SMSversusCPT is going live soon..

This is my flyer #1. Feel free to distribute this flyer, physically or electronically. I invite you to send me your design of a flyer. I will add to this blog so that people can print and distribute.

Picture of Uncle Sam downloaded from the internet. Believed to be circa 1917-1918. Use here is non-commercial.

Need School PTAs to be proactive

If the Sunnyvale School Superintendent is deliberately suppressing the notification through the faculty, how do we get news to the students and families?
PTA Mission: The overall purpose of PTA, according to National PTA.org:
- A powerful voice for all children
- A relevant resource for families and communities
- A strong advocate for the education and well-being of every child

PTA Values: What PTA stands for:
- Collaboration: We work in partnership with a wide array of individuals and organizations to accomplish our agreed-upon goals.
- Commitment: We are dedicated to promoting children’s health, well-being, and educational success through strong parent, family, and community involvement.
- Accountability: We acknowledge our obligations. We deliver on our promises.
- Respect: We value our colleagues and ourselves. We expect the same high quality of effort and thought from ourselves as we do from others.
- Inclusivity: We invite the stranger and welcome the newcomer. We value and seek input from as wide a spectrum of viewpoints and experiences as possible.
- Integrity: We act consistently with our beliefs. When we err, we acknowledge the mistake and seek to make amends.

According to these guidelines of the National PTA, even though the presidents and chairs of various PTAs may value money generated by the AT&T CPT lease, these PTAs still have the obligation to notify all parents and families of their schools, based on, especially, Mission Statement #2 Relevant Resource and Values Statement #5 Inclusivity.

It just pisses me off that these PTAs are also trying to prevent the spread of the notification just because they have the power to control the email lists. This is against everything a PTA stands for!


Here is an incomplete list of who is who at the PTAs of SMS and its feeder schools.

SMS PTA

Wendy Bockholt -wbockholt@yahoo.com (President)

Kathy Besse - khb@graystar.com
Alice Chu - the_kazkid@yahoo.com
We-Ling Chu - wchu425@gmail.com
Lisa Coe - quickcoe@yahoo.com
Lisa Dabel -
Rosella Fernandez - rosellaf@sbcglobal.net
Lisa Greene - lisag@mac.com
Trish Guerreri - garyair@informart.com
Sophia Haupt - shaupt@rosendin.com (bad email?)
Becky Hunt - davidandbeckyhunt@yahoo.com
Becky Jevons -
Linda Kamas - 
Julie Kilpatrick - jultime@aol.com
Stacey Niblett - sniblett@pacbell.net
Yasmin Parvereshi - ypar1234@yahoo.com
Aboli Pathak - aboli202@yahoo.com
Linda Robinson - lrobinsnest@yahoo.com
Marites Smith - marites@mips.com
Sharadon Smith - sharadonsmith@gmail.com
Sandi Spires - sandispires@gmail.com
Yaulanda Spyrou - yspyrou@e-spyrou.com
Susan Stevenson - susanstevens@gmail.com
Nancy Talesfore - ptals4@aol.com
Tracy Wingrove - t.wingrove@comcast.net


Cherry Chase PTA

Heather Alonso - heatheralonso1@yahoo.com (President)

Lynn Bauer - lkbauer@sbcglobal.net
Dawn Bussey - dawnbussey@yahoo.com
Alice Chu - chunami@comcast.net
Heather Cooke - heather_cooke@yahoo.com
Chris Driggett - driggett@mac.com
Amanda Estes - atonner@altsolutions.com
Terri Goddard - goddardterri@hotmail.com
Lisa Felipa -
Val Freytag - valfreytag@aol.com
Sara Johnson - sara.johnson@yahoo.com 
Martha Lampert - mvlampert@sbcglobal.net
Kelli Lockwood - locoweed66@aol.com
Lisa Miller - lkmiller3@gmail.com
Kathy Mortensen - kmortensen@inlinepromotions.com
Traci Oberman - racioberman@yahoo.com
Miriam Ohman - miriam_ohman@hotmail.com
Kathy Ortiz - kgo3717@yahoo.com
Lori Wilkinson Rella - jonah456@yahoo.com
Puja Sampat-Khosla - pujasampat@hotmail.com
Lisa Schouten - lschouten@comast.net
Terri Terada - terri_terada@yahoo.com
Kao Violet - kao@comcast.net
Eva Weng - eva_weng@yahoo.com
Bridget Watson - parislitwit@gmail.com
Lesley Wynne - lesley@mac.com
Tony Ybarra - dadfulltime@yahoo.com


