Three critical yardsticks define a thriving city; public safety, economic vitality, and good schools. After the October 11th release of the current California educational gold standard, the Academic Performance Index (API), Antioch has secured another stake in its’ claim of nailing down the school factor.

Not to get too heady, as there is bountiful growth opportunity, but the notable news is that Antioch gained an impressive twelve points district-wide. This was the seventh in the last eight years that we have progressed, Last year was the sole exception with a one point decrease, but in 2010 we jumped fifteen points. Even if we are not fully satisfied of where we stand, we can be optimistic of where we are heading.  It’s worth noting that eight years ago we stood at 703. We are now at 742 and moving.

Obviously, nobody will take a breather until we’re at the vaunted 800 mark and from there we will shoot yet higher. Remember, though, we’re not an elementary, nor a small rural or suburban district. We’re a K-12 District with 18,600 students, in the top 10% of the state size-wise. Unarguably,then, we’re an urban center, with all the attendant complexities of transiency, high numbers of English language learners, special ed students, minority populations, free and reduced lunch, and foster and group home children. Added to the challenges, we have lost 100 million in state funding over the last five years.

Where then does the credit go for our steady growth despite hurdles?  Intelligent use of data, targeted interventions, pull-out programs, after-school tutoring, peer training and  collaboration all play a role. It all starts, though, with dedicated teaching. In fact, studies show that three consecutive years of a good teacher virtually insures permanent academic success. The same holds true in reverse. Kudos, then, to our teachers serving in the trenches, overworked and under-appreciated.

Particular kudos go to Live Oak High for leading the pack at an incredible 105 point increase; to Mission Elementary with an astounding 52 point increase, to Fremont at 47 points and Marsh closely following at 44. Proudly, five schools topped 800; Diablo Vista, Lone Tree, John Muir, Orchard Park Elementary schools and Dozier Libbey High School. Three knocked on the door of 800, just points away; Carmen Dragon, Grant and Sutter Elementary. Significant increases were also recorded by Kimball Elementary, Black Diamond Middle, Dallas Ranch Middle and Park Middle, as well as by Antioch High and Deer Valley High.

Of particular note in our battle to narrow disparity and the achievement gap, the African American group posted a 24 point increase district-wide and boasted an eye-popping 48 point increase at Antioch High.

We’d be remiss if we did not award resounding cheers for the Filipino sub-group which scored a breath-taking 848 and the Asian sub-group a collective 843. They are a model to us all of what high family expectations can mean.

I have seen first-hand how education influences a community. I grew up In Great Neck, Long Island, where in the 1960’s we had one of the top ten school districts in the country. People would literally leave notes at my family door asking that if we ever decided to sell to please call them.  It was essentially a waiting list to get into our town. Antioch’s positive news, then, spells good omens for real estate prices.

Our schools, hoisting increasing test scores and a state-blazing linked pathways career academy program, can do wonders for Antioch. We can make this a town people are knocking the door down to get into and not get out of. Congratulations students, parents and teachers for setting one of the blocks needed to establish the kind of town we all envision. It’s all about placing one brick at a time.

Walter Ruehlig

A.U.S.D. Board of Trustees

I am Walter Ruehlig’s toughest critic. Whatever arguments there are for or against his campaign and candidacy for Antioch City Council; I vouch my husband will bring to the Council one undeniable and most important character trait. Walter Ruehlig cannot be bought nor bullied.

The German origin of the Ruehlig last name means calm or steady.  However, adversity has toughened the spirit underneath the gentle facade. His mother, Marie, died of cancer at age ten.  At age fourteen, Richard, an older brother, was institutionalized for mental illness.  Walter worked his way through college and graduated Cum Laude from the State University of New York in Albany. One of his first jobs was teaching English-As-A-Second-Language for the Peace Corps in Sultandag, a village in Turkey which had neither running water nor electricity.

