ALAMEDA — Inside one classroom at Chipman Middle School, eighth-graders look for word clues and make plot predictions as the teacher reads a novel aloud. Just a few classroom doors away, another group of students chant vocabulary words — bite, bit, spark, and wait.

“Next row, what word?” says literacy coach Katherine Crawford as she snaps her fingers to keep the class in rhythm.

In yet another classroom, seventh-graders are working on a project about the culture of Chipman, an ethnically and economically diverse school of about 600 students.
Continue reading →

Get the latest news in the Alameda Observer

ALAMEDA — Paul Richard Martinetti stood on the front patio of his bungalow-style house with a glass of water in one hand, a cigarette in another. He took long drags while looking out on Garfield Avenue, a quiet street with well-maintained lawns where a mailman makes his rounds.

Dressed in a worn gray sweater, his white hair covered by a black baseball cap, the 73-year-old Alameda man does not have much to say about his arrest Oct. 4 after police found 233 marijuana plants in his home.

“I’ve been told that the less I talk about it, the better I’m off,” said Martinetti, who is originally from New York.
Continue reading →