Recently in Pomona Unified School District Category

POMONA - As people with engineering and science skills prepare to enter retirement, few young people have an interest in those fields of study, an official with Time Warner Cable said Monday (Nov. 16).

When it comes to children, "84 percent of middle school students would rather eat their broccoli, take out the trash, go to the dentist or clean their room" than study math or science, said Tessie Topol, director of strategic philanthropy with Time Warner Cable's corporate offices in New York.

In an effort to turn that situation around and make the nation more competitive in these areas, Time Warner Cable will spend $100 million in cash and in-kind resources across the nation to support school programs that inspire children to pursue science, technology engineering and math studies, or STEM, Topol said.

The "Connect a Million Minds" initiative is a five-year project for the company, she said.

The announcement was made at Pomona Unified School District's Montvue Elementary School where students for the second year are developing those skills through the creation of robots.

As part of the announcement, Time Warner representatives also announced the company will donate $15,000 to Cal Poly Pomona which is working with Montvue on the robot project.

Faculty members in the university's College of Education and Integrative Studies and from the College of Engineering work to train teachers and guide them in using robotics to develop their students' STEM skills.

Cal Poly currently works with two classrooms at Montvue and two at Collegewood Elementary in the Walnut Valley Unified School District on the robotics project.

Time Warner's contribution will allow Cal Poly to expand and take the program to another Pomona Unified school as early as spring, said Nicole Forrest Boggs, director of development with the College of Education and Integrative Studies.

"Our funding is meant to enhance and draw attention to programs and take them to the next level," Topol said.

A program like Pomona's is not only educating children but doing so using available resources and partnerships with the district, the university and now Time Warner, she said.

Time Warner's national initiative also calls for a public awareness campaign that includes public service announcements and the creation of a Web site, www.connectamillionminds.com, where parents can learn about programs in their community that will help their children develop STEM skills.

Interested parents will be able to volunteer their time or mentor children through these programs, Topol said.

Among those at the announcement was Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Ontario, who thanked Time Warner "for supporting our young scientists."

Interim Superintendent Richard Martinez also thanked Cal Poly and Time Warner for supporting a program that gives students "a hands-on introduction to science and math."

Martinez congratulated students, some of whom participated in the project last school year, for their success in May's Robot Rally at Cal Poly. A Montvue team placed first in the competition.

Students learn many things through the robotics program, among them the importance of being persistent, said Peggy Kelly, dean of Cal Poly's College of Education and Integrative Studies.

With a homework assignment a student rarely goes back to work on the answers he or she got wrong, Kelly said.

Building a robot out of tiny Lego blocks and then getting it to move as students wish means they have to review their work if it doesn't perform as they wanted, Kelly said.

In building a robot students "test again, and again and again ... Concepts then become clearer," she said.

Students in Mary Lou Ortiz-Jamieson's combination fifth- and sixth-grade class were at the event with robots they built recently.

The robot project allows students to develop STEM skills and others such as language arts as they present their ideas to fellow students and try to convince them to use them, she said.

Alex Guzman, a sixth-grader in Ortiz-Jamieson's class, said building and programming a robot looks easy but it's far from it.

"It's very frustrating at times but it's very easy if you relax," he said.

But building a robot also comes with a sense of accomplishment, Alex said.

After working to figure out how to get his robot to do a certain movement he's often happy and looking forward to the next challenge.

"I can move on to something else. It's very fun," he said.

POMONA - Richard Martinez, who has served as Pomona Unified School District's interim superintendent since August, was appointed as the new head of the district Tuesday night.

The appointment brought cheers and applause from many of the more than 150 people in the audience, most of them district employees.

Martinez appointment was passed on a 4-0 vote with Board President Andrew Wong abstaining.

Martinez thanked everyone and said he took the response that came from the room after the announcement as a message.

"I think you support what I'm doing and want to continue doing good work," he said.

While Martinez's appointment was welcomed the board action was critisized by some including Tyra Weis, president of the Associated Pomona Teachers.

She congratulated Martinez and said her disappointment "in no way reflects on Mr. Martinez" before telling the board they should have waited and allowed the district's new board, which will be seated Dec. 9, to select the new superintendent.

"You had everything to win by waiting and absolutely nothing to lose," she said.

Lincoln Elementary School parent, Guadalupe Gallegos, said that in the future district officials should "take into account the new board" in making such a decision.

Gallegos went on to say Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana, Martinez's predecessor, "is in the place she is at now for the work she did in Pomona," referring to Melendez de Santa Ana now being a member of President Obama's admininstration

"The group that surrounded her was a good group and among them was Mr. Martinez," Gallegos said in Spanish.

POMONA - Board members of the Pomona Unified School District have scheduled a special meeting on Nov. 17 for the possible selection of a new superintendent.

The meeting would take place three weeks before two new board members, elected on Tuesday, will be seated.

POMONA - Longtime certificated employees of the Pomona Unified School District are expected to receive notification this week they are eligible for an early retirement incentive program.

The school district will offer eligible personnel a "retirement supplement" averaging $65,000 if they retire at the end of the current academic year.

If enough people take the offer it could save the district millions in personnel costs and "mitigate any budget reduction layoffs," said Pam Lopez, district assistant superintendent of business services and chief financial officer.

