and yeah, i'm based in arizona, but traveling a bunch back and forth between the us and mexico. i just recently signed a record deal with warner music mexico, and we're promoting some new music, so it's an exciting time. got some of my songs that i've written that the label has chosen for this new project, so it's a really exciting thing going on. damian: we have an old clip that i wanted to show. maybe for about 15 seconds, we wanted to show that and see if that brings back any memories for you. [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] damian: what a voice. do you remember those days? manuel: yeah, i remember those days. damian: your dad is there playing the guitar. he's still a huge influence and an impact. manuel: oh yeah, my dad is the one who taught me actually how to sing, how to play the guitar. we've wrote our first songs together. the whole family has been just a blessing in my life not, you know, just, you know, every day, but through music, you know? it's really been--it's made the journey a lot easier having the support of your family. and definitely, i mean, those videos bring back such great memories, you know, just the beginning of my career. damian: yeah, well, and this is on your homepage here. you have probably the talent advisors telling you, you know, wear your hair a little messy here, wear a beard here, unbutton your top button. talk about how maybe, you know, sometimes you're wearing your hair not the way you would normally wear it, but-- manuel: i mean, you know, i've always enjoyed every look that i've kind of gone, through the phase of manuel romero throughout the years. but the record label definitely steps in and, you know, gives their opinions, and we kind of come to terms and say, "you know, yeah, this is what we like and this is the image that i want to portray or whatnot." but it's definitely at the end of the day always very true to myself, you know? we have a look going on with the music that i'm doing now. it's regional mexican, but we want to, you know, kind of give off a new vibe, you know, something a little fresh, something that the young kids can relate to, and always paying so much respect to the--to the origin of the music and the look of maybe a "traje de charro," you know, we want to kind of do those little hints here and there, but like i said, you know, something new, something fresh for the kids also. damian: we're going to close the show with a song that was also on your page, and it's a beautiful song about a quinceañera. my daughter turns 15 this year, so it's kind of personal. but i mean, those are the songs, right, that really you want to grip the hearts of-- manuel: that's right, you know, these are--that's where we come from, you know? the family, the love growing up, you know, our faith in god. and i think that it's important for me to stay true to that in my music, and it's something that i've done my whole career, keep doing it. the music that i write is always something that comes from the heart, it's always something that i've experienced personally. even the stuff that, you know, i write with my dad still to this day. damian: awesome, well, get ready, we're going to close this segment, he's going to be back for another segment with a special tune. but manuel romero has got his own website, he's out of arizona, but he's here in the bay area where he still has familia. there is the web address for more information. again, here is manuel romero. [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] with manuel romero. tell us about that last tune, you closed out the last segment. damien: that song is a song that i wrote, it's called "te vuelvo a besar," and that's the latest single that we've released with warner music. and it's starting to play on the radio in mexico all throughout the country, and we're hoping that very soon here in the united states as well. but that's the latest song that i recorded. and something cool about that is that it's a duet. and i had the chance to record this song with an artist by the name of leslie grace. she's a, you know, world-known singer. she sings, you know, urban music, bachata, a little bit of reggaeton, stuff like that. but she, you know, stepped into regional mexicano music, and we recorded this, my first single, one of my own songs. and it was just such an honor to be able to sing it with her, you know? damian: awesome, do you--this is my music conception. when you want to write a song, do you go out like in a cabin out in the woods where nobody's bothering you and you write, and then you come back a month later, "i got my song"? manuel: you write--i write a little everywhere, you know? sometimes, you know, it's something that someone says or something you see on tv, you know, whatever. and i'll always have my guitar almost with me. if not, i have--i keep a small guitar in my car. and sometimes when i have an idea, i'll just pull that and i'll record something on my cellphone or whatever. and you know, it's just fun. you know, inspiration comes at the weirdest times, but it's really fun to see a song, you know, develop and, you know, from the beginning to the end what you create, you know? and then to see people enjoy the music. you know, their reaction to hearing a melody or hearing a certain phrase, it's really something pretty cool. damian: i still remember you singing the national anthem at the sap for the sharks. you still doing that? manuel: i still sing. yeah, i do all the national anthems for different bay area sports teams. you know, i sing also for when the mexican national team comes to town. i sing obviously in both english and spanish, but both national anthems because my