May 2008 Archives

... just an FYI, which is all I can tell you right now, but the state Department of Education is releasing 2007 Base API scores tomorrow afternoon for every school in lovely California.

We'll have it in print on Thursday. Be ready!

The do-gooder organization that sends America's top college grads into its toughest schools for two-year commitments, 'a la the Peace Corps, is bound for another banner year.

Teach for America just yesterday announced that this fall it will place 3,700 new teachers in schools nationwide, a 28-percent increase, the New York Times reported.

Further, the group reported a "surge in applications," receiving nearly 25,000 applications this time around, up from 18,000 last year.

Congrats!

Uh-oh.

A lesson to all teachers; or, at least to those angling for the spotlight at what could be all costs.

A Connecticut teacher has been canned after participating in the "Ugliest Guy/Hottest Wife" contest on the Howard Stern Show, according to Hartford-based WFSB.com.

Marie Jarry was reportedly removed from her second-grade teaching duties at Thalberg Elementary School after photos of her in a bikini appeared on the shock jock's website.

That $5,000 she and her husband won will undoubtedly come in especially handy now.

California State University trustees today voted to increase undergraduate student fees by $276 per year as a means of combatting the much-lamented state slashing of public-education funding.

The fee hike will bring in about $110 million in revenue, according to the Office of the Chancellor. Some cash will be set aside in the form of financial aid to offset the increase for the lowest-income students.

A few grafs from the flackage:

"Although the state has not yet adopted next year's budget, the CSU is increasing fees now in order to provide students enrolled for the fall a reasonable amount of time to plan their finances," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "Students and their families need to know what the fees will be so that they can appropriately plan for next year's college costs.

"In addition, it is critical for the university to set fees in order to put together student financial aid packages, and to meet federal and state financial aid deadlines."

The CSU Trustees voted 15 to 3 in favor of the fee increase. Trustees John Garamendi, Melinda Guzman, and the student trustee, Jennifer Reimer cast the dissenting votes.

State University Fees for undergraduate, graduate, and teacher credential students increased by 10 percent.

Effective in fall 2008, fees will increase by $276 for undergraduate students, $324 for teacher credential students and $342 for graduate students."

The California Faculty Association immediately released a statement saying the price bump "could not come at a worse time for struggling California families" and asserting that the "most effective form of financial aid for California would be to fully
fund the CSU budget to help reverse the current economic downturn for all
the citizens of the state."

For the second year running, Hawthorne's Hanz Legaspi, currently a sixth-grader at Hawthorne Middle School, will compete in the state spelling bee.

Hanz, who routinely wins the district's spelling bee, for the last two years has gone on to take Los Angeles County honors, thereby setting up her now multiple trips to Northern California. (The championship is held at Sonoma State University.)

This time around -- the contest is set for this Saturday -- she'll compete against 60 other elementary-aged spellers, representing 32 counties, for awards including $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third.

You go, young Hanz. Good luck!

Another busy Friday with little blogging accomplished, but at least I haven't forgotten my memory, which is an improvement, albeit a slight one, I'll cede, over last week.

Since it's that time of year and since it's been on my mind since recently hearing an old OMD song -- not one I recalled but nonetheless which reminded me of their greatest hit, "If You Leave," which of course appeared on the amazing and award-deserving soundtrack for delicious 80s movie "Pretty in Pink," which culminated with age-appropriate melodrama at a high-school dance -- today's recollection concerns prom.

I attended high school in the 1980s, an era of big sunglasses and big hair and even-bigger shoulder pads, when C. Thomas Howell was considered a hunk and us kids were too naive to see that George Michael was gay. It was the age of new-wave music and The Facts of Life, of Valley Girl and "gag me with a spoon" and baby-oil at the beach and oh how I miss ye, California Coolers.

Every dance every year was a big deal at my school, from the semi-formal homecoming to the uber-casual (we were actually supposed to dress on the sloppy side) TWIRP -- a fancy name for a Sadie Hawkins dance, i.e., The Woman Is Required To Pay. But prom, which was reserved only for juniors and seniors, was, may I say, the shiznit.

Plans were belabored and fretted over, as were wardrobe possibilities, transportation options and strategies for breaking curfew and partying into the wee hours (sorry Mom). The boys especially aimed to stage elaborate one-act plays in their asking of girls to accompany them.

My senior year, my eventual date, Chris, opted for the painfully public and on-the-spot style of asking me, in his hatching of a plan to make said request during the open-question portion of the regular meeting of our student government, of which I was vice president and he was something-or-another (I am now pushing 40, so I don't remember everything).

