California passes with a C minus

This article in the US News shows California as the only state to pass a college affordability test.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The “Measuring Up” report gave only one passing grade for affordability: California got a C minus. That may surprise sticker-shocked Californians who are facing prices of more than $23,000 for many University of California campuses. But Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said that the state’s community colleges are the best educational bargain in the country. Even students who get no aid at all are charged just a few hundred dollars for a full semester’s worth of classes.”

Read the full article here

 

Gun found in La Puente classroom

Police arrested a science teacher at La Puente High School after a gun was found in his classroom.

Vahe Khachatourian, 37, was arrested by Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Police Monday afternoon. Police dogs discovered the gun in a locked box.

District officials are mum about the investigation and won’t release any details about Khachatourian. Students say he is a good teacher who likes to collect guns.

Khachatourian is expected to appear in court Wednesday morning.

Read full story here 

CSU budget lacking $215 million

With the state budget finally getting an approval, schools and university’s now know how much funding they will receive.

The CSU system is still getting the same funding from the state but it’s not quite enough for its operational needs.

This just in from CSU:

“The new state budget provides the California State University system with essentially the same level of state support as last year. The final CSU budget consists of $2.97 billion from the state General Fund and $1.5 billion from student fee revenue. The budget is $215 million below CSU’s operational needs for 2008-09, according to the inflation and enrollment growth calculations by the Governor’s Department of Finance.

“We are appreciative of the Governor and Legislature for keeping intact our budget as presented in the May Revision, in spite of a worsened fiscal condition in the state,” said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “Although we still face a serious funding gap, the CSU is committed to preserving academic quality and academic programs that are of high priority for the social and economic well being of California.”

Continued Growth, Strained Funding
The budget provides no funding for enrollment growth intensifying a trend that began in 2005-06, in which student enrollment grows faster than state funding. In response, CSU campuses have increased class sizes when possible, and opened more course sections with temporary faculty appointments. To protect educational quality in the face of these funding challenges, CSU campuses will slow down enrollment growth by closing the freshmen application period for Fall 2009 earlier in the cycle.”

Keeping lips sealed in Montebello

 Montebello Unified School District officials are mum over an article that came out today.

The district is suing Director of Classified Personnel Jeff Josserand claiming that he breached his contract when he became acting director of the personnel commission for the San Bernardino City Unified School District.

Employed by Montebello since May 2006, Josserand worked for San Bernardino from July 2007 through April 2008, according to the court documents.

Not only would the school district not share any information with me but the most interesting things about this is, it took officials days to tell me that there is a lawsuit pending that was filed in July!!

When I e-mailed the District Spokeswoman Alisha Rosas on Sept. 11 and asked if there was a lawsuit, I never received a response back from her.

When I asked School Board Member Gerri Guzman if there was a lawsuit she said, “We are still investigating but we might be considering a lawsuit.”

I can not imagine that a school board member and a district spokeswoman had no idea that the school district filed a lawsuit months ago.

 

Reprinting of yearbook pages

So, officials at Charter Oak High School have decided to reprint and replace pages of the yearbook that include racially offensive names and numerous errors.

It also came to light that teachers and students may have known that Black Student Union members had fake names such as  “Tay Tay Shaniqua,” “Crisphy Nanos” and “Laquan White” in the yearbook before they were distributed.

Here is the beginning of my story that ran today:

COVINA – Students and teachers at Charter Oak High School may have known that racially offensive names were printed in the yearbook before all of the books were distributed, officials said Wednesday.

School Board President Joseph Probst said students may have alerted a teacher of the error when the first round of books was distributed to seniors.

“Some people discovered the error first and they didn’t react as fast as they could have,” Probst said. “They weren’t sensitive to it and we need to make sure people are being responsible.”

To read the full story click here

Budget cuts impacting summer school

Summer school is the latest to feel the brunt of state cuts to education. This just in from the State Superintendent:

 

“SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell held a news conference today at McClatchy High School with members of the education community to highlight the effect of budget cuts to education on summer school programs across the state.

“The elimination of summer school courses threatens to significantly affect students already behind in their schoolwork because they will miss out on the chance to catch up to their peers over the summer break,” O’Connell said.

“Some districts that offer summertime intervention programs for English learners cannot afford to keep their classrooms open. Even schools that are just scaling back what they offer will begin offering classes only to students who need to complete courses in order to graduate. This means that students looking to get ahead or improve their grade point average will not be able to do so.” “