WELCOME TO THE OPINION PAGE
The following letters and other commentary express only the personal opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Piedmont Civic Association.
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I’m excited to add my endorsement of Megan Pillsbury to the long list of deeply committed community volunteers and education experts who have already attested to her extensive qualifications for the position.
I have known and admired Megan for many years and believe she is an excellent choice for Piedmont’s School Board. But besides liking her a great deal and knowing her to be a deep thinker and a coalition builder, I have a few specific reasons for choosing her over a slate of dedicated and well-intentioned candidates.
#1: Megan has recently retired from a long career in teaching and curriculum development. Beyond the extremely relevant experience, the Board will benefit from Megan viewing a position on our School Board as her next full time job. She’s committed to working long hours to ensure our schools provide the best possible experience for students and their families.
#2: While Megan and her husband raised three children who all attended Piedmont schools, she is not currently a Piedmont parent. She has vast experience both educating and parenting Piedmont students, but right now she doesn’t have a horse in the race. She won’t be unduly influenced by the real-time experiences of her own children and their friends; rather, she will have a broad and objective perspective and a commitment to ensuring all students develop into responsible, healthy and well-educated adults.
#3: One of the key issues our district is dealing with is attracting and retaining talented teachers. We need Megan’s years of in-district teaching experience to provide the Board with direct insight into what motivates teachers.
#4: I’ve had specific discussions with Megan about the financing that PUSD has obtained over the past two decades and have been impressed by her full understanding of the strategies and implementation of our very successful campaigns. This is in direct contrast to other candidates, who seem unable to grasp the complexity and have in one case even created a misleading and erroneous narrative about how the board was somehow led astray and chose a sub-optimal bond strategy.
Megan Pillsbury is the real deal, and I’m thrilled she’s willing to work on behalf of my kids and all the students of Piedmont to ensure our district thrives in the coming years. I hope you’ll join me in voting for her!
Laura Pochop, Piedmont Resident
As her other letters of support have already emphasized, Julie Caskey has an extensive volunteer record and an incredible commitment to the Piedmont schools and community. But I write to encourage Piedmont residents to vote for Julie because the Piedmont School Board needs her expertise in two specific areas: her legal expertise and the expertise she brings as a current parent of elementary, middle, and high school children.
First, Julie will be the only lawyer on the Piedmont School Board. I met Julie in New York City over twenty years ago, when she was working as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division, and also waiting tables to make ends meet. As a Columbia Law School graduate, Julie could have made triple her legal aid salary at a big law firm, but Julie’s commitment was to advancing the public interest. Throughout her legal career as a children’s advocate, as an immigration lawyer, and as a staff attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Julie has served the public and advocated on behalf of those less fortunate. As a lawyer, Julie will bring to the Piedmont School Board a special set of analytical and problem-solving skills. She is singularly qualified to identify potential risk and liability, understand process, review policy, and navigate the legal issues that will inevitably arise.
In addition, as a parent of three children under the age of five, I am especially aware of the importance of a current elementary and middle school parent being on the Piedmont School Board. No existing school board members — and no 2018 school board candidates — are parents to elementary or middle school children. By contrast, Julie is a parent to four Piedmont schoolchildren: one at Beach, two at PMS, and one at PHS. Julie’s children will be in the Piedmont schools for her entire four-year term. She understands the issues facing her elementary and middle school children and their teachers, as well as the larger policy needs facing the district. With evolving and challenging issues that have significance to me as a parent of very young children — like Chromebook and social media policies in middle school, and art/library/music hours in the elementary years — Piedmont needs someone on its School Board who is in the parenting trenches with younger children. Julie is the only candidate who can meet that need.
For these reasons, Julie has my firmest support, and I encourage Piedmont voters to support Julie as well.Annie Reding, Piedmont Resident
I am a PHS senior writing in support of Megan Pillsbury candidacy for the Piedmont School Board. I have known Mrs. Pillsbury since I had her as my first grade teacher at Wildwood Elementary School and have kept in touch with her over the years. As a teacher, she fully understood the needs of the students and met that need with both care for individual students and the class as a whole. Because of her experience as an elementary school teacher and commitment to professional development and continued training, she has extensive knowledge of how to best support student learning. Mrs. Pillsbury is the only candidate with actual experience as a teacher, which gives her valuable insight into what happens in the classroom and how decisions made by the Board might affect students, families and teachers.
