The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 31 - July 30, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................8
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals....................................9
Letters...................................3
Obituaries.............................2
Pets......................................10
Police Reports.....................2
Real Estate.............6-8,11,12
Weekend
Forecast
Etch and Catch Was a Big Success
The Community Engagement Division of the El Segundo Police Department facilitated Operation Etch and Catch over the weekend. This quick in-n-out event ensured that your vehicle’s license plate number
was permanently engraved on your catalytic converter by mechanics to discourage thieves from targeting you. If criminals make the mistake of stealing your engraved converter, the engraving will help
police investigate and catch them. There was an overwhelming response and over 90 cars were etched. Thank you Blue Butterfly Coffee Co. and El Segundo Car Wash for complimentary coffee and car
wash vouchers. Photo courtesy El Segundo Police Department.
Venerable St. Anthony Elementary
School Shutters Classroom Doors
By Duane Plank
viability of the school in this community.”
As you drove East on Grand Avenue six
Multiple messages left with the parish for
weeks or so ago, or took your daily lockdown
Father Robert to discuss the closure were
walk, past the corner of Lomita and Grand
not returned by the time this story was filed.
streets in El Segundo, you may have noticed
Jill Deranian, principal at St. Anthony
blue banners hanging on the chain-link fence
since June 1 of 2018, said that the closing
surrounding St. Anthony Catholic Church and
came out of the blue. “As a school,” she said,
school promoting the 2020/21 elementary school
“we were not prepared to be closed. We had
year, hoping for a resumption of classroom
tours happening; we had a videographer, had
normalcy as students, educators, administrators,
just re-done two rooms, we had enrollment
and parents yearned for a return to the actual
happening.”
classroom for the 20/21 school year.
Deranian, who had taught at the school
Well, never mind. Because after more than
17 years ago when the enrollment was 350
a 60-year existence, St. Anthony Elementary
students, said that while current enrollment
School has closed its classroom doors, a victim
was at seventy, at one-point enrollment had
of perceived economic realities amongst the
dwindled to just 30. She and her staff, in
worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. The
concert with St. Anthony’s parents, were
banners promoting the ramp-up to the 2020/21
making strides to boost enrollment at the
elementary school year have disappeared,
with the only cloth advertisements still
adorning the chain-link fences promoting the
ESUSD School Board Virtual Town
resumption of the St. Anthony Pre-school for
the youngest learners.
Hall Addresses 20/21 School Year
In a letter to the community dated June
19 announcing the school closure and posted
By Duane Plank
will be virtual, distance learning, for the
on the parish website, pastor Father Robert
Most of the lawn signs congratulating
foreseeable future.
Victoria wrote that “the school continues to
El Segundo Unified School District
School districts were forced, out of
need an average of $200,000 a year from
2020 graduates or students being promoted
“an abundance of caution,” to implement
outside sources independent of tuition to
to the next step in their educational
distance learning in mid-March
remain open.” He said that parish recognized
journey appear to have been jettisoned
when classroom doors were shuttered.
the shortfall in 2016, “but we all chose to
to the garage.
Depending on who you speak with in
fight for our school.” He wrote that the
But did you know the next school
differing school districts, the distance
“coronavirus pandemic has further undermined
year, arguably the most challenging in
learning protocol was effective. Or needed
the financial ability of the parish to fulfill
ESUSD history, will commence in less
some tweaking.
(its) pledge. All other resources are depleted.”
than a month, on August 26? With most
Monday night’s virtual town hall
Father Robert wrote that “this decision is
everything in this country in a state of
meeting, moderated by Dr. Jack Plotkin,
not an easy one. It was made after careful
flux, school administrators were hoping
who served as the El Segundo Middle
discernment and after continued efforts to
for some semblance of normalcy when
School principal before ascending to his
improve the sustainability of the school over
the new school year started—no such
new position as Director of Innovation
many years. We remain hopeful that this is
luck. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has
and Student Support, attempted to answer
not a permanent state of our school, but the
decreed that schooling in the Golden State
time has come to step back and reassess the
school, which had yearly tuition of $4,400
for the first student.
“When I took the job on,” she said, “we
knew there was a deficit, a huge deficit for
the last six years.” In January or December,
she said, Father Robert made a plea to the
parish, asking for funding to keep the school
open for the next two years.
The abrupt closure of the school sent the
seventy students and their families scrambling
to find new schools during a pandemic, and
jettisoned nine St. Anthony school employees,
who also lost their health care, Deranian said.
Georgiana Curcio was the principal at St.
Anthony from 2008 to 2015. She emailed
that her family has had a several decade
relationship with St. Anthony, with her husband
See St. Anthony, page 9
See ESUSD, page 5
Friday
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Saturday
Partly
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Sunday
Partly
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