At their December 19, 2016 meeting, the City Council will consider “borrowing of funds from the California State Water Resources Control Board” to pay for sewer improvements. The State has approved the loan request.

The Piedmont City Charter states:

SECTION 4.13 TEMPORARY LOANS  Money may be borrowed in anticipation of the receipts from taxes during any fiscal year, by the issue of notes, certificates of indebtedness or revenue bonds; but the aggregate amount of such loans at any time outstanding shall not exceed twenty-five (25) percent of the receipts from all taxes during the preceding fiscal year; and all such loans shall be paid out of the receipts from taxes for the fiscal year in which they are issued.

SECTION 4.14 BONDED DEBT LIMIT  The City shall not incur an indebtedness evidenced by obligation bonds which shall in the aggregate exceed the sum of twenty (20) percent of total assessed valuation for purposes of City taxation, of all the real and personal property within the City, exclusive of any indebtedness that has been or may hereafter be incurred for the purposes of acquiring, constructing, extending or maintaining municipal utilities, for which purpose a further indebtedness may be incurred by the issuance of bonds, subject only to the provisions of the State Constitution and of this Charter. No bonded indebtedness which shall constitute a general obligation of the City may be created unless authorized by the affirmative votes of a majority of the electors voting on such proposition at any election at which the question is submitted to the electors and unless in full compliance with the provisions of the State Constitution, other State laws and this Charter.

Staff reports:

12/19/16 – Consideration of Actions Related to the Approval of the Sanitary Sewer Phase 5 Rehabilitation Project:

a. Approval of Installment Agreement # D16-01021

b. Authorization for City Administrator to Execute Documents

c. Approval of Construction Documents

    The Park Commission did not have an official meeting on December 7th.  Instead, there was a social gathering as a Holiday break that segued into the tree lighting ceremony at 7:30 p.m.  While there were no official issues to be addressed or discussed, it was the perfect time for a high school senior interested in the inner-workings of government to bump elbows and inquire upon many Piedmont government officials.

I got the opportunity to simultaneously interview the Mayor, Jeff Wieler and the Director of Public Works, Chester Nakahara as he stood behind the bar – eager to serve his community both beverages and hours of hard work.  I learned a lot more about general park information through direct conversation than I would have attempting to participate in a busy Park Commission’s docket.

  As a high school student, I admittedly had both a specific and limited view of what the Park Commission and the Public Works Department do.  I wanted a different perspective of my main connection to the Piedmont Parks -an inside scoop on the daily announcements pleading my peers to stop littering during their off-campus lunch privileges.  I was shocked to discover that it takes a full man day of work to clean all the litter after every Piedmont High School off-campus lunch break.  Despite trash and recycling bins within arms reach, the worst offending areas are Piedmont Main Park and outside the Veterans Building and City Hall.

The tone of both Wieler’s and Nakahara’s voices were mixtures between exasperation and jokes about the laziness of the litterers.  There was no obvious solution towards solving this problem that they have not already tried.  There are sufficient waste disposal containers, plus the quality of education at the school should justify a level of awareness to negate the problem.

I could not come up with answers or suggestions that have not already been attempted, I could only do my best to reassert that it seems to be an excessive and ongoing issue that the City needs to have a different stance on.  20-30% of the Publics Works budget of $4 million is dedicated strictly towards maintenance and cleaning.  That can make it harder to achieve some of Mayor Jeff Wieler’s park and public works goals: to finish the Linda Triangle, continue beautification, and to fully illuminate the Oakland Avenue Bridge for safety purposes.

    Additionally, I learned that the California drought has minimally affected parks in Piedmont because the Piedmont Fire Department efficiently directs their mandated engine tests while spraying water onto Coaches Field.  The only evident aspect of our communities water shortage is the large brown spot on upper Dracena Park, a park that recently had a more controversial decision of whether a certain stretch of the dog park allowed dogs to be off leash.  The dogs must remain on leash, as the Park Commission recently decided, but additional and clearer signage is needed around that park.

  Jeff Wieler, Chester Nakahara, and every other person I met (like Park Commission staff liaison Nancy Kent!) work tirelessly in their various positions to help improve Piedmont.  They were all incredibly knowledgeable – Wieler was occasionally frustrated at himself for not having a certain exact budget or figure on the tip of his tongue – and even just a more light-hearted social Holiday celebration can bring up important local issues that everyone is clearly passionate about attempting to solve.

Josef Crombie Presberg, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

On December 14th, 2016, I attended a Piedmont Unified School District Board meeting at Piedmont City Hall. These meetings occur once or twice a month during the school year and their purpose is to discuss and propose changes to the Piedmont school system.

This meeting was focused on the Single Plan for Student Achievement which asked every Piedmont school principal to review their last year’s goals and create new goals for the coming year. There were also quick notes on school activities going on which were presented by the Associated Student Body President Alisha Lewis and each board member gave a quick list of the school related events they had recently attended. However, during the two hours I was at the meeting, the majority of the time was spent on each Principal’s plan for their school. Elementary school principals presentations weren’t until much later.

