CENA Web Newsletter
January
2012
INDEX
Article 1 – “Recent Goings-on at Emerson Elementary” by Zoe Williams
Article 2 – “Willard Theater Program” by Marit Frost
Article 3 – “Funding our Failing Infrastructure” by Jacquelyn McCormick
Article 4 – “Meet our new interim City Manager, Christine Daniel” by Jacquelyn McCormick
Article 5 – “Updates on stories covered in recent newsletters”
Recent Goings-on at Emerson Elementary by Zoe Williams
Berkeley Public
Education Foundation Grants: The
Berkeley Public Education Foundation recently came out with their grant awards
for this year and Emerson's teachers were well funded. The foundation is
managed by a group of Berkeley residents who are long time supporters of public
education. They spend the year raising funds for local schools and in
September of each year they open their grant application process to BUSD
educators.
We are so proud
of our teachers and the many grants they received. Some of the projects
that were funded include: Storyteller for family literacy night;
Discovery Zone supplies - materials for structured alternative recess
activities; If I grow it I will Eat It - supplies that enable students to plant
and taste seasonal foods throughout the year; Penguins and Their Young -
science unit about penguin life cycle and habitats; Sun, Moon and Stars - field
trip to Chabot Space and Science Center; Readers Need Organization - helping
students find books at their "just right level" in a quick and easy
fashion; Overnight Science Field Trip - to help defray costs to families of the
overnight trip to Camp Arroyo, a state of the art "green" build camp
with a focus on science.
Meet the Symphony: On November 21st Emerson hosted a "Meet the
Symphony" concert. The Meet the Symphony concerts are part of a collaboration
project between Berkeley Unified School District and the Berkeley Symphony
Orchestra. On alternate years the students will be visited by symphony
musicians and will actually perform
with the orchestra in the spring! This
year, a group of orchestra members, along with their amazing conductor, Ming
Luke, came to Emerson to play for the students and to teach them about
music. Ming Luke was engaging and the
musicians were outstanding as always.
Make A Difference Recycling at
Emerson School: Yes, the following things are actually
recyclable! Save them up and bring them
to Emerson Elementary School every Friday at 8:10 to turn them in !
Tortilla & Tostada Bags Pens,
mechanical pencils, markers, highlighters & caps
Yogurt cups, containers & lids Corks,
natural or synthetic
Gum wrappers, foil & packaging Glue sticks,
glue bottles & tops
Cameras, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3
players Keyboards & mouses & cellphones.8
Willard Theater Program By Marit Frost
The arts in
Berkeley schools are not dead, not by a long shot. At Willard Middle School, students just put
on an ambitious and wildly successful performance in the Metal Shop Theater of
a musical about a certain boy wizard, who must go nameless. (No,
not Tom Marvolo Riddle). In this musical a 12-year-old
boy strives to live up to the expectations of many. Yet as "the boy who
lived" makes his way through Hogwarts he finds this a more
challenging and stressful title to live up to as around each corner (and
on the back of his professor's head) there is danger and magic of all kinds,
the least of which is love. While fighting his cruel muggle relatives and
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named this young wizard must forge a path through a life
fraught with danger.
This musical,
which is an adaptation of a video widely distributed on the Internet – was
performed under a cloak of near invisibility so as not to trigger any lawyer letters
from a certain major motion picture studio. We know that as the CENA
Newsletter is brought to 1400 households complete invisibility is near
impossible but we strive to keep these talented young actors and their
incredible stage manager George Rose as safe as possible from lawsuits and
other legal problems that might come up.
Amazingly, the
students themselves were in charge of all aspects of the production – deciding
what to produce, writing the score, dialog, casting, all the staging, costumes,
direction – everything except sweeping up spills during the play. We wish to
thank George Rose, Willard’s theater impresario, for helping performing that
last task – and with such a theatrical flourish, too!
And though it was
touch-and-go at times, the play got stronger from opening night to closing
afternoon with the directors under great stress. Yet no matter the strain of
transforming 40 teens into a professional production, these amazing students
showed little strain and completed the production, and it truly was
"totally awesome".