To really ramp up the embarrassment factor, he attended this meeting outfitted in a powder-blue suit, repleted with a pirate-esque puffy shirt and an unfortunate, equally cheesy cumberbun. Brutal.

Unlucky for him, but to the not-small delight of my fellow council members who thought it was all very hilarious, Chris had not received the memo, as it were, that I was to miss that particular meeting.

Yes, it's true. While he was wandering into the government room, all tuxed up and eager to secure me as his date, I was flat on my back and full of nitrous, having my wisdom teeth removed. How do you like them apples?

When I later returned to campus -- I have no idea why I went back to school after that; what a perfect excuse for taking the whole day off! -- at least a dozen people informed me, most through belly-deep guffaws, what happened before Chris himself was able to locate me.

By the time he did find me, he'd changed out of that hideous outfit and abandoned his by-now well-leaked plan and simply said, "Well I guess you know I'm gonna ask you to Senior Ball. You wanna?"

Although, I'll admit, I was inclined to hold out for the invitation for which I'd really had a hankering (ain't that always the way?), I felt I had to acquiesce due to his great, yet-ultimately failed efforts to make a big to-do, and also not wanting to cause him greater embarrassment vis 'a vis a denial than he'd already suffered in the asking. Or the not asking, as it were.

And so I said yes. And so the day arrived.

There I was all dolled up in my taffeta, puffy-shouldered dress, my hair curled beyond belief, my bangs defying gravity so high were they sprayed with what was I'm sure a far-from-eco-friendly aerosol of some form, my blue eyeshadow and frosted-pink lipstick the icing on my personal cake. I'll just tell you, I looked hot!

The doorbell rings. My mom goes to retrieve young Chris while I retrieve his boutonniere from the fridge. I hear them chatting. I make my way toward the living room. I...

...gasp at the sight of him.

There he stood in the entryway, all smiles, dare I say radiant, clutching my corsage in his tanned hand and wearing -- that's right -- the very same powder-blue, pirate-shirt tragedy that I had accidentally but so gratefully avoided by spending that earlier day pinned under a dentist's drill.

The moral of today's tale: You can run, but you can't hide.

Happy weekend, y'all! I'm out!

Daily Breeze reporter Larry Altman has this post over at the Crime & Courts blog about some students from Marina del Rey winning an "anti-dui" mural contest.

Holla!

In case you're interested but have missed the previous two such special board meetings, Torrance Unified suits and trustees will convene again tonight, in just about 40 minutes actually (at 7 p.m.), at J.H. Hull @ Levy school, to review for attendees the bond measures as proposed and, ideally, to get residents' input and feedback.

The district is considering going for two bonds at once in November, hoping to at last get voters to greenlight a large enough influx of cash to fix the myriad, well-known problems (rusting pipes and rotting ceilings and broken-down heating systems et al) that existence in ever-larger numbers at nearly all its campuses.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that San Francisco Unified is rescinding every single one of the 535 teacher layoff notices it issued in March, thanks to the city's Board of Supervisors pledging to give the district up to $20 million to help ease the strain of the state-induced budget issues affecting almost every school system in California.

Reporter Jill Tucker writes: "The supervisors voted 11-0 Tuesday afternoon to approve a resolution promising the money from the city's rainy day fund. The official transfer of funds can't happen until the city passes its annual budget in June."

What do you think about this, fair educators out there?

There's an Associated Press story, which I found at USA Today, about a Tuesday-released survey by think-tank Education Sector that reveals: "More than half of teachers believe it's too difficult to weed out ineffective teachers who have tenure, and nearly half say they personally know such a teacher."

It also said: "About 70% of teachers in the Education Sector survey said receiving tenure was just a formality that has little to do with teacher quality."

Have any thoughts about this? Let me know: shelly.leachman@dailybreeze.com.

Oh boy.

The fallout continues for LAUSD, which now has not one but two molestation scandals on its hands.

First there was the story I mentioned yesterday, of a former assistant principal, now in jail facing sex-related allegations involving three teens, and how district big-wigs apparently knew about the transgressions and relocated the guy rather than relieve him of his job.

Today, the LA Times continues to follow scandal numero dos, about a Santa Monica-based middle school teacher accused of molesting at least five female students, at least one of which acts, Tami Abdollah reports, is evidenced on a videotape. Ew.

Further, a Santa Monica police lieutenant is quoted as saying "we do believe there are others out there." Meaning more victims.

Oh boy, this one is brutal too, and I can't imagine LAUSD is feeling too good right now!

Behold: The Los Angeles Times reports today that, and I quote, "Senior Los Angeles school officials, including the district's police chief and its former chief operating officer, knew of sex allegations against a school administrator months before he was transferred to a Watts middle school, where he allegedly molested two students, officials said Monday."