Principals Brent Daniels, Sati Shah, and Ryan Fletcher shared similar goals which included: improving communication between students and teachers, efficiency of time spent outside of school (eg. necessity of homework, sleep), and taking care of emotional and physical wellness for their students. Though a few times the Board may have had questions for the Principals, they seemed very happy with last year’s results and next year’s goals.

I got a chance to speak with Sati Shah, the Principal at Millennium High School, before the meeting began and asked him a few questions about his upcoming presentation.  He said that on average he gives about three or four presentations to the Board and that helps “set [a] collaborative direction for [the] school to follow”. He seemed confident with his presentation and after he finished, he was greeted with a few notes of praise by the Board towards the educational decisions made by Millennium High School.

This was a long meeting and after Ryan Fletcher’s goals for the year, I found that the similarities were growing and there would be little change between the elementary schools in terms of goals.

Finally, there was an election for a new president, vice president and secretary of the board which went to Sarah Pearson, Amal Smith, and Randall Booker.

Cato Leist, Piedmont High School Senior

~~~~~~~~~

    I attended a School Board meeting on December 14, 2016. The purpose of the meeting was to make sure everyone is in agreement on how the schools are running and how they are progressing toward their goals.

    Because it was the last meeting of the year, the principals from all the schools in the Piedmont Unified School District came to talk about their assessment of last year’s goals and how they will improve them this year or new goals.

    Principal Brent Daniels, of Piedmont High School (PHS), was the first principal to speak on his goals. He noted all the efforts he and all the staff made to reduce student stress and give students a greater opportunity to sleep; tutorial and staff meetings in the morning, conflict calendars, and the five day block scheduling. Also, his new goals for this topic; implement a curfew for any school related activities, including sports, a testing center open 8a.m. to 3p.m., therefore students can make-up tests on their own time, and continuing to make sure homework has Meaning, Value, and Practice (MVP.)

    Every Board member agreed that Principal Daniels had outstanding achievements and futures goals, however one Board member, Amal Smith, pointed out that we want to help the students as much as possible, without taking away from learning life skills. For example, the conflict calendar is an immense help, but on the contrary, students need to be taught how to juggle and delegate multiple projects or assignments at a time, because that is what is expected of people in the real world. Also, Board member Doug Ireland questioned if students were actually receiving more sleep. Principal Daniels stated that based on the survey, they are getting slightly more sleep, though they are mostly benefiting from the later start, thus they are more alert during class. Other than those two comments, every Board member expressed their support and positivity.

    Principal Daniels spoke about their efforts in improving the message of Consent. This past year, they chose to implement a new speaker and a debriefing. I spoke to the debriefing. I was lucky to have Ms.Taylor, the acting teacher and a leader in the Consent Assembly, lead my classes debriefing. I expressed that Ms.Taylor should lead the teachers in a class on how to talk to students because she created a warm and open environment where it was easy to speak my opinions. Also, about thirty student are in my English class, the class we debriefed with, and less than ten showed up. Teachers and faculty should stress the importance on the debriefing because many chose not to attend. I got an immense amount more from this assembly than freshman year’s Consent Assembly due to the discussion afterwards.

I had the chance to speak to Principal Sati Shaw, of Millennium High School (MHS). This was his second year as principal of MHS, thus his second year reviewing and expressing his goals, the Single Student Achievement Plan. He fully supports the Board meetings as, “they are a great opportunity for teachers, parents, and community members to express their ideas and feelings,”  said Shaw.

Then, he continued to explain the process of the goals. The goals are tirelessly attempted to be met, while new ones are arising. They are all important, but as Principal Shaw stated, “it is about prioritizing them and where the School Board and I want the center of discussion to be. The main goal is to create a collaborative space where students feel comfortable to excel on a personal level. We get lost in grades and getting into college, we really try to create well rounded people as well.”

Daniela Siu, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

School Budget Advisory Committee includes teachers, District Administrators, and interested community members.

On December 8th of 2016, I attended Piedmont Unified School District [PUSD] Budget Advisory Committee Meeting at District office Board Room 760 Magnolia Avenue. The PUSD Budget Advisory Committee meets once every three months. The general purpose of the meeting is to discuss where PUSD money is coming from and where it is going; in other words, budget funding.

I realized however, after the first few minutes of listening in on this meeting, that budget funding sounds much more simple than it is. The long stream of numbers and expenses listed on the slides were extremely detailed, at times hard to follow, and only emphasized how much detail and planning goes into budget funding. The meeting covered topics of the amount of money the school receives and loses due to student absences, parcel tax, federal revenue, restrictive revenue, donation sources, pension costs, retirement benefits, and the different levels of expenses and gains year to year. One issue that was addressed/voiced was the fact that we are spending more and more each year because of heightened expenses which is causing us to cut into our budget fund savings, whittling away at that number year by year. The issue that comes with this statement was discussed by Mr. Best, a leader of the meeting, who was highlighting how this is a very dangerous statistic.

Another issue voiced, because there were many teachers at the meeting, was the lack of benefits teachers have. California is one of the few states that does not cover teachers with social security so that is something that is really detrimental and takes a portion away from their paychecks. This is an issue that I believe is something that should be shared and highlighted because while California seems to be a very progressive, fair state, it does not seem fair that teachers are not covered under social security. During this topic, I asked the Committee a few questions about this particular topic as well as voiced my opinion on the subject.

