It’s undeniable; the Davis community values education.  More than that, we value PUBLIC education.  Time and again, given the choice, we put our personal resources behind our educational priorities.

It’s also undeniable that present need may exceed our ability to respond.  The $5.6 million budget gap currently facing the Davis Joint Unified School District is a daunting chasm to bridge.*  Though our support is fully with the Davis Schools Foundation’s 2010 Dollar-A-Day campaign, and the DJUSD Board of Education has begun consideration of a possible parcel tax, it is also important that we make state policymakers understand that what we value is at risk without their advocacy.  We can start with candidates for the office of California Superintendent of Public Instruction, appearing on June ballot.

Local Students to Grill Candidates for State Superintendent

Elementary and high school students from Davis, West Sacramento, Woodland and Esparto will question these candidates during a public forum Monday, March 15, at UC Davis.

Capital Public Radio’s Jeffrey Callison will moderate the evening which is hosted by the UC Davis School of Education and the Yolo County School Boards Association. The event will start at 7 p.m. in Freeborn Hall and will also be webcast with a link on the UC Davis home page.

In addition to four elementary and high school students, a UC Davis student studying to become a teacher and event organizers will pose questions to the candidates.

“This is a critical time for California public education,” said Harold Levine, dean of the UC Davis School of Education. “The next superintendent of public instruction will face challenges of an unprecedented magnitude. Meeting those challenges will require leadership, skill and a willingness to think boldly and creatively.”

Among declared candidates for the nonpartisan seat, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Martinez, retired educator Larry Aceves and public school teacher Dianne Lenning have confirmed they will attend.  State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, was unavailable.  All are running to succeed Jack O’Connell, who will be termed out of the office.

In addition to issues raised by the students, candidates will be asked to respond to the following questions:

• March 15 is the deadline for first notices of lay-off to go to teachers whose services school districts can no longer afford in the 2010-11 school year.  What do you say to the educators affected and the parents and students worried about the impact on educational services?
• California has a unique system of public education governance, with its Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of Education and State Board of Education.  How can you be effective within this system and accomplish your goals?
• What will you do to bring equitable access to quality instruction for all California’s students?

School Services of California and WestEd are major sponsors of the event.  Other sponsors include the California Association of School Business Officials, School Innovations & Advocacy, the UC Davis School of Education Alumni Council, the California School Employees Association Local 572, Leagues of Women Voters of Davis and Woodland, the Davis Teachers Association, and the Parent Organizations of the Davis Joint Unified School District.

The event is free and open to the public.  RSVPs appreciated to Linda Baldwin, Executive Assistant to Dean Harold Levine, at lkbaldwin@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-4663.  (Directions and parking information)

In these times, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction must be an effective advocate for California’s students.  Attend Monday’s forum and determine which candidate is most worthy of your vote.

*For more information on the DJUSD budget situation, visit District Dollars.

With the retirement of Mayor Ruth Asmundson and Councilperson Lamar Heystek, there will most likely be no incumbents for residents to grill at the Saturday Farmer’s Market.

The filing deadline for candidates is this Friday, unless one of the incumbents does not file for re-election.  In that case, the deadline will be extended five days until Wednesday, March 17^th.  Heystek, however, may change his mind after seeing the 300+ signatures on a petition to draft him back onto the dais.

Heystek will make another announcement about his intentions just 30 minutes before his deadline to file.  Will he gently let his supporters down or end the filing period by submitting his paperwork? Your guess is as good as mine.  Here is an excerpt from an email that Heystek sent last night,

In light of this public call for me to enter the Council race, I believe a personal statement from me in a public setting is appropriate. Therefore, I will deliver brief remarks about my plans regarding the 2010 Council election at the Davis City Hall courtyard on Friday, March 12 at 4:30 p.m. All interested community members are welcome to be present.

Currently, there are three other announced candidates: Joe Krovoza, Rochelle Swanson, and Sydney Vergis.

