Sinai was voted in unanimously by the four sitting board members from a pool of 10 candidates. Sinai will fill the seat vacated by former board president Leah Wilson, who stepped down in March after being appointed court executive officer for the Alameda County Superior Court. Wilson resigned citing concerns about a conflict of interest.

Current board president Karen Hemphill said that despite a strong applicant pool, Sinai had qualities that showed the board she was the most suitable person for the job.

“I felt that the Board needed someone who was already familiar with the District and was involved in public education and Julie met all of these attributes,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She has been a long-time public school activist, used to work for the District and in her current work at the university, it’s all about partnerships and collaboration.”

Before working at UC Berkeley, Sinai was also chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. Sinai said she hopes to apply her previous community and university experience to the school district and help the board with its current challenges, which include a new superintendent, increased efforts to improve academic achievement and heated negotiations with teachers’ unions.

“My future plans are to become familiar with the issues that the board has to tackle and look how to move our equity work forward,” Sinai said. “I will also help with looking at the physical status of a student district and do whatever I can do to reach an agreement with the unions.”

Michelle Moskowitz, director of advocacy and institutional relations at UC Berkeley, works with Sinai and congratulated her appointment, saying she believes Sinai will exceed expectations on the board.

“I think Julie will be an amazing asset to the board, as she has many years of experience working for the city of Berkeley,” Moskowitz said. “They could not have made a better choice. All of her colleagues at the Government and Community Relations Office congratulate her.”

Hemphill said she is glad to be working with Sinai and believes that the board will benefit from working with her.

“I expect that Julie will be a great asset in building partnerships with our community, the County and of course the University,” Hemphill said in an email.  “She also will be great in furthering our work to advance overall academic achievement and Julie’s up close knowledge of what a governing body does and how an effective elected body works together through her work as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff will be very useful.”

Sinai will serve the remainder of Wilson’s term until the seat comes up for re-election in November 2014.

Contact Seif Abdelghaffar at sabdelghaffar@dailycal.org.

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Brian Crowell, who teaches history to ninth- and 10th-grade students at Berkeley High School, has been scheduled for a disciplinary meeting with the Berkeley Unified School District’s Human Resources Department set for Monday. The administration alleges Crowell inflated students’ grades and failed to take regular student attendance.

Crowell has also been referred to the Berkeley Peer Assistance and Review program, which evaluates underperforming teachers.

According to School Board Director Karen Hemphill, the B-PAR program is designed to fairly evaluate underperforming teachers and allows teachers to improve their teaching after receiving unsatisfactory evaluations instead of dismissing them outright. The B-PAR panel is made up of both teachers and administrators who jointly make evaluations.

BAMN, an activist group, alleges that the referral is a retaliation against Crowell, who had criticized Berkeley High School’s ninth-grade curriculum in February as being poorly designed. According to Crowell, he received notice of the referral for review and disciplinary hearing soon after sending a note about the curriculum to administrators at the school.

“The district has praised him in the past for having an ability to really connect with students in a way that is very unique,” said Shanta Driver, the national chair of BAMN and one of the attorneys representing Crowell. “None of these accusations against him came into being before he attacked the ninth-grade curriculum.”

Berkeley High School principal Pasquale Scuderi declined to comment, saying that Crowell’s situation is an internal issue. Hemphill said she could not comment on personnel matters but said this decision is made at the school-administration level, not at the school-board level.

Various BAMN affiliates spoke at the meeting, including Yvette Felarca, a BAMN organizer and teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, as did a number of Crowell’s students.

“He teaches about current events,” said UC Berkeley freshman Aillen Zazueta-Bella, a former student of Crowell. “He tells students that they can go to college. There is no reason for him to be here (in this situation).”

BAMN also said that Crowell was targeted because he compiled and publicized statistics that were critical of the administration’s B-PAR policies. An article published in the Berkeley High Jacket, the school’s newspaper, referencing Crowell’s data analysis, said that over the last decade, black and Latino teachers, female teachers and teachers over 50 have been disproportionately placed in the B-PAR program.

“We have teachers who have been at BHS for 30 years who are scared for their jobs (because of this),” Crowell said. “If the administration fires me, it will send a chilling message to the other teachers and create an environment of fear.”

Contact Alison Fu at afu@dailycal.org.

