Four Latino Angelenos win scholarships for math, science

In an effort to bring more Latino youth into science and technology, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health today announced 10 students (four of them Angelenos) won a $42,500 scholarship for college tuition and internship support.

Over the next five years, the Alliance/Merck Ciencia Hispanic Scholars Program will award a total of 50 students who plan to major in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. In addition, 125 students will receive one-time $2,000 scholarship.

“The new century of discovery and innovation is really going to be dependent on whether we make investments today in Hispanic youth,” said Adolph Falcon, alliance senior vice president.

The program, which targets students of Hispanic descent in Los Angeles, Brownsville, TX and Elizabeth, NJ, is funded through a $4-million grant from the Merck Company Foundation, the pharmaceutical giant’s philanthropic initiative.

The scholarship will also connect scholars with two mentors – one on-campus, and another whose interests and field match each student’s.

According to Falcon, mentoring helps ensure that Latino students who express an interest in science or math related fields don't get derailed during their four years at college.

Alejandro Aguirre, a Boyle Heights native who started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall, said he “jumped up and down” when he found out he had won the scholarship. Aguirre, who turns 18 tomorrow, served as president of the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement program at Roosevelt High, where helped build a solar-powered boat that took second place in the rookie division of the Metropolitan Water District's 2008 Solar Cup.

The Alliance today also opened up the application process for next year’s round of scholars, with an application deadline of February 15, 2010. Interested students can apply at www.alliancescholars.org or call 1-866-783-2645.

--Amina Khan

Job training programs set to receive some of L.A.'s federal stimulus money

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced that the city is making $10.3 million in federal stimulus money available for worker training programs.

The grants will be issued by the Community Development Department. Of the $10.3 million, $4 million will be used for vocational training for 1,000 workers and $6.3 million will be available to train an estimated 2,000 people for high-wage jobs in healthcare, construction, transportation and other sectors.

Villaraigosa said the city has received $43.7 million in job training funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so far, and between $300 million and $400 million in overall stimulus money.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

L.A. school leaders, community groups to debunk inflammatory flier aimed at undocumented parents [Updated]

Two L.A. Unified School District leaders plan to hold a news conference this morning with community groups to debunk a Spanish-language flier claiming illegal-immigrant parents who sign a petition calling for a charter school will be deported.

[Updated at 8:45 a.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that the teachers union was holding the news conference.]

The 10 a.m. news conference outside the teachers union headquarters in the Wilshire District is the latest development in ongoing disagreements over a proposal to improve 30 struggling or new campuses, with the school district and its teachers union stalled in crucial negotiations.

[Updated at 8:59 a.m.: A previous version of this post said the disagreement was over control of the schools, but actually involves proposals to improve the campuses.]

Becoming a charter school is one option for the 30 campuses designated for reform plans. Charters are independently managed and frequently nonunion. They often have been criticized by United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union, but there is no evidence the union's leadership is responsible for the flier.

Participants in today’s news conference are expected to include school board President Monica Garcia, school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar and representatives of several allied community organizations.

Flores Aguilar authored the resolution that allows groups inside or outside the district to bid for control of new or struggling schools. Garcia is a close ally of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has supported the Flores Aguilar resolution.

Chez Panisse's Alice Waters visits a Los Angeles charter school

Alice Waters, the chef-owner of the landmark restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, came to Los Angeles today to talk about school lunch and school gardens at the Larchmont Charter School.

Our colleagues at the Daily Dish report:

When Alice Waters talks about improving school lunch, she doesn't just mean making the chicken nuggets more nutritious. She wants to see a table set, maybe with flowers. She wants children to have enough time to have conversations as they eat.

"There are lots of wonderful gardens that are happening in schools, and some progress is being made in the kitchens," Waters, chef-owner of the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, said in the garden at Larchmont Charter School.

And eventually? She'd like to see high schools in which the students run the cafeterias and work in them alongside teachers and cooks. She'd like lunch to be served, for free, to everyone.

Former L.A. Community College District chancellor takes Middle East post

Marshall Drummond, former chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District and of the statewide community college system, has a new job in higher education. He recently started as chief academic officer and provost for the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates, according to an announcement made Monday.

Drummond twice served as chancellor of the nine-campus Los Angeles college district, most recently from 2007 until last summer. After placing him on a leave of absence in June without public explanation, the district announced that he had left the post with nearly two years remaining on his contract and that it would pay him $428,750 in severance. Drummond has not responded to requests for interviews about his unexpected departure.

