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Berkeley USD
1. Call to Order - 5:30 PM
Quick Summary / Abstract:
The Presiding Officer will call the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. before the Board Recesses to Closed Session. The Regular Meeting will convene by 7:00 p.m.
2. Closed Session Public Testimony
Persons wishing to address the Board should fill out a green speaker card. Cards turned in by 5:xx [15 min before closed session] p.m. will be given priority. Speakers will be randomly selected based on topic and position, with BUSD students generally given priority. Public Testimony is limited to 15 minutes with a 3-minute limit per speaker per topic although the time allotted per speaker may be reduced to 2 minutes at the discretion of the President.
3. Closed Session
The Board may recess into Closed Session before or after the public meeting under the authority of the Brown Act (including but not limited to Government Code section 54954.5, 54956.8, 54956.9, 54957, 54957.6, as well as Education Code section 35146). Under Government Code section 54954.3, members of the public may address the board on an item on the Closed Session agenda, before Closed Session.
3.1. Conference with Legal Counsel - Existing Litigation (Government Code Section 54956.9(b))
3.1.1. OAH 2022010060
3.2. Public Employment (Government Code Section 54957)
3.2.1. Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
3.2.2. Executive Director, Facilities
3.3. Collective Bargaining - Government Code Section 54957.6(a) (District Negotiator: Samantha Tobias-Espinosa)
5. Approve Regular Meeting Agenda of Februay 16, 2022
6. Equity Showcase
6.1. Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA)
BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
TO: Brent Stephens, Superintendent
FROM: Rubén Aurelio, Associate Superintendent
SUBJECT: Equity Showcase: VAPA & Music
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: As part of the ongoing work to showcase the efforts of our district and specific school sites, the board of education asked for Equity showcases to be presented at the second meeting of each month beginning in January 2022. Tonight, the school board of education and the community will hear about the proud and extensive work from the Visual and Performing Arts Department and Music Programming of BUSD.
POLICY/CODE (if any):
FISCAL IMPACT:$
Equity Showcase: VAPA
7. Report on Closed Session
8. Open Session Public Testimony (1st Opportunity)
Speakers will be randomly selected based on topic and position, with BUSD students generally given priority. Public Testimony is limited to 30 minutes with a 3-minute limit per speaker per topic although the time allotted per speaker may be reduced to 2 minutes at the discretion of the President.
9. Committee Comments
Representatives from District committees that include members of the public are given the opportunity to address the Board on any issue. 5 minutes per committee.
10. Union Comments
Representatives from each union are given the opportunity to address the Board on any issue, 5 minutes per union. (Order rotates).
11. Board Member and Superintendent Comments
Board members and the Superintendent are given the opportunity to address any issue.
12. Consent Calendar
12.1. Approval of Human Resources Report
TO: Brent Stephens, Ed.D., Superintendent
FROM: Samantha Tobias-Espinosa, Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources
SUBJECT: Approval of Human Resources Reports
On a regular basis, staff presents Human Resources Reports listing employment actions for the Board to approve officially. Please refer to attached reports for details.
Certificated Human Resources Report 02.16.22
Classified Human Resources Report 02.16.22
12.2. Approval of Employee Vaccination Requirement
To: BUSD Board of Education
From: Brent Stephens, Superintendent
Re: Proposed Board Policy: COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for BUSD Employees
After a presentation to the Board of Education on February 2, 2022, staff is recommending approval of the proposed Board Policy on COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for BUSD employees. The draft policy was reviewed by the policy committee on January 27, 2022. It is presented to the Board for approval at this time.
COVID Vaccine Mandate for BUSD Employees
12.3. Approve Listing of Fiscal Warrants issued in January 2022
FROM: Pauline E. Follansbee, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
SUBJECT: Approve Listing of Fiscal Warrants issued in January 2022
Each month the District writes several checks to vendors for services provided and goods received. The checks are written against both the Restricted and Unrestricted General Fund. The summaries of warrants for the month of October is attached for the Board's review.
POLICY/CODE:
Educational Code Section 41010 et seq.
FISCAL IMPACT:
$6,966,546.78 for the month of January 2022 from various funds.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Approve the monthly bill warrant list for the month of January 2022.
JANUARY 2022 FISCAL WARRANTS
12.4. Approval of Payroll Warrants Issued in January 2022
FROM: Pauline Follansbee, Assistant Superintendent
SUBJECT: Approval of Payroll Warrants Issued in January 2022
On a regular basis, the Board receives information on the total amount paid employees during a month. The attached represents a summary of pay warrants from various funds for the month of January 2022.
POLICY/CODE
Educational Code 41010 et seq.
FISCAL IMPACT
$15,994,408.10 for January 2022 from various funds.
Approve payroll payments made in January 2022.
JANUARY 20220 PAYROLL WARRANTS
12.5. Ratification of Legal Services Agreement for 2021-22 Mediation Services
TO: Brent Stephens, Ed.D, Superintendent
FROM: Samantha Tobias-Espinosa , Assistant Superintendent of Business Services
SUBJECT: Approval of Legal Services Agreements for Fiscal Year 2021-22
The following legal service agreements are being presented to the Board for approval:
Boucher Law is pleased to submit this proposal to provide workplace mediation services for the Berkeley Unified School District ("District"). Mediation services are provided in a confidential environment where those engaged in conflict work through issues with the assistance of a mediator, someone who is a neutral party and can help with the development of an agreement that broadens communication and sets a foundation of solutions that work for everyone involved.
For the scope of this project, we propose a blended rate of $325 for our attorney staff and $225 per hour for our consultant staff. Travel time and waiting time shall be charged to District. An additional surcharge of $25.00 per hour shall apply for complex matters, including case preparation and attendance at litigation or administrative proceedings, court trials, arbitrations, administrative hearings, discovery hearings, media inquiry and response, and testifying at trials and hearings related to the scope of services provided under this Agreement.
Legal fees are estimated at an amount not to exceed of $15,000 for the General Fund
Staff is requesting approval from the Board to enter into an agreement for Legal Services as listed above.
Boucher Legal Services Agreement
12.6. Approval of Contracts/Purchase Orders for Services Contracts
TO: Brent Stephens, Ed. D., Superintendent
FROM: Pauline Follansbee, Asst. Superintendent of Business Services
SUBJECT: Approval of Contracts/Purchase Orders for Services Contracts
The District contracts with consultants or independent contractors who can provide valuable and necessary specialized services not normally required on a continuing basis. The following contract services are requested. Expenditures are within budget.
1.UC Berkeley Public Service Center, to provide afterschool BUILD (Berkeley United in Literacy Development) program tutors to Berkeley Unified School District for the period from 1/19/22 to 6/18/22. The cost will not exceed $27,500. To be paid from the Afterschool Parent Fund. Requested by Aaron Jorgensen.
2.R.I.S.E. Tutors, to provide tutoring and mentoring for Berkeley High School students and their families for the 2021-22 SY. The cost will not exceed $25,000. To be paid from BSEP School Discretionary Fund. Requested by Juan Raygoza.
3.Vango Rooter, to provide drain cleaning services for the Facilities Department. The cost will not exceed $25,000. To be paid from Measure H.Requested by John Calise.
4.Alameda County Office of Education to provide Fiscal Agency Career Counseling at Berkeley Technical Academy for the 2021-22SY. The cost will not exceed $50,000. To be paid from K12 SWP Fly Consortium Round 3 Grant. Requested by Heidi Weber.
5.Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes, to provide sensory cognitive development of sensory imagery for Special Ed student. The cost will not exceed $16,380. To be paid from Special Ed Funds. Requested by Shawn Mansager.
6.Increase in contract, to PO#220186 with Anderson Carpet to provide flooring repair and replacement services. The Board originally approved Anderson Carpet for $45,000 on June 9, 2021. The Board approved an additional $ $25,000 on November 3, 2021. The additional amount needed is $10,500 for a total of $80,500. To be paid from Measure H.Requested by John Calise.
7.Increase in contract, to PO#220642 to Advanced Trenchless to replace a collapsed section of sewer line at Cragmont Elementary School. The board originally approved $35,425 on October 20, 2021 to replace a section of collapsed sewer line at the Berkeley Adult School. The additional amount needed is $19,500 for a new total of $54,925. To be paid from Measure H.Requested by John Calise.
8.Increase in contract, PO#220191 to Bosco Construction to provide general construction services. The Board originally approved $45,000 on June 9, 2021. The additional amount needed is $15,000 for a new total of $60,000. To be paid from Measure H.Requested by John Calise.
9.Increase in contract, to PO#220159 to North American Fence, to provide additional fence repair as needed for the Maintenance Department. The Board originally approved $70,000 on November 3, 2021. The additional amount needed is $13,586 for a total amount of $83,586.To be paid from Measure H. Requested by John Calise.
10.Increase in contract, to PO#221059 to Megan Farrell, to provide services as Interim Title IX Coordinator. The Board originally approved $44,000 on December, 8, 2021. The additional amount needed is $30,000 for a total amount of $74,000. To be paid from the General Fund. Requested by Brent Stephens.
11.Increase in contract, to PO#221064 to Jessica Rodney, to provide contact tracing and data analysis for the district as part of the Covid Response Team. The Board originally approved $15,120 on October 6, 2021. The additional amount needed is $41,000 for a total amount of $ 56,120. To be paid from COVID Relief Funds. Requested by John Calise.
Public Contract Code: 20111
Board Policy 3310
STAFF RECOMMENDATION Approve the contracts with Consultants or Independent Contractors as submitted.
12.7. CoB MOU for City-Wide Public Address System on BUSD Facilities
TO: Brent Stephens, Ed. D, Superintendent
FROM: John Calise, Executive Director of Facilities
SUBJECT: Acceptance of the Joint Use Agreement Between BUSD and the City of Berkeley
The attached Joint Use Agreement between the City of Berkeley and BUSD will allow for the City of Berkeley to install and operate an Emergency Outdoor Warning Sytems (OWS) to be activated during an emergency. An emergency shall mean the actual or threatened existence of conditions threatening the safety of persons within Berkeley, caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic or earthquake, or other conditions.
The City has recognized that City-owned facilities are not situated in every neighborhood and that the Berkeley Unified School District facilities are purposefully located throughout the communities of Berkeley, and therefore are best suited to house the OWS Systems.
The City will position and maintain OWS equipment including speakers, satellite hardware, solar panels, poles, anchors, battery panel cabinets, and cables on BUSD grounds and select BUSD buildings.
BUSD is not responsible for maintenance or repairs needed for OWS equipment; however, BUSD will provide access to City staff at agreed-upon times that do not interfere with BUSD operations.
Approval of the attached MOU between BUSD and the City of Berkeley to allow for the City of Berkeley to install, maintain, and operate the city-wide OWS.
CoB MOU for Outdoor Warning System (OWS)
12.8. Approval of Resolution 22-029 to establish the 2022-23 tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (Measure E1 of 2016) and Revenue Projection for FY 2022-23
FROM: Kathy Fleming, Director of Local Resources and Community Partnerships
SUBJECT: Resolution 22-029 to establish the 2022-23 tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (Measure E1 of 2016) and Revenue Projection for FY 2022-23
The legislation establishing the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (Measure E1 of 2016) authorizes the levy of a special tax as stipulated in Section 4 of the Measure.
A. Tax Rate: Measure E1 of 2016 authorized the District to levy a Special Tax of thirty-seven cents ($0.37) per square foot on all Improvements beginning July 1, 2017, and continuing for a period of eight (8) years. This Special Tax shall be levied on the Square Footage of all Improvements, including all Buildings and Structures, on Parcels of Taxable Real property in the District.
The revenues raised by the special tax are to be used to improve the educational achievement of Berkeley Unified School District's ("District") public school students by providing high quality educational programs as specified by the Measure.
B. Cost Of Living Adjustment: Beginning in 2018-19, the second year of assessment of the Special Tax, and each year thereafter, an annual cost-of-living increase in the rate is permitted to maintain the programs. This increase was not applied in the first year of the Measure, but in subsequent years may be increased from the rate levied in the prior tax year by a cost-of-living adjustment equal to the annual average percentage change in the Bay Area Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area over the prior twelve months, as of December 1 of the prior fiscal year, as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The statutory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), based on the Bay Area Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose over the prior twelve months, as of December 1, 2021, is 4.2 percent.
The Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016, (Section 4)
Revenues are projected to be $34,795,000 for FY 2022-23
Adopt the approved resolution setting the tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 for FY 2022-23.
BSEP Revenue Projection 22-23
Resolution 22-029
12.9. Approval of Resolution 22-030 to establish the 2022-23 tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (Measure E of 2020) and Revenue Projection for FY 2022-23
SUBJECT: Resolution 22-030 to establish the 2022-23 tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 and Revenue Projection for FY 2022-23
The legislation establishing the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (Measure E of 2020) authorizes the levy of a special tax as stipulated in Section 3 of the Measure. The revenues raised by the Measure are to be used to recruit and retain qualified teachers and staff for the Berkeley Unified School District ("District") by providing funding, as specified in the Measure, to improve Berkeley public school educator salaries and address hard-to-staff positions.
Tax Rate: This Measure authorized the District to levy a special tax beginning July 1, 2020, and continuing for a period of twelve (12) years ("Special Tax") on Parcels of Taxable Real property in the District. The Special Tax was initially levied at the rate of 12.4 cents ($0.124) per square foot on the Square Footage all Improvements and $25 per parcel on all Unimproved Parcels ("Rate").
Cost Of Living Adjustment: Beginning with the 2021-22 tax year (the second year of assessment of the Special Tax), and each year thereafter, at the direction of the Board, the Rate may be increased from the Rate levied in the prior tax year by a cost-of-living adjustment equal to the annual average percentage change in the Bay Area Consumer Price Index – All Urban Consumers, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area over the prior twelve months, as of December 1 of the prior fiscal year, as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (Measure E of 2020)
Adopt the approved resolution setting the tax rate for the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (Measure E of 2020) for FY 2022-23.
BERRA Revenue Projection 22-23
12.10. Approval of Contract with Life Guardian for Support to Rename Washington Elementary
SUBJECT: Contracts for Race-Work & Life Guardian (Washington Re-naming Project)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In the fall, Washington Elementary School as part of the work connecting to the Black Lives Resolution, was beginning the process of selecting a new name for its school. The process of renaming a school follows a clear board policy On June 10, 2020, the Berkeley School Board's Resolution In Support of Black Lives Matter, included a commitment to change the names of Jefferson and Washington Schools, as they were named after slaveholders. In the case of George Washington, while he eventually freed many of the people he and his wife had held in bondage, owed his wealth to the enslaved labor of hundreds of human beings, signed the Fugitive Slave Act, and relentlessly pursued many enslaved people who attempted to escape. On June 23, 2020, a Virtual Town Hall was held at Washington to explain the renaming process.
On July 1, 2020, the Berkeley School Board officially voted to discontinue the names "Jefferson" and "Washington." The Information item and board discussion and vote can be watched online beginning about minute 2:10:44 in the archived video. The presentation and documents are online as Board item 12.1.
Jefferson Elementary was renamed first, in a process that took place from August to December 2020, following Board Policy 7310 for Facilities Naming and Renaming. The process, as described in the Jefferson Elementary renaming webpage, lead to the selection of a name honoring a distinguished educator, "Ruth Acty Elementary School."
Last fall, the renaming process began for Washington Elementary. A renaming committee was formed and led by Natasha Beery. With the retirement of Ms. Beery in December, we are in need of support to complete the renaming process. As of this board meeting, the process has been extended by the board to be completed before the end of the school year.
We ask that the board approve the contracts with Dr. Lori Watson of Race-Works and Dr. Courtlandt Butts of Life Guardian. They will facilitate the completion of the renaming process as well as provide both staff and the Washington community structured restorative conversations.
Not to exceed $15,000 for the combination of the two consultant contracts from one-time general funds.
Approve the contracts with Race Works and Life Guardian
12.11. Approval of Contract with Race Work for Support to Rename Washington Elementary School
12.12. Approval of Contract with Leadership Associates to Conduct Superintendent Search for July 1, 2022
From: Pauline Follansbee, Asst Superintendent, Business Services
Re: Approval of Contract with Leadership Associates
Effective June 30, 2022, the current Superintendent of BUSD will end his three year contract with the district. This contract with Leadership Associates permits the LA support the district's search for a new Superintendent. Activities performed by Leadership Associates will include recruitment, advertising, support with candidate selection, meeting and interview facilitation, and vetting.
Contract amount: $30,000
12.13. Approval of Amendment of Master Contract for Heritage Schools, Inc for 2021-2022 SY - Heritage
From: Shawn Mansager, Executive Director of Special Education
Date: February 16 2022
Subject: Approval of Amendment of Master Contract for Heritage Schools, Inc for 2021-2022 SY
The District contracts with residential nonpublic and private schools, when necessary to provide an appropriate placement, special education, residential treatment and/or related services if no appropriate public education program is available. For students requiring residential treatment, the cost is for tuition for the educational program and services, room and board, and mental health treatment. An individual service agreement (ISA) is developed for each student to whom the service provider is to provide special education or related services.
A Residential Treatment Center (RTC) provides students with a high-quality of care to support student's mental health needs that require a full continuum of care. A student may require residential treatment when available school and community-based resources have been exhausted and have not successfully addressed the student's needs. From time to time the District seeks placement in a setting that is not certified by the California Department of Education due to the unavailability of an appropriate setting. There is a history this placement has provided FAPE to previous students from other LEAs.
Services are provided pursuant to Ed. Code Section 56034 and 56366. Students enrolled in residential nonpublic schools are deemed enrolled in public schools.
Estimated Total Cost
Heritage Schools, Inc
Education Code 56034, 56366
Not to exceed $178,550 from the Special Education Budget.
Approve the amendment of the Master Contract for the Residential Treatment Centers listed above.
12.14. Request for Approval of Overnight Field Trips - BHS
Wyn Skeels CTE Program Supervisor
SUBJECT: Approval of Two Overnight Field Trips for BHS
1) National Society of Black Engineers:
The BHS National Society of Black Engineers Jr. Chapter is hoping to send 8 - 10 active members to the National Conference. Students and Families will be informed regarding the most up to date Covid mitigation information and all BUSD and other Public Health Protocols will be adhered to.
Fiscal Impact: None. NSBE jr. Funded largely through a UCB Chancellor's Community Partnership Grant Award
2) BHS First Robotics Team 5419 Competition
FIRST Robotics Competition, Port Hueneme, CA, March 9-12, 2022 Approve participation of 26 students, 1 teacher and 2 other adults on a four-day, three-night field trip to the PORT OF HUENEME. The group will depart BHS on a BUSD approved vendor chartered bus Wednesday, March 9th at 330 p.m. and return Saturday, March 12, 2022 (arriving at 12:00 a.m. March 13th.)
FIRST Robotics Competition is the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it "the hardest fun you'll ever have." Under strict rules, limited time and resources, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team "brand," hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. Students will stay in supervised, gender-specific rooms at the Americas Best Value In Oxnard which is walking distance to the venue. Students and Families will be informed regarding the most up to date Covid mitigation information and all BUSD and other Public Health Protocols will be adhered to. We are aware of various vendor Covid related cancellation policies.
Fiscal Impact: None. Team 5419 Club and Donor funds will cover most of the expenses. The cost is $350 per student. No student will be denied access based on inability to pay.
12.15. Approval of Memorandum of Understanding with Elevo Learning for the Extended Learning Program
SUBJECT: Memorandum of Understanding with Elevo Learning for the Extended Learning Program
Elevo Learning has been contracted to provide social emotional learning and sports programming for the Extended Learning Program for the 2021-2022 school year. Elevo Learning provides coaches for identified Extended Learning sites.
Board approval is needed to pay Elevo Learning up to the amount of $191,064 for the 2021-2022 school year.
