Page 6 June 29, 2017 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Memory Lane Don and Sari Brann Celebrate School Spotlight Their 50th Anniversary Saving a life from a potential catastrophe EVERY 10 MINUTES! aloI nlivee but I’m never alone. I have Life Alert.® One press of a button sends help fast, 24/7, even when you can’t reach a phone. AS SEEN ON TV I live alone For a FREE brochure call: 1-866-591-7844 By Duane Plank Last Thursday evening’s Wiseburn School Board meeting featured a lengthy update on the state of the progress made by construction crews and affiliated workers at the new Wiseburn High School site at 201 N. Douglas Street. Balfour Beatty, the company that is managing the four-story, $140 million construction project that started taking shape in August of 2015, had representatives Wayne Roehmild and Don Rondeau on-hand to provide information on the project’s progress as workers strive to make deadlines that will allow the on-campus ribbon-cutting ceremony to take place on August 12, with the first day of classes at the new facility slated for August 22. Vince Madsen, Director of Facilities Planning, introduced the Balfour Beatty representatives, who said that while there were issues with some of the logistics of the project, workers had been toiling overtime to make sure that the facility would be ready to welcome students and staff when the doors officially open in less than two months. When asked by a Board member if there were any “surprises” being encountered on Douglas Street, Roehmild said that “while not everything has been perfect,” there were “no more surprises--just a lot of work.” IT issues, fire alarm integration, and getting the building elevators to mesh with the building’s infrastructure were mentioned as typical areas to still be addressed as a project of this magnitude moves into the final stages. Also present during the meeting to answer questions were Alvin Flores and Scott Griffith, representatives from the K-12 architectural design firm Ruhnau, Ruhnau and Clarke. The Board was set to approve the sum of $180,000, contracting with the firm to develop an architectural master plan and provide design services for the soon-to-be-vacated land at the west portion of Dana Middle School, bordering Aviation, once the District offices are moved to the new High School facility. The Board will officially vote on the item during a brief meeting scheduled the morning of June 28. The new facility will be known as the Dana West Sports Complex. Wiseburn Superintendent Tom Johnstone has mentioned the possibility of installing a full running track on the property. Not mentioned at the meeting, because it is pending Board approval, was the selection of the new principal for Juan Cabrillo Elementary. Prior to the meeting, Johstone said that Lisa Baggio, an assistant principal at Marco Forster Middle School in San Juan Capistrano, will be taking over for the retiring Margaret Lynch. The Board was expected to approve the appointment of Baggio at a very brief meeting that was set to take place yesterday morning. Emailed Baggio about her new position: “I am thrilled to have been selected as principal at Juan Cabrillo Elementary. It is an honor to become a part of such a prestigious district and school. I am truly looking forward to working with the dynamic team at Cabrillo. I am excited about getting to know all stakeholders and continuing the progressive work that Juan Cabrillo and Wiseburn Unified are known for.” Baggio will be joining the recently selected Kim Jones (Peter Burnett Elementary) as new school principals in the District for the 2017-18 school year. Jones’ selection was approved by the Board at the June 8 meeting. Baggio obtained a BA from Chapman University, a Masters from UC Irvine, and another Masters in Educational Leadership from UCLA, and has also worked in education in New York City. One of 17 initial applicants for the position, Baggio was one of three candidates called back for a second interview. Both Lynch and Laura Sullivan, principal at Burnett, who is also retiring, attended the Thursday evening meeting, and were praised by Board members for their years of service to the District. The only special presentation that took place during the 100-minute meeting was made by Sarah Nitsos, the District’s Intervention coordinator. Nitsos shared with the Board what she termed her “deep dive” into reading intervention, with a specific focus on K-2 students. Nitsos, who had served the District in a prior capacity as the principal at Anza, talked about the successes of Wiseburn’s 2016-17 reading intervention program. Initially focusing on K-2 readers in need of extra help to increase their reading comprehension, the program provides a goldmine of specific data that enabled Nitsos to not only help classroom teachers identify young learners who may be falling behind, but also grace teachers with specific information and data that they could use to help young learners improve their reading and comprehension skills. Said Nitsos: “My job was exploratory in nature, much like Christopher Columbus.” While each school site, she said, had previously had interventions, they were not necessarily synched-up throughout the District. She sought to develop a program that would be implemented throughout Wiseburn, provide teacher feedback--and not only be child-focused, but also allow teachers and administrators to mine available data. Post the special presentation, Board member comments ensued, with several asking about the program as it moved forward into the 2017-18 school year. Nitsos said she would like to see the program expand, but that would entail “personnel.” One of the limitations of intervention, she said, was the timeframe that current intervention personnel could devote to the program. Said Superintendent Johnstone: “It is a huge blessing to us to have a principal quality person that really has an unbelievable knowledge of students from the classroom level up to the principal level to be focused 100 percent of the time on this topic.” Lynch lauded the work done by Nitsos. She noted how it was very important for the District to create and fund the intervention coordinator position, and how Nitros has “brought it to life” and “brought the conversation from teachers talking about ‘my kids’ to teachers talking about ‘our kids.’” The next regularly scheduled Wiseburn Board meeting is on the docket for Thursday, July 20. • Don and Sari Brann shown on their wedding day on June 17, 1967 at the Wayfarers Chapel (also known as “The Glass Church”) in Rancho Palos Verdes—long before the former could have imagined one day serving on the El Segundo City Council. The two just celebrated their 50th anniversary and are looking forward to the next half-century. Wiseburn School Administration Selects New Principal for Cabrillo Elementary Like Us on Facebook
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