Given their challenges with the superintendent position, you can understand why Livermore school trustees want to get a new person in place before the new school year in July.
By mutual agreement, they sent the former superintendent on her way Feb 6, 18 months into her tenure. She left with a $364,000 payoff and 12 months of health care.
The district is being led by an interim superintendent, but everyone would like to get a new person in place. You have to wonder about the timeline.
Trustees have enlisted the help of the county superintendent’s office to screen and recruit the new superintendent. That was a choice instead of working with the typical head hunting outfits. In March, the county proposed a schedule that would have trustees making the hiring decision in mid-June.
Timing wise, that would be great. Whether you’re going to get a solid group of applicants, screen them well, include visits to their existing sites for finalists and then make the call in about two months seems aggressive to put it mildly. What’s important is the right person, particularly given the short tenures of the prior two occupants of that office.
President Donald J. Trump reportedly listens to a variety of views before deciding what to do. Once he’s set the direction, it takes a lot of change his mind—although there’s also the ‘make a deal’ element of bluffing.
Nonetheless, it’s mysterious why he would include re-opening the maximum security Alcatraz prison in his budget for next year. It’s non-sensical.
The prison has been minimally maintained as a park and there’s a reason that the Board of Prisons walked away from it years ago. It works as a park and there are far better and less expensive sites for prisons—think what was once known as Club Fed in Dublin.
The advertising push by McDonald’s for its new “Big Arch” convinced me to go back and try the burger. My business generally has been limited to the breakfast sandwiches that I think they do a good job with, although on recent visits it seems the English muffin had shrunk. I used to love Big Macs and spent many an afternoon during my commuting days to Cal stopping at the Castro Valley McDonalds for a Big Mac meal. Likely still wearing some pounds from that season.
I was in Dublin near lunchtime last week so I swung by McDonald’s for the Big Arch meal. The fries typically were excellent, but the Big Arch was big and barely worth eating. It became a one-and-done.
To compare, I tried the newly upgraded Whopper at Burger King that also has an advertising push. The fries were nearly as good as McDonalds and the hamburger was far better. It’s whoppers for this boy—although I also have favorites at Wendy’s, the Habit and Jack-in-the-Box. And. When I want to sit down and am in Livermore, John’s Charburgers is a long-time favorite going back decades.
