On Wednesday, April 11th, 2018, the Piedmont School Board held their bi-weekly meeting. The meeting started at 7:06 p.m. at City Hall and concluded around 7:40 p.m., making it one of the shortest meetings in a while. The main reason for this was because there was nothing on the agenda to discuss. The real purpose of the meeting was to take questions from a few students, the Parents Club, and questions pertaining to changing the location of the fire alarm in preparation for the new building that will be built at Piedmont High School.

The first question was from a member of the Piedmont Education Foundation (PEF) and the Parents Club about the cost of Chromebooks for the Middle School and High School because of the lack of donations from 6th grade parents this year. She urged people to keep Chromebooks up to date by donating money. She also urged people to contribute to the Piedmont Spring Fling at piedmontspringfling.org .

Next, a representative from MHS updated the board on what is happening on campus such as Senior Prom, athletic events, and a dance show field trip to Alvin Ailey at UC Berkeley.

The first student to comment in the meeting was Maggie Lucas, a PHS Senior. She asked the School Board to consider investing in an “extracurricular PE class,” because PHS requires one year of freshman PE as well as another year of PE or sport. This causes many students to sacrifice academic periods. Additionally, all of the extracurricular sports are very competitive and do not guarantee spots because many athletes get cut from the teams.

Next, Drew Lali, another senior argued that the School Board should reconsider taking away the two days that are part of Winter Break for next year’s schedule changes.

I was the last PHS Senior to comment. I asked the School Board to consider investing in online textbooks for PHS or alternative online material content for classes. I asked this because for students who travel between two homes on a regular basis (like myself), it can often be a burden to have to carry heavy textbooks back and forth. Additionally, the online content is more up to date than much of the content that are in the textbooks, and is continuously being updated. Although most classes now have online textbooks, I always have two or three classes each year that still use hardcover textbooks.

Michael Braidy explained how the fire control on the 10s building at Piedmont High needs to be moved to the 30s building in preparation for the construction of the new building that is expected to start early March of next year. However, Braidy did clarify that the schedule for construction is still very flexible.

When the meeting concluded, I spoke to Doug Ireland about the meeting. He is a member of the School Board and is there for the bi-weekly meetings. He explained that he learned that the School Board should reevaluate the costs of Chromebooks based on the comments made by the Parents Club earlier in the meeting. He also noted that the Board will be going forward with looking at the costs and installation of fire alarms at Piedmont High. Last, Ireland was happy about how short the meeting ended up being.

bySaatvik Dube, Piedmont High School Senior

 

Relocation of Fire Alarm and School Spending

    On April 11th, 2018, at the Piedmont City Council Chambers, there was a biweekly school board meeting. The members of the school board attended, with the addition of one student from ASB for Millennium High School. Also, Students, both in High and Middle school, attended the meeting for school related assignments.

    The School Board meeting addressed the topics of school spending and relocation of the Fire Alarm system to the 30’s building at Piedmont High School. Also, a student at Piedmont High School addressed the graduation requirement for Physical Education.

First, the spending amount schools get is allocated from the Government of California, and in addition the Parents from Piedmont can donate money to foundations created by Piedmont Parents to help the Schools.  A low percentage, 35 %, of 6th Grade Piedmont Parents donated money for Piedmont Middle School.  Almost half, 45%, of 9th Grade Piedmont Parents donated money for Piedmont High School. The money parents donated can help the subjects in School.  For example, I know families that donate to Paints, an organization that helps promote Art classes in the Piedmont Unified School District.  I think all parents that are apart of any school district should donate to provide as much help as they can from these organizations.

The Second issue addressed was the relocation of the Fire Alarm system to the 30’s building. The 10’s building is going to be taken down as well as the Theater to update the buildings and make them earthquake safe and much nicer than their current status.  The school is moving the fire alarm system to the permanent spot in the 30’s building before the 10’s building is being torn down.  Sarah Pearson,  School Board President, asked the question, “Will the theater be able to put on plays and shows for the students and Parents?”  The person said that people will be able to see plays before March because the Theater will be shut down early March of next year.

