by Barbara Grady

Using Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget with its cuts to education, welfare and child care, the Albany Unified School District figures it is looking at $5.2 million in cuts over two years including $1.2 for the year about to begin, and possibly an end to subsidizies for after-school programs, officials said this week.

“School districts are already hemorrhaging” said Laurie Harden, assistant superintendent for Albany Unified School District at a board meeting Tuesday night as she presented a tentative budget.

Her tally of the losses to Albany include $4 million last year and $1.2 million expected for the academic year starting in September for a ccombined 14 percent bite out of Albany’s school budget. Last year, California schools, including Albany’s, endured the biggest cuts in staff and programs in a generation. Harden and Superintendent Marla Stephenson said state cuts are not over, but to absorb the $1.2 million in additional cuts, they submitted a plan that relies on Albany’s new parcel and spending some of the districts reserves. The new parcel tax of $149 per parcel, or house, will first be collected in December, providing about $1 million in new revenue. The plan also calls for spending about $700,000 of the reserve funds. These two actions should allow the district to avoid more teacher lay offs although some administrative jobs might be lost.

The amount the state contributes per student looks like it will fall by $1,400 to about $4,900 a student, Harden said. That would put California below most other states in per pupil spending. So-called supplemental income from local parcel taxes, federal grants and contributions will add to Albany’s spending per pupil to above $5,200. Still, that is much less than is spent per pupil in many other states. In several northeastern states, where the cost of living is similar to California, education spending per pupil is more than twice California’s.

The continued assault on education funding and thus the kind of education that children of California have available to them, has begun to stir up passions. In March, thousands of people in California protested in Sacramento and other cities on the California Day of Action for Education. And at Albany’s board of education meeting Tuesday, many people described how upset they are.

“These budget assumptions are not acceptable – but that is not a comment on the board – this is a comment on what we as a society are allowing to happen to our state and education in our state,” said Loring Barker, a science teacher at Albany High School and a member of the Albany Teachers Association. Barker urged people to contact their state legislators to object to California’s repeated cuts to education.

Meanwhile, dozens of parents of pre-school and elementary school children lamented the loss of state funding for after school care programs. Many parents begged the board not to close the after-school Cedars, Maples, Tupelo and Chinese Language programs even though the state no longer will provide funding. In Albany, these after-school programs serve 378 children at the three elementary schools. . The Albany Children’s Center pre-school program serves another 120 children. In the past these programs have been funded by a separate budget, the Child Development grant of $600,000 from the state. But Gov. Schwarzenegger proposes to eliminate that grant program, so for Albany to continue these programs it would have to find new money.

Superintendent Stephenson said the district is negotiating with the YMCA after school program to take in all the children now served by the district’s after school programs and to hire all the Albany after-school and preschool staff. Meanwhile, though, the board voted Tuesday to give pink slip notices to the after school program teachers aides because it is required by law to give employees 45 days notice of a possible downsizing of stafs. Current funding would run out August 6. Stephenson and board members vowed to try hard to find an alternative funding mechanism to keep the programs open.

As to kindergarten through high school, the board voted to approve a tentative budget that calls for spending $700,000 from the district’s reserve funds and eliminating some administrative posts. The current 8.9 percent reserve would slip to 6.9 perrcent and slightly below the state average, Harden said, but still an acceptable reserve.

“We cut to the bone last year,” noted board member Miriam Walden.

Last year, the state was hammered by a $40 billion deficit and to deal with it slashed public education funding in several rounds along with other kinds of spending. Since public education is the largest state expense, it took the lion’s share of cuts. Albany lost 17 teaching positions as well as many janitors, secretaries, classroom aides and others.

Albany voters and community members responded by passing an emergency parcel tax that provided about $1.2 million and by contributing to school fundraising organizations in record amounts.

Luckily the emergency parcel tax will kick in this coming December, partly offsetting the loss. However, donations to SchoolCARE, the district wide fundraising organization, are half of what they were last year, noted board president Ron Rosenbaum.
In another hit, the federal Stimulus program that provided AUSD with more than $1 million last year won’t be repeated in 2010.

“In my 20 years in public finance I’ve never seen something like this,” said board member David Glasser about the two years of steep cuts to education.

In California a majority of funding for education comes from the state through a mechanism in which local property taxes are distributed from Sacramento. For Albany, 60 percent of school district revenues come from the state, 17 percent from the federal government and 19 percent from local parcel taxes, Harden said. The remaining 4 percent are various other state grants.

Even though the state has not passed a budget yet for the next fiscal year, public school districts are required to pass budgets in June. The state’s deadline is July 1 but the legislature has seldom met that deadline.

The Albany Waterfront future, as envisioned by Albany residents. Blue markers indicate areas residents want converted to, or preserved as, open space. The area enclosed by the blue line represents the approximate space most residents would allow to be developed to generate tax revenues.

By Barbara Grady

A two year study aimed at figuring out what Albany residents wish for the city’s 190 acre waterfront concluded this week with a report to the City Council indicating most people want a major expansion of public park space.

The “Voices to Vision” community engagement found that 62 percent of residents who participated want to expand open space by at least 75 acres, according to Fern Tiger Associates, which did the study. That would mean a total of 163 acres of parkland, wetlands, trails and supporting structures at Albany’s waterfront, an area that now includes the Albany bulb, the Golden Gate Fields race track and parking lot and the Eastshore State Park plateau.

However, ‘Voices to Vision” also found that half of participants hope that enough development occurs on the waterfront to maintain current tax revenue generated from the site: approximately $1.7 million now received from Golden Gate Fields.

Of course, any community vision depends on a developer’s inclination to follow that idea or a local government’s willingness to implement it. Right now, 102 acres of the waterfront is privately owned by Golden Gage Fields racetrack owner Magna Entertainment Corp. The bulb is owned by the city and the plateau by the state. Magna, which has been in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy proceedings since last year, has entered an agreement to give Golden Gate Fields to its largest shareholder, MI Developments Inc., in exchange for repayment of debt. MI is a real estate operating company which manages commercial and industrial developments. However, any major new development on the Golden Gate Fields property would require a zoning change and therefore city approval. That is why the city sought to determine residents’ interests.

City Council members will get a chance to ask Fern Tiger detailed questions about the findings next Monday night, April 19, at the council’s regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.

In a nutshell, “The Albany community envisions a 190-acre waterfront that is a model of environmental and economic sustainability; that supports a multi-generational community, small-scale independently-owned businesses and local arts, culture, and cuisine,” Fern Tiger wrote.

Years of contentious debate at City Hall and elsewhere over whether to seek commercial development at the waterfront or create parkland there led the city in 2007 to commission a community engagement study. Albany City Council voted to spend $600,000 to hire Fern Tiger Associates. The firm, in turn, mailed each household in the city a detailed publication about the waterfront, its zoning and ecological functions and then invited the entire city to participate in 40 different neighborhood meetings.

At those meetings, Fern Tiger asked people to map out their own ideas for the waterfront. Later it asked them to take an online survey and attend followup meetings. In all 1,200 residents participated, drafting 199 maps of their ideas for the site.