Along the way we
learned that musicals are not only much, much more difficult to pull off than
they appear (with everybody smiling and belting out songs, it truly seems
effortless), but are incredibly fun to put on with much joking and truth or
dare backstage and new found friendships that will last a lifetime.
And now for a
political message: none of this would have been possible without BSEP, the
voter-approved bond measure that has allowed Berkeley’s public school kids to
explore theater, music, fine arts and many other programs that are simply
unaffordable under today’s state budget constraints. BSEP is our
“philosopher’s stone” for the arts and so I would like to say thank you for
giving the theater new life.
We also want to
say “thank you” to Mr. Rose, and the cast members, namely the stars: Finn Collo m, Rosie
Shaw, and Grace as well as so many others I just don't have room to name here
for they're persistence and hard work no matter how many times someone has said
"it can't be done". Well guess what, it can be done, we just did
It ! 8
Marit
Frost is a seventh grader at Willard Middle School and is the daughter of
George Frost, Vice-President of CENA
Funding Our Failing
Infrastructure by Jacquelyn McCormick, Berkeley Budget SOS
At recent council workshops, the demise and current
needs of our parks, marina, pools, storm drains, sewers and streets were
discussed in detail. “Total” capital project dollars required for all necessary
improvements approximates $525 million and it is not clear every last detail
has been included. This works out to approximately $4,700 per resident, including students. Couple this with the $536 million debt for
employee benefits related liabilities – $430million of which is owed to CALPERS
-- and you end up with over $1.061billion in unfunded liabilities, or a
whopping $9,400 per resident. We call it
unfunded because, sadly, it is. Unless significant budget cuts are made,
there is no money in the treasury to fund it.
In practical
terms, what does this mean? Capital
improvement investment has decreased from 10% of our budget to 4% over the past
20 years while salaries and benefits have increased from 64% of the budget to
80%. Where is the money going to come
from to fix what is broken or, more accurately, what are we going to do without?
Streets: Our
streets have a rating of 58 in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
report. This places Berkeley in the
lowest quartile – out of 98 Bay Area cities, 80 ranked higher. The
city is making an effort to prioritize repairs of the city arterials and their
feeders, but it would cost $43million to get all our streets to a rating of
80.
Parks
and Waterfront: In 1986 Measure L was passed which requires
that park amenities be funded to maintain their condition and services. In 1991, voters approved a dedicated park tax
but, it did not have an escalator, so the money that it provided is now
inadequate. Our parks have been neglected and there are safety issues and some
areas may be closed. The $78million of
capital required bring them “up to snuff” is due, primarily, to the fact that
they have not been maintained and there were pictures provided in the meetings
that prove it. Some say it is demolition
by neglect.
Pools: The
pool issue has been ongoing for years and it will take $22.5 million to improve
and/or rebuild what is currently open for use.
Willard Pool was closed and buried in dirt because the city would not
spend $78,000 to keep it open for the summer, and many residents considered this
in retaliation for the defeat of the pools Bond Measure C.
Storm
drains aka “Watershed Management”: South Berkeley consistently floods, culverts
are collapsing, creeks are overflowing and the city has earmarked only $700,000
during this fiscal year for “emergency repairs”. The Watershed Plan put forth last October is
one that most Berkeleyans would embrace – it truly reflects Berkeley
values. It is based on new scientific
methods of capturing and slowly releasing overflow, creating permeable surfaces
to capture and slowdown runoff, and goes far to ensure that what Berkeley
releases does not end up in the Bay. A
good thing! The problem – it will cost $250million to get it done and this will
compete with all the other infrastructure needs.
Berkeley’s
Social Safety Net Services: Last, but certainly not least. We are talking about services for seniors,
the blind, youth, jobs, employment training, housings, homeless, addiction, and
health – services for Berkeleyans who are in need. From a high of almost $10million three years
ago, social service contribution has decreased to approximately $7.5million – a
level below 2006. In the current budget
cycle, senior services were decreased by 57%, housing development and rehab by
27% and employment training decreased by 21%.
