February 2008 Archives

Students, staff, alumni and the community of Leuzinger High are invited to the school's annual Memorabilia Day event being held tomorrow, Saturday, March 1, on campus.

Sponsored again by the Leuzinger Alumni Committee, the festivities will feature a continental breakfast and memorabilia display from 9 to 10:30 a.m.; an assembly from 10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; a for-pay lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.; and live music and other entertainment from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

Alumni from as far back as the mid-1930s are reportedly planning to attend.

Leuzinger is located at 4188 Rosecrans Avenue in Lawndale.

Sound-proofing is at last on its way to the airplane-plagued Lennox School District. Inglewood too.

From the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein today:

The Senate has unanimously approved a measure sponsored by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (both D-Calif.) to help soundproof the Lennox and Inglewood schools from nearby airport noise.

Specifically, the legislation sponsored by Senators Feinstein and Boxer would allow the enactment of the settlement reached between the City of Los Angeles and the Lennox and Inglewood School Districts to allow the schools to use passenger facility fees for noise reduction projects – to the tune of $111 million for the Lennox School District and $118.5 million for the Inglewood School District over 10 years.

“This is very good news,” Senator Feinstein said. “I have visited these schools. I have personally seen the problem, and how very important it is that these schools get retrofitted. The unanimous approval by the Senate brings us one step closer to getting this bill signed into law.”

Senator Boxer said, “I am pleased that the Senate approved this important legislation. The students at Lennox and Inglewood schools are constantly interrupted by the rattle and roar of low-flying planes. They deserve to learn in an environment that is free from the distraction of jet noise. This bill will help improve conditions by soundproofing these schools so that every child has the opportunity to learn in the most conducive environment possible."

The bill was drafted with the assistance of the Federal Aviation Administration, and it has the support of the Lennox and Inglewood School Districts, the Los Angeles World Airports, and the Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.

The measure was previously approved by the Senate Commerce Committee on May 3, 2007 as part of the FAA Reauthorization bill.

Companion legislation has been introduced in the House by Representatives Jane Harman and Maxine Waters (both D-Calif.), and has been included in the House FAA Reauthorization bill, which has passed the house.

Representative Harman said, “Those who say the Senate is a bottleneck should consider that thousands of low-income kids who live and study directly below the flight path to LAX may now finally get relief. This action frees up funds to soundproof their schools and build classrooms that no longer resemble the windowless bunkers in which they now study. Kudos to Senators Feinstein and Boxer for a job well done.”

Background
In 1980, the Lennox School District and the City of Los Angeles settled a lawsuit, allowing aircraft carrying up to 40 million people per year to fly overhead the schools. That resulted in having aircraft fly over the schools – at extremely low levels – approximately every 3 minutes.

A settlement was reached in February 2005 between the Lennox and Inglewood school districts and the Los Angeles World Airports to provide – over 10 years -- $111 million in noise mitigation funds to Lennox School District and $118.5 million to Inglewood School District.

Mitigation measures include replacement of HVAC equipment with pollution abatement, double-paned windows and/or sound reduction windows and doors, roofing upgrades, replacement of relocatable classrooms, and temporary housing during construction.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration interpreted federal law in a way that prevents the payment of the funds under the 2005 agreement. Thus, federal legislation is necessary to allow the use of passenger facility fees for noise reduction projects at the Lennox and Inglewood schools.

Manhattan Beach Unified School District trustee Bill Eisen -- currently the focus of a community effort to recall him from the school board he was elected to in 2005 -- was evicted from his home on Tuesday.

Eisen was ordered to leave his home by a U.S. bankruptcy court, concluding a decades-long battle that kicked off when he was first sued by creditors in the 1980s. A bankruptcy trustee intends to sell the trustee's Crest Drive home to pay off those creditors.

With the law requiring trustees be residents of the districts in which they serve, all eyes are on Eisen and where he may land in the wake of his eviction. The fledgling recall effort against him is moving into the signature-gathering phase, with the Committee to Recall Bill Eisen aiming for a November election.

Janet Barker (above right, with daughter Jenny, left), a teacher at Parras Middle School in Redondo Beach, on Wednesday night was named a 2008 Bravo Award winner by the Music Center of Los Angeles County.

Established in 1983, The award recognizes teachers and schools for creativity, innovation and excellence in arts education. Barker was a co-winner, alongside Safini Convey of Mount Washington Elementary School, in the general classroom teacher category; one arts specialist teacher and one school are also so honored.

Announced in a special evening ceremony at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the awards were presented by noted film director Garry Marshall. Winning teachers each receive $4,000; the winning school receives $10,000.

Find more background on the BRAVO on the Music Center's website.

It was supposed to be a sweet story about the Los Angeles Unified School District's beloved lunchroom coffeecake.

But it turned into yet another reason for many to roll their eyes at the beleaguered institution responsible for educating the city's young people.

Earlier this month, the Daily Breeze posted online and the Daily News printed the recipe for the much-touted cake, scanned out of an LAUSD-provided booklet titled "Old Time Favorite Recipes from the Los Angeles Unified School District Test Kitchen Recipe Archives."

Check out Naush Boghossian's follow-up story.

The Lennox School District could face state-imposed sanctions for its repeated failure to meet federal achievement benchmarks laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, state educators said Wednesday.

The Lennox district fell into the second tier of school districts that have failed to meet the targets for five consecutive years, according to the state's Department of Education. The state announced seven districts needing the most help that would have special improvement teams assigned to them, if the measure is approved by the State Board of Education at its March 12-14 meeting.

Still, Lennox must pick a state District Assistance and Intervention Team (or DAIT) that would make recommendations to improve its academic performance. The district would be required to give the state additonal reporting on its work and may face other corrective actions.

Under NCLB, districts must have 100 percent of their students testing as proficient in English and mathematics by 2014.

About 50 members of the Banning High School Running Club, as they've dubbed themselves, will run in the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday.

The students have been training diligently since September, by running five days a week after classes end. They've also participated in several races, including an 18-miler on Super Bowl Sunday. The students are also members of Students Run LA, which provides goal-setting, character development and adult mentoring to urban students.

The Wilmington Community Organization is providing the "carbo load" the day before the race. Runners will fill up at a spaghetti dinner at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Penthouse (a second-floor dining room) at Banning High School. The group will also present certificates honoring their work habits and training, said Mary Gant, the group's chairperson.

Staffers of Torrance Unified School District have submitted to trustees their recommended cuts for the 2008-2009 year, some $9 million in reductions aimed at plugging the anticipated enormous hole to be torn by way of a proposed state budget that would slash California's public-education funding by some $5 billion.

A few highlights:

*The proposal includes laying off 70 full-time teachers, 11 custodians and 3 classified-staff supervisors, plus cutting back to half-time 8 middle-school assistant principals.

*It recommends reducing campus security, by nine hours at each of the district's four high schools, as well as eliminating entirely the P.E. Incentive Program and an intervention effort known as the School Safety Violence Program.

*It would reduce school-site services in the areas of English language learners, student retention and school and library improvement, among others. Further, it would reduce programs such as CAHSEE instruction, supplemental school counseling, peer assistance and review and Gifted and Talented Education.

*The proposal includes cuts to special education that include implementing a 4-day week for the district's "LAUNCH" program, as well as laying off 3 full-time speech pathologists, 3 full-time teachers and 3.5 full-time paraeducators the the elementary/middle school learning center and 5.5 full-time high-school special ed teachers.

For the entire exhaustive list of proposed cuts and what each would save the district, click here, then select "2008-2009 Committee Reductions Report."

Oh, and watch this weekend's Daily Breeze for a story detailing what all our local districts, Torrance included, are facing as a result of the Governor's proposed budget that people are saying will absolutely brutalize public districts statewide.

Prepping for a bold effort to take over six Los Angeles Unified schools July 1, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Monday that a veteran education administrator will head his leadership team to implement reform.

Angela Bass, credited with turning around some of the worst-performing schools in San Diego, will head the instructional component of the team that will report to Deputy Mayor Ray Cortines, a former LAUSD superintendent.

Read Rick Orlov's story for more.

Grants of up to $9,700 per year are available for college-bound high school seniors, and workshops are scheduled to help applicants meet the March 2 deadline, the state's Student Aid Commission has announced.

The Cal Grants can be used to help pay for college or career/technical school expenses and do not have to be paid back.

"We want to encourage all eligible students to apply for a Cal Grant by the March 2 deadline, so that cost is no longer a barrier to pursuing a post- secondary education in the state of California," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

Last year, about $800 million was made available for more than 299,000 eligible students, according to the commission.

Application workshops will provide help in filling out the required forms. A $1,000 scholarship from the College Access Foundation of California is offered at each workshop as an incentive for students to apply for Cal Grants.

Students must fill out and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and a Cal Grant GPA Verification form. More information about applications and workshops is available at http://www.calgrants.org or by calling the Student Aid Commission at (888) 224-7268.

Commission telephone lines will be staffed from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. through Friday to help callers complete applications.

As competition to gain entry to the top colleges grows fiercer, students are thinking creatively about how to set themselves apart.

They're increasingly turning to social networking sites -- including two geared to college admissions officers -- so they'll receive that all-important spring prize: the college acceptance letter.

The Ventura County Star talked to students using Zinch and Cappex, where "students can tell colleges more about themselves than a typical application allows, even with essays, interviews and recommendations."

Tell us, students or parents. Do you use these sites? Do you post info on Facebook or MySpace to aid your college application process?

A story being published tomorrow in Education Week, but online now at EdWeek.org, breaks down the differences, subtle though they may be, between the views on K-12 education held by Democratic nominee hopefuls, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The piece touches on vouchers and NCLB among other topics.

Check it.

Another reminder for the education-interested in Torrance: In a public session Tuesday night, Torrance Unified district staffers will present a primer on the ever-bleaker-looking state budget and -- even more interesting -- recommend to district trustees a slew of cuts aimed at filling an estimated $9-million hole in its 2008-2009 budget.

The special session of the board is being held in the cafeteria at JH Hull @ Levy, presumably to make more room for public attendance. The school is located at 3420 229th Street in Torrance.

Torrance has the biggest money gap to fill locally (outside of LAUSD, of course), but look for nearly every district in the area, in the state actually, to soon start making such proposals of their own. Prediction: It ain't gonna be pretty.

Check out Paul's story that ran over the weekend about the Carson High School students who are connecting Presidential frontrunner Barack Obama with other African American trailblazers during Black History Month.

Here's an exerpt:

For Stevens and many other local black students, 2008 has been an awakening of involvement in a political system.

As members of the newest generation of post-civil-rights-era African-Americans, they're inspired by Obama's hopeful optimism.

Sheryl Harris, a math teacher and adviser to Carson High's Black Student Union, said she has noticed her students' heightened engagement in politics.

"It's the same as Tiger Woods winning his first Masters (Golf Tournament)," Harris said. "It opened up that door to a lot of students thinking maybe it might be me."

Some Inglewood area high-school students spent a day last week "job shadowing" staffers at Beach Cities Health District in Redondo Beach to gain more perspective on professional life.

Check out my School Notebook story, which appears in today's Daily Breeze.

In a short morning visit to Cal State Dominguez Hills, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, university president Mildred Garcia and myriad other education leaders convened for a public outcry over the massive cuts coming to California public education via a proposed state budget estimating a $16-billion deficit.

Here's the text press release from Garamendi's office:

"Lt. Governor John Garamendi and California education leaders representing nearly 10 million students, educators, and educational staff, met today to highlight the devastating effects of more than $5B in proposed state budget cuts for ed ucation. Standing together at a forum at CSU Dominguez Hills, representatives from California’s K-12 schools, California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California all united in a call for protecting educational investment for California’s future.

