First up, Rhythmix celebrates St. Patrick’s Day early with an 8 p.m. Friday show by Wake the Dead, an Albany-based Grateful Dead jam band with a list of notable players and a decidedly Celtic flavor (think fiddle, penny whistle and harp). Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door, and are available online.

Then on Saturday, Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums will help you swing into spring with an 8:30 p.m. show (there’s a half-hour swing dance lesson at 8 if you need a refresher). Tickets for the all-ages show are $10 in advance, $13 at the door, and are also available online.

“I am running because I feel I am the best prepared to tackle many of the serious problems facing the people of District 3 and the county as a whole,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a press release announcing her candidacy that was released Thursday afternoon.

A native of Alameda, Johnson is completing her second term as mayor this year and had served as a term as a City Council member and did some time on the Planning Board before that. The onetime Alameda County prosecutor (now in private practice) also serves on a bevy of regional boards and is the current president of the Alameda County Conference of Mayors.

Johnson will head to the June 8 primary for the seat with endorsements from state Senator Loni Hancock, D-Oakland; state Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Alameda; and former state Senate President and native son Don Perata.

Johnson said in her release that her first priority if elected to the seat would be to find a way to keep San Leandro Hospital open.

Her campaign officially kicks off at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Blue Dot Café, 1910 Encinal Avenue. Johnson’s campaign website is here.

Johnson enters a field for the District 3 supervisor seat that includes City Councilwoman Lena Tam, who has earned Lai-Bitker’s endorsement; and former supervisor and state Assemblywoman Wilma Chan. Former San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young has also reportedly thrown her hat in the ring for the seat.

A reader checked in earlier this week to say they’d tried to contact the nonprofit arts organization but their e-mail bounced out of a full mailbox and the phone number was disconnected. I called ACLO’s box office, and the number was indeed disconnected.

ACLO’s press person, Chris De Seguirant, confirmed the arts institution has fallen on hard times. She said its ACLO Kids summer camp is canceled, and that its 2010 season, which has not yet been announced, is “up in the air.”

De Seguirant said the theater company has shut down its box office and has been selling its things (they just had a sale on March 7). “We’re trying to consolidate,” she said.

De Seguirant said ACLO lost a lot of grants and funding they were dependent on last year. A 2008 tax return filed last June showed ACLO running a $62,014 deficit at the end of that year.

The company has put on 40 shows since its inception in 1997, plus concerts, camps and more. I’ll keep you posted if I find out more, but in the meantime, if you want to help out, there’s a donation button on the main page of ACLO’s website.

The bureau is hiring a million people nationwide – Walmart numbers, people – to go door to door for eight weeks this spring to complete and collect decennial census forms from people who haven’t yet mailed them in. The pay is (a decidedly non-Walmart) $22 an hour, and the bureau will start hiring at the end of this month.

If you’re interested in the gig, there’s a test (practice test and all the info you need are here), and you can schedule it by checking in with the nice folks in the bureau’s Alameda office, at 764-2941. If you pass the test, it sounds like you’ll join a pool of applicants selected in a random-type computer drawing (though it sounds like the computer takes skills like multiple languages into account).

“Our pool of applicants is big. We’re testing a lot of people,” said Edel Orantes, the very nice person who answered the telephone when I called the bureau’s Harbor Bay Parkway office. Orantes, who has worked previous censuses, said she thinks high unemployment is a reason the number of applicants is so high.

Despite the numbers, Orantes encourages everyone who calls to take the leap of faith and apply.

“Take the chance and take the test because you never know,” she tells prospective applicants. “God is good. You may get picked.”

Incidentally, those forms are supposed to be going out in the middle of March, and in addition to providing us buckets of information about our little Island, the federal government uses the numbers to figure out where to spend about $400 billion. They’ve got a whole website for the 2010 Census (translatable into a boatload of languages!) right here.

The district could cut the full-time equivalent of up to 102.7 teaching positions for a savings of more than $6.2 million. Some 46 temporary teachers could also lose their jobs. Alameda Education Association president Patricia Sanders said her union represents roughly 620 teachers.