After the meeting, I interviewed Sarah Pearson about the meeting. She told me, “It was the shortest meeting [she] could remember in [her] five and a half years on the school board.” When I asked why this was the shortest meeting, she replied, “that there is going to be a special meeting on Monday to go over in depth the policy.” The School Board meeting was short but packed with information about the following topics above. What will be the resulting outcome of the new theater and 10’s building over the years?

by Drew Lalli, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the authors.

League of Women Voters of Piedmont

     Annual Meeting Featuring Guest Speaker

Richard Rothstein

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of

How Our Government Segregated America

Friday, May 11, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Piedmont Veterans Memorial Building

401 Highland Ave, Piedmont

Richard Rothstein is guest speaker at the League of Women Voters of Piedmont Annual Meeting on May 11, 2018.  Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a fellow of the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and of the Haas Institute at the University of California Berkeley.

Rothstein’s latest book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America debunks the myths that surround racial segregation in America’s cities. The book documents the evidence that our government not merely ignored discriminatory practices in the residential sphere, but promoted them. The impact has been devastating for generations of African-Americans who were denied the right to live where they wanted to live and school their children where they could flourish most successfully. The Color of Law is a Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 Best Books of 2017 and has been featured on NPR’s Fresh Air and in The New York Times.

The speaker & lunch is $25 in advance or $30 at the door.  To reserve your spot, visit LWVPiedmont.org (credit card, debit card & Pay Pal accepted,) or send a check payable to LWVP to Ward Lindenmayer, 40 Highland Avenue, Piedmont, CA  94611.

There is no fee for the speaker portion of the program.  Lunch follows the speaker at 12:00pm.   Please reserve your spot by May 4, 2018.

The School Board meets every other week, but this meeting was different than the others. At some meetings there are lots of topics to cover and even contencios voting. Well other meetings, like this one, include the call of a Kakapo. However, on March 28th at 7 p.m. the School Board had very little to discuss and almost no voting. There were not a lot of decisions to make, because of this, the School Board spent the majority of the time focusing on events that were coming up or were currently going on within the high school.

The meeting began with Heather Frank, Executive Director of Piedmont Educational Foundation (PEF), updating the board on the Spring Fling. Every year PEF plans a Spring Fling with a different theme; this year’s is New Orleans themed. They hope to raise $400,000 and the biggest auction item is a trip to go on an African safari.

Following Heathers presentation Anna Goldberg, ASB Co-President of Piedmont High School, updated the board and listeners about what was going on in the high schoolers’ lives. She told them most seniors would be finished hearing from colleges within the next two weeks. Then she discussed how popular the Acapella Revue was. This topic was very exciting to the board and they started to discuss Mr. Joe Piazza, Acapella Teacher, and how he continues to amaze the town year after year.

Before the meeting started, I interviewed Heather and was surprised to find out that she comes to every meeting they have. This is because she frequently needs to update the School Board about what is happening at the Educational Foundation. Heather is not only in charge of spring fling, but all fundraisers for the schools in the District. She appreciates hearing from the students when they attend meetings and likes to hear the concerns they have. She shared that the meetings are typically small but if there is a community concern they can become very full.

Andreas Bjork and Nathan Horst were the first students to speak to the board. They chose to discuss the mountain biking team and its development. In the future, they are hoping to have their team recognized as an official Piedmont High School interscholastic team rather than a club, with the end goal being participants receiving PE credit. To my surprise, the board shared they were unable to respond to them on the topic of the mountain biking club because this was not on the original agenda, but expressed appreciation for the students’ input. Arguably, the highlight of the meeting came when Board President, Sarah Pearson, asked Andreas to perform his first prize winning bird call: the Kakapo. Andres thrilled the board by doing not just one call by this bird… but two calls, they were ecstatic.

Eva Hunter, PHS senior, next discussed her frustration with the inconsistency of athletic directors as well as the need for more female leadership in PHS sports. She noted that the vast majority of coaches, trainers and administrators are men. There has never been a female athletic director, and there is a perceived emphasis on men’s sports over women’s sports.

Immediately after Eva spoke, two students came to the podium one by one and spoke about their response to the Let’s Talk Assembly which took place earlier the week. The program had two parts; an assembly and one of the three sessions. Ms. Taylor was in charge of the assembly and was led by students in the acting class. One of the students who spoke at the meeting was in the assembly and felt that lots of students were impacted by the program. People had openly said having the assembly made it easier to talk about events they were struggling with in their lives without having to talk about it directly. The assembly included stories from actual students, similar to the date rape assembly which was held earlier in the year. The second student was in charge of facilitating one of the sessions. In her session they had sentences such as “ someone I really respect at this school is ____ or people think I am ___ but I feel I am ____” it seemed to help students openly discuss issues at the school.

