Long Beach school board member David Barton on Wednesday announced he will seek a second term on the board in the April election.
Officials at the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday expressed reservations about a proposed parcel tax to fund education, but they declined to take an official stance on the issue.
Chamber officials said the organization would remain neutral on Measure T, which would establish a five-year parcel tax of $92 per parcel annually to fund education in the Long Beach Unified School District.
Two-thirds of voters in the Nov. 3 election would have to approve the measure for the tax to become a reality.
Supporters say the measure is needed to restore some of the state funding cuts that the LBUSD has experienced. Seniors would be exempt from the tax.
The Chamber has "a long-standing position of supporting LBUSD and its endeavors," read a joint statement by Lori Lofstrom, Chamber chairman; Joanne Davis, chairman of the group's Government Affairs Council; and Randy Gordon, Chamber President and CEO.
The Chamber officials said that they were concerned about the fairness of the tax, noting that seniors would be exempt and the tax would apply only to property owners, not to renters.
CONTINUED AFTER THE JUMP
Continue reading Long Beach Chamber says it will remain neutral on education parcel tax.
As noted in the previous post, an unsigned, printed flier left on the doorsteps of some residences near DeMille Middle School says a proposal to convert the campus to a small high school would create a "holding tank for dropouts." But a spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District disputes the flier's arguments.
The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but is not affiliated with this newspaper.
The district plans to convert DeMille to a career and technical education high school, designed to prepare students both for entrance to college and directly to the workforce after high school graduation. The school would train students to get jobs after graduation in fields like law, health care and engineering, categories that district officials believe will be areas of growth in the labor force.
The Long Beach Board of Education has yet to give final approval to use the DeMille campus for the new high school, but district officials have been studying the site extensively.
The flier argues that the proposed new school would be made up of "problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education. They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."
Chris Eftychiou, spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District, said that the school is designed to train students to enter high-demand career fields after graduation while also offering all the courses needed to apply to state universities.
"The two are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Continued after the jump.
The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but is not affiliated with this newspaper.
The district plans to convert DeMille to a career and technical education high school, designed to prepare students both for entrance to college and directly to the workforce after high school graduation. The school would train students to get jobs after graduation in fields like law, health care and engineering, categories that district officials believe will be areas of growth in the labor force.
The Long Beach Board of Education has yet to give final approval to use the DeMille campus for the new high school, but district officials have been studying the site extensively.
The flier argues that the proposed new school would be made up of "problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education. They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."
Chris Eftychiou, spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District, said that the school is designed to train students to enter high-demand career fields after graduation while also offering all the courses needed to apply to state universities.
"The two are not mutually exclusive," he said.
Continued after the jump.
An unsigned, printed flier left on the doorsteps of some residences near DeMille Middle School urges residents to attend a Thursday night community meeting and express opposition to district plans to convert the campus to a small high school.
The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but includes no material published in the Press-Telegram. The flier is not affiliated with the newspaper.
"Don't buy in to (sic) the proposal" for the high school, according to the flier.
"These are problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education," the flier read. "They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."
The flier stated that the proposed high school would be "a holding tank for drop outs."
"Many will be driving here," the flier read. "There is no restriction on where these students come from. It will definitely change your quality of life!"
The flier also says the proposal will increase traffic in the neighborhood.
The district is holding a community forum tonight - Thursday - from 7 to 8 pm at Demille, 7025 E. Parkcrest Street.
The flier features a Press-Telegram logo but includes no material published in the Press-Telegram. The flier is not affiliated with the newspaper.
"Don't buy in to (sic) the proposal" for the high school, according to the flier.
"These are problematic students who have given up on attaining an academic education," the flier read. "They refuse to learn and are behavior problems for their teachers."
The flier stated that the proposed high school would be "a holding tank for drop outs."
"Many will be driving here," the flier read. "There is no restriction on where these students come from. It will definitely change your quality of life!"
The flier also says the proposal will increase traffic in the neighborhood.
The district is holding a community forum tonight - Thursday - from 7 to 8 pm at Demille, 7025 E. Parkcrest Street.
But could candy also turn your kids to a life of crime? One study, as reported by US News, says that daily candy intake raises the probability of a child becoming a convicted violent criminal later in life. Some researchers aren't impressed with the study, however.According to this ABC News story, a new research study says that spanking was associated with a decline in childhood IQ.
An excerpt:
The IQs of 2- to 4-year-olds who received regular spankings from their parents dropped by more than 5 points over four years, compared with kids who were not spanked.
"The practical side of this is that paediatricians and child psychologists need to start doing what none of them do now, and say, 'Never spank under any circumstances,'" says Murray Straus, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who led the new study along with Mallie Paschall at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California.
A bizarre story in Oxnard. According to this Ventura County Star story, Rio School District Superintendent Sherianne Cotterell allegedly placed a pair of high-heel shoes and sandals in her bag after removing the sensor tags. Cotterell, who received an infraction complaint, explained the incident by citing "extreme stress and physical health-related issues." She apparently was hired at an annual salary of $130,000.
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
The California Space Authority has given its Buzz Aldrin Space Education and Workforce Award to a Cal State Long Beach program that has students building rockets and rocket engines.
The California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative was developed by Cal State Long Beach and Garvey Space Corporation.
An interesting story in USA Today regarding colleges' providing Kindles (that's the electronic book reader made by Amazon, pictured right), Apple iPods and other high-tech devices for students to use in learning and instruction. An excerpt:
Today's college classrooms are high-tech marvels, with overhead projectors and grease
pencils replaced by document cameras, handheld clickers and interactive white boards.
"A lot of this is us catching up with the students and what they're bringing to us," says Michael Reuter, 42, director of technology operations at Central Michigan.
Faculty, for the most part, see technology as a way to better connect to students in their interactive, multitasking, apps-ready world.
"A lot of people my age see technology as a tool to check e-mail and do grades. But for kids, the technology is just the environment that they know," says Howard Pitler, senior director of curriculum and instruction at McREL, an education research non-profit in Denver.
About the Blogger
Kevin Butler has been covering education for more than five years at the Press-Telegram. Previously he was a reporter at the Los Angeles Independent weeklies and in the Washington, D.C., bureau of Investor's Business Daily. A native of Houston, Butler graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's in economics and government.
E-mail Kevin at kevin.butler@presstelegram.com.
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