At the end of the meeting I interviewed a Middle School teacher named Gabriel Kessler. Kessler, the vice president of the teachers union, said “It’s really important that I’m familiar with the budget and understand it because I’m involved with a lot of decision and negotiations.”

Kessler said that the other reason he attended the meeting was his “belief that teachers, as well as students, should take some civic interest in what’s going on in the community.”

Kessler said there are some concerns he had that he came to the meeting wanting to address. “The budget reserve getting lower and lower is definitely a big issue,” Kessler said. “The rise in pension benefits is also causing a real problem.”

The other issue Kessler brought up were the budget cuts that are going to be taking place.

When asked how we can combat these issues, Kessler responded by saying “I think we have to put pressure on our law makers and representatives of finding ways to fund education.” Kessler’s other idea to implement positive change was about the giving campaign and where that money goes to.

“A lot of that money is designated to specific uses. I am wondering if that money can become undesignated so that the School Board and Superintendent are able to put it to where they feel is most important,” Kessler said.

Maddie Wolfe, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author. Meetings of the Budget Advisory Committee are not broadcast or recorded.  The meetings are open to the public. 

    I attended the School Board meeting on Wednesday, November 11, 2016. This governmental body meets every two weeks to discuss issues and make decisions about the Piedmont Unified School District, including the three elementary schools, the Middle School, and both Piedmont and Millennium High School. This meeting was focused on honoring Rick Raushenbush, who is retiring from the board, and reviewing the many science class models presented by the state of California for both the middle school and the high school. Almost all of the board members, and a community member, spoke about Mr. Raushenbush and presented him with gifts.

Alisha Lewis also delivered the school report to the board, mentioning events like the seniors’ urban plan projects, Civics students’ phone banking for campaigns, and the theater program’s performance, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” Community members, including many students, had the opportunity to speak about an issue. I spoke to the topic of AP classes, because I have noticed that many of the advanced classes are in the Science Department, and I would love to see more opportunities in the humanities/social sciences realm, specifically for classes like Psychology. The board did not comment, other than to thank me for my input.

A large chunk of the meeting was devoted to presenting NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) course models for the middle and high school. Dr. Cheryl Wozniak and Principal Shati Shah, along with middle and high school teachers, presented these options, including benefits and challenges for each, which the state has developed. They explained how there are new standards for the science department, and they would like to incorporate more earth science and engineering into most classes. At the middle school level, there are two options, one of which more closely aligns with the current course system, and one that integrates all areas of science into each level. There are also eight different models at the high school level, three of which are accelerated. Each model has drawbacks and benefits, although many of the accelerated models seemed to have the most challenges.

Personally, I think it would make more sense to make more engineering and earth/space classes available, rather than try to incorporate those in the existing courses. I like that right now, most students have freedom to choose their science path, but if they are required to take classes that are not domain specific, they cannot focus on a particular interest and college applications become more confusing. However, the board must pick one of the options provided by the state, so whichever one has the least specific path structure and would be ideal. I do think that integrated science at the middle school level would be helpful, though.

    Another issue addressed by the board is the methods of communication, and whether community feel they can both stay informed and share their own opinions. Some members spoke to the idea of parents selecting filters, so they might only hear about their topics of interest (ex: arts, high school) and therefore do not become desensitized to the constant email communication that would otherwise occur.

   I interviewed Board Member Doug Ireland, who spoke to his motivation for being involved. He said that he loves the job and aims to maintain good schools, as that is critical to the community. Specifically about Wednesday’s meeting, he mentioned that difficulties include curriculum changes and budgeting. The process of changing curriculum involves meeting about the changes, getting updates from staff in order to make informed decisions, and reviewing different curriculum; the same method was used when they reformed the math curriculum last year. In terms of updating the schools, they are spending money to fix facilities in order to modernize learning in all aspects.

Ella Gilbert, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Several people have asked when “It’s Official” so please know that you’re all welcome to attend Piedmont’s City Council Installation Ceremony on December 5th, 6:30 p.m., at Piedmont’s Community Hall (reception to follow).

 RSVP’s requested to Lisa Argue at  largue@ci.piedmont.ca.us.

As I shared throughout the campaign, I really do value your input and ideas and I want to hear from you. I will be shutting down my campaign website and this email account soon, but starting Dec. 6th, you can email me at jcavenaugh@ci.piedmont.ca.us.

You can also engage with the whole council at any time. City Council meetings occur generally on the first and third Monday of each month. You are always welcome to attend a council meeting and share your ideas on any issue you care about. The time allowed for that is the Public Forum and it takes place during the first 10 minutes of every meeting. You can also tune into council and commission meetings on the city’s cable channel KCOM or download video or audio of city meetings from the city’s website.

With deep gratitude,

Jen Cavenaugh

Jen4Piedmont
http://www.jen4piedmont.com/

Editors Note: PCA does not support or oppose specific candidates for public office.