The most important role of a school board member is to facilitate communication between students, parents, teachers, and the administration, so they can work cohesively to create the best possible learning environment. Mrs. Pillsbury is an excellent communicator, especially because she doesn’t just talk–she listens. This has not changed from my days in elementary school.
Listening to all the stakeholders in the community and understanding the different perspectives will be crucial to getting everyone to work together. As a Piedmont School Board member, I know Mrs. Pillsbury will always look out for students, families and teachers.Ella Lee, Piedmont High School Student
Who are the Politicians in Piedmont?
BB seeks to prevent the “recycling” of politicians which leads to the question – who are these politicians in Piedmont? Measure BB defines politicians as termed-out councilmembers running for office again 4 years after stepping down. By that definition there are only two at the moment in Piedmont – myself and John Chiang, both termed-out from Council in 2014. Over the past 50 years in Piedmont, only one termed-out councilman has run again after 4 years and he lost. So BB is a red herring – termed-out councilmembers rarely if ever run again in Piedmont.
A look at candidates over the past 20 years in Piedmont (see table) shows that incumbency and campaign contributions are likely the biggest impediment to first-time candidates. Two trends are evident – candidates with established volunteer records win and first-time candidates with no or nominal volunteer experience have to raise from $12,000 – $20,000 to run and in some cases, that was not enough to win. First-time candidates face the greatest hurdles from sitting councilmembers, not termed-out councilmembers. Limiting that incumbency and campaign spending would be the best way to encourage first-time candidates but BB does neither.
|
Election |
Candidate |
Campaign Contributions |
Election |
Candidate |
Campaign Contributions |
Election |
Candidate |
Campaign Contributions |
|
2000 |
Matzger |
4589 |
2006 |
Allen |
2349 |
2012 |
Fujioka |
22,336 |
|
Labadie |
4838 |
Chiang |
10,333 |
McBain |
10,773 |
|||
|
Friedman |
9000 |
Rood |
18,553 |
|||||
|
Keating |
2959 |
Bostrom |
ND |
|||||
|
2002 |
Friedman |
12335 |
2008 |
Fujioka |
19,334 |
2014 |
King |
11,741 |
|
Wieler |
9461 |
Gilbert |
28,275 |
Rood |
4872 |
|||
|
Bruck |
1701 |
Barbieri |
13,957 |
Wieler |
950 |
|||
|
Rapson |
4134 |
2010 |
Wieler |
7065 |
2016 |
McBain |
8651 |
|
|
Chiang |
8415 |
Cavenaugh |
16,115 |
|||||
|
2004 |
Barbieri |
ND |
Keating |
3154 |
Levine |
6256 |
||
|
Watters |
8608 |
Bostrom |
ND |
If there are politicians in Piedmont, they are not returning to run again so BB is unnecessary. In fact, one could say that wanting to serve again is the sign of a volunteer – most politicians move on. Another sign of politicians is that they show their true colors once elected – why weaken voter choice by limiting who can run against such candidates?
BB is not needed and in fact will strengthen incumbency, making it harder for first-time candidates. BB does not “modernize” Piedmont’s charter – only one other city in California was found to have this 8-year rule.
Vote in favor of Piedmont volunteers and vote NO on BB.
Garrett Keating, Former Piedmont City Council Member
Hari Titan is running again this year for a school board seat. I admire his tenacity and his continued interest in the issues with the schools. But Hari is making claims on fliers he is distributing that are overblown and saying things about me that are patently not true.
He claims he “spearheaded” the transition to extended day kindergarten, “lobbied” for supplemental STEM curriculum, “exposed” interest penalties on CAB bonds and “saved” the citizens millions in interest payments. To claim each of these as accomplishments is to argue that having an opinion gets things done. The truth is we’ve had teachers clamoring for extended day kindergarten for years, students, parents and teachers all want more STEM emphasis and the board has been closely monitoring the structure of our bond portfolio. So while these initiatives are being implemented, his influence has been minimal.
