palo vol. xxviii, number 1 • wednesday, october 11, 2006 alto · 2006-10-11 · vol. xxviii,...

Vol. XXVIII, Number 1 • Wednesday, October 11, 2006 ■ 50¢

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■ Business KiteShip sails toward a green future 3■ Sports Three schools achieve top marks in prep football Page 29■ Health & Fitness Promoting a 'culture of fi tness' Section 2

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Meltdown of trust alleged in

Palo Alto schoolsPAGE 3

• Wednesday, October 11, 2006 • Palo Alto Weekly

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Four board members contacted by the Weekly — President Mandy Lowell, Gail Price, Barb Mitchell and Dana Tom — admitted such a move could be helpful.

Board member Camille Townsend could not be reached for comment.

“(Hearing that) I’m supportive of using third-party facilitators as a top-down mandate through the

media does not forge healthy rela-tionships,” Lowell said. “It would be far more helpful to discuss (that) with employees rather than with the newspaper.”

Lowell admitted she does think having an outsider help facilitate the dispute could help the board determine whether the district’s is-sues are “coachable” or if the indi-

viduals involved are incompatible. “I trust the process to surface

issues and ultimately determine whether we can have healthy rela-tionships ... You can’t allow prob-lems to fester,” Lowell said.

The apparent need for outside help stems from a reported lack of trust between district managers and top-level administrators, including

Superintendent Mary Frances Cal-lan.

The issue reached a boiling point after a document that strongly criti-cized Callan and her senior cabinet was leaked to the Weekly. The re-sulting furor has put everyone in-volved on edge.

The board met in a closed session

Palo Alto Weekly • Wednesday, October 11, 2006 •

UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis

Photo Illustration: Nicholas W

right

(continued on page 7)

by Becky Trout

An outside facilitator may be hired to address communication and remuneration issues plaguing the district’s leaders, as school board members and district middle managers have stated their general sup-

port of the concept.

SCHOOLS

General support in district for third-party facilitator Both sides say outsider could help negotiate issues regarding trust

SCHOOLS

Howcontroversy

unfoldedThe following timeline is intend-

ed to help clarify key dates and oc-currences.

● December 2005 — Meetings begin with Human Resources Director Scott Bowers and this year’s “management team” repre-sentatives — known as the “group of eight” or the Meet and Confer (M&C) Group and representing about 48 principals, assistant prin-cipals, program coordinators or di-rectors and school psychologists.

● June 22, 2006 — Meeting with Bowers and M&C Group at which issues of trust and, to an extent, compensation are raised verbally, resulting in a list compiled by Bow-ers of more than a dozen items.

● July 10 — Bowers presents list from June 22 meeting to district se-nior cabinet, consisting of himself, Superintendent Mary Frances Cal-lan, Business Manager Jerry Ma-tranga and Marilyn Cook, associ-ate superintendent for curriculum and instruction. The senior cabinet begins generating responses to specific items.

● Aug. 4 — Bowers meets with M&C Group to clarify some of the topics.

● Aug. 29 — The list is presented to the PAUSD Board of Education in closed session, and board mem-bers request Bowers go back to the M&C Group and ask for the issues to be prioritized.

● Aug. 31 — Third meeting be-tween Bowers and M&C Group, attended by Callan, and a written document is presented to the M&C Group with possible solutions or approaches to the issues raised.

● Sept. 5 — Members of the management team meet to consid-er the board’s request to prioritize the items of concern, and establish priorities that lead off with “trust” followed by “professional environ-ment and practices” and “salary and benefits.”

● Sept. 6 — M&C Group mem-bers present “PAUSD Manage-ment Team Priorities” document to

Principal’s departure mirrors

controversyJoe Di Salvo tells Weekly why he left JLS Middle School under a cloud of

mysteryby Alexandria Rocha

Joe Di Salvo, the former princi-pal of Palo Alto’s Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School who

resigned under mysterious cir-cumstances last year, has broken his silence.

Still visibly shaken by the events that led to his departure in 2005, Di Salvo said his situation has parallels to the current controver-sies engulfing the Palo Alto Uni-fied School District. He presently is principal at a middle school in Gilroy.

“Lies and mistruths can never be part of a healthy organization,” Di Salvo said.

He said a concern for his own safety led to an investigation that spiraled out of control and resulted in the district’s attorney recom-mending that Di Salvo resign, based on reports that staff at JLS felt intimidated by him.

Members of the district’s man-agement team — which consists of principals, assistant principals and district office coordinators — have recently raised concerns regarding alleged unfair treatment from Superintendent Mary Fran-ces Callan and her senior cabinet. The team has indicated it plans to form an independent association or affiliate with a union — with the association the first choice in the near term.

Di Salvo called the Palo Alto district “very sick.”

Di Salvo’s settlement with the district originally prohibited him from talking about the events that led up to his departure. But in an interview last week he said there are no longer any restrictions and

(continued on page 7) (continued on page 7)

COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

IN THE PALO ALTO SCHOOL DISTRICT

"Lies and mistruct can never be part of a healthly organization"

—Joe De Salvoformer JLS Principal


OurTown

by Don Kazak

Understanding terrorism

T he images of terrorism are in newspapers and on TV al-most every day — horrible

images of the aftermath of terror-ists blowing themselves up to kill Americans and others in Iraq, Is-rael and other countries.

And the images of the World Trade Center towers, damaged and smoking before they collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, are still with us.

Those images are what Jim Breckenridge thinks about, but in a different way from the rest of us.

Breckenridge is a Palo Alto psy-chologist who teaches at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology in Palo Alto and at the Center for Homeland Security at the Naval Post-Graduate Center in Monterey. He also is a consulting professor at Stanford University.

He is one of 20 academics who spent most three weeks in July at a classified location outside Boston at the invitation of the Director of National Intelligence, thinking and talking about terrorism with govern-ment intelligence analysts. Much of the work at the summer conference is classified and Breckenridge could only talk about it obliquely.

The government analysts really listened to the professors, he said.

“What we’re interested in, and I am deeply interested in, is the un-derlying psychology in human be-ings that makes political violence a viable strategy,” he said.

“There are psychological process-es that make apparently ordinary people engage in pretty bad practic-es. We’ve seen that in Rwanda and other places, and that’s something our group is very active in trying to study.”

The work of the July gathering of professors is continuing, with a exchange of white papers and e-mails. “We are in electronic touch with each other, and there will be future meetings.”

There is a key to defeating terror-ists, but it’s not through guns and bombs, he said.

Terrorism works because it cre-ates fear, often disproportionate to the actual risk. He explained that in the year after 9/11, many people were afraid to fly and the country had 1,500 more traffic deaths than the year before.

“That’s half (the number of) peo-ple who died in the original (9/11) attack,” he said.

People were afraid to fly even

though flying is statistically much safer than driving.

“The psychology that underlies this is something the bad guys are trying to exploit,” he said.

The threat of terrorism “makes us over-afraid and disproportionately fearful, where we feel a sense of risk and vulnerability that is in ex-cess of the probability of it actually happening,” he said.

The way to make terrorism less effective is to be more resilient and less fearful. The Israelis have prac-ticed that by cleaning up a bombed restaurant within hours and then having volunteers go in to eat din-ner.

“And that was the great thing about the Israeli example,” he said. “They were saying this is horrible but it will not deter us.”

Americans have learned resiliency in other ways, he said. People who live in Florida or the Gulf Coast live with the threat of hurricanes, while people in the Bay Area live with the threat of earthquakes.

“We don’t like it, it hurts us, but we feel resilient enough that we don’t believe that it is going to de-stroy our society,” he said.

People need to think the same way about the threat of terrorist at-tacks, he said.

“If you want people to become resilient, you have to give them a place in things, give them a role to play that is significant,” Brecken-ridge said. ‘If you say, ‘We’ll pro-tect you,’ that’s not giving them an active place, and not just in the war on terrorism or in Iraq or Afghani-stan.” Most Americans aren’t very aware that their country is at war and people are dying, he added.

In the meantime, Breckenridge is also concerned that the situation has been oversimplified to “a homog-enous Islamic bad guy that is out to get us” when the reality is much more complex.

“There are some groups that are motivated by a hatred of the United States and then there are others that hate the United States but are motivated by local conditions,” he said. “There are highly secular groups that will often use religious justification but are very secularly motivated.”

It is, after all, a complex world.■Senior Staff Writer Don Ka-

zak can be e-mailed at [email protected].

INDEXPulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

PUBLISHERWilliam S. Johnson

EDITORIALJay Thorwaldson, EditorMarc Burkhardt, Managing EditorJocelyn Dong, Associate EditorAllen Clapp, Carol Blitzer, Assistant EditorsKeith Peters, Sports EditorRick Eymer, Assistant Sports EditorRebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment EditorDon Kazak, Senior Staff WriterAlexandria Rocha, Molly Tanenbaum, Becky Trout, Staff WritersNorbert von der Groeben, Chief PhotographerNicholas Wright, Staff Photographer Adam Heyman, Photo InternTyler Hanley, Assistant to the Editor &Online EditorSue Dremann, Staff Writer, Special SectionsCammie Farmer, Calendar EditorJeanne Aufmuth, Dale Bentson,Lynn Comeskey, Tim Goode, Jill Slater, Susan Tavernetti, Robert Taylor, Contributors Dan Shilstone, Editorial InternJulie Park, Arts & Entertainment Intern

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The Palo Alto Weekly (ISSN 0199-1159) is published every Wednesday and Friday by Embarcadero Publishing Co., 703 High St., Palo Alto, CA 94302, (650) 326-8210. Periodicals post-age paid at Palo Alto, CA and additional mailing offices. Adjudicated a newspaper of general circu-lation for Santa Clara County. The Palo Alto Weekly is delivered free to homes in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, to faculty and staff households on the Stanford campus and to portions of Los Altos Hills. If you are not cur-rently receiving the paper, you may request free delivery by calling 326-8210. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Copyright ©2003 by Embarcadero Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohib-ited. Printed by SFOP, Redwood City. The Palo Alto Weekly is available on the Internet via Palo Alto Online at: http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com

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Upfront

T he only mortuary in Palo Alto will soon have some competi-tion — from the city’s only

cemetery.Following suit with other Bay

Area cemeteries, Alta Mesa Me-morial Park intends to add a mor-tuary to its Arastradero Road site. The cemetery also plans to replace its 102-year-old administrative building.

“It’s what the times are going towards,” said Marilyn Talbot, general manager at Alta Mesa, “so families don’t have to go to sepa-rate facilities.”

The new building, designed by Woodson/Barksdale Architects of Los Altos, would be triple the size of the current building — going from 4,300 square feet to 12,400 square feet. The first floor would have complete funeral-home ser-vices: a 120-person chapel, four arrangement rooms, three visita-tion rooms, a selection room and a prep room. The chapel will be twice the size of the other exist-ing chapel, which is connected to a mausoleum.

Alta Mesa’s staff of 23 employ-ees, which Talbot said are current-ly “cramped,” will be in a larger space on the second floor.

“The building is in a great state of disrepair, and it’s an inadequate size for their staff and needs,” ar-chitect John Barksdale said.

Part of the impetus for expand-ing the administrative building comes from an increase Talbot has observed in how much fami-lies want to be involved in mak-ing arrangements for the recently deceased. More families have been coming in larger groups to prepare for funerals, and the 71-acre cem-etery’s small office has trouble ac-commodating them.

“This was probably fine 30 years ago but now it isn’t,” she said.

The 102-year-old California mission-style building originally served as a chapel and has had seven additions already. Besides a lack of space for staff and families, other problems include a poor-air conditioning system and termites, Talbot said.

Roller Hapgood and Tinney, currently the city’s only mortuary, does the majority of its burials either at Alta Mesa and Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, which is also adding a mortuary to its grounds.

“I don’t think Alta Mesa has a choice but to do that because most cemeteries are. I suspect that even-tually it will take some business away from us,” said owner Debbie Hapgood.

But she thinks Roller Hapgood’s long history in the community will help maintain her customer base.

“Our business has been around since 1899. A lot of people know us and have come here before,”

Hapgood said. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

Barksdale’s preliminary plans for Alta Mesa’s new administrative and mortuary building met with criticism from Palo Alto’s Archi-tectural Review Board last week.

His design attempts to carry on the early California mission style of the current building with cream stucco walls and a clay-tiled roof.

“The thing about cemeteries is that change is not necessarily good. People come regularly to visit and they don’t like to see new things happening,” said Barksdale, who has worked with Alta Mesa since 1985 and designed one of the mausoleums there.

But Architectural Review Board members thought his design fell short of achieving a sense of time-lessness.

“The severe and monolithic ex-terior is fighting with your stated desires and intentions. I would fol-low your heart and fix that,” Board member Judith Wasserman said.

But the Architectural Review Board was most critical of Barks-dale’s spare use of windows in the back of the building and in the visitation rooms — windows he says were intentionally left out to give more privacy to the mortuary activities.

“You can’t have windows in these visitation rooms. It would have to be protected,” he said. “You never want to see a body by surprise in a facility like this.”

The Architectural Review Board did not accept this rationale for eliminating windows — and natural light — from the private rooms.

“Both the architect and the cli-ent have the idea that if there’s a window, you need to be able to see into it,” said Board Member David Solnick. “That’s not true.”

He and other board members added that there are various ways to add elements of privacy to rooms with windows, including us-ing translucent glass and window treatments.

Board Chair Kenneth Kornberg, at the final meeting of his end-ing term on the board, challenged Barksdale to design something that could withstand the test of time.

“Cemeteries are the best markers of time that you’ll find. They’re in-spiring,” said Kornberg, who said he likes visiting cemeteries when he travels because of their cultural significance.

