New members sworn in at 6 p.m.

Budget Study Session begins at 7:30 p.m.

By Allen Payton

The Antioch City Council will say farewell to outgoing Council Members Reggie Moore and Martha Parsons and give the Oath of Office to newly elected Council Members Wade Harper and Gary Agopian, during a special council meeting this Tuesday, Nov. 30.

The council will first certify the election results from the County Clerk. In addition, as the top vote-getter in the election, earlier this month, Harper will be voted in as Mayor Pro Tem for the next two years. He will replace Councilwoman Mary Rocha in the role, although she will remain on the council.

The meeting will start one hour earlier than normal, at 6:00 p.m., to accommodate the ceremonies, followed by a closed session conference the city’s labor negotiator and the various employee groups.

At 7:30 p.m. the regular meeting will begin with only one agenda item, a study session on the city budget, allowing the new councilmen to hear from city staff and the public, and participate in the decisions of what cuts to make to balance the budget for the next two years.

According to Councilman Brian Kalinowski, the city only has to cover an approximate $2.2 million shortfall, as almost $1.6 million in additional revenues and savings were realized by the city as of the end of the last fiscal year, which ended in June.

The staff report by City Finance Director Dawn Merchant states: “The City realized more fund balance than projected at June 30, 2010 due to several factors:

· Approximately $200,000 more in sales tax revenue than projected

· Approximately $150,000 more in miscellaneous revenues than projected

· Approximately $230,000 in Police Department salary, overtime and part time help savings

· Approximately $650,000 in Public Works salary and contractual services savings

· Approximately $338,000 in Legislative & Administrative salary and contractual services savings

The additional fund balance has boosted the June 30, 2011 projected fund balance above 10% and helped eliminate the negative fund balance projected for June 30, 2012 presented in the adopted budget.”

However, in order to fill some or all of the current 22 vacant sworn police officer positions, the council will have to find other savings and make other cuts to the budget and/or consider another tax increase, such as the temporary parcel tax proposed by a citizens’ group known as the Friday Morning Breakfast Club, during a possible special election next spring.

To view or download a copy of the City Council meeting agenda, visit:

http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/113010.pdf

The staff report on the budget can be found under item 7 or at: http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07.pdf and http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/agendas/CityCouncil/2010/agendas/113010/07A.pdf

The Antioch Chamber of Commerce presents the Chairman’s Mixer and Trade Show on Tuesday, Dec. 7 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Antioch Community Center, 4703 Lone Tree Way (next to the Prewett Water Park).

The free event is open to the public and will include tours of the Antioch Community Center, trade show vendors, the Summerset Big Band, fun, food and giveaway prizes. Bring your business cards and prepare to network. Feel free to bring a giveaway gift and further promote your business.

Trade show tables include two chairs (first come, first serve basis) and cost $100 each; $50 for nonprofit groups (four tables only). Call now to secure your table with payment: 925 757-1800.

By Allen Payton

The East County Branch of the NAACP announced the election of new officers and directors for the 2011 year. The election was held on Thursday evening, November 18, 2010.

The new President of the branch will be Odessa McGahee of Pittsburg. Also elected to the following posts were Idowu Akinleye, First Vice President; David Watts, Second Vice President and Victoria Adams, Treasurer. No one ran for the Secretary of the organization, so that position remains open.

In addition, members elected to the Executive Committee are Marietta Beals, Frances Greene, Willie Mims, Raymond Odienlami, Joseph Adebayo, Betty Burns, Yvonne Beals, Joe Burns, Charles Glasper, Jr., Curlie Jackson, Jessica Alexander, Frankie Robinson, Tique Caul, Dewitt Bussey, III, Cherice Gilliam and Cheryl Cooper. According to current branch president, Joseph Adebayo, the new officers will be inducted at the regular monthly meeting in January.

Formed in 1955, the NAACP East County Branch is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and works for equality and civil rights. Monthly meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Rivertown Resource Center, 301 West 10^th Street, Antioch. For more information visit www.NAACPEastCounty.org or call the branch office at 753-5089.

A 26-year-old male and a 16-year-old female were shot in an apartment at 2405 Peppertree Court on Nov. 26 just after 2:30 a.m., according to police. The male victim was shot in the face, and the female suffered two shots to an arm and leg. Both were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.

