Recently in WILMINGTON Category

Wilmington Middle School was featured as a model of teacher collaboration and accountability in a lengthy story in Santa Barbara-based Miller-McCune magazine.

Writer Melinda Burns paints a picture of admirable teamwork at Wilmington Middle, which was the one of the subjects last year of a study on professional learning communities done by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

The school divides instructors into teaching teams that meet after school three times per month.

... Sandra Martinez, a seventh-grade math teacher, said teamwork made all the difference in what can be a very stressful job. It is draining, she said, to teach 130 students every day, including "the ones who can make you miserable." The support from colleagues, the chance to learn on the job and the satisfaction of "seeing the bar going up" -- all this makes her work easier and more fun, Martinez said.

"I'm so comfortable here," she said. "My group is really good. We follow the same strategies and pretty much are on the same lesson at the same time. We even do a script and quote what we're going to say. If it works for our audience, we keep it.

"I don't believe anything will change in our profession until we get teachers who want to be teachers. If you are truly committed to this profession, if you want to be stimulated and move forward, then collaboration is what you do."

I've contacted Principal Myrna Brutti to see if the same practices will be taking place this year, considering budget cuts LAUSD campuses have been dealing with.

David Kooper, LAUSD board member Richard Vladovic's chief of staff, has been hired as principal of Gulf Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington.

A San Pedro native who was an LAUSD teacher and magnet coordinator at South Shores Magnet School, Kooper has worked with Vladovic since his election in 2007. Vladovic, himself a former LAUSD administrator, was re-elected this year and will be sworn in Friday, the same day that Kooper takes on his new job.

Local District 8 Superintendent Mike Romero called Kooper an innovator and an instructional leader, saying he's a good fit for Gulf Avenue, which is one of the local district's three remaining year-round schools. Classes at the campus start July 5.

"The wealth of experiences serving as Vladovic's chief of staff over the past few years will pay great dividends at Gulf Avenue," Romero said.

Kooper said he was excited for the opportunity. Asked if spoke Spanish, Kooper replied: "Claro que sí." The school is overwhelmingly Latino.

The news of his new position was made public in Vladovic's blog. Vladovic announced Kooper's departure with "sadness." *

Nora Armenta, who's been principal at Gulf Avenue since 2007, earlier this month became director of early education programs across the district, Romero said. She's now based at the district's downtown Beaudry Avenue offices.

* Vladovic may have been especially emotional, because he apparently vented at today's school board meeting on the new Cameron Diaz film "Bad Teacher," according to the LA Times. Vladovic took issue with the movie's depiction of a potty-mouthed teacher who cares little about her students' academic success.

LA Times columnist Hector Tobar gives some nice press today to a group of young-ish folks who grew up in Wilmington and are trying to make the port community a better place.

The feel-good column is about twentysomethings giving back to the neighborhood that raised them. Tobar dubs it "renaissance by the refineries."

He writes about 24-year-old Kat Madrigal, who started a blog called the Wilmington Wire, and Robert Jones, a 21-year-old CSU Dominguez Hills student who teaches at the Wilmington Empowerment Project. Jones wants to return to Banning High to teach. Also mentioned is artist Oscar Duarte, who helped start the Wilmington Enrichment Community Artist Network, or WECAN.

The column points out the disparity made evident by Wilmington's proximity to the affluent Palos Verdes Peninsula:

From just about anywhere in Wilmington and the communities that surround it, you can look up and see the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, an island of prosperity floating in the distance and a constant reminder to locals of where they stand in the world.

Sumiko Braun, a Carson native and actress, recently took a group of Wilmington and Long Beach teenagers up to Palos Verdes as part of a "reality tour" organized by members of the One Imagination collective. It was her way of sharing with neighborhood young people some of the lessons she'd learned in college.

"We started off in Wilmington, by the refineries, and went up to PV ... and then back down to South L.A. and Watts," Braun told me. They compared the schools, medical facilities and grocery stores and looked at other measures of social health. "The differences were drastic and extreme," she said. "When we were done, a lot of the students got emotional about it, because they didn't realize until that moment how this city works."

The seven-member board of the Los Angeles Community College District will hold a public meeting Wednesday, convening at Harbor College in Wilmington. It will be the first meeting of the Board of Trustees since the Los Angeles Times published a six-part series revealing waste, incompetence and poor oversight in the district's massive construction program.

Did you read the jaw-dropping series, "Billions to Spend"? There's still time before tomorrow's election, when incumbents Mona Field and Miguel Santiago are up for re-election in two of the four contests before voters.

Wednesday's meeting will include an update on the district's renewable energy program, which on Sunday was the focus of the last installment of the Times series. The Breeze reported on problems with Harbor College's solar program back in May 2010.

When I was doing reporting for that story, I head the Times had had multiple reporters -- for months -- investigating the broad construction program. I had no idea it would take a total of 18 months. Worth the wait.

Anyway, it should be an interesting meeting Wednesday. The first public session is at 11 a.m., followed by a closed session and then another open meeting at 3:30 p.m. Both are in the second floor of Harbor College's Seahawk Center. The agenda is online.

The nine-campus district's defiant responses to the Times stories are posted on the BuilldLACCD website. Here's an excerpt from one response from Chancellor Daniel LaVista, already noted in part by Times columnist Steve Lopez:

After ignoring the good news of the Program for years, the Times spent 20 months on this investigation and now picks at a few issues in what appears to be a sensationalist series published right before trustee elections. The timing is suspect, and the reporting is one-sided. So far, we are sorely disappointed. While the Times notes that half the $6 billion is still to be spent and there is time to "correct" things, I say to the Times that with only two articles published, there is an even better opportunity to correct their sensationalist tone and one-sided and biased reporting.

LaVista says that the program is "one of the most heavily audited and examined in the history of public construction" and is bringing much-needed buildings to college campuses, a fact he says is overshadowed in the Times stories by the paper's emphasis on problems.

California Watch's Erica Perez reports that a new Los Angeles Community College District student identification card has been the subject of complaints.

The nine-college district, which includes Harbor College in Wilmington, in February signed on with a Connecticut-based company that has linked bank accounts to every student's financial aid package, Perez reports in a blog item posted Friday.

The colleges gave out more than $117 million in student financial aid last year, Perez reported.

The cards let students more easily access excess financial aid funds that can be used for books and other expenses. Rather than waiting for a paper rebate check, students can use the ID cards as a sort of debit card.

But they're finding that each time they try to use the debit function, they're charged 50 cents. (Selecting "credit" at the checkout counter prevents this.)

It's all in the fine print of the card agreement, which is provided by Higher One Inc. The company, which works with hundreds of private and public colleges, has been the target of complaints, Perez says, adding that there are other Higher One charges of which students should be aware.

There are a few more fees L.A. community college students should look out for. An "abandoned account fee" charges students $19 per month if they go nine consecutive months without any activity. And using a non-Higher One ATM will cost $2.50 a pop. There is, however, at least one Higher One ATM at each campus.

Don Smith, apparently a representative of the company, commented on Perez's post. He wrote in part, "[W]e believe that our customers pay less than half the amount in fees that the average bank checking account customer pays per year."

This morning I was going over the agenda for the Los Angeles Community College District's board meeting on Wednesday, and one thing popped out at me.

Two interim administration appointees -- selected to fill spots made empty by a retirement and a career change -- are getting some pretty nice benefits. They each get a car allowance of $1,530 per month.

*UPDATED on Aug. 31, see below

In these post-Bell days, every benefit and salary deserves scrutiny. And $1,530 is certainly more than any of our local officials get for a car allowance.

Of course, the nine-college district is huge, and driving around it could certainly rack up some mileage and might require multiple tanks of gas each week. Still, even if the new appointees were driving all over LACCD and were leasing a nice new car, I'd guess they'd have trouble racking up that kind of auto expense every month.

It looks like the board of trustees in 2006 approved raising the car allowance for college presidents from $700 to $900 -- and these two appointees are categorized as presidents for pay purposes. I put in a call to the district to find out what the car allowance policy is now.

The new appointees are: Yasmin Delahoussaye, set to fill the position of interim "Vice Chancellor for Educational Programs and Institutional Effectiveness" beginning Aug. 30; and Rose Marie Joyce, to act at interim president of West L.A. College.

From what I can tell from district salary scales posted online, Delahoussaye will make about $11,005 per month. Joyce will get about $11,610 monthly, as well as $1,600 per month in an "alternative retirement account."

While I'm at it, I should note this story, which shows that the executive director of the California School Boards Association earned more than $400,000 last year.

Now who says there no money in education right now?

*Michael Shanahan, associate vice chancellor for employer/employee relations, emailed me the agenda from the day this new car allowance was approved. On Sept. 17, 2008, the Board of Trustees approved increasing the car allowance for college presidents from $900 to $1,530 monthly. Then-Chancellor Mark Drummond recommended the bump, which also affected his compensation and that of seven other administrators.

Salary increases for many of those administrators were approved at the same time, as were contract extensions.

Shanahan said college presidents are expected to travel widely across the sprawling district. By my math, the perks mean the district pays about $26,000 per month for auto allowances.

Los Angeles Unified School District watcher and blogger Scott Folsom makes a quick point about the design of the new Public School Choice website: the achievement arrow points down. And why aren't parents on there?

The new list of schools that will be up for bid by outside operators was released yesterday. A campus that's under construction in Long Beach -- set for students at Carson and Banning high schools -- is on the list (our story).

He's an insider.

The Board of Trustees this afternoon named Marvin Martinez as the new president of the Wilmington college. He's currently the L.A. Community College District's vice chancellor of economic and workforce development.

He'll start in July, with a month of overlap shared by outgoing President Linda Spink.

*A story with more info is up now. Press release with details follows.

Parents, alumni and community members interested in the fate of East Wilmington's Holy Family School -- which the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said last week was set to largely shut down -- are being asked to come to a meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting will cover options for responding to the archdiocese's announcement that the 118-student school will turn solely into a preschool facility next year.

The Catholic school, which was founded in 1950 and has suffered low enrollment in recent years, would be $250,000 in the red next year, according to an archdiocese spokesman.

Tuesday's meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Wilmington Senior Center at 1371 Eubank St.

Wilmington Middle School is set to get a new after-school youth center through a collaboration between Los Angeles Unified School District and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

Officials from the district and Delgadillo's office are still working out the details of the new center -- what kind of programs it will offer and where on the crowded campus it will operate.

Wilmington is one of five intermediate schools that will get such centers, Delgadillo and Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced this morning an event in Pacoima.

The effort is part of a collaboration between the school district and Delgadillo's office that began last summer with the founding of the City Attorney's School Safety Division. That program was preceded by a plan hatched in 2007 at Markham Middle School in Watts -- where a prosecutor was placed on campus and students were required to wear (donated) uniforms.

The program was expanded to nine middle schools, including Wilmington, where Deputy City Attorney June Magilnick is seeking to reduce gang inductions and violence around the campus.

The new youth center will be jointly funded by the school district, the City Attorney's office and private entities such as nonprofit groups, Delgadillo spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

Officials hope to open the Wilmington center before the end of the academic year.

A joint press release from LAUSD and Delgadillo's people follows.

A new school that is planned for Wilmington will be named for labor leader Harry Bridges, after a vote by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education today.

The campus, which will house 1,278 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will be called the Harry Bridges Span School.

Bridges, who died in 1990, was the longtime leader and founding president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

"He was a labor leader, a community leader, a fighter for our brothers and sisters," said Board member Richard Vladovic.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, a rep from state Sen. Jenny Oropeza's office, UTLA President A.J. Duffy and others spoke in support of the naming.

The school will be located on a controversial site -- so-called "Site F" -- in central Wilmington and will replace several businesses and homes. It's a full block bound by Avalon Boulevard, Broad Avenue, L and M streets.

The campus is set to be completed by the 2012 school year.

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.

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.

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.