“Not only is California at grave risk of leaving our children behind by underfunding their education and shifting to them and their families an increasing share of the cost of education,” said Lt. Governor John Garamendi, “ but if the state fails to make the critical investments in intellectual capital our future success as a global leader is at stake.”

The proposed budget cuts will decimate California’s educational system, slashing $4.8 billion from K-14 education and another $644.8 million from UC and CSU campuses. These cuts will slash $800 per K-12 student, shift a great portion of the state’s obligation to fund higher education to students and families, and could mean the doors of our colleges are closed to tens of thousands of students who have earned the right to higher education. At a time when our state faces more challenges than ever -- an increasingly complex world, an increasingly competitive global economy, and an environment increasingly threatened by global climate change – California cannot afford to cut back.

“The governor’s budget proposal is a giant step backward for public education at every level in California—preschool through higher education,” said David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Association. “Cuts of this magnitude are equivalent to laying off 107,000 teachers, or increasing the number of students in every classroom by up to 35 percent in K-12. They mean faculty layoffs, a 10 percent hike in student fees—their sixth in the last seven years— and reductions in course offerings in our colleges and universities. Our students didn’t create this budget crisis, and their education shouldn’t be ransomed to solve it.”

"The governor's proposed suspension of the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee for K-12 education will make achieving rigorous state standards even more difficult, force an exodus of talented teachers and support staff, and put additional pressure on an infrastructure that is already strained,” said Brian Tanguay, California School Employees Association Chapter 37 President.

“California will not speed ahead economically and socially if we close the doors on worthy students and diminish the quality of higher education once students graduate high school,” said Scott Lay, President and CEO of the Community College League of California.

EL SEGUNDO: Students from 28 schools learn about engineering at Raytheon

Middle-school students from 28 local schools participated in Raytheon's annual Engineers Week event at the company's El Segundo headquarters last week.

The students participated in a Lego League robotics demonstration, traveling space museum and video game challenge.

NASCAR driver Kevin Conway spoke about the importance of math and science education.

More than 250 students from Los Angeles Unified School District campuses, such as Curtiss Middle in Carson, Dana Middle in San Pedro, Peary Middle in Gardena and Fleming Middle in Lomita joined students from Torrance, Redondo Beach, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach and Lawndale.

Students from Lennox, Inglewood, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes also attended.

TORRANCE: Special session will explore school budget-cut options

Staff of the Torrance Unified School District will present budget-cut recommendations to the Board of Education in a special workshop on Tuesday.

The public session is set to address the estimated $8.7 million district deficit for the 2008-09 academic year that's being created by the proposed state budget, which may cut education funding by more than $4 billion.

Public comment will be taken at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of J.H. Hull Middle School at Levy, 3420 229th St., Torrance.

CARSON: Forum offers parents guidance on importance of education

The Los Angeles Unified School District is hosting a forum in Carson on Wednesday to boost college attendance and parent engagement.

The event, Create a College Bound Culture, will offer parents informative handouts, speakers and an educational marketplace. Any parent with a student in LAUSD is eligible to attend.

The event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Carnegie Middle School, 21810 Bonita St. Parking is available at the DoubleTree Hotel on Carson Street.

Registration is required. Call 213-241-6900.

Using Black History Month as an opportunity to spread their "word," community college leaders have been visiting local megachurches to encourage more African American students to attend college, Melissa Evans reports.

Attendance at CSU colleges among blacks in the fall of 2007 was boosted 6.5 percent.

Family and friends of Greg Smith will gather Saturday (Feb. 23) at California State University, Dominguez Hills to dedicate a garden to the late faculty member.

Smith was an avid environmentalist and one of the original professors when CSUDH opened in Carson in 1968.

He specialized in social geography, a field that explores how people are shaped by their physical surroundings.

Smith died suddenly in 1997, five years after he retired from teaching, while hiking near South Lake Tahoe.

John Garamendi and other education leaders will discuss the steep budget cuts from Sacramento at a policy forum on Monday at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

The Governor’s most recent budget proposal calls for $4.8 billion in cuts from K–12 and $500 million for higher education for the 2008-09 year.

Speakers include CSUDH President Mildred Garcia, CA Teachers Assn. Board Member Mary Rose Ortega, CA Faculty Assn. Chapter President David Bradfield and U.C. Student Regent D'Artagnan Scorza.

The panel is at 10:15 a.m. at Welch Hall, but is not open to the public.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is hosting a forum in Carson on Wednesday (Feb. 27) to boost college attendance and parent engagement.

The event, “Create a College Bound Culture,” will present parents with informative handouts, speakers and an educational marketplace. Any parent with a student in LAUSD can attend.

The event will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Carnegie Middle School, 21810 Bonita St. Parking is available at the Double Tree Hotel on Carson Street. Registration is required. Call 213-241-6900.

The California Linguistic Minority Research Institute released a report with a list of 100 high schools that account for the largest share of students who leave a high school before collecting a diploma.

Based on each institution's number of dropouts for the 2005-2006 academic year, five South Bay high schools landed among the study's 100 worst offenders.

Narbonne High in Harbor City ranked 70th, with 166 dropouts or a dropout rate of 4.7 percent; Banning High in Wilmington sits at 77th with 158 dropouts or 4.5 percent of its enrollment that year.

With 154 dropouts and a dropout rate of 4.2 percent, Carson High landed at 81st place; Leuzinger High in Lawndale was at 88 with 145 dropouts (4.3 percent); and Gardena High hit 93rd with 141 dropouts, or 4 percent of its 2005-2006 enrollment.

PBS' "Nightly Business Report" in its Monday show this week that addressed what they called the "The New Business of Education." In a series of segments, they focused on the future of NCLB, educational technology, tutoring services, standardized testing, charter schools and educational investment opportunities.

There's some good information here, if you have some time to read. Transcripts of all the segments are available on the PBS website.

News from EdWeek: "Most of the nation’s elementary schools have added at least 75 minutes of instruction time in reading and mathematics each week—and often twice that amount—in the five years since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, but many did so by skimming that time from the teaching of science, social studies, the arts, recess, and physical education."