“Unlike previous years, what we’ve come to realize is that things are so difficult, they won’t be coming back next year,” Sanders said of the notifications. “We have an incredible school system right now and what’s happening is truly tragic.”

Sanders and others said the layoff notifications point up the need for the district to get a new, larger parcel tax passed to replace the existing Measure A and Measure H taxes. The board could vote on a replacement tax for the ballot as soon as this coming Monday.

The cuts could include more than 40 elementary school teachers who would lose their jobs as class sizes grow and dozens more across a variety of subjects in Alameda’s middle and high schools, including counselors and a spate of math teachers that could be lost as ninth grade class sizes rise. The list also includes 13 regional occupation program part-time and full-time positions.

In addition to class size reduction, the list includes cuts that could come as a result of the likely closure of Chipman Middle School, changes at the Alameda Community Learning Center, enrollment changes and the possible loss of state funds that pay for specific programs and staff, like counselors.

The district has to notify teachers by Monday that they could be laid off. Final layoff notifications would need to take place by May 15.

The school board okayed an agreement with the district’s teachers on March 2 that allows the district to temporarily suspend contract language that limits K-3 class sizes to 20 students per teacher and also allows the district to furlough teachers for up to eight days for each of the next two school years, including five school days.

Tuesday night, the board approved resolutions that would mandate the same work year reductions for school administrators and other district office staff including Superintendent Kirsten Vital, who will take a pay cut of up to $6,612 next year if all the furlough days are used. The furlough days for non-teaching staff could save the district north of $300,000 next year.

The board also okayed new criteria for deciding who will face a layoff if two teachers who have the same level of experience are being considered. The district’s human resources chief, Laurie McLachlan Fry, said she has only faced that situation twice. But Trustee Tracy Jensen said the criteria could become more critical as the district considers greater numbers of layoffs than in previous years.

Meanwhile, the board will open a public session where they may approve putting a parcel tax on the ballot at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the third floor conference room of the district offices, 2200 Central Avenue.

The board also set a second meeting at 5 p.m. next Thursday, March 18 at the same location in the event they don’t okay a tax on Monday. The board voted on March 2 to set a mail ballot for June 22, but didn’t approve actually putting a tax on the ballot.

Monday, March 1

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BURGLARY: Police arrested Denise Renee Porter, 35, address not given, and Jason Santiago Inocencio, 22, no address given, on burglary charges. Police said Porter was arrested on probable cause when she was observed walking in front of a school on the 2200 block of Encinal Avenue and that Inocencio was stopped and detained pursuant to a felony investigation. Inocencio also admitted to being in possession of methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia. The pair were arrested at 1:57 p.m. and booked into Alameda City Jail.

GRAND THEFT: Police are looking for the person or persons who broke into a Sandalwood Isle home and stole a purse, camera and other items valued at $1,580. Police said the suspect or suspects broke into the home sometime between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. February 28 and took the purse from a shelf in the bedroom. Police did not say how the alleged thief got into the house.

Stolen vehicles: White and red 2001 Honda motorcycle, between 12:01 a.m. and 5 a.m. today, from the 1900 block of Shoreline Drive.

Blue 2006 Yamaha R6 motorcycle, between 10:30 p.m. February 28 and 6:30 p.m. today, from the 1900 block of Shoreline Drive.

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Tuesday, March 2

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BATTERY: Police are investigating an alleged battery. Police said that at around 5 p.m. on January 22, the victim and suspect got into a confrontation at a Harvard Drive home. Police said the suspect tried to grab a box away form the victim in such a way that it fractured the victim’s finger.

BATTERY: Police are investigating an alleged battery that occurred outside a school campus. Police said the victim walked off the Jack London Avenue campus at around 3 p.m. when someone said he was going to rape her. A suspect then repeated the first person’s threat and struck the victim in the buttocks with his right knee. The victim then fled.

Stolen vehicles: Red 1993 Honda Civic, between 9:30 p.m. March 1 and 11:50 a.m. today, from the 900 block of Lafayette Street.

