esther: February 2008 Archives

The CDE (California Department of Education) sent a press release out about how districts should destroy ground beef from Hallmark/Westland. The release also includes a preliminary list of which districts received the meat and the number of units. Only three local districts were included in the list.

Los Angeles	La Canada Unified	35
Los Angeles	Little Lake City Elementary	60
Los Angeles	Los Nietos	50

The highlights:

• A person of authority (i.e. food service director) must witness the destruction
• Some costs can be reimbursed, such as transportation to the disposal facility and destruction costs
• Other costs cannot be reimbused: employee overtime, long-distance phone calls, food used in place of recalled beef

Whittier reporter Tracy Garcia wrote a story in today's paper about layoffs at Huerta Elementary School. The school is closing at the end of the school year to save money at Norwalk-La Mirada Unified, which is going through declining enrollment.

NORWALK - The Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District approved the layoff of eight full- and part-time positions in preparation for the shutdown of Huerta Elementary School later this year.

Last spring, trustees voted to permanently close the 300-student Huerta Elementary when district enrollment declined by about 1,500 students over a three-year period. The declining enrollment cost the district about $9 million in state revenue, officials said.

Perhaps the next step is for the district to decide what they'll do with the building and property. Weeklies reporter Claudia Palma is keeping tabs of Bassett Unified, which has a school campus that isn't being used as a school. Those officials are deciding whether to keep it or sell it.