Campaign Blog

How to Support Measure B, the School Facilities Bond

Citizens for San Leandro Schools will hold an informational meeting on Monday, September 11, 2006, at 6:30pm at its campaign headquarters at 14895 E. 14th Street, Suite 270 in San Leandro. Block walks are scheduled for October 7 and November 4.

The following dates are scheduled for phone banking:

September 18, 19, 25, 26, 27
October 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 24, 25, 26, 30
November 1, 6 and 7

Opening of New Metal Shop at San Leandro High School

San Leandro High School celebrated the opening of its new metal shop on Friday, August 25, 2006. With a donation of $2,000 from the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA) and $75,000 authorized by the School Board, the metal shop was renovated and new equipment was purchased.

After an introduction by Superintendent Christine Lim and a brief history from Assistant Principal Linda Granger, a red ribbon was ceremoniously cut to open the new shop. On hand were School Board Trustees Stephen Cassidy, Ray Davis, Linda Perry, and Rick Richards, Couty School Board member Felix Elizalde, Assistant Superintendent Leon Glaster, San Leandro High Principal Amy Furtado, local politicians Ellen Corbett, Alice Lai-Bitker, and San Leandro City Council members Tony Santos and OB Badger.

According to Principal Amy Furtado, 190 students signed up for metal shop classes, but only half of those students can be accomodated. The new metal shop teacher is Dion D'Amico.

Vocational education is critical to the success of many students. Students enrolled in vocational classes perform better academically and our schools need to ensure that our students have vocational education opportunities in other areas as well. I'll work with our local business community to find additional ways that students can receive vocational training while providing skilled and educated employees for local businesses.

Louis Heystek endorses Mike

Louis Heystek, the current School Board Trustee for Area 4, has endorsed Mike. Louis was elected to his position soon after his graduation from High School and served two terms. He is retiring to spend more time with his family.

Stephen Cassidy endorses Mike

San Leandro Shool Board Trustee At-Large Stephen Cassidy has endorsed Mike. Mike answered a questionnaire from Stephen (parts of which we'll post to the website soon) and met with him on several occasions before securing his endorsement. Mike is proud of getting Stephen's endorsement and looks forward to working with him and other School Board members once he's elected.

Isobel Dvorsky endorses Mike

Isobel Dvorsky, a Trustee at Chabot-Las Positas Community College District for over 20 years, has endorsed Mike. Ms. Dvorsky has served as representative on the board of directors of the American Association of Community Colleges, as national president of the Association of Community College Trustees, and as the president of the California Community College Trustees Association and the Community College League of California. Her local affiliations include serving as board member of the Davis Street Community Center and board member of the San Leandro Scholarship Foundation both located in San Leandro. A former speech therapist, Mrs. Dvorsky's roots are in education. A tireless advocate for students, she has been recognized numerous times for her dedication to community colleges.

Santos endorses Mike

Tony Santos, the San Leandro City Council Member for District 6 and current candidate for Mayor, has endorsed Mike!

Let's keep those endorsements coming.

Labor endorses Mike!

The Central Labor Council of Alameda County, AFL-CIO has endorsed Mike! Mike appeared before the council a couple of weeks ago and we are very honored that they have chosen to endorse him. Mike strongly believes on a living wage, project-labor agreements and the rights of teachers and teachers' unions to make their political views known.

Do you want to work on the campaign?

We have now set up a mailing list for campaign staff and volunteers. If you are willing to help us strategize, write and/or edit campaign literature, help stage a fundraiser or community meeting, want to phone bank, walk precincts or just want to help in general, please come and join! E-mail us at info@electmikekatz.com.

First check

Today we got our first mailed campaign contribution. We'd gotten other checks at the kick-off party, but it's nice to know that at least some people (well, one person) who didn't bring their checkbooks to the party are starting to send their contributions to the campaign.

Kickoff Party

Last Thursday Mike had his kickoff party at Zocalo. All in all it was a success. We had somewhere between 2 and 3 dozen people show up, including our State Senator-to-be Ellen Corbett - who had said some very nice things about Mike at her own victory party a week before. Mike got to talk some new supporters, we collected some money and kicked off the campaign.

The real work starts now, we need to do several fundraisers as Mike's principal opponent is likely to be very well funded. We also need to do a lot of get-to-know your candidate coffees, knocking on doors and phone calling. And Mike still needs to meet with lots of other stakeholders and get their ideas on how to make our schools better.

But he's really excited and very enthusiastic not only about getting into the school board and what he can do to improve our schools, but about the whole learning process that running the campaign will entail.

A blog starts

I blog a lot, so it makes sense to blog about Mike's campaign for School Board. And while I have a zillion blogs *, none of them seemed appropriate for my musings about what it's like to be involved in a campaign. This is a first for me. I've always voted, always tried to be involved, but I have never actually worked in a campaign at any level. I always felt uncomfortable about taking a party line, while remaining an impartial human rights activist. Of course, the Bush administration convinced me of the folly of that position.

And of course, supporting my husband for school board is considerably different than supporting a presidential candidate whom I don't trust in the first place. Still, I think my role in Mike's campaign will be. I don't have the time to give to the campaign without sacrificing my own work, my own issues and my own family (and with Mike gone campaigning, our family will be under stress anyway), and I've discovered in the past that Mike and I work best when we do complimentary tasks and give each other plenty of discretion to do our assigned ones.

I think that until we hire a campaign manager, my role on the campaign will be as coordinator and official nagger - making sure everything that has to get done gets done. We'll see - you and I - how this develops.

Marga

* For the record these are Vox Publica, San Leandro Bytes, Marga's Food Blog, The Human Rights Blog, USA Watch, Derechos Blog, Human Rights Listings, Desaparecidos Blog, Anuncios de Derechos Humanos and Mika & Camila's picture diary, plus two semi-secret blogs about particular issues (more like a repository of news for me) and two "dead" blogs about our trips to Argentina.