From barnyard to butcher shop WEEKEND | 21
AUGUST 8, 2014 VOLUME 22, NO. 28
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 24
County moves ahead with plan to house border kids VIGIL HELD IN DOWNTOWN MOUNTAIN VIEW TO SUPPORT CENTRAL AMERICAN CHILDREN By Daniel DeBolt
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NATALIA NAZAROVA
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset inspired a number of apps, including this one using a tablet computer for virtual reality game play.
Apps to change world, have fun at Y Combinator hackathon By Daniel DeBolt
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ountain View startup incubator Y Combinator held a hackathon over the weekend, where a teenager beat out 400 other hackers for a chance to get his app funded. Software developers from
around the world descended on Y Combinator’s Pioneer Way headquarters over the weekend to put their skills and ideas to the test. Top prize was an interview with folks at Y Combinator that might lead to $120,000 in funding, plus support to help make the product ready for a pitch to venture
capitalists. Y Combinator has funded over 700 startups this way since 2005, and company representatives say the successful ones are now worth a total of over $30 billion. Starting Saturday at noon, numerous teams and indi-
plan that could allow local residents to house dozens of the Central American children stuck at the United States border got some preliminary support from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and spurred a silent vigil in downtown Mountain View. Supervisors on Aug. 5 voted 4-1 to have county administrators iron out a program allowing “host families” to take in the children temporarily. The much-publicized situation of unaccompanied minors attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border spurred 100 members of St. Joseph church to hold a silent vigil in downtown Mountain View on the evening of Friday, Aug. 1.
“A lot of people are pro-life — this is a pro-life issue,” said church member and longtime community organizer Sylvia Villasenor. “They do need care and they will need education — they are children.” It is unclear how many of the children could be helped in Santa Clara County under the “modest” proposal board members supported on Aug. 5, said Supervisor Joe Simitian, Mountain View’s representative on the board, in a phone interview. There could be anywhere from 25 to 100 homes involved, he said. “I think the honest answer is we don’t know yet,” Simitian said. See BORDER KIDS, page 14
See Y COMBINATOR, page 13
New candidates emerge for high school board NUMBER OF PEOPLE RUNNING SPIKES IN LAST WEEK OF FILING PERIOD By Kevin Forestieri
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hat looked like a quiet election may turn out to be a tight race for the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District School Board this November. As of Aug. 5, seven people have joined the race for the three open seats. The group includes incumbents Joe Mitchner, Debbie
INSIDE
Joe Mitchner
Dana Bunnett
Torok and Judy Hannemann, and all have either pulled or filed candidacy papers with the county. Candidates include Fiona
Walter, a former Mountain View Whisman School District board member, and Dana Bunnett, director of a Fiona Walter c ou nt y-w id e child advocacy organization. Doug Moore, a parent of See CANDIDATES, page 15
VIEWPOINT 16 | GOINGS ON 26 | MARKETPLACE 27 | REAL ESTATE 30
DANIEL DEBOLT
A silent vigil for the plight of unaccompanied children caught at the U.S. border was held at St. Joseph Church last Friday.
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
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“The resources that (people) have is different. So they must, if they want to live, they have to get food or water or electricity–energy. Those resources are not equally distributed over the entire world, so someone has to fight against others to get more resources.” Zheng Sun, Mountain View
“I’d say religion ... because religious enthusiasm drives people to do things that perhaps don’t make sense, because people get very close-minded when they are particularly religious.” Julie Brown, Palo Alto
“Ignorance, actually, because I think that we have a lot of the resources and manpower to make a difference for all of the issues that we’re facing right now. But ignorance is really big because it’s super easy to live in a bubble.” Joanna Zhang, Columbia, Mo.
Have H Have aa question question ti for fforV Voices Voices i A Around AroundTown? Town? E-mail Email itit to to editor@mv-voice.com editor@mv-voice.com August 8, 2014 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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Q CRIMEBRIEFS
ATTEMPTED MURDER SENTENCE A 53-year-old Los Altos woman convicted of attacking her estranged husband with a knife and stun gun was sentenced on July 31 to 11-years-to-life in prison, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. On June 4, a jury found Laura Jean Wenke guilty of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with a stun gun and domestic abuse. A judge later threw out an insanity plea on June 11 when a jury found Wenke was sane at the time she committed the crimes. According to the Redwood City Police Department, Wenke and her husband were going through a bitter divorce, and she was upset that her husband had found a new girlfriend. On Sept. 15, 2011 she showed up at her husband’s construction business dressed in bubble wrap and a jumpsuit, where she discharged a stun gun into her husband’s side and stabbed him in the chest and neck multiple times. The husband was released from the hospital after several days of treatment. He had a $2 million life insurance policy with Wenke still listed as a beneficiary, according to police.
CHILD MOLESTATION ARREST Police are looking for more victims of a 43-year-old man who was arrested last week on suspicion of touching two young girls inappropriately. Detectives with the Mountain View Police Department arrested Ramiro Palacios, a Mountain View resident, on Aug. 1 after the girls, ages 7 and 10, told their parents that Palacios had touched them inappropriately at an apartment complex in the 400 block of Moffett Boulevard, according to the police website. Palacios worked as a handyman in the apartment complex. Over the course of several days, Palacios allegedly made contact with the girls separately, and lured them into a secluded area. Palacios was arrested and booked into San Jose Main Jail on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. His bail is set at $300,000. Detectives are looking to identify any additional victims, and encourage anyone with information to contact Det. Jessica Nanez at 650-903-6395. For anonymous tips call 650-961-5800, or via text to 274637 — include MVTips in the body of the message. See CRIME BRIEFS, page 9
Q POLICELOG AUTO BURGLARY 1400 block Plymouth St., 7/31 200 block Orchard Av., 8/1 1100 block N. Rengstorff Av., 8/1 1100 block N. Rengstorff Av., 8/1 1500 block N. Shoreline Blvd., 8/2 1000 block Crestview Dr., 8/4 1700 block Peartree Ln., 8/4 700 block Continental Cir., 8/4
600 block W. Evelyn Av., 8/4 200 block Martens Av., 8/4
OBSTRUCTING OR RESISTING PUBLIC OFFICER 800 block California St., 7/31
PEEKING INTO INHABITED BUILDING 700 block N. Shoreline Blvd., 8/2
BATTERY
RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
1 block Amphitheatre Pkwy., 7/31 1 block Amphitheatre Pkwy., 7/31 4300 block Collins Ct., 8/4 200 block Tyrella Av., 8/5
1300 block Cuernavaca Cir., 7/30
BATTERY WITH SERIOUS INJURY 1 block Amphitheatre Pkwy., 7/31
BRANDISHING A WEAPON 1900 block California St., 8/3
GRAND THEFT 600 block Rainbow Dr., 8/2
SHOPLIFTING 800 block California St., 8/2 600 block Showers Dr., 8/3
STOLEN VEHICLES Continental Cir. & the Americana, 8/4
THREATENING A POLICE OFFICER 200 block Calderon Av., 8/2
VANDALISM 2500 block Dell Av., 8/4
The Mountain View Voice (USPS 2560) is published every Friday by Embarcadero Media, 450 Cambridge Ave, Palo Alto CA 94306 (650) 964-6300. Periodicals Postage Paid at Palo Alto CA and additional mailing offices. The Mountain View Voice is mailed free upon request to homes and apartments in Mountain View. Subscription rate of $60 per year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mountain View Voice, 450 Cambridge Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306.
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
LocalNews MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
Q CITY COUNCIL UPDATES Q COMMUNITY Q FEATURES
North Bayshore plan draws critique over housing By Daniel DeBolt
F
ormer city manager Bruce Liedstrand spent much of the 1980s running the city of Mountain View, when the downtown was being transformed into the vibrant place it is today. Now he says the city is poised to pass up on an opportunity to create “one of the best places in the world” as Google, LinkedIn and others prepare to redevelop North Bayshore — all because the plan lacks the key ingredient of housing. Last week the city released a draft version of the North Bayshore precise plan, a 200-page document which lays out in detail the sort of development that will be allowed in the more than 500-acre area that makes up Mountain View north of High-
way 101. In the draft plan, office development is to be capped at 3.4 million square feet, space that’s estimated to allow for about 20,000 new jobs. There’s a host of requirements and guidelines to create the office park of the 21st century on the cutting edge of environmental friendliness — solar panels, electric cars, green roofs, ground-floor retail spaces, small offices for startups, strict wildlife protections, wide sidewalks, a network of new roads and pedestrian paths, and transit- and bike-oriented design. Public meetings about the plan and its environmental review are scheduled to begin in September. But amidst burgeoning awareCOURTESY CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW ness of the city’s’ housing short- Building density would be concentrated along Shoreline Boulevard in Highway 101 in the recently See NORTH BAYSHORE, page 12
released draft of the North Bayshore precise plan to guide future development in the area that’s home to Google and LinkedIn.
LASD approves bond measure, drops controversial park sites PROTESTS DERAIL PROPOSAL TO USE CITY PARK AS NEW SCHOOL SITE By Kevin Forestieri
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ommunity members at the Los Altos School District board meeting got to see their feedback in action Monday night, as board members made one last adjustment to the wording of a $150 million bond measure before voting 4-0 to approve it. The proposed bond would help finance new school facilities —
including a new school campus — to deal with increasing enrollment within the district. After one final round of public comments, district Superintendent Jeff Baier did some real-time bond drafting at the Aug. 4 meeting, adding another “whereas” statement that prevented the school district from using city-owned land at Rosita and McKenzie parks for new school facilities.
