School Notebook

Ellen Dougherty will replace outgoing Superintendent Joe Condon, who has headed the Lawndale School District for 17 years.

The choice of Dougherty, who is currently assistant superintendent of educational services for the 6,200-student district, was announced at a board meeting Tuesday night. Her new position will become official at the next board meeting on July 13.

Dougherty came to Lawndale last summer after 21 years in the South Pasadena Unified School District. She said she was seeking a "strong superintendent" to learn from.

"I came down thinking I'd have a few years to learn from Joe," she said, laughing. "I fell in love with the community."

Condon said he was confident his successor would do a good job in the largely Latino district, which has seven elementary and two middle school campuses.

"She's got wonderful people skills. She's smart as a whip and she understands the culture of the organization. She'll be just fine," he said.

Note: Dougherty pronounces her last name "DOCK-ur-dee," a pronunciation that she said comes from her native Central Pennsylvania.

The district's press release follows.

Donald Trump's company has completed the purchase of a once-contested piece of property in Rancho Palos Verdes near the ninth and 10th holes of Trump National Golf Club.

Trump's VH Property Corp., which runs the seaside golf course, today completed its payment of $4 million to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District for an 8.5-acre piece of property refered to as the "Loma del Mar" site.

The payment was part of the terms of a settlement reached in 2004. The agreement, which came after Trump's company sued the school district, required $200,000 in rent for five years and then a $4 million purchase.

Press releases from the school district and Trump follow.

North High Principal Grant Litfin works his last day for Torrance Unified today, school district officials said. He's taken the top job at Los Alamitos High in Orange County.

Litfin leaves after just two years as North High's principal. He was previously assistant principal at South High, assistant principal at Lynn and Magruder middle schools, and a teacher at Magruder.

The job posting for the principal slot at North High was posted last week. Applications are due July 13, and district officials say the post will be filled before the 2009-10 school year begins Sept. 10.

Make sure to read Breeze intern Kate Mather's story about positive goings on at 186th Street School in Harbor Gateway.

Students at the school have provided art work for "Colors of Love and Peace," a book designed to help children who are hospitalized. The Dalai Lama wrote a forward at the request of a San Pedran Fereidun Shokatfard, who initiated the project.

"It's just a true celebration of children encouraging other children to live, to thrive, to grow," (school Principal Marcia) Sidney-Reed said. "And to feel happiness. The colors are so bright and vibrant and beautiful - it just makes you feel happy inside."

About a month after financially troubled Los Angeles Unified announced it would cut most summer school offerings to save about $34 million, the district has announced what *will* be available.

Like most secondary campuses in the district, the six high school campuses in the South Bay and Harbor Area -- Banning, Carson, Gardena, Narbonne, San Pedro and Westchester -- will all have some classes. The courses offered are only for "credit recovery" -- graduation requirements, core classes and A-G classes.

The programs will run from July 6-August 14.

More detail, including programs offered by other agencies, from a district press release pasted below

Semi-official results published this afternoon showed Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's $165 parcel tax won voter approval.

Measure V, which needed a two-thirds vote to pass, won over 68.9 percent of voters, according to the county elections Web site. That was a slight increase from the figure reported at the conclusion of all-mail election on Tuesday night.

More than 43 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

The parcel tax will raised an estimated $3.3 million annually for the school district, which is struggling with state budget cuts. The measure will sunset in 2013.

An estimated 500 to 600 ballots remain to be counted in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified's all-mail parcel tax election, county officials said this afternoon.

Preliminary results from the election's Tuesday deadline showed the $165 parcel tax passing with 68.6 percent of the vote. Nearly all of the remaining ballots would need to be "no" votes for the measure to fail.

Supporters of the $100,000 campaign in favor of Measure V celebrated last night, though the margin was much more narrow than for the 2007 extension of the existing $209 parcel tax. (See today's story.)

Today, they said they were waiting on final results from the county.

The ballots should be counted by Friday afternoon, when the Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will make semi-official results available at lavote.net.

Nearly 42 percent of voters cast ballots, according to the preliminary vote total.

The school district is set to hold a board meeting Thursday evening on its budget, which has been slashed following cuts to state education funding.

A meeting scheduled for July 6 will take into account the election results for the parcel tax, which is expected to raise about $3.3 million per year until it sunsets in 2013.

This Thursday's meeting is set for approximately 6:30 p.m. at 3801 Via La Selva, Palos Verdes Estates.

Incidentally, there is apparently some speculation as to whether the the mail-only ballot constituted a "rigging" of the election.

Here's an email I received:

There are some people who think the PV schools election was rigged, because it held unusual circumstances. For instance, you didn't get to vote at a polling place, you had to mail in your
ballot. If you didn't vote via mail you had to physically drop the ballot off at City Hall I believe in PVE.