That's according to an analysis released this week by nonpartisan researchers, The Center on Education Policy.

The Baltimore Sun has a good take on it.

Or see the whole study for yourself.

Interesting stuff.

Massive payroll glitches that left Los Angeles Unified teachers underpaid or overpaid last year are creating a new nightmare as thousands of year-end tax forms also have been found to be inaccurate, district and union officials said Wednesday.

While LAUSD officials had promised payroll problems would not affect teachers' year-end W2 tax forms, at least 3,400 have been identified as incorrect with less than two months before the April 15 tax deadline.

And thousands more December pay stubs - which are usually used to verify annual income figures - now are not matching up with W2 figures, leaving many teachers concerned about possible errors.

Read Connie Llanos' story for more.

California State University Dominguez Hills police have a student in custody who was reported to be carrying a rifle through the Carson campus, officials said this morning.

The suspect is apparently an ROTC student who was carrying a simulated weapon, according to news reports.

A notice posted on the university's Web site this morning asked that students, faculty and staff stay home. That notice has been updated to say the campus has reopened.

A South Bay dropout prevention program was recently recognized by California schools chief Jack O'Connell as being tops in the state.

The joint School Attendance Review Board of Redondo Beach, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach Unified and Hermosa Beach City School districts last week was named one of seven "model" such programs in the state and, with the highest average score of them all, ranked No. 1.

The local program, and the six others so named, will be honored during the State Conference for the California Association of Supervisors of Child Welfare and Attendance on April 24 on The Queen Mary in Long Beach. All will retain their titles through the 2008-09 school year.

The SARB process for dropout prevention was created by the Legislature in 1974 to provide a
framework for school districts and county offices striving to deal with persistent school
attendance and school behavior problems. SARBs are composed of parents, representatives from
the school district, and members of the community at large, including representatives from law
enforcement, social services, probation, and school or county health care personnel. The
members meet regularly to combine their expertise and resources to develop dropout prevention
strategies and to meet with the high-risk students referred to them.

Districts or county offices applying for model SARB designation must demonstrate excellence in
content areas, including SARB chairperson leadership, interventions prior to SARB referral,
SARB collaboration, inventory of resources for high-risk youth, goals and objectives, program
design and content, measuring and reporting outcomes, and interpersonal communication.

The annual College Information Fair in Torrance -- a cooperative event of Torrance Unified and the Torrance Council of PTAs -- is happening again this weekend at West High, with workshops on everything from application essays and admissions tests to academic support for athletes.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23, high schoolers of all grade levels are invited to meet the representatives from more than 100 colleges, universities and trade schools who will be on hand.

Informational exhibits and seminars such as “Five Simple Steps to Plan and Pay For College” and “How to Find the ‘Right’ College For Your Child” will also be offered during the free event that is aimed at students and parents alike.

For a full listing of workshops, including exact times and scheduled presenters, visit www.tusd.org.

West High is located at 20401 Victor St., in Torrance.

The membership of the Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Association gathers for a general meeting later today at Hawthorne High for an opinion poll on the district's proposal to increase class sizes for the remainder of the school year.

The teachers are considering a temporary bump of their average class-size from 30.5 students to 33, and upping the hard cap from 36 students to 38. Should they approve the move, it would save the cash-strapped school system some $600,000 between now and June 30, officials have said.

Results of the poll will not be released publicly until later this week, or next Monday, when the two parties convene for their next bargaining session, according to union president Jack Foreman.

The district recently made public its dire financial situation and proposed the class-size increase among a $1.2-million package of mid-year cuts designed to maintain solvency through June.

Wow!

This is great news for working-class families with Stanford-caliber kids: The esteemed school is announcing today that it will stop charging tuition to students whose families earn less than $100,000 annually. Further, it will also waive room and board fees for those whose family income is less than $60,000 per year.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: "The university is making the change in the wake of published reports last month that its endowment had grown almost 22 percent last year, to $17.1 billion. That sum had begun to attract attention from lawmakers who want wealthy institutions to do more to reduce tuition costs."

The plan begins with the 2008-2009 academic year, when the university intends to up its annual endowment payment to 5.5 percent to fund the tuition assistance, Steve Rubenstein's story says.

Click here to read the entire article.

Check out Paul's story about two Carson sisters and educators who want to open a charter school in the fall that would offer hip hop classes:

Hoping to make school more attractive to low-performing teens, a new charter school in Carson plans to lure them with bait they won't be able to resist: hip-hop.

Millennium High School, which would open in the fall in the shadow of the Harbor Freeway on Hamilton Avenue, would use textbooks such as "Hip Hop History," "Back in the Days" and "Yes Yes Y'All," a compendium of oral histories of the urban art form.

Upperclassmen would use professional editing and production technology and software to create audio tracks and music videos.

The school also would offer the usual battery of high school equivalency courses in English, algebra, U.S. history and other core subjects, co-founder Lisa Edwards said.

"Hip-hop is the biggest music that students in the area listen to," Edwards said. "No matter how much we try to use standardized English, we cannot ignore or deny the language they bring into the classroom."

More than a year after taking the helm of the nation's second-largest school district, Superintendent David Brewer III has yet to establish a critical inner-circle executive team even as key Los Angeles Unified professionals continue to leave.

Seven upper-management professionals have left since Brewer took over and several top positions remain unfilled, including the head of instruction.

The gaps have begun to fuel quiet speculation that Brewer could be foundering in his role and might not be able to accomplish his vision for reforms in the LAUSD without such key advisers and managers.

Read Naush Boghossian's full article.

Check out the Breeze editorial denouncing LAUSD's plan to charge youth groups to use gyms and fields.

A group planning to open a charter school on The Hill in September is pitching their concept as an innovative alternative to the high-performing schools of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. They've partnered with Sandra Kaplan, a USC researcher, and plan to teach state standards for English, math and other subjects using the method known as "differentiated instruction."