The addition to the bond language comes in large part from the public outcry over the possibility that the school district might use one of the two city parks for a new school site through the bond measure. Residents in Los Altos worried they might lose their local parks started a campaign called Save Los Altos Parks, or SLAP, and have aggressively advocated that the bond contain language that
All quiet on the Whisman front ONLY TWO CANDIDATES FOR TWO SEATS ON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOARD By Kevin Forestieri
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s the filing period to run for local school boards comes to a close this week, some Mountain View residents might be getting a sense of deja vu. The last time Mountain View Whisman School District incumbents Philip Palmer and Ellen Wheeler were up for re-election is was an uncontested race. Fast forward four years to 2014 and they’re both up for reelection and, once again, it looks
like there will be an uncontested race. The key difference this year is that Wheeler will be running for re-election, but Ellen Wheeler Palmer has not pulled or filed candidacy papers with the county and has made no indication that he plans to run. Instead, Huff Elementary parent and PTA president Hafsa
Mirza announced she will run for a seat on the district board. As of press deadline, Hafsa was unavailable to speak to the Voice about her campaign. Ellen Wheeler Ellen Wheeler first joined the board in 2002. At the time, she was a part-time attorney who specialized in family law, and had a second-grader at Bubb Elementary School. Now Wheeler is looking to take a fourth term, and said the district has had a
prevents the school district from using either Rosita or McKenzie park. The campaign website says that neither parks is viable option for a school site due to traffic congestion, expenses and the loss of a valuable community resource. Board member Pablo Luther said he was reluctant to accept bond language where both park sites were completely off the table. “Where do we draw the line where we have enough flexibility, but we keep peoples’ lifestyles in mind?” Luther said. “I’d be willing to change language to accommodate people’s opinions, but to a limited extent.”
After the park exemption was added to the bond, Luther said he can deal with the change if it means voters will approve the bond measure come November. “I don’t like it. It’s a tough pill for me to swallow,” Luther said. “But if it’s necessary to provide better education, I can deal with it.” Board member Mark Goines said there’s definitely a trade-off when the two park sites are off the table, and voters advocating for the parks understand that. “What I’ve heard in virtually every email exchange with voters is that they’re willing to spend
great financial track record during her time on the board. “That’s what’s terrific about the school district — we have had excellent financial stewardship and always budgeted conservatively,” Wheeler said. She said unlike other school districts during the recession, which had to lay off teachers, cut electives and faced “exploding” class sizes, the Mountain View Whisman School District managed to avoid all three. “We never had to lay off a teacher due to financial reasons,” Wheeler said. Because of the recession, Wheeler said they also had to delay what would eventually
be the Measure G bond, a $198 million bond to upgrade and fix school facilities at all the district school sites. She said they waited until the economy improved before putting it on the ballot in 2012, when it passed with nearly two-thirds of the vote. It needed only 55 percent to pass. Wheeler said deciding how to improve school facilities through Measure G has been a “slow and cumbersome” process and that it takes a long time to get the process going, but construction has started at both middle schools. The board recently approved designs and budgets for the third
See LASD BOND, page 14
See SCHOOL BOARD, page 12
August 8, 2014 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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LocalNews
SEEKING PET THERAPY DOGS AND THEIR OWNERS! We are seeking pet therapy teams (handler and dog) to visit patients at the bedside, families in waiting areas and lowering stress levels among staff. Attention DOGS: Do you think your owner/handler can demonstrate following basic obedience commands, has the desire and aptitude to be around strangers, including other pet handlers? Is comfortable in new environments and would pass a veterinarian health screening? Stanford Hospital and Clinics, in conjunction with Pet Partners (formerly Delta Society) is holding a free information session (approximately 1.25 hours) on Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 3:00 pm in Palo Alto. No pets please – humans only. RSVP via email to Lyn Belingheri at labsite@sbcglobal.net, location details will be sent to you via email. RSVP required to attend this session. For more program information, please visit the Stanford PAWS website at: http://stanfordhospital.org/forPatients/patientServices/pawsGuestServices.html
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Francis, Frank “F.P.” Miller September 18, 1955 – July 29, 2014 Miller, Francis P. “F.P.” On the afternoon of July 29, 2014, Frank “F.P.” passed away at Allegiance Hospital in Jackson, Michigan. F.P. was born to Louis B. and Mary L. Miller on September 18, 1955. He was a graduate of Parkside High School and a resident of Mountain View California where he lived with his lifelong sweetheart Lyta Kessler. F.P. owned and operated Miller Windowcare in Mountain View California for over 25 years. His giving nature touched the lives of all around him. He was passionate about his family and friends and visited them often. His recent focus was renovating a lake home for his sweetheart Lyta. Of his many talents, bringing family and friends together to celebrate life’s bountiful gifts will be what is missed most. F.P. was preceded in death by his father Louis B. Miller and survived by his mother Mary L. Miller, sisters Theresa M. Williams, Linda S. Zillins and brother John L. Miller as well as his niece Anna Miller and nephews Stephan Miller, David Miller and Michael Zillins. According to his wishes F.P. has been cremated. A memorial service was held at Desnoyer Funeral Home, 204 N. Blackstone, Jackson Michigan on Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. with Father Robert Pienta officiating. Interment of cremains took place at Chapel Cemetary in Parma. In lieu of flowers and with F.P.’s wishes, donations should be made directly to Boy Scouts of America Camp TeetonkahMichigan Crossroads Council, 3914 Destech Drive, Ypsilanti, MI 48197. To send condolences to the family go online to www.desnoyerfuneralhome.com PAID
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OBITUARY
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
Nine arrested at country concert DOZENS OF POLICE AT SHORELINE DEAL WITH ROWDY CONCERT-GOERS By Kevin Forestieri
S
ummer concert season is in full-swing at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, and that means a big spike in arrests for drunk in public offenses and the occasional brawl. The Dierks Bentley concert at Shoreline on July 31 was no exception, and by the end of the night police arrested eight people on suspicion of being drunk in public and one man for allegedly punching someone in the face repeatedly. The arrests last week were substantial, though not out of the ordinary, according to Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the Mountain View Police Department. He said there are arrests for being drunk in public at every concert, and the number of arrests can ramp up depending on the type of concert. The general rule of thumb is that country concerts like the Dierks Bentley show result in the highest incidents of alcoholrelated offenses and fights. “You don’t get the same number of arrests for a Depeche Mode concert,” Jaeger said. At around 11:45 p.m. officers responded to a battery report at the concert, and later found that a man had allegedly punched a 23-year-old San Jose man in the face several times for “unknown reasons,” causing a cut on the man’s lip. The man, whom police identified as 26-year-old Kyle Cowgill, refused to provide his
address, and after being arrested he pulled away from officers and attempted to flee. He was taken into custody and booked into county jail on suspicion of battery, resisting arrest and a probation violation. At 11:46 p.m., just one minute later, police received a report that a 24-year-old Santa Clara woman had been attacked while walking through a group of people at the concert, according to Jaeger. The woman told police she was walking through a group of girls on the sidewalk with her friend when she was tripped and fell to the ground. Several girls in the group began hitting and kicking the woman while she was down. Officers could not locate the suspects, and later learned that the woman possibly suffered a concussion. Jaeger said police were unable to determine whether or not alcohol was a factor in any of the three incidents of battery that occurred at the concert. The eight arrests for being drunk in public were for a host of different reasons, all related to the state penal code regarding drunk and disorderly conduct. Jaeger said it’s common for some people to drink to the point where they can’t care for themselves and need to be taken in, other times it’s inebriated concert-goers trying to get back into the venue after being escorted out. Police post signs, give warnings and enforce the no-drinking
rules in the parking lots and surrounding area of Shoreline Amphitheatre to cut down on the number number of alcoholrelated arrests. Another country concert at Shoreline, the Toby Keith concert on May 31, had a comparable spike in crime, according to police reports. Five people were arrested for being drunk in public, one person was arrested for battery and one person was arrested for possession of narcotics. Police also received reports of four additional cases of battery that night. Jaeger said other, non-country concerts have their own problems as well. He said some concerts bring in more gang-related problems rather than drunks and fights, and that police respond with “all hands on deck” for raves, which are notorious for drug-related offenses. The number of police officers deployed for concert events depends not just on the type of concert, but also how things went at previous concerts in the tour. Jaeger said they contact venues that recently held the same band to find out how many arrests and incidents occurred to get an idea of how much they need to step up enforcements. The number of tickets sold also gets factored in, he said. All told, about 26 police officers were at the Dierks Bentley concert, making arrests well after the end of the concert, past midnight. V
Q COMMUNITYBRIEFS
FARMERS MARKET ON THE MOVE The Mountain View Farmers’ Market will temporarily move to a new location on game days when the San Francisco 49ers play at Levi’s Stadium. The farmers’ market will move from the Mountain View Caltrain Station to the parking lot at Bryant and California streets on Aug. 17 and 24, Sept. 14 and 28, Oct. 5, Nov. 2 and 23 and Dec. 28. The series of moves will provide more parking for people taking the Caltrain to events at Levi’s stadium. The Bryant Street and California street parking lot is expansive enough to accommodate approximately 100 farmers’ market stalls as well as parking at the farmers market. “We have a lease at the Caltrain Station for our award-winning Mountain View Farmers’ Market,” said Doug Hayden, associate president of the California Farmers’ Market Association. “They are a wonderful host. This move is temporary on just those few dates.” The farmers’ market will continue to run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the alternative location. To learn more about the Mountain View Farmers’ Market, call the farmers’ market
hotline at 800-806-FARM or visit www.facebook.com/MVFarmersMkt.