“I’m worrying about this build-ing,” he said. “I think it’ll give us a false sense of time for Palo Alto and this region. It doesn’t have to be ex-pensive; it doesn’t have to be elabo-rate; it just has to be honest.” ■ Staff Writer Molly Tanenbaum can be e-mailed [email protected].

PALO ALTO

Improving service in a place where time stands still

Alta Mesa cemetery makes bid to add mortuaryby Molly Tanenbaum

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Upfront

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Around Town

—Mandy Lowell, school board president, on reported issues between middle management and top district administrators. See story, page 3.

You can’t allow problems to fester.‘‘‘‘

SLAM DUNK ... It won’t be dif-ficult to pick new members for the city’s Architectural Review Board. Last week, applicant Kenneth Huo took himself out of the running, leaving three can-didates for three open seats. “I need to say that they look awful-ly disappointed,” joked Council-woman Dena Mossar on Tues-day night when the City Council decided to forgo interviews with the remaining three candidates. Judith Wasserman and David Solnick will stay on for ad-ditional three-year terms, and Heather Trossman will replace chair Kenneth Kornberg. Huo, an architect from Foster City, e-mailed the city clerk last Fri-day explaining why he changed his mind about the ARB, citing the early morning meetings as problematic for his schedule: “The twice a month meetings to be held on every other Thursday morning 8 AM routinely will be posting a difficulty for my cur-rent job function, and office time frame,” he wrote.

PEOPLE TAKE PICTURES OF EACH OTHER ... Nearly 1,500 old photographs of Palo Alto are now available on the historical association’s Web site at www.pahistory.org. Check old how “El Palo Alto” looked in 1890, Addison School’s appearance in 1930, or see the harbor from the sky in 1943. There are also fetching photos of Weekly Pub-lisher Bill Johnson in 1990 and Police Chief Lynne Johnson, when she was a captain in 1988.

DOUBLE DIPPING ... The city is researching ways to nearly double its use of recycled water,

which has been used, treated and subsequently considered safe for irrigation. It is still ex-pensive—$1,959 per acre-foot (about 326,000 gallons) com-pared to the $531 per acre-foot the city pays for water from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. However, the cost of water is expected to triple within the next eight years. The golf course, Greer Park and the wastewater treatment plant already use recycled water. The staff study may go to the City Council in coming months.

CARS, CARS, CARS ... Last week, General Motors an-nounced plans to build an auto park in east Menlo Park. Of course, Palo Alto has long dis-cussed the possibility of building its own center — a fact that did not escape participants in Palo-AltoOnline.com’s Town Squareforum. One poster, “ToldUSo,” stated “This city is losing out to its neighbours all the time. It is about time we sat up and asked ourselves the question, when will we move ahead and join 21st century marketing and shopping trends?” Others took the opportunity to criticize city staff, stating Palo Alto needs a new city manager. Of course, there’s always two sides to an argument. One poster, who used the handle “resident,” said. “At a personal level, I would prefer that the cradle of Silicon Valley, home of the brain trust at Stanford, find its tax revenue dollars by hosting innovative industries rather than rely on car sales.” To contribute to an exist-ing Town Square discussion or start your own topic, go to Palo-AltoOnline.com.

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CorrectionThe obituary for Richard Rockhold in the Wednesday, Oct. 4 edition, contained incorrect information. His widow, Louise, is a resident of Menlo Park, not Palo Alto, and the Lu Watters Jazz Band was one of his favorite San Francisco jazz bands. To request a clarification or correction, call Marc Burkhardt, managing editor, at (650) 326-8210, or write to P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto 94302.


Upfront

Callan and Bowers, who ask for additional specifics relating to the “trust” priority. Another meeting is scheduled for Sept. 13, but can-celed on Sept. 8 when a member of the M&C Group calls Bowers with a request to postpone pend-ing a meeting of the full manage-ment team relating to questions as to whether the Sept. 6 document reflects the views of the team members overall. The document is circulated to Board of Education members that week after a member is informed of its existence by a parent.

● Sept. 25 — Management team members meet to consider the document and whether to form an association or affiliate with a labor union. A vote of 25 persons present results in a unanimous agreement to form an independent association, at least in the short term, although some members favor a union affiliation. Accord-ing to reports, an e-mail sent out to all management-team members results in e-mail agreement on the association issue from another 11 members.

● Sept. 27-28 — Weekly obtains copy of Sept. 6 document and be-gins asking for comment.

● Thursday, Sept. 28 — Callan calls mandatory 4 p.m. meeting of full management team, in which senior cabinet members express anger about the document and that it was “leaked.” The issue of an ap-

propriate response from the man-agement team is discussed, and the group agrees to reconvene the next day at 1 p.m.

● Friday, Sept. 29 — About 30 members of management team meet to discuss an alternative let-ter expressing disagreement with the Sept. 6 document and voicing support and respect for the senior cabinet. After asking Callan, who reportedly had been invited to the meeting, to leave, the members there agree after a lengthy dis-cussion to set the letter aside due to a lack of consensus. Some feel that “dirty laundry” should not be aired in public, and there is con-cern about implications of some signing and others not.

● Sept. 29 — A special meeting of the school board is set for 7 a.m. Sunday morning, but is canceled on Saturday in favor of a special meeting set for 6 p.m. Tuesday.

● Tuesday, Oct. 3 — Board of Education meets to consider the issues raised and adjourns into closed negotiations session for more than 4 1/2 hours.

● Tuesday, Oct. 10 — Board schedules closed session as part of regular meeting and sets special meeting for Wednesday night to consider two cases of student ex-pulsions and possibly to consider any response from the manage-ment-team representatives relating to how to proceed from this point.

● Oct. 26 — Management team meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. ■

—Jay Thorwaldson

has shared related documents with the Weekly.

The trouble began in spring 2005 when Di Salvo and a JLS teacher disagreed over whether a first-year educator should be retained at JLS for a second year.

Di Salvo thought the educator in question deserved a second year, while the teacher did not. Di Salvo brought the issue to Marilyn Cook, then assistant superintendent of human resources.

Cook said that as the school’s principal, the decision belonged to Di Salvo.

In May 2005, Di Salvo stood in a hallway at JLS with another district employee when the same teacher walked by and gave Di Salvo a “prolonged threatening stare,” he said.

Di Salvo felt that his personal safety had been threatened. He asked Cook to look into this con-cern.

Just three days later, he received a raving verbal evaluation for 2004-’05 from Callan and Cook. They said it was his best year yet and commended him for moving the school in a positive direction, he said. Di Salvo had been princi-pal of JLS for three years.

But at the end of the evaluation, Di Salvo said Callan told him he was “too macho.”

Di Salvo said he was taken aback by the comment and wasn’t sure what it meant.

About a week later, Di Salvo re-ceived an e-mail from Cook, now associate superintendent of educa-tional services, saying she checked into his safety concern.

“I spoke with (the witness) about your ‘incident’ of the angry look,” Cook wrote in the e-mail. “She said her back was turned and she did not see the teacher’s face.”

An astonished Di Salvo followed up with the witness, who told him

she had not spoken to Cook. Di Salvo asked the witness to write what she saw in an e-mail.

“It was a glare of unmistak-able hostility,” the witness wrote. “She was squinting and appeared incredibly frustrated, mad and de-termined to get that across to you. ... I hadn’t ever seen someone in a professional situation, with one’s face, be so overtly unprofession-ally hostile in a public setting.”

Di Salvo called an emergency meeting with Callan the same day he received Cook’s e-mail. Callan then told Di Salvo she was going to launch a full investigation into the safety concern, he said.

Louis Lozano, affiliated with the firm of Lozano and Smith in Monterey, was hired to conduct the inquiry.

“I spoke to numerous people. I would say more than 10 and less than 20. The district takes allega-tions of personal safety very seri-ously,” Lozano told the Weekly. “In the end, I didn’t find any cred-ible evidence that there was any threat.”

However, Lozano apparently found staff concerns with Di Sal-vo’s leadership.

A letter Lozano sent to Di Sal-vo’s attorney in Aug. 2005 stated that the “majority of the staff” at JLS did not trust Di Salvo’s lead-ership, which was described as “heavily top down.”

Di Salvo said Lozano inter-viewed 12 teachers over a two-day period. There are about 60 teach-ers at JLS.

In the letter, Lozano said Di Salvo sent “inconsistent and con-fusing messages” to the staff.

“One example of this is his statement in a faculty meeting that the district was planning to move away from the instructional supervisor model,” Lozano wrote. Instructional supervisors are se-nior teachers at secondary schools who assist and help evaluate other teachers.

Lozano also wrote that Di Salvo did not consult with teachers about using a grant for science education to install a sink in the industrial tech classroom.

Lozano cited allegations about Di Salvo making statements in fac-ulty meetings to the effect of, “You are either with me or against me,” “I reward loyalty,” and “I wish I had the power of a professional football coach where I could hire and fire members of the team.”

He concluded the letter with “op-tions” for Di Salvo’s resignation.

“I am prepared to recommend to the board that the district pay Mr. Di Salvo six months of salary and benefits in exchange for his resig-nation from the district,” Lozano wrote. They settled on one year.

On Monday, Lozano told the Weekly that Di Salvo was not ter-minated.

“He resigned,” Lozano said. When asked to comment on the

Aug. 2005 letter, he said: “I don’t have a recollection of the letter so I don’t know what it said.”

Callan deferred questions about Di Salvo to Lozano, saying in an e-mail to the Weekly that “this is a personnel issue and it is not appro-priate for me to comment on it.”

The settlement between Di Salvo and the district, reached in Oct. 2005, states there was a dis-pute over whether the district had “adequate or any cause to remove” Di Salvo from his position.

He was put on “special assign-ment” for 2005-06 and was to of-ficially resign June 30.

Although Di Salvo said he is happy in his new position, he said the accusations in Lozano’s letter, which Di Salvo said were untrue, remain hurtful.

“They never asked my side of the story or my view, and I felt I was a very good employee,” he said. ■Staff Writer Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Oct. 3 to provide direction to Scott Bowers, assistant superintendent of human resources. School board meetings were scheduled Tuesday and tonight as the Weekly went to press.

Given the current climate, Tom said hiring a facilitator is “some-thing that could be considered.”

“(These are) some significant is-sues that have been raised. It will take effort to find the best way to proceed... it’s going to take strong teamwork,” Tom said.

The worst thing the board could do, Mitchell said, is rush to conclu-sions.

“Our immediate need is to get information,” Mitchell said.

“We want to resolve these issues

... in a way that’s fair and deliberate and unbiased,” Price said.

For their part, two principals who are part of the middle-management team say they support the idea of a facilitator as well.

“What I’m hoping is to be able to move forward in that direction, perhaps bringing in someone who can talk with people without any notion that he or she represented anyone,” Gunn Principal Noreen Likens said.

“I think personally, it’s very help-ful to have an uninvolved party to look at what is working and what isn’t working to see how we can move forward productively.”

Paly principal Scott Laurence agreed.

“Sometimes it’s nice to have a neutral, outside third-party facili-tator to help people work through

issues,” he said. “It makes sense to see if that would work.”

Lowell said the problems can ultimately be resolved because the district’s leaders share a focus on providing a great education for each student — a commonality she thinks will make it possible to “re-build trust.”

After that goal is achieved, Low-ell said, everyone — board mem-bers and top managers — can work on improving their communication with each other, teachers, parents and the community.

“You have to be very proactive in your communication — not just Mary Frances, all of us have to do a better job communicating with families and employees,” Lowell said. ■

Staff reporter Alexandria Rocha contributed to this report.

Di Salvo(continued from page 3)

Third party(continued from page 3)

Timeline(continued from page 3)

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Judging by letters to the editor and Internet postings, a highly vocal segment of the commu-

nity would love to see Superinten-dent Mary Frances Callan leave the Palo Alto Unified School District.

These demands are easy to make from the outsides, but those in the thick of the district’s current chaos seem inclined to stand by Callan, for now.

And due to the sensitivity of the topic, board members are reluctant to voice their thoughts on the su-perintendent.

“I give my performance feedback to the superintendent as part of our board evaluation and I don’t want to discuss that with the press,” board member Dana Tom said.

“It’s really a confidential pro-cess for all the right reasons,” board member Barb Mitchell said. “I think a delicate way for me to answer that is our superintendent’s job is very difficult. At the same time, we have very high expecta-tions.”

The superintendent’s perfor-mance has come under increased scrutiny following the Weekly’s publication of a controversial doc-ument submitted Sept. 6 by many district middle managers that cited a lack of trust toward Callan and her senior cabinet.

The resulting uproar over the document’s contents and its re-lease has put pressure on Callan, the board and district employees.

Callan said she’s never been in a situation quite like this and takes the matter very seriously.

“I think every superintendent faces many challenges. What you have to do is look at each challenge and take that and work toward a solution,” she said. “The only way that I know and have seen modeled is that you work together ... toward a solution.”

Callan said she doesn’t worry about her job security.

“I don’t have time to really look over my shoulder. Where I want to put my time is to move that mission forward,” Callan said.

The board last evaluated Callan, who has been with the district four-and-a-half years, before her con-tract was renewed June 19. Details about the review are confidential.

“In a large number of areas, Mary Frances has done a fabulous job. Managing finances, she has saved the district a significant amount of dollars. ... I think no one’s perfect at everything so I didn’t expect her to be. ... My biggest concern is with communication,” said board Presi-dent Mandy Lowell.

Callan was signed to a four-year contract that provides a salary of $254.611.85 a year, plus health and life insurance, more than four weeks vacation and a $750 monthly automobile allowance.

The contract can be severed if both Callan and the board agree. In that situation, Callan would receive 18 months pay, or about $382,000, according to the contract. The

board can terminate the con-tract if Callan has not ful-filled her duties, or if she has performed “in an un-sa t i s fa c -tory man-ner.” In both of

the latter situations, Callan would have the opportunity to defend herself before the decision was fi-nalized. She would also receive a smaller settlement. If her perfor-mance is deemed “unsatisfactory,” she would have six months to im-prove.

