials to teachers, and recruit and retain quality instructors, among other things. Read the rest of this entry »

It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following our coverage of local elections that the candidate filing period is tomorrow.

Just a reminder that while the deadline is 5 p.m. Friday for most candidates, the deadline is 4 p.m. for those planning to run for the Union City City Council.

Union City’s City Hall is closed every other Friday, including this week. But because of the filing deadline, the city clerk’s office will stay open tomorrow for special hours.

A reader called me yesterday to ask where people need to go to pull papers. Basically, if you want to run for a school board, Washington Hospital board or pretty much any race other than city council, you can file through the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office in Oakland.

Fremont and Union City City Council candidates can file through their city halls.

image from Joseph Dath's site at flickr.com

UPDATE: The school board has named David Pava the interim superintendent. Pava, 59, was the deputy superintendent this past year and has worked more than 30 years in New Haven. A story will be in Friday’s paper.

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In case you didn’t catch our breaking news story online, the New Haven school board has called an emergency meeting for 7:30 tonight to discuss naming an interim superintendent to replace outgoing schools chief Pat Jaurequi.

Jaurequi said she wasn’t actively seeking a new job, but the opportunity came, and she accepted the position over the weekend.

A story in tomorrow’s print edition will have some more details.

A story in today’s paper talks about the latest student dropout rates, with figures for local schools, districts, the county and state.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have space in the print edition to compare results from the past two years. (Clarification: I’m really talking about dropout rates for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years because the state is always one year behind in reporting the results.)

What makes this year’s report noteworthy is that, for the first time, it was based on a new student tracking system that makes the data more accurate. Read the rest of this entry »

A bill to better inform families of students with disabilities of the services provided through the California School for the Blind and the California School for the Deaf passed through the state Assembly today on a 63-0 vote.

The bill, by Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Newark), now heads to the governor for approval. For more information, click here.

As reported last week, the New Haven school board ended up holding a special meeting last night to appoint a new chief business officer to manage the district’s $104.4 million budget.

The new guy is Ted Hood, who comes to the Tri-City from the West Contra Costa Unified School District, where he was senior director for bond finance and, at one point, had served as an interim CBO and interim director of information technology.

I’m still trying to score an interview with Hood, who will start his new post July 23.

It looks like New Haven Unified is close to naming a new chief business officer to manage the district’s $104.4 million budget — and the headaches that come with dealing with budget cuts. Its last CBO, Carol Gregorich, retired as of Monday, and the district interviewed candidates for her position last week.

New Haven’s spokesman confirmed this afternoon that the district has a person in mind to fill Gregorich’s shoes, but he wouldn’t divulge any more details. He said the district hopes to call a special meeting on Tuesday so that the board can appoint this person.

The district also is in the process of looking for a new director of operations. The last guy, Enrique Palacios, has taken a job with the Gilroy school district as the assistant superintendent of administrative services.

With the current state budget crisis, it may come as no shocker that there seems to be more CBOs leaving this year than usual, as one HR person at a local school district told me.

UPDATE: Our schools reporter tells me that the rankings released today don’t mean jack. I’m too simple to understand this stuff, but she’ll explain it in her story in tomorrow’s paper. 

Here’s a handy database for looking up API rankings which came out today for local schools: http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/2007api/

There was a photo in today’s paper of New Haven classified employees protesting budget cuts before Tuesday’s school board meeting. Below are more photos from the event that didn’t make our print edition:

(Top) Searles Elementary resource assistant Frances Ogle, a bilingual paraeducator, received a layoff notice last month. (Center) James Logan High special ed resource assistant Barbara Ramirez protests budget cuts outside the district office. (Bottom) Cabello Elementary kindergartners Jasmine and Maya Leon, both 5, join Tuesday’s rally.

Recently, the school board approved laying off 76 classified workers, such as classroom aides, secretaries and groundskeepers. And in two weeks, trustees will be asked to eliminate high school busing, which would mean laying off some drivers.

This was the second board meeting in a row where classified employees rallied outside the district office. I suspect they’ll be back at the May 20 meeting to protest further cuts.