Palo Vol. XXXV, Number 46 August 22, 2014 Alto Downtown Streets Team to run Food Closet Page 5 www.PaloAltoOnline.comwww.Pa l o AltoOnline. com Class clown to show biz whiz Moonlight Run & Walk page 9 Spectrum 18 Eating Out 25 Movies 27 Puzzles 56 QBooks Are political views genetically predetermined? Page 29 QHome Art imitates style at Festival of the Arts Page 34 QSports Historic win for Palo Alto grad Page 58 Stanford Health Fair 3240 Alpine Road • Portola Valley, CA 94028 Stanford Health Center at Portola Valley offers the connection and convenience of a small primary care medical office and access to world-class specialty care at Stanford Health Care. We invite you to our free community Health Fair, featuring: • Blood pressure screenings • Posture screening • Skin “spot check” screenings • Nutritional food samples • Runner’s clinic evaluations • Ask the experts! Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014 8:30am – 11:30am Stanford Health Center at Portola Valley 3240 Alpine Road • Portola Valley, CA 94028 For questions, directions, or additional information, call 650.498.9000 or visit us online at stanfordhealthcare.org/events. Health screenings will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Page 2 • August 22, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com SOLD Jackie and Richard thank you for trusting us to help you achieve your Real Estate Success. Menlo Park – Sold 14% over asking Menlo Park – Sold 16% over asking Menlo Park – Sold 41% over asking SOLD SOLD SOLD Redwood City – Sold 19% over asking Los Altos – Sold 12% over asking Menlo Park – Sold 12% over asking SOLD SOLD SOLD Menlo Park – Sold 8% over asking Menlo Park – Sold 9% over asking Palo Alto – Sold 11% over asking SOLD SOLD SOLD Call Jackie and Richard to Sell Your Home ̈́ʹʹͲǡͲͲͲǡͲͲͲ Jackie Richard 650-855-9700 650-566-8033 [email protected] [email protected] BRE # 01092400 BRE # 01413607 www.schoelerman.com www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • August 22, 2014 • Page 3 JUST SOLD 221KINGSLEY.COM Historic Professorville Offered at $9,000,000 221 Kingsley Avenue, Palo Alto Home ±4,619 sf | Lot ±20,151 sf Michael Dreyfus, Broker Summer Brill, Sales Associate Noelle Queen, Sales Associate 650.485.3476 650.468.2989 650.427.9211 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] License No. 01121795 License No. 01891857 License No. 01917593 Downtown Palo Alto Sand Hill Road dreyfussir.com 728 Emerson Street, Palo Alto 2100 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park )EGL3J½GIMW-RHITIRHIRXP]3[RIH 650.644.3474 650.847.1141 ERH3TIVEXIH Page 4 • August 22, 2014 • Palo Alto Weekly • www.PaloAltoOnline.com UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis Downtown Streets Team to run Food Closet New leadership hopes to bring funding to program Way Home. The merger created broader population, and we are ban Ministry in 1984 to address the largest organization offering pleased to transfer the program additional needs of the city’s by Sue Dremann services to homeless and at-risk among friends and colleagues, homeless population. The Food fter two disappointing The Food Closet distributes people in both counties. working with our partners at the Closet and Urban Ministry began years of subsidizing the groceries to homeless and at-risk The Food Closet does not fit In- Downtown Streets Team to ensure having funding problems around A Palo Alto Food Closet and individuals at All Saints Episco- nVision Shelter Network’s overall a smooth transition,” she wrote in 1995, which continued for nearly other homeless services out of its pal Church, located at 555 Waver- focus on providing interim shel- an email. a decade until Urban Ministry’s other programs, the nonprofit ley St. in Palo Alto. It is part of a ter, permanent supportive housing The Streets Team will take over programs were taken over by In- InnVision Shelter Network will suite of services InnVision Shelter and homelessness-prevention ser- bills and staffing by Aug. 25. The nVision the Way Home, which ran turn operations of the longtime Network has provided following vices, spokeswoman Mila Zelkha full transition is scheduled for the program until its 2012 merger. downtown grocery program over the 2012 merger of San Mateo said. The agency shelters 1,000 Sept. 10, Richardson said. Richardson said she is search- to Eileen Richardson, executive County-based Shelter Network people each night at 18 facilities. The volunteer-run Food Clos- ing for funding for the Food director of the nonprofit Down- and Santa Clara County non- “The Food Closet is a wonder- et was started in 1976 by local town Streets Team. profit organization InnVision the ful program that serves a slightly churches. They formed the Ur- (continued on page 12) EDUCATION Parents urge board to close Mandarin-immersion gap Group hopes district will launch middle school Chinese language program by Elena Kadvany ix Palo Alto parents spoke that Mandarin