Callan, 62, could also choose to retire. Under the California State Teachers’ Retirement System or CalSTRS, educators aged 55 can retire. Due to her high earnings, Callan would receive a sizable monthly stipend.

If Callan retires after February 2007 — her five-year anniversary with the district — she will re-ceive full health, dental and vision benefits.

The Palo Alto school district has only ousted two superintendents in its history, according to Bob French, a former principal who is compiling a history of the district.

Robert Johnson, who lasted less than a year in 1961 to 1962, had an “abrupt and arrogant style,” French said. Johnson had the misfortune of following the highly collabora-tive and well-loved Henry Gunn as superintendent.

In 1919, Superintendent R.J. Wells and his demands for staff loyalty also survived less than a year in the top spot.

Should Callan and the superin-tendency part ways it isn’t neces-sarily “the kiss of death,” said Steve Davis, associate professor of education at Stanford, speaking of superintendents in general.

“Unless he or she has done some-thing criminal, oftentimes they land on their feet and they go to another district and find another job,” he said. ■Staff Writer Becky Trout can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Is Callan’s job secure?Superintendent’s contract recently renewed

for four years.

by Becky Trout

Mary Frances Callan

“I think every superintendent faces many challenges. What you have to do is look at each challenge and take that and work toward a solution.”

—Mary Frances Callan,school superintendent


POLICE CALLSPalo Alto October 2-8Violence related

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Child abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Domestic violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Theft related

Attempted burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Embezzlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Residential burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vehicle related

Abandoned auto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .4

Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Misc. traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Theft from auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vehicle accident/minor injury . . . . . . . . .7

Vehicle accident/property damage. . . .10

Vehicle impound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Alcohol or drug related

Drinking in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Drunk in public . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Possession of paraphernalia. . . . . . . . . .1

Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Miscellaneous

Coroner’s case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Found property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Lost property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Misc. penal code violation . . . . . . . . . . .3

Noise complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Outside investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .3

Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Warrant/other agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Menlo ParkOctober 3-8

Violence related

Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Theft related

Commercial burglaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Grand theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Vehicle related

Driving w/suspended license . . . . . . . . .1

Driving without license . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Tow request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .2

Alcohol or drug related

Drug activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Drunken driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Possession of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Under influence of drugs . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Miscellaneous

Disturbing/annoying phone calls . . . . . .1

Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Prowler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Psychiatric hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Threats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Vandalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Violation of court order . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Warrant arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

AthertonOctober 2-7

Theft related

Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Petty theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Vehicle related

Abandoned auto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Hit and run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Parking problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Suspicious vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Vehicle accident/property damage. . . . .3

Vehicle code violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Vehicle tow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Miscellaneous

Animal call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Citizen assist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Construction complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Disturbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Fire call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Follow up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Hazard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Info. case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Juvenile problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Medical aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Meet citizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Missing person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Other/misc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Outside assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Pedestrian check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Suspicious circumstances . . . . . . . . . . .2

Suspicious person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Town ordinance violation . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Tree blocking roadway . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Welfare check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

VIOLENT CRIMESPalo Alto

100 block Bryant Street, 10/5, 4:52 a.m.;

battery.

Unlisted location, 10/5, 10:45 a.m.; child

abuse.

Unlisted location, 10/5, 11:17 p.m.; do-

mestic violence.

Unlisted location, 10/6, 2:39 p.m.; domes-

tic violence.

Menlo Park

4500 block Bohannon Drive, 10/6, 4:30

p.m.; battery.

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DeathsLorraine Bakke

Lorraine “Naine” Bakke, 83, a Portola Valley resident and longtime Menlo Park teacher, died Sept. 26.

Known to all as Naine, she was born April 11, 1923, in Mankato, Minn. She graduated from Mankato State College with a degree in edu-cation. She and her husband of 60 years, Hans G. Bakke, moved to Menlo Park in 1953. They lived in Ladera until 1975, then moved to Portola Valley.

She had three passions: her fam-ily, education and the theater.

A teacher in Minnesota and Menlo Park for more than 50 years, she taught several generations of kindergarten and early elementary students, first at Ladera School for 25 years and then at Las Lomitas School for another 16 years.

She and Hans were founding members of the Claypipers Melo-drama Troupe, made up of residents of many Peninsula communities. For more than 40 years, the Claypipers performed on summer weekends at Drytown in the California Gold Country.

She was best known for portray-ing the seductive and sinister ac-complice of the villain, earning her own hisses and boos from the au-dience. She and her sister, Harriet, also presented between-acts olios, favorite parts of the show to many playgoers.

An accomplished singer as well as actress, Naine performed in mu-sicals up and down the Peninsula, ranging from roles in Oliver! and I Remember Mama, to one of her favorites, The Rainmaker, in which she played Lizzie .

She is survived by her husband, Hans G. Bakke of Portola Valley; daughter, Bronwen Bakke of North Hollywood; sister, Harriet Ander-son of Pleasanton; sister-in-law Leah Martinson of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and many nieces and nephews. Her parents, Alvina and Lawrence Martinson, and her brothers, Dale and Richard Martinson, preceded her in death.

Services were held on Oct. 3; in-terment was at Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.

Donations may be made in her memory to Las Lomitas Elementary School or a charity of one’s choice.

Solomon Rotwein

Solomon Rotwein, a Palo Alto resident, died after a short illness on Oct. 5. He was 101.

Born Oct. 29, 1904, he spent most of his life in New York, where he practiced law until the age of 82. He moved to Palo Alto in 1996 to be closer to his daughter and family.

He loved to play golf, read about and discuss current events and poli-tics, listen to classical music, and play the piano, loved ones recalled. Cheering for his grandsons at their sports games was one of his favorite pastimes.

Friends and family knew him as a wise and kind gentleman with a positive outlook, easy-going nature and great smile. They will remem-ber him as a devoted husband and loving and supportive father and grandfather.

He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Susan and Gary Zweig; and grandsons, Eric, Jeffrey and David Zweig, all of Palo Alto; and his sister, Grace Seiderman of Florida. His beloved wife, Evelyn, preceded him in death in 1997.

Services have been held.Memorial donations may be made

to the Palo Alto Commons Holiday Fund, 4075 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, 94306 or Jewish Family and Children’s Services, 913 Emerson St., Palo Alto, CA 94301.

Eric Soderstrom

Eric Soderstrom, 45, a resident of Palo Alto, died Sept. 27.

He grew up in Minnesota, re-ceived his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Minnesota at Duluth and earned his doctorate in particle physics at Caltech. He worked variously for Princeton University, SLAC, KLA-Tencor, Revera Inc., and, at the time of his death, Invarium Inc.

On the side, he was a heavy-metal guitarist.

He was very athletic and, most re-cently, an avid cyclist, having com-pleted the Death Ride in Marklee-ville, and the Terrible Two double century ride just this spring.

Relatives recall him as a loving father to Blake Miriam Soderstrom, 16, and Torleif Joseph Soderstrom, 6, of Palo Alto. Although in the process of divorcing, he was best friend to his wife, Lisa Michael, and is already terribly missed by Lisa, Blake, Tor and a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

His untimely death follows that of his lifelong best buddy Mark Spur-beck, also an avid cyclist, who died four years ago at the age of 40.

A celebration of his life will be held Saturday, Oct. 28 at Lisa and Eric’s home, 4215 Suzanne Drive, Palo Alto.

Evann Walker-Quezada

Evann S. Walker-Quezada, 63, a

longtime resident of Palo Alto and West Marin County, died at her home in Bolinas early on the morn-ing of Sept. 1.

Born March 24, 1943, she was raised on Emerson Street and grad-uated from Palo Alto High School.

Loved ones recall her as delight-fully adventurous and a unique free spirit.

She lived in Mexico for many years where she met her husband, artist Moises Quezada, at one of his gallery openings in Mexico City after he had left his native country of El Salvador during the revolution there.

She also traveled extensively in England and other European coun-tries and accompanied the Grateful Dead to their recording session at the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

She was comfortable speaking both English and Spanish and taught extensively in both languages. Her passions were reading, music, flow-ers of any kind and anthropology.

She worked with the Havasupi tribe in the Grand Canyon during the early 1970s after studying at UC Berkeley. Later she was an artist’s representative working with indi-vidual talent and in galleries.

For the last three months of her life, she was under the constant care of her husband. They were deeply in love for more than 20 years.

She is survived by her husband, Moises Quezada of Bolinas; her brother, Cummings Walker of Palo Alto; four nieces and nephews and two great nieces.

Her ashes will be spread near her favorite village and beach in Mex-ico, where she worked with young children for many years. This was her specific and binding wish.

A life celebration will be held in the near future. Old friends and classmates are invited to contact Cummings Walker at [email protected].

Weddings Herrington and Shannon

Jennifer Kay Herrington and Bradley Ross Shannon wed Sept. 3 at McCreery House in Loveland, Colo.

TransitionsBirths, marriages and deaths

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This ad is co-sponsored by The Palo Alto Weekly and The City of Palo Alto, Arts & Culture Division

Palo Alto Chamber OrchestraOctober 21 Dana Putnam Fonteneau, cello (Dinkelspiel Aud)

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(continued on next page)


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The bride is the daughter of Mar-vin and Esther Herrington of Stan-ford. A Stanford native, she gradu-ated from Gunn High School and Colorado State University. She is a horse trainer and a riding instruc-tor.

The groom is the son of Sally Jo Inwood of Trenton, Ohio and Carl Shannon of Monroe, Ohio. He grad-uated from the University of Illinois and is a marketing and public-rela-tions consultant.

Schinn and Beach

Marion Elisabeth Schinn and Gregory Wayne Beach wed July 2 at Portola Valley Presbyterian Church in Portola Valley.

The bride is the daughter of Eva Schinn of Mountain View and the late Alfred Schinn. She graduated from the United States International University in 2001 with a Ph.D. in education and is an instructor at San Jose State University.

The groom is the son of Wayne Beach of Phoenix, Ariz. and Mary Bernicky of Tuscon, Ariz. He re-ceived his master’s in business ad-ministration from Harvard Business School in 2000 and is a product line manager at Cisco Systems in San Jose.

The couple met through a friend

at Fanny and Alexander restaurant in Palo Alto. They will live in Palo Alto.

BirthsGabriel and Deborah Maciel of

Palo Alto, a daughter, Sept. 28.John and Nicole Osmer of Menlo

Park, a daughter, Sept. 29.

Transitions(continued from previous page)

SubmittingTransitionsannouncements

The Palo Alto Weekly’s Transitions page is devoted to births, weddings, anniversa-ries and deaths of local resi-dents.

Obituaries for local resi-dents are a free editorial ser-vice. Send information to Obituaries, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or fax to 326-3928, or e-mail to [email protected]. Please include the name and telephone number of a person who might provide ad-ditional information about the deceased. Photos are accepted and printed on a space-avail-able basis. The Weekly re-serves the right to edit obitu-aries for space and format considerations.

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D avid Culp builds kites for a living — big kites. Some are larger than a football field, with a wingspan of 600 feet. They can pull a 600,000-

ton ship, hover stealthily in the stratosphere or glide on the solar wind.

“Imagine what it’s like at cocktail parties when peo-ple ask you what you do for a living, and you say, ‘I build kites,’ said Culp, a tethered-aviation expert and president and co-founder of KiteShip Corporation, a Bay Area kite technology company with offices in Palo Alto and Martinez.

“They say ‘OK, what does your wife do for a living, because you’re sure not making a living making kites.’ Then when you say, ‘I’m building big kites to fly on ships,’ they start backing away toward the other side of the room.”

Culp laughs. His high-flying ideas are about to revolu-tionize how commercial ships sail the seas. Attached to sea-going vessels by a specialized cable, these humon-gous kites rise to the sky on a helium-filled dirigible and capture wind currents. Acting like tug boats, they use wind-power to reduce fuel usage and costs by an average 15 percent to 25 percent; which also translates into an enormous reduction in pollutants, he said.

When the first one sails, hopefully in 2007, it will be the largest flying structure in the world — beating KiteShip’s own 2002 Guinness world record.

The business world is taking notice. KiteShip recently won the California Clean Tech Open’s clean-transporta-tion prize. The competition — created in Palo Alto by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Michael Santullo and Lau-rent Pacalin to kick-start innovation in “green” technol-ogies — is the richest contest of its kind, with $500,000 in prize money and services from top Bay Area venture capitalists and companies, including Palo Alto law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati and Lexus.

The amazing thing to CEO Jeremy Walker is that KiteShip beat out seven competitors involved in auto-motive technologies — for a prize offered by car com-pany Lexus. KiteShip did not even fit into any of the transportation prize’s categories, which all revolved around road vehicles, Walker said.

But one cargo ship outfitted with one KiteShip system will save 2 million gallons of fuel per year — equiva-lent to the gas saved by 6,000 hybrid autos — and will reduce 2 million pounds of sulfur dioxide emissions annually, the equivalent of replacing every automobile in California with a hybrid, according to Walker.

“We’re delighted the judges took our wider view of transportation. Ninety-percent of everything goes by sea. The ocean is our commercial lifeline,” Walker said.

Although the concept seems like something out of


Entrepreneurs seek to cleanthe environment with kite power

by Sue Dremann

Go fly a kite

KiteShip CEO Jeremy Walker (left) and co-founder David Culp.


KiteShip has won accolades for its concept of using giant kites to help propel large ships in the open seas.

Nicholas W

right

Nicholas W

right


speculative fiction, it has been around since the 1920s. The hindrances that prevented such technology from taking flight have been eliminated in the last 30 years, Culp said.

Culp and Chief Technical Officer Dean Jordan co-founded KiteShip in 2001. Both men have been active in the traction kite industry (kites that pull objects) since 1973.

