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Page 6 April 19, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Entertainment Wiseburn School Board
At the center of the story is newcomer Brady
Jandreau, who along with the cast, doesn’t so
much perform as he does live his everyday life
and express his very real feelings. Zhao captures
an authenticity to a part of this American
character and life that loosely fictionalizes a
narrative that cannot be faked with very masterful
observation and understanding of these people
and their lives. The Rider is one of the most
unique and moving viewing experiences I’ve
seen in quite some time. It’s largely a meditative
film, which means that it requires you to
watch with patience. Like Darren Aronofsky’s
The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as a
professional wrestler on the brink of retirement,
The Rider shows the blue collar workers
who follow a career and passion to a
detrimental degree. It will reinvigorate your
love for your passions and show what meaning
we find in life when confronted with hardship.
The Rider is 104 minutes. Rated R for
language and drug use. Now playing at The
Landmark. •
Film Review
Addresses Cyber Hack;
Honors Bee Winners
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening’s meeting of the
Wiseburn Board included only one special
presentation, acknowledging three students
for their success in the Feb. 22 spelling bee.
The Board meeting encompassed the old
and the new, feting spelling bee winners
-- a practice that goes back in the field of
education for decades. It also addressed a
very recent plague – a cyber hack of Wiseburn
Unified School District’s information
technology system.
The spelling bee stalwarts recognized
included first place winner Andrew Carranza,
a sixth grader at Dana Middle School;
runner-up Sakura Walters, also a sixth grader
attending Dana; and third-place finisher
Christopher Smith, a fifth-grade student at
Peter Burnett Elementary.
Deputy Superintendent Chris Jones, who
ran the initial portions of the meeting because
Superintendent Tom Johnstone was across
the street at Los Angles Air Force Base
receiving a commendation as an “Honorary
Base Commander,” introduced the students
and asked each which word they found to
be challenging in the 26-student competition.
The spelling bee winners then posed for a
photo with the assembled Board.
Board member reports followed, with
Neal Goldman thanking all who worked to
“negotiate the ransomware scenario.” Nelson
Martinez thanked the Wiseburn Education
Foundation for its work at the recent Rock
Around the Block extravaganza. Vice President/
Clerk Roger Banuelos echoed Martinez’
kudos for the volunteers involved in the
success of the Rock Around the Block program
and also congratulated Peter Burnett
Elementary for being selected as a California
Distinguished School. “That is just fantastic,”
Banuelos remarked. “I am incredibly proud
of everybody there. It is a validation of what
happens at Burnett.” The Burnett School will
be recognized at a gala that will be held at
the Disneyland Hotel on May 3.
Board President JoAnne Kaneda also
thanked all concerned with quelling the
ransomware threat, and lauded the subsequent
game plan implemented. She thought
Wiseburn “made the right decision” to not
pay the “ransom,” noting it caused the District
to investigate possible options in data
storage and data safety that it may not have
considered without the attempted cyber-attack.
Kaneda also spoke about her wish to have a
review of the parameters of the ransomware
attack, what the District learned and what
steps should be implemented. She added
that the District could benefit from a “rolling
three-year IT plan.”
Kaneda also spoke about the District’s plan
to expand the Child Development Center
(CDC), with a key component to lessen the
waitlist that many families find that they are
faced with as they seek childcare options.
If the proposed school bond passes in June,
money would be available to upgrade all
District facilities and supplement and grow
the CDC program.
David Wilson, chief business official,
spoke about District financial liabilities as all
California school districts struggle to meet
their financial obligations (pre- and postretirement)
to people who work in the field
of education. “When you are in the people
business, it can be expensive,” Wilson said.
During his comments, Jones mentioned the
April 9 EdShift event, which took place at
the new high school and allowed the District
to showcase the facility. Prior to Thursday’s
meeting, Johnstone had categorized the Ed-
Shift mission as an attempt to “bring together
teams that want to change the conversation on
education, and effect positive, District-wide
transformations.” The superintendent spoke
of reconfigured learning spaces that enable
21st century advances that he described as
“very progressive and risk-taking” at the
higher K-12 levels. He posited that it is
“fundamentally a different way of looking
at learning,” saying that one of the goals of
EdShift is to “tap into what the kids already
know and build on it.”