Hari has indicated that I profited from the issuance of the District’s CABS for my personal investment portfolio and am somehow conflicted by the decisions we’ve undertaken regarding them. That is simply not true. To me, distributing this information is beneath the standard held by our community and should disqualify any candidate stooping to such a tactic.
While the self-proclaimed “citizen watchdog” has been lobing criticism and claiming influence, he has not exhibited the true community leadership required of a school board position. I encourage you to go elsewhere with your votes.
Doug Ireland, Member of the Piedmont School Board
The ongoing School Board election campaign has resulted in misrepresentations about the District’s sale of Capital Appreciation Bonds during the seismic bond program, and the refinancing of those bonds.
I served on the School Board during the seismic program, but anyone can review the meeting agendas and materials to understand the facts. A good place to start is the 2014 Seismic Safety Bond Program Financial Summary, http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/bond/SSBP_Finance_Summary.pdf. Below are some relevant facts:
First, the District and the School Board clearly understood the difference between Current Interest Bonds (CIBs) and Capital Appreciation Bonds (CABs), as well as Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs) and Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs). These financing mechanisms, their pros and cons, were discussed in public meetings back to 2006. Very roughly speaking, CIBs reduce total interest payments by levying taxes at a higher rate to pay down the debt starting immediately, while CABs reduce the immediate tax rate at the cost of greater total interest payments by deferring repayment of the debt. Board carefully considered which options were feasible and prudent under the circumstances, and made financing decisions following public discussion.
Second, the Board authorized the sale of CABs (Series E) to allow seismic renovation work at Wildwood and Beach Schools to proceed, rather than defer such work for years until older bonds were paid off, which would have left our children in seismically unsound buildings, increased construction costs, and lost access to the “replacement school” in Emeryville. (If you want more detail, the CABs were sold to repay the BANs that were sold to allow the District to obtain QSCBs—see SSBP Financial Summary. QSCBs were near-zero interest bonds that must be repaid in 15 years and saved the District about $40 million, http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/QSCB_012511_presentation.pdf ). Pursuant to statute, anticipated tax rates to repay bonds issued under Measure E were limited to $60 per $100,000 in assessed value. The District could not have sold CIBs to fund this work as the tax rate to repay the bonds would have exceeded the limit. Selling CABs deferred the repayment, and the taxes to make repayment, until other bonds were paid down and thus complied with the limit. See, e.g.,
http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2011_12/050813packet.pdf at pp 2-3.
I do not recall anyone, including current School Board candidates, appearing before the School Board at the time to argue that Wildwood and Beach work should be deferred for years to reduce total interest payments. Wildwood and Beach parents vocally supported proceeding with the work.
Third, refinancing bonds to save money is not a new concept. Even before the CABs were sold, the Board and District anticipated re-financing them as soon as it was possible to do so (call dates were set as soon as feasible given market requirements). See May 8, 2013 Minutes at 3-4, http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2011_12/050813minutes.pdf. The District and Board had a history of refinancing older bonds when interest rates come down, and had done so in 2009 and 2014. See http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2014_15/10-22-14_Packet.pdf. The Board refinanced Series B CABs in 2015. http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2-11-15_Agenda.pdf.
In Fall 2017, the Board and District identified options for refunding the 2013 Series E CABs and held two public meetings to obtain input.
http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-CAB-Refunding-Options-Summary.pdf
The Board elected to refinance the 2013 CABs with CIBs, saving Piedmont taxpayers $26.1 million.
http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/blog/2017/12/15/district-saves-taxpayers-more-than-26-1-million- with-bond-refinancing/. According to Minutes of the Nov. 8, 2017 meeting, however, “Hari Titan encouraged the Board to wait for at least a year on CAB refinancing.” https://agendaonline.net/public/Meeting.aspx?AgencyID=1241&MeetingID=12755&AgencyTypeID=1&I sArchived=True. Fortunately, the Board correctly chose to proceed with the refinancing in December 2017 as interest rates have continued to climb.