teachers at Gunn or to the Board of Educa- Palo Alto high schools could serve S tion at its annual retreat as the program’s teachers. last week, making passionate, In advocating for language im- personal pleas for the district’s mersion in public middle school, Mandarin immersion program to Mah said that private after-school Veronica Weber extend into middle school. or weekend language programs The group of parents submit- can be less intensive or are in- ted a proposal in February and consistent. Some are not accred- are asking that the board institute ited, and they are insufficient in this fall a middle school level pi- achieving full fluency. Students at Duveneck Elementary School wave to teachers and parents as they head to the lot version of the once controver- Mah told the board that she morning assembly on the first day of school on Aug. 19. sial and now successful program recently surveyed 62 parents to at Ohlone Elementary School, gauge their interest in having a which began as a three-year pilot middle school program and, if EDUCATION program in fall 2008. Since then, so, whether it should be an after- about 132 students have enrolled school program or part of the each year, with about 22 students regular school day. in two sections each of three com- Respondents indicated they Palo Alto students return to school bination-grade classes, according would be willing to transport their to district Communications Coor- children to JLS or Jordan middle Principals celebrate new construction; official enrollment dinator Tabitha Kappeler-Hurley. schools for an after-school program. count to come in two weeks Palo Alto parent Grace Mah, Other parents spoke to the im- by Chris Kenrick who also serves on the Santa pact the Ohlone program has had Clara County Board of Educa- on their children — with one par- n the first day of school veneck campus, also looked on. over the past four years — such tion, said expanding the program ent verging on tears. at Duveneck Elemen- As some 12,600 Palo Alto as that just completed at Du- would fill a gap for students be- “It’s really transformed our O tary Tuesday morning, students this week returned to veneck — has focused on add- tween elementary and high school family,” said Kathy Howe, whose first-grader Lillian Zhou and school for the 2014-15 academ- ing desk capacity as well as on and would also be aligned with son, Sam, is an incoming third- fifth-grader Austin Martinez ic year, newly arrived Superin- modernizing old buildings. The one of the board’s focused goals: grader with two years in the represented all of the school’s tendent Max McGee made the building boom is financed by a strengthening middle school pro- Ohlone program. Howe said nei- 500-plus students as they shared rounds of campuses on a bicycle, $378 million “Strong Schools” grams, specifically in mathemat- ther she nor her husband speaks the scissors for a ceremonial amiably chatting with students, bond measure passed in 2008. ics and world languages. Mandarin. “Because Sam learned ribbon-cutting for two new teachers and parents. And dis- An official tally of students The proposal suggests model- Mandarin so early in his life, it’s classroom buildings and a new trict administrators counted stu- will be taken after things settle ing the extension after the district’s really a part of the fabric of who library. dents and desks. down in the first week or two of middle school Spanish immersion he is. It brings tears to my eyes,” “It feels almost electric, like With enrollment steadily on school. Last September, district- program with a focus on social she said. “I’m an educator in the we have new energy here, and the rise in recent years, officials wide, enrollment came out at studies and literature content taught community and also a parent, and I’m so happy to be part of that have discussed opening a 13th 12,483 — up 87 students from in Mandarin. Mah describes the I would like all Palo Alto parents with all of you,” Principal elementary school and a fourth the year before. program as “cost neutral” for the to have this opportunity that Sam Chris Grierson told students middle school but so far have Twice in the past two years, district, as instructional materials has to have another language.” seated on the playground pave- made no firm plans. the Board of Education has set are already available (purchased Erik Lassila, whose daughter ment as parents and teach- To at least partly address the itself a deadline for choosing a through a Foreign Language As- just graduated from the Ohlone ers stood surrounding them. rising head count, a wave of location for a 13th elementary sistance Program grant in 2006), program and son is enrolled in Architect Lisa Gelfand, who construction and remodeling on and parents could raise funds for it, said having his children learn designed the refurbished Du- Palo Alto’s existing 17 campuses (continued on page 7) supplemental materials or ongo- ing costs.