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Thursday, August 2, 2012

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Education Headlines

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Bonita Unified officials receive updates on district projects

Bonita High School, in La Verne, will have its more than $4.8 million gym construction scheduled for completion on Aug. 28, officials said. San Dimas High School is having its gym rebuilt and other construction planned at more than $6.9 million, officials said.

Tustin bond measure asks voters to fund new school technology

Come November, voters will be asked to decide whether to approve a bond measure funding new technology in Tustin schools.The Tustin Unified School District Board of Education voted on Monday to place the bond measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, according to the district. The funds would go toward instructional technology, labs and classrooms.

AVID effort to nurture kids' dreams at risk as aid ends

Mimsy Maulino is worried that her two younger sons won't be able to complete the AVID program - Advancement Via Individual Determination - because it was eliminated in June in a line-item veto by Gov. Jerry Brown, and local districts have to find a way to foot the bill for it.

Assemblyman parts ways with district director amid Twin Rivers Unified investigations

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson has parted ways with longtime staffer Cortez Quinn, who is being investigated for allegedly accepting illegal loans from a Twin Rivers Unified employee while he served as a school district trustee.

San Leandro schools may put parcel tax on ballot

A tax assessing $39 per percent for city schools has a good chance of according to a survey presented to the school board on Tuesday. The school district is considering putting a levy on the November ballot. While the board has not decided on a dollar amount for a tax, a survey of voters showed that more than two-thirds would likely approve the $39 per parcel amount.

State budget cuts result in loss of child care funding for more than 250 Livermore kids

Joselin Perez was one of the 250 children in the program who lost free child care Wednesday after the park district's Extended Student Services school-age child care program lost a $670,000 grant it had received from the state Department of Education (through the private nonprofit child development agency Kidango) for the past three decades.

West Contra Costa district gets property tax windfall, while Mt. Diablo district revenues decline

When the Mt. Diablo and West Contra Costa school districts asked voters to approve multimillion-dollar construction bond measures to improve school facilities, ballot information included estimates of how much homeowners would pay in property taxes each year to pay off the bonds.

Feds fund AP tests for low-income students

California will receive $7.6 million to help low-income high school students pay for Advanced Placement tests, the federal government announced Wednesday.

Families getting notice of state cuts to child care services

Some 800 school districts, county offices of education and private non-profits that help provide the state’s network of child care began the trying process this week of notifying thousands of families they are losing their services.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Panama-Buena Vista poised to send bond measure to voters

A recent poll of about 400 voters in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District showed 59 percent would "probably" or "definitely" vote for a $147 million bond measure aimed at upgrading classrooms, security systems, computer labs and other facilities, trustees heard Tuesday.

Tehachapi approves K-5 anti-bullying curriculum

Tehachapi Unified School District's board on Monday approved anti-harassment curriculum for its kindergarten through fifth-graders, and held off on approving a form that would allow parents to opt-out their children from learning those new lessons.

Some schools are in decrepit shape; it will take billions to fix

More than 6.2 million students attend K-12 public schools in California, but the conditions of the classrooms they sit in, playgrounds they run on and cafeterias they eat in are largely unknown. Unlike 22 other states in the country, California does not have a statewide inventory of its public school facilities.