School Notebook

I'm on an email list for Hermosa Beach schools that sends out periodic updates from the two-school system. I received the latest such note just now and it informs that View School was broken into on Tuesday night and relieved of a laptop computer and flat-screen monitor from the campus library.

The district is asking anyone with information -- or anyone who sees suspicious goings on around Hermosa schools -- to call the police department asap. Hermosa PD is at (310) 318-0234.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's an e-waste collection event tomorrow in Hermosa Beach, which will benefit the city's schools.

Run by 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, any electronics you want to trash will be accepted -- from your old computers and TV sets to cell phones, printers and more.

The group will collect the goods from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until it fills two trucks with said e-waste, on Saturday. You can find them in the parking lot at Valley School, 1645 Valley Drive in Hermosa.

Half of the net proceeds will be donated to the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation, which helps fund programs of the local district.

Just don't toss out your Commodore 64s. Those are collector's items now, people!

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times today goes deeper into the current state of homeschooling in California, which is back in the spotlight since a recent legal ruling (since vacated, pending a re-hearing in the next few months) that only credential-bearing parents can teach their kids at home.

Seema Mehta features two South Bay families in her story -- the Torrance-based Brownings and the Curtos, whose kids who attend classes at Hermosa's Hope Chapel in addition to learn at home with mom Kym.

It's a good read, with a nice accompanying photo gallery online.

Posted by Shelly Leachman at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As reported by Shelly Leachman in Saturday's Breeze, here's what each district would face under education funding cuts proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger:

Centinela Valley Union High
Cuts: $3.5 million from a $68 million budget

El Segundo Unified
Cuts: $1.4 million from a 26.4 million budget

Hawthorne Unified
Cuts: $3.4 million from a $48.5 million budget

Hermosa Beach City Unified
Cuts: $0.4 million from a $9.4 million budget
Proposals: 28 teacher layoffs, increased class size

Lawndale Unified
Cuts: $2 million from a $30 million budget

Lennox Unified
Cuts: $1.9 million from a $61 million budget

Los Angeles Unified
Cuts: $460 million from a $8 billion budget

Manhattan Beach Unified
Cuts: $0.9 million from a $36 million budget
Proposals: 5-7 teacher layoffs, fund transfers, combining course sections at Mira Costa, using reserves

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified
Cuts: $4 million from a $95 million budget
Proposals: 50 layoffs, increased class sizes, eliminating extended-day kindergarten

Redondo Beach Unified
Cuts: $2.2 million from a $67.5 million budget
Proposals: Increased class sizes, early retirement incentives, combining classified positions, introducing fee-based transportation for athletic teams, reducing substitutes, using one-time monies

Torrance Unified
Cuts: $9.4 million from a $196 million budget
Proposals: 70 full-time teachers, 11 custodians, 5.5 full-time special ed teachers, reduction of security at high schools, elimination of incentives including the School Safety Violence Program and the P.E. Incentive Program, early retirement incentives, reduction of travel/conference allowances

Wiseburn Unified
Cuts: $0.5 million from a $17 million budget

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They don't worry about high-school students at the Hermosa Beach School District, which hasn't stopped them from maintaining among the highest test scores of South Bay area districts.

A city councilman's brother, a district committee member, an apointed incumbent and a math teacher are vying for two seats on the school board. The Daily Breeze editorial gives the nod to Barbara Zondiros and Lisa Claypoole over Earl Keegan and Corey Glave.

Read it here to find out why.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Andrea Woodhouse covers the Hermosa Beach school board race in today's story.

But as the community prepares to elect two trustees Nov. 6 to govern the 1,134-student district, more changes are afoot.

The next group of leaders must contend with rising student enrollment in the two-school district as well as the possibility of asking voters to approve another bond or parcel tax measure. Although Hermosa Beach voters approved Measure J in 2002, another bond measure failed last year.

Posted by Toni Sciacqua at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Beach Reporter has a story about "Red, White & Blue," a new opera with an educational twist that arrives in Hermosa Beach on Saturday (Oct. 6) to benefit the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation.

Resident Susan Asbjornson Ziegler (producing the opera with her husband, George) originally drew inspiration for "Red, White & Blue," when she began writing songs for her young cousin. The songs teach children about American history.

“The core of the show is the educational songs,” Zeigler said. “I wanted to raise money for the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation because they support programs like music programs that are cut by the state and science and all kinds of great things. When I do produce an opera, I spend at least six months of my life, 18 to 20 hours a day, getting this together, the writing, the composing, the casting, all the production stuff. It's very important to me the money goes to charity because that's just who I am. It's just something I have to do and people ask me, ‘Why?' Why do people climb mountains? This organization is just so fantastic.”

Click this link for more, including ticket information.

Posted by Paul Clinton at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)