The Piedmont City Council will hold a Special Study Session, open to the public, concerning standards for wireless communication facilities on April 17, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 120 Vista Avenue.

The information is intended to provide the City with a foundation on which development standards and regulations will be considered for future wireless communication facilities in the public right-of-way.

Residents are encouraged to submit questions related to the legal restrictions and the technology for wireless communication facilities in advance of the study session.

Due to the large amount of community interest in this topic, and the desire to provide the most complete and accurate information as possible, comments and questions are requested by April 9, 2018.

Residents can submit questions to cityclerk@piedmont.ca.gov. Written comments and questions will be accepted after this date, but staff may not be able to research and provide an answer by the time of the meeting.

Residents are also encouraged to share their comments at the meeting.

The April 17, 2018 study session will be televised live on KCOM-TV [Channel 27], the City’s government TV station, and will be available through streaming video on the City’s web site http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/video/

For more information, please visit the Wireless Communication Facilities page on the City of Piedmont’s web site at:   http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/publicworks/wireless.shtml

Residents with questions for staff are encouraged to contact Senior Planner Pierce MacdonaldPowell at (510) 420-3050 or via email at pmacdonald@piedmont.ca.gov.

Read the full City announcement> 2018-03-26 Council Study Session on Wireless

“Here are some photos of PUSD board members, teachers, admin, staff, and students attending Saturday’s March for our lives in downtown Oakland.”   Randy Booker, Superintendent of the Piedmont Unified School District

Photographs showing Piedmont Unified School District teachers, administrators, Board members, and students marching for gun safety on March 24, 2018.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

On March 14th, 2018, the Piedmont School Board met to discuss issues related to the protests that occurred the same day in schools across the Piedmont community. The protests and student gatherings were a response to the violent events that transpired on February 14th, 2018 in Parkland Florida. Schools across the nation planned demonstrations protesting gun laws and honoring the 17 victims of the shooting.

On the proposal for the School Safety and Gun Violence Resolution 12-2017-2018, members of the Board spoke on the need to establish and perform further background checks as well as banning certain classes of firearms, to ensure the safety of students and the Piedmont community as a whole. In addition, the Board spoke on creating additional funding for the implementation of counselors and taking measures against bullying. An agreement was unanimously reached and Resolution 12-2017-2018 was approved and prepared to be sent to representatives.

Board Member Cory Smegal addressed the issue of absences for the day as many Middle and High School students skipped class to protest. Unlike middle schoolers, high schoolers at Piedmont High School were marked down with an unexcused absence.

Superintendent Randall Booker spoke to this, stating that the High School event was “student led” and made up of student leaders. In contrast, the Middle School protest was organized by the staff. For reasons of security and liability, Booker stated that although he and the Board gave their full support to students exercising their rights to free speech, they could not excuse high schoolers as students had organized the event independently from the school.

Teachers and school staff had made it clear that they were going to mark protesting students with an unexcused absence but would offer accommodation for make ups. Students should not be too worried about these absences as they are common practices when there are walkouts and protests.

Last year, I participated in Piedmont/Oakland walkout protesting the election. We were gone for an entire class period but teachers were very open to making accommodations or opportunities to make up missing work. Students’ walkouts and protests are important ways we can make ourselves heard and are necessary despite the consequences.

On the matter of free speech, members of the Board discussed the importance of students expressing their voices. This was “not a movement of disobedience [but rather] a movement of solidarity.”  The Board recognized that the High School Lie-in was not designed to be a political protest but rather an event mourning the tragic events of the Parkland shooting. High school student leaders had also organized more politically minded events during lunch the week of the 14th.

The School Board also spoke on the issue of lighting at Witter Field. PUSD Director of Alternative and Adult Education proposed the implementation of 42 light fixtures replacing the 72 light fixtures on Witter Field. This new system would provide better lighting quality, would be more energy efficient and would reduce the amount of light pollution. The Board unanimously approved the implementation of the project during the summer and the Piedmont community can expect improved lighting as soon as Fall 2018.

The School District is facing a problem where students during lunch are using the Main Park as a lunch spot but rarely clean up, leaving trash and food. I spoke to Ms Levenson, Piedmont High’s librarian who told me even the police have gotten involved, passing out littering fines to students who don’t pick up after themselves. The School Board spoke of various repercussions this could have and the possibility of closing the campus at lunch time.

by Thomas Poppas, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Piedmont High School journalism students publish an online version of their newspaper, The Piedmont Highlander. 