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The selection process for a new superintendent, which began in December 2011, reopened in February this year when previous finalist Edmond Heatley dropped his candidacy following the rise of controversy surrounding his stance against gay marriage. Evans was chosen after the district evaluated more than 70 possible candidates, according to a district press release Friday.

Evans was a favored candidate due to his extensive experience in dealing with a diverse set of students from different income levels and ethnicities, according to Karen Hemphill, president of the school board.

“Dr. Evans really encompasses the experiences, skills, and values that our community has stressed as being important in our new superintendent,” Hemphill said in an email.

Evans began his career nearly 26 years ago, working as a teacher and administrator in school districts in San Diego, East Palo Alto, Oakland and Compton before becoming superintendent of Hayward Unified School District, according to the Hayward Education Foundation website.

“I’ve had a very positive experience working with Superintendent Evans,” said Principal Ariel Dolowich of Anthony Ochoa Middle School in Hayward. “He has brought a level of accountability and reorganization to the district.”

During Evans’ tenure, Dolowich and Anthony Ochoa staff, with support from the district, saw an increase in the school’s Academic Performance Index by 86 points — a record for the school, Dolowich said.

With an emphasis on rigor, responsibility and results, Evans is noted for his achievements in developing a community-based, data-driven academic achievement plan for African American students. The school board hopes that with his experience, Evans will be able to help Berkeley with similar achievement gap issues, Hemphill said. The 2020 Vision project is one of the most visible Berkeley efforts to address the issue.

Nevertheless, some members of the community are cautious about Evans’ candidacy but are eager to see what he might bring to the superintendent position.

“I am cautiously optimistic about his selection,” said Berkeley PTA Council President Tom Killilea in an email. “The important point will be how he approaches the Berkeley community, which can be a challenge on its own.”

Board members, teachers, union representatives, staff and community members will all attend a site visit Friday, according to Hemphill, to observe Evans in his current position in Hayward.
“It’s an opportunity for the board to bring in the various stakeholders in our district to do final vetting of the candidate,” Hemphill said.

After the site visit, the board will continue the finalization process. It will create an employment agreement and vote on a final contract for Evans. If all goes well, Evans will be hired and assume the superintendent position on July 1.

Contact Jennie Yoon at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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On Wednesday, the board will release and then vote on the names of finalists for the position, which was vacated by Leah Wilson, former board president. Wilson resigned on March 31 after taking a position with the Alameda County Superior Court, the first time a school board member has resigned since 1909.

The applicants include two campus professors, the campus director of local government and community relations, and a scientist and former deputy director of the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, among others.

The candidates are Ty Alper, Peter Bloomsburgh, Michael Bolgatz, Meleah Hall, Spencer Klein, Dan Lindheim, Satish Rao, Margit Roos-Collins, Julie Sinai and Mark Zoidis.

Because the new board member will serve a partial term — until Nov. 30, 2014 — he or she needs to be able to “hit the ground running” and “immediately be an integral and contributing member of the board,” said board president Karen Hemphill.

In the coming months, the board will be learning to work with a new superintendent, “all while focusing on bridging the opportunity gap that exists along racial lines in our district,” Hemphill said in an email, referencing the city’s 2020 Vision program, which aims to close the city’s achievement gap by the year 2020.

Alper, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law, has seen this gap himself, as both he and his wife went through Berkeley public schools as children.

“I know firsthand how important it is for all children in this city to get the educational opportunities that will enable them to thrive,” Alper said, echoing many of the sentiments of his fellow candidates.

Many candidates who come from analytical backgrounds, such as computer science and financial advising, plan to bring their analytical minds to the job to address the numbers of the achievement gap in Berkeley public schools as well as those of the district’s budget.

Other applicants stressed the importance of maintaining solid and open relationships with the community.

“We need to be meeting the needs of our kids and families in relation to a positive education outcome,” Sinai, campus director of local government and community relations, said. “We as a community need to come together to provide coordinated support.”

The board has 60 days from the time Wilson’s resignation was submitted to fill the vacancy, according to the Berkeley city charter. It plans to fill the seat nine days before the deadline at its May 8 board meeting at the latest.

Megan Messerly covers city government. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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The numbers, which were released April 9, show that the statewide average high school graduation rate went up to 78.5 percent, according to the California Department of Education DataQuest. The Berkeley district, on the other hand, saw growth from 79.6 percent to 82.9 percent.

