The Burlingame Voice

Burlingame Library's Mysterious California Series

As part of the Mysterious California series, there will be a Book Discussion tonight in the Lane Room: Wednesday, April 30th at 7:00 PM Shell Games by Kirk Russell (click here for more information)

- Written by Fiona

Spanish Immersion Paid Intern Discussion

Parents, union speak out against paid intern - New position causes controversy over Spanish immersion program (by Mark Abramson/Daily News) Union leaders and administrators in the Burlingame School District on Tuesday night spoke out against a plan to have parents pay for an intern to assist in the district's Spanish immersion program. After hearing the unions's concerns and from parents during a special study session, the school board directed all of the sides to work together to come up with a solution to the matter. Officials in the teachers and classified employees union said they were concerned that bringing in an intern from a Spanish-speaking country would circumvent organized labor. They argued that the intern would essentially be a replacement for a unionized aide position, which is being eliminated by the district next year. They also argued that providing such a position to one teacher would not be equitable to other faculty members and their students. "If the district proceeds to fill the above referenced aide position ... the union will pursue legal remedies"? said Kathleen Martin, president of the California School Employees Association Chapter 46. Annette De Maria, the president of the Burlingame Education Association teachers union, said the district would be subcontracting our work.We are prepared to enforce our rights, and that may mean filing a grievance (with the Public Employee Relations Board),? De Maria said. One of the district's core values is equity for all students, said Paula Valerio, the principal at McKinley Elementary School, which houses the immersion program. Valerio told the board that she has looked into other options besides an intern. She indicated that she contacted several universities about using a bilingual student teacher. The district planned to eliminate the position when the immersion program enters its second year in the fall, and it is expanded from the kindergarten to include first graders as well. District officials said using an aide to launch a program in its first year is commonplace. The intern idea came from school board president Michael Barber, who used a consultant's suggestion. He started researching the idea of working with the San Diego-based Amity Institute to provide an intern to enhance the program. He also enlisted parents to cover the costs. "I feel responsible for it, so if there is frustration for it, please take it out on me. Start throwing your tomatoes at me. I'll take credit, and I'll take the blame,"? Barber said during the meeting. Board members expressed mixed feelings about the intern and about how the matter was handled. Board Clerk Liz Gindraux suggested the district look into all the options and table the decision to work with Amity for now. Trustee Marc Friedman said he does not believe the board should take action and suggested that parents, the school, and union officials work together to find a solution. Kimathi Marangu, who has a son in the immersion program, said parents were just stepping up to help their children after Barber approached them in February. "The parents rallied, and we answered the call,"? Marangu said. "We have immense trust in our teacher, and we are here to continue that tradition that we will answer the call when asked."? An intern would cost $1,495 a year plus a $150 a month stipend, and a host family would have to provide housing for that person. Amity officials have said they have seen parents raise money or foot the bill for interns, and school districts nationwide have paid for the program. (Additonal comment to this article)

- Written by Fiona

Public Transport in Burlingame?

Public transportation for city residents (Daily Journal) Editor,

By now we have all heard about global warming and peak oil haven't you? Global warming is serious climate change caused by burning too much oil, and peak oil means the price will go nowhere but up and up. (Gas is $4 a gallon now and will be $5 by this summer). Burlingame has some shuttles to serve people who come to our city on BART. We pay for shuttles to take workers from the BART station to their jobs at the Bayside hotels, and a shuttle to take people from the BART station to work at the hospital or go to a private girl's high school, but no shuttles to serve the needs of the residents of Burlingame. People who live west of El Camino have no way but their car to get anywhere. I think our City Council should reevaluate our present shuttle service and consider the needs of people who live and pay taxes in our city. In the past, Burlingame residents were not interested in public transportation. We enjoy driving our cars, but now that the gas is so expensive, we may be ready to use public transportation, (if we had any). I think we should spend our city funds for public transportation for the residents of our city. Patricia Gray, Burlingame

### The Burlingame Green Trolley is free and open to everyone and stops at the bayfront hotels, Broadway and Burlingame Avenue environs. The trolley service does not start in the Broadway/downtown area until 11:54 am in the morning so it is not convenient for an early start to the day unlike the ... Regular Samtrans buses - they are reliable, clean and they are affordable ($1.50 and up) but only convenient if you are close to bus stops on El Camino and California Drive

