Archive for November, 2008
Your weekend: Ho ho ho!
Looking for something to do with the kids on this looong holiday weekend? Alameda Towne Centre is hosting a tree lighting event from 4 to 7 p.m. today in the heart of the mall. The event includes performances by the Piedmont Choir, Alameda Civic Ballet, Chipman Middle School Orchestra and Bay Farm and Franklin Choir.
The tree lighting is set for 6:30 p.m. and will include a sing-a-long led by the West Alameda Business Association’s Kathy Moehring and Kelly Park.
Santa will be on hand for photos starting at 11 a.m. There’ll be a balloon artist and face painting too.
For the Seussian event flyer and Santa’s photo op schedule, click here.
Post Thanksgiving lethargy
I got nothing for you today folks. Between all the cooking and socialization yesterday, I’m exhausted. So check out Stop Drop and Roll’s three posts on Clearing the Air on Redevelopment Debt, parts one, two, and three.
And remember if you do plan on braving the hoards of shoppers today, do it locally, I [...]
Clearing the Air, part 3
The response to Monday’s clearing the air post just keeps coming…
Happy Thanksgiving!
Here’s hoping you all are enjoying the day with friends and family. And if you’re looking for some great food and company today, Christ Episcopal Church is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They’re at 1700 Santa Clara Avenue. The Journal’s got the scoop right here.
Happy Thanksgiving!
To everyone, and even though in general I am not a big fan of Bobby Flay, he has a great tutorial on how to carve a turkey. Because, I have to admit, turkey carving is always my most stress filled part of Thanksgiving.
Happy thanksgiving to you all and your families!
Alameda’s new Nea charter school approved
The Alameda Unified School District board voted last night 3-1, with board president Bill Schaff out of town and Janet Gibson dissenting, to approve the Nea Community Learning Center charter. The school’s facilitators have requested space to house the new school at Longfellow Education Center. The Island has details.
NEA CHARTER APPROVED
The school board on Tuesday night approved a charter application for Nea Community Learning Center. The vote was 3-1, with Trustee Janet Gibson casting the sole vote against the charter and Board President Bill Schaff absent.
The charter will move forward pending an agreement with the district that must be signed by January 31, 2009. Separately, the charter’s proponents have asked the district for space at Longfellow Education Center, and their request for space is pending.
Gibson questioned whether the new school would reflect the district’s diversity, and she said she’s not convinced the school’s plan will accommodate the district’s neediest students. Gibson said she would like to see the district create magnets and other “schools of choice” that offer a broader palette of options to Alameda’s students.
She estimated the charter’s approval could cost the district about $2.5 million as it loses students that would have attended Alameda public schools to the charter. But the school board is not allowed to consider that as a factor when it makes its decision.
The district’s charter school consultant, Charles Cadman, said the board lacked a legal reason to deny the charter. “Basically, everything is in order,” Cadman said. “I can find no statutory basis for denial of this charter.”
A separate consultant’s report concluded that the charter application had minor problems, including budget and bookkeeping issues. In a memo, Superintendent Ardella Dailey said those issues would likely be resolved and weren’t enough to deny the application.
One major detail the district and Nea will have to work out is how the charter will provide special education services, since the charter intends to join a different special education local plan area than the district’s. In response to detailed questions from Trustee David Forbes, Cadman, and Nea’s attorney, Paul Minney, said they could work out a figure detailing what special education costs the charter would be responsible for.
The school board denied Nea’s first charter application in January of this year, saying they feared the school population would not reflect the district’s racial diversity and that its plan relied too much on the district to supplement its offerings. The county Board of Education, which heard a subsequent appeal of that decision, “reluctantly” followed suit.
The K-12 school is slated to open in the fall of 2009. It is expected to have around 300 students when it opens and 400 students by its third year of operation. The school will be run separately from Alameda Community Learning Center, whose leaders proposed it.
In other school news, the board welcomed incoming superintendent Kirsten Vital, who will take over for the retiring Dailey in January. Community members who were involved in the search said their Oakland counterparts who have worked with Vital since she joined that district in January 2006 spoke highly of her, calling her a strong listener and a problem solver.
Trustee Tracy Lynn Jensen said she was swayed by the fact that Vital had dealt with the some of the same major issues in Oakland – declining enrollment and charter schools – that Alameda is facing.
Members of two unions serving teachers and school employees complained that they didn’t have the input in the selection process they were promised, but said they too are looking forward to working with Vital.
Vital, who attended the meeting with her husband, said she’s looking forward to getting started and that she plans to reach out to the community to get a handle on the district’s strengths and challenges.
Clearing the air, part 2
A reader writes in: “are you stupid? or just evil?” you decide.
It’s … good!
A reader wrote in last week to ask if I could talk about the financial success of the new theater downtown. So I checked in with the city’s development services director, Leslie Little, who conveniently gave the city council a report card of sorts on just this topic last week. According to Little, the news is … good!
According to Little’s report, the theater “exceeded expectations” of its operator, Alameda Entertainment Associates, over the summer. The start of school heralded a sharp decline in attendance though, so we’ll see how the numbers shake out over the next several months.
Burgermeister and Alameda Wine Company, the two businesses attached to the theater, also saw business that exceeded their expectations, though the restaurant, which has seen revenues that were 19 percent higher than expected, hasn’t turned a profit just yet. And Alameda Wine Company is looking to reduce its hours, which are now 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Businesses have extended their hours and made other changes intended to draw moviegoers (Pappo’s got a “movie bites” menu) and they are reporting an increase in patronage attributable to the theater, the report says. And the theater project is credited with creating 214 jobs in the area, including jobs at the theater and other retail establishments.
And the garage is making money, honey: From February to July, it made about $77,000 more than expected and its expenses were about $45,000 less than expected.
Even the meter maids are doing a boffo business: Per the report, “(e)nforcement revenues from the dedicated parking technicians are higher than projected,” though those are expected to stabilize in the coming months.
Give a little bit
Even though we should always be sparing a thought for our Alameda neighbors and organizations in need, it’s generally only around the holidays that we start giving. I know these are tough times for everyone, but if you have a few ducats (or a few volunteer hours) to spare here are some worthy organizations doing [...]