dad is from mexico, my mom's from the united states. i grew up in both countries. so, i'm very proud of my background, my, you know, my mexican-american nationalities. and you know, i think that comes out pretty clearly in the music. damian: when you go on tour, who do you go with? how do you do it, how long are you gone? are you with the big bands or--? manuel: when i started out, you know, i mean, it was always my parents with me. as the years have gone by, you know, especially now with the label, it's usually myself. you know, i travel alone. but we'll meet the band, wherever it is that i'm going. and i'm working with a great producer in mexico city by the name of rodrigo cuevas. his mom was aida cuevas, who is the, you know, world famous mariachi singer. and so, i've had the chance to travel a bit with him and work on these new songs to develop that sound, you know? and he's an expert in the genre, but just a great, great musician, and has turned into a great friend. damien: do you think that you've made it, or there's still a lot to work on for you to believe in yourself that you've made it? manuel: you know, i love everything that i've done up to this point. i'm very proud, but you know, i'm still very hungry. you know, i want to keep going. i definitely--i'm far from being able to say that i've made it. but i just--i'm so excited for what the future is bringing for me, for my family, for my music. it's an exciting time right now to be with a major label and to have them really believe in my music. you know, to have them choose my songs to be recorded in a professional studio by a, you know, professional producer. and now to hear my songs on the radio in mexico, where i, you know, started my career with mariachi music and whatnot. to hear my songs on the radio, that's just a dream come true. damian: all right, well, manuel romero, again, he's got a new album coming out with warner brothers out of mexico, verdad? manuel: yep, that's right, and we invite you also to check me out on instagram and facebook. please check out the music. damian: all right, well, there is actually his home address and--well, his web address for more information. any final thoughts before we let you go? manuel: yeah, just instagram, manuelromero_official, or official; and then facebook, it's manuel romero music. love to see you. damian: pleasure to have you back. all right, we'll see you, you know, anytime. manuel: thank you. damian: you have a new album released, come on back and we'll showcase it again; thank you, manuel. up next here on "comunidad del valle," some good news for some teachers in the south bay, stay with us. with housing in the south bay. with me on "comunidad del valle" from the east side union high school district, superintendent chris funk, and lorena chavez is a trustee there with the board of education for the east side union high school district. welcome to the show, welcome back. chris funk: thank you for having us. damian: well, chris, describe for us how difficult it has been for you to keep teachers here given what the high cost of living. chris: it's very difficult to keep our teachers here, as well as other employees because of the high cost of living, the cost of rent, the ability to put a down payment for a home. you know, teacher salaries, they start about $61,000, but it takes a good 20 years to reach the top of the pay scale. damian: that's below the poverty line. chris: it is; and then we look at our classified employees, they started about $32,000. and they max out only at about $66,000. so, the ability to attract and retain high quality employees is extremely difficult for all schools in this valley. damian: and lorena, when you heard this, you and the rest of the board said, "we have to do something about it." and so, this coming march 3, you're doing something about it. lorena chavez: yes, exactly. we are really excited as a board. we think this is a wonderful opportunity to stat paving the road for nearby districts who are also thinking about how do we retain excellent teachers, how do we keep teachers local in our communities, in our neighborhoods. and we're very excited that this is--this is a good opportunity. i know chris had been working on this for some time, and we think we finally got the formula right, so we're really looking forward to this. damian: and we're talking about measure j. chris: we're talking about measure j. it's about a $2.73 per $100,000 assessed bond that will be on the march 3 ballot. for the average homeowner in the east side, the assessed value falls between $400,000 and $600,000. and so, we're talking about $15 to $18 a year to support employee housing in the east side. damian: and what are you going to be able to do--i don't know who this question is for, but if this bond passes, what will you be able to do to help retain teachers? chris: well, we're going to be able to build on our district property, on about 4 and a half acres, approximately 100 units. there'll be executive style apartment units, one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedrooms. and really the only criteria is that our employee and their significant other do not own a property already. they will qualify to be able to rent at below market rates and stay up to seven years. damian: are you reading the--i don't want to call them resignation letters, but are you reading those letters of teachers right when they say, "sorry, i can't stay"? chris: absolutely, we've done our polling, and we know that if we keep teachers after the seventh year mark, they tend to stay with us. because we do have an attractive upper salary schedule and complete family health benefit package. but