Two School Districts, One City Get Together

Officials from the two school districts that serve San Leandro met with members of the City Council on Monday night in the first such three-way gathering in more than 10 years.

Although the 20 or so officials in attendance decided to hold a similar meeting next September, they were stunned into silence when one attendee suggested that San Leandro Unified School District merge with its cousin, the San Lorenzo Unified School District.

"I think I heard the drop of a pin afterward," said Mike Katz-Lacabe, the San Leandro school board trustee who made the suggestion.

Nor did officials mention the recent discovery of a at San Leandro High School. The meeting skirted controvery and emphasized collegiality as San Leandro Mayor Steven Cassidy sat between board presidents Norman Fobert of the San Lorenzo district and Morgan Mack-Rose of San Leandro.

One presentation offered a sobering fact about student mental health and the prospect of some help for San Leandro.

Alex Briscoe, director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, told officials that 34 percent of 11th graders suffer from depression. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people, with homicides and car crashes being first and third, he said.

To address this mental health issue, Briscoe said Alameda County has invested $400,000 to bring two full-time therapists into the San Leandro school system — a service that is all the more needed as schools cut back on counselors due to budget cuts.

Looking at Alameda County as a whole, Briscoe said, "San Leandro has some of the highest concentrations of poverty outside of Oakland."

Briscoe's sobering talk was followed by presentations from both school districts about projects funded by bond measures.

San Lorenzo officials were proud of two bond packages, passed in 2004 and 2008, that funneled $132 million into capital improvements.

"We have replaced over 30 portables with classrooms and we will replace more," said San Lorenzo district assistant superintendent Lowell Shira.

Cassidy said he did not think that the city would put any revenue measures on the ballot in 2012 and suggested this could give one or the other school districts a clear field to try and pass another bond.

For the most part, however, officials seemed to realize this was not a good time to entertain projects that cost money.

Cassidy mentioned two low-cost ideas, one a conference in April 2012 that would discuss how to make San Leandro a more family-friendly city.

He also said the city was figuring out how to give the two school districts — which have digital arts programs — unused air time on a public access cable channel that San Leandro enjoys as part of its contract with Comcast.

Jack Martin, the San Leandro high schooler who represents students on the San Leandro board, said getting air time would encourage students to produce better programs.

About two dozen community members attended the more than two-hour meeting.

San Leandro resident Rob Rich used the public comment period to say that parent volunteers could do more to help schools but encountered resistance from the bureaucracy for supposedly doing work that could take away jobs.