Joe Krovoza is Director of External Relations and Development at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.  Joe serves on the Bicycle Advisory Commission and has been involved with the Putah Creek Council, Davis Bicycles! and AYSO.

Rochelle Swanson is a licensed Attorney and works as a Land Use Contractor and Consultant with her own firm, RHS Consulting.  She is the President of the DHS Blue & White Foundation and is currently involved with Rotary Club’s Child Abuse Prevention Program Committee, DJUSD Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee, and served as a Yolo County Grand Juror in 1997-8 and as a past President of Rotoract.

Sydney Vergis is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Transportation, Technology, and Policy at UC Davis.  She formerly worked as Senior Planner in Sutter County’s Planning Division.  She is currently a member of the City’s Business & Economic Development Commission, Vice-President of the TREE Davis Board of Directors and is a member of the Sunrise Rotary Club and the Yolo County Young Democrats.

Anybody else want to throw his or her hat in the ring?  The clock is ticking to get on the ballot, so get on down to the City Clerk’s office and start filling out some paperwork!

2010 is a census year for the United States and your census form will be arriving in the mail by mid-March.  The 2010 census form is one of the shortest forms prepares since 1930 – just 10 questions and it should take less that 10 minutes to complete.

Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States requires that once a decade, every resident in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, shall be counted.  The first census took place in 1790 – enumerating 3,929,000 residents in the United States and its territories, and the most recent census in 2000 – enumerating 281,421,906 residents.

On the most basic level, the census returns will be used to allocate the number of seats in the House of Representatives to each state.  States which experience a significant decline in population may lose a seat in the House.  States with significant growth in population may gain additional representatives.  In addition, many of the Federal dollars allocated to states for specific support programs are based on U.S. Census information.  Hospitals, job training centers, senior centers, public works projects and emergency services are just some of the programs that benefit from census based funding.

Click on the image for the 1940 Public Service Announcement that still holds importance 70 years later.

There will be a postage paid envelope included with the census form.  The completed form should be mailed on or before April 1, 2010.  U.S. Census workers will match each form to the identified residence and mark completed forms.  In mid-April census workers will begin walking in neighborhoods and knocking on doors of residences for which no form was returned.  This door to door work will be completed in July and the full census report must be delivered to the President by December.

What Questions Are Asked on the 2010 Census?

The 2010 census form will arrive in the mail on or about March 15^th.  One form for each residential unit.  Only one form should be completed for each unit, regardless of the familial status of the residents.

Question one asks the number of people living or staying in the residential unit on April 1, 2010.

Question two asks if there are any additional people staying in the home on April 1, 2010 that are not included in the response to question one, and there are a number of suggestions of people who might be unlisted.

Question three asks about the ownership of the residential unit.

Question four asks for a phone number that can be contacted if the census worker who processes the returned form is confused by the answers given.

Question five asks for the full name of the person completing the form.

Question six asks for the gender of the person completing the form.

Question seven asks for the age and birth date of the person completing the form.

Question eight asks if the person completing the form is Hispanic, and offers a number of categories of possible Hispanic origin.

Question nine asks for the race of the person completing the form with options for multiple racial response.

Question ten asks if the person completing the form has alternative addresses.

Then questions five through ten are repeated for each additional person living in the residence.

Five Things YOU Can Do to Help with the 2010 Census

1. Watch for the census form to arrive at your residence and work will your family or room mates to complete the census form and mail on or before April 1, 2010.
2. Visit the census website to become more informed about the census process and the need for a complete count of our community.
3. Bring the census information you have into conversations with friends and neighbors – increasing public awareness of the process.
4. Contact the local complete count committee through email : DavisCounts2010.gmail.com with your suggestions of how citizens can be better informed about the census.
5. Visit the Census 2010 booth at Davis Farmers Market on Saturday, March 13 to pick up additional census information and receive great gifts.