it's the first five to seven years that we struggle keeping our employees. and so, part of it is the isolation of teaching, being in the classroom. but the other part is if you're commuting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour a day, twice a day, that impacts your quality of life, that impacts your time to prepare to meet your students, and that impacts your family life. damian: talk about the quality, lorena, of those teachers that y'all have in east side. i mean, they're sending kids to harvard, to yale, some of the top schools, even stanford, some of the top schools across country and here locally. lorena: oh yes, we're doing a lot of great work. we have some great teachers on staff. and it's unfortunate that a lot of staff members say year after year it's hard to make a living here in this valley, right? we don't make enough money, it's hard to--we want to own a home, it's hard to put a down payment. and one of the benefits of passing this bond and providing this housing for teachers is that they'll have an opportunity to start saving up money to build that down payment so that they could build--they could eventually get their home here in the valley and continue teaching our students. and also, like chris alluded to, being able to spend that additional time and building relationships with our students, right? some of them have really long commutes. even though they like to stay and coach sports or tutor our students, they don't have the time. they take two to three hours each way, and so that's a significant amount of time for them to really be investing in our students and continue supporting them to the next level of their education. damian: and your students, they continue to inspire, verdad? you're at a lot of graduations, and you hear their speeches, and you hear the struggles. you hear about how they struggle to live in this high cost area. lorena: oh yeah; i mean, i myself, i'm a graduate of yerba buena high school, right? and when i think about who supported me to become who i am today, it's a teacher who's actually still there. he's a chemistry teacher. he tutored me before and after school, he was my cross country coach, he was my ap teacher, he was my avid teacher. and so, my life and a lot of my success was because he was there to support me, he gave me that time. he didn't have to travel those two, three hours each way, right? and so, i think about that, and i think about how big of an impact that can have on our kids. and we really want to do our best to support our kids and provide them with that. damian: yeah, 'cause you don't know if the teacher who is in front of the classroom just drove for two hours. and you know, there's frustration on the highway. you want to take away that frustration, chris. chris: absolutely, we want our teachers to be at their very best so that they can support our students so our students can be at their very best. and if you come to school ready to teach and you come to school in a safe environment, and students are able to have a solid meal and come knowing that they have a caring adult on campus, that makes a tremendous impact on student achievement. damian: all right, well, it's measure j on the march ballot. remember, elections are march this year, the primaries, so make sure that--that's just over a month away. there is the phone number and the web address for the east side union high school district. we'll be back and talk more about measure j, stay with us. about teacher housing and staff housing. you're mentioning, chris, that it's not just the teachers, it's the staff also that needs the help. chris: absolutely, when you look at our classified employees, and our classified employees make up our custodians, our food service workers, our paraprofessionals, they're some of our lowest paid employees in the district. and so, their ability to find quality housing in the community that they work in is critical. so, this is for any employee in the district that does not own a home will qualify for this program. damian: and i need to play devil's advocate. but for those who might look at the ballot and say--or look at their property tax bill and say, "there's a bond for this, there's a bond for that. they're going to bond me to death." what's your retort to someone who might have that thought? chris: well, my retort is that for the last eight years, our community has done amazing job in entrusting us with the bond money. we've had perfect audits for the last eight years. and i think the community trusts the amazing work that we've done to modernize our schools. and i think the voters know that when you have a quality school in your community, that raises the property value of your home. and this will continue to do that. damian: worst case, if it fails for some reason, are we going to lose more quality teachers and quality staff? chris: until we solve the housing situation here in silicon valley, it will continue to be a challenge for all school districts to hire quality employees. damian: and when it's about bond measures, lorena, the money, there's oversight, right? there's a committee, the community committee that has oversight over where the money is spent, make sure that it's followed--it's in accordance with the law. lorena: that is correct. so, we get a citizens' bond oversight committee to look over the monies. right now, we have a committee that looks out over all of our bonds that focus on all of our schools. and so, they meet on a regular basis. same thing will be--will apply to this as well. damian: what kind of reaction have you gotten from staff and teachers about this measure j idea? lorena: yeah, i've heard a lot of great