Prominent business, government, labor, and education leaders will convene to discuss “The New Economy: Changing the Way Education Works,” presented by the East County Business-Education Alliance and Kaiser Permanente, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm, Friday, Dec 3 at Lone Tree Event Center, Canyon Oak Room, 4800 Golf Course Road in Antioch.

Panelists will include Donald Gill, Superintendent of the Antioch Unified School District and Chair of the East County Business-Education Alliance, Janet Auer from Chevron, Alan Ichikawa from Dow Chemical Company, and Carolyn Nelson, Dean of Education and Allied Studies, CSU East Bay. Youth Intervention Network founder and co-chair Iris Archuleta, from the firm of Emerald Consulting, will serve as panel moderator.

Also included in the program will be Richard Livingston, acting President of Los Medanos College and Stephen Baiter, Director of the Contra Costa Workforce Development Board.

This luncheon forum will highlight local best practices, including career-themed pathways and career-integrated academics that link learning to real-world applications to inspire more high school youth to stay and succeed in school; prepare them with strong, sustainable and market-demanded skills; connect them to high wage, high skill, high growth careers; and help them effectively transition to college or other post high school education and training..

Some of the questions we wish to address include:

How must we transform education to engage young people with vibrant, experiential, interactive learning? What will it take to apply best practices to K-12 education environments to improve student performance and achievement for 21st century careers? What steps is AUSD taking to create high performing schools and what are the implications for students, teachers, parents, the community, and private industry? How can we more strongly connect K-12 with 2- and 4-year community colleges, graduate and research work, and career opportunities? How can we build stronger “cradle to career” linked learning pathways to improve low student retention and graduation rates? Is the education community adapting to the rapid changes as quickly as it could?

The East County Business-Education Alliancedevelops business – education partnerships and strategies that support and equip students for life, post-secondary education and careers in order to benefit East County youth and their families. In addition, the Alliance works to provide and promote opportunities for students to develop career awareness, workplace experience, and life skills.

According to Keith Archuleta, consultant and director of the Alliance, “quality education and workforce development are central to the economic vitality and quality of life in any community. We are definitely not waiting for superman. Our community will not continue to allow disengagement to cause too many students to fail or drop out of school. High schools and higher education must be better connected with industry to ensure that all students gain the knowledge and skills critical for success in both college and careers. This means that education must focus on providing rigor and relevance connected to real people doing real things in the local economy.”

In order to engage students and address California’s dropout crisis, the Alliance hopes to create, expand and promote linked learning educational pathways that involve business and industry, blend academic rigor and real-world learning to inspire more youth to stay and succeed in school, and provide necessary teacher professional development that helps teachers provide career-integrated education that prepares high school students to effectively transition to college and career.

“We are all too familiar with the challenge facing school systems throughout the United States on how to provide students at all levels with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in school, work, and life in the increasingly global and competitive 21st century,” says Archuleta. “In today’s knowledge and innovation-based economy, the skills necessary for success in the workplace have converged with those needed for success in college.”

Sponsorships of this event are available to assist the Alliance in developing and implementing its mission and vision for East County. In addition, individual tickets may be purchased for $50. For more information, please call 925-755-9291 or e-mail Keith Archuleta at keith@emeraldconsulting.com.

Steavean Taylor, 21, turned himself in to the police and was booked at the Martinez Detention Facility, charged with vehicular manslaughter and felony hit and run causing death, according to police.

The solo vehicle accident occurred on Nov. 21 at 2:22 a.m. in the 2400 block of Mahogany Way. Witnesses reported that a 1999, silver, Lexus SUV was speeding prior to crashing into a tree and that the driver had fled on foot, according to a police press release. The passenger, a 19-year-old male, Antioch resident, was trapped in the vehicle. The passenger side of the car had wrapped around the tree. He was extricated, flown to UC Davis with major injuries, and died later in the day.

The Antioch Police Department is working on leads, and asking that anyone with information please call Detective James Stenger at (925) 779-6894.

On Dec. 11, the Kiwanis Club of the Delta-Antioch, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, East Bay Regional Park District, Pacific Gas and Electric, and the Sutter Delta Foundation present the 34th Annual Holiday Run and Walk for Health and Health Fair.

This event raises funds to support the library, locals schools and the local youth. The run will be held at the Contra Loma Regional Park. The event will feature 3 runs: 1K, 3K and a 10K run. A major part of the race day activities is a Health Fair. Sutter Delta Medical Center and other Health Fair vendors will be providing health testing, fitness information and health food and drink sampling. For more information, please visit www.holidayrun.org.

Gregory Flynn Levy, 21, of Antioch, was shot and killed on Nov. 16 outside of the 7-11 at 2301 Buchanan Rd. in Antioch, according to police.