SILICON VALLEY DANCE FESTIVAL BEGINS AUG. 11 The third season of the International Dance Festival of Silicon Valley will run from Aug. 11 to Aug. 17 at the Mountain View Masonic Center at 890 Church St. The festival, sponsored by the Lively Foundation, offers master classes open to the public as well as dance workshops and performances. Organizers aim to provide people with a chance to participate in classes, see professional dancers and earn a greater enjoyment of dance. The festival’s “Full Day of Dance” class sessions will take place on Saturday, Aug. 16. Classes that take place that day will include tap dancing, Pilates mat, Dunham technique, salsa, Manipuri and line dancing. The classes are open to mid-teens and older for people with different levels of experience. The festival concert will take place Sunday, Aug. 17. The concert will feature an audience See COMMUNITY BRIEFS, page 9
LocalNews
VTA looks to improve service to Levi’s Stadium The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is assessing ways to improve carrying fans to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara after the first event there Saturday included long wait times and overcrowded light-rail cars, an agency spokeswoman said today. The VTA moved about 9,000 people to the stadium for the San Jose Earthquakes’ soccer match against the Seattle Sounders FC, with 8,300 taking the agency’s light-rail system and 700 coming in express buses, VTA spokeswoman Colleen Valles said. “There are a lot of things that went well and some things did not go right,” Valles said. “We have a lot of things to look at, what worked, what didn’t work.” On the positive side, VTA’s express bus service to the stadium worked well and passengers also transferred smoothly from Caltrain trains to the light-rail station in Mountain View to get to the match, according to VTA officials. But other light-rail riders had a more difficult time. Wait times for people trying to get on trains ranged from 15 minutes to an hour and was the worst after
the match at the Great America station on Tasman Drive, Valles said. Too many passengers at times crammed into the light-rail vehicles and “the cars would get packed,” she said. At one point, one of the lightrail trains lost power and stalled while taking passengers to the stadium. The air conditioning went down and stayed off during the hot summer day even after power was restored and the train resumed its run, Valles said. The transit agency might decide to deploy more lightrail trains at different times to deal with the wait times and overcrowding during future big events at Levi’s Stadium, according to Valles. Saturday’s match attracted 48,765 fans to the stadium, where the Earthquakes defeated Seattle 1-0. Mountain View’s downtown station is expected to become a popular hub for fans taking transit to stadium events, and the city has instituted paid and permit parking to handle the anticipated crowds on event days. The $1.3 billion Levi’s Sta-
dium, with a seating capacity for 68,500 fans, is the new home field for the San Francisco 49ers football team, which will have its first game there on Aug. 17, a preseason contest against the Denver Broncos. The VTA will be in better shape by the 49ers preseason game when its “pocket track” for light-rail will be completed, Valles said. The track on Tasman Drive will hold in reserve three threecar trains for up to 1,350 passengers that can be sent out to move riders faster during busy times such as when people are departing Levi’s Stadium, she said. The VTA on Saturday also began a pilot program of charging people $20 a day to park at its River Oaks and Interstate Highway 880/Milpitas light-rail station lots during events at Levi’s, Valles said. The program, involving a few hundred parking spaces at the stations, is meant to provide a revenue stream for VTA over the course of the 49ers’ first season at Levi’s and will include events other than football games, she said. —Bay City News Service
MV firefighters help battle NorCal wildfires By Cooper Aspegren
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he Mountain View Fire Department has stepped up to help with efforts to put out wildfires raging throughout Northern California. On Sunday, Aug. 3, Mountain View’s Engine 152 and two battalion chiefs were sent to Fortuna to cover for fire personnel who were sent to fight the wildfires, said fire department spokeswoman Jamie Garrett. A couple of days later, on Aug. 5, Engine 154 and its crew were sent to Laytonville to help fight the wildfire in that city’s area, she said. Both engines include a crew of four firefighters, according to Garrett. Another battalion chief from the Mountain View fire department was sent to help with the Beaver Fire at Klamath National Forest, she said. The battalion chief is a part of the overhead team that provides expertise in safety, operations, logistics, planning and other issues. As of Wednesday, Aug. 6, the battalion chief was still active at Klamath, Garrett said. The Mountain View Fire
Department employs four battalion chiefs, according to Garrett. In the absence of a battalion chief, a captain within the fire department steps into the role. Garrett said that the fire department had no additional engines to send to help with the Northern California wildfire effort. If the firefighters are needed over a longer period of time, the fire department could rotate its personnel, according to Garrett. Mountain View engines were last deployed as part of a strike team to help fight the Rim Fire at Yosemite last year, Garrett said. As of Aug. 6, Engine 152 was covering a 150-mile spread of fire stations that includes Crescent City, Garberville, Weott and Trinidad, according to Garrett. Engine 154’s crew was helping both to provide structure protection for homes in Laytonville and assisting in the effort to contain the wildfire there, she said on Wednesday. There were 17 wildfires active in Northern California as of Aug. 1, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency. The declaration
authorized the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and State Emergency Plan to direct personnel and resources to the effort of fighting the wildfires. As of Aug. 6, the number had dropped to 12 active wildfires, according to Garrett. “This is projected to be a really bad fire season because of the drought,” she said. Mountain View firefighters were deployed as part of the California Master Mutual Aid Agreement, in which the state’s department of forestry and fire protection provides all available assistance to other fire departments within the state when necessary. In return, the department can access local fire departments to help put out wildfires. Garrett said that Mountain View’s firefighters are safe and in good condition. “The firefighters are all in good spirits and healthy,” Garrett said. It’s uncertain when they’ll come back home; there is no timetable for the return of the Mountain View firefighters or battalion chiefs, Garrett said. Email Cooper Aspegren at caspegren@mv-voice.com
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A TASTY BITE OF LOCAL HISTORY The Mountain View Historical Society celebrated its 60th anniversary on Sunday with help from the city’s most historic hamburger, the “Parisian burger,” which once drew crowds to Linda’s Drive In on El Camino Real. The beloved burger’s special sauce and sourdough bun were recreated as accurately as possible for the event, so all 100 or so attendees could have one. “It’s just amazing that people remember it so well,” said Rebecca Riggs, who ran Linda’s Drive In with her husband Dean Riggs from 1956 to 1985. Organizers said the sold-out event was a success thanks to the weather and the Parisian burgers. Highlights included a city proclamation for city historian Barbara Kinchen and a slide show of lost city landmarks by local historian Nick Perry.
LinkedIn busted over unpaid wages By Daniel DeBolt
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he booming Mountain View company that helps people find jobs has been ordered by the United States Labor Department to pay nearly $6 million in damages and unpaid overtime wages to 359 employees. The practice of not paying overtime affected employees in LinkedIn’s offices in Cali-
fornia, Nebraska, Illinois and New York, according to the U.S. Labor Department, which conducted an investigation. LinkedIn was cooperative and quickly agreed to pay the employees the overtime pay that was due, Labor Department officials said, and agreed to take steps to prevent it from happening again. LinkedIn agreed to pay the 359 employees $3.3 million in
reports blamed the problem on “not having the right tools in place for a small subset of our sales force to track hours properly.” Officials say that LinkedIn entered an “enhanced compliance agreement” that requires the company to remind employees of LinkedIn’s policy against retaliating against employees who raise issues in the workplace. It also requires that managers and employees be reminded and trained about company policies prohibiting off-the-clock work and the
unpaid overtime wages and $2.5 million in damages. “This company has shown a great deal of integrity by fully cooperating with investigators and stepping up to the plate without hesitation to help make workers whole,” said Dr. David Weil, administrator of the wage and hour division. LinkedIn’s vice president of corporate communications, Shannon Stubo, in news
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need to record and pay for overtime work. “’Off the clock’ hours are all too common for the American worker,” said Susana Blanco, district director for the Labor Division in San Francisco. “This practice harms workers, denies them the wages they have rightfully earned and takes away time with families. We urge all employers, large and small, to review their pay practices to ensure employees know their basic workplace rights and that the commitment to compliance works through all levels of the organization. The department is committed to protecting the rights of workers and leveling the playing field for all lawabiding employers.” LinkedIn was found to have violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act when it failed to keep track of overtime hours worked and then pay employees accordingly. The law also requires that overtime pay be 1.5 times an employee’s regular hourly pay. Despite the news, LinkedIn’s stock continued to rise as it has done in recent months and as it has since the company recently reported significant second quarter profits. The company has also proposed significant expansion of its headquarters in Mountain View, possibly adding a million square feet of offices in North Bayshore, including a new office tower on North Shoreline Boulevard along the north side of Highway 101. Email Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com
LocalNews
AP test scores soar for MVLA BIG GAINS IN TEST PARTICIPATION AND PASSING RATE THIS YEAR By Cooper Aspegren
oth the number of students who take advanced placement (AP) exams and the number of students who pass them are at an all-time high in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District. A total of 1,370 students in the district took AP exams during the 2013-14 school year, approximately 15 percent more than the 1,196 students who took AP exams the previous year, according to district officials. Students in the district took 2,602 AP exams, a 15 percent increase from the 2,264 tests taken the previous year. Overall, 2,192 of the tests taken received passing scores of three
out of five or higher, around 84 percent of tests taken. “We’re trying to get more student involved in these (AP) classes and doing well,” Superintendent Barry Groves said. A press release from the district said that students in the district surpassed the national average AP score distribution on many fronts. MVLA students who took either the Calculus AB exam or the Calculus BC exam passed at an 88 percent rate. Nationally, approximately 59 percent of students who took the Calculus AB exam passed and approximately 81 percent of students who took the Calculus BC exam passed, according to the district. Of the 338 MVLA students
who took one of two AP English exams, 86 percent of the students passed. Approximately 59 percent of students who take the English Literature and Composition exam pass nationally, and approximately 55 percent of students who take the English Language and Composition exam pass nationally. In addition, 77 percent of MVLA students who took an exam focusing on history or government passed, district officials said. Groves attributed the success that district students had on the AP exams to the curriculum from ninth through twelfth grade, the training and quality of the instruction and students’ work ethic and commitment.