Fern Tiger said the gist of what residents produced in those 199 maps showed “Albany’s strong commitment to create and enhance public open space at the waterfront; to acknowledge and support the broader regional plan to create a continuous shoreline park; to restore and improve the site’s wetlands, marshlands, and other natural features; and to enable an appropriate type, scale, and quality of private development that reflects Albany’s goals for economic and environmental sustainability, while simultaneously respecting the city’s and the waterfront’s uniqueness.”

What all the maps have in common is expansion of open space beyond the Albany Bulb and Eastshore State Park plateau area into the space that is now a parking lot. In addition, they all include some kind of hotel and retail stores development.

Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that a hotel on the site was a good idea with many favoring a 3-story hotel and small conference center as well. A majority of residents participating also voted for some retail and restaurant development on the site. Most suggested development where Golden Gate Fields currently stands. Some people would go beyond a hotel and add a conference center or museum or arts center.

Would you be surprised to learn that drinking alcoholic beverages on the streets and sidewalks of Albany is legal? People are legally able to stroll down Solano Avenue or walk by a school with a beer or Jack Daniels whiskey in hand. According to the Albany Police, our city lacks something called an Open Container Ordinance which would make drinking in public illegal. All of the cities that surround Albany have Open Container Ordinances in place: Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, and Richmond. One police officer I spoke with said Albany may be the only city left in Northern California that doesn’t have an ordinance.

The City of Albany’s Social and Economic Justice Commission will be considering an Open Container Ordinance at its meeting March 10 at 7 p.m. at City Hall on San Pablo Avenue.

This loophole in Albany law is causing some very real problems for certain Albany neighborhoods and a growing threat. The Orientation Center for the Blind at the north end of Adams Street, a school for the newly non-sighted, suffers the impact of this loophole when young hard-partying crowds especially on weekends leave broken liquor glass strewn across the property which then greets non-sighted students and staff. I’ve learned that the broken glass is not only a dangerous hazard on the Orientation Center for the Blind property, but also on the sidewalks of Albany that they use as training ground to learn mobility skills where one false move can result in a bloody foot injury. Even innocent guide dogs are put needlessly at-risk by this dangerous liquor litter.

In a different neighborhood near Albany Hill, twenty-somethings of all backgrounds park their cars in the evening and drink beer and liquor, party hard and loud on the streets in my neighborhood before moving on to their favorite corner bar in Albany. On most mornings, my neighbors and I are left to clean up the broken liquor glass, bottle and beer can litter off the sidewalks and streets. It’s both a severe nuisance, but also public safety hazard for walkers in Albany of all ages and types, and their pets who join them.

The problems seem to be growing, and are also completely avoidable with a simple ordinance. That’s why in January I asked that the Albany City Council adopt an Open Container Ordinance to provide the basic peace and public safety that we have come to expect in Albany. It’s clear our laws haven’t kept up with the times and “sleepy” Albany is getting more urban problems and it needs to stay current. If this issue matters to you, I urge you to show up and express yourself next week, March 10th at 7 p.m., the City of Albany’s Social and Economic Justice Commission meeting where the proposed ordinance will be discussed.

Contact:
Jordan Sampietro
(510) 847-2011

A small band of Albany residents has formed “Transition Albany,” one chapter in a growing global movement to foster community resilience in the face of climate change and related challenges of peak oil use and the economic crisis. (visit www.transitionalbany.org)

Transition Albany is the 59th official Transition Initiative in the United States, according to Transition US. The Transition Movement represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people in strengthening theircommunities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable and socially connected, Transition US says.

This coming weekend, Transition Albany is showing the acclaimed 2008 British independent docu-drama on climate change, “The Age of Stupid,” at Albany’s movie theater on Solano Avenue, on Sunday, March 7th at 11:30 am.

Transition Albany was launched by Catherine Sutton, an Albany resident who then gathered an Initiating Group.

“What excites me most is that we seem to be surfing a wave and people are responding very positively. Strengthening bonds between
neighbors makes sense, and to have a compelling reason like creating resilience just seems to make it all
the more inevitable,” Sutton said.

Sutton said they will be presenting the film, “in the hopeful context that Transition ideas generate.”

Transition Initiatives start when a small collection of
motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis? This small team of people begins by forming an initiating group and then adopts the Transition Model with the
intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

Transition US is a nonprofit organization that provides inspiration, encouragement, support, networking, and training for Transition Initiatives across the United States. They are working in close partnership with the Transition Network, a UK based organization that supports the international Transition Movement as a whole.
For more information about the Transition Albany,
email Catherine Sutton at catherine@sonic.net

To honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to service, the “Commit to Serve” Expo will provide resources, contacts and ideas to assist people in making a pledge of service to your community in 2010.

“Make this the year you become a Block Captain, or volunteer at your child’s school, or help the elderly neighbor with his yard-it is up to you!” organizers said in an email.

The Albany Expo will feature representatives from local organizations offering volunteer opportunities and information as well as an idea board and tools to assist citizens in making a pledge of service to the community in 2010. To learn more go to. http://www.albanyca.org

People can also donate a coat to the organization One Warm Coat oor a canned food item to the Alameda County Food Bank.

At its first “Commit to Serve” day a year ago on Martin Luther King Jr. day, the event received 250 pledges of service, 500 coats and over 1,000 lbs of food.

Attenders will be asked what they would like to do to serve the community and then to fill out a “pledge card” and hang it on the Commit to Serve pledge card display at the Community Center.

Oranizers say that if each person in Albany gave one hour of service in 2010 that would add up to 17,000 hours of help to the community.

To learn more about the national day of service, go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/mlkservice/

Albany activists at the corner of Marin and San Pablo during the Oct. 24 International Day of Action on Climate Change

By Ellen Toomey and Emma Rotem

Dec. 7, 2009 — This week begins the international summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, to craft a new global treaty on climate change.

“Thinking globally and acting locally,” Albany citizens and city government are learning and taking action to meet the climate change challenges we all face. These efforts include citizen groups Transition Albany and Carbon Neutral Albany. The City of Albany is in the process of creating a Climate Action Plan — a coordinated effort intended to reduce local emissions that contribute to global warming and to improve air quality, reduce waste, cut energy use and save money.The plan also aims to help the Albany community achieve greenhouse gas reduction.

On October 24, an international day of action organized by 350.org, people at over 5,200 events in 181 countries came together for what may have been the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history — including members of these two Albany groups pictured.

“Our focus is on the number 350–as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number–it’s a symbol of where we need to head as a planet,” the organization, 350.org, states.

Albany High’s EarthTeam joined a group of other participants to form a necklace of human “beads” around the summit of Mt. Diablo.

To learn about Albany citizen groups addressing Climate Change, go to:

http://transitionalbany.org/

http://www.carbon0albany.org/

For information about the Climate Action Plan being developed by the City of Albany:

http://albanyca.org/index.aspx?page=256

For more information and photos from a Day of Action all over the globe:

http://www.350.org/

Horses and trainers prepare for a race at Golden Gate Fields

By Barbara Grady

The Golden Gate Fields race track is scheduled to be auctioned off for sale on February 25 in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceeding designed to let its owner Magna Entertainment Corp. sell assets to raise funds.