There is no impact on the General Fund. The proceeds of $191,064 will be generated through the Expanded Learning Opportunities grant.
Approve payment to Elevo Learning for the Extended Learning Program for school year 2021-2022.
12.16. Approval of Resolution 22-032 to Establish the Tax Rate for the Facilities Safety and Maintenance Act of 2020 and Revenue Projection for 2022-23
SUBJECT: Approval of Resolution 22-032 to Establish the Tax Rate for the Facilities Safety and Maintenance Act of 2020 and Revenue Projection for 2022-23
The legislation establishing the Facilities Safety and Maintenance Act of 2020 (Measure H of 2020) authorizes the levy of a special tax as stipulated in Section 4 of the Measure. The revenues raised by the Measure are to be used to provide essential maintenance to all buildings and grounds of Berkeley Unified School District ("District") by providing funding, as specified in the Measure, to improve safety and essential maintenance to all facilities.
Tax Rate: This Measure authorized the District to levy a special tax beginning July 1, 2020, and continuing for a period of ten (10) years ("Special Tax") on Parcels of Taxable Real property in the District. The Special Tax was initially levied at the rate of 9.1 cents ($0.0910) per square foot on the Square Footage all Improvements and $20 per parcel on all Unimproved Parcels ("Rate").
The statutory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), based on the Bay Area Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose over the prior twelve months,
as of December 1, 2020, was 2.0 percent,
as of December 2021 is 4.2 percent
Facilities Safety and Maintenance Act of 2020 (Measure H of 2020)
Revenues are projected to be $7,676,000 for FY 2022-23
Adopt the approved resolution setting the tax rate for the Facilities Safety and Maintenance Act of 2020 (Measure H of 2020) for FY 2022-23.
12.17. Approval of Measure I Program Update
TO: Board of Education
FROM: Brent Stephens Ed. D., Superintendent
John Calise, Executive Director of Facilities
SUBJECT: Facilities Plan Modifications: Measure I Program Budget Adjustments
To ensure that the Measure I Program Budgets are updated and reflect current project funding requirements and current program revenue projections.
The Board approved the Measure I Reallocation Plan budget in January 2018. There have been additional plan updates as noted below. On January 23, 2019, May 29, 2019, September 4th, 2019, December 11th, 2019, February 19, 2020, April 22, 2020, May 6, 2020, and April 21, 2021, there were approved modifications to this plan. On April 21, 2021, the Board approved the latest revisions to the Measure I Program Budget. At this time, it is appropriate to consider the following modification to the Measure I program budget. Below is a high-level overview of the projects that are proposed by staff and have been vetted by the Facilities Subcommittee. The budgets reflected on the attached worksheet represent the construction rough order of magnitude (ROM) budget approved by the Facilities Subcommittee and the soft costs associated with each project. The budget implications can be seen on the attached Measure I Program Budget worksheet.
Increase the project budget for the necessary follow-on project to the West Campus Elementary School Modernization. This follow-on project is to install the necessary gurney-sized elevator which will satisfy the Berkeley Fire Department requirements and will also streamline operations for Nutrition Services. Additionally, this project will address several other issues that could not be addressed during the first phase of this project due to time and procedural constraints placed forth by the approving agency (DSA). Some of the additional scope includes window replacement throughout building A, a new courtyard gated area outside building E on Addison Street, exterior painting, replacement of skylights in building E, and the mitigation of groundwater issues beneath buildings A & B.
With the modernization of the cafeterias at John Muir and Cragmont being completed, it is appropriate to adjust the budget to reflect the true cost of the project. These projects came in significantly under budget with no reduction in scope. A savings and budget reduction of $3,372,593. is reflected on the program sheet and will be added back to the Measure I fund balance.
The West Campus Capacity project is now completed and it is appropriate to adjust the program budget worksheet to reflect the total project cost. The budget for this project was authorized in December of 2019 on an emergency basis when the landslide deformation report for Oxford became available and the Board decided to move Oxford to West Campus. At that time, there were conceptual additions made to the base scope and the Board authorized the Facilities department to continu with the project based on conceptual estimates only. The total project cost for the West Campus Capacity Project was $23,168,389. and therefore requires an increase of $1,358,207 as reflected on the program work sheet. These funds are deducted from the Measure I fund balance which still maintains a positive balance.
Approve the Measure I program adjustments
Cost Neutral All costs are contained within Measure I.
RELATED PAST BOARD ITEMS
Measure I Program Budget Summary
12.18. Approval of a Contract for OnPoint Construction Services as a general contractor for the West Campus Follow-On Project, and Resolution 22-033
SUBJECT: Approval of a Contract with OnPoint Construction as a General Contractor for the West Campus Follow-On Project, and Resolution 22-033
This is the continuation for the West Campus Improvements to Buildings A, B, E and G Project. The scope of work includes adding an elevator to make the building G access compliant, adding a new mop sink in janitor's closet, and two new roof maintenance ladders to building G. Retrofit of existing windows and waterproofing at exterior walls of building A. Adding new fencing gate, flagpole, and replacement of garden doors to the exterior of the site. New exterior paint on the buildings.
Two bids were received. The lowest responsive bidder is OnPoint Construction.
$1,478,167 – Base Bid
$147,816.70 – 10% Contingency
Cost award by this action $1,625,983.70 to be paid from Measure I bond funds. All costs are contained with the project budget.
Approve a contract with OnPoint Construction as a general contractor for the West Campus Follow-On Project and approve Resolution 22-033
12.19. Approval of Schematic Design of the King CDC Project
SUBJECT: Approval of the Schematic Design of the King CDC Project
The Board approved a project budget for King CDC on May 5, 2021 in the amount of $1,509,000. Gelfand Partners has been working on the design of the project.
Public Contract Code 10510.4 – 10510.9
$1,509,000 from the Measure G program budget. All costs are contained within the new project budget subsequently approved by the board
Approve the schematic design for the King CDC Project
13. Discussion Items
13.1. Board Workshop: Special Education
SUBJECT: Board Workshop: Special Education
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Executive Director of Special Education and staff will be walking the board of directors through a Special Education workshop. In tonight's session, the board will hear and discuss the following items:
Continuum of Special Education Services and Programmatic Details
Data Snapshot
Student and Site IEP Team Testimony
Areas of Growth
Board Workshop: Special Education
13.2. 2022-2023 Budget: Draft Priorities, Estimated Revenue, Expenses, and Reduction Targets
FROM: Brent Stephens, Ed.D., Superintendent
SUBJECT: 2022-23 Budget Draft Priorities, Estimated Revenues, Expenses and Reduction Target
The Budget Development process, includes identifying additional funding based on the Governor's proposed January budget, less operational cost increases which include step and column increases for staff and increases in retirement benefits for CalSTRS and CalPERS less one-time expenditures from the prior year. The district then identifies and considers staff recommended efficiencies, to determine available new revenue which will be used as the initial step in determining budget reduction targets.
The District is at the beginning of the budget cycle and will be providing updated revenue and expenditure projections for the Unrestricted General Fund and other programs.
At the last meeting of the School Board, staff presented the impact of the Governor's Budget on the Unrestricted General Fund. At tonight's meeting, staff will present high level priorities for the Board's consideration. Cabinet members are also reaching out to staff and stakeholders to identify budget priorities which will be shared with the Board. These priorities are in two categories, those that represent ongoing commitments and expenditures, and those that are proposed for funding on a one-time or limited term basis.
Regular Board updates and action items during the budget development process. Continue to collaborate with Advisory Committees: Superintendent's Budget Advisory Committee, Educator Advisory Committee, Parent Advisory Committee and District English Learner Advisory Committee.
Staff will continue to consult with key partners, including our labor partners and the City of Berkeley, and engage with parent and community groups and affinity-based meetings.
The Governor's Budget includes a 5.33% COLA and a revised formula for calculating ADA for LCFF funding which provides an increase of $6.4 million in LCFF funding. Most of this additional funding will be used to balance unrestricted general fund. Additional expenditures will require additional budget reductions.
13.3. 2021-2022 Supplement to LCAP Annual Update, Mid-Year Update, and Update on Budget Overview for Parents
SUBJECT: 2022 Supplement to LCAP Annual Update, Mid-Year Update, and Update on Budget Overview for Parents
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The LCAP is a three-year plan that describes the goals, actions, services, and expenditures to support positive student outcomes that address state and local priorities. The LCAP provides an opportunity for local educational agencies (LEAs) to share their stories of how, what, and why programs and services are selected to meet their local needs.
Tonight the board will receive a presentation that shares the following items:
The Supplement to LCAP, Annual Update, and update on the Budget Overview for Parents. These updates must be presented in a public meeting of the board of directors by February 28, 2022.
FISCAL IMPACT: $101,472,386 total budget listed in LCAP
RECOMMENDATION: Hear the Mid-Year Update, supplemental update, and budget overview of the LCAP
2022 Supplement to Annual Update for 2021-22 LCAP
2022 Supplement to LCAP Annual Update, Mid-Year Update, and Update on Budget Overview for Parents
14. Action Items
14.1. Approval to Join K–12 Climate Literacy Curriculum Funding Petition
TO: School Board Directors
FROM: Director Babbit
SUBJECT: Letter to State Lawmakers re: K–12 Climate Literacy Curriculum Funding
Warming temperatures and escalating climate disruption threaten our health, air quality, water, food, shelter, and economic security, posing an existential threat to humanity and the biodiversity of our world. Climate change is happening now and is especially impacting youth from Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, and low-income communities.
With its unanimous vote committing to Climate Literacy last fall, the BUSD Board of Education has already shown that they understand that one of the most effective ways of reducing the impacts of climate change is to educate our youth on the causes and effects of climate change, and what can be done to address it. What is missing is sufficient funding for education administrators and teachers to fully and equitably implement climate change and environmental justice programs across all subjects for all students.
A broad coalition has come together to support climate change education (see www.tinyurl.com/CAClimateLiteracy) to call on lawmakers to fund this important work. Please vote to add the support of Berkeley Unified School District by signing on to this letter and calling for $200 million dollars to be allocated for state, county, and district implementation.
CA Climate Literacy Sign On Letter, Feb 16, 2022
Climate Literacy Funding Support, Feb 16, 2022 BUSD Board of Education
14.2. Approval of Memorandum of Understanding with LifeLong Medical for Rosa Parks Afterschool Program
SUBJECT: Memorandum of Understanding with LifeLong Medical for Rosa Parks Afterschool Program
LifeLong Medical Care has been the contracted fiscal agent for the Rosa Parks Collaborative, including the Rosa Parks Kids' Village Afterschool Program since 2001. LifeLong Medical manages all finances for the program, including all costs for the staff, supplies, equipment, and independent contractors.
The Rosa Parks School Collaborative oversees the Afterschool Program as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the District and the Collaborative.
Funding for Rosa Parks Kids' Village Afterschool Program comes from two sources: After School Education and Safety (ASES) grant and parent fees. The grant amount is based on meeting student attendance figures.
Rosa Parks Kids' Village Afterschool Program will generate a total of $242,489.34 from grant allocations this school year. Board approval is needed to pay LifeLong Medical/Rosa Parks Collaborative up to this amount of $242,489.34 for the 2021-2022 school year.
There is no impact on the General Fund. The proceeds of $242,489.34 will be generated through the ASES grant.
Approve payment to Rosa Parks Collaborative/LifeLong Medical Center for the Rosa Parks Afterschool Program for school year 2021-2022.
15. Information Items
15.1. P-1 School Average Daily Attendance and October Enrollment Summaries
TO: Dr. Brent Stephens, Superintendent
SUBJECT: P-1 School Average Daily Attendance and October Enrollment Summaries
The District submits three attendance reports to the California Department of Education each year. The first attendance report is referred to as P-1 and includes average daily attendance (ADA) calculated from September to December. The second attendance report is referred to as P-2 and includes ADA calculated from September to April. With the exception of Special Education ADA, the District receives its General Fund revenue based on P-2. The final attendance report is referred to as P-annual and includes ADA calculated until the end of the year. The District receives its General Fund revenue for Special Education based on the P-annual.
Based on information provided from each school site and program, we are presenting a report on the P-1 reporting period and providing a comparison of the following information:
Current average daily attendance (ADA) for the P-1 attendance reporting period and data from two years prior.
Current school enrollment reports as reported in October of each year and data from two years prior.
The report reflects the variance between FY 2021-22 and FY 2019-20 for enrollment and ADA for General Education, Special Day Class (SDC), Independent Study (ISP) by school site, and Non-public School, Home and Hospital and Extended School Year (ESY). FY 2020-21, attendance reports were not sent due to the Pandemic.
The analysis focuses on General Education Enrollment and ADA.
Enrollment and Attendance Analysis
Enrollment decreased from 2019-20 to 2021-22 by 667 students, with the highest decreases at Willard by 101 students and Malcolm X by 79 students. All of the schools except Sylvia Mendez have seen a drop in student enrollment.
ADA decreased by 652 students from the year 2019-20. Our largest decreases were at Willard and Malcolm X which are at 99 and 93 respectively. Overall ADA enrollment percentage decreased by 2.9%.
Board Policy: 5113
Based on P-1 reporting numbers and October enrollment, attendance decreased by 652 students and enrollment by 667 when compared to the year 2019-20.
Attendance for 2021-22 is based on the 2019-20 data based on the hold- harmless clause in the Governor's 2021-22 enacted budget, and education code.
Receive this October enrollment and P-1 average daily attendance summary reports for information.
2021-22 P1 Report
15.2. First Interim Report of Revenue and Expenditures in FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (BSEP Measure E1) and Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2006 (BSEP Measure A)
FROM: Kathy Fleming, Director of Local Resources
SUBJECT: First Interim Report of Revenue and Expenditures in FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (BSEP Measure E1) and Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2006 (BSEP Measure A)
The BSEP First Interim report provides a summary of the budgeted revenues and expenditures based on the allocations to each of the restricted Resources within the Fund, organized according to the structure of BSEP Measure E1 of 2016 and BSEP Measure A of 2006.
Revenue and Expenditures
In FY 2021-22, BSEP revenue is projected to total $33,420,002, which represents 19.1% of the District's General Fund budget. This is an increase of $490,302 over the prior year, primarily due to a 2.0% Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) as permitted by the Measure.
Projected expenditures of $20,814,546 and transfers to the General Fund of $16,522,828 (this includes the VAPA release-time transfer to the General fund of $258,028) bring the total BSEP budgeted expenditures for 2021-22 to $37,337,374, an increase of $1,012,528 over the prior year.
Indirect Costs
The Indirect Cost rate for 2021-22 is 5.42% and is calculated by a formula determined by the State. The rate is applied to BSEP expenses and transfers, and is projected to total $1,795,618. These funds are transferred to the General Fund to support the District's common functions such as Payroll, Purchasing, Human Resources and Plant Operations.
Reserves and Fund Balances
BSEP maintains a 3% reserve as required by the State. During the budgeting process, each Resource carries an unallocated reserve as a contingency to allow for variances in personnel expenditures (salary and benefits). The fund balances remaining from BSEP Measure A of 2006 and the fund balances from the current BSEP Measure E1 of 2016 are both held in separate Resources in Fund 4, and are managed in accordance with the specific terms of the Measure through which the revenues were obtained.
Measure E1 Fund Balances are maintained in each Resource of Fund 4 to meet projected program needs through the life of the current Measure, which will expire in 2024-25. The Fund Balances in the Site Program Resource (0852/0752) remain with the budgets allocated to each BUSD Site for expenditure according to the School Plan for Student Achievement, with prior year carryover available for one-time needs in accordance with the plan.
The BSEP Measure E1 budget model forecasts the need to provide fund balance reserves to meet the expectations of rising costs, particularly in the High Quality Instruction Resource, 0741, which provides for the costs of class size reduction by paying for 30% of BUSD classroom teachers. Due to increased revenues, the fund balance in that Resource has grown beyond initial projections, and is available to meet additional program needs. Planned deficit spending continues to draw down on fund balances in multiple resources.
Measure A Fund Balances are available for expenditure in accordance with the terms of the prior 2006 Measure, and are being managed to support one-time expenditures and deferred needs. Fund balances in Measure A were drawn down significantly in 2019-20, with one-time funding provided for several positions at Berkeley High School, purchases made for instruments needed for the Music program, and Chromebook expenses, which eliminated the balance in the Technology Resource. For 2021-22, expenditures totalling $392,316 continue to draw down the funds across multiple resources, particularly in Music/VAPA for needed instrument purchases and repairs.
Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (Measure E1)
Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2006 (Measure A)
BSEP budgeted expenditures are expected to total $37,337,374 from Measure E1 and $392,316 from Measure A, for a projected total of $37,729,690 for 2021-22.
Review and accept the First Interim Report for FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2016 (BSEP Measure E1) and Berkeley Public Schools Educational Excellence Act of 2006 (BSEP Measure A)
Measure A 1st Interim Summary 2021-22
Measure E1 1st Interim Summary 2021-22
15.3. First Interim Report of Revenue and Expenditures in FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (BERRA Measure E)
SUBJECT: First Interim Report of Revenue and Expenditures in FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020 (BERRA Measure E)
The BERRA First Interim report provides a summary of the budgeted revenues and expenditures based on the allocations to each of the Resources within the Fund, organized according to the structure of BERRA Measure E of 2020.
The 2021-22 Fiscal Year is the second year of the BERRA measure, which was passed by the voters of Berkeley in March, 2020 in order to recruit and retain qualified teachers and staff for the Berkeley Unified School District ("District") by providing funding, as specified in the Measure, to improve Berkeley public school educator salaries and address hard-to-staff positions.
For the second year of this 12 year measure, revenues are projected to total $10,201,900 which represents 6% of the District's General Fund budget.
Unrestricted Funds, Oversight, and Expenditures
Ninety-five percent (95%) of Available Revenues from the BERRA measure are to be dedicated to supplementing the salaries of District Educators, and five percent (5%) are to be dedicated to providing programs designed to strengthen recruitment, retention and development strategies for certificated and classified District personnel, especially in hard-to-fill positions.
In order to determine the Available Revenues of the Measure, funds are first set aside in an "unrestricted" resource to meet the charges for services provided by the County of Alameda and the City of Berkeley for the preparation and collection of the tax, legal and audit fees, and to maintain a 3% reserve as required by the State. One percent (1%) of the remaining revenues ($99,659) are set aside for costs related to planning, monitoring, evaluating and reporting the use of these funds, providing support for staffing the oversight committee and attendant purposes.
Revenues totalling $9,372,922 for educator salaries are projected, of which $8,218,973 are planned for expenditure. The 5% set aside for programs and expenses related to recruitment and retention for hard to fill positions, is projected at $467,916, of which $438,420 is planned for expenditure.
The budget for 2021-22 sets aside funds for The Indirect Cost rate for 2021-22 is 5.42% and is calculated by a formula determined by the State. The rate is applied to BERRA expenses and transfers, and is projected to total $448,092. These funds are transferred to the General Fund to support the District's common functions such as Payroll, Purchasing, Human Resources and Plant Operations.
Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020
BERRA budgeted expenditures are expected to total $8,984,325
Review and accept the First Interim Report for FY 2021-22 of the Berkeley Public Schools Educator Recruitment and Retention Act of 2020
Measure E 2020 1st Interim Summary 2021-22
16. Open Session Public Testimony (2nd Opportunity)
Persons wishing to address the Board should fill out a green speaker card. Cards turned in for the earlier open session public testimony will be given priority. Speakers will be randomly selected based on topic and position, with BUSD students generally given priority. Public Testimony is limited to 15 minutes with a 3-minute limit per speaker per topic although the time allotted per speaker may be reduced to 2 minutes at the discretion of the President.
17. Extended Board Member and Superintendent Comments
18. Adjournment
Published: February 11, 2022, 4:41 PM
The resubmit was successful.