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Wednesday, March 3

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GRAND THEFT: Police are looking for the person or persons who stole a personal computer valued at $1,350 from a vehicle parked on the 800 block of West Tower Avenue. Police said the alleged theft took place sometime between 8:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Stolen bicycles: Blue Giant Sedona mountain bike, between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., from the 1400 block of Morton Street.

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Thursday, March 4

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POSSESSION OF BURGLARY TOOLS: Police arrested Kenneth Glenn Forsty, 47, of El Cerrito on charges of possession of burglary tools and a drug charge. Police said they stopped Forsty as he was riding his bicycle on the 1500 block of Buena Vista Avenue and found a bundle containing drugs and bolt cutters in his possession. He was arrested at 8:35 a.m. and transported to Alameda City Jail.

BURGLARY: Police are looking for the person who, they said, attempted to burglarize a home on the 200 block of Santa Clara Avenue. Police said that sometime between noon on March 1 and 10:30 a.m. March 4, the suspect jumped the rear fence of the residence and made several attempts to break in. They said the suspect fled without entering the residence or stealing anything.

FRAUD: Police said two people scammed a Buena Vista Avenue residence out of $1,936 by telling her that if she wired them money she would be given a loan. The alleged crime took place between February 24 and February 26.

BURGLARY: Police are looking for the people who, they said, broke into a storage unit at a Buena Vista Avenue apartment complex and stole a golf cart valued at $400. Police said the alleged crime took place at 2:35 p.m. at a complex on the 400 block of Buena Vista Avenue.

REPLICA GUN ARREST: Police arrested Oliver Earl Grey, 43, of San Francisco, on charges of exhibiting an imitation firearm, resisting arrest, intoxication and marijuana possession. Police said Grey was arrested after he waved a replica gun at someone in a threatening manner at a storage facility on the 1800 block of Webster Street. Police said Grey also resisted arrest and that he appeared intoxicated. He was arrested at 7:55 p.m. and transported to Alameda City Jail.

BURGLARY: Police are looking for the person or persons who, they said, broke into a home on the 1600 block of Clinton Avenue and stole jewelry whose value was not listed. Police said that sometime between 4:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., someone smashed a window in the victim’s living room with a screwdriver and entered, taking the jewelry.

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Friday, March 5

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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARREST: Police arrested Pierre Thorjus Lewis, 23, no address given, on warrants for domestic violence. Police said they arrested Lewis at 10:53 a.m. and booked him into Alameda City Jail.

FRAUD: A Buena Vista Avenue woman is allegedly out $2,525 after police said she was scammed by a poster on Craigslist. Police said the woman responded to a job posting on the site in February and that she was scammed into depositing a phony check and wiring the suspect money.

Stolen bicycles: Fluorescent yellow Diamondback bicycle, between midnight and 7 a.m. today, from the 1800 block of Santa Clara Avenue.

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Saturday, March 6

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DRUNK DRIVING ARREST: Police arrested Esteban Mauricio Lopez, 24, of Oakland on a drunk driving charge. Police said they arrested Lopez at 2:30 a.m. on the 1200 block of Oak Street after he hit a parked car. Police said Lopez appeared intoxicated and was unable to perform field sobriety tests satisfactorily. He was booked into Alameda City Jail.

BURGLARY: Police are looking for the person or persons who broke into a business on the 1400 block of Webster Street and stole a laptop valued at $1,100. Police said that sometime between 6:30 p.m. March 5 and 4:30 p.m. today, someone got into a lockbox and gained a key to the business, breaking in and taking the computer.

Stolen bicycles: 26-speed and Harley-type purple and gray bicycle scooter with ghost on tank, between 6 p.m. March 4 and 10 a.m. March 5, from the 1300 block of Lincoln Avenue.

Red Simple cruiser, between 4 p.m. March 5 and 10 a.m. today, from the 1500 block of Lafayette Street.

Roadmaster 26-speed, between 8 p.m. March 5 and 5:30 p.m. today, from the 1100 block of Buena Vista Avenue.