But whether a sale of the Albany horse racing venue actually takes place is still up in the air, officials said, and dependent on negotiations with bidders. As Magna, the largest owner of horse race tracks in North America, has put other race properties up for sale as part of its reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, it has met both success and obstacles. Two weeks ago it sold its Lone Star Park in Maryland with bankruptcy-court approval for $47.9 million. But a planned sale of its Pimlico Race Track in Maryland – home of the famous Preakness races – has been delayed as Magna bypassed its lead or stalking bid bidder.

“There’s still a lot of questions surrounding the auction and how it is going to take place,” said Robert Hartman, Golden Gate Fields general manager. “I’m not sure if Golden Gate fields will in fact be up for auction on Feb. 25,” he said.

Magna Entertainment filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection in March, stating that excessive debt and interest expenses. Golden Gate Fields and all of Magna’s horse racing venues have continued operations during the Magna restructuring.

One likely bidder for Golden Gate Fields as well as most of Magna’s racing assets is MI Developments Inc., an affiliated Magna company which is Magna’s largest shareholder and largest creditor. The initial court papers with its Chapter 11 filing stated that Magna entered an agreement with MI Developments to provide debtor in possession financing and, in exhange, Magna would consider MI Developments the “stalking horse” or first bidder in the sale of certain assets.  To read its Chapter 11 filing go to Magna’s website at www.magnaent.com.

Ontario, Canada-based Magna owns many of the most famous race tracks in the country. The Albany track itself holds claim as Northern California’s main horse racing venue.

But the Albany track lies across 102 acres of waterfront property that has been coveted both by community members seeking more open space in Albany as well as by developers. The site includes access to beach front and has a spectacular view of San Francisco. One developer who petitioned the City to change zoning to allow him to build a shopping center there met stiff opposition from community members.

The site also is adjacent to land owned by the East Bay Parks District and by the City of Albany, so many people argue it is logical to expand the parks and recreation opportunities there.

The City of Albany has undertaken a study of community wishes for use of the site, called “Voices to Vision,” which is underway now. To participate, go to www.voicestovision.com.

The 68-year old horse racing track has been part of the Albany landscape and business since the 1940s. Horse races occur almost daily during the racing seasons of November through March and again in summer. But it is rarely crowded.

Albany voters will be asked to consider two parcel tax measures on November 3 aimed at saving Albany schools from the state’s worst financial crisis in half a century.

The Measures I and J would restore less than half the money the state took away from Albany’s school district this year. However, they would keep Albany schools from a rapid deterioration by paying for a number of the academic programs and teaching services that Albany is holding onto with virtual band-aids and shoe-string this year.

For the current year, the district is using 2009 federal Stimulus program grants of $1.2 million to fund some programs. That money won’t be available next year. It’s also using donations from Albany parents and citizens. Although those donations poured in at a record-breaking amount this year, they still added up to only a fraction of the $4.2 million the state took away from Albany in its education budget.

So in many ways, Measures I and J are a referendum on whether the community wants to preserve the kind of education Albany has had or let it slide downhill, many believe.

“I feel that I cannot stand by and watch the quality of education in Albany sink along with the state budget,” said Miriam Walden, a parent and board of education member who is leading the Measures I and J campaign.

Buoyed by the thought that Albany can bypass the troubles experienced in other school districts by passing the parcel tax measures — and by fear of what would happen if Albany does not get this funding — dozens of volunteers for the Measures I and J campaign have been out canvassing neighborhoods in recent weeks talking to people about the two measures. Last weekend, the volunteers visited 850 homes, bringing to 1,500 the number of front porch conversations or visits that have been had about Measures I and J in recent weeks.

Measures I is an emergency tax of $149 a year per house or residence. It is designed to get Albany schools through the current crisis by lasting five years.

Measure J is not a new tax. It would renew an existing tax that is set to expire in a few years and thereby stabilize funding by keeping all past parcel taxes on the books. It also provides an exemption for seniors and low-income residents. (Go to www.savealbanyschools.org for more information)

“The message we need to send about supporting public education is not to a state legislature that won’t respond. It’s to our kids and to our teachers. And we’re the only ones who can deliver it. I’m voting yes on I and J,” said Bob Menzimer, one of the volunteers.

Marla Stephenson, superintendent of the Albany Unified School District, has said that renewing the existing parcel taxes is absolutely crucial if Albany is to maintain the level of educational offerings and quality it now is holding onto so tenuously. That is because as the state has withdrawn money from education, Albany and other districts have used parcel taxes to fund core programs, rather than extras, and to hold classroom sizes at teachable amounts. Still this year, classes in Albany schools are more crowded than they have been in a generation. Stephenson said Albany needs the emergency tax, Measure I, if it is to hold on to the quality that people have come to expect of Albany schools.

“Those parcel taxes are essential to the running of the school system,” Stephenson said at an Albany Board of Education meeting last summer when the parcel tax was being decided. She said if the renewal measure doesn’t pass “we will go back to the voters again and again until it does” because Albany desperately needs those funds.

If measure J does not pass, there would be a $2.5 million hole in the budget in addition to whatever reductions the state may or may not pass. The emergency tax, Measure I, would bring in $1.2 million. A committee of volunteers and the board of education determined last summer that to seek more than this amount would be too burdensome on some Albany residents. The committee did a research survey of a few hundred homes to see what level of a parcel tax most people would be comfortable with. They arrived at $149 a year instead of $200 or $250 because the recession is already putting stress on people’s pocket books. Stephenson said restoring all cut programs would cost above $250 in new taxes per household.

Measures I and J need a two/thirds majority vote to pass, so the committee felt it was essential that most people were comfortable with the tax.

A number of the volunteers no longer have children in the school system. But as several people said, the quality of Albany schools seem to be what has been holding up property values in Albany.

“Why should we impose this tax burden upon ourselves when prospects are currently so uncertain and funds so scarce? The reason is simple: self-interest. Albany property values far exceed expectations, primarily due to Albany’s commitment to schools,” said Robert Cheasty, an Albany resident whose children are grown and no long in the schools.

He said that while he definitely wants to support the education of children, “Any quick survey shows that those communities that pass school taxes are the communities with the best property values.”

To visit the Albany Unified School District web site go to http://ausd.ca.schoolloop.com

Barbara Grady-Ayer has endorsed and contributed money to the Measures I and J campaigns for Albany schools. She is also a parent of two children in the Albany school system.

Across California, local public school districts are picking up a job abandoned by the state by passing measures to adequately fund their schools. In ballot measures using words like “emergency” and “education preservation” 44 California school districts asked voters this year and last to approve parcel taxes rather than make students endure crowded classrooms or high school without sports, as the state would have them do.

In Albany on Tuesday night, the board of education voted unanimously to put an emergency parcel tax measure on the November ballot. It would be a five-year tax of $149 per household (or parcel) per year to plug the holes in school funding brought on by the state’s $11 billion cuts to education. One board member was absent but all others voted for the measure.

