Upfront COMMUNITY
Chamber, Weekly announce Tall Tree Awards Individuals, organizations recognized for outstanding achievements by Carol Blitzer
F
ive individuals and organizations will receive this year’s Tall Tree Awards, which are sponsored by the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and the Palo Alto Weekly. The awards acknowledge the civic accomplishments of a citizen volunteer, professional/business person, business and nonprofit organization. New this year is a Global Impact Award, which recognizes a community member for work that has made a lasting impact beyond Palo Alto. Ray Bacchetti is being lauded as “Outstanding Citizen Volunteer” for his work both on the Mayor’s Public Safety Building Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission. “Ray’s hands-on leadership was instrumental in the commission’s production of a comprehensive report analyzing the City’s infrastructure backlog,” the nominating letter said. Earlier volunteer activities, which stretch back to 1978, included terms
on the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education, the Foothill-De Anza Board of Trustees, Palo Alto Human Relations Commission, and the Channing House board, as well as service to the Palo Alto Police Department. Referring to his leadership on the Human Relations Commission, the letter noted: “Ray’s inclusive approach and thoughtful consideration of all sides of these issues often results in sensible recommendations and actions that benefit the community as a whole.” Named “Outstanding Professional,” Becky Beacom’s latest involvement with Project Safety Net, which deals with suicide prevention and student well-being, is just one more contribution through her long career as manager of health education at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. She has served on the school district’s Student Health Council, the City/School Liaison Committee, Health Care Alliance for Response to Adolescent Depression and the
Palo Alto Youth Collaborative, among others. “No matter how full her plate may be she always has time for your concern or need and will make you feel as though there is no issue more i mp or t a nt and worthy of her time than the one you have brought to Ray Bacchetti her attention,” resident Mary Ojakian wrote a nominating letter. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was cited as “Outstanding Business” for its extensive pro bono legal representation, financial support through its foundation and community service by individuals in the firm. Among its community-service projects have been habitat restoration for the en-
vironmental nonprofit Acterra; a back-to-school supplies drive for the East Palo Alto Charter School; Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; renovation projects for Rebuilding Together Peninsula; and quarterly blood drives for the Stanford Blood Center. In addition, the firm’s Green Team advocates for environmentally friendly activities at work. “It is hard for me to imagine any company with a greater list of contributions, from the pro bono hours that first caught my attention, to their very substantial monetar y donations, to their acBecky Beacom tual handson community service,” wrote one nominator. Recommendation letters for Breast Cancer Connections came from former clients and board members — and in some cases, both — who wanted to honor the group as “Outstanding Nonprofit” as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. “Breast Cancer Connections (BCC) does a phenomenal job at bringing to-
ENVIRONMENT
EDUCATION
Acterra executive director to retire Michael Closson, 74, seeks to ‘shake up my life a little bit’
M
ichael Closson, who has led the Palo Alto environmental nonprofit Acterra for a decade, will retire as executive director on Aug. 31, the organization has announced. During his tenure, Closson expanded Acterra’s programs and strengthened its finances, growing its assets from $600,000 in mid2003 to more than $1 million by mid-2011, according to forms filed with the state of California. As Acterra has grown, Closson said, his work managing a staff of 22 became largely administrative. “I’m 74 years old, and I’m in good shape. It’s time to shake up my life a little bit. I’m looking for more program-related work that is not administrative. It’s a good time for me to explore,” he said by phone on Wednesday. Closson was hired in May 2003, just three years after the organization was formed out of a merger of two other environmental nonprofits, Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation and Bay Area Action. “Under Michael’s leadership, Acterra really came into its own,” said Judith Steiner, president of the Acterra board of directors. “I think Michael’s greatest contributions came as a result of his ability to articulate his own passion for saving the planet and motivate our staff and board to follow his lead,” she said. Among Closson’s accomplishments were overseeing the development of the Green@Home program,