COMMUNITY BRIEFS
CRIME BRIEFS
investigation, police found that the man had stolen alcohol, cheese and a greeting card, with a total value of $29.17, according to Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the Mountain View Police Department. The man had been previously arrested and convicted for theft, meaning he could be charged with petty theft with a prior conviction. The Mountain View Police Department have requested a warrant to be issued for the man’s arrest. Kevin Forestieri
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line dance led by instructor Etta Walton. The workshops run from Monday, Aug. 11 to Friday, Aug. 15. The workshops, which focus on such techniques as tap, modern ballet and salsa, are designed for intermediate and advanced dancers. Workshop participants will perform in the concert. To learn more about the festival, visit www.livelyfoundation. org/wordpress/ or call 650-9694110. —Cooper Aspegren
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MAN STEALS ALCOHOL AND CHEESE Police arrested a Mountain View man Thursday after he allegedly stole a bottle of booze and cheese from a Nob Hill grocery store on Grant Road. The 31-year-old Mountain View man was stopped by police at around 4 p.m. at the grocery store during an unrelated investigation. During the
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“We have very dedicated students,” Groves said. Groves called the MVLA high school curriculum “comprehensive” and said that even though the district for the most part focuses on science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) courses, it still aims to provide significant rigor in its humanities courses. Publications like Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report factor high schools’ performance on AP exams in their rankings. Groves said that college admission offices look at how high
schools perform on AP exams when they determine which students to admit. Scores of three or higher can earn high school students course credit at the colleges in which they choose to enroll. Students have the option of taking 31 different AP tests during the examination period that takes place each year in May. Groves said that schools in the Mountain View-Los Altos school district offer 23 AP classes that prepare students for specific AP tests. Email Cooper Aspegren at caspegren@mv-voice.com
City of Mountain View
CITY BOARD, COMMISSION, AND COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS Applications will be accepted until November 7, 2014, for Mountain View citizens wishing to serve on one of the following: • LIBRARY BOARD (2 positions) (Meets on the third Monday evening of the month) • ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING COMMISSION (2 positions)* 0HHWV RQ WKH ÀUVW DQG WKLUG :HGQHVGD\ HYHQLQJV RI WKH month) • HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION (4 positions) 0HHWV RQ WKH ÀUVW 7KXUVGD\ HYHQLQJ RI WKH PRQWK
• PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION (1 position) 0HHWV RQ WKH VHFRQG :HGQHVGD\ HYHQLQJ RI WKH PRQWK
• BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE (1 position) 0HHWV RQ WKH ODVW :HGQHVGD\ HYHQLQJ RI WKH PRQWK
'2:172:1 &200,77(( — Downtown Property and Business Owner Category (1 position) (Meets as needed on a Tuesday morning) • PERFORMING ARTS COMMITTEE (3 positions) 0HHWV RQ WKH WKLUG :HGQHVGD\ HYHQLQJ RI WKH PRQWK
• SENIOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE (2 positions) 0HHWV RQ WKH WKLUG :HGQHVGD\ DIWHUQRRQ RI WKH PRQWK
*FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING COMMISSION APPLICANTS ONLY: Supplemental Questionnaire (Preinterview Application): Candidates are required to submit, along with their City application form, a typewritten response, limited to 350 words, to the following questions: :KDW TXDOLÀHV \RX IRU WKLV SRVLWLRQ"
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D O W N TO W N M O U N TA I N V I E W
There may be incumbents who wish to be reappointed.
Tickets: $30 in advance | $35 cash at the door Get Your Advance Tickets: Online at www.mountainviewdowntown.com Downtown Mountain View at two locations: Boutique 4 at 279 Castro Street or Allure Salon at 888 Villa Street, #100
The board, commissions, and committees are volunteer positions and serve in an advisory capacity to the City Council. Appointments are available on an equal opportunity basis. &DOO WKH &LW\ &OHUN·V 2IÀFH DW IRU IXUWKHU LQIRUPDWLRQ DQG DQ DSSOLFDWLRQ $Q DSSOLFDWLRQ FDQ EH GRZQORDGHG DW http://www.mountainview.gov.
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LocalNews NOTICE INVITING BIDS 1.
Notice is hereby given that the Governing Board (“Boardâ€?) of the Mountain View Whisman School District (“Districtâ€?), of the County of Santa Clara, State of California, will receive up to, but not later than 2:00 P.M., Tuesday, August 26, 2014 and will then publicly open and read aloud at the Mountain View Whisman School District %XVLQHVV 2IÂżFH VHDOHG ELGV IRU WKH Graham Middle School New Classroom Building Project (“Projectâ€?). Such bids shall EH UHFHLYHG DW WKH RIÂżFH RI WKH 0RXQWDLQ 9LHZ :KLVPDQ 6FKRRO 'LVWULFW %XVLQHVV 2IÂżFH $ 6DQ 3LHUUH :D\ 0RXQWDLQ 9LHZ &$
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The successful bidder shall comply with the provisions of the Labor Code pertaining to payment of the generally prevailing rate of wages and to apprenticeship or other training programs. The Governing Board has obtained, from the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations, the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which the work is to be performed IRU HDFK FUDIW FODVVL¿FDWLRQV RU W\SH RI ZRUNHU QHHGHG WR H[HFXWH the contract, including employer payments for health and welfare, pension, vacation, apprenticeship and similar purposes. Copies RI WKHVH SUHYDLOLQJ UDWHV DUH RQ ¿OH DW WKH 'LVWULFW 2I¿FH DQG VKDOO be made available to any interested party upon request and are also available online at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSR. It shall be mandatory upon the contractor to whom the contract is awarded, and upon any subcontractor under the contractor, to pay not less WKDQ WKH VSHFL¿HG UDWHV WR DOO ZRUNHUV HPSOR\HG E\ WKHP LQ WKH execution of the contract. It is the contractor’s responsibility to determine any rate change which may have or will occur during the intervening period between each issuance of written rates by the Director of Industrial Relations.
The schedule of per diem wages is based upon a working day of eight hours. The rate for holiday and overtime work shall be at least time and one half.
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This contract is _ is/ is not_ _X_ subject to a labor compliance program, as described in subdivision (b) of Section 1771.5 of the Labor Code. &ODVVLÂżFDWLRQ RI &DOLIRUQLD 6WDWH &RQWUDFWRUÂśV OLFHQVH “Bâ€? California Contractor License with General Modular Manufacturers/Installers License and DSA Approved PC (Pre-Check) Drawings Bidders MUST attend a MANDATORY SUH ELGGHUV FRQIHUHQFH KHOG RQ Thursday, August 14, 2014 at 2:30 PM for the purpose of acquainting DOO SURVSHFWLYH ELGGHUV ZLWK WKH ELG GRFXPHQWV DQG WKH ZRUN VLWH $OO SURVSHFWLYH ELGGHUV ZLOO PHHW DW *UDKDP 0LGGOH 6FKRRO &DVWUR 6WUHHW 0RXQWDLQ 9LHZ &$ PDLQ IURQW HQWUDQFH 02817$,1 9,(: :+,60$1 6&+22/ ',675,&7 %\ 7HUHVH 0F1DPHH &KLHI %XVLQHVV 2IÂżFHU
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NORTH BAYSHORE Continued from page 5
age, a plan to add only large office buildings and no housing to a large portion of the city is a big concern to Liedstrand and others, who say it will add thousands of commuters to local freeways and drive up demand for scarce housing. “To me that is not respectful of community opinion when you have all this outpouring of community concern about housing and traffic and then to rush this through by the old City Council, which is already prohibiting residential out there,� Liesdstrand said. There’s a field of 10 City Council candidates running for three seats that will open by the end of the year, and many of them are talking about the need to correct the city’s jobs-housing imbalance — a lack of housing growth to keep up with a booming tech industry that’s driving housing prices sky high. Meanwhile, the City Council is expected to approve the North Bayshore precise plan, without housing, by December. A slim four-person majority is likely to oppose any housing in the plan, including three members who leave office due to term limits in December: Jac Siegel, Margaret Abe-Koga and Ronit Bryant. Council members voted 4-3 to leave housing out of the city plans for North Bayshore in 2012. The plan was to build 1,100 homes in North Bayshore along North Shoreline Boulevard, a sort of test of the concept which had the support of Google, the Chamber of Commerce and others. But a majority of council members expressed concern about impacts to wildlife in the area, namely that stray house cats could wipe out the population of rare burrowing owls in Shoreline Park, which has a host of protections in the new plan, including a requirement that buildings and light poles near Shoreline Park have “raptor perch deterrents� installed. “I realize there are legitimate concerns about the need to protect wildlife in North Bayshore, but there are other concerns, perhaps even stronger, about the impact on traffic and housing supply if residential development is prohibited
SCHOOL BOARD Continued from page 5
phase of Crittenden and Graham Middle School projects, which includes new auditoriums. “I’m very pleased with the Crittenden and Graham projects,� Wheeler said. Outside of the school district, Wheeler is the education chair for the League of Women Voters
there,� Liedstrand said in an email. Liedstrand says the city needs to allow much more than 1,100 home in North Bayshore. “The city was looking at a small amount of housing along one street, I’m talking about a whole neighborhood,� Liedstrand said. “We can do some version of Castro Street out there so young people say, ‘Wow, that’s the best place in the South Bay to live.’� His opinions aside, Liedstrand says that residents need to be given a chance to weigh in on the vision for North Bayshore, as most meetings having to do with it have given priority to businesses in the area. So far, council candidate Lenny Siegel has been the most vocal of the candidates about the city’s housing shortage, founding the campaign for a balanced Mountain View earlier this year to call for the construction of new neighborhoods in the city, especially North Bayshore. He envisions more than 5,000 homes there, enough to support a grocery store, a school and other services. The North Bayshore precise plan is “fundamentally flawed, because it is enormously out of balance,� Siegel said in an email. “It would allow the siting of perhaps tens of thousands of new jobs there with no new housing and very little new housing within a 5-mile radius. It will aggravate our housing shortage (thus increasing prices and rents) and exacerbate traffic congestion locally and regionally.� Siegel notes that even if the city meets its goal of having singleoccupancy vehicle trips make up only 45 percent of all traffic in and out of North Bayshore (it is currently at 61 percent), plans to add up to 3.4 million square feet of new office will likely add 13,000 new commuter car trips to the local roads and highways every day. He says all the pollution from additional commuting is likely to outweigh any benefit from green building design. According to the precise plan’s environmental report, which is required by state law, there would be “significant unavoidable impacts� for three reasons: significantly increased traffic congestions at several major intersections, increased congestion along freeway sections and
the resulting impact to transit vehicles, which will also be stuck in traffic. There are also “significant� environmental impacts from increased tailpipe emissions. An alternative precise plan that includes North Bayshore housing was not studied, though planning director Randy Tsuda has said the “increased housing alternative� in the 2012 general plan was found to be environmentally superior and it included the 1,100 homes in North Bayshore. Siegel and Liedstrand expressed concern about a lack of a real transit connector, such a trolley or automated people-mover between North Bayshore and downtown Mountain View. “Google has the financial resources, it could build the whole connector,� Liesdtrand said. “It would probably cost less than couple hundred million, but in relationship to the values out there, that’s affordable. The great thing we’ve got going for us is this is Google out there, planning its new corporate headquarters.� In an email, Siegel said “though land use is to be clustered to make transit more efficient, there is no discussion of rights-of-way for rail transit. Development under this plan could make it more difficult and costly to provide needed transit.� Siegel, whose day job is director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, added that the precise plan appears to lack requirements for safely building above toxic groundwater plumes. “Because part of the priority development area overlies the Teledyne-Spectra Physics TCE shallow groundwater plume, construction there should be subject to the same guidelines as construction in the MEW (Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman) area,� Siegel said, referring to the Superfund site in Mountain View. To view the precise plan, go to the planning division page at mountainview.gov. Comments on the environmental report can be sent to city planner Martin Alkire until Sept. 19 at martin. alkire@mountainview.gov. A City Council study session is set for Tuesday, Sept. 9, and an Environmental Planning Commission study session is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 3.
of Santa Clara, and secretary for the League of Women Voters of California. She said she’s been involved with education her whole life, and thinks it’s good to explore and research new ideas beyond the school district. During the “communications� portion of board meetings, Wheeler said she often brings up what’s going on in the education world, including education-related legislation.