The Albany Unified School District board also voted unanimously (or 4-to-0) to place a second measure on the ballot that would wrap Albany’s three existing parcel taxes into one, make them permanent and exempt seniors and low income households from all of them. Currently, one of these parcel taxes is set to expire in three years and some of the parcel taxes do not exempt seniors and low income residents. Both the emergency tax measure and the tax combination and renewal measure will be on the November 3 ballot.

“The reality is we cannot do without parcel tax income,” said board president David Glasser, in words that echoed every other board member as well as Superintendent Marla Stephenson.

Stephenson said that if these two measures are not passed in November “We will go out again and again to voters and keep asking,” in subsequent measures “because we must have this parcel tax to continue at this level – and this level is bare bones.”

She was referring mostly to the 2005 parcel tax which is $250 per household or parcel and brings in about $2 million a year. The school district has come to rely on this revenue to fund core programs in required academic fields, now that the state has cut so deeply into its budget. The 2005 tax will expire in three years – unless the measure that combines it with others and makes it a permanent tax passes.

Board member Miram Walden, who chaired the volunteer group of citizens who studied the feasibility of a new parcel tax in Albany and who conducted the research around it, said the challenge will be in getting two-thirds of Albany voters to approve it. California law requires two-thirds approval for any property tax measures, whether they are state or local initiatives. That’s a tough bar to hurdle. Redwood City proposed a parcel tax which the vast majority of voters approved, or 63.6 percent but that, of course, is less than the 66.7 percent needed by law. The survey of Albany voters that Walden led found that most people would support a tax to preserve Albany schools, but it was unclear whether that majority can grow to 66.7 percent of voters is uncertain. (To contact Miriam to work on the parcel tax campaign please email miriamwalden@hotmail.com)

The Albany school district patched together a budget for the year about to begin – enduring a $4 million cut to this school district alone – with the help of generous donations from the community to fundraising groups and almost $1 million in federal Stimulus money. But the Stimulus money is a one-time grant and the school district cannot plan lasting programs banking on year to year fundraising. Even with this help, many of the classes and programs that Albany students enjoyed in the past will be gone come September and classes will be more crowded. Still, Albany managed not to gut the education system that has given it pride in the past and kept local property values high.

Albany’s three existing parcel taxes add up to $555 per household or parcel and, for commercial properties, 11 cents per square foot. The measure to combine these taxes would continue that tax but not increase it. It would make various terms and conditions consistent through all three taxes, such as the exemption.

Adding the new emergency parcel tax would bring the yearly total in Albany parcel taxes to $704 a household. That is still less than parcel taxes paid by neighboring Berkeley or Piedmont – which this year approved measures for $2,330 per household in new and extended parcel taxes. Albany’s amount is more than the West Contra Costa district or Orinda’s elementary and middle school district.

Twenty-three school districts have put education parcel taxes on the ballot in 2009 so far and of them 15 have passed. An additional 21 districts put measures on the ballot last year, mostly in November and 17 of those passed. The new taxes range in amount from $78 in San Carlos and $96 in Novato to $795 in San Marino.

 The City of Albany has joined the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership, which should open the way for Albany to participate in the green jobs creation and green business recruitment that its neighboring cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond pursue.

 Joining should also help Albany to benefit from $76 million in federal Stimulus money awarded to the Partnership for weatherization, green job training, bio-energy research and carbon capture endeavors.

 “We are a small city,” without the space or clout to attract large businesses, said Albany Mayor Marge Atkinson. “But by leveraging strengths with the other cities and sharing information,” Albany can participate and benefit by the burgeoning green economic activity, she said.

 Atkinson, and the mayors of El Cerrito, Alameda and San Leandro, along with the Chancellors of the Peralta Community College District and Contra Costa Community College District and the President of California State University joined the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership at the organization’s annual summit last week. 

 The East Bay cities of Oakland and Richmond have become nationally known for pioneering work in creating green jobs training programs, the Oakland Green Jobs Corps and Solar Richmond, while Berkeley and its institutions are known for ground-breaking research in renewable energy, as is underway at the University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  Emeryville, meanwhile is becoming a mecca for bio-fuels research because of a new research institute founded there, the Joint Bio-Energy Institute.  This Institute, which is researching ways to create affordable bio-fuels, has already spawned numerous start up companies, said Emeryville Mayor Dick Kassis.  And Berkeley is pioneering a solar installation incentive program with its tax rebates to residents who install solar.

The mayors of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and Emeryville along with the chancellor of UC Berkeley and director of Lawrence Berkeley Lab formed the Green Corridor Partnership two years ago.

Albany has been active in making itself “green “ by developing a plan to lower its carbon footprint, see Albany Climate Action Plan, see http://www.albanyca.org/index.aspx?page=256  and by encouraging businesses and residents to do the same.  Recently, it has made home energy audits available through Rising Sun Energy Center, a program based in Berkeley. http://www.albanyca.org/index.aspx?recordid=256&page=303

But Albany has not pro-actively recruited green companies or green jobs programs. Atkinson said space limitations are one issue. However, one idea that emerged at the Voices to Vision meetings about use of the Albany waterfront is to attract a world-class renewable energy firm or research institute. The East Bay is ripe for attracting investment in green companies, officials with the East Bay Green Corridor said.  For one thing, Lawrence Berkeley Lab has 170 graduate students working on ideas for renewable energy and carbon capture. Paul Alivisatos, director of the Lab, said some of these ideas could become new business start-ups.

 The $76 million in federal Stimulus grants awarded to date to Partnership members include

-  $30 million over five years to fund two Energy Frontier Research Centers at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Lab for researching how to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it permanently underground.

-About $18 million was awarded for weatherization, energy efficiency and green job creation in the Green Corridor cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond.

-  $24 million grant to Lawrence Berkeley Lab to figure out how to clean up underground contaminants

- $4 million grant to the Joint Bio-Energy Institute to purchase equipment for bio-fuels research.

 “The expansion of our East Bay Green Corridor partnership is phenomenal,” said Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.  “Leaders have come together to stress the importance of building a green economy and we are perfectly poised to be the model of innovation, economic and business development, and job training.”

 Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said, “Working across city boundaries with our educational partners, we have created green tech businesses, leveraged our stimulus funding, and the expansion of green jobs for our residents. “

After describing grim financial news she received from state education leaders, Albany Unified School District Superintendent Marla Stephenson on Monday laid out the plan for how Albany schools will function next year with a drastically reduced budget.

Stephenson said the district will be receiving $1,100 less per student from the state in the new academic year than it did for the year just ending. That is almost a 20 percent loss, she said.

To view a video of her talk, please click here

What that loss translates to is an AUSD spending plan that eliminates much of the music, athletics, English language learning, visual arts and other programs that make an education rich. It eliminates many janitors and school secretaries and clerks, not to mention 17 full time teachers. Specific losses at each school are below.

The good news, Stephenson said, is that two outside sources of funding – money raised by Albany fundraising organizations and grants from the federal Stimulus program – are likely to be available to the district as it comes down to the wire in crafting its budget for next year.

“With our fundraising groups, our collaboration with the Albany Teachers Association, our board, we are trying to get through this,” Stephenson said.

