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If you want to make America great again, there’s something you can do right away: Vote yes on Measure E and support Gilroy’s schools.With one swoop of your pen and a serious commitment of $60 for every $100,000 of property you own, you can build a new elementary school and fix up degrading middle schools. You can keep all of the district’s schools top notch, which is what we think makes America and our community great.For some reasons that make no sense to us, schools, teachers and taxes have become anathema in this country over the past 40 years. Everyone wants the best services but no one wants to pay for them.If you go back to a time a lot of people think America was great (and we think it’s still great, by the way), you might try the 1950s and 1960s when tax rates, particularly on the rich, were double and triple what they are now. Under Dwight D. Eisenhower, the rich paid 91 percent of their income. Under Richard M. Nixon, it was down to 77 percent. But then it kept dropping as rich people gained more power and convinced a large number of Americans that taxes were bad, particularly taxes on the rich. Back then, people didn’t mind the taxes as much because they knew they were making America great. They were proud of their country and still incredibly rich, despite the taxes.The earlier tax rates afforded us immeasurable greatness. We built a transcontinental highway system. We built the biggest buildings in the world. We went to the moon. We built great schools and free public university systems.But now schools have to raise money by holding their hats out like beggars. What’s happened to this country, where no one asks us to vote to spend trillions on wars both parties later realize were mistakes, but we act like the schools are criminals for wanting to give teachers a living wage and give kids modern buildings and educational systems?How do so many people--some of them wealthier people who send their children to private schools-- figure taxes to help schools are a bad thing? There are exceptions, like Don Christopher, a businessman who puts his funds where his heart is.  We aren’t saying the schools and their administrators are perfect. We’ve spent plenty of time dissecting their faults, poring over every document. We aren’t happy about some of the lack of transparency we’ve seen. We don’t like that they don’t live-stream school board meetings. We don’t like how they rushed this election without time to make a stronger case and can’t  or won’t even name who solicited the highest donations. The list of projects the money will be spent on is not detailed enough. We question some of the ties between contractors and the board. We don’t like the fact that Christopher High School came in so over budget that its promised theater was never built, the track and field needed private funding to be completed and seven years after the building was finished, it needs repairs.But after putting them through the investigative wringer, we see no reason not to put up another $170 million to keep our schools on the cutting edge. (For comparison’s sake, the Iraq War cost $720 million a day.) The bottom line is that we have to support our schools, whatever it takes. To do anything less is criminal. It’s the opposite of making America great.In Finland and China teachers are as valued as doctors and CEOs. Those countries haven’t forgotten the value of great education. Rather than criticizing teachers unions we’d like to see the schools pay the way private companies do. That would guarantee the best and the brightest get the jobs and hold them.If  you want to look at just the bottom line: this isn’t so much a tax as it is an investment. Nothing will make property value go up more than a great school system. Gilroy homes are already a bargain in Silicon Valley. Add more school buildings like Christopher High and more programs like Gilroy High’s biomedical training, and watch the values increase far more than the taxes.

More than 90 percent of the $37,696 in the Yes on Measure E campaign chest is from outside Gilroy—most from firms, including one in New York, whose business with the school district exceeds $33 million just since 2011.

At this time, we’re housing our children in school buildings where their own parents attended classes 30 or 40 years ago. The average age of schools in the Gilroy Unified School District is 30 years old and five schools are more than 50 years old. The District has taken great care of the schools but they need to be renovated and rebuilt.

 Steven Madden, one of the most iconic brands in footwear, opened an outlet location atGilroy Premium Outlets on May 26.During its Memorial Day weekend grand opening celebration, Steve Madden Outlet is featuring “Buy One Get One” 70 percent off select shoe styles, plus 30 percent off select handbag styles. The new Steve Madden Outlet offers shoppers 2,000 square-feet of on-trend footwear, handbags and accessories for men and women.Over the past two decades, Steve Madden’s trail-blazing designs have garnered a cult-like following with celebrities, tastemakers and fashion-forward shoppers around the world. “Steve Madden Outlet is a fantastic addition to the center’s mix of more than 30 footwear retailers,” saidGilroy Premium Outlets Director of Marketing and Business Development Heather Roach. “Summer shoe trends such as novel oxfords, block heels, feminine flats, mules and bright sneakers to gladiator sandals are all available here this season.”  During Memorial Day weekend, Gilroy Premium Outlets will host a center-wide sidewalk sale with amazing discounts and extended hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Monday (Memorial Day), plus 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. For more up-to-date news and events, follow Gilroy Premium Outlets onTwitter and Facebook.   

Gilroy’s loss will be Berkeley’s gain, as all three of the city’s valedictorians intend to attend Cal in the fall.

The grand marshal of Monday’s Memorial Day parade in Gilroy is Korean War veteran Robert Diaz, who served two tours of duty with the Marine Corps.“I enjoy the parade and have watched it every year,” said the Gilroy native and commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6309. “It’s a real honor.”Diaz has been a regular at the parade and he’s humble about serving his country.“It was the right thing to do,” he said of his decision to enlist in 1951. He joined his brother and other Gilroy classmates in military service.During the war, Diaz worked as a photographer and lab technician, producing maps that were used by fighter pilots to locate enemy targets.Still reticent to share details of his military service decades later, Diaz said specially modified planes fitted with cameras would leave base in the early morning hours to take pictures of enemy territory. Returning some hours later, Diaz and his team would develop and print the film. The images were then used to create detailed maps of enemy targets.Diaz’s two tours were from 1951-1952 and 1953-1954.He was discharged at Treasure Island and within months, met his wife, Teresa.“I got out in March, met my wife in June and got married in July,” he said.They would go on to be married for 42 years, raising four children together. When he returned from the Marine Corps, Diaz worked in the local canneries.“Everyone worked in the canneries,” he said. Diaz later worked at the FMC plant for 19 years before retiring.Teresa passed away and Diaz lives with his son Gary and grandchildren, Teresa and Garon—a soon-to-be Gilroy High School graduate who has already voiced interest in joining the military.On Monday, his family will join thousands of spectators as they watch Diaz, escorted by the VFW honor guard, lead the solemn Memorial Day procession.“Our family is always there,” Diaz said.

Gilroy celebrated the spring installment of Bike to Work/School Day on May 14, the day when local commuters are asked to leave the car at home and find an alternative means of transit.Nearly 40 percent of Bay Area commuters live within five miles of their workplace, according to the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, which is holding bike-centric events throughout the region in May.The group states this is a manageable distance for even the most novice cyclists, but in Gilroy, where just 20 percent of residents work within city limits, the challenge to substitute the car or truck for a bike is obviously greater than tech workers living in the crux of Silicon Valley.This is where local advocates, city staff and innovative school initiatives have stepped in.At Las Animas Elementary School, where parents must contend with a neighborhood in flux as construction crews work all around the school, the administration has embraced a simple, but innovative program that aims to minimize traffic congestion during morning drop-off, while promoting healthy lifestyles.“When you have private taxis dropping off students in the morning, you have an issue with traffic,” said Las Animas school principal, Sylvia Reyes.The answer: a pilot program where once a month parent volunteers lead a “walking school bus” and walk a group of students the final few blocks to school. For the older kids, a “bicycle train” follows the same concept, this time with bikes.Reyes said the program, which started in October, has been a great success.“Our parents our wonderful,” said Reyes. “The program builds awareness and excitement and the early morning physical activity help with students’ concentration and energy levels.”The school also hosts family nights where kids can learn about bike maintenance and get their bikes fixed for free. And for the class that has the most students participate in the monthly bike or walk to school activity, they get an award at the end of the year.“The students get little treats so they notice that we are noticing,” said Reyes, adding that the school and program partners hope to extend the program to more days in the month.“We have noticed a decline of traffic and congestion on those Wednesdays when the program runs,” she said. “Our parents and volunteers have done a fantastic job supporting our students in getting healthy.”To ensure students are safe on their journey to school, city public works staff meet regularly with school district officials to assess the infrastructure needs of city schools, according to city Traffic and Transportation Engineering Manager, Henry Servin. Public works also meets with the school board four times a year.At the start of each school year, Servin says, city staff reviews bell times and walking routes to schools and addresses requests for crosswalks, signage or any other necessary structure.Servin is also the staff liaison for the city’s five-member pedestrian and bicycle safety commission, which works to promote bicycle safety in the city.The commission hosts “bicycle rodeos” in collaboration with the Gilroy Police Department, where attendees learn the rules of the road and can get some free bike-centric treats in the process. At one of the rodeos, kids got a free bike helmet.The commission also secured donations for critical signage along 6th street.Servin says “share the road” signage or street markings are effective tools in bicycle safety.“When motorists see designated bike lanes or “sharrows” (street markings) - any indicator that reminds them to share the road - they tend to drive safer, go slower and accident rates go down,” he said.“A little investment in paint and signs go a long way,” he said.Servin said the city is serious about making it easier for residents to walk or ride their bike in Gilroy.“It has been the expression of the city council and residents that they want more bike lanes and we are working to provide that,” he said, adding that the city’s general plan has a bicycle and pedestrian master plan.“Gilroy considers all residents needs - pedestrians and cyclists,” said Servin. “We are a very recreation-oriented community with over seven miles of bike trails and plans for 22 miles.”Getting commuters out of their cars for the daily slog, may be more of a challenge.Just 277 people in Gilroy get on a CalTrain daily to work or school, and of those, just over 30 regularly bike to the station, according to Servin.This is in addition to commuters using the VTA Express bus routes or private bus services from the likes of Google or Yahoo!“We are hoping that will increase,” he said.

Henry Ward Beecher once said, “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”

“I’m a dumpster diver,” says David Hartwig. The 69-year-old Hartwig makes garden birdhouses at his home workshop in south Gilroy. He’s what some might call an birdhouse enthusiast.