The group has provided a link to a video that explains what that means. To view it, click on Video Session 1. The best thing to do is save the video on your hard drive, then watch it. You'll need RealPlayer, which you can get here.

For the local youth groups that use the gyms and fields of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the free ride is over.

Soccer leagues, volleyball clubs and basketball groups that have had gratis access to LAUSD facilities from the Harbor Area to Carson will need to pony up beginning March 1.

The district will charge the groups fees to defray usage costs and raise revenue, officials said.

Read Paul's story for the details.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula school board has agreed to prepare layoff notices, put more students into classrooms and slash administration for the 2008-09 school year.

The move Thursday comes in response to steep cuts announced by Sacramento and would trim nearly $4 million from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's budget over the next 18 months.

"We're going to have to be, along with every other district in the state, very prudent with what we spend," board President Malcolm Sharp said. "The banner we're marching under is we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best."

The cuts are expected to be finalized Feb. 28. At that time, the district would send layoff notices to more than 50 employees, officials said. The district must issue the notices to teachers, counselors and other certificated employees by March 15.

Read Paul's story for more.

Open enrollment for the 2008-09 school year is under way in the Torrance Unified School District.

Applications are available at, and should be returned in person to, the Child Welfare and Attendance Office during the following dates:

From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday through Feb. 29.

8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, March 3 to 14.

9 a.m. to noon March 15.

In schools where the number of open enrollment applications exceeds space available, a lottery will be held and a waiting list established.

Families interested in intradistrict permits should also apply in person at the Child Welfare and Attendance Office, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, from March 24 to April 30 and May 1-9.

Anyone seeking an interdistrict (or nonresident) permit can apply starting April 28, with decisions being rendered from June 27 to Aug. 29.

The Child Welfare and Attendance Office, 2335 Plaza del Amo, can be reached at 310-972-6090.

Get more info here.

Read Shelly's story about a Shakespeare festival at the Torrance school. Some of the games they played:

In "Macbeth's Game of Skittles," students were awarded fake-flowered leis for a successful turn in a makeshift bowling lane of plastic pins and small balls.

"The Twelfth Night Cross-Dressing Competition" praised kids for the perceived stylishness of outfits hastily assembled from a deep, dark grab bag of garments.

Attired in cardboard armor over at "Hamlet's Knight School," they took turns jousting with thin sticks.

We asked two Rancho Palos Verdes community members who have been outspoken on the TIP Academy proposal to explain their points of view in a pro/con format.

Read on to the following posts for the "con" from Paula Stapleton, a mother of students attending Mira Catalina Elementary School and Miraleste Intermediate School, who has been fighting the project. She's also a counselor at Palos Verdes High.

The "pro" is from Michael Schwerdtfeger, a father of three children attending Mira Catalina Elementary School, who is one of the main organizers of the school.

Michael Schwerdtfeger is one of the principal organizers of TIP Academy Palos Verdes. He lives in Rancho Palos Verdes and has three children attending Mira Catalina Elementary School. Here's what he says about the plan:

TIP Academy PV will provide an exciting new learning opportunity to kids. The curriculum is designed to focus on big picture ideas, teach our children to “love to learn” and use a teaching style that matches each child’s learning style. TIP PV will provide a place for our children to learn to be independent thinkers and problem solvers, and break away from the restrictive structure that is placed on teachers within public schools.

TIP PV is a demonstration school and as such is committed to enhancing the public school system in Palos Verdes. TIP PV will offer training for all teachers within PVPUSD on differential instruction and other innovative teaching techniques. In addition, TIP PV will provide choices to parents which will increase the quality of education for all public schools within PV.

While we believe that the PVPUSD is one of the finer school districts in the state, we strongly believe that competition, innovation, and choice can make the district even better. California’s approximately 700 charter schools (with 89 new charter schools opening in 2007) have brought change and innovation to the state’s schools, and are clearly the future direction of education. While some may suggest that the PV school district is “good enough,” the supporters of TIP Academy Palos Verdes believe that the founding of a charter school in Palos Verdes can turn a very good school district into a great one by keeping the district on the cutting edge of education.

TIP Academy will provide a public school choice that will keep tax money and our children’s state assigned educational dollars in the Palos Verdes public school system, rather than forcing those interested in such an alternative away from public education into private schools or home schooling.


For information about TIP Academy Palos Verdes, please see www.tippv.org.

From Paula Stapleton, parent, Rancho Palos Verdes:

Families move to Palos Verdes because it offers children what is perhaps the best public education in California. Residents are passionate about their children’s education and the public school system that provides it. They contribute to PTA, booster clubs and the Peninsula Education Foundation, volunteer in classrooms, and donate countless hours for the common good. Currently, the district is threatened with a three to four million dollar budget shortfall and the community is rallying to protect their children from the resulting fallout. With every dollar critical, it is increasingly challenging to ensure that all children continue to receive a top-notch public education. The proposed TIP Academy PV runs counter to this goal. Common sense dictates that having to support a new school site while maintaining current sites will be costly. Having the charter school open to any student in the state of California (required by law) whose ADA will only cover a portion of their educational costs will further contribute to the fiscal crisis.

TIP proponents questioned about the cost to the district can only respond that they “expect” PVPUSD will make appropriate decisions about declining enrollment and act reasonably in incurring oversight costs. They implicitly claim their desire for a different learning environment for their own children trumps the common good.

Palos Verdes schools can measure the success of its students by their outstanding test scores. TIP Academy professes they do not “teach to the test”. Not surprising since the TIP Encinitas School, on which they are modeling their program, has lower test scores than the schools in Palos Verdes and, in fact, score in the middle of the pack within their own district. The “test” they refer to measures mastery of the California State Standards of which all schools, charter or not, are required to teach by law.

The concept of “differentiated instruction” which TIP proponents claim provides the required innovation to justify the charter school is not new, revolutionary or cutting edge. It has been a staple of teacher training for over 25 years and is provided to Palos Verdes teachers on a continuing basis.

The bottom line is TIP Academy will siphon funds from existing students and has nothing new or compelling to offer. It’s a risky financial and educational experiment that must be rejected!

Check out the Daily Breeze on Saturday to read about the $4 million in proposed budget reductions over the next 18 months. The retrenchment plan was given the green light by the board Thursday evening.

At a Thursday meeting, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified member Ginny Snider (a former kindergarten teacher) indicated she could be supportive of a group planning to open a charter school in the fall.

The TIP Academy Palos Verdes may have gained an ally in Snider, who said she supports more options for students.

"I just like that students have options and opportunities," she said. "I'll leave it at that."

Buoyed by a public hearing this week that reflected a swell of support, the Hermosa Beach City School District appears headed for a parcel-tax election.

Some 50 people turned out Wednesday night to offer their views on a measure that trustees are eyeing for the June 3 ballot.

The tax, which would cost residents about $200 per year, would generate around $1million in annual income for the two-school system.

Read Shelly's story for the details.

Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to share space on its campuses with charter schools, settling a lawsuit by charter groups asserting that the district was violating state law.

Charter school organizations sued the district last year, saying that it was refusing to follow Proposition 39, which requires school districts to provide appropriate space on their campuses for recognized charters.

Settlement talks over the last six months resulted in an agreement under which the district agreed to provide the space, with several exceptions.

"The settlement ensures the school districts will provide facilities to all of the schools that request facilities," said Caprice Young, president of the California Charter Schools Association, and a former LAUSD board president.

Read the full report.

About 100 South Bay teens made their way this morning to a Los Angeles megachurch to honor fallen Los Angeles Police SWAT officer Randal Simmons, a man they knew best as a youth sports coach.

Some wearing football jerseys and cheerleading uniforms, the teens filled two school buses Friday in El Segundo, a community where Simmons volunteered as a coach with the local Youth Football League and Cheer program.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula School District's board approved a new elective at its Thursday evening meeting: aerospace engineering.

The course would be offered at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, but open to students at Palos Verdes High. It could be ready as early as September.

A similar course is offered by the Manhattan Beach Unified School District in a partnership with the Southern California Regional Occupation Center.

The Palos Verdes school district will discuss its 2008-09 budget, which would take a significant hit under the current budget being discussed in Sacramento. Cutbacks are expected, including the elimination of 59 positions.

Look for Paul's Daily Breeze story on Saturday for all the details.

During a meeting hosted by organizers of a new K-8 charter school planned for The Hill, organizers laid out their plan for the school, while answering a slew of questions about their methods, organization and potential drain on PVP Unified resources.

Michael Schwerdtfeger, a parent of three kids attending Mira Catalina Elementary who's leading the effort, struggled to get through a PowerPoint presentation, as parents peppered him with questions.

About 25 people showed up at Rolling Hills Methodist Church in Rolling Hills Estates for the meeting.

Loyola Marymount University was named one of the five safest colleges in the U.S. by Reader’s Digest on Wednesday.

In the spring, LMU was one of the first colleges to begin using an emergency communication system to notify its students of a security threat. LMU was one of 40 schools to receive an “A” grade for readiness. The article will be printed in the March issue of Reader’s Digest.

Eight Carson High School students were cited Wednesday for their involvement in a racially tinged fight on campus, LAUSD spokeswoman Nadia Gonzalez said.

The students were briefly detained, then released, for their roles in the fights that broke out at various locations at Carson High. School police are investigating the incidents, which may have stemmed from racial tension earlier in the month, Gonzalez said.

Additional security was in place at the school today (Feb. 14), Gonzales said. Students who were involved the fights could be required to perform community service or pay a $250 fine.

Los Angeles Unified is calling for a boycott of hotels near Los Angeles International Airport. The LAUSD board introduced the boycott at its Tuesday meeting in support of hotel workers hoping for better benefits and higher wages.

In 2007, LAUSD spent $393,105 at three hotels — the LAX Hilton, Four Points LAX Sheraton and the Wilshire Plaza Hotel in Koreatown. The district used the hotels for professional development and education conferences, said Vy Nguyen, spokeswoman for President Monica Garcia. So far in 2008 the district has spent $185,123.

The business community responded by calling the boycott an “inappropriate distraction” to educating students. The board is scheduled to vote on the matter Feb. 26.

A greater percentage of students are succeeding on Advanced Placement exams, according to the College Board, which administers the tests. From the announcement:

More than 15 percent of the public high school Class of 2007 achieved at least one AP Exam grade of 3 or higher - the score that is predictive of college success. This achievement represents a significant and consistent improvement since the class of 2002 when less than 12 percent of public school graduates attained this goal.

Read more here.

Planning for the new Playa Vista elementary school gets back on the rails today, when LAUSD introduces Los Angeles-based Osborne Architects at a community meeting. The project had floundered in district funding limbo.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. today (Feb. 13) at The Center Pointe Club, 6200 Playa Vista Drive, Playa Vista.

Read Paul's story in Wednesday's Breeze for more.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is hosting a meeting Wednesday (Feb. 13) to update the community on plans for a new high school at Angels Gate Park. At the meeting, which will start at 6 p.m., district real estate managers will present schematic drawings to show the general layout, form and overall appearance of the school and site.

The public is invited to comment on the project, which will be built on a portion of 43 acres owned by LAUSD. The district is planning an 810-seat school costing $89.17 million that could expand to 1,215 seats.

The meeting will be in the San Pedro High School auditorium, 1001 W. 15th St. For more info, call 213-893-6802.

It didn't take Kevin Kennedy long to implement changes at Gardena High. The new principal ousted respected track and field coach Michael Ramos a month before the start of the season.

Staff Writer Tony Ciniglio writes more.

A group of parents developing a charter high school for The Hill (called TIP Academy Palos Verdes) have sparked a vigorous debate about the merits of the effort that's spilled onto Internet message boards and the Breeze Web site.

Paul's Feb. 3 story collected 114 comments on the school.

The topic has also generated discussion on a parent message board for Torrance Unified.

Organizers are hosting an informational meeting about the school at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 13) at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, 26438 Crenshaw Blvd. in Rolling Hills Estates.

We're hearing more every day from our local districts about the big budgetary cuts for which they're bracing in the face of a massive state deficit that, via the Governator's recently introduced budget proposes to slash education funding by as much as $4 billion.

It appears several other states may soon suffer similar woes as California. An Associated Press story today says that about half of the states, in fact, are facing shortfalls come fall. The prediction comes courtesy of research group the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Get the 411 here.

...attend the Torrance Unified presentation "School Finance 101" tomorrow evening. Superintendent George Mannon and district business chief Don Stabler will lead the informational session on how public schools are funded and the various budget structures involved. In light of a $14-billion state deficit and a predicted $8.7 million hole in the TUSD budget come fall, it's a good time to take in the now-annual event.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday. It's being held in the district's board room, inside the Educational Materials Building at 2336 Plaza del Amo in Torrance.

The actor Richard Dreyfuss has an essay in the current issue of Edutopia, in which he makes an impassioned plea for bolstering civic education in our schools, especially as America sits on the verge of its most hotly contested and tongue wagging-est presidential election in a long, long time. It's an interesting, things-you-know-but-may-not-have-said-so-eloquently kind-of read.

And it's available on the mag's website.

Since she started teaching in 1987, Cindi Rigsbee has learned how to handle tough classes. In this illuminating column published in Teacher Magazine, Rigsbee recounts her learning curve:

In 1987, I began teaching a class of 8th graders in February. They were quick to tell me that they had “run four teachers off already.” That class made me realize something that has become a mantra throughout the course of my professional life: “If you make them the enemy, they will win.”

Also: Rigsbee has a blog that reads well.

Six months after it was first proposed for termination but saved following outcry from outraged parents, a long-running Torrance Unified program for low-income families has been canceled.

With inadequate funding from the state, officials said the district can no longer afford the Torrance Children's Center child care and development program. It will cease operation when the school year ends in June.

"It's pretty devastating," said Lorena Johnson, who went through the program herself and whose 4-year-old daughter now participates. "I have no idea what we're going to do."

Read Shelly's story for more.

Over the next few days, look for Paul's story about a new charter school set to open near Carson in the fall that would offer hip hop classes, music education and video production.

After placing fourth in the county contest and falling short of the point threshold for a wild-card bid, the long-dominant academic decathlon team of Torrance's West High School will not advance to the state competition this year.

Instead, Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School, runner-up the past two years, was named the winner of the event on Thursday, with second-place finisher Duarte High School tagging along as the wild card. The state showdown takes place March 8-10 in Sacramento.

Read our story for more.

The 18-year-old man shot Wednesday evening after the Westchester Fairfax game was Ray-Anthony Rolison, a 12th-grader at the school. The info comes from a Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman.

Read more courtesy of Paul and Sandy Mazza.

Aiming to get through the school year without going bankrupt, the Centinela Valley Union High School District is considering a $1.2 million package of immediate cuts that include increasing class sizes, freezing overtime and eliminating some extra money-making jobs for teachers.

The temporary reductions, which also nix long-term substitutes and freeze conference attendance, would ensure solvency through the current semester, according to interim Superintendent Jose Fernandez.

"These are short-term remedies designed only to meet our needs between now and June 30," Fernandez said, describing the multilayered proposal as a "quilt of cuts that did not penalize our employees."

"This buys us time," he added. "We have to survive today to be able to fight tomorrow."

Announcement of the cuts came during the school system's first-ever State of the District presentation, held during a special board meeting Tuesday at Leuzinger High.

A crowd of several hundred that included Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Darline Robles heard the Fernandez-delivered report, which urged "finding a way to collectively solve the problems that were not just created overnight with solutions that will stand the test of time."

Read Shelly's story for more.

Silvia Echeverria could never fit ballet lessons into the family budget for daughter Maria.

That's why the mother of the second-grader at 186th Street Elementary School in Harbor Gateway swelled with pride as she watched her 8-year-old twirl and twist her way through a final dance lesson on Wednesday.

For eight weeks, Maria and the other students in two second-grade classes received ballet training from the San Pedro City Ballet at a reduced rate.

"She liked it a lot," Echeverria said via a translator. "When she gets home, she practices all the steps."

Read Paul's story for more.

Read Shelly's news analysis article on Measure C that looks at the difficulty local districts have had passing construction bonds.

A man was shot and wounded outside Loyola Marymount University after watching a high school basketball game between Westchester and Fairfax at the university's campus, authorities said this morning.

The shooting occurred around 10 p.m. Wednesday just outside the gates of the university at West 80th Street and Loyola Boulevard in Westchester, said Sgt. John Martin of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Station.

He said the shooting occurred shortly after the game had ended.

The man was hospitalized in stable condition with a shoulder wound, Martin said.

"We've gotten conflicting reports about the shooter being in a vehicle or on foot," Martin said. "We're just not sure right now."

There were no immediate arrests.

The suspects fled in a compact car and a Hummer sport-utility vehicle, KNBC Channel 4 reported.

Our sports guys and Web gal compiled a list of which high school football players have signed with colleges on National Signing Day. Updates will be coming all day.

Check the chart.

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced final results of its Academic Decathlon competiton of 64 high schools at UCLA on Saturday. Local LAUSD schools didn't fare as well this year, as none will move ahead to the state competition. Palisades Charter High School won the competition with 50,121 points.

Narbonne High in Harbor City finished highest, at No. 10, with 40,593 points. The school also finished in the top 15 in the Super Quiz and top 10 in essay and math categories.

Other teams from local schools:

No. 40: Gardena High, 29,435 points
No. 48: San Pedro High, 26,541 points
No. 50: Carson High, 26,229 points
No. 51: Banning High, 26,159 points
No. 53: Westchester High, 25,480 points

Here are the top students from the local schools:

Jenivee Elloran, Banning High School (Wilmington)
Jan Victor Andasan, Carson High School
Tri Huynh, Gardena High School
James Veil, Narbonne High
Cosmin Barbu, San Pedro High School
Chris Onwuka, Westchester High School

Also, Narbonne's Carlos Ortego had a perfect score on the Super Quiz.

Naush Boghossian's story about the LAUSD coffee cake recipe has gotten quite a lot of feedback. Who knew a baked good would cause such a commotion? If you want more food to help you relive your childhood, we found a Web site where dozens of old cafeteria recipes have been collected. They are not all local, but you'll find peanut butter cookies, school pizza and sloppy joes, among others.

If you want the coffee cake recipe, it's in a nice, neat printable format over at school blog.

If you have specific recipes in mind that you would like us to try to find, drop us a line. Paul will try his best. Right, Paul?

The Redondo Beach Unified School District awoke this morning to find itself a new member of an exclusive South Bay education club: Districts that win school bond measures.

In an area that lately hasn't seen many such successes -- Torrance, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo all lost their recent bond bids -- the Redondo school system got the greenlight from voters Tuesday for its $145-million Measure C, with nearly 66 percent approval.

Congrats.

A just-released report by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Pennsylvania State University in University Park ranks the United States 42nd, of 46 countries studied, in ability to provide equity in the distribution of high-quality math teachers to low- and upper-income 8th graders.

Ghana ranked No. 1.

Interesting!

Read the whole report here.

LMU undergraduates -- including a cluster of political science majors -- will leave the rarefied air of academia for a real-world lesson in politics and the election process today. More than 200 students will collect, distribute and input the Leavy Center's 2008 Exit Poll Survey today.

The students will speak to 1,700 voters leaving polling locations in the City of Los Angeles (at 50 precincts) to determine how they cast their ballots. Voters from various ethnic backgrounds will be included using the center's "racially stratified homogeneous precint sampling method" (mouthful of jargon, anyone?).

In the Daily Breeze coverage area, students will speak to voters at the California Army National Guard center in San Pedro.

There's a great story in the Chicago Sun-Times today about a magnet school principal who uncovered an application "rigging" ring: Several aspiring entrants to the esteemed Sabin Magnet falsely claimed to have a brother or sister already at the school, "a relationship that gave them a clear edge over other applicants," according to school officials quoted in the story.

A clerk at the school has been implicated as an accomplice in the wrongdoing.

It raises the question: Is this happening at other schools?

For the full skinny, read Rosalind Rossi's entire story.

Here's the recipe for the coffee cake that Naush wrote about.

Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to lower LAUSD's dropout rate could find inspiration in one Spanish mayor's approach to get students to study. He could pay them.

Agustin Jimenez, Socialist mayor of the central agricultural town of Noblejas, is recommending the town's children be given a euro (or $1.50) for every hour they spend reading in the local library, according to an Associated Press story.

Jimenez is quoted as saying: "We asked ourselves the question, 'Can we and should we keep our arms crossed while we can see that the students failing at school is ever more evident?"

From Naush Boghossian's report:

Public school districts generally aren't known for serving dynamite food, but Los Angeles Unified is generating buzz in its kitchens after a blogger last month noted a tasty treat the district has done right for decades: The Old Fashioned Coffee Cake.

Thousands of students recall the warm, cinnamony cake LAUSD introduced on campuses 54 years ago, and they are scouring the Internet to get their hands on the recipe.

Read the story. Or get the recipe below.

The balance of power may be shifting in Southern California's Academic Decathlon, as Torrance's West High didn't win the county competition, as the school has done so often in prior years. The school finished fifth in the regional competition of brainiacs answering esoteric Civil War questions. In the county event, 48 schools sent teams.

Other schools: Redondo Union High came in sixth and Torrance's North High came in eighth. In the Los Angeles Unified event, Narbonne High in Harbor City finished 14th. In the city event, 64 schools sent teams.

Schools advancing to the state competition in Los Angeles will be named this week.

Read Josh Grossberg's story for more.

High-performing public and private schools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula may face an educational competitor if organizers of a charter school can open it by September.

So far, more than 70 families have expressed interest in TIP Academy Palos Verdes.

"We've been generating interest from the community, and it's been increasing rapidly," said Michael Schwerdtfeger, a founder and Rancho Palos Verdes resident with three children attending Mira Catalina Elementary.

The school would offer kindergarten through eighth-grade classes for about 225 students.

Read Paul's story for more.

UCLA Bruin football players visited 186th Street Elementary School in Harbor Gateway on Friday to celebrate Super Bowl School Spirit Day. Quarterback Patrick Cowan called the play in the academic huddle. He told the children to "come to school every day, listen to their teachers, do their homework, stay in school, and strive for excellence."

Terrel Ray (left, signing a book), the administrative advisor with the USC, also arrived and told the students to stay in school and get good grades so they can attend top universities like USC and UCLA.

The Bruin athletes in attendance were Raymond Carter, Patrick Cowan, Nick Ekbatani, Courtney Viney and Trevor Theriot (left, reading to students). The players interacted with students and gave them a book emphaisizing the importance of sports activities to promote fitness.

Climate change would be added to the list of topics included in future California science textbooks, under a bill approved Wednesday by the state Senate.

The legislation was sent to the Assembly on a 26-13 vote over the objections of Republicans. They said global warming should not be taught as scientific fact because there is still debate over whether human activities or a natural weather cycle are most to blame.

"I don't believe there is any intention of providing a science-based and balanced curriculum," said Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks.

The author of the bill, Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said textbooks and teachers should reflect the best available scientific evidence, as they do on other topics.

"This is about education, not indoctrination," Simitian said.

From a wire report:

The California Department of Education is urging school districts throughout the state, including the LAUSD, to stop serving all but a few beef products after allegations that a Chino-based meat supplier butchered weak or ill cattle.

The department's Nutrition Services Division advised agencies yesterday not to use beef products from Westland Meat Co. -- a National School Lunch Program supplier -- until further notice.