Cumberland PTA

Reid Myers - cumberlandpta@gmail.com, reidandtodd@yahoo.com (President)

Anne Branch - anne@branchfamily.com
Julie Colwell - julie_colwell@yahoo.com
Jill Cotton - jillscotton@yahoo.com
Celeste Deggeller - cdeggeller@sbcglobal.net
Karen Grant - kgrant@cs.stanford.edu
Jennifer Gray -
Diane Guerin - dn_guerin@yahoo.com
Leslie Jeng Labbe - llj65@yahoo.com
Nikki Miner - jndbminer@comcast.net
Catherine Tiritoglu - cathy@uilab.com
Nina Wong-Dobkin - NinaWD@batnet.com
Kay Zeren - kay@zeren.com


Ellis PTA

Vargas PTA (information from 2007)

Fred Wiesinger - freder@gmail.com (President)

Need to get the parents involved

Other than the residents who live within 1/2 mile of 951 W. Remington Dr, who should care whether the AT&T Cell Phone Tower at Sunnyvale Middle School is approved?

Why? The teachers, the families and the students of Sunnyvale Middle School, of course.

Then, why haven't I heard single peep from SMS? This is sad indeed. I would like to believe that the Sunnyvale School Superintendent's office did such a good job suppressing the notification process that nobody knows. If you know anyone attending or will be attending SMS or any of the feeder schools listed below, please let them and their families know.

If the parents don't know, they can't get involved!

According to Sunnyvale School District website, SMS's feeder schools are Cherry Chase, Cumberland, Ellis and Vargas. And the boundaries for these feeder schools are:

Why site CPTs on school and park grounds?

But why the schools and town-owned properties such as parks?

Budgets are almost never, ever cut. No matter what anyone tells you that how hard the whole nation or world is doing a budget cut, budget cuts are almost never, ever successful. People simply cannot agree to cut their own pay. There are always reasons for not cutting this and that. People simply cannot agree to cut spendings, especially in their own department.

So more money has to come in from somewhere. And money with minimal work is most welcome.

Schools are the easiest target, especially in the economic downturns.

We cut number of teachers. We increase the number of students in class. We reduce the after school activities. But the higher up, the so-called support network bureaucrats are never reduced. In fact, if you dig deep enough, they probably have automatic pay raises like the senate and congress.

Parents are concerned that their children are not getting the competitive edge and attention at school if there are too many kids in a class. Parents are worried about having to pay for school after having to pay taxes that supposedly support the school system. Parcel tax? Direct drives?

So, if the FCC says its safe, who are we to argue about free money?

The School Board and the City Council are in with cell phone operators and tower builders for the money. The people who are supposedly working for us are falling for CPT builders' plot to deploy as many CPTs as possible during this economic crunch. These builders don't even have to build them now. Once approved, these CPTs and approvals will be "grandfathered" even if the FCC changes its ruling tomorrow. Therefore, these CPT builders are seeking out sites even though there is no need for them today.

Sunnyvale is not rich. But it is not poor. It is a working class city. It should be a city that can stand on its own feet. Not a city that would risk the children's future in return for money. It is despicable for the School Board and City Council to approve of CPTs in schools.

How can we hold these people accountable for their decisions? As with leaded gasoline case, effects of CPTs will be slow, "very slow gestation of that toxicological syndrome". It is impossible to hold these people accountable.

Schools and parks are easy targets because nobody is looking. Schools and parks are so-called transient properties. Nobody lives in them. Nobody needs to be notified according to FCC regulations. These properties are owned by a town and ran with money from taxes. One can say nobody owns these properties. One can also argue that every resident of Sunnyvale owns these properties.


If you want cell phones, you will have to accept Cell Phone Towers. But err on the safe side, put the CPTs somewhere else, away from schools, parks and places where children gather.


Don't let those making the decisions get away with being irresponsible. Use your voice as the people of Sunnyvale.

Sign the petition.

Go to the protest. Children are welcome.

Stay tuned for these coming events, get involved in your local groups, or do it yourself. Do something!

German studies based on health records

A German study looking at health records from 1994 - 2004, of 1000 patients showed higher incidents of health issues within 400 meters (1312 feet) of a CPT which was in operation since 1993. This research was done without external fundings.

By contrast, FCC's regulations were adopted in 1996.

In light of new research findings of health issues, isn't time for FCC to re-evaluated its policy on allowing CPTs to be sited on school grounds and in residential area?

The Influence of Being Physically Near to a Cell Phone Transmission Mast on the Incidence of Cancer

SMStower - a local yahoo group

If you would like to join a local yahoo group so that you can meet some of the people in the community to discuss the AT&T cell tower face to face, please go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smstower/

This group may come in handy when it is time to organize the petition and protest.

This blog is not related to the yahoo group. This blog will not organize petitions or protests. If needed, this blog can be used to forward petitions to people who email their requests. This blog can also be used to communicate and broadcast protest events.

Running out of time (part 2)

After my post last night, I received some emails asking me why I didn't think the CPT at SMS could be killed. Why I only gave the petition and protest 50% chance of killing AT&T's tower.

The main reason is that the Sunnyvale School District and the City Council want the money and have practically signed on the dots.

The only way to get to 100% chance of killing the AT&T tower is to get both the teachers and the students involved as well.

Without the teachers, the school comes to a halt. How many substitute teachers do you think the school keeps? Teachers have rights too. Just as International Association of Fire Fighters which opposes the use of fire stations as base stations, teachers and their association (California Teachers Association) can choose to oppose CPTs being built too close to school. After all, teachers spend more time at school than the students.

Teachers in SMS need to sign the petition to oppose the CPT. But teachers also have to be careful that the school and school district don't discriminate them for having voiced their opposition. Teachers need to keep a record of their performance evaluations and their students' appreciation of their work just in case the bureaucrats decide to cause trouble. Teachers who are not afraid to speak their opinions and to speak up for themselves are good examples to the students.

Students in SMS need to create and sign their own petition to oppose the CPT.

In the extreme case, for example, if the tower is approved but the students want to reverse the city's decision, as a last resort, students can choose to not attend school for a day or two. School districts get majority of the funding per student based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA). This funding roughly comes up to between $35-$45 per student per day (depending on the district). It will be also interesting to see how the school district explain the mass absence to the California Department of Education.

Those in power run their operations using fear tactics. Teachers who speak up might lose their jobs or affect their reviews. When teachers are forced to suppress their opinions and forbidden to discuss sensitive issues, students learn to be followers instead of people who dare to have a voice and question the stupidity of certain authorities.

How is America going to progress without people who are willing to challenge the status quo?

The Economics of Cell Phones and Towers

Wiki Cell Phone

Excerpts:

There are more than 4.3 billion active cell phones in the world. With close to 300 million in North America.

In the US, cell phone subscriptions have surpassed land-lines. 285 million cell phones compared with about 150 million land-lines.

Now, the population of the US is about 308 million. That means only 1 out of 10 people doesn't carry a cell phone? Many people have multiple cell phones, for work, personal etc. But even young children are starting to carry cell phones because perhaps it gives the parents the peace of mind knowing they can reach their children any time and anywhere.

80% of teens own cell phones, and more than 50% text regularly. (see mobilemarketingwatch.com)

Almost 20% of homes in the US don't have land-lines anymore. With an additional 14% using cell phones almost exclusively even with land-lines at home. (cdc.gov 2009)


Number of cell phone subscriptions is not the only thing to consider in the economics of cell phones.

First came texting. Texting had surpassed phone calls, especially among those between 13-29 years in age. (texting nielsen.com, another on nielsen.com)

Now is the era of Smartphones. More than 25% of cell phones are Smartphones. (Smartphones nielsen.com, another on nielsen.com)


How much do people pay for their cellular subscriptions?

According to The Nielsen Company, average monthly cell phone bill is about $78 in 2009.

Do the math, 285 million cell phones in the US, multiply by $78 by 12 month: that is about $267 billion just on cell phone subscriptions alone.

Note: A projection from 2006 TIA press release claims that "total spending on wireless services is expected to reach $180.4 billion in 2009". (see TIA)

Even with the current economic problems, cell phone subscriptions continue to grow. Revenue for cell phone operators continue to rise. Demands for coverage and bandwidth continue to increase.

In short, people would rather cut their spendings on food than to reduce their cell phone usage, by going with a cheaper plan etc.


Demand is the first reason why Cell Phone Towers are sprouting up everywhere.


Cell Phone Towers are big money business. Two major CPT owners are American Tower and Crown Castle.

According to an inside source at American Tower, not all CPTs are created equal; a well-located CPT could fetch well over $300K in revenue per year.

See report on global tower market.

Excerpts:

The global addressable market for cell tower lease revenue is over $81.5 billion per year. The challenge is that most of this opportunity is not capitalized since mobile operators in most countries own and manage their own cell towers. Some partake in cell site sharing to reduce costs, but the model of third-party management is not widely implemented. The U.S. and Indian markets are the two markets where this opportunity hasn't gone un-noticed and third-party companies manage operator's passive infrastructure. In the U.S., cell tower operators like American Tower Corp. and Crown Castle International Corp. managed and/or operated approximately 30% of the over 260,000 cell sites in operation in the United States in 2009. The remaining sites are operator owned and managed or managed by property owners.

In North America, the total opportunity for cell-site leased revenue is $17.86 billion based on 2009 cell site numbers and average revenue per site. This does not include the opportunities for engineering firms to construct or augment existing towers. Only about 21% of this opportunity was realized in 2009. The average revenue per cell tower is $64,150 and average tenancy ratio is about 2.7.

Even in this recession, cell site business is booming as operators are forced to add new sites to reduce churn and remain competitive. For example America Tower has added 1,300 sites since the third quarter of 2008 and Crown Castle saw a 38% increase in tenant applications and a 12% site rental revenue increase. 


For North America, most of the new growth will be in the coastal markets such as New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. There are also a lot of opportunities in Canada where Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility are launching HSPA networks that require new towers. In addition, a new mobile operator, Globalive Communications Corp. was set to enter the market and began building out a HSPA network, also requiring new cell sites. In the United States the following activities are talking place which will positively impact cell tower deployments:



• New towers are required by companies such as Clearwire Corp. which plans to deploy about 20,000 cell sites and is already leasing over 12,000 sites;


• Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS Communications Inc. are both planning LTE launches for 2010 and although the companies are planning to re-use existing sites, new tower construction may be required or augmentation to existing sites;
• AT&T Mobility will add more sites due to capacity constraints in its current 3.5G network;


• Cox Communications Inc. is building a new CDMA network in the AWS band;
• Sprint Nextel Corp. will have some growth.



The North American cell tower market remains strong even in one of the worst recessions seen since the Great Depression.


Profit is the second reason why Cell Phone Towers are sprouting up everywhere.


If you want cell phones, you will have to accept Cell Phone Towers, even if they are in your backyard.

But err on the safe side, put the CPTs somewhere else, away from schools, parks and places where children gather.

Running out of time

Those who don't want to see a CPT within SMS school grounds need to act NOW!

FCC has a new ruling in Nov 2009 to speed up the application and approval of Cell Phone Towers. See DOC-294711A1.

Excerpt:

Washington, D.C. – In a Declaratory Ruling (“Ruling”) adopted today, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) cleared the way for broadband deployment by establishing timeframes of 90 days for collocations and 150 days for all other tower siting applications reviewed by state and local governments. This action will assist in speeding the deployment of next generation wireless networks while respecting the legitimate concerns of local authorities and preserving local control over zoning and land use policies.

This is AT&T's application to FCC. Reg # 1275578 filed 8/19/2010.

What is the probability that this CPT will be built?

This is just my pessimistic estimation. Obviously the more noise you make the better. The more times you knock on the city council member's door and the bigger your group the better your chance of getting the CPT killed.

"And in this sort of race, there's no silver medal for finishing second."

Go out there and get the people involve.

Cell Phone Tower collapses after catching fire

Never Say Never.


June 2010 in Hinton, Iowa.

Explosion of a maintenance building on CPT site (From Sioux City Journal)

Another report of the same site (search for Hinton)



January 2009 in Wellesley, Mass.

From a blog, with links to youtube videos of the tower burning and collapsing.

Other news sources that are copyrighted.

Welding work caused the fire which caused the collapse. See WHDH link for the details.

Another article on the same tower, with video of burning and subsequent collapse. "Welders ran away.." See Wellesley Townsman link.


July 2007 in Hawaii

Middle School evacuated while tower burned


November 2003 in Vermillion, South Dakota

CPT collapsed due to metal fatigue


Tower accidents may be uncommon but cannot be ignored especially with the recent explosion of CPTs. Statistically speaking, we'll see more tower accidents.


Safety of innocent lives can be at stake.

Photographs of CPT site

Sunnyvale Middle School, 1080 Mango Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94087

A view from the school.

Now.

Now.

With CPT.

At the entrance to the school by the tennis court.

Entrance and path.

NO DIGGING IS ALLOWED.

  

How to raise $25K per year

According to City of Sunnyvale's Associate Planner Noren Caliva, the city will receive in the order of $25K per year from AT&T for the use of the land on SMS grounds to site the 65 foot tall Cell Phone Tower.

Lets look at the 3 most important questions about the money issue in this case:
1. Isn't $25K a lot of money?
2. Isn't this free money that AT&T is giving SMS?
3. Can we raise $25K on our own if we turn AT&T down? How?


1. Isn't $25K a lot of money?

First of all, $25K can be a lot of money depending how you look at it. Everything is a matter of perspective. What can $25K buy?

1. 15 new iMac computers, or
2. 65% of a teacher with 1-4 years of experience ($38K per year according to payscale.com),
3. infrastructural and technology improvements for the school,
4. PTA sponsored after school programs.

The real questions to ask are:

A. Is this money taxable? How much is left after tax?
B. How much of the money goes to SMS? How much goes to the whole school district?
C. What control SMS has over the money?
D. How much of this money will go to PTA to be spent directly on the students?

I suspect that the Sunnyvale School District will divvy up the money among other schools in the district. Not all schools are in the same financial state. SMS, Cumberland and Cherry Chase are in better shape than other schools in the SSD. These schools have great parent participation and the parents have always found ways to support after school programs with money from walkathons and direct drives. The same unfortunately cannot be said for the other schools in the district.

If you were the Superintendent, what would you do, when your job is to show that your district has great schools and great test scores? Would you let a few schools go way ahead of the others? Sooner or later, the SSD will say SMS is getting this extra $25K compared to other schools, so SMS should get less funding for years to come.

There are precedence that the schools are not getting the whole of the lease money from companies.

If the money does not go directly to the PTA or the school, which in this case will have to go through the city, the school or the PTA will have no say in where the money will go, if the money does come at all. It might even go to the pay increase of the Superintendent and school district office for all we know. It might be upgrading infrastructures that we don't need, etc. (We all know that there are funny businesses in all school districts and organizations which is why the budget and financial reports are so hard to locate.) There will be little control over how the money is spent within SMS. The PTA may even be told to still raise all the money it needs.


2. Isn't this free money that AT&T is giving SMS?

Nothing is free in this world.

By paying $25K a year, AT&T gets 35'x15' area of the school ground to put its tower and equipment plus easement access.

$25K divided by (35'x15') == $48 per square foot.

Wow, what a bargain compared to renting antenna space from Crown Castle's Cell Phone Tower at South Bernardo Drive live Verizon and others!! And AT&T will be able to increase its power at will and charge other carriers who want to have a piece of the tower. Perhaps this is what the AT&T rep means by "anticipating the future". A win-win situation without a doubt.


On the other hand, it is a lose-lose situation for SMS.

A. SMS students and faculty become Lab Rats for the radiofrequency emission from the tower as we all know and have concerns about.
B. Noise and other distractions cause by AT&T constructions and maintenance. There will be more than just the 525 square feet being used while these are underway.
C. Security issues. With the easement, AT&T can come and go as it desires. Now when the teachers and students and even the good neighbors see people loitering around the school campus in that area, they can no longer call the police department to check these people out. What is stopping people from wearing AT&T uniforms (do they even wear uniforms or do they only have badges?) and breaching our school grounds?

Schools are second homes to children. Children must be safe and feel safe when they are at school. The school, school district, city council members and all those making decisions have to be responsible for our children when they are in the school grounds.


3. Can we raise $25K on our own if we turn AT&T down? How?


Forget parcel tax, Cell Phone Towers and all the proposals done by the city. Only a fraction of the money will be seen within the schools.

A. Be self-sufficient and be 100% in control of SMS PTA's money:

$25K divide by 1000 (students in SMS) == $30 per family (assuming some multiple children families).

At the beginning of the school year, collect $30 from each family (or maybe $10 per additional child). What is $30 per family?

i) less than 1 month cell phone service, or
ii) less than 1 dinner out, or
iii) 1 new shirt, 1 pair of new pants, or
iv) 1 pair of new shoes, or
v) 1 DS game

B. Ask for corporate sponsors:

Write to Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, etc and explain the situation to them. I bet you they will come running to sponsor the school without asking for anything in return! It is great publicity for them to "save the school from being invaded by Cell Phone Towers". In return SMS can print the corporate logo on a small part of the shirts. Now, this is as close to free money as one can get!


Do we really want to find out that FCC is as wrong as the surgeon generals who had allowed leaded gasoline to be sold for more than 50 years? (About Lead Poisoning)


For the sake of our children's health and safety, don't let $25K per year make you turn a blind eye to AT&T's Cell Phone Tower.

We all want the best for our children. There are other ways to raise the money. Yes, it requires sacrifices. But these sacrifices are small compared to risking our children for our own greed for money and cell phone coverage.

Let us err on the precautionary side. As we always tell our children, "measure twice, cut once".