Culp was educated at Stanford, Westlawn and University of California at Davis in Engineering, Industrial and Sailcraft Design. He has designed and built boats and kites for speed-sailing and pleasure boats.

Jordan is a professional kite designer. He was the first to build ultra-light and hyper-lightweight kites, and was one of the first to perfect land-sailing kites for kite buggies.

Walker, an experienced ocean-racing skipper with extensive connections in the marine industry, is a Palo Alto resident. He has been a Silicon Valley executive and an adviser to clean-tech startups on product development, marketing and position-ing for investment.

In 2001, Larry Ellison’s Oracle Racing, Inc. commissioned Culp to design a new type of kite that could pass stringent America’s Cup regulations. The kite was developed in secrecy in the Mojave Desert.

“Every time a car came by, we had to hurry up and take it inside,” he said.

KiteShip succeeded in five months but Ellison wasn’t in-terested in buying the product, Culp said. Ellison had learned that two Cup-racing competitors were trying to design a regu-lation-legal kite.

“He didn’t want to purchase the kite; he wanted us to prove it couldn’t be done,” Culp said.

The competitors abandoned their plans, and Ellison lost interest.

KiteShip began manufacturing the regulation-legal kites in 2003, after the secrecy agreement with Oracle expired. The OutLeader-brand kites are now sold for recreational yachts and power vessels throughout the world, he said.

KiteShip is creating traction kites for the commercial ship-ping industry. An oil tanker burns 5 tons of fuel an hour and is continuously on the move, 320 days per year. Transportation fuel prices have increased tenfold in the last 25 years, accord-ing to Walker. Five years ago, it accounted for 25 percent of operating costs; now it has spiked to 50 percent.

Shipping companies are generally happy if they can shave $1 per ton from their fuel costs. Add a kite and it’s like taking the foot off the gas, Culp said. The wind keeps the ship’s speed up, but allows the engine to work less. A single sail can pull 100 tons; and that translates into a 15-percent to 25-percent cost savings.

“A fleet of eight tankers can save $8 million a year,” Walker said.

Saving fuel also means reducing pollutants.Increasingly, ship owners are coming under pressure to clean

up emissions. Ship-fuel comes from the bottom of the barrel. It’s the heavy sludge left after refining. It puts 33 percent more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than gasoline. And it’s 900 times more polluting in terms of sulfur than truck diesel fuel, he said. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain.

“The world’s shipping fleet uses 10 percent of the fuel of all road vehicles, but emits 50 times as much sulfur dioxide as all of the world’s cars and trucks combined,” he said. A single kite can cut back on fuel consumption and emissions by 20 percent or more, he added.

Kite-power has several advantages over sails. Sails fly from masts supported by the ship. As wind hits the sail, it can cause a ship to roll. Ballasts, weights, and other devices add tonnage and take up space to keep a mast-ship upright.

Kites, however, are free-flying. Lightweight kites made of spinnaker nylon, Kevlar and other materials are tethered to a

ship by a polyethylene cable, eliminating weight and rolling problems, and it can be stored in a box on the ship. Because it is mastless, it can be retrofitted onto existing ships. Carrier ships can’t be retrofitted with masts; they must be built from scratch at a cost of $10 million to $15 million. A single kite system for a 600,000-ton container ship, including wireless computer controls, could retail for $2 million, Walker said.

A football field-sized kite can weigh up to 3,000 pounds. The helium blimp keeps it aloft so it won’t fall into the water and tangle up with a ship’s propellers, Culp said. When people tell him it can’t be done, that the kites are too big, he points out that the Hindenburg airship was almost as large.

KiteShip is getting ready to silence the nay-sayers. The com-pany expects the first kite-powered hybrid ships will be at sea in 2007, but other uses are being investigated. KiteShip prod-ucts may accurately and inexpensively drop humanitarian aid and heavy equipment, move multi-ton stones into replicas of ancient monuments and move logs in remote forestry opera-tions in Alaska, Canada and Russia.

There is even outer space.Sailing doesn’t require wind over water or even wind over

land, Culp said. KiteShip can harness the currents between the Earth’s jet stream and the adjacent still air or fly a pair of tethered wings in outer space on solar wind.

The company is working on programs to explore the sur-face of Mars. Land-sailors such as the Mars rover have a limited range because they can only exploit weakened solar energy, but kites flying on wind can cover hundreds of miles in minutes, taking photographs and dropping robotic equip-ment with pinpoint accuracy, or remain in stasis in a still-air zone, Culp said.

And if someone refuses to believe it is possible?“I can always tell them to “go fly a kite,” Walker said.■Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at sdremann@

paweekly.com.

Palo Alto Weekly • Wednesday, October 11, 2006 • Page 15

Special Feature

KiteShip(continued from page 13)

The company expects the first kite-powered hybrid ships will be at sea in 2007, but other uses are being investigated. KiteShip

kites may accurately and inexpensively drop humanitarian aid and heavy equipment, move multi-ton stones into replicas of ancient monuments and move logs in remote forestry opera-

tions in Alaska, Canada and Russia — or float in outer space.

“Imagine what it’s like atcocktail parties when people ask

you what you do for a living, and you say, ‘I build kites,’”

– David Culp, Presidentand co-founder of KiteShip

Illustration by Michael Crum

pton – Courtesy KiteShip

Illustration by Michael Crum

pton – Courtesy KiteShip


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Health&FitnessHealth NotesTEEN TIME . . . Overtime Fitness has opened the first fitness center in the country tailored to teens. The Mountain View teen gym at 1625 N. Shoreline Blvd. is open to children ages 13 to 18 and provides a social setting as well as fitness. Teens have access to state-of-the-art interactive equip-ment and seminars on subjects such as hygiene and nutrition. Fitness machines are rigged with videogame bike races, television screens and Dance Dance Revo-lution machines. For information call 650-944-8555 or visit over-timefitness.com.

KIDS AND FOOD DISORDERS . . . Dr. James Lock, a child psy-chiatrist and specialist in child and adolescent eating disorders at Stanford School of Medicine, and Dr. Cynthia Kapphahn, medical director of the Eating Disorders Comprehensive Care Unit at Stanford, will give parents insights into children’s eating disorders tonight, Oct. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. “What Every Parent Needs to Know About Eating Disorders”takes place at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Auditorium, 725 Welch Road, Palo Alto. Fee is $25. To register, call 650-724-3783.

SURVIVOR CELEBRATION . . . The Stanford Cancer Center is inviting breast-cancer survivors and anyone interested in learning about breast cancer to attend the Oct. 19 survivor celebration,which will feature breast-health education, giveaways and more. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 875 Blake Wilbur Drive, Stanford. Call 650-723-4268.

POVERTY AND HEALTH . . . “Poverty, Culture and Social In-justice: Determinants of Health Disparities” is the subject of an Oct 18 lecture by Dr. Harold P. Freeman at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Auditorium, 725 Welch Road, Palo Alto. King is medical director of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care in New York and a senior advisor to the National Cancer Institute. A reception follows. The event is free and will start at 5 p.m. Call 650-498-7826.

AUTHOR . . . AUTHOR . . . The 15th Annual C.A.R. Author’s Luncheon takes place Sat., Nov. 4 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The annual fundraising event benefits Community Association of Reha-bilitation, Inc., a nonprofit serv-ing people with developmental disabilities. This year’s authors are Marla Frazee, author of “Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages”; Michael Lewis, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game”; and Jac-queline Winspear, “Pardonable Lies.” Janice Edwards, NBC 11 host and producer of “Community Focus,” is the mistress of ceremo-nies. The event takes place at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. Call 650-618-3328. ■

A monthly section on recreation and health, edited by Sue Dremann

Stepping up to good healthCity Council members, Parks and Recreation

commissioners walking — and swimming and cycling — to promote “culture of fitness”

by Sue Dremann

T he journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, ac-cording to ancient Chinese

philosopher Lao Tzu. But the jour-ney begins with 10,000 steps in Palo Alto.

Mayor Judy Kleinberg has been taking 5,000 steps a day on her jour-ney; Vice Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto 8,000. The reason: Council mem-bers are in the midst of a two-month fitness contest against the City Parks & Recreation Commission. It began in September and is running through October. The challenge is part of a council resolution to raise fitness awareness throughout the city.

All it takes is 10,000 steps a day.It’s more difficult than one thinks,

Kleinberg said.“You know, I work. I’m half-way

into it. Some members have the freedom to spend walking on week-ends. . . . I do very well on weekdays — not so well on weekends. I have to fit in an hour of additional walk-ing to get to 10,000. It’s a very big challenge if you spend the day at a computer and on the telephone. It’s really a matter of if you make that a lifetime choice,” she said.

The 10,000 Steps Program origi-nated in Japan, where it is known as manpo-kei, or step-counting, ac-cording to a book by Dr. Catherine Tudor-Cooke, who introduced the

program in the United States. The av-erage sedentary person walks 1,000 to 3,000 steps per day; 10,000 steps is the equivalent of walking 5 miles, according to The Walking Site, an online site for fitness walkers.

Back in August, Parks & Recre-ation Commissioner Anne Cribbs initiated the challenge that has led council members and commission-ers to strap on their pedometers.

“I wanted to develop a culture of fitness in Palo Alto,” Cribbs, a for-mer Olympian, said.

Participants aren’t tied to walk-ing. A one-hour swim or bike ride is equivalent to 10,000 steps, she said.

Walking 30 to 60 minutes daily can improve cardiovascular health, reduce stroke risk and lower weight, according to studies in Japan and North America. Canadian research-ers, however, added a caveat — that the intensity of the walk, not the number of steps, makes the differ-ence. To truly benefit from walking, pick up the pace, they said.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” Kishi-moto said.

Some of her 8,000-per-day steps counted as her practice for last Fri-day’s Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run, but she calls herself “a huge advocate” of walking and biking Anne Cribbs, a former Olympian, has launched a fitness competition

between city officials.

Nicholas W

right


‘Tumornators’ take to the

streetsPalo Alto family fights cancer through biking

by Sue Dremann

M imi Arfin had just taught her two daughters to ride their bikes without training

wheels 18 months ago when she learned that she had advanced-stage lung cancer. But that didn’t stop her. The children’s graduation to two-wheelers and her diagnosis became the impetus for cancer fundraising.

Arfin, husband Bob Rebitzer, daughters Elana, 8, and Maya, 6, Mimi’s brother, David Arfin, and his sons Avi, 14, and Josh, 11, formed the Lung Cancer Tumornators, a bike group that rides for charity. In June, they pulled in $31,000 — the fourth-largest sum — for the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Challenge in Orange County, Calif.

The LiveStrong Challenge is part of a new culture of health for cancer patients and survivors, which em-

Left to right, Avi Arfin, Bob Rebitzer and David Arfin will be riding in the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Chal-lenge in Austin, Tex., this weekend, along with Rebitzer’s daughter Elana Rebitzer.

phasizes leading lives more fully by building resilience. Survivors and their supporters cycle, run and walk to raise money — in this fam-

ily’s case, for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The foundation helps people with cancer to make inde-pendent decisions and offers help

through grants, support following remission, and research.

The bike-for-healing project net-


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ted the Tumornators an invitation to the Ride for the Roses in Austin, Tex. taking place this Sunday. The honor is given to top fundraisers, and includes meeting Lance Armstrong, who survived testicular cancer.

David, Bob, Avi and Elana will participate in the Austin celebration. The two families are the sole rep-resentatives from Northern Califor-nia, according to David. But the 277 family, friends, classmates and col-leagues who poured money into the Tumornators’ ride made it possible, he said. Their support has been the families’ greatest inspiration, Bob added.

Mimi hopes their rides will help spread awareness about lung can-cer — the leading cause of cancer deaths. Research remains under-funded, however, according to Mimi.

“People tend to think lung cancer is a disease brought on by its victims because they smoked,” Bob said.

Increasingly, lung cancer is be-coming a disease of young non-smokers, he added.

Mimi, 49, does not smoke. Doc-tors speculate the lung cancer may be the result of treatments she re-ceived for Hodgkin’s disease, a lymphatic-system cancer she beat at age 17.

“I was healthy. I ate well. I was not a smoker and I exercised regularly. It was a total shock,” she said.

Soon after Mimi’s diagnosis, Bob’s twin brother’s wife was also diagnosed — with breast cancer. The double diagnoses fueled the families’ fundraising goals.

“We were able to bring all of that into the LiveStrong Challenge,” Mimi said.

The children dove into the fami-ly’s mission: Josh taught himself to ride a bike for the first time so that he could ride in the Orange County event. Avi rode 40 miles — twice as far as he had ever ridden.

“The ride was really tough. But I knew if I stopped, I’d not only be

A record number of influenza vaccines are expected to be available this season, accord-

ing to the Centers for Disease Con-trol in Washington, D.C. More than 100 million doses are anticipated from manufacturers, beginning as early as this Saturday, in some ar-eas.

“There will be enough vaccine for every person who wants it,” said Dr. Charles Weiss, public-health specialist at Palo Alto Medical Foundation. “But having said that, I still treat (the anticipated quantities) with an ounce of skepticism.”

Weiss’ reticence comes from his experience of the last few years, when shortages caused a nervous populace to wait in long lines for shots.

Shades of last year’s problems emerged again earlier this summer, when the National Influenza Vac-cine Summit reported in June that the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to sanofi pas-teur, a major manufacturer influ-enza vaccines, regarding sterility problems in some components of the vaccine Fluzone, and other vac-cines. The problems were not found in the final product, according to a FDA statement.

In a July 3 statement, sanofi pas-teur wrote that many of the FDA’s complaints had either been resolved, or the FDA has accepted the com-pany’s proposed remediation plan. Sanofi pasteur manufactures 50 million doses of influenza vaccine, the statement noted.