He led the California community college system from 2004 to 2007.

In his new position with the Higher Colleges of Technology, founded in 1988, Drummond will guide academic policy for 18,000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff members on 17 campuses in several cities, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

-- Larry Gordon

Magnet school deadline moved up for L.A. Unified

The application deadline for the popular local magnet-school program is three weeks earlier this year. Parents will have only until Dec. 18 to turn in applications for their choice among 173 magnet programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Magnets were established in the late 1970s to promote voluntary integration — and in that aspect they have achieved limited success. Still, many have become wildly popular academic showcases for the nation’s second-largest school system. And these attract far more applicants than can be accommodated.

Not long ago, the deadline for applications was in late January, and last year, it was Jan. 9, said Almarie Polk, an administrative assistant with the magnet division. The earlier deadline means parents will find out sooner, probably in April, about whether their child gets into a requested magnet, Polk added.

California school boards group snubs state legislators

And the winner is ... no one.

That’s right. Nobody won this year’s Legislator of the Year Award from the California School Boards Assn. because schools suffered so much from funding cuts approved by the state Legislature that the group didn't want to single out any lawmaker for praise.

“Sure, there are some legislators who have done good things for education, and others that we admire for their efforts,” Frank Pugh, the group’s president-elect and a board member for Santa Rosa city schools, said in a release. “But for crying out loud, schools have been cut by $2,100 per student.  We’d be nuts to present this award to anybody in a year when the cuts are going to have detrimental effects on an entire generation of students.  We just have to draw the line somewhere.”

Michelle Obama gives Harmony Projects a round of applause

At a ceremony hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, a Los Angeles music program for at-risk youth received the nation’s highest honor for humanities programs.

Together with 18 other projects from around the world, Harmony Projects was awarded the Coming Up Taller Award, which recognizes programs that target children who traditionally lack access to arts and humanities resources.

“These young people don't just become accomplished singers and painters and authors,” Obama said at the ceremony. “They also become better students, they become better leaders and they become better citizens, enriching not just themselves but their communities.”

Harmony Projects provides musical instruments and free music lessons to children from impoverished families. The program aims to enroll students as early as first grade and see them through to high school graduation. 

“I’m over the moon,” said founder Margaret Martin as she celebrated with 11 students at the Daily Grill restaurant in Washington.

2 Los Angeles-area teachers get high marks with Milken Educator Awards

Two Los Angeles-area teachers received the biggest surprise of their careers when they were awarded the Milken Educator Award today.

Roberto Gonzalez of Virgil Middle School and Ana Higuera of Lynwood High School were stunned when Milken Family Foundation Chairman Lowell Milken announced at each campus that they had received the annual award, which comes with a $25,000 no-strings cash prize.

Like all the other teachers and students who piled into Virgil’s auditorium this morning, Gonzalez thought the assembly’s star speaker would be State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who had ostensibly come to congratulate the school for its marked academic improvement in the last few years. Last year, Virgil’s Academic Performance Index, based on test scores, shot up 56 points to 641.  

State Senate passes education measure with eye on federal grants

Despite opposition from powerful teachers unions, the state Senate today approved a measure to make California more competitive for billions of dollars in federal education grants.

The measure, which now goes to the Assembly, would allow students at poor-performing schools to transfer to campuses in other districts, and would also create a group to study a lifting of the cap on the number of charter schools in the state.

SB X5 1 also would repeal a law prohibiting the use of data on teacher performance and student achievement for the purpose of evaluating and making employment decisions on teachers. The bill would require students' parents and teachers be notified if their schools are identified by the state as among the worst-performing 5% of campuses. Operations at those schools would have to be overhauled.

The bill, by state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) and Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), is intended to make California more competitive for $4.35 billion in federal education grants being offered to states that adopt plans to improve school performance.

“The Senate’s action takes us one step closer toward an historic victory for California’s schools,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who added that "we must do everything in our power improve our schools and secure additional funding from President Obama’s multibillion-dollar national education funding competition.’’

The California Teachers Assn. and United Teachers of Los Angeles said they opposed the bill partly because of the potential cost of the changes and because the federal funds would be a one-time grant.

The group also thinks it is premature to adopt the changes before the federal government finalizes the standards by which grant applications will be judged, CTA spokesman Frank Wells said.

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

L.A. Times, USC to cosponsor California polls

The Los Angeles Times is teaming up with USC to sponsor six polls of California residents, the organizations announced today.