The last speaker of the meeting was Michael Brady, Student Support Service at Piedmont Adult School, discussed the requirement for the school.  They have “issued over 300 diplomas since 2006, they have served over 1,300 people on independent study”. The Adult School also recognized it takes some students longer than others to accomplish graduation requirements. There have been a wide range of people who have attended the school, including the homeless, and incarcerated youth. Most of the students they serve are between 18-30 and 99% of them are from outside of Piedmont.

Attending a SchoolBoard meeting was fascinating to me because I better understood what goes on behind the scenes with the schools and what information is being relied to the board and see how many pieces of the puzzle are occurring without any knowledge from the students. It was very nice to see the effort the staff from PEF, the Adult School, Board members, and students put into making sure the high school is as enjoyable as it can be.

by Maya Marcus, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author. 

Want to learn a new sport that combines tennis, badminton and table tennis?

Join in at the Park Tennis Courts, adjacent to the Piedmont Community Hall, in Main Park on Highland Avenue, on Saturday, April 21 from 10am – 12noon, for a short demonstration and then a play a game. To sign up please contact the Recreation Dept. at 510-420-3070 or email cwood@piedmont.ca.gov

Everyone is welcome to come and join the fun or learn about this ever growing sport for adults and children.

When

Saturday, April 21, 10 a.m. – noon

Where

Park Tennis Courts 
711 Highland Avenue 
Piedmont, CA 94611

Contact

Cora Wood
5104203070
cwood@piedmont.ca.gov

 Where to Participate

Historic Oakland City Stables  The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is hosting 60 projects for Earth Day in honor of 60 years of SCA!  Join SCA in Oakland to help restore the historic Oakland City Stables. The Oakland City Stables, managed by Diamond Equine Services, offers 7 acres of public green space in the Oakland Hills. The Stables provide a range of programming to the Bay Area community and encompasses historic and cultural resources. Volunteers will help to preserve this historic area through land restoration:through tasks such as weed pulling and invasive removal.  Please wear long pants and closed-toe shoes and bring a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated.  The event will take place rain or shine so please dress for the weather!SCA will supply coffee and snacks for volunteers as well as work gloves and all project supplies. Volunteers will also receive SCA ConSERVE t-shirts.  QUESTIONS: Contact events@thesca.org or 1-888-SCA-EVENTS.

Saturday, April 21st, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm    Oakland City Stables, 13560 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, CA 94619. Please drive cautiously at the speed limit of 5 mph to prevent startling the horses on site. Carpooling is also encouraged!

2018 City of Alameda Earth Day Festival: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. April 21, Washington park, 740 Central Avenue. Activities for kids, Earth Day games, exhibits and bike-powered spin art machine. https://bit.ly/2GYSy3q. Coastal clean-up: 8:30-10 a.m. Crown Memorial State Beach, Crab Cove Visitors Center. Registration required: https://bit.ly/2GUvEKu

John Muir Birthday at John Muir National Historic Site– Earth Day Celebration: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 21, John Muir National Historic Site, 4202 Alhambra Ave., Martinez. Music, recycled fashion show, silent auctions, and more. 925-228-8860, https://bit.ly/2F3NWeH

Earth Day San Francisco: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. April 21, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco. Celebrate the 49th year of Earth Day and the 100th anniversary of the Save the Redwoods League. Live bands, DJs, speakers, dance and performances, fashion show, chef zone and eco demo. Free. http://www.earthdaystreetfest.org/

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

Join the Unity in Community, a fun and engaging festival focused on building empathy and taking action to support a more inclusive community.

Organized by Piedmont & Millennium High Schools students, with support from PADC (Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Committee), the festival will features youth-led booths and performances, hands-on activities ranging from kid-friendly arts and crafts games to stations dedicated for letter-writing to Congress members.

There will be food trucks, fun and learning for all ages. Show your support for building a more inclusive Piedmont and come join the fun.