The CDC issued a press release Sept. 6 noting that record numbers of the vaccine are expected and last year’s distribution problems should be ironed out.

“As we’ve learned in the past few years, there is always some uncer-tainty regarding influenza vaccine supplies and distribution,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, CDC director said.

“It’s often very difficult to predict

how much vaccine will be distrib-uted and when, or exactly when in-fluenza vaccine will be available. . . . However, if the manufacturers’ estimates hold, more people than ever before will be able to protect themselves and their loved ones from influenza this year.”

This year’s influenza season is not expected to be unusually virulent, according to PAMF’s Weiss. The predicted strains include the A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1) from last year, A/Wisconsin/67/2005 (H3N2) and B/Malaysia/2506/2004 viruses. The viruses are named after the place where each strain was first identified.

In accordance with a new state law, thimerosal-free vaccines will be given to children ages 6 to 35 months and pregnant women, ac-cording to the Palo Alto medical Foundation Web site. The CDC I encouraging adults age 50 and older, health care providers, children ages 6 month to 5 years, and people with chronic illnesses to be vaccinated.

Flu-shot clinics at Palo Alto Med-ical Foundation will be held Oct. 22, Nov. 4 and 5, and Nov. 11 and 12. Vaccines are available to PAMF-registered patients only.Visit www.pamf.org/flu/vaccine.html for more information.

Kaiser Permanente flu shot clinics begin Oct. 14 and run through Nov. 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Birch Building, 910 Marshall St., Redwood City; and will be held Oct. 19 and 26, Nov. 2 and 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 5 p.m. in Mountain View, at 555 Castro St. A pediatrics flu shot clinic takes place Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Clinics are open to Kaiser members. Call Kaiser flu-shot clinic line at 800-573-5811 for updates.

Avenidas flu-shot clinics for se-niors are scheduled for Mondays, Oct. 16, 23 and 30 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. for $2. Appointments will not be needed nor made. ■

A surplus of flu shotsRecord quantities of vaccines expected to be available,

with some reservationsby Sue Dremann

Biking(continued from page 17)

Health & Fitness

(continued on the following page)


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Costumes and accessories from past Palo Alto Children's Theatre productions, including animals, fantasy characters, and vintage clothing in a variety of sizes just in time for Halloween !

anyway.“I try to make at least half of my

trips walking or biking. I also have a dog, so I have a good excuse,” she said.

Kishimoto wants to expand the challenge to have neighborhoods challenge one another or for schools to take up the contest.

“It’s totally integrated with Palo Alto’s goal for building a healthy community. It ties in with a walk-able community, safe routes to school and reducing obesity in kids,” she added.

Council members and com-missioners will track their results through the Stepping Out With Stanford program, an online class offered through the Stanford Health Promotion Resource Center.

At least one council member plans on remaining an armchair partici-pant, however.

“I 100-percent applaud the Parks and Recreation Commission, but (the walking is) not for myself. Not all programs are for all people,” Bern Beecham said. “I watch my diet carefully. I weigh myself every day. I’ve stayed within the weight

range I established for myself for 20 years. We all need to find something that works.

The challenge came about in part because of a countywide fitness resolution being promoted by Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss.

Three weeks ago, Kleinberg signed Kniss’ proposed council resolution to promote health aware-ness in families and the community. Kniss has a background in public-health nursing. She chairs the coun-ty’s Health and Hospital Committee and is the county’s representative on state and federal Health and Human Services committees.

The biggest chunk of the county’s budget — $1.2 billion — goes to health and hospital services, she said.

Kniss wanted to raise visibility

regarding preventing disease and the importance of healthy living and in community health. When she became the hospital board chair two years ago, she concentrated on health — especially exercise.

“One of the first things I realized is that kids in California had a real epidemic in obesity. . . . There is so much early diabetes,” she said.

Kniss walks four to five miles ev-ery day with friends, who help break up the monotony, she said.

“I’m an addict. . . . I don’t think people can get into exercise unless you make it a habit. You have to make it a habit where you don’t feel good unless you do it,” she said.

Kniss has a challenger of her own, and he’s as daunting to her as the 10,000 steps to a couch potato: newly elected County Supervisor Ken Yeager.

“Ken is a marathon runner. He challenged me to run the 18 flights of stairs in the county building. He said, ‘You’re the one who started this,’” Kniss said.

“So far, I can do the 11 stories at one end of the building, but I haven’t done the 18 floors yet.” ■Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Fitness(continued from page 17)

Health & Fitness

letting myself down, but also Mimi and every one of the supporters and the other cancer survivors,” the Palo Alto High School freshman said.

He cheerfully anticipates a 45-mile ride in Austin.

“I think it’s going to be very, very cool. And we get to meet Lance Armstrong, the biggest icon of our age. Hopefully, we’ll raise a lot of money for cancer, which is a big thing in my life these days,” he said.

But for all of the family’s accom-plishments, Maya, the littlest child, captured the challenge’s meaning in a lasting image, David said. In Ir-vine, she rode 10 miles on a little purple bike with fat tires.

As David and Avi did their 40-mile ride, they spotted a tiny child

atop a massive concrete overpass, pedaling full-bore. A lone figure struggling uphill over the giant arching roadbed, Maya bent for-ward against odds even adults found challenging, he said. And she pre-vailed.

Mimi has prevailed over her can-cer for a year-and-a-half. Her goal, if not a full cure, is to keep the can-cer a chronic but controlled condi-tion, she wrote to friends through her Web site. LiveStrong is helping her reach that goal, she said.

Currently taking the same che-motherapy drug used to help cure Lance Armstrong, Mimi must sit out the Austin ride. But Bob is con-fident she will join the family’s cy-cling habit again.

“In a couple of months, she’ll be back in the saddle,” he said. ■

Strength and fitness classes for cancer patients, initiated by the

Bob Rebitzer watches as daughter Maya prepares to go on a bike ride around their Palo Alto neighborhood last week. The bicycling family members ride to raise money to fight cancer.

Mimi Arfin was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005.

Veronica Weber

Veronica Weber

City officials are wearing pedom-eters this month.a

Nicholas W

right

Lance Armstrong Foundation, are being held at Stanford. For infor-mation, call Joyce Hanna at 650-725-5014 or visit hip.stanford.edu.

Staff Writer Sue Dremann can be e-mailed at [email protected].

Biking(continued from page 18)


SpectrumEditorials, letters and opinions

Editorial

Taking sidesEditor,

Former school board members should know better than to take sides, much less comment on, school personnel issues. No member of the public is privy to the facts, to any ongoing discussions, grievances or performance evaluations because all personnel issues are discussed, appropriately, in closed sessions.

To venture an opinion, especially a strongly worded scolding based on personal assumptions and incom-plete information, is condescending at best and damaging at worst.

Our elected school board is re-sponsible for giving our superin-tendent guidance so that she can effectively lead our district and, ulti-mately, holding her accountable for her performance. Leak or no leak, it appears that the superintendent has learned that enough principals and other managers are unhappy that active listening and adjustments are needed.

Let’s encourage our school board to focus its leadership on rebuild-ing constructive communications and trust among its most valued employees.

Anne AvisWaverley Street

Palo Alto

Unbalanced reportingEditor,

I took the time to read Patricia Dunn’s written testimony to Con-gress after the Weekly’s story on the HP scandal (Oct. 4). It described how techniques, such as pretexing, took place despite her good faith ef-fort as chairwoman of HP’s board.

Serving on several boards, I am cognizant of the trust I place in staff. If the information I have is incom-plete, as it was to Ms. Dunn, then my decisions are flawed despite my intent to do responsible and ethical work.

While Ms. Dunn’s resignation was symbolically the right thing to do, she has become the subject of a media spectacle that has resulted in a substantial amount of unbalanced reporting. Perhaps because it was reporters who were subject to the pretexting that so much ink has been dedicated to this situation — more so, than to the presidential wiretap-ping story that, frankly, holds much more importance in our daily lives.

Rayme AdzemaPine Street

Palo Alto

Ordinance amusementEditor,

I have to be a bit amused and perhaps confused by the fact that my fair city passed an ordinance banning our gardeners from using gas-powered leaf blowers, but I have now seen two separate companies contracted by this same fair city, and their employees are using — yes,

you guessed it — gas blowers.How does this work again?

Leslie GeroldeGreer Road

Palo Alto

Avoid pollutionEditor,

You wouldn’t dump your garbage over the fence into your neighbor’s yard, and you wouldn’t blast music through your neighbor’s windows.

Please don’t contaminate the air that your downwind neighbors have to breathe by burning wood or pressed logs in your fireplace.

Palo Alto and Menlo Park have wood-burning ordinances that pro-hibit putting wood-burning fire-places into new houses because it is recognized that wood smoke con-tributes to a variety of lung diseases. Wood smoke is not safer than ciga-rette smoke.

If you can smell smoke, you are breathing highly polluted air.

Maria KleczewskaMarmona Drive

Menlo Park

Don’t glorify shootersEditor,I believe that the copycat school

shootings would be less likely to occur if the news media would vol-untarily stop glorifying the shoot-ers. Remember that these guys pick schools because they want notoriety, and the grosser the perpetrators are displayed the closer they come to taking their revenge on the world.

Stop the instant coverage and play by play and don’t give them the whole hour. The media already knows the danger of inflaming ra-cial trouble with too specific a re-port on interracial crimes, and so the avoidance of glorification of a school hostage/shooting situation should be obvious to them.

A little less information on prep-arations might help, too. I would prefer this all be accomplished by voluntary agreement rather than by law.

Walter E. WallisWaverley Street

Palo Alto

Identity crisisEditor,

I’m having an identity predica-ment.

I believe in taxing ourselves to fund education, libraries, care for

The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage or on issues of local interest.

What do you think? How would you suggest resolving the Palo Alto School situation?

YOUR TURN


Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to [email protected] shorter comments to [email protected]. Include your name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content, libel and factual errors known to us. Anonymous letters will generally not be accepted. You can also participate in our popular interactive online forum, Town Square, at our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Read blogs, discuss issues, ask questions or express opinions with you neighbors any time, day or night. Submitting a letter to the editor or guest opinion constitutes a granting of per-mission to the Palo Alto Weekly and Embarcadero Publishing Co. to also publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square.

For more information contact Editor Jay Thorwaldson or Assistant to the Editor Tyler Hanley at [email protected] or 650-326-8210.

School district needs a neutral inquiry

‘Lack of trust’ declaration from Palo Alto schools’ middle-management team requires a thorough

investigation by an independent consultant

T he bombshell “lack of trust” document dropped on Palo Alto schools Superintendent Mary Frances Callan and her three se-nior cabinet members Sept. 6, kept under wraps by school of-

ficials until it was uncovered by the Weekly Sept. 27, has only gotten more explosive in the past two weeks.

How the top school administrators responded to the matter has only made matter worse — and raises serious questions about governance of one of the leading school districts in the state.

For nearly two years there have been rumblings here and there in the district, capped by two high-profile departures, for various reasons, of Cynthia Pino, former associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and Joe Di Salvo, former principal at JLS Middle School.

Both left the district under cloudy circumstances and both have kept mum publicly about their departures — until now: Di Salvo has told his story to the Weekly, complete with documentation in the form of letters to and from district legal counsel Lou Lozano that allege that a significant number of JLS staff felt there was “a culture of fear and intimidation” at JLS due to Di Salvo’s leadership style.

But until Sept. 6 there was no documented expression or focus of discontent with the district administration. On that date members of a so-called Group of Eight, also called the Meet and Confer Group, met with Human Resources Director Scott Bowers and Callan and presented a one-page document citing a lack of trust, poor communications, inconsistent practices and “preferential treatment” as top-priority concerns of the principals, assistant principals, program coordinators or directors and school psychologists in that unrepresented group — concerns placed well above traditional compensation-related issues.

The full school board, after learning about the document from a parent, was provided copies by the administration soon after the meeting.

Since Sept. 28 there have been a swirl of meetings, rumors, opinions expressed on the Weekly’s online community forum, Town Square, and allegations, many of them contradictory. There were angry, emotional outbursts by members of the senior cabinet directed at management team members at a mandatory meeting Sept. 28. There have been letters saying the leaking of the document to the Weekly was an act of betrayal and against a district tradition of not “airing dirty laundry in public.”

The timeline and articles in today’s Weekly attempt to sort out a number of the key issues of confusion and disagreement, and the interview with Di Salvo sheds some additional light on a mystery that has generated endless speculation and gossip for the past year. There is an ironic parallel in the allegations against Di Salvo and the current allegations against the superintendent.

The “dirty laundry” argument is simply ludicrous. What is one to do with dirty laundry? Leaving it piling up in the closet until it becomes stinky enough to be declared a public health hazard is a poor alternative that results in just this type of situation. How much better to simply launder it and hang it out to dry, and move on to really important issues — and more rational arguments.

And it was not the leaking of the Sept. 6 document that damaged trust in the district. That’s just “spin.” The trust issues have been building for many, many months. It is because they were kept secret and buried that they became increasingly more loaded and explosive.

Few would disagree that the district faces a crisis in confidence. Emotions are high. Some people are fearful and intimidated, others are deeply angry and frustrated — and some are both. Many others are just confused and worried about the potential for long-term damage to the district’s vaunted reputation for excellence.

But a first step is for the school board, working with the representatives of the management team, to agree upon finding a qualified, neutral party not just to facilitate but to investigate, mediate and return to the board with an honest report on the situation as he or she determines it to be.

This is an overriding urgency that should be accomplished this week or next, if possible, so the arduous process of rebuilding a shattered trust can begin.


StreetwiseWhat do you do, personally, to protect the environment? Asked in front of Country Sun Natural Foods on California Avenue. Question and interviews by Dan Shilstone. Photographs by Veronica Weber.

