Recently in MANHATTAN BEACH 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.

The state Department of Education today released its annual list of distinguished schools -- 484 this year, which focuses on elementary campuses.

For more on the program, go to the CDE website. Here were the local awardees on the list:

• LAUSD schools: Kentwood Elementary, Lomita Math/Science Magnet, and Park Western Place Elementary and Seventh Street Elementary in San Pedro


• Manhattan Beach schools: Grand View Elementary and Pacific Elementary


• Palos Verdes Peninsula schools: Cornerstone at Pedregal Elementary, Montemalaga Elementary and Silver Spur Elementary


• Redondo Beach schools: Beryl Heights Elementary, Birney Elementary, Madison Elementary


• Torrance schools: Arlington Elementary and Lincoln Elementary

Highland Elementary in Inglewood Unified was also named to the list.

*An earlier version of this post excluded two local schools. Sorry about that!

Last week we got word about the death of a Mira Costa High School student. We were soon on the phone with school district and police officials. After getting details of the incident, we decided not to run anything. Here's why -

From police reporter Larry Altman:

A reader asked me Tuesday why the Daily Breeze did not cover the March 10 death of a Mira Costa High School student from Redondo Beach. Another local online media outlet did, although the story did not state how the student died.

Obviously, the sudden death of a 17-year-old boy has affected the Mira Costa student body. Principal Julie Ruisinger e-mailed parents about the boy's death and made counselors available to grieving students and faculty. She did not say how he died.

"At the present, we have very limited information," Ruisinger wrote.

Although I have information from police and the coroner's office about what happened, I didn't write a story because this teen committed suicide at home. The Daily Breeze doesn't have a rigid policy, but our general practice is to not cover suicides that occur privately.

Sometimes we do publish stories about private suicides in the paper. Many years ago, a Torrance teenager killed himself within days of leading his Little League team to a national victory. I covered the story and even went to the funeral. The story unfortunately brought pain to his family.

I've been thinking about this latest death. There's a part of me that thinks I should write a story because of the impact his loss has had on campus. And there's definitely a story behind why someone so young would take such an action.

But so far, we'll stick to the practice of leaving it alone.

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget is approved by lawmakers, public schools in California could lose as much as $200 per student.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

The new reductions of approximately $200 per student come after successive cuts, including a cut of $253 per student in July. The governor's proposed 2010-11 education budget would be about 10 percent less than 2007-08 levels.

The news comes just weeks after Schwarzenegger publicly vowed to "protect public education."

Readers to the School Notebook blog may recall Torrance Unified school board member Al Muratsuchi recently addressing the governor's promise:

"When we have to raise K-3 class sizes...that is the result of the governor 'protecting education,'" Muratsuchi said during a district board meeting last week. "We need to educate the community, so that when they see class size increases, their favorite teacher getting laid off, and the school year being shortened, that they understand this is all because Sacramento is failing the entire state."

Torrance Unified board members warned that significant cuts - up to $20 million - could be slashed from the district's $188 million budget.

In Manhattan Beach Unified, trustees are looking at cutting up to $6.1 million in spending from the district's budget. Cost-cutting measures could include furlough days and staff layoffs, resulting in larger class sizes and program cuts.

"I don't see $6 million we can cut and still have a functioning school district," said board president Ida VanderPoorte. "I don't know how any school districts can survive if the cuts continue."

A report of a suspicious person in Polliwog Park Wednesday morning triggered a temporary lockdown at several schools in Manhattan Beach.

According to a school district official, a group of students from Manhattan Beach Middle School reported a man wearing what looked to be a bulletproof vest running through the park, which borders the school.

As a precaution, several campuses, including the middle school, Meadows Elementary and Manhattan Beach Preschool, were placed on lock down for about 20 minutes.

"In the event of an intruder we have a standard procedure to ensure student safety," said Carolyn Seaton, executive director of student services for Manhattan Beach Unified. "In this case, the lockdown was voluntarily."

Students crouched under their desks while police and district officials verified the safety of the campuses. The lockdown was called off around 11 a.m.

"It turns out it was probably a jogger cutting through (the campus)," a Manhattan Beach police spokesperson said.

Indeed, the suspicious person turned out to be a jogger wearing a weighted vest, Seaton said.

Polliwog Park is owned by the school district and leased to the city of Manhattan Beach.

Pictured above, from left to right is Nicole Rosen, Shannon French, Amanda Yuch, Alex Rosen and Kacey Isley. (Photo courtesy of Dayle Eisenhauer)

More than 50 players from the Mira Costa girls soccer team volunteered their time this past weekend to make and distribute lunches to the homeless in downtown Los Angeles. They joined a group of other volunteers with the Lunches with Love group and caravanned to deliver and distribute the bagged lunches.

The team made the lunches - 350 of them - Saturday night and together they went to distribute the meals early Sunday morning to individuals who live on the streets of Los Angeles. It took about an hour to hand out all the lunches.

The team is coached by Patty Perkinson.

"It was a meaningful, moving experience that none of them expected to have," said parent Dayle Eisenhauer.

Eisenhauer said several of the girls have already expressed interest in making more lunches and gathering sweatshirts to hand out to underprivileged kids living downtown.

The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation is asking parents and community members who are thinking about donating to the district to make a pledge today.

"We are asking parents to make a commitment to the education foundation so that we know by January how much money parents can commit to the school district," said Susan Warshaw, the executive director of the foundation.

Typically, school districts begin their budgeting processes in January before final budgets are submitted in the Spring. Money donated to the foundation goes to preserving teaching positions and academic programs in the district. This year, foundation organizers are looking to raise $4.1 million. Last year, the same amount was raised and went to save more than 80 teaching and staff positions, district officials said.

Pledge drive events will be held this afternoon at district schools, and those interested in donating to the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation can visit www.mbef.org/givetoday or call Warshaw at 310-303-3342.

*Updated, with photo courtesy of Cindy McMahon. Eighth graders Savannah Sartini, Jina Stanfill, and Mandy McKeegan outside Manhattan Beach Middle School. The girls helped promote MBEF's Pledge Day.

Two local teachers were this morning named to the "Sweet 16" as Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year.

They are:

April Mosby, a fourth and fifth-grade teacher at Moffett Elementary School in Lennox School District

Shannon Vaughan, an English teacher at Manhattan Beach Unified's Mira Costa High School

Both have been teaching for at least 20 years.

They were named to the group of 16 teachers by Superintendent Darline Robles, who oversees the Los Angeles County Office of Education. The teachers will advance on to the statewide round to compete for California Teacher of the Year.

Five statewide co-winners will be announced in November,and one of those will be chosen to represent California in the National Teacher of the Year contest next spring.

The Mira Costa High School Pep Squad is still accepting participants for its Jan. 19 "Cheer Clinic FUNdraiser" at the campus, 1401 Artesia Blvd. in Manhattan Beach.
Students in grades 1 to grade 8 will learn cheers, dances and do crafts and games. Participants will perform what they've learned during the boys and girls varsity basketball games. Information: 310-372-3889.

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District on Wednesday will introduce its bond oversight committee and elect officers to the group. There will also be a progress report on the voter-approved $67.5 million Measure BB, which is to upgrade Mira Costa High School. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. and will be at the district office, 325 South Peck Avenue in Manhattan Beach. Information: 310-318-7345.

Mira Costa High School's Model United Nations program on Dec. 6 will host a conference with more than 1,000 students participating from around the Los Angeles area. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the campus, 1401 Artesia Blvd. in Manhattan Beach. The school's Model United Nations team successfully competed eariler this month in Montreal, bringing home 19 awards and recognition for best large delegation at the conference. Information: 310-318-7345.

The photo below shows a recent shot of Mira Costa's Model United Nations team:

Meadows Elementary on Friday will host its fourth annual campus fundraiser beginning 8:50 a.m., 1200 Meadows Ave. in Manhattan Beach. Students, teachers, and staff will run, jog, or walk for 30 minutes to raise money for the school's arts and science programs. Information:310-977-8625.

There are 23 school bonds on the ballot across Los Angeles County. Statewide, there are 96 local school bonds and 21 local parcel tax proposals.

In the Daily Breeze's coverage area, there are six school bonds before voters today.

• Centinela Valley Union HS District, Measure CV, $98 million
• El Segundo USD's Measure M, $14 million
• Los Angeles Unified's Measure Q, $7 billion
• Manhattan Beach USD's Measure BB, $67.5 million
• Torrance USD's Measures Y and Z, total $355 million
• Los Angeles Community College District's Measure J, $3.5 billion

For those of you that want a primer on school facilities funding in California (come on, people, it's fun!), always useful EdSource has a good rundown.

California voters have also approved $35.4 billion in bonds for statewide funding of school facilities since 1998 (most recently in 2006). That money gets distributed on a monthly basis to districts and individual schools by the State Allocation Board.

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.