voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Another Step Forward for Schoobrary: City Signs Off on Lease

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Another Step Forward for Schoobrary: City Signs Off on Lease

Another Step Forward for Schoobrary: City Signs Off on Lease

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  The site of the proposed downtown library. Photo: Sam Hodgson

Related Links

• Related: Central Library: Closed for Business on Saturday (March 22, 2010)
• Related: Would the Schoobrary Be a Bargain or a Bust? (July 7, 2009)
• Related: How the Library Became a Schoobrary (June 29, 2009)

Posted: Monday, April 19, 2010 9:22 pm | Updated: 9:45 pm, Mon Apr 19, 2010.

By EMILY ALPERT

The San Diego City Council gave the green light Monday to an unusual agreement with the San Diego Unified School District that would set aside two floors of the planned downtown library for a middle or high school.

Doing so would infuse millions into the downtown project: Including a school is a lifeline for the long beleaguered downtown library, a project in peril until San Diego Unified School District offered to chip in more than $20 million in exchange for the space. Getting the school lease is also crucial if San Diego hopes to keep another $20 million state grant for the

Sacramento Press / TED 'Unleashed' Thursday

Sacramento Press / TED 'Unleashed' Thursday

TED 'Unleashed' Thursday On the heels of Sacramento's first TEDx conference, grads from California State University, Sacramento, will launch a TED Talks spinoff on Thursday. "Talks Unleashed" is one of several local events created in the vein of TED Talks, a social movement ...

Top spoken word artist to perform at Sac State Award-winning slam poet Andrea Gibson will be performing in Sacramento for the first time on Thursday, April 22, to help celebrate the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community during California Statue University, Sacramento's Pride ...

Facebook | Seth Bramble: Repost: Support Your Local Teacher!

Facebook | Seth Bramble: Repost: Support Your Local Teacher!

Repost: Support Your Local Teacher!

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Today at 7:38pm

Call 1.888.202.2246

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and company are attacking public education and teacher rights in a new bill that will make it harder to keep quality teachers in local classrooms.

SB 955 from Sen. Huff (R-Diamond Bar) would gut teachers’ due process rights and protections against discrimination and unfair evaluation. Like the governor’s anti-union initiatives that voters soundly defeated in 2005, the Huff bill would not save local school districts one dime and does nothing to improve student learning. Rather than focusing on the real problems facing our schools like larger class sizes and cuts to student programs, this bill simply blames teachers. It undermines teacher experience in the classroom, eliminates educators’ right to a layoff hearing, authorizes districts to ignore experience when rehiring laid-off teachers, and reinstitutes a system of favoritism and discrimination.

SB 955 is set for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, April 21. Your calls to members of that committee and your own state Senator can help defeat the measure. Here are some of the major elements of SB 955. It would:

* Change the non re-elect notification deadline from March 15 to June 15 of the employee’s 2nd year of probation. This does not give administrator more time to evaluate, it only gives teachers less time to look for a job.

* Eliminate the need to "pink slip" teachers and eliminate their right to request a hearing.

* Ignore teacher experience in the classroom when making layoff and rehiring decisions and create a system based on performance evaluations that may have not even been done for years. In fact, this language allows district officials to fire employees for any reason, including for speaking out on student safety and employment issues. It gives principals the power to discriminate against older teachers, setting back hard-won protections against age discrimination.

Call Your Senator and Senate Education Committee Members NOW!

Tell all Senators to vote against SB 955:

* SB 955 eliminates teachers’ due process rights and will make it harder to keep quality teachers in all classrooms.

* SB 955 undermines reform efforts by allowing favoritism and discrimination, and threatens academic freedom.

* SB 955 scapegoats teachers during bad economic times.

Call 1.888.202.2246 Right Now to Reach Your Senator

Lighting up the State Capitol Building Pink.

Ca. Gov. Schwarzenegger Requests Federal Disaster Declaration for California Due to Baja Calif. Earthquake Damage : Tue, 20 Apr 2010 : California Newswire™

Ca. Gov. Schwarzenegger Requests Federal Disaster Declaration for California Due to Baja Calif. Earthquake Damage : Tue, 20 Apr 2010 : California Newswire™

Ca. Gov. Schwarzenegger Requests Federal Disaster Declaration for California Due to Baja Calif. Earthquake Damage

Edited by Cindy Holden
published Tue, 20 Apr 2010 – 00:57:19 -0700 PDTNo Comment

SACRAMENTO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today sent a letter to President Barack Obama through Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX Regional Administrator Nancy Ward requesting a disaster declaration for the state of California as a result of the April 4 earthquake centered in Baja California, Mexico. The earthquake was widely felt in Southern California, particularly in Imperial County. This event has destroyed and caused serious damages to homes, businesses, schools, water treatment and storage facilities and other public facilities in Imperial County.

The full text of the letter is below:

Local News | Redmond High environmental-science teacher wins $25,000 Green Prize | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Redmond High environmental-science teacher wins $25,000 Green Prize | Seattle Times Newspaper

Redmond High environmental-science teacher wins $25,000 Green Prize

Mike Town, who teaches environmental science at Redmond High, was presented the inaugural $25,000 Green Prize in Environmental Education from the NEA Foundation on Monday. The award was delivered by a grandson of undersea explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau.

When he was a boy, one of Mike Town's heroes was Jacques Cousteau, the French explorer and filmmaker whose "Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" brought the beauty of the marine environment to viewers around the world.

So it seemed fitting that when Town was awarded a national environmental-education prize Monday, it was delivered by one of Cousteau's grandsons, Philippe.

Town, 51, who teaches environmental science at Redmond High, was presented the inaugural $25,000 Green Prize in Environmental Education from the NEA Foundation on Monday. The foundation advances student achievement by investing in public education, and it asked Cousteau, a correspondent on the TV networks Planet Green and Animal Planet, to help present the award at the school.

Town's program, "Cool School Challenge," shows kids how to do energy audits of their school buildings and, using math and science, reduce the carbon footprint by powering down computers at night, turning out lights

Kentwood High School to compete in rocket challenge

An eight-person team from Kentwood High School also plans to travel for a rocket competition in May.

UW's travel clinic to close May 17

The popular Travel Medicine Service clinic at the University of Washington Medical Center will close May 17 to make way for an expansion of the hospital's emergency department.

Ingraham High students set for rocket launch in Alabama

Ten Ingraham High School students will spend Sunday trying to launch their 10-foot-long rocket a mile high into the Alabama sky, along with 13 other high-school rocketry teams from around the country.

University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere finds academic goals overshadowed by sports controversies | OregonLive.com

University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere finds academic goals overshadowed by sports controversies | OregonLive.com

University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere finds academic goals overshadowed by sports controversies

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

April 19, 2010, 6:34PM

Thomas BoydUniversity of Oregon President Richard Lariviere holds Juliet Starnes, niece of Jamilyn San Jose, (left) last week during an awards celebration for outstanding classified and administrative workers in the university’s Gerlinger Alumni Lounge.Public higher education lifted Richard Lariviere from his working class upbringing in Iowa to the far reaches of India, the ancient world in Sanskrit manuscripts, the inner circles of international business and the president's office at the University of Oregon.

"My own experience deeply colored my view of public higher education," said Lariviere, who took the helm of the university last July. "I owe everything I have to the remarkable power of education."

To protect that power at the University of Oregon, which is strained by declining state support and brimming enrollment, the president wants to gain more administrative and financial autonomy for the school. He wants to pay the faculty more, improve student graduation rates, increase student diversity and protect university access for students who, like him, are first in their families to blaze a path to college.

But Lariviere's academic goals have been overshadowed by an athletic department awash in donations from Nike co-founder Phil Knight that

Portland students study at military base, drawing complaints from parents

by Kimberly Melton, The Oregonian

Opponents, including three members of the Portland School Board, think the Defense Department-funded Starbase program violates district policy against military recruiting aimed at elementary and middle-school students.

OHSU medical students put lessons into action for homeless, uninsured

by Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian

Nearly 200 men and women receive free health screenings and treatment near O'Bryant Park in downtown Portland, courtesy of a group of volunteers and future medical workers.

Making sure students with disabilities get included: Parent-driven hope

by Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

The "All Born In" conference, created and run by parents of students with disabilities, drew more than 200 parents and educators to learn new techniques that are working and to gain inspiration to keep advocating for their kids.

California Student Government Prez Stabbed In Bias Incident � Student Activism

California Student Government Prez Stabbed In Bias Incident � Student Activism

California Student Government Prez Stabbed In Bias Incident

by Angus Johnston

The student government president at California’s Chico State University was stabbed late Saturday night in what police are calling a bias crime.
Joseph Igbineweka, a Nigerian immigrant, was accosted on his way home from a party by two men yelling racial slurs. One of the two, identified as Chico resident Barry Sayavong, is said to have attacked Igbineweka with a knife, causing injuries to his arms, torso, and neck.
A Facebook profile indicates that Sayavong attends