Uh-oh.

This all concerns the recent allegations againt former Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney, accused of molesting two students at Markham Middle School and one girl at the Foshay Learning Center. Rooney was arrested in March and is being held in lieu of $1-million bail, the Times says.

And just moments ago, LAUSD's newly named Senior Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines released a statement -- a seven-page document, mind you, of text, flowcharts, matrixes and bulletpoints -- saying, among other things, that there was a "breakdown in the usual, official line of communication" and that, "(a)s a result of this regrettable occurrence, we have begun correcting our process."

Again, OMG and again, uh-oh.

OMG.

Get this, via the Associated Pressjust a couple hours ago: "Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.

"Two kilograms of cocaine were seized, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said."

Wow.

Apparently members of both the Theta Chi and Phi Kappa Psi fraternities were among the 96 total people arrested.

This bust, understandably, has become big news.

More in the recent awards category, also from late April:

Students of Mira Costa's broadcast journalism department took home several awards from the annual national student journalism competition put on by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association.

Mustangs Mark Duralde, Sara Baeuchler, Dustin Muenchow, Austin Siegemund-Broka, Alicia Hastey, Evan Jones, Devon Bair, Nina Chung and Kelby Vera all took home individual awards, while the department's "Mustang Morning News" snared first place in the "best newscast category."

Rock on, young journalists!

A belated and hearty congrats to the Beach Cities Robotics Team, a collaboration of Redondo Union and Mira Costa High students, which topped a total 600 such squads in the 2008 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship held late last month in Hotlanta (that's Atlanta, Georgia, in case you're not up on the lingo).

Nice work y'all!

California Community Colleges chancellor Dianne Woodruff and the Governator himself earlier today appeared at a joint press conference to announce that a massive donation has just been made to provide scholarships for community-college students statewide.

The Bernard Osher Foundation has pledged $70 million to the system, the "largest single gift that has ever been given to community colleges in the history of this country," Woodruff said in her remarks.

More of what she said:
"So you can imagine that this gift from Mr. and Mrs. Osher, which will provide $1,000 scholarships for students at all 109 of our community colleges, is going to make an absolutely incredible difference in the lives of our students. These scholarships will send a powerful message of hope to students all over the state that the Oshers and others believe in them and want to help them realize the American dream of getting a college education. And for many of our students I know that these scholarships will make the critical difference between whether or not they will be able to succeed in school and get that college education -- and particularly now, given the state of our economy, these scholarships are more important than ever. This gift is not only going to have a very significant impact on the success of our students but also on our colleges.

"I think it is brilliant how the Osher Foundation has structured this gift. The first $25 million of the gift will immediately fund an endowment which will enable us to begin giving scholarships to students next year in 2009, but the second $25 million of the gift must be matched two to one by the community colleges. And by making the gift in this manner it will provide a very powerful incentive that will help our colleges raise other private funds. You know, I have always dreamed of having an endowment like the Harvards and the Stanfords and now, with Mr. Osher's help, we are on our way to having a $100 million endowment which will provide 5,000 scholarships every year for our students.

"But that's not all. The Osher Foundation is providing an additional $20 million to support scholarships at the University of California and the California State Universities, but these will be restricted to community college transfer students. (Applause) And of course this is so important, because so many of our students do transfer to UC and CSU. In fact, almost two-thirds of all CSU graduates are community college transfers and similarly, almost one-third of all UC graduates are community college transfers. So this gift will continue to help our community college students after they leave us and have transferred to UC and CSU to help them so that they can complete their four-year degree."

The largest public higher-education system in the U.S., the California Community Colleges serve some 2.6 million students at 109 schools.

I don't know about the moon, but my own memory is impressively intact, though sometimes spotty (I blame my college years, for reasons I won't delve into here, but to which I'm sure almost all of you can relate).

Allow me to quickly apologize for not posting this on my way out the door Friday eve, as I've always promised to do with these flashbacks, but I had three stories due that day and as a result did not accomplish much blogging at all (read: zilch). Forgive me, si'l vous plait.

Maintenant, on to the main event. Can you guess what it is? I've given you a hint. Mais oui, today's memory concerns my study, sort of, of French, which lasted from seventh grade through my senior year of college.

Sadly I don't recall much of le francais, other than the few phrases you'll find here and the simple fact that I was enrolled in some form of French class for the better part of a decade, but that's probably largely because I've so far spent only four days in my entire life (which is nearing upon, oh, 13,605 days now, wow) in France, and those days occurred when I was 17, which, I'll tell you without being entirely specific, was a really long time ago.

But I digress.

Something this weekend reminded me of my high school French teacher, whose name is totally escaping me (probably for the best, for her sake), but whose penchant for wearing leather, especially this shiny, red, almost-patent leather (it could have been pleather, tragic) zip-up dress, with which she sported some crazy-high heels, is forever implanted in my mind. Did I tell you I was in Vegas this weekend?

Anyway, Madame, as we'll call her, since I can't recall her name for the life of me, at the beginning of every semester would pass down the aisles a list of French names. We each had to pick one and for the remainder of the year, we would known within her classroom walls by that name. Those of us who stayed on year to year retained the same name the entire time.

Due to my being late the first day freshman year and not getting a look at the list until everyone else had already made their selection, it was slim pickings for me, and I ended up with Yvette. No offense to any Yvettes out there, but at the time I really thought that Cecile or Juliette would better become me. Alas it was not to be. So Yvette it was and Yvette it would stay.

Madame also had a rule that took effect each day about 10 minutes into class and stayed put until le fin, under threat of punishment. Said mandate was what she called "pas d'anglais," or, basically, "no English," meaning that after roll taking and general housekeeping stuff at the start of class we were forbidden from speaking our native tongue until were excused for the day.

Je detestais pas d'anglais (I hated "no English"). Probably because I didn't know much French, although I did eventually master enough vocabulary to, when I visited Paris for a few days over the summer between my junior and senior years, adequately enough order beer (la biere!) and acquire directions to a Burger King, which serendipitously sat close enough to l'Arc de Triomphe to allow us to kill both the day's mandatory sight-seeing and burger-craving birds with the same stone.

I would actually go on to make a similar short visit to Paris the following summer, post high school graduation, during which I fondly recall drinking cheap wine (le vin!), the bottle fashionably wrapped in a brown paper bag, while sitting in a park with friends quite near the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Since then, and despite my best intentions, embarking earnestly, as I did, on a double major in French literature at UCSB (I dropped it to a minor when I couldn't get through the linguistics class requirements, pop-quiz-heavy tedium that they were), not to mention being a fanatical tennis fan with a not-small urge to one day witness in person the glorious red clay of Stade Roland Garros, I have yet to return to France.

But you know what? Madame's racy-for-a-high-school-teacher wardrobe aside, I remember enough of the language to have made it all worthwhile.

When the mood strikes or it seems like a good idea, I'll bust out a few key phrases to impress strangers at a party. And, more importantly, if an undesirable inquires after my name I always reply: Yvette.

Well, they're set to run around a track anyway!

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade members of Torrance Unified's running club for middle schoolers (middle schools here don't have track teams) on Tuesday night are having their annual fun run, giving them a taste of competition to help prepare them for the real thing come high-school time.

Starting at 5 p.m., the some 100 young runners will compete in various relays and other races, with the top three in each category to receive medals of recognition.

The public event costs just $1 dollar for admission, should you want to check it out. It's being held on the track at West High, 20401 Victor St., in Torrance.

I got word today that Jill Crine, a math teacher at Torrance's West High, passed away last Thursday at her home in San Pedro. She was 43. The coroner, whose office I contacted, so far is calling her death an accident, not from natural causes.

The school will host a memorial vigil for Crine, a native of San Pedro who graduated from San Pedro High and USC, on Wednesday night. Set to start at 6:45 p.m., the event will be held on the campus's "Quad 5" according to the West website, where more details are available.

I never had the opportunity to meet Crine in my years of school reporting here; if any of you knew her, feel free to email your memories my way: shelly.leachman@dailybreeze.com.

Here are some education-twinged headlines that appeared over the weekend, in case you want to start your work week with some reading:

1. My front-page story in Saturday's Daily Breeze detailed the inauguration of CSUDH President Mildred Garcia, which is historical for the fact she's the school's first female leader and the CSU system's first Latina campus chief.

2. On Sunday we ran my centerpiece on an important, impactful but sadly slow-growing school trend known as entrepreneurship education.

3. The Los Angeles Times' Steve Lopez had an interesting column Sunday about what he calls the "convoluted and costly" design of LA Unified's new "arts-oriented public high school."

4. The New York Times has a story about a growing technology sector that allows parents almost up-to-the-minute insight on how their kids are faring at school, by allowing teachers to post -- and parents to access -- daily attendance and grade reports. This will sound familiar to folks in El Segundo, Hawthorne and some others in the area that use PowerSchool (one of many companies to provide such a service).

5. Lastly (for now anyway), USA Today just today ran this piece about a downward trend in attendance resulting from text message-driven threats of impending on-campus violence. Anyone noticed this happening here?

That should get you started. Happy Monday. Hahahaha.