Emeryville Senior Center Flea Market Fund Raiser

Recalling Emery's Greatest Hits

'Outlook Not So Good'

Opinion
Readers will note there aren't links embedded in this story (except for the first one)...the whole story would be chock-a-block with links and distract from the readability...please feel free to use the Tattler search bar instead.

On Wednesday evening the parents and community members that attended the Emery Unified School Board meeting learned that their input was utterly immaterial to the Board majority's already-made-up minds.  The majority on this Board made it very clear; they can really do without any community input, thank you very much.  So it seems an appropriate time to reflect back on all the great decisions made by Emery Unified School Boards of the past.  It will surely support the idea that these decision-makers know what's best for us.

Presenting... Emery's Greatest Hits (partial list)

1. Employ an architect for a district of less than 800 children. Keep him on payroll for 10 years. 
2. Hire the fabulous and divisive Debbra Lindo as Superintendent.
3. Stick by Debbra Lindo, even after she receives a vote of “no confidence” from your teachers.
4. Go into receivership.
5. Get a loan from the City of Emeryville in order to get out of receivership.
6. Tell the City you can’t repay that loan.
7. Make a plan for a K-12 school site that would make use of the property of the existing High School and the AC Transit site.
8. Lose the AC Transit half of that real estate, but refuse to revise the plan and instead decide to shoehorn every child in town into what little space you have.
9. Hire a superintendent with a history of corruption that bilks the district out of cash.
10. Hire another superintendent that lies on his resume about his qualifications.
11. Close a school site in order to rebuild (rebuild...a good decision, Magic Eight Ball says "decidedly so" to this one). But then move a daycare over to the middle school site making that site unavailable, and then pay Oakland Unified $500K* a year in order to rent another school site to house our older kids.  Wait, what?
12. Move the middle schoolers from the middle school site to the high school site. Watch middle school enrollment drop. Wait, no.  Move them to go to the elementary school site.  Watch enrollment drop.  Wait, no.  Everyone (do we still have any middle schoolers left?) go over to California State Highway 123 aka San Pablo Avenue.  Wait with breathless anticipation for our enrollment numbers…these are gonna be GOOD!
13. Pass out Measure J money to consultants.  Because we have bond money, and as it just so happens, they have advice...they've got as much advice as we have bond money.
14. Just before Sacramento makes them illegal, issue a Capital Appreciation Bond that will cost Emeryville taxpayers nearly $70 million over the course of 33 years in order to receive just $17 million for our ECCL building project.   
15. Pour hours of consultant's time into charts that show when buildings will “sleep” but do not construct enough room for actual elementary school students to play.
16. Pay some consultants thousands of dollars to conduct a "listening campaign".
17. Do not listen, instead assemble a 'negative public relations (Tattler) story rapid response team'.
18. In the summer, hire an elementary school principal with multiple past allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.  Don't bother Googling his name before hiring.
19. Wait until his first day on the job on the first day of the new school year.
20. Fire that elementary school principal after he faces more allegations of sexual harassment.  Pay his salary for many months that he never worked.
21. Use the PTO as your propaganda arm; disallow parents making critical presentations to the group and criticism of District policies in the list serve.
22. Pay a construction oversight firm $1.1 million to watch over the contracting firm building out the new school site, a job the former District Architect would have done for $487,000 had he not left before the actual building started.
23. Promise the community a chance for them to weigh in on the wisdom of closing Anna Yates Elementary School after the passage of Measure J school bond ballot initiative.
24. Take away the chance for the community to weigh in after Measure J passes.  Tell the community it had all been decided ten years earlier.
25. Don't reveal to the community exactly who decided to close the elementary school ten years ago...let 'em guess and work on your best smug demeanor when they erupt in anger.

You know, with a track record like this, it's hard to see why parents or community members thought this School Board majority needed their input.  Stop worrying!  Like their predecessors, this School Board majority has it all under control. 

Outlook Not So Good
This District gets it wrong almost every time.
A better way for the School Board to make decisions:
use a Magic Eight Ball.
Statistically, better policy would result.

* Correction: the Tattler originally posted 

$200,000 per year.  The real number is 

$500,000 per year the District is spending. 

We apologize for the error.

Crisis in the Schools: Emery Unified On Track to Be Insolvent in Two Years

Shocked Audience Learns-

School Board Must Make Drastic Changes to Avoid Receivership

$1 Million Annual Deficit Looms

Board to Close Elementary School,

A Possible Source of Increased Revenue

Emery Unified School Board Meeting-April 22, 2015

Emeryville's schools are in deep financial trouble and ready to slide back into State receivership said Dora Siu, the School District's Fiscal Services Director before a crowded house at a School Board meeting Wednesday night. The crowd of parents, citizens and teachers, there coincidently to make a case to save Anna Yates Elementary School and a possible source of increased revenue for the District, was jarred by the announcement of looming bankruptcy.

