Middle-School summer school to be held at the Berkeley Adult School

[Charis Kaskiris]

Hello Mr Guthrie,

 

It has come to my attention that a summer school of kids will start on the premises of BAS sometime soon and running until the end of July. Given the description we have received below it seems that we will have a significant increase in traffic on a small residential street (Curtis between Francisco and Virginia). 125 kids with at least 50+ cars dropping them off and picking them up is quite a big disturbance to your neighbors as well an increased risk of accidents especially during peak hours.

 

More importantly when were you going to communicate this issue to us? Who is responsible for this decision? When was decision made?

 

Regards,

Charis Kaskiris

 

From: Brad Smith [mailto:brad_...@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 7:42 PM
To: Brad Smith
Subject: Middle-School summer school to be held at the Berkeley Adult School

 

This e-mail is from Kains Street neighbor Jamie Day.

 

  -- Brad

 

 

Dear Neighbor,

 

Burr Gutherie, principal of the Adult School, confirmed today that this year's middle-school summer school will be held at the Adult School, starting soon and running to the end of July. The number of students will ebb and flow, with a high of 125 or so. The summer school will be taking place in the eastern part of the building; the San Pablo gate will be closed. The Curtis Street parking lot will be open, and students can be dropped off in there or on the street (and of course, middle school students often walk or bus to school). The main entrance for summer school will be the door at the end of the parking lot, near the office, but the door at the end of the long ramp on the side of the school and maybe the garden door will also be open. The summer school's coming here because school roofs are being repaired elsewhere this summer. This is separate from the Community School; the county and district have canceled that plan.

 

It goes without saying that we should have been told about this earlier. I found out purely by chance.

 

Burr said he'll explain the local history, the importance of the garden and general worries about street life to the summer school teachers and the summer school principal. He said the regular custodian will be there over the summer (I'm not sure about the regular security person, but I sort of doubt it, need to find out).  He also promised to work with us to make the Adult School-neighborhood relationship stronger.

 

Personally, I think that as in the past, including the recent past and probably forever, it comes down to us to make sure the neighborhood and the garden get the attention and protection they deserve. It gets tiresome.

 

I urge everyone to keep an eye out and let the school know if you see any new problems, trash building up, etc. And please think about calling the Berkeley Police Department (510-981-5900) if things seem to be getting tense or dealers start making a home on the corners. Usually the BPD can say 'boo' to these characters and they move on.

 

Let's keep an eye out and meet soon -- about the summer school (still need to know more details), but also about on-going inter-community communications (web sites, etc.) and general watchfulness. I think it would be good to have Burr and/or a summer school person there, so I'll check with them and send out a couple of possible dates. But we should, I think, meet soon.

 

Jamie Day

559-8368