Her changes to the AUSD education spending plan, as funded by the state, are as follows:

At the elementary schools, fewer teachers will teach the same number of students. Therefore class sizes in kindergarten through third grade will grow to 24 children a class instead of 20. Music instruction will no longer be supplied by the district, nor will visual arts. The English Language Learner program will be reduced. Classroom aides will be available for special education but not for general classroom assistance. Supplies will be more scarce.

Middle School students in seventh and eighth grade will have shorter days because the elective period has been eliminated. Also, the school will lose one of three counselors, a library technician, the writing coach program, a secretary. Meanwhile its athletic budget will be chopped in half. The supplies budget is cut.

Albany High School, according to the district’s spending plan, will also lose its elective period and thus have shorter days for all students. It will lose half of its athletic budget as well as its school resource or safety officer, a clerk, visual and performing arts, and the writing coach program. Supplies will be more scarce.

However, both the elementary music program and the middle school and high school elective periods might be saved because of community donations. Within the same week that Stephenson presented her plan, the district received a formal offer of $260,000 from SchoolCARE, gathered from donations from parents and community members. School principals, teachers and parents have chosen to use SchoolCARE money for electives and counselors at the middle and high schools. Meanwhile, SchoolCARE money will fund reading specialists and classroom aide/intervention at the elementary schools. SchoolCARE president Teresa Barnett said between the fundraising organization and the district’s own efforts to stretch dollars from flexible programs, they are very close to funding the elective periods at the high school and middle school and providing an effective number of reading specialists at the elementary schools.

The Albany Music Fund, meanwhile, is getting close to raising enough funds to preserve elementary school music and chorale programs at the middle and high school. The music fund has been working vigorously to raise money to preserve music in Albany schools. Also SchoolCARE allocated money to restore the reading specialist/ classroom aide intervention positions that were lost at the elementary schools.

The federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the federal Stimulus program, includes various grants for various economic goals. Among them are state and community “stabilization” grants for places hard hit by the recession. California, with its 11.5 percent unemployment and collapsed housing market, is one of the hardest hit parts of the country.

Stephenson said that AUSD recently heard it may receive about $900,000 from a Stimulus “stabilization” grant, in that there has been some recognition that school districts in California are among the institutions made unstable by the recession.

The Albany school district’s total loss, or budgetary cuts, amount to $2.2 million. These funds will help to fill in that hole and make the loss less severe. Stephenson said they will be used to preserve school safety personnel, such as a vice principal at the middle school and yard duty aides at the elementary schools, and preserve teaching positions in core academic subjects.

Article by Barbara Grady-Ayer

Albany resident Mindi Ritzman and Jennifer Dyment wrote the letter below to urge city officials to solve the problems with two dilapidated houses on their block:

“We live on the 900 block of Jackson Street, which contains two abandoned houses – 947 and 953 Jackson Street. Over the years individuals in our neighborhood have asked the city – Community Development Director, Building Manager, City Attorney, Council Members, and other city staff – for help in correcting these problems. Unfortunately, all of our individual requests have been disregarded. So we created a petition to ask, as a large group of residents affected daily by these properties, that our elected officials on the City Council simply do what is outlined in Chapters 12 & 18 of the Municipal Code.

Over the past several weeks we have circulated a petition among our neighbors. The response has been very, very positive. People are tired and frustrated by the condition of the properties and the city’s indifference. The petition currently includes over 100 signatures of neighbors and parents of students at nearby Ocean View Elementary School. We wrote to the City Administrator and Mayor Atkinson asking to present the petition at the City Council’s June 15th 2009 meeting. If they will not add us as an agenda item we will still go as a group and present it during the public forum. We have created a web site and email group to share information and ideas. Please email us for more information: JacksonStNeighbors-owner@yahoogroups.com

Some background on these properties: One (#947) has been abandoned for over 20 years and the other (#953) has been abandoned for over 6 years. Shortly after the City passed its nuisance abatement law in 2003, the owner(s) of the home that has been abandoned for 20 years began the process of obtaining City approval for proposed improvements to the home.

After several years of delay, aided by multiple extensions of design review deadlines from the City, the property owners(s) took out a construction permit for the house in January 2007. Minor demolition work was completed between September 2007 and October 2008. In November 2008 the house was raised approximately 10 feet above the ground and supported on stacks of wood cribbing. As of the date of this letter, the house is still raised. The old foundation has been demolished, but there isn’t a new foundation to put it on. Often, weeks go by with no work done on the house, and when someone does come to work, it is never for more than 2 hours at a time.

The owner of the other abandoned home moved to Southern California approximately 6 years ago. There is an abandoned car in the driveway that has several smashed windows, the backyard is completely overgrown with vegetation, and the neighbor takes it upon himself to periodically cut down the weeds in the front yard. As far as we can tell, no one ever comes to check on the house and the Southern California phone number that the owner gave the neighbor stopped working about 3 years ago.

Mindi Ritzman                      Jennifer Dyment

Residents successfully petitioned the City to act on a dilapidated house on Talbot Avenue last year. Click the links below to read several articles on the story published by Albany Today in 2008:

Neighbors urge city to act on “haunted house”

City of Albany moves to deal with nuisance property

City of Albany inspects Talbot house for health and safety violations

After years of neglect, Talbot house eventually gets sold

Albany schools are likely to take some very serious hits in September now that California voters defeated the May 19 budget initiatives and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has responded by putting forth another round of harsh cuts.

Gov. Schwarzenegger in recent days outlined a draconian budget plan that includes taking another $5 billion away from education. Combined with February’s cuts to education, that would mean a loss of at least $1,000 per student by next September.

Albany Board of Education members say that size cut will all but eliminate the chances of preserving the school programs that it voted in February to put on provisional list for cutting in a worse case scenario.

“The election means we may be asked to cut an additional $600 dollars in spending per student,” on top of about $400 already cut, said board member Miriam Walden.

“We probably won’t be able to restore very many of the programs that have already been cut. The possibility of keeping the 7th period at the high school or music in the elementary schools is becoming more distant. We will definitely not have performing arts, athletic transportation, etc.,” she said. “We will definitely have larger class sizes in kindergarten to third grade and in ninth grade English compared with this year,” she continued.

Albany Superintendent of Schools Marla Stephenson plans to deliver a budget report next Monday, June 8, that will outline the local budgetary and programmatic changes to be enacted as a result of statewide spending plan. Stephenson’s talk will begin at 6 p.m. at the Albany Community Center next to the library.

Ron Rosenbaum a board member and former principal of Albany High School lamented at the possible loss of the high school’s seventh period. Seventh period is when advanced classes in math, foreign language and science as well as a range of arts, computer, music and other electives.

“If you lose the electives and advanced placement classes, then Albany high school would become like any other high school, nothing special,” Rosenbaum said, vowing to work to preserve the seven period schedule.

“If the high school goes down, the whole school system goes down with it,” he said. School districts are often judged by the success of their graduates. As principal, Rosenbaum had worked hard to make seven periods available to all students at Albany High School and to add Advanced Placement classes. Previously only some students could secure seven periods, which made for an inequitable situation and caused the state to require the school to add instructional minutes.