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Christmas & New Year Appeal
Associate Bodies
Christmas & New Year COVID-19 Appeal
This Christmas, give the gift of health, hope, and wholeness.
$ 2,510.00 Raised
$ 20,000.00 Goal
COVID-19 International Partnerships Appeal
HealthServe is reaching out to support communities battling COVID-19 in Australia and overseas to protect and care for healthcare workers as they care for those struggling with the virus.
$ 10,161.00 Raised
ICMDA COVID-19 Appeal
Across Africa and Asia, church and mission hospitals are facing waves of patients needing acute medical care. ICMDA can rapidly mobilise with your help, and we need your generosity and partnership.
All Projects Appeal
Many of our Donors are generous and willing to give, but do not necessarily have a particular project they wish to support.
If this is you, this is the place to make your donation. All funds given through all projects will support multiple projects as the Board determines that the finanical assitance is required.
Anguganak, Safe Motherhood Program, PNG
As more women seek the safest option of a healthcare centre birth, this program aims to provide readily available clean water to these centres.
General Fund (Overseas Partnerships)
We seek to help meet health care needs in our neighbouring countries of Asia, the Pacific and Africa where there are scarce health resources, or there is poor access to health facilities. We aim to develop sustainable health programmes that will improve the total health and wellbeing of communities, and build the communities' capacity for meeting its own health needs.
$ 0.00 Raised
Gerasa Bali
The four main components of our project are support groups, education, outreach, and treatment assistance and referrals. We provide a safe environment in which clients can share their victories and concerns, offer informal counseling, information and education, interact with at risk populations (sex workers, drug users, inmates) as well as AIDS patients in local hospitals and prisons. We build relationships with members of these populations and offer our services to these groups.
Gerasa Bali is also recognized by local government as the lead agent in Bali to support trafficked people.
$ 165.00 Raised
ICMDA Travelling Bursary fund
The ICMDA Travelling Bursary fund of HealthServe Australia is set up to help send representatives of developing countries to attend the 4 yearly ICMDA congress.
The next congress will be held April 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.
ICMDA Leadership Initiative
The ICMDA Leadership in Health and Development Initiative gives the annual Dignity and Right to Health Award to recognise, support and publicize the most outstanding role models and champions acting to stop the global epidemic of HIV.
Intermed Scholarship Project
The Intermed Scholarship Project provides funds to cover part of the cost of the Summer School and/or the 2 week overseas practicum, for Intermed Summer School participants coming from (or going to) AusAID approved countries.
Living Wholeness
Training and Resources for Mental Health within the Developing Asian World
Muko Clinic
This Spring the Muko Project is running a fundraiser to fund its healthworkers continuing work in this remote part of far south-west of Uganda.
The clinic was begun as the result of a partnership between a Newcastle Church, Muko Parish and HealthServe Australia.
Please give generously to enable this healthwork to continue amongst some of the poorest people in the world.
PICCSI (Pacific Island Cervical Cancer Screening Initiative)
Healthserve Australia is running a special appeal supporting the PICCSI program as it enters its second year.
The pilot program was very successful in terms of not only treating those at risk of cervical cancer in Fiji, but also unmasking the extent of the issue and the need to re-engage with a wider net, the issues as they are clearly present across the Pacific Islands.
We now have the opportunity to fund this important work amongst our island neighbours.
PRIME Project
PRiME Australia (Partnerships in International Medical Education) makes trips to India, PNG and neighbouring countries.
As a HealthServe Australia project it gathers and trains Christian medical educators to engage with international partners to promote a wholistic approach to teaching medicine.
PRiME Australia is affiliated with www.primeinternational.org.au
South Sudan Health Worker Training
HSA is raising funds for "Christian Health Initiatives, South Sudan" to support expatriate teaching staff of Jonglei Health Sciences Institute in Bor, where midwives/clinical officers are trained.
Torch of Love Foundation, Indonesia
This program provides essential Protective Equipment for healthcare workers, such as: Full Protection Suits, Face-Shields, Glasses with Shields, Hand Sanitiser, Disinfectant, Leaflets, and Multivitamins. These are especially important during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Wedweil, South Sudan
Wedweil is a Region of the North West of South Sudan and it has no local Medical facilities. This project is aimed at building a medical facility to begin to meet the healthcare needs of this region.
The Project is overseen by The Reverend Santino Yuot Rang and HSA is supporting the planning process of the Clinic building while working with the local community, the Local Diocese and the South Sudanese Government to make this facility a reality.
HealthServe Australia is a signatory to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct reflecting HealthServe's compliance with industry standards of good practice, transparency and accountability. If you have any complaint or concern please click here and you will be redirected to our complaints form. A copy of our Complaints section in our Procedures Manual can be accessed by clicking here.
HSA works in partnership with other international organisations, complementing their strengths with health resources. It has a special relationship with the largest group of Christian health professionals in Australia, the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA) through which it was established. Many of the CMDFA members have worked for a number of years overseas in health work.
HSA Newsletters
HSA Reading List
Current Membership List 2019-2020
Donation Payments Policy
Membership Cancellation Policy
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The Lost World is a Canadian-French TV animation series directed by François Brisson, produced by Dargaud Marina, Neuroplanet, TPS Jeunesse, Teletoon and Vivatoon, aired in 2002. 26 x 22 minutes episodes.
With the voices of Sonja Ball, Richard Dumont, Dawn Ford, Eleanor Noble, Harry Standjofski, Danny Wells, playing Professor Arthur Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, Maplewhite, Challenger, Billy, Mina and other characters.
This page was last edited on 4 September 2016, at 17:59.


The sounds of our footsteps echoed across the empty corridors of the S.S. Omega. Arriving with the rescue mission, we expected problems, maybe even deaths among the crew. Having stepped aboard, however, we found no one but the dark rooms which have been abandoned in a hurry and the chill and darkness surrounding us. There is not a single trace left of the crew, and only Omega's main computer – an artificial intelligence, which manages the ship when the crew is in hibernation for the flight – responds to our callouts. I hope we will find out what happened to the crew from the main computer's logs….


In this article, we'll give examples and explain ways to defuse arguments and improve communication...whether the conflict you'll be dealing with next time involves your teenager, co-worker, or even a friend.
Being an active listener is an important step to defuse arguments of any given situation and solve whatever problem has arisen. However, you must realize that when people feel strongly about an issue, their emotions will influence their ability to communicate and listen well. It is important, therefore, to utilize a combination of active and reflective listening skills.
Take time to cool off before continuing to speak (breathe deeply, always remember to count to ten, leave the room, or take a walk).
Here are five ways to defuse arguments and improve communication effectively.
1. Only criticize the behavior or the issue that is up for discussion...never criticize the person! By dealing with the issue or the behavior, you avoid attacking the other person. If you are "arguing" with your teen about a curfew, stick to the issue of the curfew or to his behavior of breaking curfew. Don't dredge up all of her prior mistakes or call her a "stupid kid" because she can't ever seem to get things right. That is a direct attack on the person and all that does is damages their self-esteem and creates barriers. Listen to what he has to say and keep him on track if he strays from the issue. Continue to use active listening even if the other person does not. Your use of active listening will be of tremendous help when trying to defuse arguments or other potentially damaging situation.
2. Realize that each person has worth. It is almost impossible to practice active or reflective listening if you dismiss the speaker as inferior or worthless. You don't have to agree with him, but it is crucial that you respect his right to a different opinion and acknowledge his sense of value. Find something that the two of you have in common. Try to understand what the other person is saying and why he feels a certain way.
3. Avoid absolutes when trying to defuse arguments, i.e., right or wrong, good or bad. Phrases like "you always" or "you never" should be avoided because these types of phrases slow down communication. Someone paying close attention to what is being said will sure pick up on that right away and can easily counter with a statement such as, "I hear you saying I always do such and so, but actually I..." The same is true of statements that indicate right/ or wrong and good or bad. This is not to say there aren't situations that are right or wrong, good or bad, but in an argument most right/wrong or good/bad situations are simply exaggerations and the actuality is somewhere in between. Far-ranging generalizations ultmately cause conflict. The focus then is not on solving the problem at hand, but instead the focus is on each party effectively defining her respective position.
4. Send "I feel" messages instead of "you" messages. For example, when you say, "You don't know what you're talking about," you are sending a "you" message. An example of an "I" message could go something like this... "I don't understand what you're trying to say." The point of this in trying to defuse arguments is to clarify your concerns so as not to lay blame on other people.. This is especially true when it comes time to defuse arguments with your teenager. An example of an "I" message here could be, "I worry about you when you aren't home by your curfew," or "When you come in after your curfew, I feel like you are purposely defying me." The "I" message tells your teenager how you are feeling about the situation at hand...in this case, his not making curfew. The "I" message conveys concern over the issue, whereas the "you" message attacks them as a person.
5. Engage your brain and suspend your emotions. This is perhaps the hardest of the five techniques because verbal conflicts by nature are emotional. The ultimate goal is to turn the verbal conflict into a discussion. Arguments are counterproductive, whether its while conducting business or trying to resolve a family issue. Arguments certainly do nothing for keeping harmony within the home or workplace. Rather than letting your emotions get the best of you, ask yourself, "How can I help solve this problem? What solution is best for both of us? What can we change? You need to control your emotions for the sake of the issue. Listen actively and nonjudgmentally.
Try to solve the problem best you can. After you have calmed down, look at what happened and decide how to handle it appropriately.