She said she’s been keeping an eye on SB 837, a bill that would help to provide a transitional kindergarten so children from low-income families can start their K-12 education at less of a disadvantage when compared to children who have been to a high-quality preschool. “Quality early childhood education is important,� Wheeler said. “We can make a real impact.�
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LocalNews Y COMBINATOR Continued from page 1
viduals worked through the night — many not sleeping at all — to write programming code for various software hacks and applications made on the spot. The event had the feeling of a team sport, with groups of mostly 20-somethings collaborating and competing intensely to create. Tanay Tandon, a 17-year-old Cupertino resident, won the interview with Y Combinator for his “Athelos” app. He said it will allow anyone with an iPhone to test blood for malaria. It turns the smart phone into a microscope using a $5 ball lens over its camera, and analyzes blood cells shown in the photo against known patterns for malaria. A crowd that had gathered to see presentations from finalists watched Tandon take a drop of blood from a member of the audience and place it on a slide positioned over a cardboard tube with a light underneath. Working on the cement floor, Tandon held his phone over the slide to take a picture, ran the app, and said the volunteer was malaria-free — when accounting for some margin of error. Whether its accuracy can be proven remains to be seen. “It could scale to a variety of different diseases, all on your iPhone,” Tandon said. “Almost all diseases can be detected from your blood.” Tandon may have achieved
what many at the event said they would like to do, create technology that helps people. “I’m trying to do meaningful apps,” said software developer Josh Benjamin. “I’d rather have one person email me to thank me than have thousands of users. I want it to be helpful to somebody, not just make the wheel turn a little faster. There’s evolution and then there’s revolution.” When asked if technology could create a revolution, he replied, “It always has.” But revolutionary ideas were elusive for most. Benjamin and his girlfriend, professional product designer Rachel Kroft, had created something more amusing than revolutionary: an app that allows you to send videos to friends and get a message back with a recording of their responses, played in sync with the original video. There are similar apps already available. The couple said it was something they would use themselves, so “at least we’ll have two users,” Kroft said. With few clear winners, it appeared that the most significant value of the conference was to develop relationships with other hackers, and to realize that it is possible to make an idea come to fruition very quickly. Dreams of success in this environment come with the risk of a big failure. Erica Douglass said she experienced such failure when her startup, MarketVibe, all but failed and was bought
NATALIA NAZAROVA
Rachel Kroft, right, works on an app to record reactions to shared videos at Y Combinator’s hackathon in Mountain View held Aug. 2 and 3.
by another company, mostly to acquire its staff, something she called “acqui-hired.” Douglass was pitching a website forum, foundersupport.net, where startup founders could talk anonymously about their struggles before depression sets in. Douglass said some startup founders have committed suicide. “It’s a huge issue in our community right now and there’s no place for people to go,” Douglass said. There was little time to con-
NATALIA NAZAROVA
GETTING TO KNOW YOU Caleb is tickled to be holding Squash, a bearded dragon lizard owned by Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the Mountain View Police Department. Sgt. Jaeger brought some of his cold-blooded friends to a special event at the Mountain View library which drew about 100 people on Saturday morning, Aug. 2. While their parents shuddered in the background, fearless kids got up close and personal with a menagerie of reptiles, happily holding snakes and feeding cockroaches to lizards.
template such things at the highenergy event, where everyone seemed to be high from the thrill of quick collaboration and innovation. Attendee Alexander Schtuchkin, one of many Russian software engineers at the hackathon, said the event was a thrill ride and he was exhausted from the “eye-opening” experience. “It’s like any team sport, it requires both individual performance and teamwork,” he said. New technologies spurred much of weekend’s innovation. Many teams sought to create apps for the soon-to-bereleased Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. A number of teams had obtained an early version of the headset for software developers, including Megan and Shaohan Chen, who were working on a way for people to participate in hackathons from afar using the Oculus Rift. They said that someday such events could be filled with cameras to recreate the scene in a virtual world, in real time. Other teams were a bit less ambitious, with one creating a way to generate visuals based on whatever music you are listening to. Another team figured out how to connect the headset to a tablet computer for virtual reality game play, a demonstration which drew a crowd. Another device seen at the event was the Myo gesture control arm band, which allows users to interact with devices using hand and arm motions. Since it senses how your arm muscle move when you make certain gestures with your fingers, a group of young game designers had figured out how to make a game of rock, paper
scissors with it, while another developed a way to control a camera remotely with your hand. On Sunday afternoon, after a group of judges made the rounds and selected the best apps, finalists were invited onto a stage to present to the crowd. Third runner-up was VRniture, a web app that allows users to explore how new furniture might fit into a home using the virtual world of the Oculus Rift. Another crowdpleaser was “Listening Post” which takes a recording or text and automatically searches Wikipedia, Google and other sources for keywords to help you understand as you listen or read. Then there was “Savant” which allows users to see anything they have looked at on an Apple computer screen in the past so as to help resume a project or task where it was left off — the team called it “a time-machine-meets-Google for your computer.” The second place winner was Nunchuck.js, a Javascript framework that allows programmers to synchronize data between smart phones and web browsers, allowing someone to use a phone as a controller for web-based video games, for example. And then there was Streetsmart, a smart phone app which notifies you if you’ve entered a high-crime area, and can alert an emergency contact if you’ve stopped moving. “Because Mountain View is not really a high-crime area, we weren’t really able to test it,” said one of the developers. Email Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com
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LocalNews BORDER KIDS
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County officials say they don’t want to use county funds or take resources away from the foster care system, and expect that federal funding will be available to pay community organizations to do much of the work. Parents of the children would not lose their parental rights, and the children’s fate would still be decided in federal immigration courts. Supervisors may approve the host family program on Aug. 26, including an effort to line up pro-bono attorneys to represent the children in immigration proceedings. The program would “help identify and connect (the kids to) host families who have big enough hearts and big enough homes to welcome these kids to Santa Clara County,” Simitian said. “(If) the federal government is going to be funding some sort of facility for these youngsters, could those same
LASD BOND
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more to protect parks,” Goines said. “It’s hard to get everything you want, and I think this is a reasonable alternative.” The language of the bond all comes down to what voters are willing to accept if they decide to tax themselves, according to board member Doug Smith. He said that the board needs to take into account what the public will support in order to get the required 55 percent of the vote this November, and for that
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funds be diverted to host families? They could probably do the job more cost effectively and in a way that’s better for the kids involved.” With most fleeing violence in Central America, it is estimated that 90,000 children will attempt to cross the southern U.S. border this year — 57,000 have reportedly been caught crossing the border since October. As of July, about 30,000 have reportedly been placed in homes around the country, while thousands of other children are being held in warehouses, where Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) says she witnessed hundreds of unaccompanied kids “sleeping on cement floors, dozens of little girls sharing one toilet, with no privacy.” She recently called on county officials to help with what she described as a humanitarian crisis. “We each have a moral obligation to help relieve human suffering,” said Supervisor Dave Cortese, the San Jose mayoral
candidate who is spearheading the county effort. “Santa Clara County is standing with those communities around the nation who have offered to provide a safe haven for these refugee children who are awaiting federal asylum hearings.” Not everyone praised the effort. “The kids do need to be cared for and there’s really no question about that,” said Don Barich of the Tea Party Patriots of Silicon Valley. “This is indeed a humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately it is also a manufactured crisis (created by people) trying to use these children as pawns for a political agenda. They’ve put those poor children in a difficult position. What’s the federal plan for this exactly? What are the feds going to do?” He questioned the use of county resources to help the kids when “Santa Clara County has highest percentage of foodinsecure children in the entire Bay Area.”