Ms Siu's budget projections showed that if the District changes nothing about its revenues and spending from how they are right now, then within two years the District would be operating at nearly a $1 million annual deficit and, by not having the state-mandated minimum 4% in reserves, would not be certified as solvent and would likely face a return to receivership.  Ms Siu added that 4% would actually only cover one month's expenses for the District and 10% reserve would be advisable.  
Emery crawled out of a state takeover in 2011 after ten grueling years of Sacramento control after the District was bilked by a former Superintendent.

The Board seemed to take this dire warning in stride and they indicated they will consider budget adjustments at future meetings.  However, those in attendance later learned that one possible solution the Board could not see its way clear to consider was to keep Anna Yates Elementary School open in order to enroll more students than ECCL can accommodate and to, thereby, increase revenue sufficiently to cover the projected shortfall.  Instead the Board dug in its heels and said they could not change course on a plan (allegedly) set in stone over ten years ago.

Not one parent or community member had a positive thing to say about closing Anna Yates Wednesday night, but the Board was unmoved.  The Teachers Union also sent a representative to report that the teachers had met in an emergency meeting Tuesday to address this issue and that an overwhelming majority of the teachers did not want to see Anna Yates closed.

The School District is partners with the City of Emeryville in the ECCL project and two City Council members were witness to the spectacle; Dianne Martinez and Scott Donahue.

Parents Erupt in Outrage
The testy crowd Wednesday night was rallying around a proposal by Board member Christian Patz, to keep Anna Yates open as an elementary school and use the yet to be constructed ECCL site on San Pablo Avenue for a middle school (as well as a high school).  The idea is the middle school children would use the building originally meant for the new elementary school after Anna Yates is closed.
But newly elected Board Member Donn Merriam, an architect, indicated he was not capable of fathoming how one could use a 1200 square foot space intended for Kindergartners in any other way.  He warned that this proposal would raise construction costs and postpone the ECCL for at least a full year.  The crowd, not inclined to the normal decorum, erupted at Board member Merriam's  intransigence and began shouting out alternative uses for the space from their chairs.

Board President John Affeldt announced his unwillingness to be persuaded about keeping Anna Yates open before even hearing public comment, a statement that especially riled up the crowd.  His remarks so enraged some parents who had, by then waited for several hours to speak, that they stormed out of the room in disgust without speaking.  Many others who had come to speak had given up by this time and had returned home to their waiting babysitters or had left to put their children to bed.  Board President Affeldt had also refused a request to move the item up on the agenda so that these parents could be heard.

Many attendees expressed exasperation to the Tattler after the meeting.  It seems to the parents among them the District's overall message is clear; they are closing Anna Yates, like it or not.  One parent wishing to remain anonymous said of the Board, "They are driving this District straight into a financial ditch and they're not willing to consider the most logical way to avoid it [keeping Anna Yates open].  On the contrary, they'd like to press on the gas further.  Parents should get ready now for either an incredible number of cuts to close a $1 million gap or two, the State or the County will be in charge of our District's finances again in a couple of years.  They're telling us to move our children to another District as soon as we can".

School districts gain revenue from enrolled students and the looming financial disaster for Emery Unified offers no palatable choices if the number of students is not increased.  Essentially, cuts and the selling off of assets are really the only options available.  Keeping the elementary school as a way to increase enrollment for the District in the cramped ECCL site is the best option parents and teachers said.  This plea was made in many ways by many speakers Wednesday night but the Board seemed unmoved, save Board member Patz.

The following budget projection reveals the disturbing slide Emery Unified School District is facing:

EUSD Multi Year Projection 2015-04-22

Breaking News: Emeryville's City Attorney Abruptly Resigns

Mike Biddle, Emeryville's long embattled City Attorney suddenly announced his resignation before a small audience in the City Council chambers tonight.  He leaves his position after 26 years with the City.  Mr Biddle has long had a rocky relationship with some Council members but since last November's City Council election and the rise of a new Council majority, relations have been strained.  Even still, while some city employees might have known the resignation was looming, to the citizens, the news comes as a surprise.  
The resignation comes in July after Mr Biddle's contract expires.  He did not publicly specify what he will do after he leaves Emeryville.