Residents who want to read the online Highlander can click below. 

http://tphnews.com/

The Race to be the Smartest Kid in the Room

In a town of overbearing parents and their genius children, there is a majority that is not being spoken for. The average student is being forgotten. With parents trying to propel their kids to excel in every subject, teachers want it to slow down. The name of the government body is the School Board. The purpose of their meetings is to discuss issues that affect the school. People may also bring problems to the School Board to deliberate. The School Board meeting meets every two weeks.

The major issue that was discussed at the February 28, 2018 meeting was how math classes should be compressed. There is a concern right now that the classes are being too compressed and are cramming too much information into a short amount of time. Teachers want to slow down the math classes and allow kids to digest the material. However, parents with high achieving kids think the math classes are too slow.

Allison Elvekrog spoke out saying that her child Jack was bored in Calculus AB.  She was concerned that her son was not being pushed enough in the class. However, student Hayden Stone who is in the same class felt like the class was too hard.  Hayden said that the class was challenging enough and she thought there were very few kids who were bored.

In my opinion the math classes are the hardest classes offered at Piedmont.  Math analysis was the hardest class I have ever taken at Piedmont.  I think that kids who excel at math are rare and are special circumstances.  Maybe there should be a special class for them that will allow them to excel.  I think the math classes should be less compressed and go into more detail.

In an interview with Diana Miller, she said she attended the meeting because she is invested in the Math Pathways program.  She wants to have an influence over the School Board’s decision and present her side of the story.  She said that one of the problems with the current math situation is that people are double compressing due to social pressure, which she does not think is right.  She said that she was surprised that the Board was split on the decision.  She thought they would all agree or disagree with the presentation.  She said that in two weeks the Board will come back with their decision.

by Riley Francis, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Let’s Talk (About Listening)

Adults and students milled into the Piedmont Veterans’ Hall on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 8:30 in the morning. Boxes of coffee and bagels were sitting in a room adjacent to the main room and the attendees of the “Let’s Talk!” program took their turn waiting in line and smearing flavored cream cheese on bread. Less than ten minutes later, everyone was seated around one of twelve circular tables as Cheryl Wozniak introduced speaker Sara Wicht.

Sara Wicht, an educational consultant with over 20 years of experience in social justice and anti-bias education, led the “Let’s Talk!” program session with the help of Cheryl Wozniak, Director of Curriculum & Instruction. As may be indicated from the title “Let’s Talk! Building a More Inclusive Piedmont Through Deliberative Dialogue”, “Let’s Talk!” was hosted to open up discussions about diversity and, by association, identity. “Let’s Talk!” was hosted Feb. 5, 10, and 11 and it is unclear whether these sessions will be continued next year.

The major issues discussed at this meeting included identity and how it compares to others, the benefits and downfalls of race, how to respond to strong emotions, implicit bias and stereotypes, and selective attention.

Everyone participated in a set of activities and afterwards we, as table groups, discussed the deeper meaning behind the activity and then discussed the topic, such as what we consider the most important part of our identity and why.

Personally, I consider my race to be the most important part of my identity, because it is the part of me that I’ve been aware of the longest.  I also spent a couple of years grappling with what it means to be Asian, a Japanese-American, in a predominantly White school.  Now, it feels less urgent to represent Asians and be aware that I am Asian in Piedmont, but it was definitely a concept that I focused a long time on and, because of that, it is what I would consider the most important part of my identity. During the debrief, we discussed how we are not one part of our identity and that we are multi-faceted individuals, which I could not be more grateful for.

“Let’s Talk!” was a workshop that you had to sign up for to attend, which may have had some shortcomings. I think David Lindenbaum put it best when he said that “a majority of the people that are here are probably not the people who need to be here.”

Lindenbaum said that he attended the “Let’s Talk!” workshop to have a greater awareness of challenges that people of color face and how their view of the community and the world are different than his.

“I don’t know if I learned how to approach difficult subjects, because I think right now people are questioning what is fact,” said Lindenbaum. “I think this group is in the middle, open-minded.”

 Lindenbaum said having an open mind and listening to other peoples’ opinions is the way to bring positive change.

by Susan Kuroda, Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Piedmont School Board adopted the new Math Pathways Proposal on a 3-2 vote.

    The purpose of the Wednesday, February 28 meeting was mainly to review the new proposed Math Pathways Recommendation for the Middle School and High School, championed by the Director of Curriculum for PUSD, Dr. Cheryl Wozniak.

    The Piedmont Board of Education is composed of five elected representatives oligarchy whose purpose is to represent the interests of all students, review and approve budgets and employs all school faculty members from teachers to the Superintendent and votes on policies within the State of California’s Education Codes. Piedmont School Board usually meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month in the City Hall Council Chambers at 7:00.

