Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL)

At our special council meeting on Wednesday, August 6, 2014, the city council will be considering our agreement with Emery Unified School District (EUSD) to move forward on the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) project you can see starting construction on San Pablo Ave at 53rd. This project is the culmination of years of planning, and will create a single K-12 school with a Recreation Center, Library and health and community services, all under one roof. The staff report for this item is here. The supporting resolutions and contracts are quite long, but can be found on the agenda, item number 6.1.

The council has two items to consider:

1. the Joint Occupancy Agreement, which covers 
• Project Lease
• Finance Agreement
• Governance
• Operations, Maintenance and Shared Use Agreement
• Design and Construction Agreement
• General Conditions
2. The construction contract with Turner Construction, which came in at $58.6 million.

Please attend the meeting if you can make it to hear updates on the project and share your opinion on the ECCL project. City Hall is at 1333 Park Ave.

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

ECCL bike/ped path conversation

This evening about 40 people gathered at the Emery Secondary Site to talk more about the ECCL project and the bike/ped path that is in the General Plan for that site. In case you have not followed this issue, Emery Unified School District has asked the city to delete the path from that site saying that there is not space or money to put in the path with the new construction of our K-12 community school and center. Emery Bay Village residents have also asked for the path to be deleted citing security concerns. The Bike/Ped Advisory Committee (BPAC) asked to meet on the site today to walk through and talk about the concerns, trying to understand how we got to this point and how to solve this problem. The City Council voted NOT to delete the path from the General Plan a few months back. City staff pointed out that the path could remain in the General Plan, but that the project could also move forward without including it. Hmmm.

It was an animated discussion, although I left feeling discouraged. Several people called for creative thinking to break through and find a real solution. But road blocks are put up again and again, and some individuals didn't seem to be listening to all sides of the conversation. As to when the decisions are made and how firm those decisions are is always contentious. It isn't over until the building is built, one person said. Others said, the plans have been completed and the CEQA documents are in public comment now.

I feel that we need to envision the Emeryville we want to have and work steadily to get there. The General Plan process put "connectivity" and improving the pedestrian experience high on the list of goals. That is what all of the paths in the General Plan are about -- breaking up super blocks, where the only way to get from one quiet street to another is by going to the arterials, such as San Pablo, Hollis or Adeline. That is not pedestrian friendly to me.

And our brand new, we-want-to-feel-so-proud-of-it, hope-it-lasts-a-long-time Community Center and Full Service K-12 school should be setting the example, not shirking its pivotal role. Where better can we make a statement to kids, families and neighbors about encouraging alternative modes of transportation, reducing car emissions, encouraging physical activity and active transportation? I think kids should be able to walk or bike safely to school. It is all about priorities and the cost of everything... and what needs to change to make it all work.

The fear mongering about how dangerous a bike/ped path will be, with a sound wall and a security fence do not make sense to me. The street is dangerous as well, but we still put schools next to streets. Active uses tend to make places safer. And the increased cost of security personnel monitoring students may be mitigated by fewer vehicle miles driven, if we can put a cost on all the ramifications of our decisions, including the air we breathe and the lifestyles we choose. Saying that we are not ready for a bike/ped path, and will get it once we have erased all criminal activity nearby is giving in to defeat. We are building for our tomorrow.

The biggest surprise today is that the pool deck problem seemed to go away through the conversation. The sound wall can be placed closer to the property line (it will need shoring up seismically anyway , and a sound wall is planned to be built for the remaining length of the property line) and the visibility will be improved with a security fence between the path and the pool, with plenty of room to take a couple of feet off the deck for the path. The entrance to the pool is moving to the other side of the pool anyway it turns out! In fact that seemed like the easier problem to solve today, when compared to compromising a portion of the track around the football and baseball fields to get the path to fit on the north end of the property.

EUSD says that the path can go in during Phase 2. I am concerned that if Phase 1 doesn't get planned with the path included, there will be no political will to be certain that Phase 2 will include a path, especially if it will mean taking away the track or something that everyone has already gotten used to.

So, we had a wonderful chance to discuss, learn new things from each other, embrace community engagement and dialogue, but I am still not certain that this problem has been solved. Not yet anyway. We will keep trying. We have to if we want to realize our dreams for this wonderful town, Emeryville. We have to get it right!