Alrik SuvariCatererCorte Madera Road, Portola Valley

“I work as a caterer, so I make an effort to use organic foods. And my wife and I are generally aware of how products are made, and we put effort into using environmentally friendly products.”

Pria GravesArtist and retired software engineerYale Street

“I do whatever I can to minimize my personal impact: eat organic food, rarely drive. I’ve been a member of the Sierra Club since I was 14. I write letters. I’ve testified in National Park Service hearings. It’s hard to say what I don’t do.”

Scott DeindorferPERL programmerSherman Avenue

“We never have the lights on in our office. We don’t need them to see our computer monitors. But the biggest polluters are corporate, and all the individual effort in the world won’t do anything if we can’t get the corpora-tions to play ball.”

Melissa LeeMakeup artistPark Boulevard

“I pick up three pieces of trash a day that are not mine, because it keeps you humble. I go through my garbage and pull out all recyclable things, and I’m a member of the Green Party.”

Cheryl LynnPreschool teacherCollege Avenue

“I do everything I can. I recycle, and I grow as many green things as I can.”

We were misled on effects of ‘three strikes’ law, which needs reformby LaDoris Cordell

In the belief that we needed a law that would impose life sentences on repeat violent offenders, Californians passed the three-strikes law in 1994. We were misled. Turns out that what we got was a three-strikes law that has locked up thousands of nonviolent, petty offenders for life.

During my nearly 19 years as a Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County, I sen-tenced many defendants to prison under the three-strikes law. Most of them more than de-served their lengthy sentences, and there were those who did not.

Since 1993, 25 states and the federal gov-ernment have passed some form of the three-strikes law. California’s law, however, is much broader than any other state’s. We are the only state that imposes a 25-years-to-life sentence for criminals whose third felonies are non-violent or non-serious.

In 2004, there were 7,000 third-strikers serving life sentences. Of that number, 4,200 or 60 percent of them had non-violent or non-serious third strikes.

These are some of the third-strike offenses for which people are now serving 25 years to life: stealing a spare tire; possession of a stolen bicycle; shoplifting a $70 drill from Sears; possession of three stolen ceiling fans; possession of .04 grams of cocaine; shoplift-ing 21 packages of aspirin; helping someone else steal baby formula and Tylenol; posses-sion of less than 2 grams of marijuana in a prison facility; shoplifting a package of AA batteries worth $2.69; stealing a sweater and

a shirt from Nordstrom; shoplifting a pack of T-shirts worth $33; conspiracy to sell $20 worth of cocaine; shoplifting a baseball glove; welfare fraud amounting to $2,100; attempted burglary of an unoccupied car at a car wash; and taking a bicycle out of a garage.

The three-strikes law inflicts the same pun-ishment on a rapist as it does a shoplifter. It gives the same 25-years-to-life sentence to an armed robber that it gives to a petty drug of-fender. I find this approach to sentencing ut-terly lacking in fairness and common sense. Simple drug possession, shoplifting and other petty crimes have no business in California’s three-strikes law.

There are 33 prisons in California, with

more than 170,000 inmates. Our prisons are overcrowded and have been pronounced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and two federal judges as being completely out of control. It costs more than $20,000 per year to house one inmate. But as these three-strike lifers age, they will cost us even more because of age-related health issues. Estimates are that the costs to taxpayers will rise to between $70,000 and $100,000 per inmate per year. In contrast, one year of drug treatment is ap-proximately $10,000.

California’s three-strikes law costs too much and targets the wrong people.

And there is the issue of race — African Americans constitute just 6.5 percent of the

state’s population, but are 44.7 percent of those serving life under the three-strikes law. Whites constitute 47.1 percent of the state’s population and are 25.4 percent of third strik-ers. In Santa Clara County, 27 percent of those sentenced to life as third strikers are African American, yet are a mere 2.7 percent of the county’s population. I do not believe that the drafters of the three-strikes law were racists. The fact is, however, that this law is being ap-plied in a racially discriminatory fashion.

In November 2004 the majority of those Californians who voted defeated Proposi-tion 66, an initiative that would have removed non-violent and non-serious crimes from the three-strikes law. I was a vocal supporter of this initiative. However, a last-minute infu-sion of $4 million from the governor and from the prison guards union, which paid for a se-ries of racist and misleading television ads, frightened many voters into opposing it. Still, I remain ever hopeful.

I firmly believe in and support our criminal justice system. As such, I insist that it be a system that is fair and just, that it be a system that imposes punishment commensurate with the crime. California’s three-strikes law is anathema to such a system.

Judges ought not be forced to mete out long prison sentences for petty crimes, as I for-merly had to do.

Because I was unable to change the system from within, I left the bench. Now, I work to change it from without. ■

LaDoris Cordell is a Palo Alto resident and Stanford University administrator who serves on the Palo Alto City Council, while actively campaigning to modify the state’s three-strikes sentencing law and working on other social-justice issues. She can be e-mailed at [email protected] .

Guest Opinion

Check out Town Square!Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on

Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our commu-nity website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments, ask questions, read Diana Diamond’s blog or just stay up on what people are talking about around town!

There are 33 prisons in California, with more than 170,000 inmates. Our prisons are overcrowded and have been pronounced by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and two federal judges as being completely out of control. It costs more than $20,000 per year to house one inmate. But as these three-strike lifers age, they will cost us even more because of age-related health issues. Estimates are that the costs to taxpayers will rise to between $70,000 and $100,000 per inmate per year. In contrast, one year of drug treatment is approximately $10,000.

California’s three-strikes law costs too much and targets the wrong people.

veterans, homeless, infirm, police, fire and a strong defense. I believe in full and equal rights for gays,

women and minorities of all races, colors and religions.

I believe in funding stem-cell re-search and alternative energies and a woman’s right to choose. I believe we must protect the environment

and its entire species. I strongly believe in free speech and press and that the only way to combat speech we don’t like is with more free speech.

I think the time has come to ask

the Iraqi people to vote on whether or not they want us to stay. I believe that Jews have a right to govern their own land the size of New Jer-sey, especially since other religious groups and governments through

the centuries have treated them so badly. I believe that radical Islamic ideology is the biggest destabiliz-er in our world today and that the United Nations has been hijacked to impotence by the 57 nation Islamic voting bloc.

I don’t believe in racial profiling. I think we should all walk through airport metal detectors naked. As elections approach, who represents me?

Sheree RothJordan Place

Palo Alto

Peace? Please?Editor,

Jagjit Singh tries to make the case that Palestinians are not responsible for the “lack of progress in bringing about a peaceful settlement of the Middle East crisis” (Weekly, Oct. 4).

How can I take Singh’s comments seriously? We all know (including Singh) the Palestinians have reject-ed every peaceful settlement offer. In fact, the Palestinians are proud of it and wear it as a badge of honor.

We also know by their actions and words they have no interest or desire for peace. You can feel sorry for Palestinians all you want, Mr. Singh, just don’t try to convince us they want peace.

Greg SterlingLupin Lane

Atherton

Powerless U.N.Editor,

Jagjit Singh in his letter of Oct. 4 claims I am unaware of 65 U.N. resolutions critical of Israel.

Actually, I am aware of them and also aware that most, if not all, were backed by the 52 Muslim na-tions in the United Nations. With the help of African countries, the resolution passed easily. But the most revealing part of his letter is that there were “zero violations by Palestinians” — Yasir Arafat must be laughing in his grave when he hears that. The “king of terrorism” himself and not one violation di-rected at him.

It illustrates how powerless the United Nations is to call the Pales-tinians to task for their transgres-sions. They play victim and get a free pass.

For a better understanding of the Arab view of the Jews in Israel, recall that in 1937 the British Peel Commission offered a partition plan of the Palestinian territories that gave 15 percent of the terri-tory to the Jews and 85 percent to the Arabs. The Jews said yes. The Arab response was no, never, no, and started hostilities that continue to this day.

Apparently, Muslims can immi-grate to Europe, Australia, Amer-ica, etc., but a Jew immigrating to the Middle East, not on your life.

Imagine where we would be if the Arabs had accepted the plan. No suicide bombers, no malnour-ished children, no checkpoints, no refugees — just two nations living side by side.

Phil SmallerWilkie Way

Palo Alto

Page 22 • Wednesday, October 11, 2006 • Palo Alto Weekly

Spectrum

Letters(continued from page 20)


Spectrum

by Jeff Blum

A ccording to re-cent surveys most Americans be-

lieve that our country is headed in the wrong direction. I blame our leaders for this misdi-rection. It probably is not productive for me to join in our national pas-time of naming names or citing examples of wrongheaded thinking.

What is productive is to look at ways to improve.

One suggestion that we haven’t really tried is to empower our youth by allowing them to participate more actively in government operations.

I am excited by this concept. Allowing our qualified and intelligent students to par-ticipate in running things meets my goals of promoting diversity.

I believe in working to change things in-crementally. In this case, a baby step (no pun intended) might be to enlist qualified high school students to serve on civic boards and commissions.

The students who serve and the city could benefit from this new type of school/city partnership. We know that the City Council and school board have struggled at times to partner with one another. With some notable exceptions, they often work on parallel tracks or at odds.

Involving students in city government nec-essarily means engaging our teachers, school leaders and school administrators in the pro-cess as well. It is a package deal. The ideas and lessons that these empowered students bring back to the classroom from their board/

commission positions could enrich the class-room learning experience tremendously.

Students who serve on city boards and commissions could become our next genera-tion of city leaders. Consider the case of Gary Fazzino. He did not begin in city government while in high school but he became involved at a very young age — as a KZSU announcer of City Council meetings — and continued his involvement for years thereafter. He is still young but after years of leadership, in-cluding stints as mayor, we consider him an elder statesman and a knowledgeable histo-rian on our city government.

Students serving on city boards and com-missions could learn the inner workings of politics first hand. We can even encourage them to read great books to further their negotiating and leadership skills, such as “Getting to Yes” by Fisher and Ury and “On Becoming A Leader” by Bennis. I wonder how many existing council, board and com-mission members have read those.

In addition to creating a next generation of leaders, the city gains by creating more diverse boards and commissions, with new and perhaps different perspectives from a previously silent yet important part of our community.

Some may say I am crazy for suggesting that our youth are qualified to make impor-tant decisions concerning our cities’ opera-tions. The parent side of me disagrees. My teenage children often show me the errors of my ways. Moreover, if you think about it, can our children really screw things up more than some of our leaders have?

Now you see why I am excited!I first thought about this idea years ago,

when I served on the Site Council at Jordan Middle School, where my efforts at more ac-tively involving our middle school students in the operations of the Site Council met with some success, such as by having the students prepare their own opinion survey.

I am not alone in wanting to promote this

idea of student involvement. According to an article in the April 24, 2006, San Francisco Chronicle, nine agencies from San Francisco to Santa Cruz have teenagers on boards and commissions, along with cities across the country. Palo Alto’s school board has student representatives on it.

This new movement is being called “youth civic engagement.” It is partly driven by ce-lebrity endorsements of political and social causes, moral-issue campaigns by religious groups and teens who are informing them-selves through the Internet.

An effort is also underway by philan-thropic groups such as the Pew Charitable Trusts,David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation to involve youth in city-government decision making.

Youth civic engagement is also a popular topic of conversation in the academic world. Studies show that youth civic engagement helps students improve their ability to inter-pret political information, pay attention to world events and discuss civic and national affairs with peers and parents.

In terms of implementing this idea, I envi-sion first having students serve on boards and commissions where they are more likely to succeed. How about having students serve on the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Human Relations Commission?

I am optimistic that this youth civic en-gagement idea will work wonders for our youth and will foster better city/school con-nections. If I am right, perhaps we can then take another incremental step: Giving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote. ■

Jeff Blum, a family law attorney practic-ing in Redwood City, is a member of the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission and is on the board of the Palo Alto YMCA. He can be e-mailed at [email protected].

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Students serving on city boards and commissions could learn the inner workings of politics first hand. We can even encourage them to read great books to further their negotiating and leadership skills, such as “Getting to Yes” by Fisher and Ury and “On Becoming A Leader” by Bennis. I wonder how many existing council, board and commission members have read those.

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The Children’s Health CouncilThe Children’s

Health Council

The mission of the

Children’s Health

Council is to make

a measurable

difference in the

lives of children

and their families

who face develop-

mental, behavioral,

emotional and

learning challenges.

Recent Funders(partial listing)

Guidant Foundation

The Health Trust

The Louis R. Lurie

Foundation

Lucile Packard

Foundation for

Children’s Health

NetJets

Peninsula Community

Foundation

Sand Hill Foundation

See’s Candies

Sobrato Foundation

TOSA Foundation

The Valley

Foundation

Yahoo! Employee

Foundation

650 Clark Way

Palo Alto, CA 94304

Phone: 650.326.5530

Fax: 650.688.0206

www.chconline.org

NONPROFIT PROFILE: An Occasional Series Highlighting Local Nonprofit Organizations

THIS SPACE DONATED AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE BY THE PALO ALTO WEEKLY

Do you know a child who:seems to be behind in development?

has problems making friends?

iis displaying unusual emotions and behavior?s

struggling in school?

is displaying unusual emotions or behavior?

The Children’s Health CouncilAnswers for families, help for kids.The Children’s Health Council (CHC) has arich history of serving our community’s childrenand their families. Founded in 1953 by EstherB. Clark, one of Palo Alto’s first pediatricians,CHC provides assessment and treatment servicesin multiple disciplines, including psychiatry,psychology, neuropsychology, social work,education, behavior management, family therapy,speech and language therapy, occupationaltherapy and art therapy. Our goal is to helpchildren reach their maximum potentialby building on their strengths and teachingthem strategies to overcome theirchallenges. CHC’s multidisciplinaryapproach and areas of expertise –developmental and behavioralassessment of infants throughschool-aged children; childrenwith Autism Spectrum Disorders;preschool, school-aged andadolescent group therapy andchildren with complex medicalproblems – make it uniqueamong care providers in the Bay Area.

