BayCityNews
STOCKTON: NEW SUPERINTENDENT HOSTS MEET, GREET, DISCUSSES PLANS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT
Stockton Unified School District’s new biliterate superintendent of schools hosted a meet and greet with the community Wednesday evening inside the Arthur Coleman Administrative Complex in Stockton. Michelle Rodriguez, the former superintendent of Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Monterey, will be entering the new position amid the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s investigation into possible fraud in the district, audit reports and deaths of students.
By Victoria Franco
Bay City News
Stockton Unified School District’s new biliterate superintendent of schools hosted a meet and greet with the community Wednesday evening inside the Arthur Coleman Administrative Complex in Stockton.
Michelle Rodriguez, the former superintendent of Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Monterey, will be entering the new position amid the San Joaquin County District
Attorney’s investigation into possible fraud in the district, audit reports and deaths of students.
“I am here today to tell you that I am not here to fix you. I am not here to fix the system,” Rodriguez told the crowd. “I am here to lead, to support, and to collaborate with you so we jointly move Stockton forward.”
AngelAnn Flores, the district’s board president for Area 2, said during the interview process that Rodriguez had ideas on how to fix the district budget, had done a study on the district needs and had already watched previous board meetings.
“So, she really knew the type of fire she was stepping into…and she still said yes to Stockton Unified,” Flores said.
Before showcasing her plans and ideas for the school district Rodriguez gave attendees some insight into her personal life and explained how she became an educator.
“I come from a family of educators,” Rodriguez said. “Almost every single person in my family is in education.”
Rodriguez said for several years she lived in Spain and was a dual immersion teacher where she taught in English and Spanish. Her bilingual ability could be of use for the approximately 45 percent of Stockton’s residents who are Latino.
She said one of her personal beliefs was that children are the heartbeat of what educators do and that to keep the best interests of students in mind she may make some decisions that won’t be the easiest but will be best for the students.
During a presentation Rodriguez said some of her plans include goals of giving students a world-class education, continuing to be inclusive and care about diversity and holding people accountable including herself, and give a 30-day progress report.
“I just learned this yesterday, but I think it’s amazing… 75 percent of all graduates stay in Stockton,” Rodriguez said. “So that means if we have a world-class education, we’re going to have a world-class community.”
She said to prepare for the first day of the school year she has already held meetings with the former interim superintendent and has worked with the SUSD board trustees to better understand what they want and need for the students in their district.
From July to September, she said there will be listening sessions held with sites, departments, union leaders, elected officials, parent leaders and community partners to understand the current challenges being seen and priorities.
Earlier this year FCMAT, a state agency that works with California’s education agencies to identify and resolve financial and operational problems, found in their “extraordinary audit” alleged sufficient evidence of fraud, misappropriation of funds and other possibly illegal fiscal practices within the school district.
Following the FCMAT report, the agency recommended that the San Joaquin County superintendent notify the governing board of SUSD, the state controller, the state superintendent of public instruction, and the county district attorney about the possible findings of fraud and possible violations of the state’s Brown Act laws regarding public meetings.
A civil grand jury report released this month stated that more could be done to keep schools in the county safe after examining 14 public schools and the county’s Office of Education.
In the report jurors raised the question Were schools in their district taking appropriate measures to protect students and staff?
In 2022, Alycia Reynaga, 15, was fatally stabbed on the campus of Stagg High School in Stockton after a man entered the campus through an unattended security checkpoint.
Earlier this year, two Cesar Chavez High School students were attacked at Unity Park. Thai Khin, 17, died after being shot and another student was pistol-whipped.
Rodriguez said the district has begun making “really good” strides on safety and noted that safety was one of the main components that parents are talking about.
She said the district has been focusing on cameras at the school gates to make visitors buzz onto the campus and kiosks where people sign in and add their personal information into the device that will be run through a database.
“We definitely need to have a focus on school safety because we know that when parents send their child, they expect them to be safe,” Rodriguez said. “And that’s not always how people feel now in public schools, right?”
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SAN LEANDRO POLICE CHIEF
By Bay City News
Angela Averiett has been appointed to serve as the next police chief of San Leandro.
Prior to her previous role as interim police chief in San Leandro, Averiett served as the police chief in Los Altos.
“Chief Averiett is a well-respected law enforcement veteran, who is an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and community building,” said City Manager Fran Robustelli.
Averiett is also part of The Curve, an organization that gives leaders in policing the most current and creative ideas about leadership and the resources to implement them so they can more “effectively modernize their cultures from the inside-out.”
Averiett stated, “It is an honor to be gifted the chance to serve the dedicated women and men of the San Leandro Police Department and the rich, diverse group of San Leandrans.”
Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.
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ShreyaKomar 1149a06/04/2
CONTACT: Sonia Lee (650) 947-2611 or slee@losaltosca.gov
Bay Area
Arrests Made at People’s Park as Preparations For Construction on Site Begin Again
Seven people were arrested early Thursday morning at Berkeley’s People’s Park as fencing was put up in preparation for a controversial construction project to build housing for students and formerly unhoused people on the public park.
By Bay City News
Seven people were arrested early Thursday morning at Berkeley’s People’s Park as fencing was put up in preparation for a controversial construction project to build housing for students and formerly unhoused people on the public park.
Fencing and double-stacked shipping containers will continue to be installed over the next three to four days and surrounding streets will be closed off for about six days, according to a university spokesperson.
Opponents fought the University of California, Berkeley’s plan to build on the site when construction began in August 2022, but they were dealt a setback when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year that was unanimously backed by the state Legislature to exempt the university from a requirement to consider alternative sites for the project.
The arrests Thursday morning were for trespassing, with two also arrested for failure to disperse, according to the university. They were cited and released after being booked into jail.
An appeal on the university’s construction project is still being heard by the state Supreme Court, but the university said it has the legal right to close off the construction zone while the case is litigated.
“Given that the existing legal issues will inevitably be resolved, we decided to take this necessary step now in order to minimize disruption for the public and our students when we are eventually cleared to resume construction,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, our planning and actions must take into account that some of the project’s opponents have previously resorted to violence and vandalism, despite strong support for the project on the part of students, community members, advocates for unhoused people, the elected leadership of the City of Berkeley, as well as the Legislature and governor of the state of California,” Christ said.
The plan calls for building housing for 1,100 students and a separate building with 100 apartments for low-income, formerly unhoused people, but activists have fought against the displacement of unhoused people currently living in the park and development on a green space.
The plan would preserve 60% of the 2.8-acre park’s green space and the park would remain open to the public. People living in the park have been offered transitional housing.
Video posted to social media showed trees being cut down and carried by heavy machinery overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning.
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Bay Area
Appeals Court Denies Request to Revisit Berkeley’s Natural Gas Ban
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled against Berkeley’s pioneering natural gas ban. In a majority decision filed Tuesday, the court said Berkeley’s ordinance banning gas pipelines in new construction runs afoul of the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
By Kiley Russell
Bay City News
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled against Berkeley’s pioneering natural gas ban.
In a majority decision filed Tuesday, the court said Berkeley’s ordinance banning gas pipelines in new construction runs afoul of the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
The act “expressly preempts state and local regulations concerning the energy use of many natural gas appliances, including those used in household and restaurant kitchens,” Judge Patrick Bumatay wrote in the majority opinion.
“Instead of directly banning those appliances in new buildings, Berkeley took a more circuitous route to the same result,” Bumatay wrote. “It enacted a building code that prohibits natural gas piping in those buildings from the point of delivery at a gas meter, rendering the gas appliances useless.”
The Berkeley City Council unanimously approved the first-of-its-kind ordinance in July 2019.
It was designed to combat climate change by reducing natural gas emissions throughout the city by encouraging the use of more ecologically friendly electrical hookups.
“Climate change is an existential threat to our city, our homes, and our future,” Councilmember Kate Harrison, who authored the ordinance, said at the time. “It is time to take aggressive action to reduce our emissions across all sectors.”
The California Restaurant Association sued the city in November 2019, and in 2021 a lower court ruled against the restaurant organization.
In that ruling, the court found that the local ordinance didn’t conflict with federal regulations because it indirectly applied to appliances covered by federal law and that the federal rules should be interpreted so as not to “sweep into areas that are historically the province of state and local regulation.”
Last year, a panel of the 9th Circuit disagreed and ruled that federal law preempted the city’s new ordinance and on Tuesday, the full panel of judges denied a request to rehear the case.
Judge Michelle Friedland, writing the dissenting opinion for the 9th Circuit, said the majority opinion “misinterprets the statute’s key terms” and “needlessly blocks Berkeley’s effort to combat climate change, along with the equivalent laws passed by other local governments. Our system of federalism requires much more respect for state and local autonomy.”
Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.
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