District spokesperson Mark Coplan attributed the district’s success to both Measure A for the Berkeley Schools Excellence Program and the 2020 Vision project. Measure A provided $23 million in funds to the district during the 2011-12 school year. 2020 Vision for Berkeley’s Children and Youth is a communitywide effort started in 2010 to end disparities in academic achievement among youth.

Measure A, which was approved in 2006, has provided smaller class sizes, expansion of course offerings, improved counseling services and other educational resources, according to the school district’s website.

“What we’ve included (through Measure A) that we haven’t in previous years was data collection and analysis and professional development,” Coplan said. “The data collection and analysis portion of it is huge because when you’re dealing with data and dealing with facts, it’s a lot easier to find the solutions.”

Nonetheless, though graduation numbers for the school have improved overall, the achievement gap remains a pertinent issue. According to the same state data, the graduation rate increased from 75 percent to 81.6 percent among Hispanic students, from 85.5 percent to 88.6 percent among Asian students, from 72.7 percent to 74.5 percent among black students and from 87.7 percent to 89.8 percent among white students. To that end, 2020 Vision has been involved extensively in addressing this achievement gap, Coplan said.

“The primary goal of the 2020 Vision is to give all students, by the year 2020, exactly the same opportunity when they cross the stage for graduation,” Coplan said. “We want to make sure that all students have all of the tools that they need to get into a four-year university, a technical-career education or a two-year community college.”

Berkeley Alliance, the convening agency for 2020 Vision, began pioneering a host of programs in 2011, including a forum of communication between pre-K and kindergarten educators and families, collaborative programs aimed at reducing truancy and an expanded literacy component to city recreation programs, said Karen Hemphill, president of the district school board.

Despite continuous improvement in graduation rates, Hemphill emphasizes that these rates are only one measure of a community’s success in educating youth.

“I’m glad to hear that graduation rates are up, but for me, real high school success would be based on two years after high school graduation,” Hemphill said. “The real success of high school graduation is that we are prepared to succeed as adults.”

Contact Yvonne Ng at ygn@dailycal.org.

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Introduced by Assemblymember Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, Assembly Bill 182 attempts to reduce the future debt burden by limiting the length of capital appreciation bonds to 25 years and restricting money owed to a maximum of four times the borrowed amount. The bill would also let districts refinance these bonds at a lower interest rate and require increased disclosure to the school districts’ governing boards.

“They shove debt on the next generation of taxpayers who won’t benefit directly from the facilities the bonds finance, which means (the next generation will) have less ability to finance what their kids need,” said Tom Dresslar, spokesperson for California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who has been a strong advocate for the bill.

Capital appreciation bonds have been used by public schools throughout the nation to fund large-scale projects like school construction. Unlike traditional bonds, however, for which the funds are repaid in gradual, short-term increments, capital appreciation bonds are paid back in one total amount at a set date, often decades after the bond is issued.

However, during the period between the bond’s issue date and its maturity date, interest is continuously compounded, which often results in high levels of accumulated interest. In some cases, debt payments have accrued to even 10 times the original amount borrowed, according to Dresslar.

Several groups, such as the California Association of School Business Officials and the Association of California School Administrators, believe that capital appreciation bonds should be limited but that AB 182 should be revised.

“If passed in its current form,” said Molly McGee Hewitt, executive director of CASBO, “we are concerned that many school districts will have to delay their facilities’ construction programs, resulting in substandard facilities for students, teachers and staff that are in the greatest need of them — particularly in districts that serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged families.”

The Berkeley Unified School District is not using any capital-appreciation bonds at the moment, though the use of such bonds is “likely to happen in the future,” according to Mark Coplan, BUSD public information officer.

Karen Hemphill, president of the BUSD Board of Education, mentioned that the board has weighed the pros and cons of capital-appreciation bonds and would consider them only in the context of saving taxpayers money.

“Fiscal responsibility has been the hallmark (of the district),” Hemphill said. “We have a lot of checks and balances and accountability.”

The state Senate will vote on AB 182 in the following months. If passed and signed by the governor, the bill will be implemented beginning Jan. 1 of next year.

Contact Alison Fu at afu@dailycal.org.

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The family discovered that they would not be allowed to return to the U.S. because they had failed to renew their visas. Worse yet, they would have to wait five years to apply for a visa to return.

“I took it really bad,” Rodrigo said. “I started to cry, and I couldn’t speak, and I was really scared.”

Rodrigo, who attended Jefferson Elementary, and his parents, Javier Guzman and Reyna Mayida, were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston.

In response, classmates and school parents have launched the “Bring Rodrigo Home!” campaign to push government officials to let the family return to Berkeley. The campaign includes an online petition, which has gained more than 500 signatures since Tuesday.

Humanitarian parole can be used to temporarily bring someone who may be inadmissible into the country based on a medical emergency or a large public outcry, according to parent Mable Yee, who is spearheading the campaign.

“Immigration is all of our problems,” Yee said. “My son loves to say that unless you’re a dinosaur, everyone is an immigrant.”

Rodrigo is currently staying at a relative’s house and attending school in Mexico but finds it difficult to call the place “home.”

“Home is a place where I really want to be, a place where I have my friends, a place where I have my family, a place where I’m not alone,” he said.

Likewise, classmates, friends and teachers have missed Rodrigo dearly.

“I was disappointed that he wasn’t back, and I was angry because they sent him back,” said Scott Kuwahara, Guzman’s friend who Skypes and plays Minecraft with him.

Barbara Wenger, Rodrigo’s fourth-grade teacher, was heartbroken to hear he would not be coming back. Wenger described Rodrigo as a natural leader who was quick to help peers and who, for fun, led Gangnam Style dances in class.

“He had a bright future here, and he has the potential to be the kind of future leader our country needs,” Wenger said in an email.

Rodrigo’s situation has since gained popular support in Berkeley, with City Council unanimously passing a request for humanitarian support for the Guzman family and sending letters to President Barack Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland.

Last week, the Berkeley Unified School District Board also unanimously passed a similar resolution, encouraging federal legislators to enact a compassionate immigration policy.

“This connected civil rights in a way that no textbook could, but also from the point of fourth-graders, this is someone they’ve been with since kindergarten,” said School Board Director Karen Hemphill.

Lee also said she hopes to continue to fight for immigration policy that is fair and promotes longterm economic growth.

“Stories like Rodrigo’s are a reminder of the deficiencies of the current system and underscore the need for real, comprehensive immigration reform,” Lee said.

According to Yee, the campaign is hoping to increase media attention and will hold multiple events, including a trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby for the Guzman family’s return.

“I feel very thankful that they’re helping me in a big way,” Rodrigo said. “They’re doing this whole thing, such a big thing, just to get me back home.”

Daphne Chen is the lead city government reporter. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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Wilson, who was elected board president in 2010, will be stepping down March 31. Wilson said her new position may be problematic if the Berkeley Unified School District were to undergo any lawsuits in Alameda County.

The last time a school board member resigned was in 1909, according to district spokesperson Mark Coplan.

Wilson, who is currently an analyst in the Alameda County Administrator’s Office, will soon take over as court executive officer, according to an Alameda County Court press release.

“(The position) is like being the city manager of the court,” said School Board Director Karen Hemphill. “She schedules court meetings and does all the paperwork. Her name will appear on a lot of documents of the court. If there is litigation involving the school district, her name would be on all of those, and it could be intimidating.”

The resignation of a school board member is rare and only happens during situations of conflict of interest and for pressing personal reasons, Hemphill said.

According to Hemphill, the president sets the tone for the rest of the board and represents it in conversations with the superintendent.

“It is hard to tell what is going to happen,” said Tom Killilea, president of the Berkeley PTA Council. “We don’t know how she will be replaced and who it will be.”

Wilson, who has been a large part of the board’s current search for a new superintendent, will have to be succeeded by someone whom the board can fill in on its process and progress, Killilea said.

Hemphill said, however, that the board president’s resignation will not delay the superintendent search in any way.

“This is a very good time to look for a superintendent,” she said. “We have got some dates set. We are scheduled to review applications next Wednesday and will hold interviews in the beginning of April.”

Wilson is scheduled to start her new position with Alameda County Superior Court on April 15. The school board will discuss replacing Wilson Wednesday night at a special board meeting at 6:25 p.m. in room 126 of the school district administration building at 2020 Bonar St., according to Hemphill.

Alyssa Neumann covers city government. Contact her at aneumann@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @AlyNeumann.

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Schoolyards for gardening have been staple in Berkeley elementary schools for decades, and their purpose is to teach students the values of nutrition and healthy living. But with recent losses in federal funding, Berkeley Unified must now scour its budget to find new funding.