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Sunday, March 7

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GRAND THEFT: Police are looking for the person who, they said, stole an ivory figure worth $1,000 from the Alameda Point Antiques and Collectibles Faire. Police said the figure disappeared out of a display case off a vendor’s table sometime between 1:30 p.m. and 2:20 p.m.

First up: Back to Life Chiropractic’s St. Patty’s Day Dash, which takes place this Saturday, March 13 at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach. This second annual 5K run/walk (and half-miler for the kids) is a benefit for the Alameda East Bay Miracle League and specifically, for the park they want to build for disabled kids.

Registration is $25 (free for the kids’ race), and if you pre-register online by Thursday night, you get a T-shirt, goody bag and post-race nourishment. Day-of registration begins at 8 a.m. And they’ll have prizes for best Leprechaun costume at the post-dash bash, so get ready to bust out those green socks.

Next: The Alameda Education Foundation’s second annual Run 4 Education starts at 9 a.m. Sunday, April 25 at Alameda Towne Centre (the start’s near Sushi House on Shoreline Drive). Registration for this 5k run/walk (they’re advertising a “flat, fast course along Alameda’s shoreline”) is $25 for individuals, $50 per family up to four people.

The event kicks off with a free 100 yard dash for kids under 10. Awards follow the race at 11 a.m. with Earning4Learning and the Alameda Day of the Arts celebrating student artwork and musical performances. You can register for the race online. (And if you’re looking for another way to help out AEF, they’ve got a special screening of “Miracle in a Box” at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, March 14 at Auctions By the Bay Theater on Alameda Point. Tickets are available on AEF’s website.)

And on June 5, it’s the See Jane Run Half-Marathon and 5K, which kicks off at 8 a.m. at Crown Beach. Registration for the 5K is $45 through May 3 and $55 through June 3, and it’s $85 and $95 for the half marathon. (There’s a kids race, too.) The cost includes a finish-line celebration with chocolate, champagne and more, and the proceeds will benefit Girls Inc. of the Island City. And you can register online. Registration closes at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 3 (or earlier if the race fills up).

A jury has granted a $1.95 million judgment to a company that sued the city over money it said it was owed from Alameda’s former telecommunications business. The judgment came after a three-week trial in federal court.

Alameda Municipal Power General Manager Girish Balachandran said city officials are considering appealing the jury award. If the city is not successful, the money will be paid out of the utility’s electric reserves.

Balachandran said that the lawsuit should never have been brought by Vectren and that he sees the fact that they only got a fraction of the $10.3 million they were seeking as a victory for the utility. He said the whole goal of the telecom sale was to get out of the business as cheaply as possible and to focus on electricity.

Vectren’s attorney, Robert Bunzel, did not return a call seeking comment.

The eight-person jury said Monday that attorneys for Evansville, Ind.-based Vectren Communications Services proved the city breached its agreement with the company by improperly accounting for revenues from the sale of an earlier bond series Vectren held.

The city bought out Vectren’s right to build and operate what was then Alameda Power & Telecom’s telecommunications system in 2002 for $6.3 million plus interest, which was to be paid exclusively from revenues generated by the telecom. But AP&T’s telecommunications efforts floundered, producing less than $200,000 to pay the company.

The jury also found that the city breached its 2004 Installment Sale Agreement when it sold the telecom system and that it failed to add telephone services, but it determined the statute of limitations for those claims had expired. The city sold the telecom to Comcast for $17 million in November 2008.

The jury said the company did not prove the city breached its agreement by failing to raise telecom service rates, with regards to its staffing of the telecom operation.

Vectren had argued that the utility didn’t take the steps it needed to take – including raising rates and adding telephone service – and that it wasted money on marketing expenses and its website. The company had sought $10.3 million when it filed its suit in June 2008.

The city’s attorneys argued that Vectren failed to make a claim with the city first as required by law and that the statute of limitations on the company’s claims had expired.

City officials had originally said they had insurance that would cover any court judgments, but later backtracked, saying they weren’t sure if their insurance would cover those costs. A separate set of federal lawsuits filed by two of the telecom’s major bondholders – Nuveen Funds and the Bernard Osher Trust – continue to make their way through the courts.

