School District: Won't Build Bike/Pedestrian Path, "Too Late"

Pool Deck & Rapists Are Out, 

Now it's the Running Track
and the Cost

Bike/Ped Path Can't Be Built Because......

Opinion
First the Emery Unified School District told us that they can't construct a required bike/pedestrian path adjacent to the school at the incipient Center of Community Life because the path would constrict an existing pool deck to such an extent as to render the pool useless and besides the path would be crawling with pedophiles and drug dealers waiting to prey on the children they told us.  Now they're telling us there's no room for the path because it would constrict a proposed running track at the school.  Oh and they forgot to mention earlier, they say they can't afford to build the path anyway.

Emeryville City Councilwoman
Jennifer West:
Now we know the pool 
deck argument was a 
School District ruse

The flip flop by the School District was revealed Tuesday when Emeryville's Bicycle Pedestrian Committee held a special field trip meeting at the site of the required path.
The School District had repeatedly told the people of Emeryville the pool deck was too small to shave away even a little to make room for the bike path (called the ECCL Path) but as the committee members Tuesday saw for themselves how truly large the existing pool deck really is, suddenly the School District Staff members and School Board members attending the meeting switched tactics and told the Committee members now it's the running track that 's going to be too cramped to accommodate the bike/ped path.
Council member Jennifer West, noting the reversal took the opportunity to look on the bright side, "The good news is at least now we don't have to worry about the pool deck any longer" she told the attendees.

The pool deck issue settled, the assembled School District staff and School Board members are now turned their focus on the yet to be built running track at the future school; there's simply no room for the bike/ped path they took pains to reveal at the Tuesday meeting.  The ECCL Path will take away two lanes rendering the track useless they said but left unmentioned was the fact that the School District selected the San Pablo Avenue site for the Center of Community Life years ago and they designed the whole site including the track with afore knowledge that the ECCL Path would have to be located there.  After the site was selected, it should be noted, the District went into attack mode against any naysayers who claimed the site was too small.
At this late date, with the design set in stone, the ECCL Path cannot be built, it's too late and the site cannot be redesigned said Mark Seiberlich, chief architect for the Center of Community Life,  "The [bike/ped] path takes up too much space and we must remove two track lanes" he added.

School District architect
Mark Seiberlich:
It's too late to redesign...
"The bike/ped path takes up
too much space" 

After disparaging comments from the School Superintendent Debbra Lindo, excoriating the Bike/Ped Committee for their recalcitrance on this path,  one Committee member, exasperated by such talk told the assembled throng because of a lack of planning on the part of the District, "we're now being made to feel guilty for throwing the children under the bicycles wheels".  The idea was floated that the running track would be built whole now but two lanes of it would be removed later with the possible inclusion of the bike/ped path when the District builds out phase 2 of the project, but the idea was summarily rejected by Committee members as not credible.

Amid a plethora of challenging questions from disbelieving Bike/Ped Committee members, School Board member Josh Simon moved the conversation away from the intractable running track issue.  After suggesting there might be a yet to be revealed way to fit a bike/ped path in,  he lamented the high cost of the ECCL Path.  Mr Simon told the meeting attendees that the School District was not going to build the ECCL path during 'phase 1' construction of the Center of Community Life but perhaps a path could be build during phase 2, someday in the future.
But it's the high cost of building the required path that's got the School Board vexed he told the Committee members, "The reason we pushed the ECCL Path into phase 2 is the cost" Board member Simon said.  Emeryville residents will remember this School Board said the amount of money the District can raise through selling bonds is enough to build the whole Center of Community Life, an "exceptional" community facility they assured us.

This required bike/ped path really has the Emery School District grasping at straws.  After pleading with the Planning Commission and the City Council to reject the path by telling lies about the size of the pool deck and raising the specter of looming rapists and drug dealers, now they're pivoting and delivering this running track poppycock.  Their performance drew the ire of former School Board President Cheryl Webb who attended the meeting, "disingenuous" she said of the staff and Board members.

Former  School Board
President (resigned)
Cheryl Webb:
The District is
"disingenuous"

After showing us they have no compunction about lying to the people of Emeryville, this School District is now preparing to build a school and community center at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  It's not inspiring a lot of confidence. Emeryville taxpayers would be right to be concerned.
But the School District doesn't have a choice about this path; they are required to build it.  It's the expressed will of the people of Emeryville as revealed by our award winning General Plan and as specifically codified by the City Council's ruling after hearing the School District's lamentable case against the path.
It should also be noted the General Plan says the Center of Community Life is a "pedestrian priority zone".  And so now is the time to build it, when the Center of Community Life is being built, now, not perhaps if Josh Simon can figure a way to do it at some unspecified later date.