Police are following up on leads to determine the circumstances of the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to call Antioch police at 925-584-5246.

A contingent of Antioch leaders, representing our school, city council, business and community sectors, recently returned from a grant-funded trip to Nashville, Tennessee to see first-hand a city that has come together full-bore for career-based education. Our delegation, which included Superintendent of Schools Dr. Donald Gill and Mayor Jim Davis, toured some of Nashville’s academies and heard details of a successful blueprint from a Mayor who walks the reform talk. He stressed that a city really has three main priorities; education, safety and economic vitality and that engaging youth can affect all three. Good schools keep kids off the streets. They help real estate prices. They attract businesses, industry and the well to do.

The take away was two-fold; we realized that in many ways we are already doing things in Antioch that are ahead of the pack regionally and nationally. We also realized, though, that we can push yet further and broader. Nashville’s model is intriguing and provocative. They have a ‘wall to wall’ concept. There’s is a city-wide alliance of school, council and business partners. They offer no opt out as every student has to elect a pathway. Lest you consider that restricting, consider that this City-County of 600,000 offers an astonishing 49 academy choices. There is, then, literally a seat at the table for every student. The proof, as always, is in the pudding. Strikingly, Nashville test scores, graduation rates, college admissions and attendance all confirm a positive direction.

Obviously, Antioch is not the size of Nashville. We have unique needs and different funding mechanisms than they. Nevertheless, the trip stirred ideas. We here have, of course, come along ways on our current path of what is now called linked education and was, in previous incarnations, called vocational education, career tech and alternate pathways. We have medical, law and criminal justice, performing arts, EDGE (Environmental Design for Green Energy), business and space and science academies.

The exciting thing with these theme-based schools is that we have gone beyond just throwing into the elective mix some vocational class. Firstly, the curriculum at our Academies is rigorous. We are University of California, A-G requirement, driven. Our goal is to prepare all of our students to have the option of either transitioning to college or to entering workforce training.

Also, our curriculum is integrated. For example, a Law and Criminal Justice Academy student might study “To Kill a Mockingbird” in literature; write legal briefs or essays in composition; discuss or debate constitutional law in history; and use algebraic formulas to determine a driver’s speed by the brake marks.

Originally, our intention was to build out to where 50% of our student body could elect academies. Nashville has us thinking, though. It’s a heady venture we’ve been on with the sky the limit. Attendance is up at our academies; the Dozier Libbey Medical Academy hit 820 API last year; and the Delta Performing Arts Academy shot up an incredible 78 points. An emphasis on unstinting expectations, targeted interests and smaller learning environments is working. Of course, this is part of an overall reform movement which emphasizes parent involvement, teacher morale, aggressive staff recruitment, standardized curriculum objectives, early-on interventions, best teaching practices, teacher mentoring, pacing guides and periodic data-driven assessments,

Rigor, relevance and relationship is, after all, the paradigm of the future. This is the information age and critical thinking and collaboration skills are crucial objectives if we are to not lose out to our global competitors. We have been losing ground for decades as places like South Korea, Singapore and Finland outpace us. Thirty percent of our kids drop out. We score 17th for industrialized nations in math-science scores and ninth in overall college readiness. For those lamenting the good old days, remember that even in the ’30s and ’40s 70% of our kids didn’t graduate; in the ’60s our educational crisis bannered ‘Why Johnny Can’t Read?’; in the ’90s a Presidential Commission called us a ‘Nation at Risk’. The problems have been there; it is just higher stakes now.

This is certainly a race we can’t afford to lose – not in Antioch and not in America. The agricultural and factory-based educational system developed in the Henry Ford days, where 10-15% of the students (generally white, male and middle class) were educated for business leadership, the rest for basic citizenship, won’t work in this global, tech-driven economy. It takes a new seed to raise a new crop. Linked education has shown that it can play a major role in that break-through promise. As a unified community, committed to our youth, we can make this happen. Antioch can have parents knocking on the door to get in to our community. We can blossom into a true destination point.

Walter Ruehlig

Vice President, AUSD Board of Trustees

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.