Board president Mike Wasserman echoed opponents before he voted against the program. “I cannot support the creation of a new program, further stretching our resources, when I know we have so many unmet needs in our community already,” he said at the meeting. “I do believe this is a humanitarian issue, not a political issue,” said middle school teacher Andrea Ramos. “Please keep in mind that these children really have left everything behind and they have traveled thousands of miles to get here. That’s a journey that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I personally would be sincerely honored to help give these children an honorable education and help them feel safe and happy in their homes.” If approved by the board on Aug. 26, county officials say work will begin to place 50 children with host families who would go through a screening and evaluation process. A budget of $200,000 has been
proposed, or $2,000 to place each child per month, expected to be reimbursed by the federal government. County officials say they would work with a number of community organizations to implement the program, including the Bill Wilson Center, Unity Care, Catholic Charities, EMQ Families First, Community Health Partnership, Working Partnerships USA, Center for Employment Training (CET) and Services Refugee Rights & Education Network (SIREN). “The Board of Supervisors has given us the crucial task of working with our community partners to create a program to care for unaccompanied refugee minors,” said county executive Jeffrey Smith in a statement. “There are many factors that we will be examining to meet this humanitarian crisis. Our goal is to make sure that our systems and the community are prepared.”
reason Smith said he would be willing to add language to the measure that says they will not build school facilities at either park. Board member Steve Taglio did not vote to approve the bond measure because he felt he had a conflict of interest due to where he lives. He was not present during the discussion or the vote to approve the bond measure at the Aug. 4 meeting. Vladimir Ivanovic, a Gardner Bullis parent and candidate for the school district board this November, said it’s important
that the board slowed down and didn’t try to get too specific with bond language, which could lock the board into making unfavorable decisions down the road. This is in contrast with some of the public comments at the July 28 and Aug. 4 meetings calling for more specific language so voters know what exactly their money will be spent on. In the coming months, the Los Altos School District will continue to look for a location for a new school — only now with fewer options. District board members
say the best location for a school is still in Mountain View, in the San Antonio area north of El Camino Real, where enrollment growth is highest and students have to be transported across El Camino Real and into Los Altos to get to school. District board members declined to discuss any potential Mountain View sites that could house a school for the district. Lenny Siegel, a Mountain View City Council candidate, made an appearance at the Aug. 4 board meeting, and told the board that it’s clear the San Antonio area
needs a neighborhood school even with the current amount of housing. He said the school district needs to collaborate with the city of Mountain View to find affordable space in the area for a new school. In a letter to Mountain View City Council and the Los Altos School District board, Siegel said the San Antonio area “presents an opportunity for a unique, more urban style school,” and that window of opportunity may not last. Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
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LocalNews CANDIDATES
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an incoming Mountain View High School student, and Kevin T. Kramer have also pulled candidacy papers. Moore and Kramer, along with Torok and Hannemann, could not be reached for an interview prior to the Voice’s Wednesday press deadline. Fiona Walter Fiona Walter is a 20-year Mountain View resident with two children attending Mountain View High School. She was on the Mountain View Whisman Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2012, and now has her sights set on the high school district. A Stanford graduate, Walter has a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics. Though the school districts have no plans to send students into space, Walter said her background has been surprisingly helpful as a board member. “It helps to be a numbers person,” Walter said. Despite the science and mathheavy background, Walter said she’s a proponent of a broad curriculum that goes well beyond the realm of STEM. She said she’s a fan of STEAM — an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts and math — which injects music and arts into an otherwise exclusive set of subjects. As a member of the Mountain View Whisman board, she was chair of the Measure G bond campaign. The $198 million bond measure passed in 2012 with over 67 percent of the vote, and will be used to fix, upgrade and expand the elementary school district’s facilities. In 2012, Walter told the Voice that the district needed funds through Measure G to overhaul 50 and 60-year old buildings with maintenance requirements that go beyond the annual budget. She also said the district needed new classrooms, new equipment, and would likely need to re-open the Whisman campus to keep up with increasing enrollment numbers Two years later, Measure G construction is in full-swing at Graham and Crittenden Middle Schools, and the current board is looking at ways to open a school in the Whisman neighborhood. Walter said the district is doing “very well” overall, but has room to improve. She said right now the board could use more parent representation, meaning more board members with kids still going to district schools. The idea is that if a board member has kids in the schools, they are affected firsthand by decisions they make.
“I want someone making decisions that lives with it,” Walter said. Walter said the school district also needs to engage parents more, and keep them up-todate on what’s going on at a school and district-wide level. For example, she said no parents knew about the “Bring Your Own Device” program at Los Altos High School — where every student is required to bring a laptop to school — prior to the story in the July 11 issue of the Voice. Beyond keeping parents informed, Walter said the district could do more to communicate a broader range of district news. “They’re great with press releases, but we’d like to see the bad news too, and works in progress,” Walter said. Joe Mitchner Appointed in 2007 and reelected twice, incumbent Joe Mitchner said he’s excited about the direction the school district is headed, and wants to continue to be a part of it. Mitchner has two daughters going to Mountain View High School, and is currently the only board member with children attending a district school. He said having kids in the schools has absolutely had an influence on him as a board member. He said he feels close to whatís happening on the campuses, and well aware of things that are happening in day-to-day school life. Mitchner said his forte is in finance. He graduated from Stanford in 1983 and later received an MBA in accounting and finance from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1991. Since
then he’s worked for Bay Area companies like Hewlett Packard and Oracle. Because of his background in finance, Mitchner said he’s able to read and understand the school district’s annual budgets from start to finish. “I read the whole budget very carefully every year,” Mitchner said. “Over the years I have caught a few things other board members didn’t.” Mitchner said he prefers a conservative budget with sustainable plans going into future years. He said he’s proud that the school district was able to weather the financial recession with a minimal impact on the students. As the economy improves, Mitchner said class sizes will go back down, but the district might not bring everything back. “Sometimes you learn after cutting something that you can live without it,” Mitchner said. As a board member, Mitchner said he’s made a concerted effort to expand curriculum, including more STEM courses at both the district high schools. He said the district probably added more classes in the last five to seven years than ever before, including computer programming classes, multivariable calculus, Mandarin and introductory journalism. Mitchner said the current five members of the board work very well together, even during contentious issues. He said in most cases where board members disagree, both sides “give” a little bit and the solution ends up being a unanimous decision. For example, at the May 12 board meeting, the five board members had anything but a consensus over whether or not
to allow physical education class exemptions for ninth grade students. Mitchner said he thinks there’s value in the P.E. program and that all ninth graders should be required to take it, but he said he was open to explore alternatives. “Nobody came on the board with a specific agenda, and no one board member can make decisions for the district,” Mitchner said. Dana Bunnett After years of nonprofit work in the Bay Area, Dana Bunnett said she hopes to bring a new perspective to the Mountain View-Los Altos school board this November. Since 2001, Bunnett has worked for Kids in Common, a nonprofit county-wide organization that advocates for child safety, health and success in learning. According to the website, Santa Clara County is one of the most affluent communities in the world, but the most vulnerable children still lack equal opportunities to learn and succeed in school. Bunnett said working for Kids in Common has given her a good understanding of the needs of children in the county. She said there’s a big achievement gap in standardized testing, and emphasized that it’s important to remove learning barriers related to students’ socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. “The teachers are fabulous,” Bunnett said. “It’s not for a lack of caring, but their test scores are still too low.” She said there district could also work to close what she calls the “opportunity gap,” where
schools provide resources to students to balance out the inequalities at home. “I want to voice the concern for lower-income students,” Bunnett said. Before she joined Kids in Common, Bunnett worked for Red Cross at the Palo Alto office, and worked briefly at Stanford to help students with disabilities. She said prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, someone in a wheelchair going to college seemed heroic to people because they beat the odds. But now, with more ease-of-access, she said they’re seen as a normal person with a disability going to school. She said that’s just one example of how providing resources to students can reduce barriers and bring under-performing kids up to speed. Bunnett said the district has done a great job overall, but she was disappointed with the recent decision to cut the Young Parents Program, which provided child care and other services to a handful of student who were pregnant or had children. The program ended with the school year in June, and was cut because state funding for the program ran out. “Cutting the program was a big loss,” Bunnett said. “I mentor a teen mom, and it’s really hard for her.” Bunnett is a Los Altos resident and the mother of an incoming senior at Los Altos High School. As of Aug. 6 she has pulled candidacy papers with the county and said she plans to file them before the Aug. 8 deadline. She said her plan right now is to drum up local support and run a grassroots campaign. V
Tues, Aug 12 Watsonville 243 Green Valley Rd., Ste.A
Thurs, Aug 14 Fremont 1999 Mowry Ave., Ste. C1
Wed, Aug 13 Morgan Hill 18511 Mission View Dr., Ste. 120
Fri, Aug 15 Los Altos 658 Fremont Ave.
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Arts&Events MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
When all the
world’s a
By Sue Dremann
stage
Playwright Melissa Ross will present her comedic play “An Entomologist’s Love Story” on Aug. 12 and 16 at TheatreWorks’ 2014 New Works Festival.
THEATREWORKS’ 2014 NEW WORKS FESTIVAL FEATURES MUSICALS, DRAMA AND COMEDY
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rom a portrait of artist Norman Rockwell to the misadventures of a transgender artist considering gender reassignment, TheatreWorks’ 2014 New Works Festival brings six new plays and musicals to the Palo Alto stage starting Aug. 9. Now in its 13th year, the New Works Festival showcases multiple staged readings of upcoming plays, a panel discussion, live outdoor music and food trucks offering al fresco dining at Lucie Stern Theatre. Works developed in past festivals have gone on to Broadway, including the hit “Memphis,” which earned four Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score. Other accomplished works that got their start at the New Works Festival include Paul Gordon’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” the musical “Striking 12” and the play “Equivocation,” which both had successful offBroadway runs, and “The North Pool,” by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph. This year’s successful TheatreWorks’ production “The Pretender” also got its start at last year’s New Works Festival. The 2014 festival is the first developed by Giovanna Sardelli, TheatreWorks’ director of new works, who joined the company in May. Sardelli has directed mostly new works for 14 years, including 10 off-Broadway productions and Joseph’s “Huck & Holden” and “The North Pool.” She staged the latter for TheatreWorks. This year’s festival offerings are especially compelling to Sardelli because of their range of subject matter and the emotions the plays elicit, she said. She proposed many of the plays to the entire TheatreWorks staff; the reading committee and artistic staff read and chose the works, she said. Sardelli looks for works that move and affect her — and are purely entertaining, she said. “Do I want to keep turning the page out of anything other than
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a sense of obligation to finish the play? I check my emotional state. Did it transform me? Did it illuminate me in some way?” she said. Rockwell set to music One work in particular, “Norman Rockwell’s America,” did that from the beginning, she said. The musical is penned by Lynne Kaufman, author of 20 plays (“Our Lady of the Desert”) with music by Alex Mandel, composer of Pixar’s “Brave,” (songs “Touch the Sky” and “Into the Open Air”). Rockwell is known for his “apple pie” cover illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post of small-town America. But civil rights conflicts in 1950s and 1960s America created a crisis within the artist that changed his life and the direction of his work, Kaufman said. She drew her inspiration from a biography about Rockwell that highlighted his personal struggles.