Google Fiber for Communities Deadline Nears

You’ve read about it here on the Voice.  Kemble Pope explained the project in “Googlephile Davisites Want Faster Internet”  and Steve McMahon offered thoughts on what might make Davis competitive in “Why Google Needs Davis.”   The deadline for expression of interest is approaching.  The City of Davis website offers this:

Google is looking for communities to respond to the question, “Why is your community the ideal choice to partner with Google in putting in a high speed fiber network?” The Davis City Council passed a resolution on March 2nd outlining the City’s support for this project. Currently many parts of the community are working to gather support and get the word out.

City of Davis staff will coordinate the official response and is asking that community members provide support by going online and telling Google why they feel Davis would be a good test bed for this gigabit fiber network. The links to Google and other community information are below.

Online responses are due by March 26th so please go online and let Google know your support for this project!

Google RFI Links:

• RFI General Information – Link to Google
• Link to Google to show support (requires free gmail account)
• DavisWiki Google Fiber for Communities Discussion
• Local Facebook Page for more information and how to show your support
• DCN Support webpage for additional local references

The following are your opportunities to participate in the public process this week.  Click on links for full agendas, locations and back-up documentation.  If we’ve missed important events, we invite you to add them in a comment.

Monday, 8 March 2010

6:00 pm – CITY – Community Focus Group on Teen Issues - The City of Davis Youth Advisory Task Force and the Community Services Department is sponsoring a series of community focus groups to hear and understand the critical issues facing our Davis teens today. If you are a member of a community youth organization, a parent/guardian, PTA member, or know of a teen between the ages of 13 – 17 years, we would like to invite you to participate with other community members in a group discussion about teen issues. The feedback from the community focus groups will be used to design and plan future teen services here in Davis, and will be presented to the City Council later this year.

6:30 pm – CITY/UCD – Unitrans Advisory Committee

7:00 pm – CITY – Civic Arts Commission

7:00 pm – CITY – Budget and Finance Commission

Wednesday, 10 March 2010 

4:30 pm – CITY/UCD – City/UCD Student Liaison Commission

7:00 pm – CITY – Planning Commission - Greening Davis’ Built Environment: The City of Davis Planning Commission, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Commission, will conduct a public workshop. A panel of experts will help the commissions consider measures which would reduce the carbon footprint of Davis homes, apartments, and businesses. The keynote speaker will be Karen Douglas, Chair of the California Energy Commission accompanied by Anthony Eggert, who was recently appointed to the commission. Other speakers will be Marshall Hunt, Michael Corbett, Kevin Wolf, Mark Berman and Greg Mahoney, Assistant Chief Building Official.

Thursday, 11 March 2010

8:30 am – COUNTY – Planning Commission

12:00 pm – CITY – Open House and Celebration of Varsity Theatre’s New Second Screen

2:00 pm – COUNTY – Yolo County Housing

2:30 pm – CITY – Senior Citizen Commission

6:00 pm – CITY – Community Focus Group on Teen Issues

Yesterday was March 4th, the state-wide strike in honor of public education.  As the dust settles and the riot gear gets put away, the events of yesterday will be taken up into the folds of “History”.  Individual grievances and bruises will glom and fade into one, mass story.  My question:  how will all this be interpreted?

I am torn.  I personally know and care very much about many of the individuals involved in yesterday’s strike.  I also immensely respect the passion and the drive of all the protestors.  On the other hand, I question the motives of yesterday’s events.  When I heard what was initially called a “Teach-In” at the quad had turned into a march on I-80, I became extremely concerned both for the individuals involved and the movement itself.  What I thought was going to be an event that gathered students from all corners of campus to rally around and inform about the Budget Crisis had turned something that called for riot gear and mace-bombs, not to mention the fact that it ostracized a vast majority of students, most of whom were already nervous/uninformed about this movement.

Recently, there have been a lot of things to be upset about.  With emotions running so high, it’s no wonder that things escalated the way they did.  It’s important to remember, though, that appearance is everything when it comes to high-profile issues such as this.  What is this movement trying to tell people?  How are these actions being interpreted?  How will this, in turn, affect the effectiveness of future movement towards change?