Fourth, the School Board, well aware that CABs keep current tax rates lower only by increasing total interest payments, has chosen CIBs over CABs when available. In 2014, when proposing a bond measure to fix Alan Harvey Theater, the Board ruled out using CABs as the feasible tax rate supported the CIB option. No one on the Board was advocating CABs. See January 8, 2014 Minutes at 7-9, http://www.piedmont.k12.ca.us/aboutpusd/agenda.minutes/2012_13/1-8-14_approved_minutes.pdf.
In short, claims about misuse of CABs in the past do not reflect the facts. This School Board election should focus on solving real challenges to maintaining Piedmont’s high quality educational system.
Rick Raushenbush, Former Piedmont School Board Member
CC has been called the “hire but cannot fire” proposal, because the Council is required to hire key-employees (Fire Chief, Police Chief, Finance Director, Recreation Director, etc.), but under Measure CC, the Council would be forbidden by Charter under all circumstances from evaluating, directing or firing the key-employees they recruit and hire. Only the City Administrator would be entitled to fire Council-hired key-employees.
Ballot Measure CC pretends to merely clarify reporting, but it is not a clarification. It is a dramatic change in Piedmont governance taking authority from the Council and placing it overwhelmingly with the City Administrator.
Piedmont, as a public entity, cannot be run like a corporate board. Piedmont has an elected City Council accountable to Piedmonters. The public has a right by law to influence the Council, but not a City Administrator.
The following was stated publicly:
“Paul [Piedmont’s current City Administrator Paul Benoit] commented that he would certainly confer with the Council in the managing and firing of City employees.”
This statement illustrates one of the problems. If the Council intends for the City Administrator to consult with them prior to “managing or firing” City employees, this language should have been written into the Charter, which it was not. This leaves a large gap in the Council’s oversight role.
The Piedmont City Charter, basis of Piedmont governance, is written for all – the Council, City Administrator, City Attorney, Police Chief, Fire Chief, candidates for office, residents, etc.; it cannot be based on individuals personality.
Measure CC proposes that Council-hired key-employees will serve at “the pleasure of ” the enhanced City Administrator rather than “at the pleasure” of the elected City Council thus initiating potential employment problems for the Council-hired key-employees – Police Chief, Fire Chief, Recreation Director, Finance Director, etc.
Piedmont without a directly elected mayor has a “strong 5 member” City Council form of government. All Council members are equal in their voting and consideration of issues. Forfeiting responsibility and authority to the proposed strong and enhanced City Administrator form of government takes matters away from public view with a loss of accountability.
The City Council has never “managed” the administration of the City. This is not allowed by the City Charter. Readers of the current City > Charter will note clear roles assigned to the City Council and Administrator. Councils work with the City Administrator to assure their public policies are implemented. No change is needed to clarify reporting authority, for it is already written into the Charter and changing it as proposed makes no sense, creates conflict and new issues not addressed in the proposed update.
Take a look at cities around us. Most recently, the City of Alameda reached a City Administrator/ Council disagreement regarding a Fire Chief. The Council ended up terminating the City Administrator with a costly severance package of approximately a million dollars. Piedmont has avoided this kind of unheval under our current form of government. The proposed hybrid enhanced City Administrator form of government will likely increase costs.
Piedmont has been successfully managed for well over 75 years with the current system of checks and balances stated in the City Charter.
Updating the City Charter should not result in a change of Piedmont’s governance. Unfortunately, the faulty sections proposed cannot be separated from the entire proposal, thus the entire measure should be rejected.
With over 22 years of public office experience and careful review of Measure CC, I recommend that voters reject Measure CC and vote NO.
Voters should await an appropriate revision to the City Charter by voting NO on Measure CC at the end of your ballot.
