S.T.A.R Testing for Cupertino Union and Fremont Union High School Districts: You can opt your child out according to one parent

S.T.A.R Testing for Cupertino Union and Fremont Union High School Districts: You can opt your child out according to one parent

Posted Under: Quality of Life in Cupertino, Schools in Cupertino, In My Neighborhood in Cupertino | April 10, 2011 8:13 AM | 120 views | No comments

Star Testing took place during the first 2 weeks right after spring break in the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD). Star Testing is administered for kids 2nd grade through 8 grade in CUSD and for high school kids in Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD).

According to one of the parents, you can opt out your child from Star Testing if that's what you want. I personally think you should let your child get accustomed to standardized testing while they are young, but if, for some reason you are against it, follow this parent's steps outlined below:

Write a handwritten letter to the principal at your School, making sure to include the following information:

1. State that you like to opt out your child for all or part of the star testing this school year.
2. Mention your child's name, grade, teacher and
3. Sign the letter.

You need a letter for each child being opted out

TURN IN THE LETTER TO THE OFFICE ASAP.

Fremont condo complex has issue of low water pressure. Very little money to fix it.

Fremont condo complex has issue of low water pressure. Very little money to fix it.

Posted Under: Home Buying in Fremont, Remodel & Renovate in Fremont, In My Neighborhood in Fremont | May 3, 2011 4:07 PM | 71 views | No comments
Fremont condo complex has issue of low water pressure. Very little money to fix it.

Fixing all the units will take more than a year. The complex has only enough money budgeted to fix approximately 10 units at a time. Which units they do next depends on how bad they leak and how bad the water pressure is. You can say "Come look at my unit. My water pressure is the worst in this complex." However, you still aren't guaranteed to get your unit fixed next. The property manager does not have a set schedule to fix all the units. As they have enough funds, they are going throughout the complex and repiping batches of 10 or so units. Without the budget to correct the galvanized steel piping, repiping all the units could take years. The low water pressure will be an ongoing problem. To come up with the funds in one shot, the HOA could charge each unit a special assessment. However, they do not want to charge a SPECIAL assessment because many owners already have enough trouble paying the REGULAR assessment as it is.

High Tech Realtor: Trulia Layar Real Estate App makes Zillow look like the Stone Ages

High Tech Realtor: Trulia Layar Real Estate App makes Zillow look like the Stone Ages
Posted Under: Home Buying in California, Home Selling in California, Tech Tips in California | May 4, 2011 12:45 AM | 122 views | 1 comment

A new Real Estate App has been created by Trulia in conjunction with a company called "Layar", one of the pioneers in "augmented reality". The App uses GeoLocation, Computer Vision, and Context Aware coding on an open API to augment real live objects on your camera phone with relevant data.

With regular Trulia, you look at a map, then figure out which house in the real world corresponds to the house on the map.

With the Trulia Layar Real Estate App, you take your camera phone, aim it at a bunch of houses ...or slowly turn around in a circle while pointing your camera phone at the row of houses, and as your camera passes over each house, data bubbles with listing/sales informationpop over the image of each house.

Layar has an open API. It is free to develop and/or use Apps on Layar. (This is a familiar model for developing web service apps for the web.)

Robert Lei
REALTOR®, e-PRO®
Century 21
Direct: (408) 350-4726
Cell: (408) 893-2410
I'm never too busy for your Silicon Valley real estate referrals