Recently in LAWNDALE Category

Los Angeles Unified School District announced the names of 22 teachers who have been awarded the title of 2010-2011 LAUSD Teacher of the Year.

Four are locals. Here's the information directly from a district press release:

• Lisa Butler, a resident of Carson, has been a teacher for seven years. She teaches multiple subjects to second grade students at Budlong Avenue Elementary School.


• Karen Orpe, a resident of Lawndale, has been a social studies teacher at Henry Clay Middle School for nine years. She has been a teacher for 12 years.


• Trevor Oystrick has been a science teacher at Susan Miller Dorsey High School for nine years. He has been a teacher for 12 years and is a resident of Manhattan Beach.


• Patricia Thornton, from 15th Street Elementary School in San Pedro, has been a second grade teacher there for four years. She has been teaching for 34 years and is a resident of Carson.

The district says the teachers are chosen for "exemplary and creative teaching" that makes a difference in student lives, the school and the broader community.

The winners go on to compete for the L.A. County title, and that winner can compete to be California Teachers of the Year.

Like a highly contested political campaign entering its final hours, the nationwide contest to have President Obama speak at graduation ceremonies is heating up.

As the voting deadline nears for the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, students from the six schools across the country selected to compete - including Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School - are urging the public to vote. There have been YouTube videos and Facebook pages, mass e-mails, newspaper articles, even billboards.

Now come the celebrity and political endorsements.

Michigan's Kalamazoo Central High School has two high-profile alums - Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees and Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers - campaigning for the school to host President Obama.

Clark Montessori in Ohio has the state's governor, Ted Strickland, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus urging Ohioans to vote. Even former Cincinnati Mayor and congressman David Mann - he has a granddaughter at the school - has sent a letter to Obama highlighting the school's accomplishments.

But tiny Environmental Charter is bringing its own star power.

On Monday, actress Rosario Dawson was at the campus, urging the public to cast their vote.

"These kids are innovative, strong," said Dawson, a noted environmental advocate, shortly before submitting her vote online. "What they're doing at ECHS right now can be implemented across the country. They're a model not only for California, but for the world."

Dawson played Ruby in Larry Clark's 1995 cult classic Kids, and appeared more recently in Eagle Eye, Seven Pounds and the film version of Rent.

And in the wake of Dawson's endorsement, ECHS has received more celebrity backing.

Shaquille O'Neal, current center for the Cleveland Cavaliers and former star for the Los Angeles Lakers, had this to say on his Twitter account, The_Real_Shaq: Slam Dunk! Only 1 Green school in final 6 to win Pres. Obama speech at grduation. DO This: VOTE.

Then there's American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, who tweeted: Tweeps! Help me help LA's Environmental Charter High...theyre in running for @barackobama to speak at graduation! Vote!

Even Chaske Spencer (of Twilight fame) tweeted his endorsement.

The school has also received support from a number of other celebs and high-profile organizations, including Virgin founder Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra and - perhaps not surprisingly - the Surfrider Foundation.

With the help of producers from MTV, students at each school submitted a three-minute video to the White House, which was posted online. Voters are encouraged to rate each school's video on a one-to-five scale.

Obama will personally select the winner from the three receiving the most votes and speak at the winning school's graduation ceremonies. In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, White House officials said Obama's choice will not be political, rather it will be based on the school's academic merits and overall quality of education it provides students.

Voting ends Thursday (4/29) at 9 p.m. A winner will be announced May 4. You can cast your vote here.

The White House just announced that Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale is one of six finalists in a competition to have President Barack Obama speak at commencement this spring.

It's called the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, which invited schools to apply using student essays and school data showing their dedication to educational excellence.

After the field is narrowed to three by a public vote, Obama will select a finalist.

The White House press release is after the jump.

Local high school students Jordan Howard and Rudy Sanchez recently participated in the 2009 Environemntal Youth Conference. Howard delivered the keynote address and Sanchez presided over a news conference with local politicians and celebrities.

Pictured above are Jordan with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Rudy with Supervisor Don Knabe, Assemblyman Zev Yaroslavsky, Laker Luke Walton, and ABC7 weathercaster Danny Romero.

Here's an article I wrote back in August about Jordan and Environmental Charter High school. Below is the press release the school sent out today.

Lawndale - Over the past few weeks, students from Environmental Charter High School (ECHS), an award-winning Los Angeles public charter school, could be found at the public podium in front of electronic media, consumers, and political and business leaders - delivering speeches about environmental issues, supporting Green campaigns, and being recognized for their contributions.

Sharing the stage with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 17-year-old ECHS senior Jordan Howard delivered the keynote speech at the 2009 Environmental Youth Conference in November.
Howard's speech, addressed to 6,000 teens energized to change the way they impact the environment, and themed "Start Local, Impact Global," kicked off the conference of local elected officials, young
environmental leaders, and celebrities. The event was organized to promote environmental awareness and responsibility through youth-conducted workshops and networking opportunities with green
professionals and environmental organizations.

Later at same conference, 16-year-old ECHS junior Rudy Sanchez joined a panel discussing how he has raised public awareness about reducing plastic consumption with reusable alternatives. With Rise Above
Plastics, a program of the Surfrider Foundation, he has delivered more than 35 presentations to over 1,000 people about alternatives to one-time-consumable plastics.

Later that week, as news cameras flashed, Sanchez joined City Supervisor Don Knabe, Assemblyman Zev Yaroslavsky, NBA Champion Luke Walton, and ABC7 Eyewitness News Weathercaster Danny Romero as a press conference speaker. He led city officials, celebrities, and attendees in reciting a public pledge to recycle and reuse plastic bags, helping to kick off LA County's BragAboutYourBag recycling campaign.

The Cristina Chiappe Foundation will be holding a kick-off party at 12:30
p.m. Sunday in Lawndale.

The foundation, a certified non-profit, works to promote health, education and cultural diversity across the globe. Chiappe is a member of the Hawthorne school board and a faculty member at the Centinela Valley Adult Education School.

The event will be held at Hanks Bistro, located at 14406 S. Hawthorne
Boulevard.

Ellen Dougherty will replace outgoing Superintendent Joe Condon, who has headed the Lawndale School District for 17 years.

The choice of Dougherty, who is currently assistant superintendent of educational services for the 6,200-student district, was announced at a board meeting Tuesday night. Her new position will become official at the next board meeting on July 13.

Dougherty came to Lawndale last summer after 21 years in the South Pasadena Unified School District. She said she was seeking a "strong superintendent" to learn from.

"I came down thinking I'd have a few years to learn from Joe," she said, laughing. "I fell in love with the community."

Condon said he was confident his successor would do a good job in the largely Latino district, which has seven elementary and two middle school campuses.

"She's got wonderful people skills. She's smart as a whip and she understands the culture of the organization. She'll be just fine," he said.

Note: Dougherty pronounces her last name "DOCK-ur-dee," a pronunciation that she said comes from her native Central Pennsylvania.

The district's press release follows.

Two local sixth-graders took first and second place at Wednesday's Los Angeles County Spelling Bee.

Catherine Velardez of Lawndale's Will Rogers Middle School won the 35-student competition on the words "lithosphere" and "procumbent."

Second place went to Carina Kan from Palos Verdes Intermediate School in Palos Verdes Estates.

Congrats, girls! Both will go to the statewide spelling bee at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park on May 16.

The Wednesday event, held at an Alhambra conference center, was the fourth annual countywide spelling contest. Students from grades 4 through 6 competed.

Other local students who participated: Jesse Torres of Bud Carson Middle School in Hawthorne, Danielle Woodcock of Torrance Unified's Magruder Middle School, and DeAndre Young of Dana Middle in Wiseburn School District.

Leuzinger High School Alumni Committee on Saturday is hosting the 12th annual "Memorabilia Day" at the campus, 4118 West Rosecrans Ave. in Lawndale.
The free event is begins at 9 a.m. and is open to former students looking to reconnect with former classmates and teachers.
Food and other items will be on sale by current Leuzinger students to raise money for the campus. Information: 310-973-6169.

William Green Elementary School celebrated its fourth annual Book Swap and Family Literacy Celebration. About 400 attended the event, which is the brainchild of the campus' Family Night Committee. In addition to the book swap, staff and teachers read aloud for parents and students.

CLICK FOR A PHOTO BELOW:

untitled.bmp

William Green Elementary School on Thursday is celebrating its first Family Night of the year at 4520 West 168th St. in Lawndale. The event begins at 6 p.m. at the covered lunch shelter and includes a book exchange and reading party. Information: 310-370-3585

Students at Franklin D. Roosevelt and Kit Carson elementary schools on Wednesday will get moving to celebrate International Walk to School in the USA Day. They will be joining children and adults around the world who are celebrating the benefits of walking. The walk begins 8 a.m. to emphasize safe walking skills, concern for the environment, and the health benefits of physical activity. Information: 310-675-1121.

William Green Elementary School in Lawndale is receiving free tutoring services to help students struggling with reading. The program is sponsored by San Francisco-based children's literacy non-profit organization Reading Partners. The group offers free services to high-need, Title 1 public schools and targets low-income children who have fallen behind one to two grade levels in reading. Information: http://www.readingpartners.org

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.

A UCLA study reports nearly three in four teenagers say they were bullied online within a year but only 10 percent of them reported it to parents or other adults.

Reachers said the most prevalent forms of bullying online include name-calling, password thefts, threats, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing private information without permission and spreading nasty rumors.

According to UCLA:

Of those who were bullied online, 85 percent also have been bullied at school, the psychologists found. The probability of getting bullied online was substantially higher for those who have been the victims of school bullying.

The study used a survey of 1,454 between the ages of 12 and 17, who were recruited through a popular teen website. Nearly half the teens said they didn't tell anyone about the online bullying because they believed they "need to learn to deal with it" and 31 percent didn't for fear that doing so would restrict their Internet access.

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.

If you liked this year's record-long budget impasse, you'll love the one that's expected to happen nine months from now.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likely signs a spending bill for this year's budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reports officials warn "a crisis of equal magnitude looms next year because of the weakened economy, uncertainties about the use of future lottery revenue and political gridlock among state legislators."

Until then, schools can finally exhale for now and collect $58.1 billion in state dollars that have been held up for nearly three months. The amount is an uptick from last year's $56 billion but it amounts to a 0.7 cost-of-living increase --- a drop in the bucket of the 5.66 percent increase school districts hoped to get, or about $3 billion less than educators would like to see, according to Jennifer Kuhn, analyst at the state Legislative Analyst's Office.

Education leaders last week slammed the plan, saying it doesn't help local school districts pay for the rising costs.

State Superintendent of Instruction Jack O'Connell called the plan a "gimmick," while California Teachers Association President David Sanchez and California PTA President Pam Brady each urged Schwarzenegger to use his veto power to leverage a more education-friendly budget.

"The proposed budget includes a reduction of the cost-of-living adjustment that will further tighten the vise on local school budgets as districts across the state face increased costs for supplies, food, transportation and employee health care costs," O'Connell said in a statement. "These reductions are a disservice to California's 6 million school children and the thousands of educators across the state."

The San Francisco Chronicle has a pretty good breakdown of what the budget means to the average person.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU: The new money doesn't cover inflation - yet the cost of salaries, benefits, books and more is rising. Students and teachers will feel the impact as teaching positions remain vacant, class size grows and even bus routes are cut back. Yet many programs - from special education to gifted education - were spared.

Stay tuned to see if lawmakers can magically fix the way public schools are funded by the summer.