The question is: was this done to make sure it passed.

In fact, the school district went with an all-mail election to save the cost of a full election -- a move that several other school districts have made this spring. Tuesday's balloting cost the district an estimated $123,000, while a to-the-polls event could have cost nearly $600,000.

Of course, the district hoped to make the terms of the election favorable to a "yes" vote. The school board chose not to hold the election on May 19 to avoid being associated with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ill-fated budget measures.

Voters in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District should mail their ballots Thursday or Friday, at the latest, to ensure they arrive by Tuesday's mail-only election deadline.

Here's some background on Measure V, the $165 parcel tax, which would raise $3.3 million per year for the high-achieving school district. It comes on top of an existing $209 tax. Both would sunset in 2013.

The district has cut some $6 million from its budget since the state Legislature ordered broad cuts to education with its February budget. The governor's newest budget proposal -- which seems to be losing out to the budget committee's version -- would cut more than $6 million more, district officials have said.

More than 200 employees have received pink slips. District Superintendent Walker Williams said "several dozen" teachers could be rehired if the ballot measure passes.

But Measure V comes at a time when many of the district's 41,229 registered voters (according to the county registrar) are feeling the pain of the recession.

A parcel tax is leading by a hair in South Pasadena, which is one of several mostly wealthy areas where education agencies are seeking parcel taxes to make up for state cuts.

Some interesting thoughts on parcel taxes in a blog post today from one the LA Times' editorial board members.

Voters on The Hill can drop off their ballots on Tuesday. More information on ballots and voting after the jump.

Please read Larry Altman's moving story of Francisco Hernandez, a Lennox Mathematics, Science & Technology Academy graduate who overcame an unbelievable number of obstacles to make it to college. And not just any college.

Here's how it opens:

"My name is Francisco Hernandez and I am writing this statement to explain various events and circumstances that currently present themselves as obstacles toward my attending a four-year university."

Francisco went through the colleges' e-mailed responses one by one.

No. No. No. No.

Like so many other aspects of Francisco's life, adversity and disappointment again seemed to be taking over. He began to think about moving to Texas to live with his older sister.

It looked like Francisco would have to disregard the 4.1 grade point average he earned at the Lennox Mathematics, Science and Technology Academy. Instead, he figured he would work and attend community college.

Someday, the 18-year-old Lennox student would earn enough money to send himself to a university, one that wanted him and one he could afford.

Then he opened the last e-mail.

Larry's article has a sad and interesting backstory: Our colleague Vu Nguyen was working on Hernandez's incredible story when he died at age 34 last month.

*If you're interested in donating to Francisco, go here to find out how.

Today, I received a lengthy email from an anonymous "South Bay Pollyanna" who identifies herself as a local elementary school teacher. (Or "himself"? We'll just say herself since the writer chose a female fictional character as a pseudonym.)

This writer is asking South Bay residents to donate $5 to each of the area's 12 public school districts.

Can you afford to donate $60 in total to this one time cause? If just 10% rose to the call, it would be an impressive $430,000 for EACH district! If every man, woman, and child took action, we would raise over $4.3 million for EACH of these districts.

She describes what she calls "chaos" caused by state budget cuts and beseeches South Bay residents to take action in support of students' education.

I'm not endorsing the writer's views (or anyone else's) or vouching for all the data she cites, of course. Nor am I suggesting that I would in future post anything sent to me by readers. But someone obviously put a lot of effort into this, so here it is.

The letter is posted below.

Hi all, As you know, we've been through emotional times in the newsroom with the tragic loss of education reporter Vu Nguyen. He is missed.

In his absence, education reporting at the Breeze has been a bit up in the air, and this blog has gotten lost in the confusion. I'm hoping to begin its return with this post.

Here's the deal: Newsweek released its list of the top high schools in the country this week, and South Bay campuses showed some surprising rankings. Here's the complete list of the magazine's top 1,500 public schools.

Here are the South Bay schools on the list, with associated rank:

56. Hawthorne Math & Science Academy (charter)
144. Palos Verdes Peninsula High
185. Palos Verdes High
299. Mira Costa High
351. California Academy of Math & Science (charter)
445. Animo Venice (charter)
582. Animo Leadership (charter)
667. Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy
738. Redondo Union High
977. Animo Inglewood (charter)
1062. Carson High
1326. El Segundo High
1375. Narbonne High
1463. Westchester High

Well, how did campuses such as Carson, Narbonne and Westchester high schools -- generally considered fairly low-achieving -- end up on this list?

Here's how the rankings are devised, according to the magazine's website:

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by [Washington Post education columnist] Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.

More information on the ranking methodology is here.

*I noticed this interesting passage in Mathews' explanation of his calculations:

You may not like my criteria, but I have not found anyone who understands how high schools work and does not think AP, IB or Cambridge test participation is important. I often ask people to tell me what quantitative measure of high schools they think is more important than this one. Such discussions can be interesting and productive.

I have been having such a debate with Andy Rotherham, codirector of the Education Sector think tank. He argues that some of the schools on the NEWSWEEK list have low average test scores and high dropout rates and do not belong on any best-high-schools list. My response is that these are all schools with lots of low-income students and great teachers who have found ways to get them involved in college-level courses. We have as yet no proven way for educators in low-income schools to improve significantly their average tests scores or graduation rates. Until we do, I don't see any point in making them play a game that, no matter how energetic or smart they are, they can't win.

Services for Daily Breeze education reporter Vu Nguyen are scheduled for Monday morning.

The service will begin at 10 a.m. at St. Callistus Church, 12921 Lewis St. in Garden Grove.

An 11 a.m. procession will follow to the cremation site.

Nguyen, 34, died Friday when he was removed from life support systems at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Harbor City. He suffered cardiac arrest while playing soccer with friends May 10.

You can read some of the very nice things written about Nguyen by Breeze readers, colleagues and friends here and here.

United Teachers Los Angeles members have voted to hold a "work stoppage" on May 15 in protest of recent budget cuts in Los Angeles Unified School District.

In what the union billed as biggest UTLA ballot turnout in recent history, nearly 74 percent of 26,815 ballots supported the work stoppage. UTLA represents about 48,000 teachers in the district. Votes were tallied Thursday.

"This wasn't an easy decision for our teachers to make, but we were pushed into it by a superintendent who has decided to raise class size and bring chaos to schools even though the District has the money to maintain class sizes and avoid these layoffs," UTLA President A.J. Duffy said in a union press release.. "We have to stand up for our students because the District won't. But it's not too late -- we're calling on the superintendent and the School Board to change course and make the right decision for our schools."

The action comes after the Board of Education earlier this month approved laying off thousands of new teachers, administrators and aides in response to a looming $600 million budget gap. UTLA has said the district should use federal stimulus money to avert layoffs.

Earlier this week, the board backed away from a plan to ask legislators to make it easier to fire teachers.

Los Angeles Community College District Trustee Kelly Candaele resigned from a city board Tuesday after a Los Angeles Times inquiry into a possible ethics violation.

Candaele had been appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System board in 2005. He stepped down after Times inquiries about his having hosted a fundraiser for city attorney candidate Jack Weiss, who's supported by the mayor.

City ethics laws do not allow appointed commissioners or board members to participate in campaign fundraising activities.

Times reporter David Zahniser writes:

Top advisors to the mayor, upon learning of the violation, requested that Candaele submit his resignation, a Villaraigosa aide said. In a statement, the mayor described Candaele as an upstanding leader who made "an honest mistake."

Candaele was in March re-elected to his seat on the community college board by a huge margin. He represents District 4, holding one of seven at-large seats on the board.

*UPDATE: County health officials have confirmed that they are NOT investigating any flu cases in San Pedro. (Story)

Los Angeles Unified is saying that there are no clusters of swine flu-like symptoms in San Pedro area schools, in contrast to a statement issued earlier today by county health officials.

"I would like to clear up any misinformation about the report of a cluster in San Pedro," Dr. Kimberly Uyeda, the school district's head of student medical services, said today in a recently issued press release.

"Several sick children were sent to a school nurse at an elementary school however, all were cleared to stay in school. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also determined that no investigation was necessary."

Early this morning, a county press release stated: "The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is also investigating three possible flu clusters in three schools located in the Santa Clarita Valley and San Pedro. Laboratory results on these clusters are expected by the end of the week."

At a press conference this morning, county Chief Medical Office Jonathan Fielding would not say which school was potentially affected.

We at the Breeze know parents and students are very concerned and we're working now to get officials to clarify these conflicting statements.

Meanwhile, all LAUSD campuses are open and the district is not recommending parents take their children out of school.

Karen Saunders, who heads operations at Local District 8 schools (Harbor Area, Gardena, Lomita, Carson), said, "We do not have swine flu in our district."

She added: "People are panicking."

The morning statement from the Department of Public Health has caused a flurry of calls from media and parents to local schools and the school district, education officials said.

Non-LAUSD schools in San Pedro -- Mary Star of the Sea, Port of Los Angeles High School (technically an LAUSD charter), Holy Trinity Catholic School, Rolling Hills Prep -- said they had no reported symptoms and no students have been sent home.

It's still a couple of months until the new electeds replace two outgoing members of the LAUSD Board of Education, but longtime member Julie Korenstein is making parting gifts already.

Big-time gifts: She donated more than $300,000 to schools in her board district, which is in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The school district just sent out a press release on the donations, which come near the end of Korenstein's 22-year span on the board. She gave $320,000 to 122 schools, and $83,500 for "buses, field trips, computer software, classroom materials, serving carts parent and youth summits," according to the release.