feedback. people are excited, inclusively from nearby districts. they're looking to us, they're saying, "wow, y'all have been able to figure it out, right? we want to see what we can learn from what you all are doing." i mean, i think one of the great benefits that we have is that this teacher housing would be built on surplus land that the district has, right? so, that's already a huge advantage. we also--like, we'll be getting some money generated that will go to our general fund, right? so, if anything, this is going to be giving money back to the district, which we all need right now, especially in these times. so, that's a huge asset that not everybody could speak to, so. damian: and chris, you've always been very blunt about how we are educating our kids. are things getting better now? are we providing them with the resources that we need to to make sure that they walk the stage and go on to the university of their choice? chris: absolutely, it's been a pleasure to be superintendent for east side union high school for the last eight years. we continue to see all of our key performance measure data points going in the right direction. we have more kids graduating from high school, attending college, and getting through college. there's still a lot of work to do, there's some gaps we still have to close, but i'm very proud of the work that we've done in the last eight years in east side. damian: what is it that, lorena, keeps you also motivated that-- to be a board member and to make sure that you're giving chris the tools that he needs to make sure that those kids succeed? lorena: yeah, the way i think about this work is it's my mission in life, right? this is more than a job. i've been in education for over a decade, i've been a teacher, i've been a principal, i've seen some of the gaps that exist. and you know, this being my community, the community where i'm raising my children, i think about my kids growing up. right now, they're in elementary school. and i want to be able to say, "my kids are going to go to the very best high school out there," right? and we are doing some great stuff. like chris said, there is work to do. i know what really keeps me up at night is, you know, those students who are like right there and we can support them. and i know we're doing a lot of great things. chris is very open, he's always thinking about how can we take our students to the next level, especially academically, right, so that doors open up for them so our children can decide? the power is within them to say, "i choose to do this," and it's not decided for them, right? and so, that is my dream for our kids to graduate from our schools and say, "i made this decision. i had all of these options in front of me, and i know why i'm doing this." and so, we got a little of ways to go to get there, but i'm very confident that we're headed in the right direction and we have great leadership to support us in the work. damian: and you're going to do what you can. i know it's--you mentioned it costs about $18 per year per homeowner. do you see that as an investment by that homeowner in education of these kids? chris: i absolutely see it as an investment by each homeowner because if you're able to have--what makes a quality high school is having quality workforce. and if we know that our employees can stay longer and build relationships with kids, as opposed to spending all their time driving to and from work, that increases the value of each homeowner's property because it increases the value of that high school. damian: all right, and again, it's an early primary this year, it's happening on march 3. and there is the web address for the east side high school district, also the phone number. and they'll be able to help you out if you have any questions. any final thoughts from both of you? lorena: well, just i really hope that y'all support us on march 3 for the primaries. we really need to make sure that we keep talent in east side, and we're counting on you. chris: it's an important primary that many people are going to take part in because of the presidential primary, but please make sure you read the entire ballot and find measure j for us, appreciate it. damian: thank you very much, good luck. lorena: of course, thank you. damian: again, and now here's what's happening in your comunidad on qué pasa. ♪ ♪ ♪ damian: and our saludos to those celebrating a special day, felicidades. ♪ damian: and here's our contact information. you can follow me on twitter, my handle is @newsdamian. on instagram, it's @newsdamiantrujillo. also pick up a copy of "el observador" newspaper and support your bilingual weeklies all across the bay area. we thank you once again for sharing a part of your sunday with us. we're going to leave you with the song by manuel romero. go niners. [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] ♪ [speaking foreign language] ♪ ♪ [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [upbeat music] i'm sara gore, and this is "open house." we're all about designs that complement their locations this week, including a pair of impressive brooklyn projects, one in dumbo with the stylish duo of dekar design and another in cobble hill with a rooftop oasis you are not going to want to miss. we also learn how one los angeles fashion blogger remade her home while preserving its original charm. plus, we're in rockaway beach, queens, to check out this chateau-style home that features both city and sea views. but first, holiday living every day at this memorable malibu retreat. who doesn't want to have your own private beach overlooking the beach? this is where you want to end your day. [lighthearted music]