When in France ... WEEKEND | 18
AUGUST 21, 2015 VOLUME 23, NO. 30
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MOVIES | 21
Mistral parent tapped to fill school board vacancy JOSÉ GUTIÉRREZ HAS TWO CHILDREN IN MOUNTAIN VIEW WHISMAN’S DUAL IMMERSION PROGRAM By Kevin Forestieri
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MICHELLE LE
Kindergartner Naima hugs her father Emmanuel on the first day of school at Gabriela Mistral Elementary on Monday.
Class in session at new Mistral Elementary DISTRICT’S DUAL IMMERSION PROGRAM LAUNCHES AS NEW SCHOOL SEPARATE FROM CASTRO ELEMENTARY By Kevin Forestieri
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onday marked the first day of school for bustling crowds of kindergarten students and par-
ents, both excited and a little bit anxious, and the first day for Gabriela Mistral Elementary, the Mountain View Whisman district’s newest school. Mistral Elementary is home
to the district’s Dual Immersion choice program, which teaches students in both English and Spanish until they See MISTRAL, page 10
One year later, unsolved slaying at Shoreline haunts family VICTIM’S FAMILY SUES CITY, CONCERT ORGANIZERS By Mark Noack
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lmost one year ago to the day, 38-year-old Eric Johnson of Contra Costa County was shot and killed while backstage at a Shoreline Amphitheatre concert. His Aug. 22, 2014 slaying remains the subject of an ongoing Mountain View police
INSIDE
investigation, but even though his death is unsolved it could soon be a matter for the courts. A civil lawsuit recentEric Johnson ly filed by his mother is pinning responsibility
for Johnson’s shooting on the city of Mountain View as well as rapper “Young Jeezy” and the organizers behind hip-hop artist Wiz Khalifa’s “Under the Influence of Music” tour. Exactly what precipitated Johnson’s shooting last year still See UNSOLVED SLAYING, page 9
VIEWPOINT 15 | GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 24 | REAL ESTATE 26
fter three rounds of voting to winnow down nearly a dozen of applicants, the Mountain View Whisman School District voted Tuesday night to appoint district parent José Gutiérrez to an open seat on the school board. The board voted 3-1, with Greg Coladonato voting for another candidate, to select Gutiérrez. Board members at the Aug. 18 meeting celebrated the decision, saying the inclusion of Gutiérrez, a parent of two at the new Mistral Elementary, adds some muchneeded cultural and geographic diversity to the board. It also marks the first time in several years that the board has a representative from the Castro School community in its ranks. Castro School recently split into two schools that share a campus, with the Dual Immersion program dubbed Gabriela Mistral School. In an emotional speech following the vote, Board President Ellen Wheeler emphasized that the board needs a voice for the underrepresented minority students in the district. She said that roughly 35 percent of students in the district are Latino, with a similar percentage of students from low-income families, yet the board hasn’t had that same representation. “There’s a lot of people who think it’s about time we had someone from Castro on the board,” Wheeler said. Gutiérrez said he was “ecstatic” to join the school board, and that he has to get moving to prepare for the school board meeting on Thursday of this week. “I’ve got a lot of homework to do,” Gutiérrez said.
Dozens of audience members showed up at the meeting, held in the Mountain View City Council Chambers on Tuesday night, to see which of 11 applicants would fill the seat of former board president Chris Chiang, who resigned in June with nearly a year and half left of his term. Attendees included city council members from Palo Alto, Los Altos and Mountain View, four members of José Gutiérrez the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District board and its Superintendent, Jeff Harding. Throughout the interview process, applicants brought up a number of issues related to Common Core, the dysfunctional school board, the achievement gap and spending plans for the Measure G bond money. Many of the candidates claimed to have the experience and the perspective needed to round out the board. Gutiérrez told the board that one of his top priorities in working with the superintendent would be to narrow the achievement gap and improve the test scores of underrepresented minority students in the district. In the first round of votes, board members homed in on Gutiérrez, district parent Sanjay Dave, former City Council member Tom Means, community activist Lisa Garcia and former district parent Steve Sherman. The second round of votes led to an unexpected four-way tie, See GUTIÉRREZ, page 7