So what do we do? The easiest, but unacceptable course for
council would be to package the infrastructure needs and put it on the ballot
and hope that it passes. If recent tax measure failure in San Francisco is any
indication of the mood of the voter – good luck getting any new revenue! The hardest but most responsible way, is to
look at the underlying reasons for Berkeley’s neglect of its infrastructure and
its failure to plan wisely. We need to
figure out why and make the necessary changes or, quite soon, all we can expect
is drastically diminished city services and
incapacitated infrastructure.8
Meet our new interim City
Manager, Christine Daniel
Interviewed by Jacquelyn McCormick
We were fortunate to catch a few minutes
with Berkeley’s new interim City Manager, Christine Daniel, just after she had
assumed the office and while she was battling the aftermath of an apartment
fire downtown. Ms. Daniel, who formally
received the appointment at a special city council meeting on November 15,
2011, will hold the office on an interim basis for 6 months and is fully
expected to be approved as City Manager at the end of the probationary term.
Ms. Daniel worked in the Berkeley City
Attorney’s office from 1992 – 2000. In
2000, she left for the City of Fremont and, until returning to Berkeley in
2007, served Fremont in the offices of the City Attorney, City Manager and
Community Development. She recently served as Berkeley’s Deputy City Manager.
Her
college
years were spent at Mills with a focus in philosophy and government studies and
upon graduation she matriculated to UC Davis where she obtained a law
degree. She lives with her partner in the
Temescal District.
In our time with her, Ms. Daniel was
very open to our questions about her future role and the challenge it
presents. The following are excerpts
from our interview:
Q. Are you excited, scared or both as you
formally assume the position of City Manager?
A. Excited! My first official day was Thanksgiving and I
hit the ground running.
Q. What do you expect to be your greatest
challenge in the beginning and over time?
A. It
will be the same issues on going and the same issues we had two years ago –
managing our expenditures to respond to the economy. Everything is being managed within that
context.
Q. What
are the biggest challenges facing the city?
A. It is the same. It’s the economy and all the challenges it
presents.
Q. What is your vision for managing the city which is different than the previous
administration?
A. The city has a great team of
department heads who work together extremely well. I have no expectation that will change. We are lucky to have such a team who is dedicated
to keep the work going.
Q. Cities are stretched financially; will you
interact with other city managers locally and nationally?
A. Our local Alameda County City
Manager’s Association meets once a month. We tend to focus locally and engage
with the League of California Cities.
Since California is so unique, there is little national exchange.
Q. Will
you be looking to “Best in Class” cities as a model? Is there potential for change in the city
structure?
A. We already look to the “Best in
Class”. Currently, we are merging the
city’s housing and health departments.
We will see about other similar opportunity in the future.
Q. What are your plans to engage Berkeley’s
citizens?
A. I am always available to meet with
individuals. Also, I am happy to make myself
available to council members at their district forums and to neighborhood
associations and merchant groups.
Q. Do you know where the bodies are buried or
do you think you might get surprised?
A. The city really has a transparent
system. I am confident with that
transparency and don’t expect any surprises! 8
U P
D A T
E S
On
stories covered in recent newsletters
Safeway at
College Ave. and Claremont Ave: The project Draft Environmental Impact Report
(DEIR) will move forward in the late winter or early spring of 2012. The next step is to move the project out of
Design Review and back to the Planning Commission where it will either adopt or
dismiss the DEIR. If the DEIR is
dismissed, Safeway will have to submit a revised DEIR. The Planning Commission will probably hold
one more public meeting with public comment. If the Planning Commission
approves the DEIR, it will become the project Environmental Impact Report
(EIR). The Planning Commission’s decision will most likely be appealed, either
by the Oakland neighborhood groups or by Safeway, and then will go before the
Oakland City Council for a final decision. 8