Comments by Barry Parr
October 06, 2004
It's not surprising the big backpacks are a health risk. As in all things educational, there's research to prove it: Hickey conducted a research study on the physically damaging affects of heavy backpacks after witnessing her own children strain under the weight of their schoolbooks. About 70 percent of the middle school students in her experiment were lugging around a backpack that was harmful to their growing bodies. While small kids hauling around 25-pound backpacks is a common sight in elementary,…
October 05, 2004
I'm going to ask this question of all three candidates:
1. What experience do you have managing a budget?
2. What has your pre-election review of the CUSD budget told you about the school district?
October 06, 2004
It's not surprising the big backpacks are a health risk. As in all things educational, there's research to prove it: Hickey conducted a research study on the physically damaging affects of heavy backpacks after witnessing her own children strain under the weight of their schoolbooks. About 70 percent of the middle school students in her experiment were lugging around a backpack that was harmful to their growing bodies. While small kids hauling around 25-pound backpacks is a common sight in elementary,…
October 05, 2004
I'm going to ask this question of all three candidates:
1. What experience do you have managing a budget?
2. What has your pre-election review of the CUSD budget told you about the school district?
October 11, 2004
In the candidates' forum and in your campaign materials you say that the new middle school should be a "jewel". While I can't argue with that sentiment, I'd like you to be more specific about what you mean. What is it about the design for the new middle school that makes it a jewel in your opinion, and why isn't it possible for Cunha, an historic site next to our historic and genuinely jewel-like downtown that keeps it from being the jewel you speak of? I'd also like you to tell me how many students…
October 06, 2004
It's not surprising the big backpacks are a health risk. As in all things educational, there's research to prove it: Hickey conducted a research study on the physically damaging affects of heavy backpacks after witnessing her own children strain under the weight of their schoolbooks. About 70 percent of the middle school students in her experiment were lugging around a backpack that was harmful to their growing bodies. While small kids hauling around 25-pound backpacks is a common sight in elementary,…
October 05, 2004
I'm going to ask this question of all three candidates:
1. What experience do you have managing a budget?
2. What has your pre-election review of the CUSD budget told you about the school district?
September 30, 2004
I don't think it would be helpful for me to speculate about the Review's motives. Perhaps they can tell us why they did what they did.
September 23, 2004
For Immediate Release Contact: Rudy Jurgensen Public Affairs Manager 650-691-1200 Open Space District Board Adopts Resolution Supporting Proposition 1A -- Measure Will Prohibit the State Legislature from Taking Local Tax Dollars -- LOS ALTOS, CA - [September 23, 2004] - Last night, the Board of Directors of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) unanimously adopted a Resolution supporting Proposition 1A, which would prohibit the state from taking and diverting funds originally committed…
September 11, 2004
NOTE: This budget includes $2.7 million from MROSD, and the Los Pueblecitos petition says that MROSD lands in the city would be turned over to the city. I asked Oscar Braun about this in email and he wrote: "The mitigation fee schedule in the Summary is just an example of potential revenue streams that the Towncould legally adopt. Obviously, if MORSD lands are detached and transferred to LP, then MROSD wouldn't pay fees to the town of LP. "
August 31, 2004
Putting the rural lands north of Hwy 92 in the control of a community centered around Pescadero and La Honda is not local control. It's not even clear whether the majority of residents of District 2 would be north of the 92.
That's not the only problem with the proposal, but it's potentially a big one from the perspective of your coastside neighbors.
August 31, 2004
There's more than a little irony in the fact that El Granada, Moss Beach and Montara don't get to vote.
The folks who are proposing this are the ones who opposed MROSD's annexation without a vote. It would be imposed on many Coastsiders who didn't want a vote on MROSD.
Having said that, it's also fundamentally different. MROSD is not a government, and "annexation" only gives it the power to buy land from willing sellers.
August 31, 2004
The mis-naming of the MROSD was my mistake. I fixed it in the text.
The transfer of MROSD land is not exactly a request. The petition says that the MROSD land "shall" be transferred. I have no idea whether or on whom that would be legally binding.
I'm going to post more information the incorporation process.
August 17, 2004
I'd like to see more innovation and competition in publicly-funded schools, but not vouchers. I'd like us to be less stingy with education, and less rigid about the way we compensate teachers: more incentive pay and less emphasis on seniority and meaningless training. I want more, smaller, community schools. I'm not a big proponent of reducing class size per se. I'd like to see less federal involvement in education policy. I'd like to see the job of teacher made more inviting to smarter, more creative…
July 30, 2004
It's a lot more complicated than that. My sense is that the jury is still out on whether the rats are protected. But the landowner didn't wait for the verdict. There's a long-standing tradition in development of digging holes that can't be undug and accepting the legal penalties as a cost of doing business. In the close quarters here on the coast, that's a recipe for chaos. Landowners' rights have never been absolute, nor should they be. Having said that, I don't have an opinion on the dusky-footed…
July 26, 2004
Thanks for this report. It really helped clarify the trial, the issues, and next steps.
It seems to me that when a judge suggests that county elections officials aren't being impartial when they're counting petitions, that's headline news. I was initially skeptical of swingfiddle's report (first comment on this story), which I also found hard to parse, but the Merc confirmed it in essence.
Having said that, SOB's case is looking more and more like hand-waving.
July 19, 2004
I've been told there is more information about Wavecrest at:
http://wavecrest.sanmateo.org/
...as well as some very wet-looking photos of Wavecrest at:
http://wavecrest.sanmateo.org/wetwavecrest/wetwavecrest.html
July 17, 2004
You're right. That was an exaggeration born of my surprise at how empty the fields were to the west of Hwy 1, and trying to convey it at 1am. It now reads "Half Moon Bay has only begun to sprawl across Highway 1". The low-density rural development from the days of the railroad isn't sprawl. Sprawl is development that is not only driven by automobiles, but designed to accomodate cars ahead of people. A good example would be CUSD's current plan for a new middle school on the southernmost edge of HMB,…
July 14, 2004
The following eyewitness account of the hearing was emailed to me by Kathryn Slater-Carter: I attended the hearing in Half Moon Bay Foundation v. LAFCo hearing in Redwood City yesterday. It went on from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a break from about 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The court heard testimony from several individuals opposed to the annexation including Terry Gossett, Bob Braitman (currently Executive Officer of Contra Costa County LAFCo and a "for-hire consultant) and Frank Iwama (of Counsel to the…
July 14, 2004
According to the certification by the county, 5,340 protests were delivered and 5,340 were verified. Of those 3583 were found sufficient and 1,757 were found "not sufficient" and reasons were given.
But you're right that 1,757 is 32.9% of 5,340 -- not 34%.
There were 341 protests found "not sufficient" because they were "not registered". It's possible that this includes some of the absentee property owners. It's impossible to say without more information.
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