The polls will begin Sunday and run through the 2010 election season, when voters will elect a governor and U.S. senator.

According to a news release, the joint effort between California's largest newspaper and USC's College of Letters, Arts & Sciences is "the first such cooperative venture of this magnitude." The venture will be called "the University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts & Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll," according to the release.

“We are extremely pleased to team up with The Times to offer in-depth insight and analysis of the historic 2010 campaign,” Howard Gillman, dean of USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, said in a statement. “The partnership will provide unique experiential learning opportunities for USC college students, and will also enhance the ability of our faculty to address issues that are critical to California’s future."

Added Times Editor Russ Stanton, “In a state as large and diverse as California, accurate and timely polling is a key tool to allow people to learn what their fellow Californians think about major issues. Making that sort of information available is a central part of our journalistic mission.”

The Times disbanded its in-house polling unit in 2008.

-- Shelby Grad

L.A. Unified has fewer students; charter school enrollment rises sharply

Enrollment in traditional Los Angeles-area public schools has declined this fall, even as the number of students enrolled in charter schools has exploded, according to just-released data.

The drop at traditional schools is slightly more than 3%, with enrollment falling to 617,798 students. The number of students at independent charters is up nearly 19%, to 60,643 students. More students attend charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District than in any other district in the country.

Charter schools operate like their own school districts, with control over most of the funding generated by their students. With the opening of new charters in the Los Angeles area, the enrollment shift was not entirely unexpected, but it nonetheless has broad implications for the nation's second-largest school system. When the district sheds students, it also loses the funds that accompany them, which puts pressure on a district budget with built-in costs for services and facilities.

Fewer students ultimately result in staff reductions --- over and above those already caused by the state budget crisis.

Even if the charter students are added in, district enrollment is down 1.4% from last year, continuing a recent trend. The latest numbers are culled from an annual survey called “norm day,” which is important for setting staffing levels at schools as well as determining future funding.

-- Howard Blume

Health foundations join forces to improve California schools

The California Education Supports project, a new joint venture between three nonprofit foundations, held its first forum Tuesday to address the effects of mental and physical health on California students. Nearly 100 community leaders, students, health and education professionals piled into a Manual Arts High School classroom to talk about those issues.  

The California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which are funding the $700,000 effort,  plan to release policy papers and hold hearings in the next 12 to 24 months on a range of potential issues from childhood obesity to reproductive health.

The project is part of a broader effort to integrate student healthcare with educational goals, said Cecilia Echeverria of the California Endowment.

Manual Arts has an on-site health clinic, operated by St. John's Well Child and Family Center, which provides services to students, their families and the surrounding community. But some said the school should continue to focus on reducing violence.

"It makes people think about priorities a bit differently: 'How can we worry so much about vending machines when there are lockdowns on campus?'" said Linh Huynh with MLA Partner Schools, which helps manage Manual Arts. Huynh added that measures like school uniforms have significantly improved campus safety.

Erin Gabel, legislative director for state Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), called Manual Arts High  “a great example of vision around student health services, but not necessarily a model of acting on that vision,” she said. “They’re demonstrating how difficult the steps are and how great the opportunities are.”

Torlakson, who chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Schools and Community, had planned the gathering as a legislative hearing, Gabel said, but the Assembly members slated to attend were called back to Sacramento to work on the water policy bill.

The event attracted health and education professionals from outside Los Angeles. Miguel Villarreal, food and nutritional services director for the Novato Unified School District in Marin County, raised the importance of providing students with inexpensive but healthy meals during a relatively short lunch break. “We want to see where they’re going and how we can leverage their work in our field — and make sure we’re included" [in the policy discussion], he said.

Camille Levee, executive director of Glendale Healthy Kids, came to see how the experts were planning to integrate dental, mental and physical care into public education. “We provide a connection between students and healthcare services, and we do case management,” she said. Levee said she came to see if any of the panelists were proposing a similar model.

--Amina Khan

Jury about to return verdict in ex-basketball coach's criminal trial

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury is about to return a verdict in the criminal case against former Dominguez High School basketball coach Russell Otis.

Otis is accused of making sexual advances on a former player and stealing money that was earmarked for the Compton Unified School District.

The former basketball coach faces a felony and misdemeanor charge for allegedly arranging a meeting with a former player and making sexual advances. He also faces two felony charges for allegedly committing theft by depositing a $15,000 check from athletic wear maker Nike into a personal account. The check was written to the Compton Unified School District.