A neat and minimal Japanese restaurant in Greenwich that serves authentic dishes, including shabushabu, a hotpot of broth, veg and thinyly sliced meat. Plus the staples: sashimi, nigiri, maki, miso soup, robata, ramen, tonkatsu and tempura. Kitcho have also been known to host sushi-making masterclasses here.
I am absolutely appalled by what has happened this evening. Kitcho is outsourcing its takeaway items to a cheap Chinese restaurant. Our 'ramen' arrived - instant noodles, oily soup, none of the advertised bamboo, no spinach, no black fungus, no egg, no char sui pork. We paid over thirty pounds and yet when the Chinese printed receipt arrived, the total was twenty-one pounds, meaning on top of all of this we have also been overcharged. When I called the restaurant to confront and fix this serious issue, my integrity was called into question. As someone who has worked in a Japanese restaurant in the past, I am astounded and disgusted by the manners and quality of 'food' that we were supposed to sit back and accept. Usually we would simply never use this restaurant again, however because of the disgraceful impact of this situation we will now be talking to those with higher authority, because we believe it is completely against the most basic principles of a restaurant to falsely advertise the contents of their food and not state that another restaurant will be making it.
Good value for money, food was authentic Japanese! We ordered the kitcho sashimi platter,mango dragon roll, tornado maki, agedashi tofu, Saba shioyaki and grilled aubergine. all the dishes were fantastic. Sashimi was fresh and delicious! A nice surprise was the yuzu cheesecake which I'll highly recommend.
Gave it four stars as service was a little slow but the staff were all very friendly. Saw that there was hotpot as well so definitely going back to try!
All in all, a good experience and didn't cost a bomb at all:) highly recommended for good Japanese food!
Absolutely DELICIOUS sushi, teppanyaki, tempura, noodles and donburi. Very reasonable prices. I would eat here every day if I could.
We are regulars at Kitcho, it's our favourite local restaurant. The sashimi is out of this world, and never fails to disappoint.
Really high quality food. friendly service. very reasonably priced.
Being so close to my office, Kitcho is the perfect spot for a hot spicy lunch. They have a great lunch deal from which I opted for the chicken katsu curry, which is always fresh, creamy and filling. The service is super friendly and welcoming in the small but elegant interior. Food does take a while to arrive but they are more than willing for you to pre order, which is perfect in the case of a 1 hour lunch break.