We grow tired of all the chicanery and outright lies from this District about this issue.  It's been a litany; the bogus claim of the too small pool deck from District architect Roy Miller, the rapists and drug dealers, the cost and now this absurd claim the running track will be negatively impacted.  This School District, we now know, purposely designed this Center of Community Life behind closed doors over the years without the required bike/ped path.  Any talk now about it being too late is insulting to the people of Emeryville.  We remind the School District that they need to build this school and community center for ALL the stakeholders in the community, including the bicyclists and the pedestrians.  Once again, absurdly, this District and this School Board shows us they don't know the meaning of community as they build the Center of Community Life.

School Board Unimpressed With Citizens' Letter

School Board To Citizens: 

Take Your Letter & Stick It Where The Sun Don't Shine

Opinion
A large cohort of Emeryville citizens has notified the School Board; they want to air their concerns about the School District's plans to abandon Emeryville's Anna Yates Elementary School and the lack of transparency about operating expenses for the soon-to-be-built Center of Community Life.  These citizens have signed a letter to the District and they want some answers.  The School District was given more than a month to prepare; the regularly scheduled June 11th meeting is when the citizens wished to address their School Board.  But more than 60 Emeryville residents, most of them parents with children at Emery Unified School District, was not enough to sway the School Board.  In fact, the School Board scarcely could have been less impressed by the throng:  NO they said, we will not hear the legitimate concerns of these citizens...maybe some other time.
It's the latest in a litany of anti-democratic proclamations and actions issuing from this School Board.  The Schools Superintendent,  Debbra Lindo put it succinctly in an e-mail to the group, "The item for sure cannot be on the June 11th agenda."  Perhaps, she added, this request can be accommodated "before the end of the school year."  The Secret News picked up the story in two installments; first the ignoring of the agenda request by the School Board and then the shutting the door on the citizens' request.

A School District interested in transparency and accommodating legitimate citizens concerns would be keen to listen to a group representing more than 60 such citizens.  Instead, citizens here are getting a 'talk to the hand' brush off, the modus operandi for this District.  We can't help but think this is a tactic meant to take the wind out of the sails of the nascent citizen's group, especially since the District has historically shown open hostility to citizen dissent on the Anna Yates closure and other issues associated with the Center of Community Life.

School Board member Miguel Dwin was adamant to the Tattler, he refused to comment on the snubbing of the citizens by the District but former School Board President Cheryl Webb offered a conjecture, "It seems to me the Board could have made accommodation to hear what these citizens have to say."  She added, "The full discussion [of the closure of Anna Yates and the finances at the Center of Community Life] is long overdue."  We wonder why, precisely, Ms Webb is a former School Board member.

This School District has been railroading the closure of Anna Yates School right from the beginning and the obfuscation about the finances surrounding the Center of Community Life is just that: it's meant to obscure.  We cannot countenance such a public institution with the word "community" right in the title being so shamelessly non-community minded.
In fact, this is what anti-democracy looks like.  This is how a recalcitrant anti-public, public institution behaves.  These are the kinds of tactics, brimming with hubris, that are employed by a cocksure Board with disdain for transparency and an 'our way or the highway' sense of entitlement.
We'd love to see a new culture take over the School District that reverses the one entrenched there now...but we're not going to hold our breath.  It's pretty obvious, they're going to close Anna Yates Elementary School come hell or high water and they're going to continue their obfuscation on the finances of the Center of Community Life no matter what parents and other interested citizens say.

President Resigns From School Board

Breaking News:

School Board's Cheryl Webb: "It's Time For Me To Move On"

School Board President, Cheryl Webb announced she is stepping down as a Board member effective today the Tattler has learned.  Ms Webb, appointed to the Board eleven years ago, notified Alameda County Schools Superintendent Sheila Jordan late yesterday and her colleagues on the City/Schools Committee by e-mail that her time is over.

Former School Board President
Cheryl Webb

Ms Webb seemed guarded in her responses to questions from the Tattler indicating curtly it's time for her to move on, "I see myself as a public servant but I feel it's time to pass the baton to someone else for them to have this opportunity"  she said.   She added she wants "nothing but the best" for the School District and for Emeryville as she steps down, and she indicated the Board should appoint someone "diligent to the multi-faceted work" to replace her.  There is a year and a half left to Ms Webb's tenure, giving a replacement that much time before an election.