A verdict is expected within an hour.

-- Lance Pugmire

$10,000 reward likely in slaying of Long Beach honors student

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a $10,000 reward today for information leading to the conviction of the gunman who fatally shot a Wilson High School student.

Although there were hundreds of people leaving the campus, Long Beach police have no witnesses or suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call the homicide detail at (562) 570-7244. Police also said they don't have a motive in the shooting.

Mourning students at Long Beach's Wilson High School gathered Monday by the pavement where classmate Melody Ross was shot after the homecoming football game. Leaving handwritten notes to Melody and her family, the teenagers lighted candles and shed tears as they remembered the bubbly 16-year-old.

"Why her?" asked sophomore Micah Mathis, 15, who took French with Melody, an honors student. "That's what I want to know."

The Board of Supervisors will consider the reward later this morning.

-- Seema Mehta

No motive, no suspects in slaying of Wilson High honors student

Long Beach police said they have no suspects and no motive in the shooting death of a Wilson High School student who police said was an innocent victim of gunfire in front of the school Friday night.

The daughter of Cambodian immigrants, Melody Ross died at St. Mary's Hospital at 10:30 p.m., half an hour after she was shot, said her uncle. Ross and her friends were leaving the Wilson High homecoming game against Polytechnic High School when she was hit.

16-year-old girl fatally shot after high school football game in Long Beach

A 16-year-old girl died after a shooting following a football game at Wilson High School in Long Beach.Two people were wounded.

Long Beach police spokeswoman Sgt. Dina Zapalski said the shooting occurred Friday night at about 10 p.m., just as people were leaving a football game between Wilson and Long Beach Polytechnic.

Zapalski said details were still sketchy. LB Report said that a 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old man sustained non-life-threatening injuries and that the gunman was still at large.

Long Beach police interviewed students and others who were in the area near 10th Street and Ximeno Avenue. 

It's unclear whether the victims were students at Wilson or Poly.

-- Cara Mia DiMassa

West Covina teacher under investigation for allegedly wrapping cord around student's neck

A West Covina High shop teacher is under investigation for allegedly wrapping an electrical cord around a student’s neck and pulling it, police said today.

The incident occurred Tuesday between a student and a teacher in the regional occupational program, said Mike Gaupreau, principal of West Covina High School.

The teacher allegedly put the cord of an electric sander around the student's neck and pulled it, police said. No further details were available. The student did not immediately report the incident until Thursday at his friends' urging, the student and family told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The name of the teacher has not been released, but he has been suspended and “will not be returning to the classroom” until the investigation by the regional occupation program is complete, said Colleen Crawford, deputy superintendent of the East San Gabriel Valley ROP, a vocational training program.

“It’s a very grave situation and a grave accusation and the most important thing is that we investigate thoroughly,” she said.

No charges have been filed, said Lt. David Rozeboom of the West Covina Police Department.

-- Baxter Holmes

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Preparations for LAPD gala block downtown traffic lane, close sidewalks

Swiss reject Roman Polanski's third request for bail

L.A. police seek suspect in Rampart-area shooting that left one man dead

Man gets prison in fatal stabbing of USC film student

Travion T. Ford, a former usher at USC football games, was sentenced today to 16 years to life in state prison for the fatal stabbing of a USC film student last year in a dispute sparked by the clang of a slammed gate at an apartment complex near the university.

The sentencing of Ford, 25, for second-degree murder came after emotional statements from relatives and friends of victim Bryan R. Frost, 23, a West Point cadet from Idaho who had transferred to USC to study economics and then film.

Ford also spoke briefly in court in a voice barely above a whisper, insisting that he was not a murderer and did not start the brawl.

“If I could have avoided it, I would have,” he said. “Hopefully, when I meet Bryan in the afterlife, we will talk about it.”

L.A. schools leader considers shortened school year to balance budget

Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines has asked his chief financial officer to study the possibility of shortening the school year to offset part of an expected shortfall of at least $500 million, The Times has learned. 

The strategy, if adopted for the 2010-11 school year, would run counter both to the direction of national reform efforts and to the wishes of Cortines, who agrees with research touting the benefits of an extended academic calendar.

"You know I fought fiercely for a longer school year and a longer school day," Cortines said.

Students remaining in English language classes too long, study shows

Nearly 30% of Los Angeles Unified School District students placed in English language classes in early primary grades were still in the program when they started high school, increasing their chances of dropping out, according to a study released Wednesday.