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Verbarg's moves to make room for Graeter's in Kenwood
Verbarg's Furniture & Design plans to move soon to a store near its current Kenwood location, where Graeter's Ice Cream may build.
Verbarg's moves to make room for Graeter's in Kenwood Verbarg's Furniture & Design plans to move soon to a store near its current Kenwood location, where Graeter's Ice Cream may build. Check out this story on cincinnati.com: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/05/08/graeters-ice-cream-eyeing-verbargs-site/1090323001/
Jeanne Houck, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 3:23 p.m. ET May 8, 2019
Talk about a triple threat! Kathrine Nero, @KathrineNero on Instagram/Twitter
Verbarg's Furniture & Design plans to move soon to a building near its current Kenwood location, which is being eyed as a possible spot for a new Graeter's Ice Cream parlor.
The furniture business will continue to operate at 8167 Montgomery Road until the termination of its lease at the end of July,Sheri Verbarg Mitchell, marketing director, said.
Mitchell said it is too early to give details, but Verbarg's is looking at a smaller location that would be convenient for its customers – many of whom hail from Indian Hill, Madeira and Montgomery.
Here are renderings of a Graeter's Ice Cream store proposed for Kenwood. (Photo: Provided)
Verbarg's has operated on Montgomery Road since 1996, Mitchell said. The business that is more than 40 years old has a second showroom at 1912 Ohio Pike in Batavia Township.
Graeter's already has a store in Kenwood at 7369 Kenwood Road.
But plans have been filed with Sycamore Township's Department of Planning and Zoning to tear down the building where Verbarg's is operating to build a new, 4,361-square-foot store for Graeter's with a drive-thru, indoor seating and an indoor play area.
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The application is signed by a representative of the property owner, W.B. Meier Realty Co. of Blue Ash.
Graeter's has confirmed it is looking at the Montgomery Road location but is saying nothing more now about the proposed new store or the future of its existing store in Kenwood.
More: Graeter's plans Fountain Square expansion
More: Graeter's 2019 mystery flavor is...
More: New Kenwood development brings hotel, jobs
Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/05/08/graeters-ice-cream-eyeing-verbargs-site/1090323001/
Heat, humidity and more rain coming this week
Is this the end for the Hamilton County Fair?
Animal rescue won't bring dogs to Warren Co. jail anymore after inmate killed one
Pedestrian killed in hit-skip on Colerain Avenue
Price Hill day off for Coney Island a tradition
P&G calls for equal pay in soccer, donates $500K


I want everyone to be able to learn, no matter how much time or resources they have available, so I've tried to offer as many different options as I can for my teaching. All my teaching is designed to enlighten and empower you to be true to your own divine essence and spiritual intelligence. The emphasis is on practical work and facilitating your own personal development through responsibility and experience – and, of course, fun!
Online courses and webinars are great if you lead a busy life, are self-motivated, and want to fit your learning around your personal schedule. They're also very affordable.
Intuitive healing sessions are perfect if you have specific issues and challenges you want to address, and you know you benefit from having personal attention to encourage and keep you on track. These sessions also empower you with energy tools and techniques to facilitate your own self-healing.
Workshops are wonderful for their social aspect, coming together with like-minded people to share experiences, and the fabulous energy that's always generated by a group.
If you want to organise a group and venue, and are prepared to pay travel expenses, I will happily bring Triple Moon teaching to you.


To view these photos on the blog, click here.
Jan. 14, 2018: The three of us took our first winter road trip back to Kansas (City) to visit family and friends.
Deadman's Pass in eastern Oregon.
Photos by Amy and Mikey Schmitz unless noted.