When

Sunday, April 22, 1-3 p.m.

Where

Piedmont Community Hall & Park 
711 Highland Ave 
Piedmont, CA 94611

Contact

Jill Lindenbaum 
415/572-3433 
jill.lindenbaum@gmail.com 
www.padc.info 

School Board Continues Efforts Towards Inclusion and Empathy

At the School Board Meeting on March 28th, Board members discussed continuing efforts towards inclusion and appreciating diversity, among smaller topic. As a member of the audience I was struck by how deeply the board cared about all members of the community. The PUSD School Board meets twice a month, functioning as a communicator between the community and the schools for the interest of Piedmont Unified School District. This was one of the shorter meetings, because the board had few topics to cover. During the first part of the meeting, representatives shared out on various events taking place in the schools.

The meeting opened with a representative from Piedmont Education Foundation telling the board about the upcoming Spring Fling fundraising event, which is in May. The event is hoping to raise more than $40,000 for the schools. This money is an important part of the PUSD Budget.

Student representative Anna Goldberg, a Senior at the high school, discussed student perspective of the past few weeks. She highlighted the drama of the senior class receiving college decisions and the uplifting event “Let’s talk Too,” which included an acting presentation and discussion forums. Next the meeting opened up to the informal speaking section.

Nathan Horst and Anders Bjork spoke about the rising popularity of Piedmont Mountain Biking team. The team is a group of 10 High Schoolers who ride and race for the NorCal High School Cycling League. The sport is co-ed and, according to Bjork, exceptionally inclusive and healthy. Horst postulated the questions of school PE credit, recognition by the Board, and receiving legitimacy such that other sports cannot oppose the growth of the group.

Eva Hunter, another senior, urged the board to try to find a female sports director to fill the spot left by Vic Acuna. The current lack of a sports director has been an issue for many students, and the board is trying to fill the vacancy. I agree with Hunter that Piedmont has a high capacity of extremely talented female athletes, making it a good idea to hire a female sports director. This level of support would boost up the athletics.

Next, Cheryl Wozniak and Irma Muñoz discussed “Let’s Talk Too,” the assembly which was held on Tuesday, March 27. The pair was enthusiastic about this event, which aimed to tackle issues of diversity through both a panel of relevant stories and discussion forums. With student perspectives from high schoolers Noah and Casey, actors in the story-sharing part of the event, it was clear that this attempt to educate students went well. In particular the students emphasized the success of including all of the relevant stories, which were acquired through a survey of students asking about stories. Another student, Laura, celebrated the success of the discussion portion of the day, which enabled students to talk about the issues at question, even when uncomfortable. In particular, the division into 30 person discussion forums helped people engage in meaningful conversation.

Before the meeting, I had spoken with Irma Muñoz, one of two Piedmont High School Vice Principals, about her role at the meeting. She told me that she was planning to brief the Board about the progress towards inclusion and appreciating diversity through “Let’s Talk Too.” As the administrator with the most involvement in this event, she was excited to share the positive reception by students and discuss future possibilities. She simply wanted to inform the Board of the event and its success from the perspective of administration.

Shannon, the Millennium High School Principal, agreed with the previous presenters; Let’s Talk Too was a major success and good step towards the future. She also emphasized the importance of empathy in education.

Board member Sarah Pearson shared her enjoyment and admiration of the assembly, which she observed to be “incredibly effective.” As an audience member at this event, I shared in Pearson’s optimism. Let’s talk Too really enabled meaningful discussion because it was honest, straightforward, and expected much from students. It seems that most of the students fully engaged in the discussion and got a lot from it.

Board member Cory Smegal reinforced the idea that such assemblies and events provide the tools to further discuss issues, and echoed Muñoz’s earlier idea that Tuesday’s success was built on three previous events over the past few semesters. According to Smegal, results will ripple through the community, helping to build more inclusion and acceptance.

The next speaker took the meeting to a different topic; he spoke about a modification to the Piedmont Adult School curriculum. Piedmont adult school wanted to make modification for graduation standards so that when students have fewer than 10 credits remaining to graduate and a serious event prevents them earning the last credits, the student can still graduate. This 10 credit flexibility still keeps the graduate above state requirements. The Board voted to support the modification.