- Written by Fiona

Burlingame's Spanish Immersion Program

Future of Spanish immersion program to be discussed Daily Journal Long-term goals and objects for the Spanish immersion program at McKinley Elementary will be the topic of a special study session by the Burlingame Elementary School District Board of Trustees tonight. After a long planning process and a deadline extension to find a teacher, the district found an 11th-hour solution allowing it to start teaching Spanish to children during this school year. Originally, the district found enough interest in the community to move forward with an immersion program earlier this school year, but couldn't find a teacher to build the new curriculum until now. Unfortunately, the district only found one teacher allowing the kindergarten to start in the fall but not the first-grade class. Interest in the program was originally studied for both Mandarin and Spanish. The district allowed parents of current kindergartners and preschoolers to sign up with their preference of either language by deadline. A total of 133 students who signed up were eligible 56 in Mandarin, 72 Spanish and two for either. Although there was enough interest to start a program in both languages, the district didn't have the funds or space to do so. Only McKinley Elementary has space to start a program. It was later decided to go forward with a Spanish program at McKinley with $100,000 set aside to help fund the startup. The board meets 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 29 at the district office, 1825 Trousdale Drive. Additional article in the Burlingame Daily News.

- Written by Fiona

Historic Downtown Buildings

The City of Burlingame has engaged Carey & Co. to complete an inventory of historic resources for the Downtown Specific Area Plan to determine which structures appear eligible for listing on the California or National Registers of Historic Places. The full report is 40 pages long, but here are the 23 structures that appear eligible:

201 Anita Road Folk Victorian 1300-1310 Bayswater Ave. (St. Catherine's of Siena Catholic Church and School) Gothic Revival 1422 Bellevue Ave. Italian Renaissance 1021 Burlingame Ave. (Packard Showroom) Modified Moorish 1100 Burlingame Ave. (Bank of Burlingame/American Trust Co.) Classical Revival 1435 Burlingame Ave. (First Interstate Bank) Art Deco 1480 Burlingame Ave (PT&T Co. Building) 200 California Dr. (Peninsula Rapid Transit Building) Mission Revival 220 California Dr. (Severn Lodge Dairy Wall advertisement) 290 California Dr. (Railroad Station) Mission Revival 1427 Chapin Ave. (Farrell Residence) 1214 Donnelly Ave. (George W. Gates House) Shingle style 1124 Douglas Ave. (Dr. A. L. Offield Residence) 1128 Douglas Ave. (James R. Murphy Residence) 1132 Douglas Ave. (Everett J. Savill Residence) Queen Anne style 1452 Floribunda Ave. French Eclectic 1500 Floribunda Ave. French Eclectic 1443 Howard Ave. (First Methodist Church) Spanish Eclectic 12 Lorton Ave. Craftsman style 283-287 Lorton Ave. (Burlingame Hotel) 1421 Oak Grove Ave. French Eclectic 1449 Oak Grove Ave. (First Church of Christ, Scientist) Spanish & Classical Revival 220 Park Road (United States Post Office) Art Deco

The full report is very interesting reading from a consulting firm that knows of what it speaks.

- Written by Joe

Burlingame Crime Data

City's crimes to be pinpointed online (by Mike Rosenberg, Examiner) BURLINGAME (Map, News) - A citywide virtual crime map will soon be at the fingertips of all Burlingame residents, who will be alerted when their neighbors are assaulted, robbed or vandalized. The Burlingame Police Department will soon upload the city's crime data to the Web site www.crimereports.com. The site is updated daily and works as a Google map for crime, showing pins marking where every police report in the city was made. If a car is stolen on the 700 block of El Camino Real, for instance, a pin that reads V? for vehicle theft will be placed at that address, showing the time and location of the incident. Residents can choose what type of crimes they want to show up on the map and specify a time frame. There is also an alert system that sends residents an e-mail each time certain types of crimes are reported in specific neighborhoods. The information should help residents prevent their neighborhoods from falling victim to crime trends, Burlingame police Cmdr. Mike Matteucci said. Residents can see when their neighbors have been burglarized, and make the extra effort to call police when they see suspicious activity, he said. Nine California police agencies, including ones in Palo Alto and San Jose, currently upload crime information to the Web site. The Web site uses a software program that runs inside a police department's network and pulls out relevant crime data. Burlingame is the first city in the county to sign up for the Web site, but one other unnamed department on the Peninsula will likely do the same soon, crimereports.com CEO Greg Whisenanp said. The program costs $99 per month for cities with fewer than 50,000 residents and $199 monthly for larger municipalities. The virtual crime map is not the only new piece of map-related technology Burlingame police are adding. They also are following Foster City's lead by installing a new GPS-type system called the Automatic Vehicle Locator. The system allows dispatchers and officers to see exactly where each police car is in the field and determine which officer is closest to an emergency. The Foster City Police Department added the technology in 2006.