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Anatomy of a Simon's Quest: II
Simon's Quest works, by and large, like Castlevania. You control Simon Belmont. He walks (hobbles) along, whips stuff, uses subweapons, jumps, gets knocked back into pits when he collides with enemies, and seeks to destroy Dracula. The general details are almost indistinguishable at a glance, except now Simon wears dark armor instead of leather.
Take a closer look, however, and you'll find quite a few differences. For starters, the original whip upgrade system has gone right out the window. Powering up the Vampire Killer took all of about 10 seconds in most cases in Castlevania, and the second- and third-stage upgrades would be revoked upon death. Not here: Simon begins with the weak leather whip, but once he acquires an upgrade it's permanent. The trade-off is that upgrades no longer simply drop from candles or enemies. No, now you have to buy them. With cash money. And by "cash money" I mean "hearts."
This makes an insane amount of sense, actually. Hearts served as currency in the first game, too, but the "economy" there revolved entirely around spending hearts for subweapons. Simon's Quest expands the number of things you need to "buy" and therefore adjusts the way hearts work, slightly. The game no longer provides candles for farming random drops; now, you can only gather hearts from enemies. (This also earns you experience points, unless you've exceeded the current area's level threshold.) On the plus side, enemies don't just drop single hearts. Multiple-heart drops appear pretty often, usually from tougher foes. So, you kill bad guys, collect hearts, and buy stuff that you keep forever (except stakes, which have to be purchased anew in each Mansion). Upgrade the Vampire Killer to a thorn whip, it's a thorn whip forever. Get the flame whip and you will always be able to burn away bad guys with fire. Forever!
As I mentioned before, an invisible time limit counterbalances the temptation to grind for cash. It's awfully tempting, in that very first town, to duck outside and whip dudes until you can afford a crystal and a whip upgrade (play efficiently enough and you can scrape up just enough to buy them before business closes for the night), but if you spend too much time doing that the in-game clock will turn over and you'll get a worse ending. Or "worse" ending; more on that sometime later. I don't think there's any in-game indication that you're on a schedule, but the day/night cycle does hint at it.
Yes, a diurnal cycle. I can't imagine Simon's Quest is the first game to include day and night, though the only prior instances that come to mind are adventure games and RPGs. Ultima III had its moongate system, for instance. But action games? I think Castlevania may well have been an innovator on that front. Day turns to night and vice-versa, each time with a memorable snippet of text, at 6:00 on the dot. Monsters become twice as powerful at night — "powerful" in this case meaning they become twice as hard to destroy — and villagers close their doors. Aside from the handful of free-roaming NPCs in the wilderness and folks in Mansions, you're basically locked away from character interaction between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. This, more than the amped-up hostility of the bad guys, makes nighttime in Simon's Quest feel lonely and intimidating.
The overall time limitation combined with the go-anywhere feel of the world and the steady march of day/night transitions creates what is, by far, Simon's Quest's most compelling feature. The overall difficult level may skew low thanks to the too-forgiving continue system and laughable bosses, but the game nevertheless creates a sense of tension. Do you press on toward the next goal despite not having the calibre of equipment you'd prefer? Do you lurk near the entrance to town as sunset nears or sunrise approaches, or do you go about your business? Again, the way time stops ticking once you enter a Mansion does undermine this risk/reward mechanic somewhat, but the sense of safety and empowerment that cities offer makes delving into the far reaches of the Transylvanian wilderness an occasionally daunting task — not unlike venturing far from town in a game like Etrian Odyssey or Wizardry. It's interesting that when people talk about how Simon's Quest resembles an RPG they're usually speaking of the light leveling mechanics or cursory inventory system, when in fact the game draws upon RPG influences in much deeper and more subtle ways.
This entry was posted in Anatomy of a Game, Games and tagged anatomy of a game, castlevania, konami, nes, simon's quest. Bookmark the permalink.
8 thoughts on "Anatomy of a Simon's Quest: II"
Lilfut says:
I'll never forgive you if you make me love this game.
I'd always been told by many people that Simon's Quest, for some bizarre reason, actually gives you worse endings for completing the game quickly. Is that a lie? Are they secretly CV2 villagers?
@Guy: That is not wrong. I will get to that later.
MetManMas says:
As memorable as the text transition is, it can be the slightest bit awkward how the game freezes the action for a few seconds every time it goes from day to night or vice versa. But still, the game had a day/night system long before that was a thing outside of the RPG genre.
When most NES games had a change from day to night, it was only because that particular stage or area takes place at night. In CV2, night foes on the field are sturdier but more rewarding on the hearts front, and the towns all become Zombieville until morning hits. Coupled with the effect time has on the ending (that the game never actually tells you about), it's a pretty nifty mechanic for a game of its age.
Of course, being a game that uses passwords, you can exploit those to get the ending you want instead of taking advantage of mansion time freezes. It's very handy if you want to see the """""best""""" *cough cough* ending.
Tato says:
The weirdo endings are quite liberating in a way. There's very little pressure to grind or not grind when you realize the endings are totally mixed up and you're actually punished for trying to beat the game in the quickest "game time" possible.
vaterite says:
@MMM I think by "it can be the slightest bit awkward how the game freezes the action for a few seconds" you mean it is awesome to try to freeze Simon in dashing poses as day turns into night.
This was always one of my favorite NES games. I honestly wish Konami would remake it – it feels like a prototype for the "Metroidvania" style games like Symphony. A remake could benefit so much from the innovations the newer Castlevanias have brought to that style. And you know, have more than three bosses :)
Re: the last paragraph. I'd never thought about the day/night cycle that way before.
Aaaaaand that's why I'm a Jeremy Parish fan.


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Q: Перенос сети на другую подсеть Есть подсеть вида 172.16.24.0 /24. Она раздаётся на все коммутаторы. Маркируется стандартным vlan'ом - 10. Нужно перевести коммутаторы на другую подсеть: 172.16.200.0 /27 c vlan 200. Возможно ли весь парк плавно перевести,прописав новые ip,и просто заменив 10 vlan на портах на 200?

A: Для коммутаторов D-Link:

*

*Сохраняем текущие конфигурации. Экспортируем к себе.

*На все интерфейсы коммутаторов с управляющим VLAN vlanid=10 tagged добавляем новый VLAN vlanid=200 tagged.

*На всех коммутаторах добавляем ещё один адрес (System - IP Interface) - в новом VLAN, в новой подсети, с включённым Admin State. При необходимости настраиваем для него остальные параметры доступа (AAA и прочее).

*Подключаем PC только к новому VLAN с адресом только из новой подсети, проверяем, что все коммутаторы доступны и управляемы.

*Сохраняем новые конфигурации. Экспортируем к себе.

*Убираем из списка интерфейсов коммутаторов старые адреса.

*Убираем с интерфейсов старые VLAN.

*При необходимости переименуем новые VLAN и админ. интерфейсы.

*Сохраняем новые конфигурации. Экспортируем к себе.

Аналогично (и параллельно по пунктам) поступаем и с оборудованием Cisco. Правило - при применении пункта к коммутатору этот пункт должен быть уже выполнен для всех коммутаторов позади него.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Brighton-based director Phil Grabsky will be introducing his film In Search of Beethoven to launch the new season of screenings at Seaford Community Cinema on 8th April.
Phil is an award-winning documentary film-maker with a film career spanning 25 years.
This highly successful film brings together the world's leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into the celebrated composer. Although there is much historical research involved and use of Beethoven's biography and letters, with over 60 live performances the focus is very much on his music and some of the world's finest performers.
After the screening Phil, (who also produces the international series EXHIBITION ON SCREEN and also produced cinema films on Mozart, Haydn and Chopin) will take part in a Q+A where audience members will have the chance to chat to the director about his work.
Phil said: "I'm a huge believer in community cinema – it's partly why I make cinema films rather than TV documentaries. It will be a treat to chat to folk in Seaford".
The rest of the season is equally exciting with a diverse mix of films including award nominees and winners: Carol, starring Cate Blanchett, about the unexpected love affair between two women, Alan Bennett's hilarious Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith, politically charged Selma following Martin Luther King, Jr on his campaign for equal voting rights and the touching historical drama about Irish immigrants in Brooklyn.


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Q: Profiling tool on Linux showing size of parameters passed to invoked functions Can any of profiling (performance measure) tools on Linux (OProfile, perf events, HTC Toolkit) show call graph with size of parameters (data size) passed to function / procedure?
In other words I'd like to visualize data flow in a profiled application (best together with profile data, i.e. time spent in a function / subroutine).

Note: when arrays (vectors and matrices) are passed to subroutine / function, I am interested not only in size of pointer, but size of the whole data.

A: Beyond my skeptic remarks, I have a growing sense that you really want to have a metric that represents 'memory bandwidth', correlated to certain parts of your code.
I have a hunch that you might get mileage out of oprofile. oprof_start gui has a nice checklist of metrics
http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/docs/intel-p6-mobile-events.php
(NOTE: these are CPU dependent, see http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/docs/ or op_help for details on your CPU)
These seem interesting:
DATA_MEM_REFS    all memory references, cachable and non
L2_LD        number of L2 data loads
L2_ST        number of L2 data stores
perhaps some more, but I grew tired of reading things outside my area of expertise here

I think that perf superseeds(?) oprofile, and it certainly has the easier interface to do (sampling) call graph profiling but I guess that if you want access to actual CPU performance counter events, oprofile may still be the place to go


Or it could be measuring the hits on your website coming from cities where you've sent music to radio stations. If you're getting increased traffic (and hopefully newsletter sign-ups and/or music sales), chances are the radio campaign is working. Same for new likes on Facebook and new followers on Twitter. Looks at your stats and see where those people are from.
There can be a lot of ways to measure success with a radio campaign.


