January 5, 2007

NewsBriefs

Reed transition team taps former Mayor McEnery chief of
staff to serve as short-term advisor to senior staff

Dean Munro, executive director of the San Jose Sports Authority, will join Mayor-elect Chuck Reed’s staff as an advisor to Chief of Staff Pete Furman and the incoming mayor’s senior policy staff. Munro, who is taking a short-term leave of absence from the Sports Authority, is expected to start Jan. 3 and assist from 90 to 180 days. Munro will be reporting to Furman.

“Dean has broad experience in the community including having served as chief of staff to the mayor (McEnery) in the 1980s” said Furman. “He will be an important asset who will help put procedures in place to best serve Mayor Reed and the citizens of San Jose.”

McEnery is the chairman of Reed’s transition committee.

SJUSD to hold community meetings for stadium lights

The San Jose Unified School District has scheduled two more meetings for community input on stadium lights at Willow Glen High School.

The two meetings will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11 at the high school in Room L101 and Monday, Feb. 12 in the library/media center.

These meetings focus on a discussion of the potential installation of athletic field lighting for evening sporting events at the high school. Community input is necessary to ensure any negative impact to the community is minimized if the project moves forward.

The initial meeting on Dec. 14 was to gather the information necessary to perform a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis. An analysis should yield a determination of what impact the lighting may have on the environment and any mitigation measures that may be necessary.

The Jan. 11 meeting will discuss status of the district’s efforts in developing the draft CEQA and obtain additional input for consideration in that report, from the community regarding concerns of potential impacts on the neighborhood.

The Feb. 12 meeting will discuss the draft CEQA report, the analysis and findings regarding impacts, and any proposed mitigation measures.

Community input regarding the report will be sought out, considered, incorporated into the report data, and mitigated to the extent appropriate.

For more information, visit http://www.sjusd.org/school/district/more_info/1389/.

Assemblymen Beall and Coto to hold open house Jan. 19

Assemblymen Jim Beall and Joe Coto will hold an open house at their new district offices on Friday, Jan. 19 from 3-6 p.m. Their offices are located at 100 Paseo de San Antonio, Suites 300 and 319, in San Jose. All community members are welcome.

Keith Devlin to speak at Willow Glen Middle School

Dr. Keith Devlin, NPR’s “Weekend Edition” Math Guy will speak at 7 p.m. at Willow Glen Middle School on Friday, Jan. 26 in the Little Theater. Devlin is the author of “The Math Instinct: Why You’re a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats and Dogs)” and was an advisor to the television drama “NUMB3RS.”

In fact, his talk is entitled “NUMB3ERS: The real mathematical story that inspired the television series.” In the series “NUMB3RS,” young math genius Charlie Epps helps his older brother Don, an FBI agent, solve crimes. Episodes are based on real cases where math was used to help solve a case. Devlin uses clips from the series to uncover some of the math behind the show.

His appearance is sponsored by the Willow Glen Middle School PTA and is free of charge to all students and their families as well as members of the Willow Glen Community.

Devlin is an executive director and a senior researcher at Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI ). He also is a consulting professor in the university’s mathematics department and a co-founder of its Media X Research Network and H-STAR Institute. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His current research is focused on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis and the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences in both formal and informal settings. Other research interests include theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication and mathematical cognition. He has written 25 books and more than 75 published research articles.

For more information, Google his name and go to his Web site where there are links to his NPR interviews and short articles he has written maa.org/devlin/devlin_archives.

Casting call for ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Amazing Race’

Calling all “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” wannabes. There will be an open casting call for people who would like to be on either show on Jan. 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Metro PCS, 3963 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara.

Applicants must comply with eligibility requirements and complete the application before attending open casting call.

For more information, or to obtain the application, visit the KPIX Web site at www.cbs5.com or call (415) 765-8788.

SeniorNet to hold signups Jan. 6 at the Willows

Sign-ups for SeniorNet computer classes will be held Saturday, Jan. 6 at the Willows Senior Center, 2175 Lincoln Ave. (at Curtner) starting at 9 a.m.

Classes to be offered include Word I & II, Digital Images, Family Tree Maker, Google, Windows XP, Digital Music, OnLine Scrapbook (Web page design), Best of the Internet and Intro to Computers.

File Management and Taxcut will be offered Monday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

The cost is $20 per course. Most courses are two hours per week for eight weeks.

Registration for the Introduction to Computers class will be at 10:30 a.m. while all others are at 9 a.m.

SeniorNet is a nonprofit organization with 240 learning centers whose mission is to provide computer education and access to people over 50 years of age. There is a $40 annual fee to join.

Phone (408) 364-1430 for more details or visit www.SNLCSJ.ORG and click on Willows.

Teachers can receive summer fellowship grants

Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME) has accepted a $20,000 grant from the Boston Scientific Foundation to expand its Summer Fellowships program to offer six additional placements for teachers in the Bay Area’s highest needs schools.

Each year, IISME places area teachers in eight-week paid work positions in businesses in the science/technology field and research-oriented organizations—including IBM, Intel, Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley. IISME works with these teachers to help them incorporate their experiences into their curriculum to add a real-life dimension to their daily lessons. In addition, teachers get the benefit of learning about new fields and applying their skills in a new way as well as earning supplemental income.

Applicants need not be just science teachers. For example, an English teacher may apply for technical writing jobs or a business teacher may apply for an accounting-related role.

Those benefiting from the BSC grant will be those placed in nonprofit research labs.

IISME is still accepting applications for the summer of 2007. Interested teachers may visit http://www.iisme.org/AboutSummerFellowships.cfm for more information.

IISME was founded in 1985 by a consortium of San Francisco Bay Area companies in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley.