December 2007 Archives

A couple of years ago there was a story circulating about a school district in Kalamazoo, Michigan where a private donor had guaranteed that any child who graduated from the district was guaranteed tuition money to attend a state college. The city suddenly saw signs of economic development, higher student enrollment and fewer dropouts. Apparently, the trend is catching on across the country, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Tuition guarantees are gaining momentum across the nation, with more than 20 cities either establishing such programs or planting the idea in hopes that private donors or taxpayers will pony up the money to help offset staggering increases in college costs. At the same time, these programs also aim to attract new businesses and spur home ownership. It is too early to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of these fledgling programs, scattered around the country in places like El Dorado, Ark., and Hammond, Ind. While the Kalamazoo Promise has generated tremendous interest, economists point out that many communities do not have the private wealth that Kalamazoo has. And school officials caution that the programs, by themselves, guarantee only that a student will be able to go to college.

Read the entire story.

How tuition guarantees work.

A new study by Educational Testing Service concludes that teachers entering the profession now possess higher academic qualifications than their predecessors a decade back. Citing evidence that a teacher's effectiveness with students is directly linked to their own academic prowess, the report further asserts that student learning could improve as a result.

Read the study for yourself; or check out the Education Week article for a smart synopsis.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a fascinating feature about the work of Michael Rakowitz, an artist-in-residence at the Montalvo Arts Center Villa near Saratoga who aims to "open new channels of ideas and feelings about the Iraq war and its underlying issues" through food.

Rakowitz recently invited a group of high school students to the center to prepare and eat a meal together, using his Iraqi-Jewish mother's recipes, during which he asked questions about the kids knowledge, experience and understanding of Iraq as well as offering up his own.

From Steven Winn's story:

"Rakowitz spent 45 minutes each with two groups of about a dozen students, all of whom are enrolled in one of Judith Sutton's poetry writing classes. He asked questions, gently steered discussion and volunteered experiences of his own. He talked about his Iraqi grandparents' emigration in 1946 and told the students about the lines outside the door at Khyber Pass, an Afghan restaurant in New York, a few nights after Sept. 11, 2001. "People were there as a gesture of peace, as we were getting ready to attack Afghanistan," he said. "I thought that was really beautiful."

Rakowitz asked the students if they knew of any Iraqi restaurants in the Bay Area. When they couldn't name one, he asked if they knew any Vietnamese restaurants. They all nodded. Pointing out that we were once at war with Vietnam, he offered this wishful thought: "The thing I hope is that it will be very normal one day for people here to be eating Iraqi food."

The project is called "Enemy Kitchen." Read Winn's entire piece here.

The Wiseburn area’s Dana Middle School was one of six statewide recently honored for its civic-education efforts.

Named a “School of Merit” by the California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the campus was lauded for offering such programs as “Courtroom to Classroom,” during which two attorneys and a California Superior Court judge led Dana students in a debate of First Amendment rights.

The award was presented prior to winter break by Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Darline Robles, who also co-chairs of the state campaign.

“Civic education is important for the future of democracy in our country,” Robles said in honoring Dana, noting that the award is the result of a “great team effort of school leadership, district administrators and board members.”

From Nick Green's report:

The city of Torrance will honor fallen soldier Matthew Ferrara at a ceremony Thursday when his name will be inscribed on Veterans Memorial Wall at City Hall.

The public is invited to the event, which begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Torrance Boulevard and Maple Avenue.

Torrance Boulevard will close from 9:45 to 11 a.m. from Madrona Avenue to Crenshaw Boulevard for the ceremony.

Road closure signs on Torrance Boulevard indicated the event was Friday, but they will be changed to the correct day, officials said.

The 24-year-old Army captain was killed in Afghanistan in November when the foot patrol he was leading was ambushed. Six Afghan soldiers and five others - including 23-year-old Army Spc. Lester Roque, who lived near Carson - of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force died in the attack.

Ferrara was promoted to captain posthumously and buried with full military honors at Rancho Palos Verdes' Green Hills Memorial Park.

The 2001 South High graduate was the third from the school killed in the last 12 months while fighting overseas.

Army Cpl. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, a 2005 graduate, was killed May 23 after he was captured outside of Baghdad. Army Spc. Micah Gifford, 27, a 1997 graduate, died Dec. 7, 2006, in a bomb blast in Baghdad.

HOW TO HELP

South High School has established a scholarship fund in Ferrara's memory. Send donations to South High School, Activities Office, 4801 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, CA 90505.

In this companion piece, the Daily News found one in five students being served a "free or reduced" price lunch were ineligible, which costs LAUSD $935 million over a two-year period. Here's an excerpt of the report from Naush Boghossian and Lisa Friedman:

While the $8.2 billion national school lunch program is designed to provide meals to needy students, the system is fraught with loopholes that leave it open to rampant fraud.

A recent government report said verification remains a problem in the program that provides about 6.6 billion meals to kids each year at a cost of about $10.2 billion.

To participate in the program, parents complete applications listing their income. Random verification checks are performed, but from 2005 to 2006, the study found slightly more than one student in five students who applied and got served was actually ineligible - at a cost of $935 million.

"Several data sources suggest that a significant number of ineligible children are receiving free or reduced-price meals," the auditors wrote.

Los Angeles Unified School District is forfeiting millions of dollars in federal funds because just half of its eligible students are taking advantage of a lunch program in which kids eat for free or at reduced prices, the Daily News has learned.

While 74 percent of the district's 700,000 students are estimated to be eligible for the federal program that subsidizes meals for low-income students, only 37percent of those in middle schools and high schools participate, LAUSD officials said. Despite higher participation by elementary students, the total rate lags far behind that in other large urban school districts - adding pressure on the LAUSD as it strains to boost food services on an increasingly tight budget.

"What is outrageous is that this is an absolute necessity and a valuable service, ... and I'm concerned we have a low participation rate because administrative costs are great, and we haven't made the necessary investments," school board President Monica Garcia said.

Read Naush Boghossian's full report here.

Found a clip on You Tube showing LAUSD's All-City band practicing. The group that includes representatives from Carson High, San Pedro High and other schools will march in the Rose Parade on Jan. 1.

Check out Rick Orlov's column in the Los Angeles Daily News about L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school-reform votes earlier this month. It's a good summary of the contoversy surrounding the vote tallying.

For Naush Boghossian's report about the opt-out of Jordan High in Watts (and the lack of a majority vote at Santee High) from Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, click here.

About 350 Carson eighth-graders participated in a three-day leadership retreat this month in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The students learned to forge strong friendships, deal with peer pressure and set goals to help them prepare for college.

"It challenged me mentally, physically and socially," said 14-year-old Michelle Nguyen from Caroldale Learning Community, a K-8 school. "The restrictions of the classroom would have made this learning impossible."

Students from Curtiss Middle and White Middle schools climbed trees, hiked at night, and learned about astronomy at the Pali Institute near Lake Arrowhead.

Read the School Notebook story for more.

Inspections required by state law found textbook shortages, deteriorating campuses and underqualified teachers at eight local campuses in Los Angeles Unified and Centinela Valley school districts.

County auditors singled out Hawthorne High School's campus for special scorn, detailing the dirty fountains, rotting wood, leaky roof, exposed wiring and pervasive bird droppings in a 24-page memo released last week.

Many of the restrooms were locked when the campus was inspected at a time when students were attending classes, records show.

A second Centinela Valley Union High School District campus, Leuzinger High in Lawndale, also was listed in poor condition because of broken and cracked windows, doors and locks that don't operate properly, trash stored in heating vents and one classroom with a wobbly wall.

Read Paul's story for more.

For the third year running, the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) at California State University, Dominguez Hills held a "Holiday Wish Drive" for Masada Homes, collecting and donating myriad gifts for the children and teens served by the nearby nonprofit foster placement and adoption agency located in Carson.

In late November, the campus community was provided with a list of specific wishes for 38 children and teens, ranging in age from two months to 17-years-old. Donations of toys and electronics were delivered to the CHHS offices, along with gift cards and monetary donations.

Additionally, Toby Bushee, catering and event manager, Campus Dining, gave away $1 coupons to the campus’ Club 1910 restaurant for every dollar deposited in the donation box at the restaurant.

The university’s relationship with the agency began when Claudia Peyton, acting associate CHHS dean and director of the occupational therapy program, became a foster mother through the Masada agency. Marilyn Noriega, Masada’s program manager, also teaches in the CSUDH occupational therapy master’s program.

Students from the campus’ occupational therapy program also work at Masada as interns with early intervention for at-risk youth in group homes.

For more information about Masada, visit their Web site.

Another intriguing read from the education staff at The New York Times, this time about MIT physics professor Walter H.G. Lewin, who at age 71 has developed an almost cult-like following for the lectures he videos and makes available online, to anyone.

From writer Sara Rimer's article:

"Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store.

He rides a fire-extinguisher-propelled tricycle across his classroom to show how a rocket lifts off."

If you've got time, check out the whole story. It's a great read.

Centinela Valley Union High School District Superintendent Cheryl White was fired Wednesday in a heated special board meeting marked by tension among trustees and outrage among many trustees.

White's supporters call her "the best superintendent the district has ever had," while her detractors say progress in the district has stalled during her tenure. She was terminated, effective immediately, in a 3-2 vote that pitted newly elected trustees Gloria Ramos and Sandra Suarez, as well as two-year board member Rocio Pizano, against members Rudy Salas and Francisco Talavera.

For a full account of what unfolded, read my story in today's Daily Breeze.

Is it just me or does the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act seem like a slow crawl toward irrelevence. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh.

But politics have stymied the effort to renew the nation's groundbreaking education law that aims to raise the academic bar and ensure high quality teaching in schools. As is often the case, the behind-the-scenes bickering and lobbying has trumped policy discussions about fairness and accountability for academic programs at schools.

This article in EdWeek takes aim at George Bush and the NEA (the nationwide teachers' union) as the prime culprits.

Here's an exerpt:

When Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., took over as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee in January, he told audiences that reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act was doable. He occasionally appeared with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at his side, promising that such a bill would clear the House this year.

With that goal now unreachable, Rep. Miller sounds pessimistic about the law’s prospects for renewal in 2008, and he is blaming President Bush.

A new, statewide collaborative project of California's community colleges, the UC and CSU systems and K-12 districts will provide free assistance to students retaking the high-school exit exam so they can earn their diplomas.

The California High School Exit Exam Stepping Into Your Future initiative is currently recruiting from the classes of 2006 and 2007 for students to take the inaugural course. The curriculum emphasizes high-interest, career and workforce topics. Classes will be available online or at various adult school sites.

For full details, see the program's website or the press release from UC Santa Barbara's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, which is developing content and evaluating the program's effectiveness.

I just came across this New York Sun story from last Friday that talks about presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's still-developing "education advisory team," which he is so far populating with "voucher advocates, private-sector school consultants and opponents of teachers unions."

It's a short piece, but interesting information as the campaign marches on toward next November.

Read it here.

Mario Danelo's family and coaches saluted the late Trojan placekicker's work ethic, down-to-earth character and playful demeanor Monday as they unveiled a mural in his honor in San Pedro.

Called "Livin' the Dream" - an expression Danelo used often to describe his life - the 12-by-8-foot glass-tile mural hangs on the east-facing wall of the English building at San Pedro High School, where he once attended classes.

The 21-year-old Danelo died Jan. 6 after he fell from a San Pedro cliff.

"If Mario was sitting here, he would wonder what this fuss was all about," said Mike Walsh, who coached Danelo at San Pedro High. "He didn't view himself as special."

For more, read Paul's story.

Patty Sponaugle's decision to attend Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio (with less than 2,500 students) came after she realized she wanted to study in a faraway (but not exactly exotic) land that splits the distance between Columbus and Akron.

Since my freshman year of high school, when I began my crazy college search, I knew I wanted to go to a small, liberal arts college.

I just knew.

And although rural life, with all its quaint and all its quiet, did appeal to me, one of the things I was most afraid of, even while I was applying to a plethora of 2,500-students-or-less schools in the middle of essentially nowhere, was boredom.

Read The Freshman column to learn why boredom isn't creeping in.

Hoping to stem the tide of sixth-graders abandoning Los Angeles Unified elementary schools on the Westside for private schools, trustee Marlene Canter is stepping up recruiting efforts for seven middle schools.

Canter wants local parents to take another look at LAUSD, so she's offering tours of higher-achieving magnets, hosting an open house and extolling the virtues of Los Angeles public schools in speeches.

"Many families in the areas that I represent send their children to LAUSD elementary schools, but opt for private schools when their children get older," said Canter, who represents schools from Westchester to the San Fernando Valley.

"But as the district opens new schools in overcrowded areas, we now have the opportunity to increase local resident enrollment."

Read Paul's story for more news analysis.

Ten months after installing a new computerized payroll process that has been roiled by glitches, Los Angeles Unified officials now say costs for fixing the system and completing its rollout could top $210 million.

The system, with an original price tag of $95 million, has underpaid or overpaid thousands of employees, and last week district officials said hiring consultants to fix it has already caused the cost to balloon to $132.5 million.

And some officials are questioning the district's transparency on all the costs associated with the system, noting that at least $6 million will be forfeited by allowing some overpaid teachers to keep the money.

Read Naush Boghossian's full report.

The Washington Post runs an interesting article today about the onslaught of academic research into social networking Web sites.

From staffer Monica Hesse's piece:

"The race is on -- to an extremely obscure wing of the ivory tower. Who will own the study of the social networking sites? Is it computer science or behavioral science? Is it neuropsychology or artificial intelligence? PhDs around the country are trying to figure out, in their esoteric and socially awkward way, how to get in while the getting's good.

Let the theorizing begin."

Check out the entire story for more.

California State University, Long Beach student Diaa Eldanaf, of Torrance, has been inducted into the Golden Key International Honor Society, a global nonprofit organization that provides academic recognition to college juniors and seniors in the top 15 percent of their class.

Membership in Golden Key, which also offers leadership development opportunities, community service, career networking and scholarships, is by invitation only.

"It is only fitting that a top academic achiever like Diaa be recognized by Golden Key," Alexander Perwich II, the group's CEO, said. "Our members are inspired and motivated not only to achieve exceptional academic accomplishments, but also to make a positive impact on our world."

Eldanaf has previously received an achievement award from the math department at El Camino College, where she earned her associate's degree in June.

The West High School football coach who allegedly tied up girls at the Torrance campus and in his home, and who asked all the boys on his team to kiss him, has been fired from his job.

The Torrance Unified School District on Friday reported that Michael Anthony Smith, 51, who was arrested Dec. 7, was terminated.

See Larry Altman's story for more details.

Former South High School coach and South Bay YMCA athletic director Leonard Butler was sentenced Thursday to two years in state prison for engaging in sex acts with two underage girls.

Before Torrance Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold announced the sentence, Butler, 43, apologized to the teenagers, who were both in court.

"I'm sorry for what I did," the one-time youth mentor said. "I should never have been in those positions."

Read Denise Nix's story for more.

More than $53 million was overpaid to 32,000 teachers, counselors and other certified employees this year during a payroll fiasco that will cost the district more than $130 million to fix. They have until Monday (Dec. 17) to repay it.

A West High School coach who allegedly tied up and handcuffed female students required each boy on his football team to kiss him before a recent game, players have told the Daily Breeze.

The odd behavior is now part of the Torrance police investigation into freshman football coach Michael Anthony Smith. The 51-year-old Torrance man was arrested Friday when detectives began looking into charges that he bound 13- to 17-year-old girls with tape for some unknown reason.

The latest allegations, confirmed in interviews with two 14-year-old players who said they kissed Smith at his direction, occurred late in the season, a day before the sixth or seventh game when Smith passed out clean jerseys.

Read Larry Altman's story for more.

Parents and teachers at Westchester schools opted out of the Los Angeles Unified School District's chain of command in landslide votes that could augur more defections in January.

The schools are signing up for a five-year partnership with Loyola Marymount University - known as the Family of Schools - to improve achievement and draw local students back to LAUSD classrooms.

The district would still collect per-pupil funding, but schools would gain more decision-making powers over curriculum, budget and hiring.

Also, the schools would not answer to administrators at Local District 3.

For more, read Paul's story.

Check out Shelly Leachman's story about Luca Paparello, the 13-year-old autistic boy training for the Los Angeles Marathon. He's a sixth-grader at Dana Middle School in Hawthorne. Here's an exerpt:

With long, slender legs that propel him gracefully - and quickly - he smiles as he runs. Sun in his face, breeze at his back, friends at his side.

Each time he completes a lap, he cocks his head toward a pair of onlookers, offers up a warm, crooked grin and raises two fingers into a peace sign.

Once his workout is done for the day, flush-faced but barely winded Luca Paparello right away gives great credit to his shoes.

Los Angeles Unified School District administrators do not violate state law by considering the ethnic backgrounds of students when selecting them for admission to magnet schools, according to a ruling this week.

The American Civil Rights Foundation sued the district in October 2005, alleging the district policy is unconstitutional and violates Proposition 209, which forbids racial preferences in government hiring and public school admissions.

Read our wire story for more.

In a rare override, the Los Angeles school board on Tuesday rejected board member Richard Vladovic's attempt to reduce the size of a planned K-8 Wilmington school.

Board members said Vladovic's plan - which would instead erect an elementary school on the site - would imperil $37 million in matching state funds and fail to relieve crowding at Wilmington Middle School.

For the whole story, read Paul's report.

Recently re-elected trustee and first-time school board member were sworn in as policy stewards of the Torrance Unified School District at a meeting Monday night.

Longtime school volunteer Ragins, who holds a Masters in Governance certification from the California School Boards Association, now begins her second term. Rookie trustee Lee is a former Torrance City Council member with three kids in TUSD schools and is a Torrance High grad himself.

The board also elected new officers on Monday, with Michael Ernst named president, Al Muratsuchi as vice president, and Mark Steffen the new clerk.

"This is a strong Board committed to working with the community to continue to keep TUSD a preeminent school district," Ernst said. "I greatly look forward to my role as president of this board. This district has great teachers, staff and administrators who are committed to ensuring student success. I'm honored to have the opportunity to help lead this team."

There were only about 20 people who attended the district's initial meeting Monday evening at San Pedro High to hear about the district's plan to develop a high school on LAUSD-owned acreage at Angels Gate Park. The high school would be built on a 23-acre slice of 43 the district owns in the park. The city of Los Angeles ownes one third or the park.

District officials discussed the school plan Monday and responded to several questions from residents who live in the neighborhoods to the south and west about access to the site.

Roderick Hamilton, a regional development manager for LAUSD, said the district would pursue an agreement with the city to upgrade a road entering the northeastern area of the site from Gaffey Street, instead of using Alma Street on the rear.

The Georgia school board wants students free from the distraction of having to eyeball another student's plaid boxer shorts, while they're trying to listen to an algebra lesson.

"When you come to school, and your body parts are showing, it's not a very good learning environment," said Atlanta School Board Member Brenda Muhammad.

Michael Smith, a "walk on" baseball coach at West High in Torrance, has been arrested for tying up four girls between the ages of 13 and 17. Police said Smith didn't engage in sex acts with the girls, according to Larry Altman's story.

Police on Monday could not explain the motive behind Smith's actions, whether the girls went willingly with him to his home, and whether they were forcibly bound or consented.

"Whether he was setting them up for something much more serious, that part of the investigation is still under way," [Torrance Police Officer Dave] Crespin said.

Carlos Huerta's roommate and schoolmate described the 21-year-old junior who threatened to go on a shooting rampage as a misguided prankster rather than a danger to the Westchester college.

"I guarantee it was a joke. One-hundred percent a joke," said LMU junior Adolfo Espino, who attended engineering classes with Carlos Huerta. "He was different."

Lana Buu of The Freshman column writes about her "sense of doom" about that battery of papers and mid-term exams that usually hammer college students just ahead of the holiday break.

Here's an exerpt:

Midterms, for me, lasted four weeks. The continuous onslaught of papers and examinations brought me to my physical and mental limits. I slept only when I felt that I no longer had the capacity to process thought. I could not even enjoy a simple meal because my thoughts were inundated by what was on my to-do list.

I was a hermit. My friends thought I fell off the face of the Earth - until they caught a glimpse of me studying in the library and realized that midterms had taken hold of my life.

Want a few nuggets of education-related news? Here you go.

A student at Loyola Marymount University will face charges for posting a terrorist threat on a collegiate message board over the weekend, triggering additional security at the Westchester campus over the weekend. The school also sent out text-message notifications to students using a communications system.

Here's the Breeze story based on wire reports.

The university's award-winning student newspaper The Loyolan was on top of the story with several reports over the weekend.

Also, here's a link to JuicyCampus, the message board that has been the subject of university hand-wringing in recent weeks for its racy content. The university has labeled its contents hate speech.

Head to a meeting at 6 p.m. today, if you're interested in hearing about the LAUSD's proposal to develop a 1,200-seat high school on a portion of the 43 acres owned by the school district in Angels Gate Park.

The budget is guaranteed, not like a failed plan to build at the Ponte Vista site.

Here's an exerpt from Paul's story:

Unlike the earlier plan, the project's $89.17 million is guaranteed, Hamilton added.

"We're planning 1,215, but we're planning to build 810 in the first phase of it," Hamilton said. "Then we'll see if there's more money down the road for it."

Two local bands competed in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s annual Band and Drill Team Championship on Saturday.

Narbonne High School in Harbor City and San Pedro High School were in the field of 31 competitors to showcase music and dance skills.

Groups were judged in the areas of music performance, general effect and visual performance.
Awards were also given for top auxiliary (drill team, dance or flags) units as well. The competition was hosted by East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park.

Addendum: Narbonne's drill team won the Auxiliary category; San Pedro High's band placed second among all bands.

Wright Middle School opened a new flight lab that will provide advanced training for aspiring preteen pilots.

The school converted an old metal shop classroom, adding 22 high-tech computers with flight simulators that allow students to fly solo or in formation with their peers.

The new lab complements a beginning flight program now in its second year at the school. The 400 students signed up for the Wright Math, Science Technology and Aviation Magnet have access to the labs, Principal Stephen Rochelle said.

“This allows us to further the kids along the career pathway,” Rochelle said. “These are the kids who will take the beginning class to another level.”

Read Paul's story for more.

Sakhalin Finnie offers classes in a bungalow that doesn't have running water. So when she teaches high school science lessons that require it, she's forced to improvise.

"I use buckets and try to do it smaller," Finnie said of her physics and chemistry lessons at Harbor Teacher Preparatory Academy, a magnet high school in Wilmington. "We have a lot of paper towels."

Finnie's dedication paid dividends Thursday, as the Milken Family Foundation honored her as a top educator and handed her a $25,000 check at the Harbor College campus where she teaches her classes.

Read Paul's story for more.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has hired an administrator with ties to the charter movement, as the new executive director of the Charter Schools Division.

Jose Cole-Gutierrez of Los Angeles takes over for Greg McNair, who will rejoin the district's legal team. In his post, Cole-Gutierrez will oversee 125 existing independent public schools and the review and approval of new ones.

He is a former general manager of the California Charter Schools Association and adjunct professor at Cypress College. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Stanford University and master's in education from Harvard University.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has given employees who were overpaid because of payroll glitches an additional week to pay the money back. More than $53 million was overpaid to 32,000 teachers, counselors and other certified employees this year during a payroll fiasco that will cost the district more than $130 million to fix.

Employees must notify the district by Friday (Dec. 7) about how they want to proceed. Instead of needing to pay the money back by Monday, (Dec. 10) they have until Dec. 17.

To lower the number of contested payments, the district agreed to forgive errors of $250 or less. Employees who pay by the deadline receive a $250 credit.

An agreement with unions allows LAUSD to collect overpayments of $200 or less from this month’s check. About 15,750 more employees have unresolved issues. About 60 percent of the 10,000 people who responded to the district agreed to pay the amount calculated, David Holmquist, the district’s interim chief operating officer, told the Los Angeles Times.

About 2,400 others are contesting the district claims and refusing to pay some or all of the amounts demanded, he said. In early 2008, employees will need to seek refunds for themselves from tax agencies.

A California State University, Dominguez Hills music professor known for his humor, his leadership skills and his love of the campus that served as his professional home has died.

Rodney Butler, a 60-year-old Redondo Beach resident, unexpectedly died at home on Nov. 27. The cause of death is believed to be heart failure.

Butler "was one of our best," university President Mildred Garcia said this week.

Read Shelly's story for more.

Loyola Village Elementary School in Westchester will open the doors of its new Wonder of Reading library Friday (Dec. 7).

“For us, our Wonder of Reading library will become the literacy heart of our learning community,” Principal Melinda Goodall said.

Goodall, teachers and parents at Loyola Village agreed to renovate and expand library with the help of Wonder of Reading, a nonprofit group that partially donates libraries to urban schools.
The group usually splits the cost of the work with school fund-raising.

At Loyola Village, the school raised $50,000, which included a $30,000 gift from Playa Vista Capital and Playa Vista Educational Trust. The library will open following the 10 a.m. event at the school, 8821 Villanova Ave.

Freshman columnist Patty Sponaugle is weaving herself into the cultural quilt at Kenyon College:

Within every environment, there is a certain culture that one learns to embrace and become enmeshed in. The culture becomes a part of them; they become a part of the culture; together, they evolve.

Most definitely, this is true at Kenyon College.

The Breeze columnist offers a few of his musings about LAUSD's hiring of two PR consultants (or spin doctors?) to craft a different communications strategy. Here's an exerpt:

Still, I have to wonder how extra-special communicators Victor Abalos and Michael Bustamante plan to convince even the dimmest audience member that the payroll system is working and that students aren't leaving school on a one-way ticket to public assistance.

But here's the great thing about public relations consulting. If it doesn't work, you get paid anyway.

A Carson contractor began his business more than a year ago, looking to "fix and flip" houses. That was still the plan until this fall, when Lamora Wilson signed up for a small business boot camp offered by LAUSD.

During the eight-week course offered one evening a week, Wilson learned a bevy of information about how to submit a winning bid for a public works project. For Wilson, the course lowered his fear quotient about bidding for work on LAUSD's $20 billion construction program that's scheduled to build 132 schools by 2012.

"It'll take years to obtain this information any other way," Wilson said. "Because a lot of times you learn it the hard way."

The classes resembled an apprenticeship program, said Wilson, a carpenter who has build bridges, carports and other structures in the past 25 years. He learned step-by-step instructions for submitting the bid, proper paperwork, insurance liability requirements and the bonding process.

Wilson completed the boot camp a week ago with 74 others from across Southern California. The district hosted a "graduation" ceremony Nov. 29. LAUSD uses the program to cultivate new contractors, having awarded $50 million to contractors who've completed it.

"These graduates represent our continued partnership with local businesses to attract the skilled labor necessary to complete our building program's mission of providing a neighborhood school on a traditional two-semester calendar for every student," said Guy Mehula, the district's chief facilities executive.

In total, 550 small businesses have completed the program, which also teaches contractors how to obtain public works contracts with other agencies.

California has reduced its number of under-prepared teachers over the last decade, according to a new study that analyzed the state's teaching workforce and how many educators possess credentials in their respective subjects.

In its latest annual report, "The Status of the Teaching Profession: 2007," the Northern California-based Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, found that the percentage of teachers lacking the appropriate credential dropped from 13 percent in 1997 to just 5 percent this year.

The study also revealed that there are fewer novice teachers in the first or second year of teaching, declining from 46,000 in 2000-01 to 36,000 in 2006-07 and that schools of all types have lower percentages of underprepared teachers. For example, in 2000-01, 23 percent of faculty in low achieving schools were underprepared. In 2006-07, only 8 percent were underprepared.

Find the entire study here.

The long-lauded El Camino College newspaper The Union has at last gone on line, launching a web version over the weekend that will enable the long-weekly publication to do daily reporting.

Monday's Daily Breeze includes a feature about the paper, its award-winning staff and their thoughts on the future of newspapers. Read my story here.

John Rodriguez and the journalism class at Banning High in Wilmington have embarked on an ambitious project to follow 10 ninth-graders toward graduation as they tackle academic challenges, social pressures and family life's ups and downs.

The students will learn the stories behind the statistics at a school that has rapidly improved academically but still has a high dropout rate. Much less than half the students who start at the Wilmington high school complete four years and collect a diploma.

The students:

Francisco Chavez, 15. Perla Fernandez, 14. Mark Fitzpatrick, 15. Alma Garduno, 14. Jessica Gutierrez, 15. Jacquiline Heredia, 14. Maribel Hildago, 14. Jesus Hurtado, 15. Milvia Orantes, 14. Shadow Smith, 15.

UCLA student, Narbonne High graduate and Lomita resident Michael Bailey had a novel idea: print vocabulary words on P.E. T-shirts to improve test scores at Wilmington Middle School. Bailey followed up on a theory, fostered by a UCLA communications course, that people's brains latch onto "visual cues" to process information. And he applied it to the words LAUSD students often see on standardized tests, words such as "define" and "analyze."

Bailey chose the school because his mom once worked in the attendance office.

Read Paul's story for more.

Manhattan Beach Middle School is the first public school in California to install an electronic system that compares the driver's licenses of campus visitors with a sex offender database instantly. The system costs $1,500 st start up and a $400 annual fee.

According to Shelly Leachman's story in Sunday's paper:

The still-new system has been so well-received at MBMS that every other school in the district will soon have its own, with installation likely by the start of second semester, according to Janet Schwabe, deputy superintendent of Manhattan Beach Unified.

Looking for something other than a "World's Greatest" mug for your teacher's Christmas gift this year? Try this site.

At Oxfam America's Online store, you can buy school uniforms, school supplies, a desk and chair or books for a child in one of 26 developing countries the charity supports.

The site also has other unusual charitable gifts, like a can of worms to be sent in your favorite gardening enthusiast's name, or a crocodile in your favorite Harbor City resident.

Teachers, what's the best gift you've gotten from a student for Christmas or the end of the school year? What do you wish you would get?