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Category Archives: Egypt
Not just branches – on the Syrian and Egyptian Brotherhoods
Posted on July 22, 2013 by hiddencities
The irony of these parallel accounts is that, with Egypt's current disorder and Lefèvre's analysis, which privileges the Brotherhood's early pragmatism and democratic participation over their violence in the 1970s and 1980s, the Syrian Brotherhood – long considered more radical – comes across as more of a political moderate than its Egyptian relative. Lefèvre insists that "today, there is little doubt left about the organisation's commitment to ideas and concepts such as democracy and political pluralism," even if it still remains doctrinally "embedded in the ideological substance of political Islam". Its internal history is far more contentious, and reflective of the broad social and political wounds of decades of single Baath Party rule, than is often framed. In Egypt, meanwhile, where the Brotherhood's history was never so violent, the group instead participated in what Wickham calls "a political process warped by authoritarian rule". That didn't liberalise the organisation so much as entrench hardliners who kept it as a closed coterie. Under Mubarak, the Brotherhood knew it couldn't reasonably hold power, so it was free to advocate democracy while leaving major doctrines and policies vague. But political power changed all that, and exposed their doublespeak. It ran a presidential candidate after pledging it wouldn't; it deflected criticisms with canards, and refused to admit mistakes.
Until the Syrian Brotherhood runs in elections and realises similar political aspirations, the organisation will be held up to its Egyptian counterparts and their penchant for saying one thing while pursuing only narrow group interests. The interviews Lefèvre cites give voice to his broad claims about the Syrian Brotherhood's newfound restraint and accommodations. But if the Egyptian Brotherhood has proven anything after Mubarak, and after Morsi, it is that its words are hardly sacrosanct. Exiled Syrian Brothers such as Attar or Salem, whether they want to be, will be associated with Khairat Al Shater, the Egyptian Brotherhood's senior strategist and chief financier, who told the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper last year: "There must be as much integration and cooperation as possible, with alliances and coalitions among the various political stakeholders … There is no possibility of a power monopoly. It simply is not part of our strategy or our culture."
Read the whole story, on the cover of The Review, at The National.
Posted in Egypt, Syria, Writing	| Leave a reply
Posted on June 29, 2013 by hiddencities
The Nile has no shortage of stories or storytellers, which might discourage most writers from undertaking "a biography of the world's greatest river". Not British travel writer and self-described adventurer Robert Twigger, who at the outset of his lively, zigzagging, often oddball tome, Red Nile: The Biography of the World's Greatest River, declares his goal "to uncover the best stories, in all their light and darkness, the stories red in tooth and claw, the more bizarre the better, the blood and the guts of this river which spills into history". If you're going to write another book about the Nile – a river whose chronicles begin with the Pharaohs and whose history, whether ancient or modern, is always being rehashed and reiterated – how else could you do it? To his credit, Twigger brings some self-restraint and humility to this epic, acknowledging he is less an original storyteller than a curator, collecting and rearranging tales and characters in order to say something new.
Twigger's Red Nile refers, initially, to the moment in early summer when, north of Khartoum, the sediment-rich Blue Nile, at the height of its flood, flows into the White Nile and clogs its clear waters, turning them briefly red. But this is only the most literal version of the Red Nile. As Twigger writes, "the stories that remain are always the most highly coloured, the most passion-filled or the most blood curdling. Naturally, their colour is red." Often he leans on the latter; among the most bloody stories retold is that of the Delta town of Mansoura, where in 1250, Baibars, Egypt's future Mamluk Sultan, slaughtered French Crusaders led by Louis IX, and their blood was said to clog the Nile south to the Mediterranean.
Read more at The National.
Posted in Egypt, Literature, Writing	| Leave a reply
Egypt's Conscience: The Genius of Sonallah Ibrahim
Posted on May 10, 2013 by hiddencities
From a prison camp in Egypt's western desert in 1963, a young dissident, Sonallah Ibrahim, recorded in his diaries that he "must write about Cairo after studying her neighborhood by neighborhood, her classes, her evolution." A year later he was out of prison, having served five years of a seven-year sentence for being a Communist. He smuggled his diaries back to Cairo by copying them onto cigarette rolling papers. But Egypt's capital was its own kind of prison, as the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser kept him under house arrest from dusk until dawn. He tried working on a novel of his childhood, but focused instead on a bleak, honest record of his days in a city browbeaten by Nasser's omnipresent police. "The new reality consumed me," Ibrahim later wrote, and so his work had to engage "the struggle against imperialism, the effort to build socialism, and all the difficulties these efforts brought in their train: terror, torture, prison, death, personal misery."
The outcome was his first novel, That Smell, published and quickly banned in 1966. Its nameless narrator is a recently released political prisoner and writer living under house arrest. He roams Cairo when he's not checking in with a police officer every night, visits old friends and family, smokes, spies on his neighbors, and otherwise fails at writing and sleeping with a prostitute. The book, devoid of much plot, captures the debilitating effects of police repression under Nasser, but also anticipates a mood of decline and looming disaster brought by Egypt's humiliating defeat in the 1967 war with Israel, followed by Nasser's death in 1970. State censors decried Ibrahim's portrait of a listless Egyptian society, singling out its few brief sexual scenes. At a Ministry of Information interrogation, a zealous officer demanded to know why Ibrahim's narrator fails to sleep with a prostitute. "Is the hero impotent?" he asked, taking more offense to the perceived insult to Egyptian masculinity and, it seems, national prowess, than to the book's portrayal of torture.
Read the rest at The Daily Beast.
Distance Resistance
Posted on March 14, 2013 by hiddencities
Arwa works out of a walk-up office in Heliopolis, near Cairo's international airport, amid the din of low-flying passenger jets overhead. The 27-year-old former state television producer, who declined to give his last name, left Damascus in late 2011 to avoid being drafted into the army. After months of inactivity in Egypt, he and another Syrian friend founded SouriaLi, an internet radio station focused not on news of the brutal government crackdown and uprising devastating his country, but Syrians' common history and culture (the name means "Syria is mine".)
"We try to remind people of our connections," said Arwa, his cigarette nearly done. "We're speaking about how to build our society, how we can live together tomorrow. Like Mahmoud Darwish wrote, 'we love life'."
The opening lines of that Darwish poem – "And we love life if we find a way to it. We dance in between martyrs and raise a minaret for violet or palm trees" – is an unlikely elegy for Syria today, where the death toll, according to the United Nations, exceeds 70,000. One million Syrians have fled abroad, most to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, bringing the realities of war across a region that has known too many refugee crises.
The trauma of displacement is often captured in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to some 146,000 people, or similarly squalid camps in the mountains and valleys of Lebanon and Turkey. Cairo has no refugee camps. But new Syrian communities, displaced by war, have formed in its urban sprawl, from the city centre to the desert satellites, just like the Sudanese and Iraqi ones before them. For many young Syrians who joined the earliest protests against Assad and then were forced to flee, Egypt's capital has become both an activist base and a refuge.
Read the rest at The National. To read the piece as it appeared in print in The Review, click here. And check out more of Bridgette Auger's great photographs here.
The Revolution Added Two Years: On Cairo
Posted on January 4, 2013 by hiddencities
I have a long reported essay in the new issue of The Nation on the neoliberal urban development schemes of the Mubarak regime, which have found new life under the government of Mohamed Morsi and the increased political role of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the magazine the story is running with two of my photos; I put some others in this post. Here is the opening:
In Cairo, there is a street named after the Arab League. It's a grand boulevard that cuts through Mohandiseen, a neighborhood built in the 1950s to house engineers and other civil servants, whose ranks swelled during the 1960s with the guarantee of employment under the state socialism of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. These days, the boulevard is lined with luxury car showrooms, drab mid-rises and fast-food chains, all forming the commercial spine of an upscale area too expensive for most clerks and bureaucrats. Last December, on one of the quiet streets that radiates off the boulevard, I visited the office of an architect named Dina Shehayeb. A professor at the Housing and Building National Research Center in Cairo, Shehayeb also runs her own firm, which focuses on community-based development and the revitalization of historic areas. The deadly street battles of late November between the police and unarmed protesters on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square had ended, and the attacks on protesters by military police outside the People's Assembly near Tahrir were a week away. Cairo was relatively calm. But in her office, Shehayeb spoke heatedly of a city transformed during the reign of the recently deposed president, Hosni Mubarak.
"We had thirty years of the government pushing us to informality," she said, alluding to Cairo's vast "informal" areas: dense urban districts built without official planning or permits, often in cheap red brick and concrete on agricultural land that once formed the Nile's flood plain. Some two-thirds of Cairenes live in informal areas, the urban reality in a country where the government has never provided enough housing; during Mubarak's three decades of power in Egypt, state assets and land were sold off in a costly dream of turning Cairo's desert outskirts into satellite cities and gated suburbs. But Shehayeb was also talking about Mohandiseen, where someone with money and connections can skirt lax planning guidelines and build a tower on a street of low-rise buildings. "It was governance by informality, articulated and made ambiguous on purpose," she said. "Things were always done with vagueness, uncertainty and contradiction."
Read the rest at The Nation.
Posted in Egypt, Writing	| Leave a reply
Revising the history of Egypt's regime
Posted on December 16, 2012 by hiddencities
I have a review in The National on Hazem Kandil's new revisionist history of Egypt's post-1952 regime, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt. The book explains Egypt's evolution from a military to a police state from Nasser through Mubarak, and the internal rivalries over decades between the military, the various branches of police and security services, and the political apparatus. Kandil argues that this history explains the military's quick support for the millions of Egyptians in the streets calling for Mubarak's end and the fall of the regime (hardly realized yet). Here's the opening:
In October 1972 Anwar Sadat met with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) to discuss plans to retake the Israeli-occupied Sinai. The generals suspected Sadat was planning a limited war – to cross the Suez Canal and then dig in – rather than advance to retake the strategic Gidi and Mitla passes. The deputy war minister objected; it would be a military disaster. When he pressed his point, Sadat erupted, according to the minutes cited by Hazem Kandil in Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt. "Make one more objection, and you will be asked to stay home," Egypt's president shouted. "Learn your place! You are a soldier, not a politician."
Days later, Sadat dismissed those opposing Scaf members and purged a hundred other high-ranking officers. Sadat called the military council "a group of childish pupils, [composed of] a deceived leftist, an ailing psychopath, a mercenary, a traitor to Egypt, a conspirator."
This is hardly the lofty rhetoric used to describe Egypt's military, especially by a president who was among the Free Officers that seized power in 1952. But it illustrates the complexities and internal rivalries of the Egyptian regime that are the subject of Kandil's bold, revisionist history, which disputes the "misguided belief that the Egyptian regime has maintained its military character." To Kandil the regime is not a monolith but "an amalgam of institutions" – the military, the police and security services, and the political leadership – "each with its own power-maximising agendas".
Egyptorama, or desert highways
"A lonely door built in the middle of the desert, a forest of lampposts, a mosque shaped like a spaceship; emptiness turns brutally into strangeness, creating a tension between people and their environment. This is Egyptorama—a road trip that leads nowhere."
Stark photos by Julian Chatelin on Guernica that capture the Egyptian military's role in the transformation of the country's physical (and political) landscape. Abandoned tracts of desert are either unused military installations or, more often on the fringes of Cairo, state-military land sold to speculators close to the regime, to build an unsustainable and largely unrealized suburban dream in the desert. Via Arabist.
Posted in Egypt, Photos	| Leave a reply
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Hercules And Love Affair have already teased us with their new single, Do You Feel The Same? but it's not released until April. Rather than make us sit and wait for it, and the album it's taken from; the forthcoming The Feast Of The Broken Heart. Andy Butler are furnishing us with this brand new free track. This is Be With You.
Acid Disco is still the order of the day with Hercules And Love Affair. Be With You has been kicking around the internet for a while now, but you can grab the full quality track now and revel in it's undulating synth hooks and deep groove. Chicago beats and a moody soulful vocal dominate a tune that will have your head nodding all night.