by Sue Dremann which has taught nearly 2,000 homeowners in Silicon Valley to save energy and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; enlarging Acterra’s Stewardship Program to include major habitat restoration projects at sites such as Pearson-Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto and Stevens and Permanente creeks in Cupertino and Mountain View; provid i ng environmental education to youth through the Michael Closson Stewardship Program, which now involves 3,000 local teens annually; and strengthening the group’s Fiscal Sponsorship Program, which funds community projects such as GreenTown Los Altos, City Trees in Redwood City and the Barron Park Donkeys. Closson, who has a doctorate in sociology, said working for environmental causes is a natural outgrowth of his childhood experiences in the woods of Troy, N.Y., and his love of hiking the eastern Sierra Mountains. He was influenced by David Brower, then head of the Sierra Club, and worked with former Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier in Seattle, Wash., on Earth Day 2000 as its programs director and as executive director of Biodiversity Northwest. Closson was formerly the execu-
gether breast-cancer specialists and survivors to provide emotional support, breast-cancer education, and early detection services. Whether a client has just been diagnosed, or they are seeking wellness after treatment, BCC’s compassionate staff and volunteers are with them every step of the way,” wrote a former client, volunteer and board member. Currently, Breast Cancer Connections is putting together a steering committee to plan how to expand its services and scope to include people with ovarian cancer, said Karen Nelson, the organization’s executive director. For the first time, a Tall Tree Global Impact Award will be given, this year to Stanford University President John Hennessey. The award will be made periodically, rather than annually. All of the Tall Tree Award recipients will be honored at a dinner on Wednesday, April 10, at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel. Tickets range from $125 to $175, depending on membership in the Chamber and an earlybird deadline of March 20. They are available through the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, www. paloaltochamber.com or 650-3243121. N Associate Editor Carol Blitzer can be emailed at cblitzer@ paweekly.com.
tive director of the Center for Economic Conversion in Mountain View, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s worked to convert military bases to public uses, many of which were polluted with toxic materials, he said. He also served as assistant dean of undergraduate studies at Stanford University and was codirector of New Ways to Work. Of his tenure at Acterra, Closson said he is most proud that Acterra’s programs engage the public, especially youth. More than 5,000 people are actively engaged in volunteer pursuits through its programs, and 3,000 — or 60 percent — are youths, he said. Acterra is the “antidote” to children being plugged into technology and not spending time outdoors, he said. Acterra has also worked to make public entities more environmentally aware, he said. “Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Mountain View now have environmental coordinators,” he said, adding that a good part of Acterra’s contracts come from city funding for various land-stewardship programs. Following his departure from Acterra, Closson wants to focus on climate change on the local level. And he could lend his services as an interim executive director to organizations in transition, he said. Acterra is working on designating his successor, and an announcement could come in March. He is leaving the organization in good financial (continued on page 11)
Parents complain about after-school group work District says teachers don’t like prohibition on meetings outside of class by Chris Kenrick
G
roup projects in school emerged as a hot-button issue Tuesday, Feb. 26, as the Palo Alto Board of Education discussed the district’s eightmonth-old policy on homework. A parent who is a member of the committee that helped draft the policy last year objected to a proposal to weaken a regulation that prohibited teachers from requiring group meetings outside of class. Lauren Bonomi said the difficulty in scheduling group meetings outside of school “adds extra stress on these already overscheduled kids. “Group projects, when they need to be done outside of school, blow the roof off our house,” Bonomi said. With students busy with outside activities — including some sports practices that can run until 9:30 or 10 p.m. because of a shortage of field space — it becomes a “family problem” to schedule group meetings, she said. “When you take it to two to three families, the problem becomes exponential,” Bonomi said. Bonomi’s comments were echoed by another parent who said she had sat in on meetings of the homework committee. “It takes more time to schedule the meeting than to have the
meeting,” she said. Based on feedback from teachers, Associate Superintendent Charles Young said he was considering weakening a rule that bans “project-based assignments” that require group meetings outside of class. Instead, Young said, it is the amount of time spent in those meetings, not the meetings themselves that should serve as the guideline. Acknowledging the scheduling difficulties — but affirming the value of group assignments — board members said they would leave it to staff to clarify the language, since the rule in question is an “administrative regulation,” not a board policy. But they suggested it is premature to change regulations to a policy that’s been in effect for less than a year. Most did say they would support a proposed one-word change in the homework policy so that students who miss school due to unexcused absence will have the opportunity to make up missed work. Young’s proposal changes the words “shall be given the opportunity to make up missed work” to “may be given the opportunity to make up missed work” for a student with an unexcused absence. N
ÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÊ >ÀV Ê£]ÊÓä£ÎÊU Page 5