Retro Fever! Catch it this spring!

Spring Fling 2009 this year is going retro…with Retro Fever!

Get your calendar set—you won’t want to miss this great event of food, drink, and auctions.

Join this year’s committee, Susan Ormond and Lisa Gardner-Event Co-Chairs; Tri-School Representatives Valerie Villanueva and Kirsten Merit (Beach); Vicky O’Bresly (Havens); and Lynne Hosler (Wildwood) for this great event and help support our excellent elementary school programs.

Retro Fever
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sequoyah Country Club
4550 Heafey Road, Oakland

For more information, download the press release and visit the Spring Fling website at www.piedmontspringfling.org.

Former PHS Music Teacher, Alan Harvey Passes

Alan Harvey, former Piedmont High School music teacher, died Tuesday in Incline, NV. Mr Harvey was director of Music at Incline High School since 2008.  Mr Harvey previously taught in Piedmont for 21 years and the Alan L. Harvey theater is named after him. He was a graduate of Holy Names University in Oakland.

More information about Mr Harvey’s passing is available from the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza website.

Support the Schools—and have some fun!

Two fun events are coming up this weekend, either of which could use your support. (or go wild and attend both!)

First up is the Wildwood Dad’s Club’s crab feed.

Tickets are available from your favorite WW dad or at the door.

Date: Saturday February 7th
Time: 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Location: Piedmont Veterans Memorial Hall, 401 Highland Ave, above the police station.
Price: $40 in advance ($45 at the door)

That same evening is the Beach Dad’s Club Winter Music Jazz Night.

Tickets: $40 per person (online at http://beachdadsclub.com/)
Location: Piedmont Community Hall
Time: 7:00 – 11:00 Adults only, childcare available
Music: Beach Dad, Miles Perkins’ band, mingus amungus
Food: Catering by Beach Dad, Rob Lam’s Butterfly Restaurant

All three elementary schools now have Dad’s Clubs that are working to build the social connections between the school’s dads and raise some money for the kids.

I hope that you can attend one or both of these great events.

–L

Community Meetings on Parcel Tax Renewal to be Held February 7th & 9th

PLEASE COME AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

On June 2 Piedmont will be voting to renew and possibly increase the existing parcel tax measures that fund more than 25% of the Piedmont Unified School District’s annual budget.   As part of the process to determine the specifics of the measure that will be put before the voters, an advisory committee to the School Board is gathering public input.   On Saturday February 7^th and Monday February 9^th the committee will be holding two community meetings to explain the current state of local public education funding – including the role of the parcel tax – and to elicit input from citizens on the size and scope of the tax that will be on the June 2 ballot.  (The meetings will cover identical information; the committee is holding two sessions because it recognizes that not all citizens can easily attend a weekend morning or weekday evening event).

The two meetings will be held:

Saturday February 7^th

9:00 am to 11:00 am

Veterans Memorial Hall

401 Highland Avenue

Monday February 9^th

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Beach School Auditorium

100 Lake Avenue

The parcel tax helps fill the large – and growing – financial gap between what the state provides and what the PUSD spends each year to maintain the extraordinarily high quality of public education in our town.  It supports more than 60 teaching and classroom aide positions throughout the district.  It allows our schools to maintain smaller class sizes, offer advanced elective and AP classes, upgrade technology resources, and provide funding for the library and counseling and foreign language and science and art and music and athletic programs that our students would not otherwise have.   The parcel tax is, in short, critical to one of Piedmont’s defining civic attributes: a deep commitment to excellent public schools.

The current state of California’s budget and recent decisions made in Sacramento have further intensified fiscal pressure on all local school districts, including the PUSD, making the upcoming vote on Piedmont’s parcel tax especially important.   We strongly encourage all city residents to attend the community meetings and make their opinions heard.

For more information about the parcel tax advisory committee or the meetings scheduled for February 7^th and 9^th, please contact Terry London 428-0144  terry@wfl.net or  Sarah Pearson 658-0888  srpear@gmail.com.

PUSD Green Initiative Commitee – Jan 22nd 3:30pm

The second meeting of the PUSD Green Initiative Committee will be held on Thursday January 22 at 3:30 p.m. at Beach School ’s Multipurpose Room – 100 Lake Ave. (Please note the location change.)

After an update on recent “green” efforts at the District and school levels, and a discussion of how the current budget crisis affects PUSD Green Initiative planning for this year, there will be a presentation on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools) construction standards by John Nelson, the architect for the district’s Measure E bond program. The main focus of the meeting is the approval of a draft PUSD Board Policy on environmental sustainability. Topics that may be included in this policy are waste reduction, sustainability in construction and modernization, environmentally preferable purchasing, energy conservation, climate action, environmental education, and issues relating to landscaping and grounds.

The public is encouraged to attend and comment.

