VOLUME XLIX, NUMBER 11 Your Local News Source Since 1963 SERVING DUBLIN • LIVERMORE • PLEASANTON • SUNOL THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012 Teachers Receive Preliminary Layoff Notices By Patricia Koning “This is essentially a place- creases and budget cuts. Most of mean a one-month reduction after The Independent’s dead- LIVERMORE - March 15 is holder,” said assistant superin- the additional revenue would go in the school year along with line. If denied, organizers intend the date by which public school tendent of administrative services to K-12 education, which means elimination of a multitude of to appeal to the State Board of districts in California must dis- Chris Van Schaack. “Education that sector has the most to lose if programs. Education. That decision could tribute preliminary layoff notices Code prescribes the timeline. the tax initiative fails. Adding to the uncertainty for come as late as July. to credentialed staff. This action is not in response The new fiscal year, 2012-13, the Livermore School District is Other issues involve high The Livermore Valley Joint to any Board directed budget has the potential to be a roller the proposed Portola Academy school registration and kinder- Unified School District this week cuts, only to possible budget coaster ride, as the Governor’s Charter School. The proposed garten enrollment. “Enrollment sent preliminary layoff notices to cuts that could happen for many tax initiative won’t even come to enrollment for the school is 560 in specific high school classes is Find Out What's over 30 credentialed staff mem- reasons.” a vote until three months into the students, many of whom would a factor. For example, if a number bers. Last week, the Board of The fate of Governor Jerry new fiscal year. School districts likely come from the Livermore of students choose social studies Happening Education voted unanimously Brown’s proposed tax initiative across the state are making plans School District. over a foreign language,” said Check out the to adopt a resolution eliminat- for the November ballot is one for worst-case scenarios. Last On Tuesday, March 13, the Van Schaack. “We also have to ing 28.09 full-time equivalent of those factors. He proposes week, the Long Beach Unified Alameda County Office of Edu- account for a possible decrease second section (FTE) positions in the 2012/13 closing an estimated $9.2 billion School District announced that cation rendered its decision on in the number of kindergarten Section II is filled with infor- school year. deficit with temporary tax in- failure of the tax measure could the Portola Academy Petition (See NOTICES, page 4) mation about arts, entertainment and special events. There are education stories, a variety of features, and the arts and enter- tainment and bulletin board. Sunol, Quarry Operator Reach Historic Agreement Save Our Sunol (SOS) and major disasters. Sunol CERT is Oliver de Silva, Inc. (ODS) have also purchasing disaster supplies entered into an historic agree- and storage containers that will ment regarding the proposal be strategically located in the submitted by Oliver de Silva to community. Alameda County to revise the In addition, the agreement permit to operate the existing provides for the contribution of SMP-30 quarry on Calaveras $50,000 per year, with a cost Road in Sunol. of living adjustment, to a Com- Discussions have been un- munity Improvement Fund, for derway for over three years the life of the permit. The Com- regarding the proposed project. munity Improvement Fund will The two parties have come to be held in trust for Sunol by the an agreement which meets the County of Alameda. The Sunol SOS environmental, health, and Advisory Committee, appointed Photo - Jacqueline McBride safety concerns, and provides by the Alameda County Board DICK POST mitigation for the impacts of of Supervisors, will oversee the development on the community process of community organiza- of Sunol. tions and groups submitting ap- Photo - Doug Jorgensen The main provisions of the plications for funding, and make At 93, Lawrence Harvest Park Middle School students spent last Friday working on projects to beautify the school. agreement provide for the pay- recommendations for funding Academic lessons were tied to the gardening, artwork, and service projects undertaken by the ment of up to $20,000 to the approval to the county. Lab Physicist students. Projects included planing new flowers around the perimeter of the school library, working Sunol Community Emergency The agreement also commits in the school's greenhouse to grow flowers, and creating a new flower bed design. Response Team (CERT) that is ODS to working with SOS and Sets A High Bar organizing and training commu- appropriate agencies to facilitate For Innovation nity members to be prepared for (See SUNOL, page 4) By Jeff Garberson When 33-year-old