MARK KITAOKA
Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph will present his political drama “Describe the Night” (formerly “Liars”) on Aug. 10 and 16.
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
COURTESY OF MELISSA ROSS
The musical explores Rockwell’s “second act” in life, where he found his great love after two failed marriages. He stepped away from an idealized depiction of American life to one that searched into America’s conscience and changing times. Kaufman was not interested in writing a biographical play of Rockwell. But she was interested in the key moments in his life that resonated with her — his midlife crisis — and how he emerged from it as an artist and a person, she said. “There are themes in your chronological life that speak to you, and the most compelling thing is resilience,” she said. “Other people’s lives are a vessel for things I want to explore. I was deeply drawn to his new life in his 60s. You’re not finished; you can use that experience to flourish,” she said. She decided on a musical because the story needs to be visual, she said. “We’ve got to see his painting, and we’ve got to see history and the times changing,” she said. Circus performers in crisis The autobiography of circus press agent Dexter Fellows was playwright and composer Jahn Sood’s inspiration for “The Disappearing Man.” The musical takes place during the 1930s Great Depression. A group of circus performers face a crisis; their headlining act, a magician, might take a straight job. There’s a magician who doesn’t believe in magic anymore and a cast of clowns and assorted performers who face identity crises. They question the life they might have outside of the circus, he said. “The stakes are pretty high for
people in many ways. The clowns say, ‘I don’t even know what I look like without my makeup on.’ Each has to embrace their role and escape from it,” he said. Fellows was the press agent for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. Sood found the autobiography in a bargain bin while on tour with a rock band, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons. The story of circus life and of trying to create an event and make it real resonated with him, he said. “I realized my life was a lot like these guys’, going from place to place to play a show and not knowing if you are going to make it to the next place alive,” he said. Sood rented a factory in Brooklyn, New York, and built a workshop there to develop the musical. He booked circus acts and staged the musical so the audience felt they were walking into the 1930s circus. He wanted to merge the intimacy of folk music and drama. He said rewriting the story is about clarifying and refining his characters and then letting them walk away from him to become their own personalities, he said. “I’m always looking for people who reinvent themselves and the things around them,” he said. Love under the microscope In “An Entomologist’s Love Story,” Melissa Ross examines the friendship between two scientists who are about to reinvent their relationship. The 30-something researchers work in New York’s Museum of Natural History entomology department, where their conflicted love affairs are under the microscope in this edgy, comedic work about love in modern times. Ross wrote the play after being
awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation commission to write a play about science. The commissions were received through the Manhattan Theatre Club. Researching science subjects, she found a paper about the mating rituals of insects. At least one made it into the play, which added to the hilarity, she said. New York City also had a bed bug infestation in 2010, the year in which the play is set, she said. “I thought at the time, ‘I wonder if there are paranoid New Yorkers who are calling the museum to identify if they have bed bugs?’” she said. Ross worked for several months in the museum’s entomology department as part of her research, but none of the characters are based on anyone she knew there, she said. The setting contrasts the simplicity of instinct versus the complications of romance, especially with today’s interactions that depend on online dating and texting, she said. “An Entomologist’s Love Story” is Ross’ first time in the TheatreWorks festival, and readings before an audience are an integral part of a play’s development, she said. Ross said she finds what works when she hears the actor speak and hears the audience reaction. “I love the shared experience of theater,” she said. Other festival works include”Describe the Night,” a political drama about the mysterious 2010 crash of a Polish airplane, written by Rajiv Joseph; “Tokyo Fish Story,” a play by Kimber Lee about generational differences, gender and tradition as a sushi master struggles to preserve his ancient artistry in a society obsessed with change; and “One Woman Show,” a musical written and performed by Shakina Nayfack about a transgender artist on the brink of reassignment surgery. Sue Dremann can be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.
ClassGuide
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MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
Academic Achievers Flex Los Altos
4600 El Camino Real, Suite 201, Los Altos 650-947-7742 www.flexcollegeprep.com In Flex courses, participants will learn what colleges are looking for in application essays and putting together essays and applications that match their interests and personalities. Zenith Tutoring
1674 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View 650-823-4703 grayson@zenithtutoring.com www.zenithtutoring.com Zenith Tutoring will offer inperson SAT preparation classes for eight weeks this fall, in addition to online classes and tutoring. The company also tutors clients in all academic subjects and provides help to college applicants. For the Dancer Alberto’s Salsa Studio and Ultra Lounge 736 W. Dana St., Mountain View 650-968-3007 clubalbertos@gmail.com www.albertos.com
Alberto’s holds lessons throughout the week for salsa (Tuesdays and Thursdays), bachata (Wednesdays) and tango (Sunday) styles of dancing for beginners and more experienced dancers. Bayer Ballet Academy 2028 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View 650-988-9971 info@bayerballetacademy.com www.bayerballetacademy.com Bayer Ballet Academy is a school of Russian ballet that teaches the Vaganova method. The academy offers a variety of classes to prepare students for the professional level, as well as adult classes that introduce or re-introduce participants to the art form. For the Love of Dance 2483 Old Middlefield Way, Suite B, Mountain View 650-861-0650 ForT heL ove O f D a nc e M V@ gmail.com w w w.for t heloveofda ncemv. com For the Love of Dance provides training in ballet, jazz, tap and other styles of dance. Serving Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos and Sunnyvale, the family-owned studio teaches dance to children and adults at all levels of ability. L’Ecole de Danse 740 Sierra Vista Ave., Unit G, Mountain View 650-365-4596 www.lecolededanse.net L’Ecole de Danse teaches a Cecchetti style of ballet, including creative dance, pre-ballet and full curriculum for all levels, with children staring around age 4. A range of class offerings are available this fall.
Royal Scottish Country Dance Society 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto Paula Jacobson, 831-688-8295 info@mtview-rscds.org www.mtview-rscds.org Scottish country dances are held most Wednesdays at the First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto starting Sept. 3. Classes for both beginning and advanced students are available. Western Ballet 914 N. Rengstorff Ave., Unit A, Mountain View 650-968-4455 info@westernballet.org www.westernballet.org Western Ballet offers adult classes for beginners to professionals, as well as for children and teens preparing for careers in ballet. The faculty consists of current and former professional dancers. The Great Outdoors REI 2450 Charleston Road, Mountain View 650-969-1938 www.rei.com/stores/mountainview.html REI regularly offers classes on topics such as cycling, bike maintenance, kayaking, camping skills and outdoor navigation. Shoreline Lake Aquatic Center 3160 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View 650-965-7474 boathouse@shorelinelake.com www.shorelinelake.com/aquatic/ aquatic.htm Shoreline Lake and Aquatic Center offers a variety of weekend lessons for sailing, stand up paddleboarding, kayaking and windsurfing, as well as private lessons.
COURTESY FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE
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his fall, with kids heading back to school and the community settling into a post-summer routine, Mountain View has a multitude of classes to offer to keep things lively. From yoga to parenting to wine tasting, these classes can provide both a foundation for self-improvement and a diversion from the back-toschool grind. The Class Guide is published quarterly by the Mountain View Voice, The Almanac and the Palo Alto Weekly.
Little ballerinas from for the Love of Dance Studio prepare to take the stage.
Health & Fitness Bikram Yoga Mountain View 1910 W. El Camino Real, Suite E, Mountain View info@bikramyogamountainview. com www.bikramyogamountainview. com 650-967-2968 In its classes, Bikram Yoga Mountain View instructs students in 26 yoga postures and
two breathing exercises. The classes are held in a heated room and are meant to help students tone muscles and clear toxins through sweating. California Yoga Center 1776 Miramonte Ave., Mountain View info@californiayoga.com www.californiayoga.com 650-967-5702 Continued on next page
Palo Alto Prep CHANGING LIVES...REDEFINING EDUCATION Palo Alto Prep is a unique private high school designed to help students succeed in every aspect of life. We believe that school should be enjoyable and every student experience the pride of personal and academic accomplishment. International trips are experiential activities create a fullfilling high school atmosphere.
See our New Campus
Accepting applications for FALL 2014-2015
OPEN HOUSE NOV 13TH 5-7:30pm Call for Details
Fully accredited/UC A-G college prep. Year-round enrollment.
Founded in 1985 www.paloaltoprep.com
PALO ALTO PREPARATORY SCHOOL
2462 Wyandotte Street, Mountain View 650.493.7071
August 8, 2014 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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FallClassGuide
Have Fun! Get Fit!
Free Childcare During Classes
Aerobic Dance Class Abdominal Work
Strength Training
Fun Aerobic Routines
-ON 7ED &RI s !Mountain View Masonic Lodge 890 Church Street (next to Library)
New session BEGINS
JOANIER PACBELL NET OR Complimentary childcare services
Continued from previous page
Established in 1980, California Yoga Center offers yoga classes for suitable students at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels. The center also holds classes designed to help individuals with back problems. Jacki’s Aerobic Dancing 890 Church St., Mountain View 650-941-1002 Joan Rabin, joanier@pacbell.net www.jackis.com Jacki’s Aerobic Dancing offers hour-long dance classes with abdominal work, weight training and safe, easy-to-follow aerobic routines. Complimentary child care is available. Classes meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 9 to 10 a.m., at the Mountain View Masonic Lodge. Red Star Soccer Academy 248 Walker Drive, #8, Mountain View 650-380-0099
admin@redstarsoccer.com www.redstarsoccer.com Red Star Soccer Academy is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to youth player development. It offers various youth soccer programs for boys and girls. Red Star teams compete in Nor Cal Premier League and U.S. Club Soccer sanctioned tournaments. Yoga Belly 455 Castro St., Mountain View 650-862-3976 info@yogabellystudio.com www.yogabellystudio.com Yoga Belly offers a range of yoga classes for all levels of experience. Discounts are available for students and seniors. Yoga is Youthfulness 590 Castro St., Mountain View 650-964-5277 info@yogaisyouth.com www.yogaisyouth.com Yoga is Youthfulness offers classes daily for students of all levels
Here For You Like a good friend.
as early as 6 a.m. and as late as 7:15 p.m. Classes teach ashtanga, pranayama and hatha styles of yoga, among other subjects. Just for Seniors Feldenkrais Movement 266 Escuela Ave., Mountain View 650-940-1333 www.mvlaae.net Jean Elvin, a certified Feldenkrais practitioner, leads these fitness classes at the Mountain View Senior Center. Feldenkrais can help improve coordination, balance, posture and self-esteem. The classes run on Fridays from Sept. 12 to Dec. 12 from 10 to 11:15 a.m. Mats are provided. Mountain View Senior Center 266 Escuela Ave., Mountain View 650-903-6330 senior.center@mountainview. gov www.mountainview.gov/depts/ cs/rec/senior/default.asp The Mountain View Senior Center offers a wide array of classes exploring topics and activities such as art, music, language, dance and exercise. Mind and Spirit
Knowledge
Silicon Valley Shambhala Meditation Center 2483 Old Middlefield Way, Suite 110, Mountain View 650-352-1499 svshambhala@yahoo.com siliconvalley.shambhala.org The Silicon Valley Shambhala Meditation Center holds regular practice meditations sessions each week. Instruction is available free of charge to both new and more experienced practitioners. The center also organizes courses, retreats and contemplative art activities that include flower arranging, archery, photography and writing.