- Written by Fiona

Young Thespians in Burlingame

Shakespeare camp offers youths engaging lessons Program teaches plays' meanings, acting skills By Kyveli Diener, CORRESPONDENT

SAN MATEO For the Bay Area youths who ask themselves to be or not to be, there will be an opportunity to question whether'tis nobler for the mind to suffer endless video games or spend the summer performing Shakespearean theater. The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival has been hosting summer Shakespeare camps since 1993, in which 7- to 18-year-olds learn the meaning of Shakespeare's words, hone their acting skills and stage a performance for their friends and family at the end of each session. Four sessions will be held from June through August in San Mateo, Palo Alto and Burlingame, and the camps are already enrolled to half of their capacity, Shakespeare Festival marketing director John Western said. "We already have kids (who are) signed up for two sessions, which is not unusual, but it's rare," Western said, adding that about two-thirds of the students who sign up are returning actors. Although curriculum is changed slightly each summer to accommodate returning campers, the camp focuses on three important areas of theater. The first, Discovering Shakespeare, educates the children about the intricate meanings behind Shakespeare's words, as well as giving them background information on Elizabethan life. In Voice and Movement, the kids learn how to project their voices, and gain a base in acting through theater games and improvisation practice. Finally, they have the opportunity to design their costumes, build their sets, and create their props for the final performance during the production and design portion of the camp.Rebecca Ennals, who is entering her sixth year as camp director, said the children make costumes out of recycled fabric from a San Francisco upholstery factory, decorate poster paper or shower curtains for the backdrop and make props such as swords out of cardboard and aluminum foil. "It's a very low-key, kind of do-it-yourself scale," Ennals said. "It's supposed to be a fun and learning experience, so we don't expect the shows to be fully professional productions." Ennals also said that "it does astonish me what they can achieve in two weeks with less rehearsal than any children's theater production I've ever been a part of." She specifically mentioned two sisters from San Mateo who went from quiet, shy girls to vociferous, over-the-top comedians after three sessions of Shakespeare Camp. Cathy Brenman, the mother of these theatrical butterflies Andi and Parisa Kabiri, 11 and 10, respectively said the girls were excited to attend the camp when it was announced after a free Shakespeare in the Park performance in San Mateo's Central Park last year. Because the girls attend year-round schools, the April and October intersession camps fit their schedules better than the summer camps, but Brenman said she hopes to enroll the girls in the Palo Alto camp. She said the camp has given her daughters confidence in areas outside of acting. "I had no idea they stuck to the original Shakespearean English. I thought it would be a watered-down kiddy version," she said. "It's a perfect example that if you have high expectations of kids they will rise to them. (My girls) really understand how special it is, and I get that sense from all the kids." Brenman said she was happy to see the camp enrollment double during the month's spring intersession, which ended April 11. As a full-time working mom, she said she has sent her daughters to "every camp in San Mateo," and that this is both their favorite and her favorite. "It's the teachers, it's all about the teachers," she said. "Andi and Parisa have had six different teachers, each one as talented and enthusiastic and inspiring as the next." Western said that this summer, the 7- to 8-year-olds will be performing a collection of scenes following the theme of Shakespeare's faraway lands, 9- to 10-year-olds will perform the comedy "Twelfth Night," 11- to 12-year-olds will perform "Winter's Tale," and 12- to 18-year-olds will perform "Pericles" or "Cymbeline," depending on the size of the group. All sessions take place on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Two sessions will be held at the Odyssey School in San Mateo for 7- to 13-year-olds, the first June 16-27 and the second July 21 to August 1. A session for 12- to 18-year-olds will be held at Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto July 7-18. The final session will be held at the Recreation Center on Burlingame Ave. for 7- to 13-year-olds August 4-15. Each camp session costs $420, and aftercare is available for 7- to 13-year-olds for an additional $135. First-come, first-served registrations can be made by phone at 415-558-0888 or at http://www.sfshakes.org.