The intersections of Russell and Howard as well as that of Russell and La Rue are open again.  I-80 is no longer threatened.  Life will churn on in that way that Life does.  This weekend’s right and relevant culture is here for your perusal, my urge for you to get thee outside imminent.  I can’t help but to feel so small when, while doing these things, I am simultaneously staring History in the face, anxiously waiting for a response to the question of:  “What do YOU think?”

Although, I suppose that only Time will tattle-tell.

Friday, March 5 2010

Meet the Regents [LEARN]

AHI 401

Art Lounge, Floor 2 of the Memorial Union

All day, from March 3-19

FREE

I was part of a class on curation this quarter.  While the course was a great, personal experience, the result of a quarter’s-worth of work is currently being presented, and I thought it relevant to recent issues.  The show we conceived and executed is called “Meet the Regents:  A show on the UC system and the people who run it”.  If you’re in the area, please check it out.  The greater our understanding, the greater weight our actions can hold.  Note:  I guess I’m supposed to inform you of the podcast available.  It’s not necessary by any means, but it supplements the show—asks a lot of questions that we as curators were asking ourselves in the development process.  I feel a little silly, because I was the one who recorded/edited it… and I have no sound-experience.  Hope you enjoy the whole shebang, anyway!

–

God’s Country [THEATER]

DHS Drama Department

Brunelle Performing Arts Hall

7pm

Email for tickets

High school students will perform Steven Dietz’s heavy drama,that tackles racial issues and follows a real story from the 1980s.  Uncannily good timing for some food-for-thought, what with the current events on UCD campus!  Looks intense, but good.  This will play today and Saturday and 7pm, Sunday matinee (2pm) and all next weekend.

——

Saturday, March 6 2010

Audition for Non-traditional Dancers [DANCE]

Pamela Trokanski Dance Theater

2720 Del Rio Place, Davis

12:30-2:30

Choreographer Trokanski is looking for 12-16 men and women over the age of 35 (as well as four teens) to partake in a movement project that has to do with social networking and (omg!) the internet!  I’m not sure how much chatspeak you need to know (lol) but you do NOT need dancing experience.  An interest in performing seems to be the main requirement.  For more information, OR  TO SIGN UP FOR AN AUDITION, call 530-756-3949.

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Texas Hold ’Em Tournament [PLAY + GIVE]

Soroptimist International of Davis

Veteran’s Memorial Center

6-10pm

$40 general, $60 for the Hold ’Em

Don’t fold this opportunity to get out there, win great prizes (up to $500!!) and give to some great programs:  Soroptimist Programs as well as the Emancipated Foster Youth.  Full bar and appetizers will be served!  For tickets, contact Juelie via email or phone (530-756-3276)

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Sunday, March 7 2010

Blue and White Fund Run [GIVE]

Blue and White Foundation

The New Track and DHS

All day (main event at 1pm)

$40 for team of 8

Grab your friends, family and neighbors for this great event!  This event showcases the New All-weather track at DHS, but it’s also great fun for the whole community!  Proceeds from today’s event will help support DHS’ stadium renovations.

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Fashionation [ART]

Student Fashion Association

The Graduate

6:30pm (doors), 7:15pm (show)

$5 (pre), $7 (door), $10 (front row), email for tickets

Celebrate Davis’ more fashionable side with a full-fledged fashion show!  This event will showcase both student and professional designers.  Looks fierce!!

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Thursday, March 11 2010

Duval Speck and Hardwater [MUSIC]

Palms Playhouse

13 Main St, Winters

7:30pm

$12

This would have otherwise been lost in that in-between time that I don’t get to talk to you…  So here’s a Thursday event!  Hardwater plays a mix of tunes from various artists, and Duval Speck is a local jazzy-soul-folk-rock duo with an emphasis on the soul.  This is also an ALS awareness night, which Cathy Speck of Duval Speck as been living with for years.  Come out and hear some great tunes!

