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At an election forum Wednesday night, a question was submitted to moderators that asked two of the challengers running for the Palos Verdes Peninsula school board why they had not voted in past elections in the school district.

The query was based on a review of voting records for Anthony Collatos and Greg Royston, according to the questioner's statement.

Collatos, an education professor at Pepperdine University, appeared slightly dumbfounded in response, saying, "My understanding is that I have voted ... Maybe there was a mistake."

Royston, a business attorney, said that he wasn't sure he was in the district in 2005, and that he had a family emergency in November 2007 and had to leave the country.

The exchange took place at the PV Council of PTAs and the local League of Women Voters forum at the Peninsula Center Library. The debate had some jabs that were a bit nasty between the two incumbents and four challengers, promising a fight that's bound to get messier in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election. Three seats are set to be filled.

Thing is, my own review of voting records yesterday with a representative of the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk shows that both Collatos and Royston have in fact voted in recent elections.

Collatos voted in November 2005 and in November 2007. Royston voted in Novermber 2005, but not November 2007. They both also voted in May 19 parcel tax election.

Contrary to the questioner's claim, there is no way to know if a given ballot showed marks for a specific election. Because of the privacy of ballots, all the county can say is whether a voter went the polls or submitted an absentee ballot -- NOT whether the voter participated in, for example, a school board election.

Stay tuned for more coverage.

Hi folks. We unfortunately had an error in our story on South Bay elections today.

Barbara Lucky, a board member with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, did file papers on Friday (the last day for incumbents to file) to run for re-election. If re-elected, Lucky would serve her fourth term on the board.

I apologize for the mistake. The county website was not updated with this information until after 6:30 p.m., and we forgot to check for new filers.

This means there are five qualified candidates for three seats on the board: Lucky and incumbent Malcolm Sharp (Ginny Snider has chosen not to run again); Karen Bird, an attorney and wife of Palos Verdes Estates Councilman George Bird; Gregory Royston, also an attorney and a businessman from Rancho Palos Verdes; and Heather Haddon Mattson of Palos Verdes Estates, a former teacher and administrator with Los Angeles Unified who has served as a substitute in schools on The Hill.

Anthony Collatos, a Pepperdine University education professor who lives in Palos Verdes Estates, has pulled papers but has not yet qualified.

Donald Trump's company has completed the purchase of a once-contested piece of property in Rancho Palos Verdes near the ninth and 10th holes of Trump National Golf Club.

Trump's VH Property Corp., which runs the seaside golf course, today completed its payment of $4 million to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District for an 8.5-acre piece of property refered to as the "Loma del Mar" site.

The payment was part of the terms of a settlement reached in 2004. The agreement, which came after Trump's company sued the school district, required $200,000 in rent for five years and then a $4 million purchase.

Press releases from the school district and Trump follow.

Semi-official results published this afternoon showed Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's $165 parcel tax won voter approval.

Measure V, which needed a two-thirds vote to pass, won over 68.9 percent of voters, according to the county elections Web site. That was a slight increase from the figure reported at the conclusion of all-mail election on Tuesday night.

More than 43 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

The parcel tax will raised an estimated $3.3 million annually for the school district, which is struggling with state budget cuts. The measure will sunset in 2013.

An estimated 500 to 600 ballots remain to be counted in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified's all-mail parcel tax election, county officials said this afternoon.

Preliminary results from the election's Tuesday deadline showed the $165 parcel tax passing with 68.6 percent of the vote. Nearly all of the remaining ballots would need to be "no" votes for the measure to fail.

Supporters of the $100,000 campaign in favor of Measure V celebrated last night, though the margin was much more narrow than for the 2007 extension of the existing $209 parcel tax. (See today's story.)

Today, they said they were waiting on final results from the county.

The ballots should be counted by Friday afternoon, when the Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will make semi-official results available at lavote.net.

Nearly 42 percent of voters cast ballots, according to the preliminary vote total.

The school district is set to hold a board meeting Thursday evening on its budget, which has been slashed following cuts to state education funding.

A meeting scheduled for July 6 will take into account the election results for the parcel tax, which is expected to raise about $3.3 million per year until it sunsets in 2013.

This Thursday's meeting is set for approximately 6:30 p.m. at 3801 Via La Selva, Palos Verdes Estates.

Incidentally, there is apparently some speculation as to whether the the mail-only ballot constituted a "rigging" of the election.

Here's an email I received:

There are some people who think the PV schools election was rigged, because it held unusual circumstances. For instance, you didn't get to vote at a polling place, you had to mail in your
ballot. If you didn't vote via mail you had to physically drop the ballot off at City Hall I believe in PVE.

The question is: was this done to make sure it passed.

In fact, the school district went with an all-mail election to save the cost of a full election -- a move that several other school districts have made this spring. Tuesday's balloting cost the district an estimated $123,000, while a to-the-polls event could have cost nearly $600,000.

Of course, the district hoped to make the terms of the election favorable to a "yes" vote. The school board chose not to hold the election on May 19 to avoid being associated with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ill-fated budget measures.

Voters in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District should mail their ballots Thursday or Friday, at the latest, to ensure they arrive by Tuesday's mail-only election deadline.

Here's some background on Measure V, the $165 parcel tax, which would raise $3.3 million per year for the high-achieving school district. It comes on top of an existing $209 tax. Both would sunset in 2013.

The district has cut some $6 million from its budget since the state Legislature ordered broad cuts to education with its February budget. The governor's newest budget proposal -- which seems to be losing out to the budget committee's version -- would cut more than $6 million more, district officials have said.

More than 200 employees have received pink slips. District Superintendent Walker Williams said "several dozen" teachers could be rehired if the ballot measure passes.

But Measure V comes at a time when many of the district's 41,229 registered voters (according to the county registrar) are feeling the pain of the recession.

A parcel tax is leading by a hair in South Pasadena, which is one of several mostly wealthy areas where education agencies are seeking parcel taxes to make up for state cuts.

Some interesting thoughts on parcel taxes in a blog post today from one the LA Times' editorial board members.

Voters on The Hill can drop off their ballots on Tuesday. More information on ballots and voting after the jump.

So, this is not the most hard-hitting news item with which to return from a month-long hiatus, but I bring it to you nonetheless.

Apparently, a Palos Verdes Peninsula High graduate and aspiring comedian has made a short documentary about her experience at the school's 10-year reunion at the Torrance Marriot. Except she didn't go to the reunion; she sent a tattoo-covered stripper in her place.

ABC's "Good Morning America" had a segment on Andrea Wachner and "Cricket" (the stripper) yesterday, in which we see scenes of Andrea talking through an earpiece to Cricket at the reunion.

Fellow alums were doubtful of Cricket-as-Andrea.

"She was just so different. You have to understand the community we had come from," Daniel Wolowicz, 32, told ABC's Christina Caron. "Everyone was questioning who this person was."

Andrea wasn't a big fan of Pen High, as you can see in the six-minute trailer for her 40-minute documentary "I Remember Andrea."

The Palos Verdes Peninsula school board this evening approved taking its planned parcel tax election to voters on a mail-only ballot.

The board voted 4-0 to approved the plan, with Barbara Lucky absent. Ballots will be due June 23.

The move follows a March 11 board vote to rescind its earlier approval of a regular go-to-the-polls parcel tax election. Voters will weigh a four-year $165 parcel tax, which will come on top of an existing $209 tax that was originally approved by voters in 2003 and extended in 2007.

Superintendent Walker Williams said county elections officials informed the school district that the regular election would have cost about $600,000, while a mail-only ballot would cost about a quarter of that.

The new tax would cover about half of a $6 million shortfall that the district faces over the next 16 months.

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.

Happy Monday! Here's some linkage, catching up from the weekend:

Torrance Unified officials found an unhappy surprise this morning: Four district vehicles had had their windshields smashed.

Vu has a story today about Mira Costa High's successful media arts program.

And ... all of the short items that ran on today's School Notebook page (in the paper) can be found here.

We also have some great photos from Point Vicente Elementary School's visit to White Point on Friday. It was part of an educational program run by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy.

My story ran on Saturday about the possible closure of LAUSD's Sellery Special Education Center in Gardena. In a related story, Connie Llanos at the Daily News writes about the potential shut-down of West Valley Special Education Center in Van Nuys, with some interesting background on special ed centers.

Officials have said the two campuses are the furthest along the path toward "consolidation." We should have an idea of how many other small campuses will be closed by the March 24 board meeting.

The Daily News' George Sanchez has a story about the nearly 9,000 layoff warnings that the LAUSD board will weigh on Tuesday.

Also Saturday, I reported on Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District's move to place a $165 parcel tax on the June 2 ballot. (* FYI: This tax would require a two-thirds approval to pass.)

L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez on Sunday wrote about administrators are asking parents for $1,000 (each) at his daughter's LAUSD elementary school in LAUSD.

If parents can come up with $327,000, the school will be able to keep three academic coaches who, among other things, take the pressure off teachers in the overcrowded fourth and fifth grades. It would also pay for P.E. coaches, three kindergarten aides, library resources, computer replacement and technology support.

As I heard the pitch, along with the testaments to Ivanhoe and how lucky we are to have a great school that's been a neighborhood institution since 1889 -- yes, I said 1889 -- I was thinking the same thing I thought when I heard the pitch a year ago:

We really are lucky, because the school is so good, and because many of us are able to fork over a little extra, even in a recession. But what about the vast majority of schools that aren't as good and don't have as many parents who can write checks?

Marymount College is looking for families to interested in hosting 43 Japanese high school and college students for a two-week exchange program beginning March 8.
Host families must provide students with a bed, desk and dresser, and transportation to and from the college.
Those chosen will receive compensation for participating. Information 310-303-7358 or mfileta@marymountpv.edu.

Ridgecrest Intermediate School on Wednesday will host a meeting to inform local parents about a teen's life in public schools, 28915 Northbay Rd. in Rancho Palos Verdes. Area high school students will share their memories in intermediate school including experiences with peers, family relationships, time management and homework.

The free event is open to parents of intermediate and high school students in Palos verdes Peninsula Unified School District. Information: 310-732-0900 ext.209.

Mira Catalina Elementary School on Sunday will host its Halloween Harvest Festival. The four-hour event begins at noon at the campus, 30511 Lucania Dr. in Rancho Palos Verdes. There will be food booths, a costume parade, games, contests and prizes for the best decorated booth.
Two haunted house tours will be available. The first is at 1 p.m. for younger children and a scarier tour will begin at 2:45 p.m. for older children and adults. Information: 310-710-8309 or 424-477-7105.

Little Company of Mary Hospitals have partnered with the Lunada Bay Elementary School in Palos Verdes Estates to support "Red Ribbon Week", which takes place October 20 through October 24.

"Red Ribbon Week" is a PTA-sponsored campaign throughout schools across the country to prevent drug use. In the Lunada Bay Elementary School the initiative is focused on teaching the young children to make good choices in many areas of their life. Supporting the health aspect of the initiative, Little Company of Mary has donated specially-ordered jump ropes for each student at Lunada Bay Elementary School.

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.

Ridgecrest Intermediate School on Oct. 21 will host a discussion on teen drug and alcohol abuse in its multipurpose room, 28915 Northbay Rd. in Rancho Palos Verdes. The event begins at 7 p.m. and is open to parents of children enrolled in intermediate or high schools in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. Information: 310-732-0900 Ext. 209.

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.