It has been a busy two weeks since the last school board meeting. There's been a real focus on student housing (i.e. seats for students in classrooms). The school board and district have been working on this issue since last November when they received a demographic and facilities study. In April (agenda and packet) and June (agenda and packet) there were two study sessions to discuss the various options for dealing with our overcrowded schools.

In the last two weeks there has been significant progress in two ways.

1. The city council and school board had a joint meeting on October 1 completely devoted to the impacts developers have on student housing. The joint report presented by staff was particularly useful.
2. The district conducted two community meetings in the Mission attendance area (one for Chadborne Elementary and one for Mission Valley Elementary).

I attended the joint meeting and the Chadboarne meeting and both were extremely informative. While there were no decisions made, these events are critical as they have educated and opened the lines of communication between everyone. I will blog more about these student housing issues in the future.

On a personal note, I started a new job on Monday. I now work as an Engineering Director at Digital Fountain a Fremont start up company. A little blurb about the company:

After a decade of innovative technology development yielding over 100 patents, our software solutions are now being deployed around the world by the leading standards bodies and major content providers from Hollywood and the Internet. Early next year, we'll add the world's first instant-on TV-quality CDN to our offerings, fundamentally changing the way the world watches online video.

I'm working on the CDN project. We're also hiring, so if you're interested let me know!

Tags: Schools, Student Housing, Personal

I have been involved with Fremont school issues since 1992 and was a student in Fremont schools since 1979.  Here are some of my accomplishments.

• Advisory Commission on Instructional Equity (2007 to present)
• Board of Education Trustee (2006)
• Financial Advisory Committee (2003 – 2006) – Served as Chairperson in 2005.  Advised the district on $9 million in budget cuts in 2003.  I worked to develop the district’s User Friendly Budget.
• FUSD Educational Facilities Financing Corporation (2004 – present) – As president of the board of directors, I signed the $18 million loan required to build the new MVROP facility at Kennedy High School.  The loan is to be repaid from the sale of the Liaola site.
• Superintendent’s Technology Advisory Group (2005 – present) – A joint effort by staff and the community to establish a FUSD technology vision and technology advisory committee.
• School Services State Budget Workshop (May 2005) – As FAC chair I was invited to attend the May Revise workshop.
• Technology Task Force (2003-2004) – Member of this superintendent-created 6-month task force
• Citizen’s Facilities Committee (1998-99)
• Graduate of Fremont schools – Washington High School, 1992
• FUSD Student Board Member (1991-1992) – Served on the board during the 1991 Measure A bond and the approximately $5 million in budget cuts.

Tags: Bryan, Schools, School Board