Joshua Simon leaving the school board

Joshua Simon has served on the Emery Unified School District's Board of Trustees for 12 years. He and his family are moving to Oakland, and March 26, 2014 will be his last meeting. EUSD is looking for applicants to fill his position, with a process that will be announced soon. I encourage any interested folks to reach out to me and I will put you in touch with someone on the School Board. As my neighbor, I will greatly miss Josh and his family! I thank him for his dedication and years of service.

The school district is also in the process of hiring a new superintendent. More information on that is here.

Josh's letter is below:

Dear Neighbors,

It has been a privilege to serve the Emeryville community as a member of the Emery Unified School District Board of Trustees for over 12 years.  Unfortunately, my professional responsibilities as the newly hired Executive Director of a nonprofit community development corporation and the needs of my family, have combined to require that I resign my position as School Board Trustee effective March 31^st. 

With two teenage daughters, we are moving from our two bedroom, one bathroom condominium to a much larger condominium in downtown Oakland.  Our new home will accommodate our family's needs, and has room for our parents in the future.  We continue to own property in Emeryville and we intend to move to Emery Bay Village after the Center for Community Life is completed.  In the meantime, I will remain involved as a tax payer and future neighbor of the Center of Community Life.

I am grateful to my colleagues on the school board for their dedication to supporting the work of our teachers, students, families, guardians and the community.   I feel honored to have had the opportunity to work with School Board members John Affeldt, Miguel Dwin and Joy Kent.  The sound leadership of Board President Melodi Dice has been a rock of stability in the changing tides of school funding.  The dedication and professionalism of these board members over many years has been inspiring.

I am also grateful for the thoughtful partnership of the Emeryville City Council whose work has demonstrated that “partners power student success.”  Closer integration of City afterschool programs with school programs has enhanced work in the classrooms and teachers have been able to buy homes in Emeryville through the City’s first time homebuyer program.  Under the leadership of City Manager Sabrina Landreth, I have no doubt that Emeryville will continue to improve as an “Age-Friendly City”. 

I have been impressed by the many ways that business leaders have stepped up in support of education in Emeryville.  Consistent partners who have worked to power student success include Pixar, Madison Marquette, Expressions Center for New Media, 45^th Street Artists Cooperative, the Townhouse Restaurant, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Jamba Juice, Wereham Development, the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and many others.   The Work of the Emery Ed Fund to coordinate these efforts has been invaluable. 

Most of all, my family is grateful for the twelve years of excellent education that our daughters received at both the Emeryville Child Development Center and Emery Unified School District.  My daughter Sarah was well prepared for her current interest in engineering by the teachers at Anna Yates and my daughter Maya continues to be inspired by the work of the Anna Yates Elementary School Theater Club. (Don’t miss their next performance at the Emeryville Senior Center on Salem Street on March 28^th at 6pm and March 29^th at 3pm.  Call the Anna Yates Elementary School office at 601-4917 for more information.)

The School District has made great progress toward becoming a model full-service community school.  Our integration of healthcare, parent resources, after school activities and community resources into our schools, has reduced barriers to education and supported teachers to do their best work. 

I am particularly thankful to Congresswoman Barbara Lee for her support of the Family Resource Center and her work to upgrade our High School Gym to be a safe shelter in times of crisis. 

I am also thankful for Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordan and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson who have provided invaluable guidance throughout our transformation process. 

The District’s strong relationship with Peralta Community College to bring college level courses to our High School is very exciting, and I must thank Superintendent John Sugiyama, Superintendent Debbra Lindo and School Board member Miguel Dwin for their leadership of this work. 

State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner and State Senator Loni Hancock have been great partners in fighting for the needs of children and families in Emeryville.  Without their hard work at the state level, our efforts to improve Emeryville’s school district might not receive the critical attention that we require from the California Department of Education and other State Agencies.

With the community’s support, we have started construction on our new community school and will now have adequate facilities for the District’s partnerships and collaborations. Funds are now available to build the facility required to house the combination of recreation, health and pre-k through grade 16 education services that comprise our community school partnerships.  I am proud that the Measure J Bond Oversight Committee recently reported that all Measure J funds are being spent appropriately and responsibly, and that Moody’s recently gave us a very high bond credit rating.

I am confident that the District’s transition dream team of past superintendents John Quinn and John Sugiyama will support our extraordinary professional staff and teachers to continue building on our progress to date.  With the support of EUSD’s amazing staff, I have great confidence in the continued improvement of our school district.

The board intends to discuss the process for filling my position at the February 26th School Board meeting.  I regret that I will not be at that meeting due to work travel, but I look forward to continuing to serve the community until the end of March.

Most of all, thank you for being a community that consistently supports safe quality schools for the Emeryville community.

Joshua Simon

Capital Improvement Program 2014

It is time to weigh in on what larger capital improvement projects you think are the top priority for the next 5 years. We have limited funds to spend and lots of projects that are deserving. Please help us out by attending a committee meeting (which are listed on p.11 of this packet), coming to the community meeting on Saturday, March 1, 10:00 am - noon (at City Hall, 1333 Park Ave.), or reading over the projects and sending your opinion to me and the rest of the council members.

This CIP process has been a long time in coming. We started this process once before in 2011, just before redevelopment was dismantled in 2012, and are just now ready to tackle it again. The total amount we have to spend is approximately $95 million. The number of projects is about 75. Read through the list of projects staff have identified. Some are in your neighborhood, some will improve traffic circulation in town, or help improve bike/ped facilities. There is something for everyone. Please get informed and share your opinion.

Background: Now that Redevelopment is gone, the City of Emeryville is trying to figure out how much money we can use toward capital intensive projects. For the past 35 years, these projects have been paid for by redevelopment funds (at between $12 million and $51 million per year), which were based on the growth of property taxes over the years. As properties were improved, tax revenues went up and that gain was put into redevelopment (and was borrowed against). We will be paying off those redevelopment loans for a number of years still.

Only one more year... are you ready to join the council?

In December, I announced that I will finish my city council term in the Fall of 2014, and that I will not be seeking re-election. I have announced my intention this early because I would like to encourage anyone who is concerned about good policy decisions in Emeryville to run. I would love to find two great candidates to support!

When I ran in 2009, I expected a four year term. With our change of elections to even years (to align with County, State and Federal elections and greater voter turn-out), I ended up with a 5 year term (as did all other sitting council members and school board members). I will spend my fifth year working hard on furthering my initiatives, but will leave the council at the end of 2014. If you are a person who is interested in local issues, from small details to larger policy, please consider talking with me about the city council race and the position!

Some of the things I have learned:

1. This work is very gratifying, and an individual with community support can make a real difference in our urban village.
2. It is hard to balance family commitments and a demanding job with this important work. The pay is not worthy of the position, but there are good health benefits provided.
3. I know that the changes we are seeing in Emeryville for the better (more attention paid to bike/ped facilities, more family friendly units in projects) are not because of me, but may be a result of increased public participation and a shift in priorities. This is about a group effort, not one individual.

I would also like to let you know about Scott Donahue, who is one of my trusted advisors for all things Emeryville. He has lived in town for over 30 years, in the artists' co-op, and he has announced that he is running for city council in 2014. I think that he will do a fantastic job, with thoughtful consideration of issues and a strong sense of where Emeryville is going. Please support me by helping elect Scott. I would like to find one more candidate to run with Scott as well.

Thank you to all of you who have shared opinions with me, served on committees, met with me, supported or challenged my ideas! I truly enjoy making sense of our opportunities, and correcting wrongs. Here is to big accomplishments in 2014!

If you are interested in running, please be in touch with me directly at emeryvillewest@gmail.com. In April or May, I will participate in a forum to discuss what serving on the council means in our town, with Jac Asher, sponsored by Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE). Details will follow.

Stopwaste in 2014

I serve as Emeryville's representative on the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, also known as Stopwaste. I greatly appreciate all that this government organization has done to make Alameda County a national leader in terms of how much of our waste goes back into the economy through recycling and compost (food scraps and plant debris). We (Stopwaste) are also responsible for banning single use plastic bags at most retail stores county-wide. We also have required commercial businesses and multi-family residences to offer recycling.

But we still find that people need an additional nudge or more education to further reduce the amount of "good stuff" that is going to landfill. You may have received a mailer recently that gives a snapshot of how well our community of Emeryville is doing on this, in comparison with other cities in the county. This mailer is paid for by a "benchmark" fee, that also pays for additional data collection, so we can measure how well we are doing. the fee is $1.51/year for most accounts, more for larger trash generators. Questions you may have can be answered here, or you can email me directly at emeryvillewest@gmail.com.

Another challenge that we face in Alameda County is how to fund disposal of Household Hazardous Waste -- materials that cannot safely be put in a landfill. Over the years, our money to fund this has gone down (as it is based on fees on landfilled materials, which have been decreasing -- yeah!), so Stopwaste is finding new money to support HHW disposal, while also making it easier for households to take HHW to the facilities (making the hours more frequent and more regular). Ideally, someday, we will be able to phase out more of these toxic substances from our store shelves, or charge the person buying it at point of sale to cover these costs, but for now, we are proposing a fee on all properties in the county to support these services. You may have received a letter recently informing you about this fee and how you may protest it, if you choose. It will be $9.55/year for all properties, added to property tax bills. It will only be in place for 10 years, and will be reduced if the cost of services is reduced or other funding sources are more than projected. Go here to see answers to frequently asked questions.

I have asked for an information item on the March 4 council agenda to be sure we have a chance to discuss these fees at council. You may also contact me directly to get more information on these programs.