Recently in GARDENA Category

In the wake of Tuesday's apparently accidental shooting that left two in a Gardena High classroom wounded, a group of the school's alumni are organizing a prayer vigil.

The event will take place 6 p.m. Friday in front of the campus, at 1301 W. 182nd St.

Lydia Boyd, one of the organizers, said watching events unfold at her alma mater had been "heartwrenching."

"I sat here in front of the TV in tears," said Boyd, class of 1989. "I see the changes in my school. My school was not like that when I went there."

Boyd said she called an administrator to ask what alumni could do to help. She was told, "We need a prayer vigil."

There are several Facebook groups for alumni, many using the school's former mascot -- the Mohican.

It starts at 7 p.m. Here's the flyer.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines is not happy with the complicated methodology used by the state Department of Education to determine a list of the lowest 5 percent of "persistently low-achieving schools."

In a March 18 letter to members of the State Board of Education and Education Secretary Bonnie Reiss, Cortines called the list "an embarrassment to the district and the state."

His frustration? LAUSD has seriously low-achieving schools that were left off the list, while some not-so-bad campuses -- such as Carson High School -- made it on. That's just what his special assistant Sharon Robinson told me when we talked last week about Carson's addition to the list, which now includes 31 LAUSD campuses.

The list was finalized at a state board meeting March 11 where several schools were swapped out (and where Carson High was added).

The 188 schools named are eligible for between $50,000 and $2 million in federal stimulus funding, but they must complete one of four fairly drastic interventions. Options include shutting down completely, reopening as a charter, firing at least half the staff and the principal, or replacing the principal and embracing less specific educational reforms.

Cortines, who heads the largest district in the state and is certainly not alone in his complaints about the state's methodology, sent state officials a list of 28 schools that he believes should be targeted by the initiative. Carson High is not on his list.

Cortines did keep Gardena High -- which was also named to the lowest-achieving 5 percent -- on his own recommended list.

He requested a review of the process for creating the list. You can look at a PDF of his letter here.

Here's a fun item for the Gardena High community this week. I accidentally missed getting this into our Monday School Notebook section in the paper this week.

From Jacquie Augustus, assistant principal for student activities:

The Senior Class of 2010 at Gardena High School will present "Gardena's Got Talent" in their very own "Gar Auditorium." This program, inspirited by American Idol, will present the top talented students in the senior class. It will showcase, vocalist, spoken word, Rap, Musicians and Dance! The event will showcase the amazing talent that our school holds, as will it display the extraordinary talents of our media arts students and our stage design classes. Our student run crew, under the guidance of Michael Brooks, have proceeded to wow even those in the professional realms with their keen use of resources and acquired knowledge comparable only to those of the college, and professional world. The Senior Class under the guidance of their advisor Michael Collins, and Assistant Principal over activities have produced the show.

Please come out and help support the senior class of 2010 at Gardena High School and see this fabulous show!

What: "GARDENA'S GOT TALENT

Where: Gardena High School; 1301 West 182nd St., Gardena, Ca.

When: March 25, 2010 @ 5:30

Tickets: $5.00 pre sale at the ticket booth & $8.00 at the door.

The state this morning released a preliminary list of 188 schools -- including Gardena High -- that are in the bottom 5 percent of the lowest-achieving public campuses across California.

Under federal and state education law, schools named to the list may be shut down, reopened as charters or forced to undergo other dramatic reforms. (More here.)

The list was issued in response to federal education mandates from the Obama administration and state reforms passed by the Legislature in January. Being named to the list makes schools eligible to apply for between $50,000 to $2 million to fund reforms for the 2010-11 school year.

The announcement comes as Gardena has just completed the initial stages of a major LAUSD reform effort -- Public School Choice. It's not clear yet how the teacher-authored reforms under that initiative will complement or conflict with the reforms expected from the state.

Gardena is the only local school that was named to the list, which is set to be finalized at a Thursday meeting of the State Board of Education.

More soon!

The LAUSD board has voted to approve educational reform plans for Gardena and San Pedro high schools that were authored by teachers and administrators at each campus.

The two schools were among the least contentious -- because they had generated no bids for control from outside charter groups -- at an ongoing board meeting where members are selecting winners of the Public School Choice process.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines had said he was recommending the internal reform plans for Gardena and San Pedro "with reservations."

At the request of Richard Vladovic, the board member who represents the Harbor Area, along with Carson, Gardena and Lomita, that label was dropped for San Pedro High. Vladovic called it a "slight stigma," saying that he was proud of the teachers' plan for the school.

"San Pedro High is a good school that's fallen away and we're bringing it back," Vladovic said. "The community is committed."

That means the San Pedro High plan will be implemented as authored.