At 8:49 p.m., Antioch Police received reports of a shooting, found Levy inside of a vehicle and provided first aid. Medical personnel pronounced the victim deceased a few minutes later. A second occupant of the vehicle was uninjured and provided a statement, according to a police press release. At this time there is no description available of the shooter, who was on foot at the time of the shooting and fled immediately after. 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call Detective Castillo at (925) 779-6933, or Antioch Dispatch at (925) 778-2441.

Mayor Jim Davis with the help of Project Manager Lonnie Karste, fellow councilmembers, representatives of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce and Reddi Prewett, cut the ribbon at the ceremonies to officially dedicate and open the new Antioch Community Center at Prewett Family Park.

Article by Allen Payton, Photos by Dena Jeglum

Antioch officials, city staff, residents and representatives of the business community gathered for the ribbon cutting marking the official opening of the new Antioch Community Center at Prewett Family Park in Southeast Antioch, on Saturday, November 13. Also in attendance was Reddi Prewett, the widow of Ed Prewett who donated the land to the City of Antioch, and for whom the park is named.

Funded by $26 million from the Mello-Roos assessment district, the long-awaited 35,000 square foot facility, originally slated to be a library, includes a technology center where residents can order, pick up and drop off books from the county library system. It also includes a police services center replacing the mobile trailer that’s been used by the police department in front of the water park, a gymnasium, large community hall, preschool classrooms, meeting rooms, recreation services access area and a city hall kiosk. (more…)

Article and photos by Allen Payton, Publisher

Antioch honored America’s military veterans with a parade, today, starting at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, in recognition when the end of fighting during World War I – known as the armistice – began.

Before the parade began, a military helicopter flew low over the route, along 2nd Street, and downtown, exciting the crowd.

The bells of the El Campanil Theater tolled eleven times to begin the parade.

Parade participants included a variety of veterans’ groups and individuals, marching bands from Deer Valley, Antioch, Freedom and Liberty high schools, the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, local police and firefighters, local elected officials including Antioch Mayor Jim Davis, Mayor Pro Tem Mary Rocha, presumptive councilman-elect Gary Agopian and Antioch school board trustees Claire Smith, Walter Ruehlig and Wade Harper (also a councilman-elect), and families of current military servicemen and women. Antioch Veterans Day Parade video

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A victorious Wade Harper points to election results, as Supervisor Federal Glover and Antioch School Board candidate Vincent Manuel look on.

Harper & Hack in First for Council, School Board; Second Places Still Too Close to Call

By Allen Payton, Publisher

As of Wednesday afternoon, November 10, the Contra Costa County Elections Office reported Wade Harper was still in first place in the race for Antioch City Council, while Gary Agopian had widened his lead over third-place finisher Arne Simonsen from 70 votes to 150.

In the Antioch School Board race, Gary Hack had a commanding lead for first place, while Joy Motts, also expanded her lead to 150 votes from just four votes on election night, over third-place finisher John “Jack” Yeager.

Over 5,000 additional votes were added to the total in the council race, since the total counted through last Tuesday, November 2. Harper had 8,617 votes, Agopian had 7,368 and Simonsen had 7,218 votes. Councilman Reggie Moore was in fourth place with 6,456 votes and Councilwoman Martha Parsons had 5,953.

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Orinda Councilwoman and MTC Member Amy Wirth, Antioch Mayor Jim Davis, BART Directors Gayle Murray and Joel Keller, Antioch Councilwoman Martha Parsons, BART General Manager Dorothy Duggers, Congressman John Garamendi, Supervisor Federal Glover and State Senator Mark DeSaulnier turn the ceremonial first spades of dirt on the eBART Project.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

It was a day of celebrating accomplishments and new beginnings, with a cake, hardhats and gold-painted shovels, as all the key current and former elected officials, and staff who had anything to do with the eBART extension in East County gathered for the ground breaking of the Transfer Station on Friday, October 29 at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station.

BART Director Joel Keller, who served as MC and first proposed the idea of eBART, pointed out that it took “all the local officials in our community working together. If it wasn’t for all that support, we wouldn’t be standing here, today.”

“I think it’s important for East County that we’ve made a down payment on our long awaited, long overdue extension to East County,” he added.

The $26 million first-phase, will provide a facility approximately 400 feet east of the BART station, where an expected 14,000 travelers each day, from Antioch and Pittsburg will get off the eBART cars, cross a platform, get onto a BART train, and then travel to the BART station to pick up the rest of the passengers before heading West to the North Concord/Martinez station and beyond.

On the dais representing the various participating agencies, were BART Directors Keller, Gayle Murray and Tom Blaylock, Congressman John Garamendi, State Senator Mark DeSaulnier, Supervisor Federal Glover, CalTrans District 4 Director Bijan Sartipi, the four East County Mayors: Jim Davis of Antioch, Sal Evola of Pittsburg, Pat Anderson of Oakley, and Bob Taylor of Brentwood, who is also Chair of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), as well as Steve Heminger, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Randy Wysocki, Executive Director of the CCTA.

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