A long time Emeryville resident with children in Emery schools, Cheryl Webb noted she always "fully supported teachers" during her eleven year tenure on the Board and added, "My record speaks for itself in this regard."

Looking forward, Ms Webb found reasons for optimism for Emery Unified School District, "The Board has committed to a more open and transparent process for making key decisions.  I look forward to that happening" she said.

Ms Webb will "still be an active citizen and part of the dialogue" in Emeryville but "not from the perceptive of the School Board dais" she said as she steps down.

School Board Votes To Lay Off Teachers

Board Makes First Move Towards
Teacher Layoffs

Tonight the Emery School Board voted to start a State mandated process to lay off teachers at Emery High School.  The unanimous vote to fire at least six teacher positions came after the Board heard impassioned pleas against the action from several parents.  The action initiated tonight will culminate in a March 12th finalization vote by the Board and the actual layoffs would happen in June according to School Superintendent Debbra Lindo.
Board members inveighed against the negative fiscal effects of the cessation of a rental agreement with the Piedmont Unified School District for their use of Emery's middle school facilities, a major source of cash for Emery over the last couple of years.

The School District duly and legally noticed the agenda for tonight's meeting but some parents cried foul for the lack of notification for such an important issue.  Indeed, the notification seemed to have been not enough for any of the parents in attendance; they railed against the lack of transparency and candor from the Board regarding the layoffs.

Board member Josh Simon, jarred by the rancor from the crowd tried to mollify the parents, "We're starting a conversation" he intoned.  Board President Cheryl Webb highlighted that some of the layoffs are being done in response to "programmatic changes" prompted by the impending start-up of the Center of Community Life building project.

It's Not That Bad, It's Only A 'PKS Reduction'
The crowd, while larger than a typical School Board meeting, would likely have been larger still if parents knew ahead of time, the meaning of "Administrative PKS Reductions" listed in the official agenda made public for the meeting.  To the uninitiated, "PKS Reductions" means 'Particular Kinds of Staff' Reductions; a euphemism for teacher layoffs.
The PKS gobbledygook may serve as a diversion from the job at hand tonight but it was noted at the meeting the District had satisfied the minimum legal posting requirements for a public meeting.

Emery School District To Investigate Loyalty Oath, God Indoctrination

School Board Considers Removing Loyalty Oath, God Praising At Schools

The Emery Unified School District school board announced at their regularly scheduled March 28th meeting, they will debate the prudence of continuation of the daily recital of the Pledge of Allegiance for Emeryville's school children.  The board committed to engaging in a public debate on the merits of the pledge, essentially a loyalty oath, at a future to be announced meeting and possibly changing school district policy as a result.

The monotheistic god Zeus.

The State of California requires each school district have a daily policy of "patriotic" instruction and most districts statewide interpret this as a reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.  The State makes no such claim however, opening up the possibility for other forms of patriotic instruction.  The official policy right now is that the Emery United School District allows each teacher discretion over the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Some pro-pledge parents invoke the State mandated "opt out" privileges that allow parents to have their children to sit quietly while the oath is administered but this has been shown to be a false choice, owing to the coercive nature of classroom interpersonal dynamics and child psychology.

School Board member Cheryl Webb questioned the need for the oath at the March 28th meeting and she indicated since the State of California doesn't require the district to administer the pledge with it's monotheistic god reference, perhaps Emeryville itself should opt out.  Ms Webb said it might be a "good idea" to stop the children's mindless recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and instead have the children learn the Articles of the US Constitution as a more educational implementation to satisfy Sacramento's patriotic instruction requirement.
Ms Webb noted she thinks Emeryville school children should be aware of the Pledge of Allegiance and even to know the words, just not the daily recitation of it, "It is a part of our culture" she intoned.

Zeus, doing the god thing.

Secular humanist parents have long called the Pledge of Allegiance a god indoctrination that has no place in public schools.  Secular and atheist parents have called the praising of god contained within the pledge a subversion of parental rights and an unnecessary and heavy handed government intrusion into inalienable parental rights to teach their children as they see fit about god.  The actual pledge itself, being a loyalty oath, is demonstrably counter to the district's goal of teaching children critical thinking skills.

Is this really what patriotism looks like?

While the School Board has promised to take up this issue, atheist and secular parents may have to wait some time for justice.  Board member Josh Simon acknowledged the importance of the issue but he noted the two most pressing agenda items before the board; the budget crisis and the selection of a new school superintendent, "Don't expect this to be resolved in the next month or two" he warned.  The Tattler will report any developments in this issue.