San Jose Inside

A watershed moment in an acrimonious battle between local labor and business occured Tuesday when the San Jose City Council reversed its vote to rebid the construction of the Educational Park Library and awarded the contract to low bidder Barry Swenson Builder.
The vote was 6 to 5, with union-aligned councilmembers Nora Campos, Kansen Chu, Ash Kalra, Madison Nguyen and Nancy Pyle opposed.

The word equity comes from the Latin root aequus, meaning fair. Equity and fairness should be the foremost constructs when it comes to students and public schools. Lately, I have been pondering whether there is a real or perceived Machiavellian plot to create a rulebook for Charter schools that is inequitable toward public schools and their districts. What is good for Charters should also be good for district schools and vice versa. I am getting increasingly suspicious and concerned.

The San Jose City Council will revote on its plan to rebid the $7 million construction contract for an Eastside library. On Friday, Councilmember Rose Herrera submitted a memo calling for reconsideration of the June 23 vote, taken on the eve of the July council recess.

The first council meeting of the new fiscal year will result in discussing the new budgets cuts that must be made due to Sacramento’s raid of cities’ property tax money. Since San Jose does not want to look at delivering services differently, as Chicago and other cities do, then that leaves us with only one option: cut services to San Jose residents.

“From June 17th to 23rd of 2008, the blog they say I run posted eight times. What was I doing during this period? I was on my honeymoon,” Bump wrote on July 24.

When the Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger signed his Million Rooftops initiative back in 2006, one of the first people to jump on board was San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who said the city would take 100,000. The following year, Reed announced his Green Vision to reduce the city’s nonrenewable energy use to zero by 2022.

Now the mayor is bringing his initiative much closer to home—his own home, in fact.

Nine California school districts lost an appeal to have students who speak English as a second language undergo testing in their native languages for No Child Left Behind assessments. The school districts first sued for that right in 2005, claiming that it punished non-native English speakers, 85 percent of whom speak Spanish.

The Santa Clara County Water District received $44.1 million in federal stimulus money for a number of flood protection and water recycling projects. Of the funding, $18 million will go to the Lower Silver Creek flood-protection program to protect land adjacent to the creek from flooding. Another $12.5 million will be used to build two new bridges—one for cars and one for trains—over downtown San Jose’s Guadalupe River.T he South Bay Water Recycling Advanced Treatment Facility Project will receive a much-needed $8 million.

The fact that every eligible resident can attend a state university, long a source of pride in California, will soon be a distant memory as a result of massive state budget cuts. As the fall 2009 CSU semester approaches, thousands of college students will return to campus to find fewer instructors, slashed classes, empty dorms and diminished services. Some will be denied university admission altogether.

While nonprofits throughout San Jose are struggling to survive, at least one cultural organization received a much needed boost, when the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami, Florida, announced that it would be granting $975,000 to ZER01: The Art and Technology Network, producers of the 01SJ biennial, which focuses on inspiring creativity at the intersection of art, technology and digital culture. The festival, which attracted more than 65,000 visitors in its first year, highlighted the works of more than 350 artists from over 40 countries. The next biennial is scheduled for mid-September, 2010.

These last days of July and the first few weeks in August continually prey on my mind. As an educator I always want what is best for all students: great teachers, rigorous, engaging lessons, and high expectations for learning. As an administrator, one has the charge to provide these during the 180-day school year. But what about the 65-70 days of summertime?

Do you remember the commercial for Ginsu Knives from the late ‘70s?  It would show a sharp knife on TV cutting through everything from tomatoes to tin cans. The announcer would repeatedly say: “But wait! There’s more!”

Well, just when you thought we had a balanced budget for the City of San Jose, the state of California has said “But wait! There’s more!”

A privacy-invading anonymous website known for personal attacks on journalists and political adversaries of local labor-backed politicians has been tied to the inner circle of former vice mayor and newly-appointed South Bay Labor Council chief executive Cindy Chavez.

According to electronic evidence inspected by San Jose Inside, an administrator of the site, “San Jose Revealed,” is Manhattan-based former SBLC political director Philip Bump. The labor council made payments to Bump until earlier this year, according to two sources.

It’s a special summer Friday edition of SJI’s open forum, where visitors to the site—including hard-core regulars and newbies—set the topics of discussion. What’s on your mind? 

Citing “low morale” and “childish” political infighting on Gilroy’s city council, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage announced that he will run for mayor of that city. Gage served on Gilroy’s City Council from 1981 to 1997, when he ran for a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors.