Guest Columns

Second Bike Festival at Harding Earns an A

The second annual used-bike sale and bike festival at El Cerrito's Harding Elementary School, organized by the Harding Dad's Club, raised money for the school and offered good deals on used bikes, bike repairs and police on bikes.

By the Harding Dad's Club At the 2nd Annual Harding ReCycle used-bike sale Sunday, more than 40 happy kids and adults went home with "new" used bikes. As part of this Harding Elementary School fundraiser, the Harding Dad's Club collects used bicycles from throughout the community, refurbishes them with the help of a few Harding Dads with bike maintenance experience, and then sells them at the Harding ReCycle. The ReCycle also included free bike repairs for community members who brought their bikes to the event, as well as a demonstration by several El Cerrito Police Department bicycle patrol officers. The event concluded with the raffling off of a brand-new Specialized Hot Rock kid's bike donated by Solano Avenue Cyclery. Bikes sold during…

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Much Ado This Weekend: Old Roses Show, 3 School Festivals

No need to sit around on your hands this weekend in El Cerrito. The annual Celebration of Old Roses returns to the Community Center, and festivals will be held at three schools – Harding, Madera and St. Jerome.

Harding Bicycle Festival and Used Bike Sale 10 a.m. to 2 p.m Madera Spring Carnival 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 32nd Annual Celebration of Old Roses 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. St. Jerome Spring Festival 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Openings in El Cerrito After-School Classes for K-6

The City of El Cerrito's after-school program at Harding Elementary School has four classes with a shortage of students and is inviting more children to enroll. They're open to non-Harding students as well.

Four classes in the City of El Cerrito after-school program at Harding Elementary School have a shortage of students, and at least two of them face cancelation unless more students sign up. The school's PTA distributed a notice today, Monday, saying two classes – Thursday's basketball class (Grades 3-6) at 2:50-3:50 and Thursday's tennis class (Grades K-2) at 2:30 – will be canceled after tomorrow if more students don't enroll. In addition, the Tuesday tennis class (Grades 2-6) at 2:50-3:50 has but four students. It will continue, though more students are being sought. Similarly, the guitar class is under-enrolled and seeking more students, the PTA said. You can enroll at the El Cerrito Community Center. More information about the classes …

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Guest Columns

Small Arborists Plant Tree in Annual Rite

Children from Harding Elementary School's after-school program got hands-on arborist training Tuesday when they planted a tree at Harding Park in this year's Arbor Day commemoration sponsored by the El Cerrito Garden Club.

Twelve children from the Harding Elementary School after-school program helped plant a maidenhair tree last Tuesday in Harding Park to help celebrate Arbor Day.  The tree (Gingko biloba ‘Autumn Gold’) will leaf out soon with its unique, fan-shaped leaves.  The Arbor Day planting is an annual event sponsored and coordinated by the El Cerrito Garden Club.  Staff from the Public Works department, including the city arborist, Stephen Prée, did the heavy work and talked about how to plant the tree and care for it.  The children learned about positioning the new tree, planting depth, and how to mound the soil to hold water. Bonnie MacKenzie is a member of the El Cerrito Garden Club. El Cerrito Patch welcomes features, commentaries and photos …

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Comment of the Week

Comment: "I Have To Do the Right Thing"

Our Comment of the Week comes from Clare McCormick, who reports why a Harding Elementary School third-grader refused her friends' pleas not to cut her hair.

When Saint Mary's High School held its "Locks of Love" event Wednesday, in which donors give their hair for cancer patients who've lost their own, the youngest contributor was a third-grader from Harding Elementary School, 8-year-old Evelin Aguirre. The Feb. 17 article about the event, "Gift for Those in Need: 'Locks of Love' from Saint Mary's," singled out the "little miss" from Harding and drew our Comment of the Week from Clare McCormick, who reported why Evelin did not heed the urging of her friends not to cut her hair: Little Miss Evelin Cruz Aguirre told me "I have to do the right thing. And, my girlfriends told me 'don't cut your hair.' And I said, It's my hair and it will grow back but there are kids who need it." How about that …

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Patch Gallery

Scenes from Popular Harding Carnival

Missed this year's Harding Carnival, which grossed an unexpected $10,000-plus? You can catch a few colorful glimpses in this gallery.