Several board members said the only thing that will save the schools from having to dismantle programs for the year starting September is donations from the community to fundraising groups. For future years, several said, Albany should consider a parcel tax.

“We have not calculated in Albany Music Fund and SchoolCARE funds,” said board member Pat Low. “So there still is a little hope for next year.” SchoolCARE and the Albany Music Fund as well as the Albany Education Foundation and the Albany Athletic Boosters have been hard at work raising money for the schools this spring hoping to make up for what the state cuts.

A parcel tax is also under consideration and a group of concerned citizens is exploring the feasibility of Albany voters passing a new parcel tax.

“Now it becomes absolutely an emergency for us to put a parcel tax on the ballot in November so that the schools can have some significant revenue that is locally controlled,” said Walden who is leading the exploratory committee.

Eleven Bay area school districts have put new parcel taxes before voters in the past month in response to the state crisis. Five of seven districts passed their parcel tax initiatives in early May. Four more districts voted on parcel taxes Tuesday. The results have not yet been public.

Many cities in California have parcel taxes and Albany, like Berkeley, Piedmont, Orinda, the West Contra Costa school district and others has more than one already on the books. The amounts cities raise from them vary greatly, with Albany’s two taxes adding up to $500 per parcel while Piedmont’s add up to $2,000 per parcel per year for its schools.

Parcel taxes reflect how education is funded in most other states. In all but a few states, including California, education is funded through local property taxes and most control on education curriculum and policies rests locally. In California the state controls the school budgets as well as many school decisions. Prior to the late 1970s and Proposition 13 California operated similar to most other states.
Numerous educators have called for change in California’s system noting that the education spending and student performance began to deteriorate in California following the passage of Proposition 13.

The Obama administration Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, said California “has lost its way” in education and significantly underfunds its public school system. He noted, in a visit to San Francisco last month, that California public school education used to be the envy of the nation before it changed its budget making process.

State education leaders also express bafflement at what the state government is doing to education. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the budget cuts to education being contemplated are “breathtaking”
in their severity.

“ Cuts of this magnitude would seriously threaten to stop the rise in student achievement we’ve seen over the last seven years, and they will undoubtedly hinder the work we’ve been doing to close California’s persistent achievement,” O’Connell said in a statement.

Article by Barbara Grady-Ayer

“Both of us, along with all the members of the City Council, have supported a visioning process, so that we can hear everyone’s ideas, including those who think we should do nothing.”

Dear Readers of Albany Today:

We are glad to see that Albany’s “Voices to Vision” community visioning process with Fern Tiger Associates is already generating ideas.  We respect Mr. Barnes and Mr. Blanchard, the authors of the latest opinion piece in Albany Today, about this planning process.  We hope that they will participate in the community meetings in their neighborhoods and express their ideas.

Groups such as the California Climate Action Team have predicted that the sea level may rise up to one meter within the next one hundred years and this would certainly increase the land area that would be at risk for a coastal flood event.  The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission is encouraging communities to develop plans related to changing shoreline configurations.

Both of us, along with all the members of the City Council, have supported a visioning process, so that we can hear everyone’s ideas, including those who think we should do nothing.

We believe that it is important for us to plan together for the future.  We look forward to participating in the community meetings which Fern Tiger Associates has organized for us.  This is an important opportunity for all of us to speak up about Albany’s future.

Thank you.

Marge Atkinson,
Mayor, City of Albany

Joanne Wile,
Vice Mayor, City of Albany

With 42 school programs on the chopping block – everything from music in the elementary schools to athletics at the high school – the Albany Board of Education will meet Tuesday night to discuss how to salvage some of these programs with parcel tax revenues and community fundraising.

The board of education will meet at 7:30 at the Community Center on Marin Avenue and take stock of its list of earmarked cuts and a small pool of money that comes each year from parcel taxes that Albany voters passed in 1999 and 2005.

The parcel tax measures specified what types of things those local tax revenue could be spent on. For instance, the parcel tax measure of 2005 cites extracurricular activity as one of the things the money is intended for. So one potential question for the board to wrestle with is whether music and athletics fit the description as extracurricular activities and thus could be partly funded by the parcel tax. Another item specified in the parcel tax measures is retaining teachers. So could preserving courses such as biology or AP calculus – and thus providing jobs for the teachers who teach them – be construed under the parcel tax language as retaining teachers?

The difficult set of choices the board and community face came about because the state of California slashed education funding as a way to balance the deficit-ridden state budget. It is taking away $2.1 million from Albany schools, the equivalent of about $800 a student over a year and a half.

Board member Miriam Walden said the board hopes parents and students come to tonight’s meeting and help the board decide what programs must be kept and what can go or be funded another way. All of the 42 items the board has earmarked for elimination look valuable. But some look very valuable, such as an assistant principal at the middle school – the person responsible for discipline – or senior level classes at the high school, music in the elementary schools, or performing and visual arts at all schools. Another vital one is the seventh period at the high school. Many high school students have planned their four years around an expectation that certain courses would be around in their senior year. The budget cuts threaten many of those courses.

The district has already slashed many non-teaching costs. For instance, Superintendent Marla Stephenson cut her own pay by 30 percent and eliminated many administrative positions at the district office.

Albany’s 1999 and 2005 parcel taxes add up to only $500 a household but, multiplied by all the households in town, they bring in at least $2 million. So if the board can find some flexibility in allowable spending on parcel tax revenues, it might be able to replace the school programs on the chopping block in exchange for less immediate needs.

Article by Barbara Grady-Ayer (barbgrady@sbcglobal.net)

“As Albany residents,the two of us do not want our tax dollars spent to acquire and upgrade land for parks that will soon  be submerged. And we certainly wouldn’t want to live there, either.”

The controversy surrounding the Albany waterfront is presented as a choice between two opposing positions — commercial development or parkland. But these two positions are not really so different. They are both models of development.

The supporters of both flavors of waterfront development are ignoring a painful environmental reality — the lifetime of the waterfront as we know it is will be measured in decades. By the end of the century, due to rising sea levels, the waterfront will most likely be a tidal basin.

There is a third position, one that is both environmentally sound and fiscally responsible. Do nothing and enjoy the waterfront just as it is. As Albany residents, the two of us do not want our tax dollars spent to acquire and upgrade land for parks that will soon enough be submerged. And we certainly wouldn’t want to live there, either.

On weekend of January 10––11, we headed down to the Albany waterfront to see the effects of the 7.4 foot high tides that occurred late in the mornings on both those days. We didn’t have to look far for evidence of flooding. The lower reaches of the parking lot already have traces of debris that have washed up onto the asphalt during winter storms.

We did some quick checking with simple homemade surveying equipment (we are happy to provide details for anyone interested in a science project) and a detailed contour map provided by the County of Alameda. We found that with one meter of sea level rise, most of the waterfront will be underwater at high tides, leaving the Albany bulb and the racetrack grandstands as islands.

We can conservatively expect one meter or more of sea level rise this century, as two articles in Science magazine point out (see issues of 9/5/2008 and 2/6/2009). The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) uses similar figures for its discussions of the coastal impacts of rising sea levels.