The trial was held in U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston’s San Francisco courtroom. The case number is 3:08-cv-03137-SI.

By Stacy Lawrence

At today’s Board of Education meeting, Alameda Unified School District officials will provide an update on The Academy of Alameda Middle School. That’s the charter school approved by the School Board late last year as a replacement for Chipman Middle School, and it will open this fall.

Due to the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind, Chipman Middle had to close, fire 90 percent of its teachers and administrators or become a charter school.

Chipman employees will have the opportunity to apply for a position at the new school, with teacher applications accepted at the end of March and interviews starting in mid-April, Lori MacDonald, a reform coach working to craft the new school, told The Island.

Enrollment has already started, with 446 students enrolled so far, according to the district staff presentation for tonight’s board meeting. MacDonald said the school is targeting 600 students; the current Chipman enrollment is 539 students.

So far, 294 of the former Chipman students who will be in seventh and eighth grades next year have signed up for The Academy. MacDonald said that students who previously would have attended Chipman need to actively enroll in The Academy; otherwise the district will contact parents with an assignment at an AUSD school.

Alameda Unified recommends changing the current Chipman boundaries to become part of the Wood Middle School attendance zone. Wood can accept up to 180 more students without “additional structural changes,” according to the presentation. In addition, it suggests centralizing courses for non-English proficient students at Wood Middle School.

The Academy will focus on school-wide learning, in which “all the teachers become responsible for all the students,” MacDonald said. Together, teachers will be constantly evaluating student data to challenge those students who are already meeting standards and to aid those who aren’t proficient.

For students, there would be a lot of transparency to the testing process; they would “know what the learning objectives are, what mastery looks like and the steps necessary to attain mastery,” MacDonald concluded.

The Academy is open to enrollment for all California students, but MacDonald said if enrollment were full the school could put in place some stipulations for siblings and current students and could give Alameda students preference in the event of a lottery.

The public meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. today in Council Chambers at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Avenue.

The plan envisions new uses for the former Chun gas station, Towata Flowers and Carnegie library, and for the space now occupied by CVS. It also envisions a host of new residential, office, retail and parking along civic center corridors; parks where some of the city’s existing parking lots sit; and better pedestrian access and lighting in the areas that surround City Hall.

Some specific uses proposed during a presentation to the Community Improvement Commission (read: City Council) last Wednesday include additional parking and a five-screen extension of the Alameda Theatre & Cineplex or a hotel where CVS now sits and retail, restaurant and office uses on the gas station and Towata sites that would retain the station’s canopy and Towata’s iconic sign. Housing could front new parking along Lincoln Avenue.

Planners from Urban Design Associates also suggested putting public parks where the City Hall parking lot and Parking Lot C (across from the theater) sit now. And their plan envisions better pedestrian access, more street trees, better lighting and public art in the city’s civic core.

Gallant said the council would get a second presentation in April that will lay out how the city will make the plan a reality.

Council members, business leaders and history buffs alike said they’re excited about the plan, which they see as the final piece of a long-running effort to rejuvenate Alameda’s downtown. Wednesday’s presentation marked the first public outing for the plan, though leaders of the Park Street Business Association, Alameda Architectural Preservation Society and other “stakeholder” groups were contacted for their input before the plan went before the Council.

“Looking at this, it’s hard not to get excited,” Councilwoman Marie Gilmore said. “I want to ask Ann Marie where’s the money coming from and when we can get started.”

Gallant said she has some “immediate transactions” lined up that could help finance the proposed improvements and that the city is working on grants to fix up the former fire station behind City Hall and the Carnegie building. She said more specifics can be available in the next 30 to 45 days.

“This is stuff we can definitely start doing in the next 15 to 18 months,” Gallant said.

The planning process got underway in July 2009, after Councilman Frank Matarrese asked the council to consider putting the Alameda Museum in the long-vacant Carnegie. City staff came back with the suggestion that a broader plan for the city’s civic core be pursued.

“That corner out there with the gas station – I’m telling you, I’m ready to have a lunch out there under an umbrella,” Matarrese said.