New Blog Aims To Promote Discussion of Temporary Housing Issue

Piedmonters Jay Bransfield and Liz Becker have created a blog to promote discussion of the temporary housing issue.

You can visit it here: http://piedmont-kids.typepad.com/

drew

Traffic Calming On Harrison/Oakland

Many of us drive Oakland/Harrison regularly to get to downtown Oakland, probably more so since the opening of Whole Foods.  You might be interested in participating with our Oakland neighbors in developing traffic calming ideas for this corridor.

Thursday, January 22: Community Workshop: Harrison/Oakland Traffic Calming

The workshop will be held at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, located at 2501 Harrison St. @ 27th, Reidenbach Hallk, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

For those on and along the Harrison Street and Oakland Avenue corridor, from Grand Avenue to the City of Piedmont border, this is the first of several important workshops to attend.

The plan is being funded by a Caltrans Planning Grant. Once this planning process is
complete, the City and community groups can apply for an implementation grant (several million dollars) to make capital improvements.

Project Goals:

• Calming traffic and improving neighborhood livability along Oakland’s Harrison Street/Oakland Avenue Corridor.
• Improved Access & Safety for Pedestrians
• Improving Bicycle Facilities
• CalmingTraffic
• Improving 1-580 Signage & Access
• Improving AC Transit Stops

For more information, contact Alisa Shen, Project Manager here or 510.238.2166.

Thank you to Oakland Councilmember Pat Kernighan – this notice is lifted directly from her E-newsletter.  Read the whole thing here:  http://www.patkernighan.com/News/Jan09.htm.  Its loaded with information about MLK Day celebrations, too.

drew

Piedmont Girls Softball Signups

Final Week to Register for Spring Softball

Sign up now for the 2009 Piedmont Girl’s Softball season. After Jan 15th a late fee applies, so don’t wait—register now. Visit the Piedmont Girls Softball website to learn more.

–L

Emeryville, Well, what do you know?

How much do you know about the proposed Emery-Piedmont campus? One great way to learn more is to visit the site for a tour either Saturday, January 17th 10-12 or Saturday January 24th 10-12.

You may not realize how many of your Piedmont neighbors work in Emeryville. Novartis, Leap Frog, Jamba Juice, Kodak Gallery (formerly Ofoto), Peets Coffee & Tea, and Peaberry’s Coffee and Tea all have corporate offices in Emeryville. Peets and Jamba also have retail outlets as well. And then there is Pixar. I think they make movies…you may have heard of them.

For the foodie, there is Trader Joe’s, Arizmendi Bakery, Townhouse Bar & Grill, Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe (2008’s Best East Bay Diner) and Charles Chocolates (5 blocks from the Emery school site! THAT could be a problem for me.). I usually go to the Peets in the Public Market, but if Peets is not your cup o’joe, there is a Starbucks about 4 blocks from the campus. Your child may already be familiar with Head over Heals Gymnastics, and they will surely love the new Doyle-Hollis park going in about 1 block from the school. Aquatic park is also just a few blocks away.

Shoppers have Bay Street or Ikea for a little retail therapy, and if the big stores are not your thing, Berkeley’s 4th Street is 5 minutes away. Also nearby is the Berkeley’s Farmers Market (Tuesdays, 2-6 Derby@MLK).

–L

Let me know if you  have other cool Emeryville tips.

Temporary Housing Options Revised Again

The options for temporary housing of the students during the seismic work to be presented to the School Board on January 14, 2009 have been revised again.  The School Board will also hear a presentation by counsel for the School District on the “CEQA” implications of each proposal and the possible legal challenges that might be made to each such site.  Any legal challenge to a particular location involving the location Havens students would likely make it non-viable as it would delay implementation beyond the necessary time frame in which Havens construction must commence.  To meet that time-line, the School Board will be asked to make its final decision on January 27, 2009.  The City Council will hold a public hearing on January 26, 2009 to address whether the City will make any of the City-owned sites available to the School District for temporary housing.  The current proposed options for temporary housing are as follows.

OPTION A

2009-10    Emery Site for Havens; Havens Site for PHS Project
2010-11    Wildwood/Beach sites and schedules to be determined

OPTION B

2009-10    Havens split between current site and Vista tennis courts; PHS students on Wildwood blacktop/batting cages
2010-11    Wildwood/Beach sites and schedules to be determined

OPTION C

2009-10    Havens split between current site and Wildwood; Delay PHS projects to 2010/2011
2010-11    Use Wildwood portables for PHS (remove portables on Havens)
2011-12    Wildwood/Beach sites and schedules to be determined

OPTION D

2009-10    Havens on Wildwood blacktop/batting cages and Beach tennis courts; PHS students on Havens site
2010-11    Wildwood/Beach sites and schedules to be determined