School 94501/94502

During the course of the debate over Measure H, it has struck me that a significant number of people who should know better still don’t understand the fundamentals of how AUSD’s finances work and how essential to our kids and our community Measure H really is.
The most important “missing piece” in many discussions around here [...]

AUSD has issued a Press Release announcing that it (1) has retained the law firms of Chapman, Popik & White LLP and Foley & Lardner LLP and (2) will vigorously defend Measure H.
“Vigorously defend” sounds good to me.
For anyone interested:  below is the full text of the Press Release:
MEASURE H LITIGATION
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, October 8, [...]

As Don Roberts reported last Thursday, a small group of Alameda businesses (”Alamedans for Fair Taxation”) may try to overturn the Measure H election result that Alameda passed in June by a more than 2 to 1 margin.
It appears that Pillow Park Plaza and Pauline’s Antiques are among those soliciting donations to pay for a [...]

Tomorrow night’s School Board meeting marks the official opening of the AUSD “Preseason” for the 08-09 school year. (Regular season begins just three weeks from now on September 2 with the first day of school for students.)
The most important event of this year’s AUSD Preseason is tomorrow night’s kickoff of the search for AUSD’s next [...]

Among the many challenges our schools still face is the difficult question of how best to continue to pay for school sports programs.
Since I think the many answers to the question “why pay for school sports?” are obvious (or at least can be saved for another occasion), I’ll skip right past “why” to a story [...]

The ROV began verifying provisional ballots on Tuesday June 10 and began (and may even have finished) counting them today. Although this process could still stretch out for several days, a huge “batch” of “provisional ballot” results was released this afternoon. The numbers are great news for Measure H supporters.
Please note that I’ve calculated the [...]

In order for Measure H still to win, there would have to be BOTH (1) a relatively high number of ballots “still out” AND (2) a relatively high “yes on H” percentage among those. It now appears that the first condition has been met. It also appears that the second condition is quite possible.
According to [...]

Since there are still provisional ballots (and perhaps still some absentee ballots) to be counted, these numbers are not yet final and official, but with all 51 of Alameda’s 51 the precincts reportedly in, it looks like . . .
Johnson over Goldwater in 1964 61% to 39% = a landslide victory
Nixon over McGovern in 1972 [...]

This campaign for Measure H has been quite a journey, politically and personally.
Apart from the continuing political education I’ve enjoyed over the past few months, along the way I’ve been fortunate to get to know many more good people in Alameda than I knew back when the campaign launched on a hope-filled Saturday morning in [...]

Today the Alameda Journal is reporting that “[s]ome Alameda business owners . . . said they will vote against the Measure H parcel tax on the June 3 ballot.” Unfortunately, the article contains at least one significant and misleading error.
Given how close the last school parcel tax vote was, even if this erroneous article were [...]