Richard F. Post went to work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Concerns Voiced Over Pleasanton School Debt in the late autumn of 1952, gaso- Pleasanton residents who Brozosky, schools activist Julie presentation about the district's million, which is expected by relatively low amount now, line cost 27 cents a gallon. The are concerned about the school Testa, former councilmember capital debt. be paid off by 2024 via the tax at $508,000. The current year U.S. was testing the first thermo- district's difficulty in paying off Kay Ayala and parent David The district owes money on rate on assessed valuation in the payment is $176,000. General nuclear explosive, code-named its capital debts made their feel- Miller spoke at the March 6 three different capital debts. One district. The Alameda County fund money is used to pay it off. Mike, and a Univac computer ings known to trustees at a study session. is the pay-off for Measures A and Board of Supervisors sets the tax This takes money that could go had correctly predicted Dwight session. It was an information session, B, which refurbished schools rate annually. to programs, in a year when the Eisenhower’s victory over Adlai Former school board mem- with assistant superintendent throughout the district. The re- Another capital debt is for district is looking at a potential Stevenson. bers Cindy McGovern and Steve Luz Cazares making a thorough maining debt on that is $87.9 leased equipment, which is a (See DEBT, page 10) A lot of things have changed in the past 60 years, but at least one thing has stayed the same: Dick Post, now 93, is still invent- Community College District Lines Set; New Headquarter Plans Advance ing things. Holder of 80 patents Chabot-Las Positas Com- opportunities for access classes most of Pleasanton were assigned that Dublin could no longer share Area 7 kept Livermore and for his work at the Laboratory, he munity College District board at all of the state’s community to Area 5. Area 5 with Sunol and Pleasan- added Dublin east of Tassajara is still churning out 4 or 5 poten- members approved the final colleges. Area 7 was comprised of ton, which grew by 9 percent. Road. Former Las Positas presi- tially patentable ideas, called Re- redistricting map for the district. The redistricting map ap- Livermore and a small part of As a result, Area 5 now in- dent Barbara Mertes is the trustee cords of Invention, every year. The board also cleared the way proved unanimously by the board the Pleasanton district, south of cludes the northeastern strip of for Area 7. Post is an internationally for moving the district headquar- at its meeting Feb. 21 shows Interstate and north of the Ar- Pleasanton from Livermore, into Dublin district to the west of known expert on magnetism ters to Dublin. some changes in the Valley. The royo Mocho, over to Hopyard Dublin’s middle section. The Interstate 680 joins Area 4, which and its applications. From the A report was heard from an biggest change is the splitting of Road. Livermore’s growth was boundary is set at Interstate 680 is based in the Castro Valley 1950s through the 1980s, he academic Senate president about the Dublin school district into 10 percent. on the west and Tassajara Road to School District. The representa- helped pioneer the “magnetic opposition to current plans from three areas. However, the 50 percent the East. Retired Chabot profes- tive is Donald “Dobie” Gelles. mirror” approach to harnessing a state task force that wants to When the former map was population growth in the Dublin sor Carlo Vecchiarelli is the Area The four-year terms of Mertes thermonuclear fusion as an en- make significant changes in drawn in 2002, Dublin, Sunol and district in the past decade meant 5 representative. (See COMMUNITY, page 10) ergy source. When the U.S. government abandoned that approach in the 1980s – unwisely, in his view – he turned to the design of magnetically levitated trains and Justice Academy Open rocket-launchers, and energy- storing flywheels that spin fric- tion-free on magnetic bearings. To Tri-Valley Students The technologies he has By Carol Graham tion (TVCF) whose mission is to worked on in recent decades In conjunction with the Tri- strengthen the region’s commu- tend to be advanced beyond Valley Community Foundation, nities through civic engagement (See DICK POST, page 10) the Alameda County District and philanthropy. Attorney’s Justice Academy is “The Tri-Valley Community offering a paid six-month edu- Foundation has served as an incu- cational and vocational experi- bator of community-based orga- ence for Tri-Valley high school nizations and as a ‘gap provider’ students aged 16-18. due to burgeoning needs espe- Included in the educational cially with programs to benefit topics covered are criminal jus- youth and families,” said TVCF tice, social justice, law and the President David Rice.