EL SEGUNDO HERALD April 27, 2017 Page 7 Eagles from page 5 goals, while Lukas Roscoe had two goals and Jacob Brockman, Scot Melton and Lund each scored once. El Segundo Softball Tournament Underway The Lady Eagles got off to a great start by defeating Notre Dame Academy 6-3 in the first round of the El Segundo Tournament. It could have been a blowout, but the Lady Eagles left 13 runners on base. Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, El Segundo tied it up when Katherine Kakuske singled and later scored on Julia Chavez’s RBI single. In the fifth inning, Chavez doubled and scored on a fielder’s choice for an El Segundo 2-1 lead. With the score tied 2-2 in the seventh inning, Nena Hylander’s two-run double made it 4-2. The Lady Eagles tagged on two more runs when Cierra Kessler slugged a two-run triple to centerfield. NDA scored a run in its half of the seventh for the final 6-3 score. In the second round, the game was cut short in the top of the sixth inning when the lights went out due to a city curfew. El Segundo was trailing Harvard Westlake 5-3 with Bailey Ernest at the plate. The game will be resumed on Saturday as will the rest of the tournament. • Sebastian Mills getting loose from a Samo defender. #4 Rory Cochrane and #13 Scott Melton on the attack. #16 Midfielder Devon Bonney was the Eagles’ faceoff specialist. City Council from front page Wiseburn from page 3 programs. She gave her update, noting that “we are very, very busy. We are serving approximately 360 students throughout the District, and we are full.” She also shared parental survey results, which gave the program very high marks in all categories, and highlighted how the positive behavior matrix developed at Cabrillo and was mentioned in the prior presentation is also utilized in Child Development Center programs. She noted ramped-up professional development opportunities for WCDC staff, and the increased access to technology for the District’s young learners. Increased safety enhancements were broached--critical in light of recent school-site violence, including door-locking procedures and the installation of doorbell and video cameras as well as alarms. Increasing campus safety, always a priority, has been highlighted because of the recent horrific shootings in San Bernardino. Mazzarella mentioned that preschool parent training sessions have taken place, although the parental turnout has been somewhat sparse. She indicated that the timing of the trainings may be altered, adding that “we are going to keep working on how we can get better attendance.” She added that some changes this school year included new classrooms at Cabrillo, and elimination of “extended care, because we want to focus on instruction.” Space was an issue, she said. She also addressed the strides being made in teaching special education students. After the presentation, Johnstone noted, “I don’t think we could have done what we have” [without the seamless transition from the prior group that had run the program to the WCDC]. “We have taken an awesome program and made it that much better.” Board members and District administrators then had their turn to make comments, with the presenters departing and one of the folks who left at this point of the 90-minute meeting jokingly imploring Board members to “make good decisions tonight.” The success of recent District events, including “Rock- Around-the-Block,” were lauded, with kudos going out to the hard work of the Wiseburn Education Foundation. Board Vice President JoAnne Kaneda voiced her appreciation of how well the event was staged. Kaneda also brought up the recent tragic events that took place at the San Bernardino elementary school. Said Board President Israel Mora, “Unfortunately, it is a reality of life and something that we are going to have to look at closely. We all know that we don’t want our schools to be prisons.” Talk ensued about how the San Bernardino shooter, who then committed suicide, easily gained access to the classroom to murder his estranged wife and an innocent student. Mora said it was an important topic, and if District personnel are having “issues” with a significant other, “maybe it needs to be discussed--but of course, nobody likes to do that. Things happen in the country, and we just can’t say that it is not going to happen here.” Superintendent Johnstone, addressing the devastating fallout from the school-site shooting, said that the District was working on its sign-in protocol to limit visitors and family members on-campus during the school day and after-hours. He also touted the “activeshooter” training taking place for District teachers and “significant office staff” on April 27. Next year, he said, District members will become certified to deal with possible “active shooters” on campus, through the “ALICE” Training Institute. Action items were next on the agenda, including the approval of the safe school plans--a huge issue considering recent developments. Construction change orders at the new high school were next briefly mentioned, with all well heading towards the start of school on August 22. Consent items followed, with personnel issues quickly addressed. School open houses blanket the May District calendar, with Burnett holding its event on May 31. The next meeting Wiseburn School Board meeting has been moved up on the calendar, because of scheduling issues, and is now set for Thursday, May 4. • emergency medical services edged up a notch from four minutes and eight seconds to four minutes and 14 seconds. Fire call response was up 24 seconds from the prior month (five minutes and 23 seconds in March). The KPIs also include the number of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members who received training. Nine more individuals took CERT classes in March on the heels of 19 in February, with staff labor time adding up to 60 hours each month. The Human Resources Department has also been busy as it oversees employee hires, with eight positons filled in March and 24 total year to date. There were no internal promotions last month after three in February. The City also lost six people—two full-time and four-part time. The lengthy (129-day average wait) period to fill recruitments may seem alarming at first, but Lillio explained that the numbers are skewed due to the necessary extensive search for major department head spots such as the new Police Chief and Information Technology Director. Looking to keep an eye on local infrastructure repair, the KPIs also include a running number of potholes in town filled on a monthly basis— with 254 done in March and 620 total for 2017. February and March additionally saw a combined 52 skin patches (to fill depressions in the road), 13 sidewalk grinding repairs and two digouts that all told required 139 labor hours. And thanks to a heavy outreach campaign in which customers received flyer inserts and the City highlighted information on its website, online payments for water bills swelled by nearly 50 percent in March from the previous month. While pleased with the progress, members of the City Council have already begun making some tweaks. Mayor Pro Tem Drew Boyles asked if stats on employee turnover can be annualized with percentages rather than absolute numbers. He also thought Part 1 crime information should be analyzed on a per capita resident basis in order to compare with other communities. Councilmember Carol Pirsztuk wondered if departments had already changed any existing processes due to the first monthly reports and if any new KPIs might be added. Carpenter emphasized that the strategic plan is not static and (along with the KPIs) can and will change over time as new information becomes available. Meanwhile, staff continues to compile data and future reports will include resident/business satisfaction survey results and citizen surveys/ questionnaires, as well as employee satisfaction surveys to be developed by Human Resources. Lillio will provide a quarterly status report to the City Council on the strategic work plan, while the Public Works Department will come back every three months with an update on capital improvement plan implementation. Other items of note include tracking economic indicators and tax revenue annually, monthly OpenGov status reports on budget versus actuals, annual percent of costs recovered for services provided, quarterly investment policy compliance, and status update of the Information Services master plan implementation. Staff will also analyze City website traffic to determine the number of “hits,” what pages were most viewed, number of inquiries made by the community via Web tools, and number of online transactions in all. “Leadership guru Peter Drucker said it best—‘What gets measured improves,’ and while we have a great city, there is clearly room for improvement,” Boyles said. “Measuring and improving our performance will help us create a safer city with engaged and satisfied employees and residents, while supporting smart decisions about infrastructure and our finances.” •
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