Korenstein was known for maintaining a very small office staff to reduce costs to the school district. In July, she'll be replaced on the board by Nury Martinez, who's currently on the city of San Fernando council.

So, this is not the most hard-hitting news item with which to return from a month-long hiatus, but I bring it to you nonetheless.

Apparently, a Palos Verdes Peninsula High graduate and aspiring comedian has made a short documentary about her experience at the school's 10-year reunion at the Torrance Marriot. Except she didn't go to the reunion; she sent a tattoo-covered stripper in her place.

ABC's "Good Morning America" had a segment on Andrea Wachner and "Cricket" (the stripper) yesterday, in which we see scenes of Andrea talking through an earpiece to Cricket at the reunion.

Fellow alums were doubtful of Cricket-as-Andrea.

"She was just so different. You have to understand the community we had come from," Daniel Wolowicz, 32, told ABC's Christina Caron. "Everyone was questioning who this person was."

Andrea wasn't a big fan of Pen High, as you can see in the six-minute trailer for her 40-minute documentary "I Remember Andrea."

The Los Angeles school board heard budget-cut recommendations Tuesday from Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who didn't go for any sugar-coating.

"We are not going to be the same. I am not going to sit here and lie to you and say everything will the same," Cortines said. "Schools will suffer."

He later continued: "I would say that these (cuts) are not in the best interest of our children, but you don't have any choice. ... You tell me where to get the money to fill that bucket. I've taken everything I can take. What I am recommending negatively affects every aspect of this district."

The district, which has already this year cut $427 million from its $6 billion budget, needs to slice off another $140 million by the end of the year. In the 2009-10 school year, the district needs to cut $596 million -- and another $156 million in 2010-11, according to a presentation by district CFO Megan Reilly.

To reduce spending for next year's budget, Cortines had recommended laying off about 8,500 employees, including 3,600 teachers. His recommendations included:

--layoffs and reassignments of one-quarter of headquarters staff
--cutting in half the budgets of local district offices, which will be moved onto campuses
--layoffs of nearly 500 counselors
--increased class sizes across K-12
--one-day furloughs for all employees

Cortines said the avoidance of midyear cuts made more dramatic reductions now necessary. Board members will vote on his proposed cuts March 31.

Here's the take from Daily News reporter George Sanchez, who talked to some parents who protested outside the board meeting.

Also of note: Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez today continues his focus on local schools with a critical look at UTLA's 347-page contract, which requires the newest teachers to be laid off first, regardless of talent. (The teachers union and LAUSD came to a tentative contract extension through 2011 yesterday.)

The Board of Education voted today to make March 31 "Cesar E. Chavez Day" -- a paid holiday across Los Angeles Unified.

The board vote was marked by student comments and performances that celebrated the Mexican-American activist leader of farm workers. Students have marched in support of the holiday, and many walked out in 2007 (the same year as the massive immigration rally in downtown LA).

A board resolution from Yolie Flores Aguilar directed Superintendent Ramon Cortines to negotiate with unions to have Chavez Day replace Admissions Day or another paid holiday.

A 2000 state law established Chavez Day as a state holiday, authorizing schools to close for the day.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines will today present budget recommendations that include laying off nearly 8,400 employees and cutting valued programs, it's being reported.

With his budget update, Cortines will tell the Los Angeles Unified board that there is already a $140 million deficit for the current school year. He'll try to patch that up by shifting funds from categorical programs, according to an LAUSD memo to board members. (It's at the end of the meeting materials -- a big download.)

The potential closure of small campuses, including Sellery Special Education Center in Gardena will be discussed as part of Cortines' budget proposals today. A decision on that will be made next week, district officials said.

(To watch the meeting, which begins at 1 p.m., go here.)

Cortines' budget recommendations will include giving schools more freedom to use their own funding as campus administrators see fit. Making preliminary budget decision so early in the year means the district is "entering new waters," Cortines wrote. He wants decisions made early so that schools can plan to "buy back" eliminated jobs with freed-up funding.

He also notes: "[L]et me be clear, we will not be receiving enough federal stimulus funding to offset the reductions that we are facing from the State and there will be reductions in personnel at our schools."

In today's papers, the Daily News writer Connie Llanos reports that class sizes could increase under the plans -- up to 42 students per instructor in some high school classes.

The Los Angeles Times' Howard Blume writes that a dropout prevention program is on the chopping block. He writes that the budget crisis has given Cortines a an opportunity to make some reforms though a chance to "trim or gut some of the central bureaucracy."

"I'm dealing with a budget deficit over three years and five years. Not everybody will be saved, and," Cortines said, "everybody shouldn't be saved."