Here are some scenes of this year's revived Harding Carnival, which attracted more than 1,000 people to Harding Elementary School and took in more than $10,000, according to Harding parent and carnival producer Gunther Rohrer.

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Guest Columns

Harken Back at the Harding Carnival this Sunday

Harding dad and carnival producer Gunther Rohrer explains why you don't want to miss this year's special edition of the revived Harding Carnival.

Set the clock back to "old-timey" this Sunday for the annual Harding Carnival & Pumpkin Patch. Like last year’s blow out, this year builds on the best parts of the carnivals of yesteryear; an all-American line-up of classic games, live entertainment, great BBQ, summer fare, and carnival treats. The on-again off-again cycles of a neighborhood are in full effect in the El Cerrito panhandle neighborhood of St. Jerome’s. What was once an eddy of juniper topiaries and empty nesters is now a burgeoning community of young families filling the local schools to capacity and infusing a community spirit not seen since the '70s and '80s. Old traditions like this community event are getting picked up (and pumped up!) by the new guard and delivered in …

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El Cerrito, Kensington Schools Show Gains on API Scores

Local elementary schools are close to or at the state target; Portola Middle and El Cerrito High move closer.

Five of six El Cerrito and Kensington schools made gains on their Academic Performance Index scores this year with the only drop being a marginal three-point loss at Harding Elementary School. El Cerrito High School’s score went from 645 to 658 on the scale, which goes from 200 to 1000. Portola went from 689 to 706. Two of the area’s elementary schools, Madera and Kensington, remain well above the state’s target of at least 800. Madera went from 942 last year to 949 this year and Kensington from 930 last year to 949 this year. El Cerrito’s other two elementary schools are close to the 800 target, with Fairmont climbing from 768 last year to 799 this year. Harding dropped from 801 to 798. The state Department of Education released the state…

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Valerie Snider

10:21 am on Sunday, September 4, 2011

I clicked on the above link (to the district website), hoping to learn something. Unfortunately, it's written in "educratese." I don't have a clue what any of it means. How can we expect our students to learn basis skills when the district administrators can't describe the "curriculum and instruction plan" in plain English?   more ›

"Go Portola!" Group Created To Bolster City's Middle School

A new group that is seeking to increase attendance at El Cerrito's Portola Middle School through information and improvements has quickly drawn interest.

As El Cerrito and Kensington public school students approach the upper elementary school years, Portola Middle School becomes a popular topic of discussion. Ultimately, each family will decide whether to send its children to Portola or a private school, or try to get into a middle school in a neighboring district. The numbers can vary greatly from year to year. Nerissa Wu, a Madera Elementary School parent, said many parents like her are committed to the public schools. But, she said, when families start choosing other options for middle school, it can have a snowball effect. As more families decide to transfer out, that seems to prompt more to follow. Conversely, as more of a child’s peer group commit to Portola, the more appealing that …

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Betty Buginas

9:52 am on Saturday, August 6, 2011

Thank you for the update. You guys are moving so fast! El Cerrito and Kensington have an awesome cadre of parents that can make this happen. Please list the meetings on Patch, too, at http://elcerrito.patch.com/events/new , so new people continue to have the opportunity to get involved.   more ›

Where Principals Go To School — UC Berkeley Trains New Breed of School Administrators

An innovative training program at UC Berkeley, the Principal Leadership Institute, has seen remarkable success in preparing school principals in El Cerrito and other local schools to meet the new challenges and stress confronting school administrators tod

There’s a dropout problem in schools that you don’t hear much about. It isn’t the students who give up but the principals. A University of Texas study found that 70 percent of new principals leave within five years. It's clear those principals didn't go through the administrator-training program at UC Berkeley that works closely with West Contra Costa and other local school districts. That program — the Principal Leadership Institute — has produced 450 graduates in the past 11 years with only one of them leaving education, not counting retirements. Most are still working as principals and in other academic leadership posts. A few are teaching. The retention data, said Lynda Tredway, is evidence that the Principal Leadership Institute is …

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Betty Buginas

10:17 am on Sunday, July 10, 2011

Todd, it was one of the comments you posted that made me realize it would be good to find out more about this program, so thanks for the tip!   more ›