It is no surprise then that Walter was undaunted when he joined the Antioch Unified School District (AUSD) Board of Trustees in 2004 while the District was on the fiscal watch list with a 9 million dollar deficit and a 703 Academic Performance Index (API) score.  Today, the District has a 34 million ending fund balance, has climbed to a 742 API score with eight schools hovering or above the vaunted 800 mark and has become a state trailblazer in link learning with five career academies.

Walter will not be deterred by the challenges of crime, blight and economic lethargy.  This gutsy, transplanted New Yorker will help build the city that we envision and stand unfazed by allures or threats from special interest groups that carry a price tag for their loyalty.  For Antioch, the best is yet to come.

Cynthia Ruehlig

Antioch

On November 6th, the voters of Antioch will be asked to fill three open seats on the Antioch School Board. I highly recommend Barbara Cowan as one of those selected for a board seat.

Mrs. Cowan is a newly retired teacher/administrator. Her 39 years of experience in this noble profession has given her the many experiences necessary to bring valuable knowledge to the Antioch School Board. She will be open and honest in her communications and continue a climate of trust and openness. Her understanding of education and willingness to hear new ideas and suggestions on how to continue improving the system will be a benchmark in her contributions.

Barbara Cowan has taught at all levels and has been a principal of middle schools and high schools. She has also been a special education coordinator. Mrs. Cowan is fluent in Spanish and has had many years of experience in predominately Hispanic schools.

Excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom. I urge you to vote for Barbara Cowan.

Richard Asadoorian, Antioch

Trustee, Contra Costa County Board of Education

(the views expressed here are mine as a private citizen and do not reflect the opinion of the other board members)

Dave Roberts who served as the first Editor of the Herald has written an analysis on Proposition 30 on the November ballot. To read his column on the Cal Watchdog website, click here.

By Allen Payton, Publisher

The Antioch police cost too much. There, I said it. (Actually I wrote it). But, someone needed to and for a long time. We must face facts.

The reality is, after the hiring of five officers through additional revenue in the city’s budget and another five officers with the $1.5 million federal grant for three years, and the loss of one more police officer, according to Chief Allan Cantando, Antioch will still be down 25 officers.

The largest budget item in the city’s General Fund is police.

While I advocated for placing a police tax on the November ballot – a 4 to 6 year parcel tax of no more than $100 per year, dedicated to only paying to hire more police – and complaining that the council blew their opportunity to make that happen, but let pettiness and politics get in the way – I’m not so sure one would have passed anyway.

At least not after I learned that the new police contract included 13% in pay raises over the next three years. Yes, the police agreed to pay 9% of the 39% toward their retirement which I applaud. But 6% of that was back-filled immediately with a pay raise, this year.

That may have been the best this current council could have achieved, in order to buy out the cops’ previous six-year, overly generous contract approved by a previous city council – led by a Mayor who lost in 2008 and is running and wants to be Mayor of our city, again (go figure), and which included two of the current council members, one of whom isn’t running again.

Because had the council not bought out that previous contract, the city would have been faced with two, multimillion dollar balloon payments at the end of this year, due to the two pay raises in the previous contract that the police agreed to postpone.

One problem with that is the cops called that postponement a “sacrifice.”

Since before the 1/2 cent sales tax measure was on the ballot in 2010, I’ve been telling my friends on the police force that they have to join with the rest of us – who have lost jobs, lost our homes, etc. – and make a sacrifice, first.

Do they deserve to be paid well? Yes. Do they earn it? No doubt. Can we afford it? No way. Not when we have 25 fewer officers than we need.

So rather than just complain, I offer a three-part solution:

1. The Antioch police must give up the pay raises in their new contract and make a real financial sacrifice.

2. The Council must find a revenue stream to pay for the 25 needed police officers, the additional Community Service Officers and more Code Enforcement Officers – whether it be a dedicated, temporary parcel tax or another approach – and if it requires a vote of the people, we pass it.

3. Once our city is safer, we must grow our local economy by attracting business – retail and employers – which will create more revenue for the city to pay for more cops without the tax.

We’re all in this together. Our Antioch police offiers need those additional 25 officers, as do we. But we need their help to pay for them and now.