### Anyone who has seen the Burlingame Shakespeare Camps performance at the end of two weeks of theatre camp will be amazed what the kids can do with the King's/Queen's English!

- Written by Fiona

John Horgan notes a "Job Opening"

From the Sunday San Mateo Times' column by John Horgan:

Job Opening -- The speculation has already begun in the wake of San Mateo City Manager Arne Croce's retirement announcement. Besides his immediate deputy, Susan Loftus, one name that came up right away was Jim Nantell, city manager in nearby Burlingame. Nantell used to work for Croce some years ago and Burlingame wooed him away. But San Mateo has nearly four times Burlingame;s population, acreage and scope. Croce's job has to be tempting.

- Written by Joe

Burlingame's 755 California Drive Assisted Living Facility

Assisted living facility's plans scaling back in Burlingame - Residents want developer to reduce center's size even more (by Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer) Residents' and the planning commission's objections to a four-story assisted living care center in Burlingame have sparked the developer and architect to scale the project back, but some say the new design does not go far enough. New plans for the proposed center at 755 California Drive reduced it to a 34-feet-6-inch-tall, three-story building with 46 units for elderly residents with 20 underground parking spots. The facility was 51 feet 6 inches tall and four stories before the architect, Dale Meyer of Dale Meyer Associates in Burlingame, changed the design. "When we were at the last planning commission meeting (in December), the planning commissioners and the neighbors seemed to be telling us that the building is too large, and we scaled it back," Meyer said Wednesday. The new height eliminates the need for the building to have a conditional-use permit for its size, but it would still need a permit or a general plan amendment to be used as an assisted living center. Planning commissioners will review the revamped design Monday before the environmental work on the project can start. The facility would be a joint project by the Sacramento-based Cimino Care and the Yerby Co. of San Francisco. Although no vote will be taken by the commission, commissioners' and the public's input could be incorporated into any additional changes to the building before the environmental work gets under way, Meyer said. Other changes to the building, which would be built after the existing building on the site is torn down, includes the elimination of a covered driveway area for drop-offs and pickups. The city will review the final design and could ask for more revisions to the project, which needs several exemptions from Burlingame's existing planning requirements, Burlingame Planner Ruben Hurin said. The prospect of a four-story assisted living center alarmed residents and led them to show up en masse to planning commission meetings on the project. More than two dozen residents weighed in on the building at the planning commission's last meeting on it in December. Residents argue that an assisted living facility is not appropriate in an area that has a variety of shops and services, like laundry. Another concern of residents is that the city is not doing any planning for the area, like it is doing with the downtown specific plan and a specific plan for the north side of town that maps out what future development in those areas should be allowed. About 120 households have indicated they oppose the facility, and residents have even set up an e-mail address - [email protected] (SEE CORRECTION BELOW) - for the cause, Palm Drive resident Brian McGinn said. He lives within hundreds of feet from the property. "The city has not planned for this; they are just trying to jam it in there. I think if the city did the planning, we could do something we are all proud of," McGinn said. McGinn said that unlike some of his other neighbors, he does not object to having an assisted living care center on the property, but he thinks 46 units on three floors is too much, and he would prefer a two-story building. Commissioners indicated they agreed with residents that the building was too massive in a neighborhood that has several one- and two-story buildings. "I thought it was just too large and too ambitious, so I'm hoping it has been toned down," Planning Commissioner Tim Auran said Wednesday. Auran said he has no qualms with an assisted living facility where a women's fitness center used to operate. But he would like to see it brought closer to California Drive and farther away from people's homes. "We said bring it up forward (toward California Drive) and take some pressure off the neighbors in the back ... and then bring the height down," Auran said. Despite residents' concerns, Meyer and the developers said it is centrally located, is near the Caltrain station, and it makes sense to build a care facility on the site. "There is a difference of opinion between the neighborhood and us as to the appropriateness of the use on this site," Meyer said.

- Written by Fiona

Burlingame Library Sale Today and Tomorrow

Last two days of our Library sale: SATURDAY 10:00 am to 4:00 pm SUNDAY 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm - Bag of Books Day (fill up a grocery bag with books, audio, videos, dvds for $6) Even the Library Lions in front of the library have signs encouraging you to vist the library today and tomorrow! Fantastic books, a fundraiser for our fantastic library programs in our fantastic libary!

- Written by Fiona