Emeryville Planning Commissioner in Hot Water

Emeryville Planning Commissioner Kairee Tann is featured in today's Contra Costa Times...but not in a good way.

From the Contra Costa Times:

Housing crisis: Emeryville planning official uses huge rent increase to boot city's poet laureate

By Doug Oakley doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com

POSTED:   04/20/2015 01:50:11 PM PDT

Sarah Kobrinsky, Emeryville's poet laureate, stands in front of the home on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, that she and her husband and their 4-year-old son were forced out of by a $500 a month rent increase in Emeryville, Calif. Her landlord is the vice chair of the city's planning commission and is listed as a member of the city's Housing Advisory and Appeals Board. Kobrinsky moved to Point Richmond, but will continue writing poems for Emeryville through the end of the year. (Doug Oakley/Bay Area News Group) ( Doug Oakley )

EMERYVILLE -- If the story of rising rents and the exodus of artists from Bay Area communities could be told in verse, Emeryville's poet laureate has one for you.

Appointed to the poetry post in 2013, Sarah Kobrinsky was forced to pack up her family and leave town recently when her landlord, who also happens to be a city planning commissioner, suddenly raised her rent 38 percent.

But her housing trauma -- she, her artist husband and their 4-year-old son are now residents of cheaper digs in Point Richmond -- inspired a new poem Kobrinsky calls "Aftershock."

In another time and place,

we are better people.

No one lies. The Earth

never shakes.

Somewhere else,

we are stronger still --

When we say we are sorry,

we honestly mean it.

As an artist, Kobrinsky said she understands the Bay Area rental market benefits some at the expense of others. But she expected more from her landlord Kairee Tann, a city official who votes on development proposals that directly affect the housing market including single family homes and apartment buildings.

Tann also is on the city's Housing Advisory and Appeals Board, which hears complaints about potential violations of the housing code.

Kobrinsky's rent in Emeryville went from $1,300 to $1,800 a month for a 1 ½-bedroom unit. Even through she lived on the same lot as her landlord in a separate unit, she said when she was notified of the increase there was no conversation, just a certified letter.

Read the rest of the story HERE

School Board Member Fight to Save Anna Yates Elementary School

School Board Member Says 

Save Emeryville's Elementary School

Emery School Board Member Christian Patz is engaging in a public campaign to allow Emeryville's contested elementary school, Anna Yates, to remain open and to continue to serve Emeryville's children, a contrary position to a decision made by the Board in November 2012 to close the school and move the children over to the Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) site on San Pablo Avenue scheduled for fall 2016.  

Mr Patz, a new Board member, indicated the ECCL site is too small for a Kindergarten through 12th grade school and the District needs to concentrate on increasing enrollment to alleviate budget shortfalls, an impossibility at the ECCL site.  Additionally Board member Patz says Emery is suffering from a lack of a middle school, a critical ingredient for effective education according to experts in pedagogical study.  Board member Patz says by keeping Anna Yates open, ECCL could deliver what he calls a "middle school focus", something parents have been clamoring for and help retain these students that the District now loses en masse.

Emery School Board
Member
Christian Patz
Believes Emeryville's
elementary school is
worth saving.

Mr Patz's criticism of the San Pablo Avenue K-12 site being too small has found an ally in Sacramento.  The State of California has determined the ECCL site is too small for a K-12 program but there is enough space for a high school and a middle school he says.

The District for its part has said it will close Anna Yates but they have not revealed what they ultimately will do with that site; at one point they refused to discount bulldozing the school and putting up a parking lot.
At least one Charter School is interested in seizing the school, an eventuality Emery would be powerless to stop if there were no elementary school function at the site.  Charter schools are notorious for taking public money and only admitting the best and the brightest leaving the public schools with a more problematic demographic and bereft of money.  Charter schools are also less accountable to the public than traditional public schools.

Board Member Patz is sending out the following letter to Emeryville residents:

Dear Neighbor, 

On April 22, 2015 the Emery School Board board is discussing the future of Emery Schools.  I am asking the School Board to give direction to Superintendent Rubio on the roll out for the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) building project.  I am asking the Board  to focus on building a vibrant and rich middle school program. 

 Emery’s biggest need is to retain and grow middle school enrollment. In order to do this, I believe it necessary to keep the elementary students at Anna Yates Elementary School.
Since the closure of the Ralph Hawley school site, the middle school has been an adjunct first to Emery High and then Anna Yates.  If we let them move in a building of their own, the proposed K-8 building, they will no longer be the plus one of the district.
Emery USD has an opportunity to create a true community school district.  To do this, we will need places for kids to learn, play, and be accepted.  The space created by not moving the elementary students to the ECCL will allow for more classes to increase enrollment for the district.  Both campuses will be able to dedicate places for school enrichment programs in collaboration with the city and the recreation department.  