Superintendent Randall Booker spoke about allowing CLAD to approve non-certified educators when qualified. The Board voted to allow certain well-qualified educators this opportunity. Next Booker brought the idea of the green energy agreement to the table. PUSD schools currently purchase their electricity from PG&E, but this act would change the provider to a group of clean-energy producers. The Board approved of this motion for coming years, delighted by the sustainability and cheaper prices.

Overall, it was an optimistic meeting, where the Board heard about the progress made towards inclusion, opportunities in clean energy, enabling greater access to high school graduation through the adult school, and athletic possibilities.

This meeting made me feel that the students at Piedmont schools are in good hands of the School Board, and owe much to this group’s diligent work on their behalf.

by Anders Bjork, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note:  Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Let’s Talk About Our Future Towards Equity

While the School Board meeting on March 28th only lasted 56 minutes, students along with faculty primarily discussed the wellbeing of our District’s campuses.

Anna Goldberg, Piedmont High School’s ASB Vice President, updated the School Board on the current activities that recently took place at the High School. These topics included the Lie-In, college admittance, spring break and the Mexico trip, “Lets Talk Too!”, along with career day.

During the Open Forum, Anders and I talked briefly about the Piedmont mountain biking team. We have both been participating in the sport for all four years of high school and have seen the team grow from two people to more than eleven students at the High School. Before we head off to college, we are trying to grow awareness about the sport, along with starting the conversation of gaining more support from the School District. Eva Hunter followed our statements and discussed Piedmont’s emphasis on male-sports, and how having a female Athletic Director could help shift the focus.

Ms. Muñoz, Piedmont High School’s Assistant Principal, introduced the subject of the “Lets Talk Too!,” diversity, equity, and social justice assembly. According to Muñoz, the event that occurred on March 27th at the High School allowed space for “student voice and student dialog, and was designed in response to feedback from students that they wanted the opportunity to engage and hear from each other.” Noah, a student at Millennium High School, along with Piedmont High School students, Casey and Laura, discussed their personal takeaways from the event. Shannon Overturf, Millennium High School’s principal, followed the student opinions with a conversation about the impact of the event.

Michael Brady discussed a first reading for a revised Board policy on Adult Education graduation requirements, BP 6200. The independent program started in 2006 allowing adults to receive a diploma, and since then has served 1,300 adults from in and around Piedmont. The Adult School currently requires 150.5 credits to graduate, which “vastly exceeds State ED code” according to Brady. Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way of finishing the credits required, such as an illness, loss of job or relative, etc. The proposed amendment would allow someone in a rare case to be exempt from finishing the credits if within 10 credits from graduating.

No action took place at this meeting, yet further discussion was added to the consent calendar. I believe this is very important to approve since many of the students in the program already have had a difficult life either coming from backgrounds of being homeless, or having previously been incarcerated, according to Brady. Although this would only be used in rare circumstances, it allows students a piece of mind in an unforeseen event, especially when they have met or exceeded State ED code.

Randy Booker, Superintendent,  then discussed the yearly approval for the Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators which allows the District the flexibility to issue emergency credentials. This is only used if the District can’t find a replacement, but a teacher has a Masters Degree for a certain field, however are lacking a teachers credential. This allows the District to issue an emergency credential for short terms. This was passed by Board Members Cory Smegal, Sarah Pearson, and Andrea Swenson.

Before the School Board meeting started, I interviewed Heather Frank, the Executive Director of the Piedmont Educational Foundation. Her primary job is to raise money for the District. Although she arrived with no specific concerns, she had a particular interest in hearing the Art Hecht Award Recipient, however, this was removed from the agenda for this meeting, and postponed to May 9th. She did speak during the meeting by updating the School Board on what’s been happening at the Piedmont Educational Foundation with the upcoming Spring Fling fundraiser. Lastly, she stated that she “appreciates hearing from the students who get up and talk about some of their concerns, and learning about the various policy changes and updates.”

The School Board meets on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers. The focus of each meeting changes based on current events and proposed policy changes, but the purpose of every meeting is to allow a space where the Board and community can communicate with each other about the city and schools. The number of people in attendance also depends on whether there is a hot topic, according to Frank.

by Nathan Horst, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

 Proposed Wireless Towers in the public right-of-way have been controversial.