Rising sea levels will also bring bring increased risks of flooding during storms. According to the PPIC (California Coastal Management with a Changing Climate, Ellen Hanak and Georgina Moreno):

Within the San Francisco Estuary, which is protected from the most violent wave action, the incidence of coastal flooding is expected to increase considerably. Models indicate that a one-foot rise in sea level (likely by mid-century) would shift the 100-year storm surge-induced flood event to once every 10 years (Gleick and Maurer, 1990).

In addition to whopping insurance premiums, long-term commercial development of the waterfront will require landfill and levees — levees that must be expanded regularly as the sea level continues to rise. Sort of like New Orleans, but with earthquakes.

Alternatively, public funds could be used to acquire the land for parks. This possibility is the motivation behind the city council’s $600,000 visioning process. The inevitable rise in sea level suggests a much cheaper visioning process — envision the waterfront underwater, at least at high tides.

A grim long term fate awaits Albany. Climate change will bring more violent storms and the need to upgrade city infrastructure. Perhaps a few centuries from now, assuming the sea level rises by only 50 feet, the San Pablo corridor will be submerged, Albany hill will be an island, and students at Cornell elementary will be able to play in the bay during recess.

Let’s enjoy our funky, feral piece of waterfront land just the way it is while we still have the chance, and instead of using resources on a disappearing waterfront, let’s use them to begin planning for the painful changes to come.

If you’d like to comment on the topic, please leave your message under the article or send them to linjun9913@berkeley.edu.

All 29 of the regular Albany public school teachers who received pink slips on March 15 learned Wednesday that their layoffs are rescinded and they’ll have jobs next year, thanks to retirements and leave requests among their colleagues.

However, another 28 temporary teachers have not been so lucky and their layoff notices are likely to stay in force, according to district and union officials.

The good news for those keeping jobs results not because the district found new money. In fact, if anything, the district’s budget problems could worsen because of the state’s financial woes, said Superintendent Marla Stephenson. Seventeen full-time teaching positions have been eliminated. But normal turnover among the teaching staff created opportunities to call back those given notice.

“Because of retirements and resignations and people asking for leave we were able to place them all,” Stephenson said.

“People’s lives are in such disarray with the economy being so bad, so we wanted to try to keep them in jobs,” she said, adding. “Also, you never want to let go of good teachers if you can help it. The district invests a lot of time and energy” in recruiting and training teachers.

Those whose layoffs were rescinded include six elementary school teachers, six middle school teachers – three full-time and three part-time, and a slew of high school teachers whose specialties include science, foreign languages, government, English, psychology, athletics and more.

“I’m extremely relieved,” said high school biology teacher Ian Murray who received word Wednesday about the rescind after nearly a month of fearing he had lost his job. “It is only sinking in now how much weight has been lifted.”

School districts all around the state have been laying off teachers because of sharply reduced state funding of education. That means finding a new teaching job would be tough right now.

Science teacher Loring Barker, president of the Albany Teachers Association, said the relief and happiness about the rescind is still mixed with worry about what will happen in the schools next year.

“We are happy many teachers can refocus on their teaching and put worries about supporting their families behind them, but there is still sadness over the continued loss of programs and valued colleagues because of the pathetic state budgets,” Barker said.

“Unfortunately there are still many economic uncertainties and we had a large number of other teachers who are listed as temporary and have been informed they will not be coming back,” he said.

The state of California slashed its education funding by $7.4 billion this year and by an additional $3.2 billion next year. That means it will spend about $400 less on educating each student than it previously did. Such a reduction will place California on the bottom rung among the 50 states in what it invests in each student’s education, known as spending per pupil.

“It is just so sad that California values its schools and children so little,” Barker said.

California legislators voted sharp cuts to education in order to balance the state’s deficit-ridden budget, which was $41 billion in the red, before legislators finally passed a budget in late winter. However, that budget depends on California voters approving special ballot measures on May 19. If voters don’t approve IB, which would restore $9.3 billion taken from schools this year and last at some future time, and IA, which would require the state to set up a rainy-day fund to save money in flush years to offset lean years, then the budget agreement dies and spending for education could diminish further. The $9.3 billion would come from the rainy day fund.

Many school districts are scrambling to assemble special parcel taxes and other money-raising ideas. In Albany, several non-profit school groups are working hard to raise money to save programs and teaching positions that the board of education earmarked to cut unless money is found. Some consideration is being given to put another parcel tax measure on a future ballot, but that would not help for the immediate school year starting in September.

In February and early March, the Albany board of education voted provisional cuts of numerous programs, including some cherished ones such as the period for electives at the high school and middle school and the elementary school music program. The board needed to comply with a law requiring a plan for a balanced district budget by mid-March. Now, the board hopes it will be able to replace at least some of those programs with money raised in the community and any revisions from California budget makers.

Article by Barbara Grady-Ayer

SchoolCARE, a non-profit organization in Albany, is calling on members of the community to participate in an action plan to deal with the imminent budget cut on local schools.  Below is an open letter from the organization:

As our school district — along with the rest of the community and nation and beyond — feels the impact of the economic downturn and struggles to provide quality education with fewer state dollars, it is important that we as a community work TOGETHER and harness parent energy in the most productive way possible for the benefit of all.

There are many things that make Albany schools excellent.The only way to minimize the cuts to these critical programs is to enlarge the pool of resources for all. We ALL have to step up to the plate and provide a financial infusion to preserve them. And this is where SchoolCARE can help.

SchoolCARE is the non-profit organization in Albany raising funds for all school sites and all students grades K – 12 in all six Albany schools. We need to reach every family and ask that everyone contribute in order to preserve the jobs and services and classes our students need. Contributions to Albany Schools through SchoolCARE WILL make a difference in preserving the people who make our schools excellent.

The action plan is simple:

1. Contribute. Start now, a $300 donation can be made in monthly payments of $25 and a $500 donation can be in monthly $40 installments. (A contribution of 380 will roughly replace the state’s per student budget cut. ) Checks can be dropped off at any school or you can donate online at www.AlbanySchoolCARE.org

2. Spread the word. Talk to parents in your students’ class, on the play yard, at the PTA meetings, at the soccer games — anywhere you can. Every contribution counts, especially during a budget crisis.

3. Speak up at the PTA meetings, budget forums, site council meetings — everywhere that budget priorities are being considered this spring. Express your views and help shape the priorities for what SchoolCARE funding can help cover after the district spending decisions are made.

4. Walk the walk and talk the talk. Deliver brochures on the weekend of March 15 to every Albany household; help prepare material for mailings; spend time handing out fliers and answering questions at Open House night; join us in making phone calls to every Albany school family to share information and ask for their participation.

Whether it is class size reduction at elementary school, electives such as music and foreign language at middle and high school, or any of the other items that are “on the chopping block” — passions for these run deep. These are the reasons we chose Albany schools; we see these as essential ingredients of an excellent education, not as “extras”. The best way to preserve these things is to pull together — not pull apart. Let’s channel our positive energy and passion in the most productive possible way and work together to increase the pool of funds available for ALL Albany schools.