Probably not. Yet, that is what most multinational banks did with our money. They invested in credit default swaps, created obscure high-risk financial instruments out of thin air and provided mortgage loans without credit checks and are now paying their leaders multimillion dollar salaries.

Is your money on the fast track out of town?

Wall Street Watch reports that Wall Street and the banks have more then 3,000 registered lobbyists. Over the last 10 years, nearly 2 billion dollars have been contributed to our elected officials. The banks got what they bought. Freedom to gamble our money.

Then, the bail out. The dust is settling but the gambling addiction is hard to break. Banks have been very reluctant to help the very communities they serve. They love to hold your dollars but it appears they do not like to get involved with the smaller business loans. According to Sen. Carl Levin of MI,  “the drop in small business lending is responsible for the state’s dismal unemployment rate” small business loans are down 70% over 2 years ago.”

I recently switched from a national bank to a local bank.  That is one way we can vote with our money. It was kind of refreshing that this bank’s call center for online banking was located in Dixon. (I could have biked there). Now I am no longer being nickeled and dimed to death (the service fees have disappeared). There is a movement going on that encourages folks to keep your money local. You can check out www.moveyourmoney.info. They even have a spot to plug in your zip code and out pops all the local banks with a B rating or higher. According to Forbes (March, 2010), “Move Your Money is making waves, in a recent Zogby poll, nine percent of U.S. adults have moved at least some of their money in protest to the big banks.”

Tired of dealing with the big boys credit cards? Check out a local credit union. Their rates are typically a third to a half of what “your friends” on wall street charge.

I am not saying all big multinational banks are bad. But like many of you, I like to shop local, eat local and play local, why not bank local? Now, when I read about the thousands of banking lobbyists and multimillion dollar salaries I know my pennies aren’t contributing to their destructive gambling habit.

If you read the Davis Voice, either of the local newspapers, or City Council agendas lately, you’ve likely heard that folks in Davis are excited about the possibility of joining Google’s ultra high speed internet project. Google is planning to create a testbed for a fiber-optic to the home internet connections in one or more US communities with populations between 50,000 and 500,000.

Since Google’s announcement, I’ve heard a lot of speculation about Davis’ chances of being one of the lucky communities. I’m proud to say I’ve figured out some pretty accurate odds: one (or more) in 546. That’s because there are roughly that many potentially qualified municipalities in the United States — and every last one of them will have expressions of interest filed by the community or individuals in it.

“Wait,” you say. “Aren’t we among the best possible candidates? Aren’t we smart, affluent, dense (geographically), and otherwise superior?” Of course we are, and better-looking, too. But, nobody outside Google really knows what Google’s after. If they want an affluent, compact university town near Mountain View, well, Palo Alto’s all that and has a lot of unused fiber leftover from earlier high-speed experiments. My point is that nearly every community’s got something they think will catch Google’s eye: “we’re rural,” “we’re urban,” “we’re diverse,” “we’re affluent,” “we already have fiber,” “we don’t have any fiber, yet….”

So, what might set Davis apart, and — much more importantly — what might you want to say in your expression of interest that might improve our chances? Here are my talking points; feel free to grab ideas.

Google is all about collaborative content. They get into the hardware, licensing and cabling business to build opportunities for collaborative content. Google isn’t looking to build ultra-high speed internet connections for a community just so everyone in the town may drop their cable-TV subscriptions and watch Netflix in high-def (though, likely everyone will). Google wants to see what kind of collaborative content people will invent given a dramatically better network to do it with.

As it happens, Davis has shown itself to be rather good at that kind of thing. DavisWiki.org is the best of its kind. The Davis Community Network is among the nation’s long-lived community networks, and has been working at fostering collaborative content and connections for over 17 years. The Davis General Plan has a very far-sighted communications technology section that spells out our desire to be a testbed for new telecom technologies. The City of Davis spends roughly $600,000 per year on community media. We had a great city web site and were putting City Council meetings on the Internet long before many communities even knew it was possible. Our PTAs put up school websites for every school just about the day after we became the first community in Northern California to have non-university internet access. We had high-resolution, rectified aerial photos of our planning area on the Internet long before there was a Google Maps.

By all means, visit the Google Fiber for Communities site and nominate Davis. Get your organization to do the same. But, when you do, don’t just say you want a fat pipe to your house so that you can watch high-def YouTube on five different computers simultaneously. Instead, say that you’re part of a community that collaborates and that creates new media to do it. Tell Google a little about what we’ve done in the past and what wonderful things we could do in the future. Creating, not consuming. In short, tell them we’re like Google itself.

The Davis Schools Foundation (DSF) invites the public to a planning forum for the upcoming Dollar-a-Day Campaign, which will run from March 15 to May 1.

The forum will be held from 8:45-10:00 am on Thursday, March 4, at the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge (415 2nd St.)  All who want to learn more about the campaign are urged to attend, especially people who might like to volunteer.

Attendees will discuss strategies for raising $5.6 million, the sum that the Davis Joint Unified School District must cut from its 2010-11 budget.  The budget shortfall is the result of reductions in school funding from the state.  To address the shortfall, the school district is issuing a first round of layoff notices to 102 employees.

The budget cutbacks will impact every child in the school district, particularly through larger class sizes and fewer course offerings.  A comprehensive description of the situation is available at District Dollars under “Superintendent’s Proposal.”

The foundation and the school district have agreed upon a plan that allows programs to be saved and staff to be retained through contributions to the campaign. The foundation is already accepting donations online.  Individuals may make a one-time gift or set up a monthly contribution plan via credit card.

The campaign begins officially on March 15 and continues for six weeks.  Various promotions are planned, including the annual Schoolapalooza event, which is set for April 24 in downtown Davis.

Specifically, this year DSF will target its efforts to help fund:

• Lower class size in grades K-3 and 9-10
• Restore secondary core programming
• Save the jobs of counselors who work with our junior high and high school students
• Save positions that support campus safety

The Davis Schools Foundation’s mission is to support educational excellence in Davis public schools by raising funds from the community for district-wide programs or that promote equitable opportunities between schools.  It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) founded in 2005 and run by a volunteer board of parents and community members.  Fundraising expenses are kept to a minimum, with 97 cents of every dollar contributed going to the schools.

The nationally acclaimed Davis community effort of two years ago resulted in DSF being able to write a check for $1.5 million to the district, saving many educational opportunities and programs at every single public school campus in Davis.

John Ferrera, foundation Board member, asks “Please join us for a discussion of how best to reach those willing and able to help our schools in the Davis community.  We ask nothing more from you than a friendly ear and your input on how best to communicate to our City of Davis neighbors so that they are aware of our effort and the need to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.”

To RSVP for the March 4 forum, contact John at (530) 759-9027 or John.Ferrera@sen.ca.gov.

Individuals who can’t attend the forum but might like to volunteer with the campaign may email info@davisschoolsfoundation.org. For more information visit the Davis Schools Foundation website.

Unfortunately, child care is only one one area where we are seeing children and young adults in our community, and communities throughout the state, being directly impacted by the state’s fiscal problems.  The Davis school district has faced – and is once again facing – dire budget cuts.  Tuition at UC Davis and other universities is slated to increase 32 percent.  The Healthy Families program, which assists some of the hundreds of thousands of children without health insurance, is facing cutbacks and outright elimination.  The list goes on and on.

Enough is enough.  Such policies amount to nothing less than what our Commission has termed a “disinvestment in our future.”  As the adage goes, “children are our future.”   And under-investing in our youth directly harms that very future, imperiling California’s ability to produce a new generation of healthy and well-educated adults.  Moreover, such disinvestment is further compounded by the state’s overreliance on borrowing, further robbing opportunities from our next generation to build a healthy, well-educated society.