About 100 people attended EdShift
day, Jones said, and they were able to “see
the schools in action.” He was also highly
involved in quelling the ransomware attack
and spoke of that threat to the District before
introducing District technology technician
Quan Tra.
Tra approached the presentation podium
to share details about the cyberattack. Ransomware
is an insidious software that hackers
employ to paralyze a computer system until a
sum of money is paid. Of the security breach,
Tra said, “This is on me. We need to learn
from this and move on.” He noted that as a
small district, Wiseburn did not think it could
be a candidate for a cyber-hack. This event,
Tra said, made him look at possible District
IT “shortcomings,” noting implementations
that will “not allow this to happen again.”
He detailed steps that will be or have been
taken to protect District data.
“Lesson learned,” Quan concluded. “Even
though we are a small [district], we are
vulnerable. Instead of waiting for summer,
there are things that need to be taken care
of as soon as possible.”
Among the action items tackled by the
Board were the first of what is expected
to be four approvals for Da Vinci schools
charter petitions; the approval of agreements
with Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State
Long Beach to have the District provide
opportunities for student teachers; and an
agreement with UCLA Extension to train
people to work with the CDC.
With work still ongoing at the Douglas
Street location, the facilities portion of the
action item agenda focused on “piggyback”
construction items that have typically allowed
the District to save and make money
under the guidance of Facilities Planner
Vince Madsen. The Board also addressed
repurposing the old District administration
facility located on Aviation Boulevard, and
placing the outdoor bleachers for the pool
deck at the Aquatics Center.
Fiscal action items agreed to included the
approval of additional payments to the Law
Firm of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud &
Romo. Goldman queried whether there was
any possibility of looking into a retainer
agreement with District law firms, saying he
was hoping to “look at creative alternatives.”
Johnstone then arrived and took his seat on
the dais after his induction as an “Honorary
Commander” across the street, commenting
that the soiree was “a lot of fun.”
The next regularly scheduled Wiseburn
School Board meeting is penciled in for
Thursday evening, April 26. •
“One piece of wisdom a writer
quickly learns ~ typos
keep you humble.”
– E.A. Bucchianeri
Zhao’s The Rider Is a Meditative
and Moving Look at Americana
By Ryan Rojas for www.cinemacy.com
Tales of Americana rodeo cowboys – typically
men – often portray a heavy helping of
machismo in their identity. But in director
Chloé Zhao’s second feature film, The Rider,
we see a softer and more observational story
of blue collar workers who, with the use of
non-actors playing fictionalized versions of
themselves, reflect a larger societal observation
of overcoming hardship in pursuit of a
deeper passion for something as beautiful as
it is dangerous and destructive.
In a simple story sense, The Rider celebrates
salt-of-the earth people who face hardship and
The Rider. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
it does so with a real painter’s eye. Brady
Jandreau (who plays himself) is a man of
the land – silently wise for a young man
who has experienced a lot in his young life,
including a debilitating post-rodeo accident
that sidelines him. Brady is also a man of
grit. We don’t see the accident, but we do see
him removing staples from his head before
putting on his cowboy hat. The film follows
Brady as he attempts to literally “get back
on the horse,” which is such a big part of
his small-town life.
The Rider goes further in painting a larger
image of the hardships that Brady faces.
Zhao portrays Brady’s life with a single father,
whose drinking means the rent doesn’t
get paid and threatens the stability of him
having to also raise a developmentally disabled
younger sister. Here, Zhao shows that
he has more in his life that he must tame.
These storylines are even more powerful
when you learn that Chloé Zhao uses nonactors
to play these characters to stunning
effect -- essentially versions of themselves,
including his aforementioned father and sister
as well as another rodeo cowboy who is a
full paraplegic.
Ryan Rojas.
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