How do you spell “lobster”? Dig into one and help a 3rd grader find out.

 How do you spell “lobster”? Dig into one and help a 3rd grader find out.  Community, Event  1 Response »
Sep 262011
 

The San Leandro Rotary Club has been a long time supporter of our local high school students granting college scholarships and scholarships to RYLA Leadership Camp.  The “Lobsters for Literacy” Lobster Feed sustains these scholarships as well as funds the now 6th annual distribution of dictionaries to all 3rd grade students in the San Leandro School District.

This year, the Lobsters for Literacy event will be held on Friday, October 7, 2011 at the Boys & Girls Club (401 Marina Blvd).  Tickets are running out!  So we ask that anyone in San Leandro and the surrounding area who is interested in attending and supporting the local educational system to order tickets before it is too late.

Tickets are $75 each for Maine Lobsters or alternatively, Prime Rib.  Dinner includes salad, pasta & garlic bread catered by Miraglia Catering, one of the best catering venues in the Bay Area, and based right here in San Leandro.  There will also be a No-Host Bar for wine, beer, cocktails & soft drinks.

For some fun, attendees will get a chance to win raffle prizes. Raffle tickets will be sold at the venue.  Grand prizes will include an iPad and a large-screen television.  There will be many more fun items for raffle as well.

For more information, please contact Dr. Rosalia Saavedra at 510.381.5207 or email her at drsaavedra@sloginc.com, or contact Lisa McClure at 510.347.4620 ext. 101.  Her email is lmccclure@davisstreet.org.

You can buy tickets online at http://sanleandrorotary.org/

STAR testing in San Leandro – Let’s dump it

 STAR testing in San Leandro – Let’s dump it  Featured, Schools  7 Responses »
Sep 102011
 

A week or so ago I got my daughter’s STAR test results; she’s currently a fourth grader at Roosevelt Elementary. Her scores were fine, but significantly lower than they had been the previous year, when she had attended McKinley Elementary. I was glad.

Even a quick look at my daughter’s scores was enough to tell me that something is significantly flawed with the design of this test. My daughter is a great reader, she devours books. She’s also a pretty good writer, her stories have a real voice, are funny and well constructed. Her real trouble at school is in math. She hates the subject, she doesn’t feel she’s any good at it and puts little effort into it.  Imagine my surprise, then, when her math scores in the STAR test were much better than her English scores. As a parent, I have no way of knowing /why/ her English scores were relatively low, I’m not allowed to see the actual test she took, but I do know that any test that says she’s better at math than English is profoundly flawed.

I have another big reason to deplore the STAR test. When my daughter was at 2nd grade at McKinley all she studied was English and math, English and math and English and math. She did get a couple of hours a week of “test preparation”, but there was little or no science or social studies. That’s one of the main reasons why I applied for a transfer to Roosevelt. I want my daughters to be educated, and that means exposing them to a variety of fields of knowledge – not just English and math. At Roosevelt, my daughter flourished. In addition to math & English, she learned history and science, thus developing her critical thinking skills. She’s become our little expert on the Ohlone Indians; and through learning about them she’s learned how people adapt to given environments and use and develop its natural resources.  She’s delved into San Leandro history by exploring the stories of the families who developed this town – not only learning about how San Leandro grew, but also gaining an understanding of how the personal and the political merge.  In science, she learned about different ecosystems – she surprised me once, when I was reading her an African tale and came upon the name of a native tree I didn’t know how to pronounce, she knew all about this tree, however, as they’d studied about its ecosystem in class.  And she knows about so many other things, every day she astounds me with some observation or piece of knowledge I didn’t have myself.

Roosevelt STAR test results, however, went down last year (while McKinley’s went up).  I’m worried now that the Principal and Administration will feel pressured to change Roosevelt’s curriculum to put more of an emphasis on the tested subjects.  That would be a terrible disservice not just to my daughter, but to all the other kids who deserve an education not just narrow instruction on two subjects. And the emphasis on the test is a terrible disservice to all the other children in all the other elementary schools in San Leandro who are only learning those two subjects and little else.

I’m not sure what can be done about this, but I’m seriously considering keeping my daughter from taking the STAR test this year.  Perhaps, if enough parents boycotted the test, the state and Congress (with their short-sighted “no child left behind” mandate) would listen and drop it altogether.  My sole stand against it will definitely not accomplish anything, but I figure someone has start and say “enough!“.

Radiohead in San Leandro

 Radiohead in San Leandro  This and That  3 Responses »
Sep 092011
 

Mike Santos directed me to this Radiohead video filmed at Dick’s Restaurant in San Leandro. The video is for their 1995 song “High and Dry,” considered the band’s most accessible hit and declared by its Radiohead’s lead vocalist to be not just bad, but “very bad”.  I, personally, liked it 🙂  As for Dick’s, I went there once in 2006 and I haven’t been back. The food wasn’t bad, and I liked the old-fashioned coffeeshop atmosphere, but the food wasn’t good enough to justify the relatively high prices.  There is really no compelling reason to go there – unless, I suppose, you are a Radiohead fan.

The search for City Manager continues, but will it be transparent?