Alice Creason, Former Piedmont Mayor, Councilmember, Planning Commissioner, AC Transit President and Board Member, Trustee Piedmont Beautification Foundation
Julie Caskey and I met at a Girls Leadership parent-daughter workshop in Piedmont. I have also worked alongside Julie as a volunteer and an advocate when she was the President of the Advanced Learners Program Support (ALPS) parent group, promoting diversity and differentiated learning.
I felt compelled to announce my endorsement of Julie when I found out only two of the existing five board members have children in Piedmont schools now, those being in high school. As a 25-year government executive and business owner, it makes sense to me that our community would want balanced viewpoints on our school board. What it lacks right now is a current parent of the elementary and middle schools. Our social environment and digital landscape have changed greatly in the past decade, so it is only wise that we have someone who understands the needs of young children today.
Here is why I support Julie Caskey for Piedmont School Board:
- I have seen first hand how passionate she is about our children’s education. Julie has volunteered at our schools full-time for the past seven years. Her dedication is clearly unwavering. She is also exceedingly capable.
- Julie will be the ONLY school board member who has children in elementary, middle, and high school. She is a fellow parent in three different schools in Piedmont and can represent the interests of a wide spectrum of parents. She can help PUSD stay relevant and make sound decisions while improving accountability and transparency.
- Julie’s qualifications speak for themselves. After graduating from Columbia Law School, she dedicated herself to public service for 25 years when she could have worked anywhere else. As a defense lawyer who advocated for children and minorities, she is simultaneously compassionate and tough. When one of the school board’s main responsibilities is personnel management for the school district, it makes sense that we have someone who brings negotiation and legal skills to the table.
Join me in voting for Julie Caskey for Piedmont School Board on November 6th.
Michele Kwok, Havens Parent
We are writing to endorse Amal Smith for school board. Amal has deep roots in this community and demonstrated service. Before being elected to the board in 2014, she volunteered in small and big ways from Beach to PHS to the Piedmont Education Foundation. Her experience from a career in higher education financial management and administration together with her volunteer work mean Piedmont will be served by someone with strong and relevant skills.
Amal is smart and thoughtful, dedicated to public service and our children and their families. She is committed to stakeholder engagement and knows how to make reasoned decisions when there are differing opinions. Please join us in voting for Amal for school board!
Matt & Margaret Heafey, Piedmont Residents
I’m voting for Julie Caskey for the School Board, and I’d like to tell you why—she’s effective at getting things done for our kids. Having four kids of her own spanning Piedmont’s elementary, middle, and high school, Julie is 100% vested in our schools. She also understands a personalized approach is critical to unleashing each child’s potential.
I’ve worked with Julie for the past eight years as a fellow board member of Piedmont ALPS (Advanced Learner Program Support). As president for two years, she brought stellar organization, a collaborative style, and a relentless drive to implement changes that will better prepare our kids for the world they will inherit upon graduation.
Julie gets things done. She raised money and helped create a position for K-12 called a differentiation coach. As a result, Amy Symons Burke now works with teachers and students to create differentiated learning plans, and gain access to resources to support those plans–whether the students are advanced, challenged, or just need something different, as many kids do. Julie was also an instrumental math task force member, implementing a new compression math option for 6th graders. We have amazing teachers in Piedmont. Julie works to make sure they have the support and resources they need to help every child reach their potential.
As our teachers know, best practices in education are changing and evolving rapidly. Our teachers are no longer standing at the front of a classroom, lecturing students. Learning is interactive, collaborative, differentiated. Chromebooks enable new opportunities for learning, allowing children to better learn at their own pace. As a current parent, an active member of ALPS, The Beach Parent Organization, and other school groups, Julie understands how these changes and opportunities should best be implemented. She isn’t afraid to embrace change if it leads to better outcomes for our kids and pushes Piedmont to continue evolving so that we can maintain our standards as a top school district.
Julie also worked for 20 years as a lawyer, assisting women, children, and families that had been marginalized, excluded, and left behind. Julie will bring the passion, intelligence, and energy she brought to her career to her role as a member of our school board.
I feel confident that having Julie on our school board will enable our schools to provide a better learning environment for all our students. I hope you will join me in voting for Julie Caskey for school board.
Kim Fisher, Piedmont Resident
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