Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
Bay Area public school jobs go begging despite salaries that can top $100K // San Jose Mercury News
“Facing an acute shortage of substitute teachers, classroom aides, custodians, bus drivers and other vital employees, Bay Area schools are scrambling to find creative ways to fill the void.”
“San Mateo Union High School District is looking at building employee housing and may offer employees a finder's fee to help fill vacancies. San Jose's Alum Rock Union School District is so short of substitute teachers that Superintendent Hilaria Bauer and two of her deputies recently spent a day in the classroom teaching.”
"'It's harder and harder to find people,' said Kevin Skelly, superintendent of the San Mateo district. 'This job market is incredibly tight and it's expensive to live here.'"
“And schools are seeing their drivers poached by private industry, which can lure drivers with year-round employment ferrying quiet high-tech workers in luxury white buses on Bay Area freeways.”
-----
University of California revises divisive intolerance policy // SF Gate
“The public system with nearly 250,000 students has become a focal point in the discussion of freedom of expression and civil liberties on college campuses following several high-profile incidents, including one in which swastikas were spray-painted on a Jewish fraternity house.”
"'Jewish students are fearful to show their support for Israel,' said Leore Ben David, a campus coordinator for the Zionist Organization of America. 'I am not here today to silence criticism of Israel. I am asking this working group to take a stand against racism and injustice.'"
"'I am part of a community of Jews and scholars who are critical of Israel,' Mandy Cohen, a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at UC Berkeley, said Monday. 'They are, in fact, seeking to silence me.'"
-----
Levee breach transforms sears point farmland back into wetlands // The Press Democrat
“Cooled by a stiff breeze off San Pablo Bay, about 300 supporters and partners of the Sonoma Land Trust cheered on Sunday as an excavator’s crane broke through a 140-year-old Sears Point levee, allowing saltwater to flood back over 1,000 acres of reclaimed oat hay fields at the southern tip of Sonoma County.”
“As the water rushed in, the crowd of government officials and others involved in the decade-old Sears Point Restoration Project threw balls of pickleweed seeds into the mud to aid the wetland’s rebirth.”
“'Historically, over a quarter of the bay’s estuarine habitat was up here at the north end of the bay,' said Don Brubaker, the National Wildlife Refuge manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of about two dozen partners in the project. 'We’re going to see ducks coming in, and wading birds like herons and egrets ... eventually, salmon could move in here.'"
-----
Laura’s Law aims to make assisted outpatient treatment a family affair // SF Appeal
“Laura’s Law, which was passed in the state legislature in 2002, is named after Laura Wilcox, a 19-year-old college student who was working at a mental health clinic in Nevada County in 2001 when she was fatally shot by a psychiatric patient who had resisted his family’s efforts to get care.”
“Laura’s Law is designed to assist adults who have a documented severe mental illness, who are not actively engaged in care, are in deteriorating condition and have a history of failing to comply with treatment.”
"'The hope,' said Dr. Angelica Almeida, a psychologist with the Department of Public Health and the director of the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program, 'is to get mental health services to individuals with a documented history of mental illness before they enter a state of crisis.'”
-----
Ron Conway emails his SF CEOs: tell your employees to vote this way on election day // Pando
"The email, sent to 'San Francisco-based SV Angel Portfolio CEOs,' was headed 'SF Election Recommendations for November 3rd' and sets out Conway’s preferred positions for San Francisco’s upcoming municipal elections. Specifically, Conway asks the CEOs of companies in which he’s invested to 'please share the list below and ask your team to Vote either on November 3 or by absentee ballot beforehand!'"
-----
A new kind of private school: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan combine education and healthcare // Black Star News
“Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced the opening of their new K-12 school, 'The Primary School,' which will bring education and healthcare together. In a collaboration with the Ravensworth Family Health Center, the school will offer an on-site clinic to provide comprehensive healthcare to students and their families.”
“The private school will be located in East Palo Alto, a city which in 1992 was named the 'murder capital' of the US. A part of the Silicon Valley, East Palo Alto has struggled with poverty and crime while its neighboring cities have thrived as hundreds of start-up and global technology companies, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have established their headquarters there.”