Cortney Fielding: September 2007 Archives

The Altadena Chapter of the NAACP hosted a town-hallish type meeting Thursday night to discuss the inevitable changes coming down the pike at John Muir High School.
It was standing room only at the Altadena community center, and the crowd seemed pretty pumped to get behind a “reinvented” Muir.
Not a whole lot of specifics came out of the gathering, however. Interim principal Cheryl Orange said she plans on instituting uniforms and implementing an all-volunteer army of “precinct parents” to make sure kids are doing well in to school and to bring their parents into the fold. Lot's of talk about thinking “outside the box,” and creating classes that don't actually lull the students to sleep. Personally, some of my best napping was done in 9th grade Earth Science.

Otherwise, the Star-News was thoroughly pilloried for our coverage of Muir, and for placing stories about its test score woes and declining morale above the fold on the front page, in what was referred to as “bold” headlines.
Everyone from school board members like Bob Harrison and Renatta Cooper to PUSD administrator George McKenna got their pot shots in, though none as forcefully as layer Joe Hopkins, who asked the audience to march to the “White newspaper's” office, through a stack of papers on the ground and cancel their subscriptions.
It's convenient he owns a newspaper of his own – the Pasadena Journal.
He is welcome to throw as many papers on the ground as he likes, just make sure to give us the 50 cents per copy – my cat needs his Purina Indoor Formula and won't be happy with the generic.

Tuesday night comes with a smörgåsbord of entertainment options for your viewing pleasure.
There's... the season premier of “House” on Fox, Episode two of “Dancing with the Stars” on ABC..... A Pasadena Unified School District board meeting on KLRN.
So if you're agonizing over whether to watch Wayne Newton learn the Lambada or catch the school board in action, here's a sneak peek at PUSD's must see t.v.

We here at the Star-News know what you've been saying to yourselves late at night - “In these trying times, what the world really needs now.. is another blog.”
Well, here it is folks.
My name is Cortney Fielding and I'll be your Hallway Monitor through the wonderful world of all things education, with a sprinkling of my own musing added in for a slow news day.
What qualifies me to take on such a prestigious, yet sadly unpaid, position? Well, not only am I the schools reporter over here at the Star-News, but I also went to school for quite a while. (I get a letter from Sallie Mae every month to remind me of this fact.)
So here's a little about me - I am a fine product of the Florida public school system, so my grammar, spelling and ability to comprehend butterfly ballots in presidential elections aren't always what they could be. I graduated from the University of Florida in 2003, and have a masters degree in journalism from USC, hence the unrelenting letters from Sallie Mae. They really should have asked what my career plans were before dolling out the loan.

In a nut shell, this schools blog can morph into whatever you faithful readers think it should be, and tips coming out of your local school's are always encouraged – be it the good, the bad or the ugly.
So the suggestion box is now officially open. Sass and backtalk are always welcome in the comment section, but keep the four letter words to a minimum, as we want to set a good example for the youth.

And as we embark on a new school year, just remember,

“Rarely is the question asked: 'is our children learning'?” - George W. Bush