CHC provides services through four divisions.The initial entry into the Outpatient ClinicOutpatient ClinicOutpatient ClinicOutpatient ClinicOutpatient Clinicis the information and referral service. Expertstaff responded to more than 4,500 callsthis past year from parents and caregivers,offering them encouragement, referrals to othercommunity resources or information abouthelp available at CHC. The clinic providesassessment and treatment services to morethan 1,400 children and their familieseach year.

The Esther B. Clark SchoolEsther B. Clark SchoolEsther B. Clark SchoolEsther B. Clark SchoolEsther B. Clark School is a therapeuticday school for elementary, middle and highschool students who have significant learning,emotional, behavioral and/or developmentalchallenges. Located on-site at CHC, the schoolhas a capacity for up to 90 full-time students whoare referred by local school districts because theyare not able to function in regular schools. Usuallywithin one to two years, they learn the skillsthey need to transition successfully back.

CHC’s EEEEEducational Sducational Sducational Sducational Sducational Sererererervicesvicesvicesvicesvices division providesparent education through workshops and

the Parent Resource Center aswell as professional developmenttraining to hundreds of educatorseach year. CHC is a regional sitefor the Schools Attuned® program,which trains teachers to identifylearning differences in childrenand to develop teaching strategiesto foster academic success forall students.

Outcomes Measurement and ResearchOutcomes Measurement and ResearchOutcomes Measurement and ResearchOutcomes Measurement and ResearchOutcomes Measurement and Research evaluatesCHC programs regularly for quality andeffectiveness and also provides consultingto other non-profits that want to developtheir own capability for measuring programimpact and success.

Thanks to the generosity of individuals,corporations and foundations in ourcommunity, CHC is able to provide financialassistance to families who would otherwisenot be able to obtain services their childrenneed. The issues facing children and familieshave changed over the years, but CHC’scommitment to providing quality, family-focused services continues.

Chief ExecutiveOfficer

Stephen A. Joffe, M.S.W.

Board of Directors

Rosalie Whitlock, Ph.D.,

Chair

John G. Williams,

Vice Chair

Rita deSales French,

Ph.D., Secretary

Mark Gates, Treasurer

Mark Berryman,CPA

Elizabeth Dumanian

Curtis Feeny

Susan M. Hyatt

Ross Jaffe M.D.

Christine Johnson, Ph.D.

Robert A. Keller

Suzanne Killea

Michele Kirsch

Bren Leisure

Bettina McAdoo, M.D.

Patrick J. McGaraghan

Lisa Mooring

James Otieno

W. Jeffers Pickard

Lawrence M. Schwab

Joseph Seiger

Elizabeth Shen

Hans Steiner, M.D.

David Stevenson, M.D.

Deborah Stipek, Ph.D.

Dee Tolles

Quin Whitman

“Staff members

have huge hearts

and tremendousexpertise.”

Client’s mother

Do you know a child who:seems to be behind in development?

has problems making friends?

is struggling in school?

is displaying unusual emotions or behavior?


MoviesMovie reviews by Jeanne Aufmuth, Tyler Hanley, and Susan Tavernetti

Accepted (PG-13) Century 20: 12:50, 3:10, 5:35, 8 & 10:30 p.m.(Not Reviewed)All the King’s Men Century 20: 1:30, 4:25, 7:20 & 10:15 p.m. (PG-13) ✭1/2

An Inconvenient Truth Century 16: 11:25 a.m. & 1:40 p.m. (PG) ✭✭✭1/2

Barnyard: The Original Century 20: Noon & 2:35 p.m. Party Animals (PG) (Not Reviewed)The Black Dahlia (R) ✭✭✭ Century 16: Wed. at 4:20, 7:05 & 9:40 p.m.; Thu. at 4:20

& 10:30 p.m. Century 20: 11:35 a.m.; 2:15, 5, 7:45 & 10:25 p.m.

The Covenant (PG-13) Century 20: 10:05 p.m. (Not Reviewed)The Departed (R) ✭✭✭1/2 Century 16: 11:15 a.m.; 12:15, 1:15, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:45,

6:45, 7:45, 9 & 10 p.m. Century 12: Noon, 1:05, 2:15, 3:20, 4:25, 5:30, 6:40, 7:55, 8:55 & 9:55 p.m.

The Devil Wears Prada Century 20: 11:35 a.m.; 2:20, 5:15, 7:40 & 10:10 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭✭

Employee of the Month Century 16: 12:20, 2:50, 5:20, 7:50 & 10:15 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭ Century 20: 11:55 a.m.; 1:10, 2:30, 3:35, 4:55, 6, 7:20, 8:30

& 9:45 p.m. Everyone’s Hero (G) Century 20: 12:40, 3, 5:10, 7:25 & 9:30 p.m.(Not Reviewed)Flyboys (PG-13) ✭✭ Century 16: 3:45 & 6:50 p.m. Century 12: 12:45, 4:10, 7:10 &

10:20 p.m. Gridiron Gang Century 20: 1:25, 4:15, 7:05 & 9:50 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭✭

The Guardian Century 16: 1, 4, 7 & 10:10 p.m. Century 20: 11:30 a.m.; (PG-13) ✭✭1/2 12:45, 2:30, 3:50, 5:30, 7, 8:30 & 10 p.m. Half Nelson (R) ✭✭✭✭ CinéArts at Palo Alto Square: 3:25 & 7:35 p.m. Hollywoodland (R) ✭✭✭ Century 16: 11:35 a.m.; 2:15, 4:55, 7:40 & 10:20 p.m.

Century 20: 11:55 a.m.; 2:40 & 10:15 p.m. The Illusionist Century 16: 12:25, 2:55, 5:25, 7:55 & 10:30 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭✭ Century 20: 11:25 a.m.; 1:50, 4:20, 5:20, 6:50, 7:50 & 9:25

p.m. Jackass: Number Two Century 16: 11:20 a.m.; 1:30, 3:35, 5:50, 8:05 & 10:25 p.m. (R) (Not Reviewed) Century 20: 11:45 a.m.; 12:55, 2:20, 3:25, 4:35, 5:50, 7:05,

8:05, 9:15 & 10:20 p.m. Jesus Camp Aquarius: 3, 5, 7:30 & 9:40 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭✭1/2

Jet Li’s Fearless Century 16: Noon, 2:20, 5:10, 7:30 & 9:50 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭ Century 12: 12:10, 2:35, 5, 7:35 & 10:05 p.m. Keeping Mum (R) Century 16: 12:05, 2:25, 4:45, 7:15 & 9:30 p.m. (Not Reviewed)The Last Kiss (R) ✭✭ Century 16: 12:45 & 9:45 p.m. Century 20: 12:05, 2:30,

5:05, 7:35 & 10 p.m. Little Miss Sunshine Century 20: 11:40 a.m.; 12:30, 2:15, 2:55, 4:40, 7:10, 9:35 & (R) ✭✭✭ 10:30 p.m. Aquarius: 2:10, 4:30, 7 & 9:20 p.m. Open Season Century 16: 11:30 a.m.; 12:35, 1:35, 2:45, 3:40, 4:50, 6, (PG) (Not Reviewed) 7:10, 8:10, 9:20 & 10:20 p.m. Century 12: 12:05, 1, 1:35,

2:25, 3:10, 4:05, 4:40, 5:35, 6:15, 7, 7:45, 8:25, 9:10, 10 & 10:30 p.m.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Century 20: 12:35, 3:45 & 7 p.m. Dead Man’s Chest (PG-13) ✭✭

Quinceanera (R) ✭✭1/2 CinéArts at Palo Alto Square: 1:30, 5:40 & 9:50 p.m. School for Scoundrels Century 16: 12:10, 2:35, 5:15, 7:35 & 9:55 p.m. (PG-13) ✭✭ Century 12: 12:20, 1:15, 2:45, 3:50, 5:10, 6:20, 7:30, 8:40 &

10:15 p.m. The Science of Sleep Century 20: 11:50 a.m.; 2:25, 4:55, 7:30 & 9:55 p.m. (R) (Not Reviewed) CinéÁrts at Palo Alto Square: 2, 4:30, 7:10 & 9:45 p.m. Step Up (PG-13) Century 20: 4:45, 7:15 & 9:45 p.m. (Not Reviewed)Talladega Nights: The Century 20: 5:25 & 7:50 p.m. Ballad of Ricky Bobby (PG-13) ✭✭✭

The Texas Chainsaw Century 16: 11:40 a.m.; 1:45, 3:50, 5:55, 8 & 10:05 p.m. Massacre: The Begin- Century 20: 12:10, 1:15, 2:25, 3:20, 4:30, 5:30, 6:45, 7:45, 9 ning (R) (Not Reviewed) & 9:55 p.m. The U.S. vs. John Lennon Guild: 2:20, 4:40, 7 & 9:30 p.m.(PG-13) ✭✭✭

MOVIE TIMES

★ Skip it ★★ Some redeeming qualities ★★★ A good bet ★★★★ Outstanding

Aquarius: 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto (266-9260)

Century Cinema 16: 1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View (960-0970)

Century Park 12: 557 E. Bayshore Blvd., Redwood City (365-9000)

Century 20 Downtown: 825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City (369-3456)

CinéArts at Palo Alto Square: 3000 El Camino Real, Palo Alto (493-3456)

Guild: 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park (266-9260)

Stanford: 221 University Ave., Palo Alto (324-3700)

Internet address: For show times, plot synopses, trailers and more information about films playing, go to Palo Alto Online at http://www.PaloAltoOnline.com/

The Stanford Theatre is at 221 University Ave. in Palo Alto. Screenings are for Wednesday and Thursday. For more informa-tion, go to www.stanfordtheatre.org.

In Old Chicago (1937) Don Ameche and Tyrone Power play brothers in this film about the fighting O’Leary clan, whose cow started the famous Chicago fire. 7:30 p.m.

Ladies in Love (1936) Three girls looking for love rent an apartment in Budapest. Starring Janet Gaynor, Lo-retta Young and Constance Bennett. 5:35 & 9:55 p.m.

STANFORD THEATRE

Note: Screenings are for Wednesday through Thursday only.

Stratford SchoolPreschool and Elementary School

in Palo Alto!To learn more about Stratford or to schedule a tour,

please call (650) 493-1151 or email [email protected].

www.stratfordschools.com

NOW PLAYING

All the King’s Men ✭1/2(Century 20) Director Steve Zaillian makes a cinematic muddle of Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, not to mention the memory of the 1949 Oscar classic. Sean Penn is surprisingly monoto-nous as low-rent traveling salesman Willie Stark, hand-picked by shady operator Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini) to enter the Loui-siana governor’s race as a power-to-the-little-people dark horse. Duffy’s agenda is opaque at best: putting Stark on a soapbox in order to garner votes for the wealthy incumbent. Stark finally realizes he’s a sacrificial sap, and — in the film’s only truly powerful scene — delivers an impassioned oration that gives goose bumps. Sloppy where it should be slick: what a letdown. Rated: PG-13 for violence and partial nu-dity. 2 hours, 8 minutes. — J.A. (Reviewed Sept. 22, 2006)

The Departed ✭✭✭1/2(Century 16, Century 12) Director Martin Scorsese’s latest masterpiece defies the crime-fiction genre and throws more curves than a Major League pitcher. Wily Irish mobster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) is wanted man number one for the Boston State police. The unhinged gangster stays one step ahead of the men in blue thanks to Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a mole in the department who’s worked for Costello since childhood. On the other side of the spectrum is undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), an honorable yet hot-tempered young officer who manages to infiltrate Costello’s crew thanks to a helping of suspect family history. Sullivan and Costigan quickly find themselves in a cat-and-mouse game to try and unmask the other. Sullivan uses every detective tool at his disposal to identify Costigan but gets no help from the surly sergeant (Mark Wahl-berg as Dignam) responsible for Costigan’s undercover assignment. Meanwhile, Costi-gan does his best from inside the seedy underworld to track down Sullivan and blow the whistle. Deceptions, double-crosses and deaths ensue. With the help of slick

(continued on next page)

The following is a sampling of movies recently reviewed in the Weekly:

writing, an A-list cast and plenty of twisted surprises, Scorsese scores again. Rated: R for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material. 2 hours, 29 minutes. — T.H. (Reviewed Oct. 6, 2006)

Employee of the Month ✭✭(Century 16, Century 12) The concept is so absurd it’s hardly worth putting down on paper: two workers at Super Club, a Costco-esque megastore, compete to win employee of the month in an effort to woo the hot new checker. The workers in ques-tion are Zack (Dane Cook) and Vince (Dax Shepard). Zack is an easygoing box boy beloved by his fellow employees but un-recognized by management. Vince is the world’s most arrogant checker, a flashy suck-up who entertains patrons with his speed and style. Vince has earned em-ployee of the month 17 straight times and looks to make it a record 18. Zack couldn’t care less — until gorgeous new checker Amy (Jessica Simpson) joins the Super Club team. According to her file, Amy only dates the employee of the month. Cook serves up some tasty laughs but “Employee of the Month” feels processed. Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and language. 1 hour, 43 minutes. — T.H. (Reviewed Oct. 6, 2006)

Movies

Page 26 • Wednesday, October 11, 2006 • Palo Alto Weekly

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Gael Garcia BernalTHE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (R)Wed. & Thu. (2-4:30) 7:10-9:45

Emily RiosDouble Feature

QUINCEANERA (R)Wed. & Thu. (1:30-5:40) 9:50

Ryan GoslingHALF NELSON (R)- Plus -

Wed. & Thu. (3:25) 7:35

Times Valid For Wednesday, 10/11 thru Saturday,10/14 Only © 2006

ANXIOUS TIMES: SEEING BEYOND AWORLD OF PERPETUAL THREATS

PanelistsJohn L. Hennessy, Stanford President and Bing Presidential ProfessorJean-Pierre Garnier, CEO, GlaxoSmithKlineThe Hon. Anthony M. Kennedy, Supreme Court justiceWilliam Perry, former Secretary of Defense, Berberian Professor in the School of EngineeringDr. Lucy Shapiro, Ludwig Professor of developmental biology and cancer researcherGeorge P. Shultz, former Secretary of State, Ford Distinguished Fellow, Hoover InstitutionJerry Yang, co-founder, Yahoo!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 149:00-11:15 A.M.MAPLES PAVILION, STANFORD UNIVERSITY

www.stanford.edu/roundtableThe fi nal decade of the 20th century was a time of great optimism. The fall of the Iron Curtain, expansion of the European Union, and the technology revolutions of the 1990s promised to unite diverse people.Yet, in the fi rst decade of the 21st century, this optimism has faded in the face of myriad threats: terrorism and nuclear proliferation, virulent pandemics, our global dependence on oil, and the often unsettling implications of an interconnected planet.What is the way forward in the midst of these challenges? What is Stanford doing to help address these issues?Join us for this provocative discussion hosted by Stanford President John Hennessy and moderated by veteran journalist Ted Koppel.

TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR $10 EACH AT THE

STANFORD TICKET OFFICE: 650-725-ARTS (2787)TED KOPPELBOB SEVERI/DISCOVERY

the roundtable at Stanford University presents

(continued from previous page)

ThursdayTim Craighead exhibits mono-types and other works at Smith Andersen Editions at 440 Pepper Ave. in Palo Alto through Nov. 8. A reception is set for Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m., and gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call 650-327-7762 or go to www.smithandersen.com.The Community School of Mu-sic and Arts gets a jump start on the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations by bringing in Maria de la Rosa, director of heritage programs at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose; to speak. The lively lecture, scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m., is free and will include examples of folk art and music. The school is at 230 San Antonio Circle in Mountain View. Call 650-917-6800 or go to www.arts4all.org.“The Underpants,” a play by Steve Martin (adapted from a 1910 Carl Sternheim satire on the German middle class), runs through Oct. 15 at 535 Alma St. in Palo Alto. Tickets are $15 general and $10 for students and seniors. Call 650-493-2006 or go to www.dragonproductions.net.Photographer Jock Sturges ex-hibits recent color photos from 2003 to 2006 at Stellar Somerset Gallery at 539 Bryant St. in Palo Alto. He often shoots nude mod-els; many of these people are close friends he has known for years. The exhibit goes through Nov. 26, with open hours Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 650-328-6688.“Dessa Rose,” a musical from the creators of “Ragtime” about a friendship between a Southern belle and a runaway slave girl, is having its West Coast premiere at TheatreWorks. The show runs through Oct. 29 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts at 500 Castro St. Tickets are $35-$62. Call 650-903-6000 or go to theatreworks.org.

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night”runs through Oct. 22 at the Pear Avenue Theatre. Performances are Thursday through Sunday at the theater at 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K, Mountain View. Tickets are $10-$25; call 650-254-1148 or go to www.thepear.org.

FridayWest Bay Opera opens its 51st season with a bang, with Verdi’s retelling of Shakespeare’s ruth-less classic “Macbeth.” Shows are Oct. 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 (Fridays and Saturdays at 8; Sundays at 2) at the Lucie Stern Theatre at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for students. Call 650-424-9999 or go to www.wbopera.org.The Ives Quartet welcomes its new violist, Jodi Levitz, and bids farewell to the departing Scott Woolweaver at a concert tonight at 8 p.m. The program includes Mozart’s Viola Quintet in G minor, K. 516; and new works by Scot-tish composers Graham Hair and Margaret McAllister. The Mockingbird Quartet will also be featured. The concert is at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 600 Colorado Ave., and tickets are $25 general, $20 for seniors and $15 for students. (Children 12 and under are free.) Go to www.ives-quartet.org.“Iraq for Sale: The War Profi-teers” is a new documentary film by Robert Greenwald being shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitar-ian Universalist Church of Palo Alto at 505 E. Charleston Road. The 75-minute film probes private corporations operating in Iraq. Suggested donation is $5 to $10. Call 650-283-3797 or go to www.uucpa.org.

SaturdayJournalist Ted Koppel is sched-uled to moderate a panel discus-sion on “Anxious Times: Seeing Beyond A World of Perpetual

Threats” from 9 to 11:15 a.m. at Maples Pavilion at Stanford Uni-versity. Panelists will include U.S. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and Stanford president John L. Hennessy. Tickets are $10; call 650-725-ARTS or go to www.stanford.edu/roundtable.“Computer Music on the Farm: The Beginning” is scheduled to bring a panel discussion (3:30 p.m.) and a concert (6:34 p.m. -- sunset) to the Knoll at 660 Lomita Drive on the Stanford University campus. The event will delve into the early days on computer music at Stanford, focusing on professors Leland Smith and John Chowning. The concert will include pieces by those profes-sors. The event is free; call 650-326-5596.Foothill College will host the fifth annual Book Arts Jam from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some 30 area artisans will exhibit their work, involving handmade paper, prints, and books, of course. There will be live demonstrations of vari-ous creative processes, including book-making, calligraphy, screen printing, and paper making. Laura Mappin will show visitors how to make an edible book from lico-rice and fruit leather. Go to www.bayareabookartists.org. Admis-sion is free, but bring $2 in quar-ters for parking. Mac Martin will perform tradition-al bluegrass at an 8 p.m. concert at the First Presbyterian Church in Mountain View, accompanied by the California Travelers. Martin rarely travels, and this will be the

third concert he has done in Cali-fornia, organizers said. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 on the day of the show. Call 650-691-9982 or go to www.rba.org. The California Bach Societybrings a program of Bach and his family to All Saints’ Episcopal Church at 555 Waverley St. in Palo Alto beginning at 8 p.m. The program includes Bach’s motet “Jesu, meine Freude.” Tickets are $25 general, $18 for seniors and $10 for students. Call 415-262-0272 or go to www.calbach.org.

SundayThe St. Lawrence String Quartetkicks off the first of three Sunday afternoon concerts at Stanford Lively Arts today at 2:30 p.m. in Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Bosnian pianist Pedja Muzijevic will join as guest artist. The program includes works by Mozart and Shostakov-ich. Tickets are $44/$40 for adults and $22/$20 for Stanford stu-dents, with other discounts avail-able. Call 650-725-ARTS or go to livelyarts.stanford.edu.The Fortnightly Music Club hosts a program of music at the Palo Alto Art Center auditorium at 1313 Newell Road, beginning at 8 p.m. The free event includes pianist

Patricia Cheng playing Bach and Brahms; bass-baritone Kang Liu and pianist Marjorie Cassingham performing and Handel, Schubert, Mozart and Foster; and other mu-sicians. Call 650-522-8152,The Sippy Cups bring a party for children to the Cubberley Com-munity Center at 4000 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, including their family-friendly rock music, juggling and giant puppets. There will be two shows, at 1 and 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for kids ages 1 to 12. Call 415-335-4422 or go to www.thesippycups.com.Mary Bartnikowski is showing her new giclees on canvas (pho-tos printed directly on the canvas) during an afternoon party at Vino Locale at 431 Kipling St. in Palo Alto. The party, which goes from 2 to 5 p.m., also includes wine and refreshments. Call 650-328-0450.

Weekend Preview

FilmTwo new documentaries by lo-

cal filmmakers probe alleged ir-regularities in the 2004 presidential election.

TheaterA review of TheatreWorks’

production of the musical “Dessa Rose.”

MoviesReviews of “Infamous,” “Short-

bus” and “Man of the Year.”

COMING UP IN FRIDAY’S WEEKEND EDITION

ON THE WEB: Comprehensive entertainment listings at www.PaloAltoOnline.com


The St. Lawrence String Quartet performs at Stanford Lively Arts this Sunday afternoon.

The latest posting on arts editor Rebecca Wallace’s blog has a Radio Free Europe video file from the Hungarian 1956 revolution -- it’s a vivid look at the past. Go to www.PaloAl-toOnline.com and click on Ad Libs.

This dramatic Lady Macbeth costume was designed by Richard W. Bat-tle for West Bay Opera, where the opera "Macbeth" opens this Friday night.

Anthony Parmelee


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A very elegant & rare 4BR/2.5BA Colonial on a serene tree-lined St. Very lrg lot Corn lot, Fntstic flr plan w/upgrades. Huge Mstr Ste w/sitting Rm. Frml Ent, eat-in kitch, Frplc in LR, Hdwd flrs, Lndry inside, util Rm, Pat & 2 car Gar. Victor Platinoff $1,495,000

LOS ALTOS HILLS

Unsurpassed quality, architectural detail, and thoughtful design are elegantly reflected in this Old Word European-style gated estate. 5 BR, 5.5 BA. Limestone/Slate and Pecan floors, 5 Limestone fireplaces. Formal office, Wine cellar, Exercise room, Entertainment Room, 8-12 car garage. Completed guesthouse.Susan Furstman $13,500,000

MENLO PARK

This exceptional new home with 5BD and 4.5BA is located in highly desirable Menlo Oaks. The two-story open floor-plan includes a chef ’s kitchen with travertine floors and a balcony overlooking the spacious family room. The many mature trees and lush garden, viewed from the master suites on both floors, create tranquility and peace of mind.Brian Castile $2,695,000

Charm abounds in this two story 3 BD/2BA Allied Arts gem. Dramatic, yet cozy vaulted ceiling living room, with wood-burning fireplace and wall of windows, overlooks landscaped rear yard and patio. Sunny, remodeled eat-in kitchen, with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Hardwood floors throughout, two car garage. Beautiful garden. Excellent Oak Knoll Schools.Elizabeth Daschbach $1,295,000

MOUNTAIN VIEW

Excellent opportunity to build a new home. Preliminary plans for new house plus a 2 car garage. Los Altos High School District.Paul Skrabo $499,000

Lovely new 4BR/2.5BA home in unique loc near dwntown, library, park, Bubb Elem & more! Offers upscale finishes including high ceil, grnt cntrs, hrwd flrs thru-out 1st flr, lndry rm inside, 2 ovens, milgard dbl pane windows, frplc in LR.Dory Marhamat $1,099,000

PALO ALTO

Prime Old Palo Alto! Charm abounds in this 4BD / 2BA property. Remodeled Gourmet Kitchen, Built ins, Sun porch off LR, 3rd BD w/fireplace. New landscaping and top Palo Alto Schools.Camille Eder $2,575,000

REDWOOD CITY

Charming 3BR/2BA in Farm Hill area. Open flr plan includes Mstr Ste w/picture window w/views of bay & city lights, FR, spacious updated kitch w/Corrian Cntr tops & breakfast bar. Wall to wall newer carpet, 2 car garage. Arnon Matityahu $990,000

SAN FRANCISCO

Designed by award winning architect Stanley Saitowitz! 2BR/2BA, xtra lrg Balc, Cherry Hdwd flrs, Grnt Cntrs, Fiber-optics for fast internet, washer/dryer. One of the few Balc lofts in the building & the only one available for sale! Arnon Matityahu $969,000

SAN JOSE

Investment property located in rapidly transforming neigh-borhood with new development. Ten units that are being updated while property is on the market. New units avail-able for previewing.Susan Furstman $1,495,000

WOODSIDE

Woodside…Unique Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Design. Lush tranquil settings. Separate dome for additional living space. Ocean views from some locations on the property. Quiet, private and unique. Portola Valley Schools.Camille Eder $1,475,000

SAN JOSE…Beautifully maintained Northwood Park rancher in lovely private location. Fully upgraded kitchen and baths. Hardwood floors and wall to wall carpet throughout this lovely home. Freshly painted with new windows. Fantastic landscaping.JULIA T. KEADY $699,000

SALE PENDING

MENLO PARK…Majestic Oaks and Redwoods surround this beauti-fully landscaped home located on one of the most desirable streets in West Menlo Park. This spacious remodeled six bedroom, four bath home combines a thoughtful floor plan with tasteful appointments and quality workmanship. Ideal for comfortable living with a serene atmosphere.SUSAN FURSTMAN $3,650,000

PALO ALTO…Beautiful Cape Cod style home in desirable Palo Alto location. This 4 BR / 3.5 BA home features updated kitchen and bath complete with marble and granite. Added benefits include gorgeous planked hardwood flooring, grand arched doorways and handsome moldings throughout. Private backyard is highlighted with stunning landscaped grounds and covered brick patio.JAMI ARAMI $3,195,000

ATHERTON… A large, wrap around driveway welcomes you to this traditional ranch home located in the desirable Lindenwood location. This 4BR/3BR home boasts a formal entry, formal dining room, and dual sided fireplace. Set on a generous & private landscaped lot w/fruit trees. Sunny, tree-lined backyard offers a deck for gatherings and entertaining.JOHN COYLE $3,095,000

MENLO PARK…Charm and more charm in this perfectly updated home. Highest of quality materials throughout this 2BR/1BA house. Light and bright with dual pane windows and gleaming hardwood floors. Bonus room/office and 2 car garage. Los Lomitas Schools.ALEXANDRA VON DER GROEBEN $950,000

MENLO PARK… The ultimate West Menlo Park lifestyle. 4 bed-room suites / 5 bath. A magnificent property located in a sought after location bordering Atherton, yet close to downtown. Set in a private cul-de-sac off prestigious San Mateo Drive, is this classic updated ranch home. A gracious one-level floor plan, abundant wrap around porches and sprawling lawns offer the perfect venue for indoor/out-door living. JAMI ARAMI $3,395,000

palo vol. xxviii, number 1 • wednesday, october 11, 2006 alto · 2006-10-11 · vol. xxviii,...

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