Please join me on Wednesday April 22^nd at 6:00 pm at Ralph Hawley Middle School, 1275 61st Street. Let the board know if you agree or disagree with the direction I am suggesting.  

Hope to see you there,
Christian Patz, Ed.D.
Emery USD trustee

Councilwoman Dianne Martinez Starts Constituant Blog

Councilwoman Martinez has started a blog emeryvilledianne.blogspot.com for Emeryville residents to follow.  First story out of the gate for Ms Martinez is a piece about the 'Fight for $15', the nation-wide minimum wage campaign Emeryville has joined.  Dianne's blog is added to Councilwoman Jac Asher's "Jac's Blog" as far as the Emeryville Council member blogosphere is concerned.  We appreciate Dianne and Jac in their constituent information effort but we're still waiting for Mayor Ruth Atkin, Councilman Scott Donahue and Vice Mayor Nora Davis to join in with some bloggy action of their own.

Adeline Street's Scarlet City Espresso Bar Has Emeryville Values

Emeryville Model Small Business of the Moment

Scarlet City Espresso Bar

Emeryville Community Spirit
Scarlet City Espresso Bar's proprietors
Susanna Handow & Jen St.Hilaire

Opinion
The rancorous pretension descended upon Emeryville City Hall over the minimum wage debate of late has found a community minded antecedent in one small business with true Emeryville community spirit: Adeline Street's Scarlet City Espresso Bar*.  This little neighborhood serving shop has resisted the acrimonious urgings of Shellmound Avenue's Black Bear Diner (and their paymasters at the California Restaurant Association) to resist the move to bring social and economic justice to Emeryville in the form of a $15 minimum wage.

Scarlet City, at 3960 Adeline Street, is a small business model for Emeryville- standing up and encouraging the City Council to adopt the San Francisco phase-in rate (which Council adopted as a model for the small business minimum wage, giving small businesses in our city a five year phase-in).  This proposal will begin with a raise to $12.25 to meet the rate of neighboring cities and progress to the goal of $15 in 2018.

The folks at Scarlet City have Emeryville values (and the coffee concoctions they make are delicious).  This is the kind of business any community would seek to welcome.

 *Note: Tattler correction- Since this story was posted, this business has signed a petition against the City Council's action on the minimum wage.  They shifted their previous approval of the minimum wage to being angry about it and demanding a moratorium.  To say Scarlett City has Emeryville values may be overwrought we're sorry to report.

Below; Ms Handow tells the Emeryville City Council they should seek a path to a $15 minimum wage in 2018 as San Francisco is doing:

RULE Meeting

Residents United For A Livable Emeryville

Come and meet your progressive neighbors and make Emeryville what you want it to be

Saturday, April 18

10:00 -12:00

Doyle St. CoHousing, 5514 Doyle St., 1st floor common room
Open to all

Agenda

-E'vlle minimum wage: response to last City Council draft
-Sherwin Williams Update

-E'vlle PBID: funding for the Emery Go Round 

-Love Our Neighborhood Day, May 30

Facilitator:  Judy Timmel

Bring breakfast snacks....coffee and tea provided

Judy Timmel, 510-601-6521

Emeryville City Council Contingent at 'Fight for $15" Rally

4/5ths of Emeryville City Council Fights for Nation-Wide $15 Minimum Wage

Mayor Addresses Large Berkeley Rally

Emeryville Contingent
Left to right: Dianne Martinez, Jac Asher,
Ruth Atkin, Scott Donahue

Today the Mayor of Emeryville led a contingent of four out of the five City Council members to petition for a nationwide $15 minimum wage at a large rally at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza.  The protest rally, some 1500 strong, was organized by 'Fight For $15', an international activist conglomerate comprised chiefly of fast food workers agitating for $15 minimum wage laws.  Labor Unions joined social activist groups and students at the famous UC Berkeley site of the 1960's Free Speech Movement where Emeryville Mayor Ruth Atkin was the featured kick-off speaker.
Mayor Atkin chronicled Emeryville's recent foray into its own path to $15 minimum wage, noting Emeryville's leadership role.  Many in the crowd seemed to be unaware but pleasantly surprised by Emeryville's new prominent position in labor rights.  It would seem our business friendly reputation may be giving way to a new reputation.

Readers will forgive the first minute or so of Ms Atkin's speech being clipped: