If you haven’t recently visited your neighborhood park or one of San Jose’s signature parks, you are among the majority of citizens. Our parks encounter much less traffic during the winter than the rest of the year.

There has been a considerable amount of angst created by a controversial facilities plan in San Jose Unified School District. Unfortunately, it did not have to be this way.

A recent San Jose Inside story uncovered the hubris exhibited at the top levels of our city’s government. The piece shatters the mythology that “professional” governance is somehow better than elected leadership. But salacious details aside, the fact remains that San Jose will remain a second-class city until we adopt a strong-mayor form of government.

County education trustee and San Jose Inside columnist Joseph Di Salvo stirred up mixed reactions last week with his op-ed focusing on school nurses and a recently passed state law on how to address medical emergencies. Two letters to the editor lay out the different viewpoints.

Serious health issues can play out in schools every day, sometimes in life and death ways. Yet few schools in California have a credentialed school nurse at the ready to appropriately address the problem. The school nurse ratio is a troubling one for every 2,240 students.

Without question Matthews is a brilliant choice to be an interim councilmember. She is smart, experienced and understands San Jose. Adding to her credentials, she has previously served as the District 4 council member.

People opposed to incoming Mayor-elect Sam Liccardo are also concerned with an interim appointment to the District 4 council seat, fearing it will give the mayor a governing majority. The truth is Liccardo already has a majority.

With new school board members being sworn in this month, county Board of Education trustee Joseph Di Salvo presents his list of key goals for the next two years.

A proposal to relocate students within San Jose Unified School District appears to have been made with the best of intentions. However, it seems these decisions were rushed within the last two months and did not include all possible solutions.

San Jose’s City Council decided that District 4 residents will have a special election to fill the seat of Kansen Chu, who is moving on to the State Assembly. They could have simply appointed someone—a far better and less expensive option.

I am thankful that my current work—in my seventh decade of life—has given me a rich opportunity to work with amazing people. I am particularly thankful for the educators, policy makers and community leaders who work tirelessly to promote equity.

As we turn the page on the election, Sam Liccardo and Dave Cortese each have an enormous responsibility to heal the wounds created by the race. Doing so could go a long way toward accomplishing city and county goals, such as eliminating the achievement gap in our schools.

San Jose's new mayor faces huge challenges. The most striking problem is not simply putting more cops on the street, though it is an important goal. The real work will be bringing a divided city together.

What do Tuesday's election results mean for education reform? Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Joseph DiSalvo breaks it down by state, county and district.

Houston, we have a problem. Public education is facing its own Apollo 13 moment. If fundamental issues are not addressed an inevitable catastrophic ending will occur.

While Silicon Valley copes with its dependence on imported water, our neighbors in Santa Cruz are striving to rely entirely on their local water supply.