Over Troubled Waters, a documentary about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, will premiere in Antioch on Tuesday, October 2, at the El Campanil Theatre. Following the screening will be a question and answer session with water policy advocates. Over Troubled Waters will be the centerpiece of a public education effort to stop the building of peripheral tunnels.

In this visually rich documentary, Ed Begley Jr. narrates the story of how the people of the Delta are fighting to protect the region they love and to encourage saner, sustainable water policies for all the people of California.

“This is our chance to tell the real Delta story,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, which produced the documentary. “This film reveals how powerful forces are using fear of flooding and earthquakes to make a case for transforming a unique, beautiful, productive region into a permanent way station for water going somewhere else. They are trying to shore up an outdated water system with a massive, multi-billion dollar water transfer project that Californians will be paying for decades.”

It should be noted that, Over Troubled Waters has been designated as a participant in this year’s 9th Annual Artivist Film Festival to be held November 1-4 in Hollywood, California. “ARTIVIST” is the only Film Festival dedicated to ‘Raising Awareness for Human Rights, Children’s Advocacy, Environmental Preservation, and Animal Advocacy through International Films’. In 2012, the UNITED NATIONS officially accepted the Artivist Collective, Inc., producer of the annual Artivist Film Festival and Artivist Awards, as an NGO member of the United Nations Department of Public Information (UN-DPI). For more information go to www.Artivist.com.

Tickets are sponsored by Assembly candidate Jim Frazier. For information on additional screenings, go to http://overtroubledwaters.org/buy-tickets/.

What: Over Troubled Waters
Film screening: 7:00 p.m.
Where: El Campanil Theatre, 604 W. 2nd Street, Antioch
When: Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Who: Water advocates, Delta residents, including farmers and fishermen

No More Solyndras – and No More McNerneys

The year Jerry McNerney was elected to Congress, he declared that “green energy” would be his “signature issue.”

It turns out his signature was written in disappearing ink.

On the defensive, McNerney is suddenly running away from the issue that defined his candidacy and his entire record in Congress — the advocacy of green energy, its supposedly endless economic potential, and the need for costly government incentives to promote its development. 

Despite his ostensibly dogged commitment to green energy, Jerry McNerney was one of only two California Democrats who voted last week for the No More Solyndras Act in the House of Representatives. The legislation, H.R. 6213, calls for a complete end to clean energy loan guarantees.

McNerney’s vote is more transparent than Solyndra’s discarded solar tubes (which now feature in a Berkeley art installation). It was a flip-flop designed to help McNerney survive an increasingly difficult re-election campaign. This is the same Jerry McNerney who supported loan guarantees for Solyndra, the now-bankrupt recipient of $535 million in US government-backed loans — the same McNerney who pocketed a $2,400 campaign contribution from Solyndra’s lead investor.

In a recent interview, McNerney defended government loan guarantees even in the face of Solyndra’s bankruptcy. “It’s not a good argument to say that the failure of one company is an indication that the whole industry has a problem,” he said. “I think it’s reasonable that renewable resources companies can look to the government for help both in research and in incentives.”

“I think there is a need for loan guarantees,” McNerney said in the interview, designed to promote his book, Clean Energy Nation. 

Seems like McNerney’s true “signature issue” is saving his political career. 

Kevin Spillane, Ricky Gill for Congress campaign

Editor,
I would like to apologize to the citizens of Antioch for the misrepresentation which took place in a political advertisement published in the Antioch Herald last week.

A photograph of Walter Ruehlig who is running for City Council, was published standing alongside Rudy Fernandez and Michael Manalac. The photograph was taken in front of the grotto at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church and the endorsement alongside the photograph gives the impression that Mr. Ruehlig is being endorsed by the Catholic Church, St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish,and the Filipino-American Society. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The photograph and endorsement were done without permission and the publishing of this advertisement was very unfortunate. It is an indication of poor judgment that reflects upon the qualifications of the candidate.

Again, my apologies to all those who were offended by this ad.

Father Robert Rien, Parochial Administrator, St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish