Monthly Archives: March 2013

When it comes to using $5 million in library bond funds to build a parking structure or lot, we’re all for it – if and only if the lots and/or structure is the highest and best use for the entire community.

Honestly, I can’t imagine being on the school board. The way funding is set up – with the bulk of the money going to the state, then trickling down (yes, an exaggeration for demonstration purposes follows) from Assemblyman Luis Alejo’s office to the Gilroy Unified School District, is ridiculous. Every time the state can’t get its financial act together – and really that’s virtually always now – the district gets the screws put to it. Deferred payments, surprise holdbacks, delays and more attached strings than you could dream up, all handcuff the local people trying to do their educational jobs. It’s a nightmare. It’s no way to run a school district, it’s no way to run a state. But if we keep re-electing people to the Assembly and state Senate without virtually any scrutiny, then we get what we deserve because the local school district has precious little control over its own finances. The state giveth and the state taketh away and the GUSD trustees are simply a speck of dust riding the state’s whims. The saddest part is, there’s no revolution demanding wholesale reform on the horizon. It’s a tragic reality plaguing California.

The Gilroy Police Department arrested a suspected burglar on the 6400 block of Barron Place in Gilroy on Friday. GPD were notified of an intruder entering the house at 10:15 a.m. by a concerned neighbor, said Gilroy Police Sgt. Daniel Castaneda. GPD officers and a SWAT team surrounded the house and ordered the suspect to leave the property.

Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa announced he will resign from office, citing his intention to plead guilty to charges filed by authorities Friday related to Shirakawa’s failure to file campaign finance reports and “inappropriate use of (his) county credit card,” according to a resignation letter he submitted Friday morning. 

Cash flow issues, problems with fiscal oversight and an usually high personnel turnover in the business office – resulting in missed deadlines, administrative mistakes and even the accidental cancellation of employee health benefits – prompted the Santa Clara County Office of Education to step in and force Gilroy Unified School District to get its financial house in order.

In June 1769, a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portola left San Diego in search of Monterey Bay. On the way north, the expedition passed by the bay, failing to recognize it.