Values Community
Music, Arts and Crafts Build It Again With Bricks 398 Main St., Los Altos 650-935-2166 www.builditagainwithbricks. com At this locally owned store, children and adults can build and play with Legos. Among its offerings are after-school Lego classes, summer and winter Lego camps, workshops, team-building exercises and birthday parties.
Online t University Transfer t Career Training
Classes Start Sept. 22 -PT "MUPT )JMMT t 1BMP "MUP
Register Now www.foothill.edu
Open House Dates: Sunday October 26 Sunday December 7
2:00-4:30 pm
RSVP to Marily Lerner Director of Admissions mlerner@kehillah.org
650.213.9600 x 154
FOOTHILL COLLEGE 18
Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014
WWW.KEHILLAH.ORG
Casablanca Market 2287 Mora Drive, Mountain View 650-964-3000 info@casablancamarket.com www.casablancamarket.com Casablanca Market offers monthly Moroccan cooking classes. Students will prepare
FallClassGuide three to four Moroccan dishes, which they will eat during the dinner at the end of class. Classes are often filled well in advance, so contact the market to ask about the coming months. Community School of Music and Arts Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View 650-917-6800 www.arts4all.org info@arts4all.org The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) offers classes year-round in music, visual and digital arts, with courses suited for adults and children as young as 14 months old. One- and twoday arts workshops are offered throughout the year. Financial assistance is available. Custom Handweavers 2263 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View 650-967-0831 webemit@sbcglobal.net www.customhandweavers.com Ongoing classes, both day and evening sessions, are offered in weaving and spinning for beginner and intermediate students. Students can explore the art of Temari, a Japanese folk art, or learn to weave in the Navajo way. Peninsula Youth Theatre, School Play in a Box 2500 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View 650-988-8798 mfischer@pytnet.org www.pytnet.org Peninsula Youth Theatre (PYT), based in Mountain View, offers on-site, after-school drama classes, called School Play in a Box, at both public and private schools. Students learn basic acting skills, character development, teambuilding, storytelling, creativity, leadership skills and more. Savvy Cellar Wines 750 W. Evelyn Ave., Mountain View 650-969-3958 info@savvycellar.com
www.savvycellar.com Savvy Cellars Wines has classes that highlight regional wines, pair wines with food and introduce wine tasting to novices. Students must be 21 or older to attend. Tumasov Fine Art Studio and Gallery 823 W. El Camino Real, Mountain View 415-490-8925 tumasovfineart.com The studio and gallery offer private art lessons in acrylic, watercolor, ceramics and drawing for a variety of styles and subjects, as well as day camps for both kids and adults. West Valley Music 262 Castro St., Mountain View 650-961-1566 info@westvalleymusic.com www.westvalleymusic.com In addition to private lessons, West Valley Music teaches group classes for students with various abilities on piano, guitar, ukulele, violin, cello, and brass and wind instruments. It also offers courses in music theory. Parents Only Childbirth and Parenting Classes at El Camino Hospital 2500 Grant Road, Mountain View 650-940-7302 www.elcaminohospital.org El Camino Hospital offers a wide array of classes for expecting mothers, mothers, their spouses and children. Classes include childbirth preparation, breastfeeding preparation, infant safety and mothers support groups. School Days Action Day Primary Plus 333 Eunice Ave., Mountain View 650-967-3780 mtnview@actiondayprimary plus.com www.actiondayprimaryplus.com Action Day Primary Plus,
which has a Mountain View location, has provided quality infant, toddler and preschool programs for more than 33 years. Its staff and facilities are fully accredited. On-site dance and computer classes are offered. Building Kidz Building Kidz School 250 E. Dana St., Mountain View 650-967-8000 www.buildingkidzschool.com Building Kidz School provides infant, preschool and pre-kindergarten care and gives individual attention to kids. The school also offers a performing arts program. German International School of Silicon Valley 310 Easy St., Mountain View 650-254-0748 office@gissv.org w w w. g i s s v. o r g / l o c a t i o n s / mountain_view The German International School is a private school providing students from preschool to high school with a bilingual education. The school also offers German language courses for all ages on Saturdays, as well as adult and corporate courses on weekdays.
DATES - OR CALL FOR SCHOOL TOURS!
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills German International School, Mountain View Jacki’s Aerobic Dancing, Mountain View Kehillah Jewish High School, Palo Alto Palo Alto Preparatory, Mountain View Woodside Priory, Portola Valley
California’s Benedictine College Preparatory School 50 acre Campus 3 miles West of I-280 freeway Neighboring Stanford University
Admission Open Houses
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The Class Guide is published quarterly in the Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice and Menlo Park Almanac. Descriptions of classes offered in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and beyond are provided. Listings are free and subject to editing. Due to space constraints, classes held in the above cities are given priority.
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Yew Chung International School (YCIS) 310 Easy St., Mountain View 650-903-0986 info@sv.ycef.com www.ycis-sv.com YCIS provides multi-cultural and bilingual (English and Mandarin Chinese) education to children from preschool to 5th grade. No prior Chinese experience is required.
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CHECK WEBSITE FOR
Mountain View-Los Altos Adult School 333 Moffett Blvd., Mountain View 650-940-1333 adulted@mvla.net www.mvla.net The MV-LA Adult School offers courses in arts and crafts, computer skills, English as a second language, memoirs, music, dance, needlework, parent education, physical fitness and vocational education. The school offers high school and GED diploma programs.
To inquire about placing a listing in the class guide, email Editorial Assistant Sam Sciolla at ssciolla@ paweekly.com or call 650-2236515. To place a paid advertisement in the Class Guide, call the display advertising department at 650-326-8210.
Palo Alto Prep School 2462 Wyandotte St., Mountain View 650-493-7071 www.paloaltoprep.com Palo Alto Prep School is a private high school that focuses on the academic and personal development of its students while preparing them for college.
THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS LEARNING IN GERMAN AND ENGLLISH
NOW ENROLLING
Something for Everyone
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Phone: 650 254 0748 | Web: www.gissv.org | Email: office@gissv.org
Saturday, November 22, 2014: Middle School (Grades 6 to 8) - 10:00 a.m. Upper School (Grades 9 to 11) - 2:00 p.m. Saturday, December 6, 2014: Middle School (Grades 6 to 8) - 10:00 a.m. Upper School (Grades 9 to 11) - 2:00 p.m.
Call Admissions at 650.851.8223 or visit the website at www.PrioryCA.org :WPYP[\HSP[` /VZWP[HSP[` 0U[LNYP[` 0UKP]PK\HSP[` *VTT\UP[` “We believe these values are made real in a community in which every student is known and loved.” Woodside Priory School 302 Portola Road • Portola Valley, CA 94028
August 8, 2014 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
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CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. A WORLD AWAY FROM ORDINARY.
Learn How Moving to Trilogy at The Vineyards Can Change Your Life. Trilogy at The Vineyards is the perfect place for the next chapter in your life. Nestled against Mount Diablo among working vineyards and olive orchards in Brentwood, Trilogy offers the ultimate resort lifestyle in a casually elegant, funloving environment that will keep you active and feeling great. You can live the Good Life every day: Food and wine, sports, health and wellness activities, learn new things, meet new friends and follow your passion. That’s what Trilogy can do for you. Book your tour and find out how.
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T O U R 1 1 G O R G E O U S M O D E L S | M I D $ 4 0 0 s - $ 8 0 0 s + | T R I LO GY L I F E .C O M | 8 5 5 . 3 2 1 . 3 7 2 3 Wine country living in charming Brentwood A “No Electric Bill Home™” will, on average, produce as much electricity as it consumes on an annual basis. Fees and surcharges may remain. Estimate based on average use by household of 2 with published data from manufacturers, suppliers and others and calculated using software approved by the U.S. Department of Energy. Energy usage not guaranteed and energy production and consumption may vary based on home, orientation, climate and usage of electric appliances. Electricity production via photovoltaic (PV) panels. PV system subject to 20 year prepaid agreement with Solar City. Seller to provide prepayment amount as an inducement to Buyer. Features and specs vary by location, subject to change, not available on all homes and must be on the contract. See Seller for details. Trilogy® is a registered trademark of Shea Homes, Inc., an independent member of the Shea family of companies. Trilogy at The Vineyards is a community by Trilogy Vineyards, LLC., sales by Shea Homes Marketing Company (CalBRE #01378646) and construction by Shea Homes, Inc., (CSLB #672285). Homes at The Vineyards are intended for occupancy by at least one person 55 years of age or older, with certain exceptions for younger persons as provided by law and the governing covenants, conditions and restrictions. This is not an offer of real estate for sale, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, to residents of any state or province in which registration and other legal requirements have not been fulfilled. Void where prohibited. Models are not an indication of racial preference. © 2014 Shea Homes, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q August 8, 2014