"We worked hard to come up with a retirement incentive plan that treats our teachers and administrators with respect," Interim Superintendent Richard Martinez, said in a district statement. "It's respectful both to retirees who have served our students so well, and to those newer teachers whose positions we'll be able to preserve."

The district estimates that if 80 employees take the offer the district could save about $22 million over a five-year period and about $4.5 million the first year.

A total of 265 certificated employees qualify for the incentive, district officials said.

If more people took the offer "it could be very favorable" for the district, said Pam Lopez, district assistant superintendent of business services and chief financial officer.

The president of the Associated Pomona Teachers, or APT, said Monday the district's proposal is a positive step.

"It seems (the proposal has) been generous and well thought out," said Tyra Weis, APT president.

In the last two years the district has made about $40 million worth of cuts and it's now preparing for what is predicted to be about $36 million in reductions for the 2010-2011 school year.

School board President Andrew Wong said the retirement incentive will provide assistance in dealing with the dark financial picture ahead.

"We believe it's part of the innovative solutions we need to come up with to address the budget shortfall we face this year," Wong said.

The district offered an early retirement incentive last academic year but it didn't draw the response "we would have liked," Wong said. "We'll see if there's additional interest this time."

Last year's offer involved providing qualified personnel a $24,000 retirement supplement over two or five years, said Leslie Barnes, the district's business manager.

A total of 43 people took the offer, she said.

This year the district is providing a higher incentive by working with Public Agency Retirement Services, a firm that provides retirement benefits to those in the public sector.

The offer is open to all certificated personnel, most of whom are teachers but also includes employees such as counselors and school nurses.

Candidates for the program would be employees who are 55 or older and have worked with the district for at least 15 years, Barnes said.

Also eligible are those who are 58 or older and worked for Pomona Unified at least 13 years, Weis said.

All certificated personnel, including administrators, could take advantage of the program, Barnes said.

The $65,000 - the average payout - will be paid over a period each employee chooses, she said.

Employees in areas such as adult education and child development, a number of whom are part-timers, will receive smaller payouts, Barnes said.

If 70 or 80 people were to accept the incentive it would mean many fewer job cuts, district officials said.

If teachers with more seniority chose to take the retirement incentive it would open up classroom positions for newer teachers who otherwise might be laid off, Weis said.

Through this offer "more people at the bottom can move up," she said, adding that would mean fewer families would be affected by layoffs.

This proposal will still leave "experienced teachers that can help train" newer teachers coming up, she said.

"It will go a long way in retaining our newer teachers," Weis said.

Interest in the program has been high, Weis said, adding her office began receiving calls from APT members inquiring about it almost immediately after it received board approval.

Those who accept the offer will be able to retire at the end of June but it's possible that some personnel could leave earlier if it doesn't create a disruption in their area of responsibility, Barnes said.

The 25-member Superintendent's Budget Advisory Committee met for the first time this week, the Pomona Unified School District announced in a statement.

The district's Board of Education voted to create the committee this summer.

Committee members will have the job of becoming familiar with the district's budget and expected state budget cuts. Committee members will then make recommendations to interim Superintendent Richard Martinez on educational programs and their priority levels as a budget for the coming academic year is developed.

"The school board and I deeply appreciate the fact that these people would volunteer their time and energy to help us make these difficult budget decisions," Martinez said in the statement.

"After having to make reductions of about $40 million over the past two years, we're now looking at a cut just for (the) 2010-2011 (academic year) of about $36 million. We can't do this alone. Our entire community has to have a say in these choices," he said.

The committee includes teachers, classified employees, students, parents, principals and community members, the statement said.

Committee members are expected to meet again at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 10 at district Education Center, 800 S. Garey Ave.

POMONA - Voters in the Pomona Unified School District may have noticed incumbent candidate Andrew Wong is identified two different ways in their sample ballot booklet.

The sample ballot lists Wong's ballot designation as "School Boardmember, Pomona Unified School District."

Several pages back, where his candidate statement appears, Wong's occupation is listed as "Teacher/School Boardmember."

During the summer three Pomona residents who are also teachers in the district along with the Associated Pomona Teachers objected to Wong's use of the term "teacher" in the designation.

Lawyers for the residents and associated Pomona Teachers filed court documents seeking a court order changing Wong's ballot designation.

They argued Wong's use of the term teacher was misleading because he is employed as an attorney.

Wong has said his job involves teaching since he provides continuing education to other lawyers in his firm.

In September as the deadline for printing ballots approached, lawyers for Wong, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder County Clerk and the three Pomona residents went before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant.

Chalfant ordered the ballot designation to read "School Boardmember, Pomona Unified School District."

With the judge settling the matter how is it that Wong is listed both ways in the booklet?

The two designations appear in the sample ballot because the challenge only involved the ballot designation and not all references, said Eileen Shea, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

The sample ballot for the Pomona Unified School District board races shows incumbent Andrew Wong's occupation listed as "teacher/School Boardmember."

This summer, lawyers for Wong, for three Pomona residents and the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/ County Clerk's Office met in court over the candidate's ballot title.

The residents, who are also Pomona teachers, objected to Wong's use of teacher to identify himself on the ballot.

Wong works as an attorney.

On Sept. 1, with the county's deadline for printing materials approaching, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Chalfant determined Wong, who had asked to be identified as a "teacher/school board member" should be identified as "school board member, Pomona Unified School District."