 The search for City Manager continues, but will it be transparent?  City Hall, Legal, Transparency  No Responses »
Sep 072011
 

The San Leandro City Council is meeting tonight in closed session to discuss the appointment of a new City Manager.  At its July 5th meeting, the Council hired Teri Black & Company to conduct a broad search for a City Manager.  The search, which should start some time this month, will be open until October 16th.  According to the agenda for tonight’s meeting, the City Council will update the public on this search.

It’s not clear why the City Council is meeting in closed session before the public meeting.  Under the law, all meetings of the City Council must be public.  There are a few exceptions, one of which includes discussion on the appointment, discipline or dismissal of a public employee, but this section refers to specific persons.  This means that either the City Council is meeting to discuss the appointment of a specific person to this position, or that it will be violating the Brown Act.

Assuming that it’s the former, I can only speculate as to whom they will be considering.  As Black’s search has not started, it doesn’t seem likely that they will meet to discuss any new applicants for the position.  It’s possible that they’ll be discussing the past applicants – one, in particular, had impressed several members of the City Council, but he decided to take a job elsewhere.  It’s also possible that an internal applicant has suddenly appeared.  Neither the current interim City Manager, Lianne Marshall, or the Deputy City Manager, Jacqui Diaz, applied for the job back when it was opened in April.  However, it is possible that since then one of them has changed her mind.  Even if this is the case, I would hope that the City Council would continue the search (the firm has been hired and has put work on it, so we’ll have to pay them anyway) so as to assure that we get the best City Manager possible.

If, however, they are meeting in closed session to discuss something other than a specific individual that could be appointed to the City Manager position, this will be a  violation of the Brown Act and a sign of the City Council’s contempt for both the law and the citizenry, and they should be called on it.

Liquidator comes to San Leandro – for 3 weeks

 Liquidator comes to San Leandro – for 3 weeks  San Leandro Deals  12 Responses »
Sep 012011
 

 

Bargains, bargains, bargains

I love a good bargain as much as anyone, and I count Thriftown, the flea market and Grocery Outlet as part of my perennial haunts.  However, I just discovered that there are places where you can get even better bargains: liquidators.  I actually came across this particular liquidator last year, they were selling children’s pajama sets for $2 (really! and I think they still are!) and a friend made a collection to buy a lot and donate them to a local charity.  I decided to check out the place and was able to find some amazing, beautiful children’s winter coats for about $10 each (things that would sell for at least $60 at a department store).  Mike was also able to find a travel wireless router (an older model, but a very good one  that still sells for over $100) for $5.  Needless to say, when we found out that this place had a warehouse sale again we had to check out.  We walked out with a keyboard, a mouse and a wireless microphone (to get better audio during those community meetings) for pennies on the dollar.

The guy who runs this place is getting out of the liquidator business so everything is for sale, and he’s willing to bargain.  They have clothing (for kids and adults), some very cute baby coats, lots of pajamas, framed prints, art (including some massive pieces), chairs, desks and lots of assorted electronics.  They also have computers, Timbuktu bags, candles, lotion sets, etc.  Basically, come here to treasure hunt.

The warehouse is located at 3018 Alvarado, Suite A, near a furniture store.  From the outside it looks like an empty office. It has dark glass windows/doors and the only signage is a piece of paper.  Knock on the side door, however, and they’ll open up for you.  Their hours are 9 am to 5 pm and they should be there for the next 3 – 4 weeks.

If you remember to say you read about this on San Leandro Talk (or Facebook), they’ll give you a free mouse pad with a cute frog (pictured).

Update: I went back to the liquidator today because I was looking for some speakers for my laptop ($5).  I took another look at the stuff they have, and I was amazed.

He has many signed, limited edition prints and even large paintings ranging from $50 to $1,000. These include framed, autographed jerseys from Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, as well as a framed photo from the cast of Goodfellas (autographed by the main actors/director), and signed prints from other movies (Shrek, the Aviator, etc.)  A framed Michael jordan signed jersey is going for $2900 on e-bay, so these are incredible deals. He also has posters by Peter Max, who apparently is a big deal and a framed/signed Michael Jordan Wings poster for $800 (I found it online for $1500).  You can see some pictures of these stuff below.

The Timbuk2 messenger bags are hand-made in San Francisco, and he has them for $15 to $40 depending on size. They retail for at least twice as much on sale.

He has full computer systems, including the monitor, for $150. He has a couple of Herman Miller Aeron chairs, which retail for $680 at Amazon.com for $300.  Lots of cheap computer chairs for $20-30.  He also has a lot of A’s jerseys and hats, but I didn’t ask the price. I’m sure they’re dirt cheap.

Also I found a lot of beautiful boxed candles and glass-bottled foam bath for a couple of dollars. These would be ideal as Christmas gifts. There are also some kitchen things and snow gloves.

Among the electronics ($5-10) I saw a lot of home security cameras, cordless phones, laptop chargers, calculators, headphones and stuff like that. He has quite a lot of Radio Shack things.

He’ll be open this Saturday from 10 AM on, and as they’re bringing in more inventory from the warehouse we may just stop again.

Pictures of some of the stuff available: