A Few of My Favorite Things (about Pleasanton)

My daughter and I made our first trip of  the spring to the today, and in spite of the chilly weather, we came away with yummy pastries, sweet cherries, and hope.

There are many choices in terms of where to get pastries at the market. Sometimes we stop at or at Bibiane Bakery, and other times, we stop by one of  the stalls closer to First Street. Pick your favorite — maybe a bearclaw or a muffin, a scone or a croissant? You can't go wrong.

Cherries are just coming into season, so we sampled a few and chose our favorites — $4 for a one-pound basket. After blueberries, cherries are my favorite fruit!

Food is definitely a favorite thing for me, but even better than food is hope — food for the soul. We often run into friends at the market, which helps to make Pleasanton feel like a small town. Today, we ran into Christina Hicks, a parent whose children attend Walnut Grove Elementary. Christina believes that keeping class sizes small in grades K-3 is important, and she is doing something to try to keep them that way.

I was an advocate for Measure E, which could have prevented additional increases in class sizes, but fell just shy of the required two-thirds majority. Christina is leading an effort to collect pledges of support from donors, and to demonstrate to the school board how strongly community members feel about the value of class size reduction. 

For more info about the effort to save CSR in Pleasanton schools, send an email to savecsr@gmail.com.

After the defeat of measure E, it gives me hope to see community members coming together to find voluntary ways to support our schools. So, that was my favorite thing about my visit to the Farmer's Market today!