    The major issue addressed during the meeting was this was the last hearing of the adoption of the proposed Math Pathways program. Dr. Wozniak gave a presentation on the proposed 2018-19 Math Pathways proposal. In her presentation of the now adopted proposal, she explained students in the Grade Level Compression(“GLC”), High School Compression(“HSC) and Middle School Compression(“MSC”) will have the Math Pathways program. After 5th grade math, both pathways will have completed Common Core 6-8.  When the students reach 8th grade, however for students on MSC they will have already complete IM-1. But, once they are in High School, GLC students would only take IM-1 through 3 from freshman year to junior year, leaving these students with only an option of taking Math Analysis or Statistics (“Stats”) during their Senior year with no option of taking a Calculus class.

   In HSC and MSC both pathways by the end of 10th grade students would complete IM-3 and the pathway only allows students to take either Math Analysis or Honors Math Analysis in their Junior year and in their Senior year these students will only have the choice of taking AP Calc AB(“Calc = Calculus”), AP Calc BC, Stats or Honors Stats(“H Stats”). However, for students taking AP Calc BC, Calc A would be integrated in this class.

   PHS Seniors Jeremy Wong, Jane Anderson, and Kylie Hilton were the only students from the audience who opposed the now adopted math pathways proposal.

    I strongly oppose the new adoption of the Math Pathways 2018-2019 proposal.  It is fundamentally flawed for three reasons.

• One – What is the point of having HSC and MSC, 2 pathways, if the students when they arrive at their Senior year end up having the option to take either Calc AB, Calc BC, Stats or H Stats? In short HSC, and MSC end up at the same spot, their both really same pathway. It does not make any sense whatsoever.
• Two – The proposal prevents and limits High School Students from taking AP math classes (AP Calc AB and BC are the only AP math classes that PHS offers) during students’ Junior year. For the class of 2018 and 2019, students who were on the old Advanced Math Pathway could take AP Calc AB during their Junior year and AP Calc BC during their Senior year.
• Three – Since students under this proposal can not take both AP Calc AB and BC in high school and that AP Calc BC has AP Calc A already integrated within AP Calc BC, what is the point of having Calc AB. Students under this proposal would probably just take AP Calc BC because they are learning Calc A and Calc BC in the same course plus, the majority of colleges only accept calc credit if Students took the AP Calc BC test.

    We do not want to drive more students out of Piedmont because of the math program. Piedmont High School has 397 students and the senior class of 2018 only 97 students. The class of 2018 is the smallest class at PHS, and the class size has significantly decreased over the past four years. The adopted proposal will create more unnecessary stress and pressure, plus it will make it harder for the future classes to compete against students nationally and internationally when applying to colleges.

    Students and Parents were not well informed by the school of the math pathways proposal.

    I do not understand why the School Board passed an extremely flawed proposal which is detrimental to the future classes in the long run, instead of not adopting it and “assigning” the school to create a more revised proposal that gives students more autonomy when choosing their math classes.

    Before the meeting started, I interviewed MHS Senior Joshua Miller, VP of Millennium High School (MHS) who has a non-voting seat on the Board as a student representative.  Miller said to me that part of the role of the office of the VP of MHS is to address what’s going student wise in Piedmont and at Millennium as a part of the District. I asked what issues he would like addressed during the meeting. Miller said, “Well, academic wise I’m just bringing up how the quarter ends for Piedmont and marking period ends at Millennium, and activities stuff like the schools plays, the Bird Calling Contest, the community dinner and stuff that has been happening around the community.”

By Jeremy Wong,  Piedmont High School Senior

Editors Note: Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Board Marches Toward Change

    On February 28th, Sarah Pearson, the President of the Piedmont Board of Education, opened up a discussion about change. Initially leading everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance, she stood in the center of the semi-circle table, surrounded by the four other members and the Superintendent. This was the second meeting of the month, as the Board meets bimonthly on the second and fourth Wednesdays in the Council Chambers of City Hall to discuss issues involving the School District and seek to make decisions that will improve the schools.

To start the meeting, Ms. Pearson introduced Mr. Kessler, the president of the Association of Piedmont Teachers (APT), who spoke about APT’s concern for school safety in relation to the February 14th shooting in Parkland Florida. He explained that the group had voted to declare March 14th a day of action, suggesting the possibility of letter writing to officials, moments of silence in respect for the people who died, murals, and marches. His words later prompted Board Member Doug Ireland to show his support for APT, and to voice his concern for the safety of teenagers in Piedmont and across the country.

Superintendent Randall Booker expressed his support for APT’s actions. He mentioned the nation-wide plans for showing respect to the victims of the Parkland shootings on March 14th and spoke on behalf of the School District in supporting students in taking part. He spoke of the importance of standing in unity during times like these.

