Letter to Linda Maio from Charis Kaskiri
Heather Wood
It’s been 11 days and I have not received a response from you or your
staff. As I mentioned in my original e-mail my concern is that City
Council inaction will enable the Berkeley Unified School District
(BUSD) and in turn Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) to
distort the tax base of the City of Berkeley and create a differential
tax incidence on your district. More disturbing to me is the lack of
any form of analysis, data collection, or evaluation criteria of
either locating an Adult School in a highly residential area or
locating juveniles expelled for criminal activities (guns, theft,
assault, robbery) inside an Adult School (Berkeley Adult School – BAS)
and combining it with juveniles on independent study. Even after 3
months of intense communication between citizens, the BUSD and ACOE
and you (mostly one-way with the latter two) we have yet to see a
written proposal/plan of what is to be implemented at BAS. It raises
the question whether this plan has even anything to do with academics
but rather a way for BUSD to reduce the criticism regarding their
track record with crime on the two Berkeley high schools and serve as
a “jail school” – a holding pen for juvenile delinquents – until BUSD
is no longer mandated to entertain them.
CRIME
The biggest problem Berkeley as a City faces is crime; especially in
your district. Yet after 3 months we have seen nothing from your
office regarding the issue. How can you knowingly allow a local
government entity to push crime into your own district?
The data on property crime in Berkeley is overwhelming:
We have 2.5x the property crime rate than both the US and California.
Source: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/berkeley/crime/
We have more property crimes than Oakland.
Source: http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/?city1=50606000&city2=50653000
[FBI data]
It is highly appropriate for the City Council to assess whether new
programs where tax-payer money that an economic impact analysis is
performed before and an impact analysis is required post-program to
assess whether its objectives have been achieved.
Impact of BAS on its neighbors
I took a quick look at crime data within 3 blocks centered BAS for the
first 4 years after the BAS was located in our neighborhood (data
available is 2005 through 2008). The first years is usually a better
indicator of the direct impact rather longer term where other
treatments (policing, etc. come into play). It is also a time period
BEFORE the financial meltdown hence not a causal . This is reported
crime to the Berkeley Police which is the source of the data. The BAS
was located on San Pablo at the end of 2004. The expectation that GED
students started trickling in 2006 as 2005 the school has limited
classes. A first view at the data:
[tables deleted as they do not transfer well in this Group format]
Between 2005 and 2006 the total number of crimes went up by 9% between
2008 and 2007 went up by 3%. Within 3 years of locating the school
here total number of crimes went up by 24% (I am excluding
disturbances that were under-reported in 2005). In following the
economic studies I have provided the BAS has cost our neighborhood
already in the order of tens of millions in property value losses.
To my knowledge after 6 years of running BAS the BUSD has not
performed an assessment on whether the program is serving the
community it is supposed to, what is the cost transferred to the
neighbors from having the school here (I estimate the financial damage
that the BUSD has imposed on our neighborhood is in the tens of
millions). In the experience (not perception) of many neighbors,
especially the ones next to BAS, their life has forever changed; there
are even neighbors already contemplating MOVING out of the
neighborhood. Where is their voice in government?
While the state is contemplating giving resources and responsibility
to local governments it is my belief that being responsive, proactive,
and evidence-based goes a long way in earning tax-payer trust. It is
also a way to remove layers of redundancy and a hindrance to fraud.
I am patiently awaiting for your response and actions.
Sincerely,
Charis Kaskiris
Charis Kaskiris
Category 2005 2006 2007 2008
Theft 165 145 139 152
Auto Burglary 115 134 138 179
Stolen Auto 80 80 84 83
Burglary 56 61 70 64
Vandalism 63 43 75 77
Alcohol violations 33 61 49 59
Robbery 0 30 31 29
Narcotics violations 0 34 32 30
No category 38 0 0 0
Aggravated Assault 0 14 1 0
Arson 0 0 0 8
Please do not repost/forward outside bas-accountable without permission.
Charis
-----Original Message-----
From: bas-acc...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:bas-acc...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Heather Wood
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 7:27 PM
To: BAS Accountable
Subject: Letter to Linda Maio from Charis Kaskiri
Dear Councilmember Maio,
It's been 11 days and I have not received a response from you or your
staff. As I mentioned in my original e-mail my concern is that City
Council inaction will enable the Berkeley Unified School District
(BUSD) and in turn Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) to
distort the tax base of the City of Berkeley and create a differential
tax incidence on your district. More disturbing to me is the lack of
any form of analysis, data collection, or evaluation criteria of
either locating an Adult School in a highly residential area or
locating juveniles expelled for criminal activities (guns, theft,
assault, robbery) inside an Adult School (Berkeley Adult School - BAS)
and combining it with juveniles on independent study. Even after 3
months of intense communication between citizens, the BUSD and ACOE
and you (mostly one-way with the latter two) we have yet to see a
written proposal/plan of what is to be implemented at BAS. It raises
the question whether this plan has even anything to do with academics
but rather a way for BUSD to reduce the criticism regarding their
track record with crime on the two Berkeley high schools and serve as
a "jail school" - a holding pen for juvenile delinquents - until BUSD