More than half of those students were born in the United States and three-quarters had been in the school district since first grade, according to the report by The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at USC.

The findings raise questions about the teaching in the district’s English language classes, whether students are staying in the program too long and what more educators should do for students who start school unable to speak English fluently.

 “If you start LAUSD at kindergarten and are still in ELL classes at ninth grade, that’s too long,“ said Wendy Chavira, assistant director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. “There is something wrong with the curriculum if there are still a very large number of students being stuck in the system.”

Researchers tracked the data on 28,700 students from the time they started sixth grade in 1999 until graduation in 2005. They found that students who were moved to mainstream classes by the time they were in the eighth grade were more likely to stay in school, take advanced placement courses in high school and pass the high school exit exam than students who remained in English language classes.

Sex chat number accidentally printed on O.C. elementary school shirts

Officials at a Yorba Linda elementary school have recalled T-shirts given to students after discovering a phone number printed on the shirts was for a sex chat line.

A parent informed the district of the phone number -- an 800 number featured next to the school's mascot.

"It was an innocent mistake," Rosemary Gladden, public information officer for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, told the Orange County Register. "Parents have been very understanding."

The shirt was part of a fundraiser that generated $25,000. The principal of the school described the situation as a "typographical error." The 800 number on the T-shirt spells out something, and apparently no one checked to see whose number it actually was.

-- Shelby Grad

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

As war drags on, so does the battle against roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan

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Outrage over gang rape of 15-year-old girl; more arrests made overnight

Jonathan Veitch inaugurated as Occidental College president

Jonathan Veitch was inaugurated in a ceremony this morning as president of Occidental College, a 1,900-student liberal arts school in Eagle Rock.

The hiring of the former dean of the New School’s Eugene Lang College in New York City came after several years of administrative flux at the campus.

Veitch, 50, is a literature and history professor with degrees from Stanford and Harvard. He has deep Los Angeles and film industry roots. His step-grandfather was actor Alan Ladd, and his father, John Veitch, was president of Columbia Pictures’ worldwide productions.

Former UCLA Law Dean Susan Prager served as Occidental president for just 17 months, resigning in late 2007 after clashes with trustees over her leadership style. Robert Skotheim, former head of the Huntington Library, then served as interim president.

-- Larry Gordon

4th teen from same Palo Alto high school commits suicide

For the fourth time in less than six months, a student from one Palo Alto high school has committed suicide, authorities say. The boy stepped in front of a train at the same location where three other students have killed themselves since May.

CalTrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew said the latest suicide of a student from high-performing Gunn High School occurred at 10:50 p.m. Monday. Another Gunn student, a boy, 17, killed himself the same way at the same spot at 8:20 a.m on May 5.

His death was followed by the suicide of a girl, 17, on the tracks at 9:59 p.m. on June 2. The third suicide occurred at the same location on Aug. 21 at 10:45 p.m.

Palo Alto police told the San Jose Mercury News that police are limiting publicity about the suicides for fear of a growing cluster.

"The research we're being told is that the more we talk about it and romanticize it, the easier it is that mentally ill or depressed people will make that leap,'' Sgt. Dan Ryan was quoted as saying. "We're taking a stand and not releasing more information."

UC announces ambitious fundraising campaign

As the University of California seeks to sharply increase student fees, its president, Mark G. Yudof, today announced plans to soften the impact with an ambitious campaign to raise $1 billion for financial aid and a policy change widening the aid eligibility for more middle-income families.

The 10 UC campuses have committed to raise the $1 billion in private funds for student aid over the next four years, Yudof said. That would be double the amount the system garnered for that purpose over the last five years.

The university also wants to expand an existing financial aid program that uses UC, federal and state grants to cover all basic education fees but not room and board for most students whose family incomes are $60,000 or below. Yudof says he will ask the Board of Regents to broaden that “Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan” to cover household incomes up to $70,000 to ensure that no academically qualified student is shut out.

That change would add about 800 students to full coverage of fees, officials estimate. The main goal is symbolic — to encourage high school students to apply to UC, officials said.

About half of UC’s 170,000 undergraduates receive some aid, and that averages $11,100 per student, according to university statistics. Many low-income students receive help with living costs, and some students with family incomes above $100,000 a year receive some fee aid depending on their household circumstances.

In response to reduced state funding, the UC regents next month are expected to vote on a proposal to raise undergraduate fees by $2,514 by next fall to $10,300. The cost of room, board, books and other expenses can add another $15,000 to annual bills.

—Larry Gordon