This is a New Year’s suggestion for the Board of Education.

One of the reasons that the student population of BHUSD has fallen so dramatically in the last decade or so is that many residents send their children to schools that are not part of the District.

I am concerned that residents who watch or attend meetings of the Board of Education will be so offended by the behavior of some of the Board members that they will be less likely to send their children to our schools or, if their children are enrolled, will be inclined to remove them from the schools.

From having attended or watched a number of meetings over the past year, I see no prospect that this behavior will improve.

The organization meeting on December 16 was one of the worst as it included entirely gratuitous and apparently false ad hominem attacks on one of the members and disregard, in part, of the By Laws of the District.

Consequently, in order to reduce the likelihood of further disaffection, I strongly recommend that the Board members consider the following for 2026:

Stop having meetings of the Board of Education altogether or keep them to the bare minimum required by law; To the extent that meetings must occur, keep them as short as possible and adhere strictly to the agenda; Forego any disrespectful conduct directed at members of the Board or members of the public;

Do not display hostility toward members of the public who express disagreement with your actions; and Limit your activities to your policy making obligations, resist instincts to micro manage administration and allow Superintendent Cherniss and his colleagues to do their jobs.

Adherence to this advice may limit the exodus.

***

We visited San Francisco recently and caught up with a number of our favorite neighbors. One, Dr. Barbara Finck, is a retired physician who had a distinguished medical career and is charting a new course in her eighth decade.

Dr. Finck, now retired, was a rheumatologist and spent much of her career as a Chief Medical Officer for a number of Bay

Area companies including startups. She views loneliness as a medical condition and points out that studies show that persons who do not have meaningful connections with other people have shorter lifespans.

During the pandemic, in an effort to meet new people and have more human engagement than shutdown rules allowed, she joined several dating apps. To her dismay, she found that there were more scammers than soulmates in the world of internet “dating.” She was the target of five different scammers. They were very clever in trying to build connections and thought, incorrectly, that as a well to do elderly widow Barbara would be sufficiently lonely and addled to be susceptible to their pitches for funds. Not a chance.

She did some research and learned that seniors are swindled to the tune of more than $1 billion annually by online crooks.

Many women over 40 report abuse, unwanted attention and fake profiles on mainstream dating apps (and presumably many more endure but do not report such conduct).

But this experience, as disappointing as it was, stimulated Barbara’s creative and entrepreneurial instincts. She decided that there was a need for a dating site for seniors that would be secure from scammers and other miscreants. The definition of “seniors” in this particular case is a bit of a loose one, as it includes anyone over 40.

Barbara’s creation, LoveLockDating. com, will go live early in 2026. This is a dating site that will take every reasonable measure to ensure that all folks on the app are who and what that they say they are.

This is accomplished through a three step process that includes (1) a video interview with photo and document verification, (2) national criminal database search (NCDS), sex offender registry check and ongoing monitoring and (3) some financial verification.

Barbara points out that no screening can be perfect but that this thorough approach is far more than any of the mainstream dating apps are doing.

Once accepted, a member provides a profile including at least two recent untouched photos, and a description of what they are looking for including geographic location, type of relationship, age and other characteristics that they are seeking. Once photos and background information has been submitted, no changes are possible without LoveLock’s permission.

LoveLockDating imposes a code of conduct including total honesty and provides advice such as never ask for or send money and to make certain that first in person meetings occur in public places.

The emphasis of LoveLockDating is safety and confidence and in that vital respect, Barbara tells me, it is a dating site with a difference.

***

Early on Christmas morning, three cherished Beverly Hills Canon Drive commercial landmarks were badly damaged by fire.

At least temporarily we have lost Peter Garland’s Porta Via restaurant, Tara Riceberg’s Tesoro gift shop (aka worldsbestgiftstoreever.com) and Umberto Savone’s hair salon, “Umberto”. For Peter Garland, 2025 has been a uniquely bad year as the year started off with the destruction of his restaurant in Palisades Village by the horrific Palisades fire.

This is to express my hopes for prompt re-opening of these businesses that are so important to the fabric of the City and that 2026 will be a much better year.