Berkeley Unified, which no longer meets federal requirements of having a minimum low-income student enrollment of 50 percent, faced a $1.9 million loss in federal grant money last year — threatening the fiscal sustainability of programs like the gardening and cooking program, according to Karen Hemphill, director of the district school board. The program, however, was able to survive the current academic year by relying on the district’s general fund. But now the district must find money for the next school year to keep the program alive.

The schools’ gardening and cooking programs incorporates all subjects into the garden, and its curriculum encourages collaboration among teachers.

“The kids learn an appreciation of health and nutrition, and (the program) has academic components to it,” said Alexander Hunt, principal of Malcolm X Elementary School.

Additionally, the program appears to have a lasting impact on students’ lives and life choices.

“Being in the Malcolm X garden was one of my most memorable and long-lasting elementary school experiences,” said Max Chervin, a volunteer at Malcolm X and former cooking and gardening student.

The program also helps teach students to appreciate healthy living and food choices early on in hopes that the habits will remain later on in life.

“A lot of kids come in and say they don’t like vegetables, but in the end, they eat something they grew,” said Rivka Mason, a gardening educator at Malcolm X Elementary. “Its ownership connected with something that they are so far removed from.”

But a lack of new funding sources may jeopardize jobs like Mason’s and put students’ healthy education at risk.

“I could lose my job if we do not get funding,” Mason said. “I’m hoping the community will help to buy time.”

Hemphill, however, remains optimistic and says she has no reason to believe that board members will not exhaust every option to continue this program.

“We will be considering funding options as part of our budget process,” Hemphill said. “We have to look at the entire budget before we make a final decision … But I will be very surprised if there wasn’t some money found to continue the program.”

Hemphill noted that the board has not received the status for funding this year and will convene to discuss this issue on March 27.

Contact Matt Trejo at mtrejo@dailycal.org.

Clarification(s):
A previous version of this article may have implied that the program is a part of the Edible Schoolyard Project, which it is not.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that gardening and cooking programs at Berkeley schools may be cut due to a loss of a $1.9 million federal grant. In fact, $300,000 of that $1.9 million grant that is directed to the program was cut.

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Teachers in the school district have not seen a raise since the 2008-09 school year, said Cathy Campbell, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers.

“I feel demoralized by the way the district is treating us,” Alamo said. “The workload that we’ve taken on is much more than we’ve had in the past.”

On Feb. 28, the school board rejected the union’s previously proposed one-time 10 percent bonus and offered a 1 percent raise for the 2013-14 school year instead, according to Campbell. Following the unsuccessful negotiations, the union is now proposing a 5.2 percent increase of current salaries, retroactive to July 1, 2012.

For Alamo, stagnant paychecks from Berkeley Unified School District combined with increasing health care premium costs have increased financial difficulties. She paid $188 per month for health care in 2009, but costs have now increased to $513 per month.

“(Teachers) want to feel like their work is valued, and that’s not how we feel right now,” Alamo said. “It feels really overwhelming.”

According to Campbell, the union was hoping the district would consider using its excess cash reserves to increase teachers’ salaries. The school district currently has $7.8 million in excess of the state’s required 3 percent reserve, the district’s budget report states.

“The union is concerned about where negotiations stand right now,” Campbell said. “There’s lots of ways to fund salary increases. We think that they need to use some of their cash reserves.”

Last August, the district’s school board did unanimously vote to give teachers a one-time 1 percent salary bonus.

“We wanted to at least acknowledge that we understood that the teachers and other staff had not received an increase for several years,” said School Board Director Karen Hemphill. “The cost of living had gone up. The cost of health care had gone up.”

The Berkeley school board declined to comment on ongoing labor negotiations, although Hemphill said topics including the optimal amount of money the district should have in its savings and the impact of Proposition 30 will be discussed.

“We do care about our teachers,” Hemphill said. “There’s still a lot more to be discussed. It’s the beginning of the process, not the end.”
According to Campbell, contract negotiations happen every two weeks. The next one is scheduled for March 14.

“Berkeley is a great district to work for,” Alamo said. “Our teaching corps is (the) best you could find in any district, (but) we’re going to start losing teachers if we don’t start compensating people.”

Daphne Chen is the lead city government reporter. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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