For more information: contact Teresa Barnett, 526-6748 or teresabarnett@yahoo.com
or visit its website: www.AlbanySchoolCARE.org

It was eight o’clock at night. I looked through the emergency classroom bag inventory sheets filled out by the Albany High faculty members. I sighed. None of the sheets showed satisfactory results for the emergency classroom bags. Some bags were missing non-aspirin, while others were missing bandages. None of the emergency classroom bags were ready for disasters.

The inventory was done in November 2008, two weeks after the PTSA and Red Cross Club finished the disaster supplies closet inventory, which addressed the same concern: many materials were expired or missing. But why does it matter? After all, disasters happen very rarely, especially not during school hours. So why should we spend so much time worrying about them while we could spend more time on education?

Imagine this scene: a big earthquake occurs, and you are stuck in your work place. Let’s say your boss is smart and has everything ready for the disasters. You are indeed stuck, but at least you are safe. But wait–what about your 16-years-old son? And his 18-years-old sister? The phone system is not working, and they are both stuck in school because no parents or guardians are available to pick them up. What if your children are injured and the high school does not have enough bandages or sterile gauze for everyone? Forget about the first aid–what about water? What if the school can only provide enough water for half of student body? Remember, the government cannot provide help immediately. So you just sit there and cry and wish your kids are, by any chance, safe.

All right, that was just a scene, but it is definitely a terrible possibility if the school is indeed not prepared enough for the disasters. As the President of the Red Cross Club, I feel responsible of making the school more prepared for the disasters. That is why I decided to work with Joanne Lee from the PTSA to do a big inventory for school emergency supplies. The result was unsatisfactory, but I am not blaming the school administration. There are already more than enough items to discuss, but we cannot overlook the importance of having the school prepared for emergencies.

Lee has already raised some money from parents, while the Red Cross Club raised about fifty dollars from a bake sale. Yes, there is money from the AHS emergency supplies fund, but not enough to replenish all of the supplies. One fifty gallon water barrel, for example, can cost ninety dollars.It is not surprising that the funding will run out very fast.

Disasters can happen anytime, so we have to act quickly. Now, the question is can you provide help? The answer is absolutely!

All you have to do is write a check to AHS PTSA Emergency Fund and place it to the PTSA box in the main office or simply send it to the school address 603 Key Route Blvd, Albany, CA 94706. We will accept donations through late January.

Lee, who started working on the emergency supplies back in September, urges the Albany residents to provide help, “Any amount is welcome and appreciated- $5.00, for example, can buy a lot of band-aids!”

Before you drop your check to the mailing box, we would like to assure you that every cent you donate will go toward purchasing the emergency supplies, and you will have a better night’s sleep by leaving the rest of the job for us.

Keng Lam

Dear Constituent:

We begin the New Year with the real possibility of the financial collapse of our State government in February. As your State Senator, I want to share with you how I see our precarious situation, and what I believe must happen if we are to salvage the promise of California.

Two Defining Facts

1) The 2/3rds Vote
California requires a 2/3rds vote to pass a state budget. This is not how a democracy normally functions. California is one of only three states with this 2/3rds vote requirement. Forty-seven other states, the United States Congress, and every city, county and school district in California pass budgets with a simple majority vote.

The 2/3rds vote requirement has proved fatally dysfunctional for California, making it impossible in recent years to pass budgets on time or with transparency and accountability.

2) “The Pledge”
Every Republican Legislator, except one, has signed a pledge promising never, under any circumstances, to raise taxes for the things government provides – schools, roads, parks, clean air and water, fire and police protection. Their pledge is not to their constituents, but to Grover Norquist, the founder of the Washington, D.C. based conservative organization called Americans for Tax Reform.

Grover Norquist is the Republican lobbyist who is famous for saying, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” It is ironic that even though right-wing policies to deregulate, privatize, and cut taxes have been discredited at the national level and repudiated by the American people, Grover Norquist is poised to achieve his goal in California.

The Democrat’s Solution

The 2/3rds vote requirement and “The Pledge” held the Democratic majority in the State Legislature hostage for my entire term in the State Assembly. Year after year we have negotiated against ourselves about what to give up and give away to get enough Republican votes to reach 2/3rds. Year after year, budgets were late. In the end they were primarily based on cuts, accounting gimmicks and borrowing.

Now the gimmicks are used up, the national economy is in free fall and we can’t borrow anymore. No one will buyCalifornia’s bonds. In a fragile national and global economy, and with the 2/3rds vote requirement, investors say they do not believe we have a realistic way to repay the money.

Republicans continue to demand a cuts-only budget. Their proposed budget, released just before the holidays, proposed cutting another $10 billion out of education, making deep cuts to our already tattered safety net for families in need, and wiping out funds for public transportation.

The $18 Billion Solution

Both the Governor and the Legislature rejected the Republican proposal as posturing, while the Democratic majority presented the Governor with an ethical and rational solution to wipe out $18 billion of the $41 billion deficit. The Democratic package raises revenue by eliminating the gas tax, replacing it with other taxes that will not hurt the finances of the average working family in California (the State Constitution allows taxes to be raised by a simple majority if the result is ‘revenue neutral’) and puts in place a Highway Users Fee on gasoline that can be used only for transportation infrastructure.

It works. It keeps California solvent as we address the remaining $23 billion shortfall and negotiate a budget for next year. Our mid-year solution takes $2 billion from education, not the $10 billion in cuts proposed by the Republicans. The cuts made are devastating – but the school doors stay open and California lives to fight another day.

Where is the Governor?

Governor Schwarzenegger recognizes that taxes must be raised or the state will collapse. He has called for tax increases, many of which Democrats would support – including an oil production tax (of the 22 oil producing states in the United States, only California does not have a tax on oil production of any sort) and a sales tax expansion to cover some services. However, he has been unable to get a single vote from Republican legislators, and was denounced by the California Republican Party for recognizing the need for increased revenue if the state is to survive.

Now the Governor refuses to sign the $18 billion solution crafted by the Democrats. Instead he demands concessions on labor and environmental regulations and additional cuts in grants to the poorest people in California.

We Need 3 Changes in the Budget Process

California must adopt a simple majority to pass the state budget. Let the majority party negotiate a budget and be held accountable for that budget, like the U.S. Congress and all local governments.

California should adopt a two-year budget. The second year of the budget cycle should be devoted to program oversight and any needed adjustments.

Lastly, when the budget is adopted it should contain five and ten year projections of expenses and income, so advanced planning can be done realistically.

Time for Action

The Governor needs to sign the $18 billion solution. His other demands for concessions can be discussed and negotiated as we move forward to solve the $23 billion shortfall we face in June. If you wish to take a few moments to contact the Governor’s office to leave a voicemail stating your opinion, the number is 916-445-2841.

As always, I am so grateful to represent you and this district. I am determined to do whatever I can to maintain our state, and our Bay Area, as a beacon of hope, innovation and opportunity. I can be reached at 916-651-4009, and would like to know your suggestions and ideas.

Warm regards,

Loni Hancock