In contrast, Gardena High will need to make changes -- including authoring a more specific instructional plan and a detailed vision for community involvement -- to its plan by the end of March. Gardena's plan will be reviewed for renewal every three years.

Like other winning Public School Choice applicants, San Pedro will have five years before applying for renewal.

Los Angeles Unified today posted the comments from two review panels examining reform proposals authored by teams applying to run 30 campuses, including San Pedro and Gardena high schools.

Under the district's unusual reform effort -- Public School Choice -- 12 existing "focus schools" and 24 new campuses are up for bid. Superintendent Ramon Cortines asked two teams of education experts to examine the plans.

The reviewers' thoughts, along with Cortines' own (still undisclosed) analyses, will accompany the results of last week's community votes in a messy package to be voted on by the Board of Education Feb. 23.

Well, it doesn't look so good for San Pedro and Gardena high schools, two of the focus schools named by Cortines last fall.

The schools received no outside bids and submitted reform plans authored by current staff. Their plans received less than enthusiastic reviews, which said the proposals lacked detail. One unnamed reviewer said Pedro's plan needed polishing, noting somewhat strangely, "This is party a gut feeling."

Of Gardena, another reviewer wrote: "The current staff has failed to implement District policies with fidelity; therefore, I am not confident that this partner will implement effective structures to support the plan."

I'm having trouble copying any of the comments, but they're worth a read. They're here.

A group calling itself Save Gardena High is apparently urging parents, staff and community members at the school to vote no on a reform plan authored by teachers and administrators.

A spokesman for the group, who gave his name as both Sean Renear and Sean Kennedy, said the group favors the school's reconstitution, a radical move in which all existing staff are fired and made to reapply for jobs.

"The patients can no longer run the asylum," Renear said.

The Gardena reform plan -- drawn up in response LAUSD's Public School Choice process, which let outside groups bid for control of 12 troubled and 18 new campuses -- was unveiled last month. Gardena High received no outside bids, so voters are simply voting yes or no on the internal plan. (Here's my story on the plan and its reception. A PDF of the plan itself is here.)

Renear sent out his press release on Wednesday afternoon, a day after the main voting period. Voters can also cast ballots on Saturday morning.

Renear said no members of Save Gardena High were comfortable speaking to me because they feared repercussions from teachers and/or for the safety of their jobs. The group consists of former and current administrators, teachers and parents, he said.

My questions to you readers are these: Have you heard anything about this group? Are you involved? Do you know anyone who is involved?

If you know anything, contact me at melissa.pamer@dailybreeze.com or 310-543-6606.

The press release sent by Renear is after the jump:

A panel of teachers and administrators at San Pedro High School will be explaining and taking questions on its reform plan for the campus tonight.

It's part of LAUSD's ongoing Public School Choice process that has let outside operators bid for control of 12 "focus schools" and 24 new campuses. Both San Pedro and Gardena High were named focus schools, but no outside groups submitted applications to take over the campuses.

My story on the process at Gardena High thus far ran on Monday. I'm told that the plan-writing team at San Pedro has been more organized and unified.

Read the plans: Gardena / San Pedro.

The meeting at Pedro is in the auditorium tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. It was resecheduled from last Wednesday because of the heavy rain.

Gardena High School has placed in the top 10 of a video competition put on by the creators of the "Got Milk?" campaign, the California Milk Processor Board. Now the school is asking for votes of support.

The school's band created a video that beat out dozens of other school projects to make it to the top 10. That ensures them a $2,500 award for arts programs. If they win first place, they get $20,000. Second place gets $10,000.

The kids were tasked with creating a scene from the 20-minute rock opera "Battle for Milkquarious." The musical is a product of White Gold, that cheesy white-and-gold-clad rocker you see in the milk commercials these days. The opera "chronicles White Gold's quest to save his hometown of Milkquarious from a potentially deadly milk shortage," according to a press release from the campaign.

Anyway, the Gardena kids need your vote by Sunday, Jan. 24.

I'm not quite sure how to summarize their video, so you'll just have to watch it yourself and vote.

On Jan. 29, the milk board will present a check to the school with winnings.

The first thing that struck me upon arriving at today's LAUSD board meeting -- where almost 9,000 initial layoff notices were on the agenda -- was the LA Schools Police officer with the handheld metal detector.

Every single parent, teacher, employee and journalist got the once-over with a wand before entering the board room. Wow.

Then, once the meeting began, board President Monica Garcia read a statement blaming the state budget for the votes board members were about to take.

"This year Sacramento put schools first in line on the chopping block and it will do it again in May," Garcia said.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines started his report on the cuts when United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy approached the lectern, refusing to leave.

"What is going on here is a travesty," Duffy said, speaking over Garcia, who attempted to restore order.

Teachers, waving anti-layoff signs, chanted "We won't let you cut our future" and "Shame on you."

Garcia took the meeting to an adjacent room that's usually used for closed sessions.

(Board member Julie Korenstein, a big union supporter, stood looking sadly at the chanting audience with her hand on her heart. "Don't go, Julie!" union members chanted until she left.)

Then ... a verbal skirmish broke out between a set of well-dressed district mothers and Duffy.

"Why are they disrupting this to the point that we can't hear what's going on?" one mom cried. "This is about communication. You guys are preventing communication."

Teachers then went in for another round of chanting, led by UTLA organizer and Carson Councilman Mike Gipson: "You say cut back, we say fight back!"

What theater.

I went to the press room and then the cafeteria to watch the meeting at that point, leaving a board meeting room full of protesters.

Anyway, as you probably know by now, the board voted to send out the notices. Cortines stressed that he hoped he would not have to actually lay off the number of people who would receive preliminary notices.

Board member Yolie Flores Aguilar focused her anger at Sacramento: "This is what we have been handed by the state of California," she said. "there needs to be outrage, but the outrage is misplaced. It needs to be at the state level."

Much of the board debate centered on questions about seniority and "bumping rights," perhaps prompted by today's LA Times story on the cuts.

The district faces $718 million budget shortfall over the next 17 months. Through the end of the school year, the district has a negative $140 million balance, officials said.

NOTE: I was at the meeting to report on plans for a 128-unit apartment complex that may get built on the north end of Gardena High School's campus. It was approved, and I'll have more on that later this week.

Gardena's 153rd Street Elementary School is one of a dozen Los Angeles Unified campuses where students are receiving training in non-violent communication.

The program, called Safe School Ambassadors, provides two-day training that's designed to reduce bullying and prevent violence.

From an LAUSD press release:

This bullying is getting younger, meaner, and more difficult to identify than ever before due to access to technology such as MySpace, cell phones, and YouTube. Perhaps most disturbing is that bullying and harassment are also becoming more acceptable among young people. Research shows that 70-85 percent of students have been passive bystanders to peer mistreatment. Their silence amounts to tacit consent, which further reinforces an environment of bullying and mistreatment.

"Students see, hear, and know what adults don't. They can intervene in ways adults can't, but usually don't," said Rick Phillips, Executive Director of Community Matters and co-founder of the Safe School Ambassadors program. "They often fear retaliation or simply don't know what to do."

The Safe School Ambassadors program removes these obstacles by very carefully identifying and selecting socially-influential "opinion leaders" from the diverse cliques and groups at school. These students are trained in nonviolent intervention and communication skills such as reasoning with their friends to avoid or stop cruelty and violence. The program is sustained by utilizing regularly-scheduled, small group meetings, in which Ambassadors strengthen their skills, share their experiences, and record their interventions.

The Annenberg Foundation and Kaiser Permanent South are funding the program, which is set for more than 60 campuses across Los Angeles County. Sebastopol-based nonprofit Community Matters is implementing the training, which took place in December at 153rd Street.

David Zahniser has a story in this morning's Los Angeles Times about Los Angeles Unified's plans to develop worker housing on large campuses, including Gardena High School.

District officials say the plan would fill a need for employees who cannot afford to live near their jobs. Opponents of the $7 billion bond that goes before voters on Tuesday are crying foul.

But the development plan is drawing fire from opponents of Measure Q, the district's $7-billion construction and repair bond issue on Tuesday's ballot. Critics contend that the district should not seek to increase property taxes to pay for new facilities if it has enough real estate to start housing its employees.

The California Charter School Association, which has fought to get the district to provide space for charters per state law (and recently touted a charter's legal victory over the district - see PDF), is also not pleased.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who originally backed the plan along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has pulled her support.

Hahn now says that she was wrong about the housing plan, which was presented to her before the district placed the measure for $7 billion in bonds -- twice the original amount -- on the ballot. Hahn said she is perplexed by the school system's desire to build homes in Harbor Gateway when, as part of its construction program, it is destroying homes in nearby Wilmington, also part of her district.

"There are certainly a lot of hurt feelings because the district has taken people's homes," she said. "So for them to be in the business now of building housing is a cruel twist."

One of the projects would build housing units on the north end of Gardena High's large campus (it's the largest in the district -- 55 acres, I believe). This was on a board agenda back in June and again recently but -- gah! -- I haven't found the time to write about it.

Interesting stuff.

Also -- be sure to check out Daily News reporter George Sanchez's story about $700,000 in donations made to the Yes on Q campaign by construction firms that stand to benefit from district projects.

Federal officials announced today that smaller school buses will be required to have harness-style seat belts and larger buses will phase in taller and safer seatbacks.

The Associated Press reports the seat belt mandate begins in 2011 and is directed to buses weighing 5 tons or less.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said she stopped short of requiring seat belts for larger buses because that could limit the number of children that can squeeze into seats, forcing some children to travel in ways that aren't as safe as school buses.

School districts sometimes expect as many as three younger children to share a bus seat, but if there are only two belts installed per seat then fewer children can ride the bus.

"We wanted to make sure that any measures we put forth don't needlessly limit the capacity of the buses and then force that school or that school district to have more children walking, riding with parents, biking, etcetera," Peters told The Associated Press in an interview.

The AP also reports the height of seatbacks on buses will move up to 24 inches from 20 inches which keep taller, heavier children from being thrown over seats in a crash. The rule will likely be phased in the fall of 2009 and become fully effective in 2011.

They're baaack. Well, not exactly. Lawmakers might consider a plan to call everyone back to Sacramento to discuss the state's need for a short term $7 billion loan, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Because of the credit crunch and less state revenues Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could declare a special session where legislators may look at different ways to make up the budget hole, including cuts to schools.

Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, said lawmakers "might as well stay home" if they are planning to make up the latest shortfall with cuts alone. His group and other school organizations believe the state should use tax increases to balance the budget.

"If they come back into a special session because revenue projections are in decline for the current year budget, it probably could only mean bad news for schools unless they're inclined to have a conversation about new revenues," Plotkin said.

Maybe, according to the Sacramento Bee.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned this week that Congress needs to put the nation's finances in order so the state can pay its bills in November for critical needs like teacher salaries.

Lockyer said the fiscal crisis may drain California's reserves by the end of October because the state can't sell bonds and short-term securities for cash flow needs.

"The credit market is frozen because financial institutions are afraid to commit capital amid enormous uncertainty," the treasurer said in a written statement.

"More urgently, because the state budget was so late, we have only four short weeks to complete what otherwise would be a routine revenue anticipation note sale to meet the state's cash-flow needs," Lockyer said.

Exhausting California's cash reserves would have dire consequences, he said.

"Payments for teachers' salaries, nursing homes, law enforcement and every other state-funded service would stop or be significantly delayed," Lockyer said.

"And California's 5,000 cities, counties, school districts and special districts would face the same fate."

Education Week reports rising federal academic standards is a growing concern among the nation's educators and state policy makers but not in the presidential campaign.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have rarely touched the subject of No Child Left Behind.

According to Ed Week:

In their education proposals, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain have outlined specific plans to address provisions of the almost 7-year-old federal education law. Both would refocus the teacher-quality section to bolster the recruitment of new teachers and to experiment with new forms of teacher pay. Sen. McCain promises to make school choice and tutoring available to students in struggling schools sooner than the current law allows.

But neither candidate has said what he would do to address significant questions about the NCLB law's future, such as whether to keep its goal of universal student proficiency in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year, how to increase the rigor of states' academic standards, and how to improve the interventions in schools failing to meet achievement goals.

A lot of people out there have called me about the glut of negative news about education and said they want to read something nice for a change. That's a good idea. So I am considering writing a story each week that takes me and a photographer into the K-12 classroom, where the actual business of learning happens.

I want the community of parents, teachers, principals, district types and students to email me at vu.nguyen@dailybreeze.com and tell me why I should visit your school and write about it. I'll probably focus on one subject so if there is an amazing math teacher or an interesting science instructor out there, let me know what they're doing right.

P.S. Make sure the principal of your school or district official gives us the okay.

A UC Riverside study concludes the majority elementary schools in the state won't meet No Child Left Behind standards by 2014, when all students are required to show proficiency in math and English.

The study reports about half of the state's elementary schools will fail to meet federal academic guidelines by 2011.

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

The English proficiency standard is likely to trip up more schools than math, according to the study. Low-income students and English language learners are the two groups of students least likely to meet the proficiency standards.

And

Schools and districts in California had to have about one-fourth of students proficient in 2007. This year, the standard is 32 percent or higher, depending on the school and type of test. The required proficiency level will go up by about 10 percentage points each year from now until 2014, unless the law is changed.

Researchers and safety experts in Maryland don't seem to think so. They said lowering the drinking age to 18 will cause more car accidents and deaths.

The experts told state legislators to keep the drinking age 21 and that they should consider tougher penalties for teens who break the law.

According to the Washington Post:

"The risk of a fatal crash increases with the first drink, especially for drivers aged 16 to 20," said James Fell, a senior program director at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

The announcement is a response to college leaders' calls for a discussion on lowering the drinking age to 18 because it could promote moderation.

The Arizona Republic:

The reasoning behind the proposal, known as the Amethyst Initiative, is that the higher drinking age actually encourages binge drinking, a major problem on many college campuses. Nearly 100 college presidents from schools ranging from Duke University to Ohio State (but not Arizona or Arizona State) are in favor of the idea.

What do you think? Is lowering the drinking age to 18 a good or bad idea. I'd like to hear from teens on this idea.