Mr. Ireland spoke passionately about a couple different issues, including the mental health of students and the environment that Piedmont families create at our schools. He expressed horror at the number of students who are in states of, or who have ever been in states of, depression and at how many have contemplated suicide. Drawing connections between depression and stress, he mentioned the intense environment surrounding college that exists in Piedmont. He voiced a desire to change the level of expectations that are placed onto students as they apply and decide where to go to college.

In response to the recent resignation of the Athletic Director, a common occurrence for Piedmont High School in the past two years, he admitted that blame has to be placed on the parents and community. His assertion set the tone for the rest of the meeting: a desire for change.

Continuing with the theme of changing and improving, Dr. Cheryl Wozniak presented to the Board about past and future opportunities for members of the community to learn about diversity, inclusion, equity and other issues.

The Let’s Talk sessions have been successful, with many Associated Student Body members from the High School attending, along with other faculty and members of the community.

As expressed by Dr. Wozniak, there will be more sessions for people to attend, along with other events, including the “Unity in Community” assembly, which is organized by students. These attempts are all in the hopes of teaching people about diversity and engagement in order to fulfill new social justice standards for administrators.

Terry Montgomery spoke to the Board about measure H1, and the Board moved to accept her report.

Next, Pete Palmer presented the new Safe School Plans. The plans focus on emergency drill protocol, with the major change being the implementation of lock down drills. Amal Smith, a Board Member, spoke in favor of this change, mentioning that the frequency of fire drills has allowed students and faculty to have memorized the protocol. The Board approved the plan.

The next major item on the agenda was the issue of the new Math Pathways proposal. Dr. Wozniak also presented the proposal, explaining the changes that were being made and the many options that students will have if the proposal is passed by the Board. The changes would allow students entering high school to have the opportunity to study over the summer and then take an assessment to accelerate and take a more advanced class, for example.

Personally, I think that having so many options about math classes could be a bad thing. Students at Piedmont are constantly stressed and many take on very hard classes and have large work loads. Adding more options, and therefore more ways to seemingly get ahead or excel, will only cause the stress level of students to increase.

Math teacher, Diana Miller, later told me that she, along with others members of the Math Pathways Committee, attended the meeting to hear the information presented and the Board’s decision. The Board voted three to two in favor of the changes, which pleased Ms. Miller. The discussion was not a brief one, and had been going on for months. Ms. Miller said she was “impressed by the depth of discussion between the five Board members before the vote”, as all members thoughtfully considered what is best for the students in Piedmont.

by Zoe Adams, Piedmont High School Senior

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many public City meetings are broadcast live via the City website at > http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/video/ or on Cable Channel 27.  These meetings can be viewed after the meetings from video recordings found on the City website.  Many other meetings are not broadcast requiring those interested in the subject matter to be physically present to observe the meetings.

Below are a list of the City’s selection of which meetings in March 2018 will or will not be recorded and broadcast.

BROADCAST:

• City Council March 5 meeting video can be found > HERE.
• Wednesday March 7  Park Commission 5:30 pm Chambers
• Monday March 12 Planning Commission 5:00 pm Chambers
• Monday March 19 City Council 7:30 pm Chambers
• Wednesday March 21 Recreation Commission 7:30 pm Chambers

MEETINGS NOT BROADCAST:

• Tuesday  March 6  CIP Review Committee 7:00 pm Conference Room – (CIP Committee deliberates on which capital projects to recommend for funding by the City Council. This is an expense related committee.)
• Thursday March 15 City Council Special Meeting 5:30 pm Conference Room Interviews of applicants for Commission and Committee Appointments. (Open to everyone but seldom observed by Piedmonters.)
• Tuesday March 20 City / School Liaison 4:00 pm Conference Room (Representatives from the City Council and School Board discuss subjects of mutual interest as safety, facilities, etc. and return to their respective bodies to share information. Meeting is open to the public.)
• Tuesday March 20 CIP Review Committee 7:00 pm Conference Room ( Deliberations continue on funding choices. This is an expense related committee. )
• Thursday March 29 Public Safety Committee 5:30 pm Chambers.

All public meetings are open to the public to observe and participate. Exception: Closed Sessions.

Agendas for meetings will be posted in City Hall and the Piedmont Police Department at least 72 hours prior to each meeting.  Agendas for some Council, Commission & appointed Committee meetings are also posted online on the City website http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/.  Copies of all agendas may be requested from the office of the City Clerk, John O. Tulloch, 120 Vista Avenue, Piedmont or by calling 510-420-3040.

Notice and agendas of special meetings will be provided by the City at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.