To counter this disinvestment, the Davis Social Services Commission unanimously recommended to the Davis City Council that it approve a resolution “Opposing the State’s Budget Policies that Amount to a Disinvestment in our Future.”  [Download the .pdf file by clicking HERE]  The Council will be considering this resolution at its Tuesday meeting.  The resolution implores our State Legislature and Governor to prioritize the healthy development and education of children and young adults by reversing such disinvestment as they make their budget decisions this year and beyond.

Granted, I have become acutely aware of this issue since becoming a new dad – not to mention after facing dramatic fee hikes while in law school.  But you don’t have to be a new parent (or, let’s hope not, a lawyer) to see this fundamental argument.  No matter your station in life or your ideological perspective, I think you will agree that such disinvestment needs to cease.

I hope you will join me in urging the City Council to approve this resolution.  Call me overly-idealistic, but I see this idea as a foundation upon which we can build a better state government.  Let’s get to work: email our Council members and come to the meeting on Tuesday.

March 4 is the Day of Action for Public Education

The California budget crisis is taking its toll on the students and employees of public education.  In response to reduced state funding, the University of California, California State Universities, community colleges, and K-12 schools face difficult and damaging loss of program, enrollment caps and/or skyrocketing tuition.

Supporters of California public education are calling for a Day of Action on Thursday, March 4 and will rally on the north steps of the state Capitol from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.  The purpose is to feature lessons on California’s public education system, focusing on history, political science and economics.  Speakers include Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, and UC Berkeley Professor George Lakoff.  Everyone is invited to join.

Locally, the Davis Schools Foundation will rally public education advocates to a planning forum for the upcoming Dollar-a-Day Campaign.  The campaign will run from March 15 to May 1 to raise funds to close the Davis Joint Unified School District’s $5.6 million budget gap (for details of the district’s budget situation, visit District Dollars.)

The forum will be held from 8:45-10:00 am Thursday, March 4, at the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge, 415 2nd St.  All who want to learn more about the campaign are urged to attend, especially people who might like to volunteer.

The following are your opportunities to participate in the public process this week.  Click on links for full agendas, locations and back-up documentation.  If we’ve missed important events, we invite you to add them in a comment.

Monday, 1 March 2010

11:30 am – UCD – UC Student Association will hold a march, rally and press conference at the State Capitol between 11:30 am and 2:00 pm UCSA leaders have asked UC President Mark Yudof and several regents and chancellors to join them in meetings with key legislative leaders throughout the day.

5:30 pm – CITY – Bicycle Advisory Commission

Tuesday, 2 March 2010

2:00 pm – COUNTY – Yolo County Office of Education Child Care Planning Council

5:30 pm – Davis City Council - Joint Discussion with Open Space & Habitat Commission regarding Community Farms Concept; resolution approving the fee title acquisition of the Staib 72 Property for the purposes of permanently protecting the agricultural values and open space character of the property; resolution opposing the “New Two-Thirds Vote Requirement for Public Electricity Providers” Initiative (Proposition 16); resolution opposing budget policies of the state of California; public hearing on resolution to adopt the updated housing element; public hearing on Willowbank Park residential subdivision proposal; accept the Wastewater Management Plan; approve mailing of the notification of 5% water rate increase and 6% sewer rate increase to begin September 1, 2010; proposed additions to the Council Meeting Ground Rules to address circumstances when ground rules and procedures are not adhered to and the possible sanctions that may be applied in the event of violation

7:00 pm – CITY – Social Services Commission (joint meeting with City Council) – presentations from groups and organizations who have submitted grant proposals for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Housing Investment Partnership Program (HOME) funds.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

2:30 pm – CITY – Telecommunications Commission - Google Fiber to the community RFI update

6:00 pm – Google Fiber Optics for Communities organizing meeting

Thursday, 4 March 2010

7:00 pm – Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Education – Davis Schools Foundation fundraising update, refinancing general obligation bonds, presentation of Spanish Immersion master plan, proposed Board Bylaw regarding student board members.