EL SEGUNDO HERALD October 22, 2020 Page 3
Election 2020
Candidate
Amy Grant
El Segundo School Board Candidates Q&A
Candidate
Michael Wagner
Candidate
Dieema Wheaton
Vote nov. 3
By Duane Plank
With the implementation of distance
learning, what are your thoughts on
the best way for the District to ensure
high academic scores? Any improvements
you would seek with distance
learning?
Michael Wagner: We have to consider
distance learning in regards to access, technology
and timing. As a teacher, there are
more hours in preparation for less execution.
As parents, we’re spending more time just to
get our children through each day. Unfortunately,
for all of us, it isn’t just a teacher’s
responsibility to deliver a lesson plan and
parents are taking the lead in ensuring their
students academic achievement. The biggest
improvement we can make together is to
reassure our students, while school is virtual,
it is real. Students need to attend, participate,
engage, study and advocate when they need
help. If we all continue to stress that school
is tangible, the closer it will reflect what it
will be when we all return. This will be
the most important thing we can offer right
now in keeping high achievement for all our
schools and ensuring against academic lapses.
Amy Grant: Our kids are facing a ridiculous
amount of pressure because of distancelearning.
Why should we create additional
pressure to achieve high test scores? If ever
there was a time to pivot our focus from high
scores to whole wellness of the child, it is
now. Most colleges and universities are not
requiring standardized scoring for admission
so it is the perfect opportunity for our district
and our families to truly focus on creating
happy, healthy and well rounded students. I
am NOT saying that we become complacent
in our standards, but I am saying that we
need to allow our students grace to navigate
these unprecedented times.
Dieema Wheaton: The best way to
maximize academic success during distance
learning is through increased guardian/parental
participation and student/teacher engagement.
When discussing possible improvements, we
must first acknowledge that distance learning
will impact our student population in different
ways. For some students, factors such as
connectivity, in-home academic support, food
insecurity, and lack of supervision may lead
to an overall decline in learning. In order
to improve our current distance-learning
model, it is imperative that we educate our
teachers and parents to quickly recognize and
address concerns or issues that may lead to
a deterioration in learning, while continuing
to strive for academic success.
Speaking of distance learning, how
are your children participating? How
is it going? Are they fully distance
learning, or opting-in to the hybrid
option the District has offered?
Amy Grant: We opted for our 2nd grader to
go full distance. When distance learning began
last Spring, I had to sit with him constantly
and walk him through his assignments. This
year he has had a complete turn-around and
I believe a great deal of his success is owed
to the improved structure of distance learning.
While we would prefer in-person instruction,
he has pivoted well and achieved a new level
of independence and academic progress. We
do deal with a weekly “break down”…but Ms.
Varghese and I have been in amazing communication,
and we work as a team through any
issues as they come up. We opted to keep our
other son, Ryan, at St. John’s Preschool. He
just turned 5 and we felt that we would be
setting him up for greater success academically
by keeping him there until he can be enrolled
at Richmond full-time in person.
Dieema Wheaton: My husband and I
chose the hybrid option for our three children.
However, due to the current Los Angeles
County mandate, all three are currently in
full-distance learning until ESUSD is approved
for in-person learning. While all
three of my children have adjusted well to
remote learning, they are looking forward to
returning to their respective schools.
Michael Wagner: We elected to place our
children in the hybrid program, to ensure if
we are able to safely return, they would have
the option to go back to school. The current
distance learning is working for both our
children academically, but they are lacking
the daily social interaction that school offers.
It is important to note that having a teacher
and former teacher in the house gives us a
great advantage in supporting our children.
As parents we understand the commitment it
is taking to lead in their student’s academic
progress. As everyone adjusts their responsibilities
around distance learning, we have
to continue to work in student’s best interest
in getting back. As an educator and parent, I
understand fully that there is no replacement
for in-person instruction and only hope that we
continue pushing forward to safely return to
school for all of the students in our district •
Proposed Aviation Blvd. Bikeway/Greenway is a
Great Public Private Regional Community Project
By Dr. Don Brann
The eastern border of the City of El
Segundo along Aviation Boulevard is often
the introduction to El Segundo; and, it is a
cluttered, blighted, industrial eyesore. In my
initial column on August 13, I commented
on this ugly stretch along the west side of
Aviation that sits between Imperial Highway
and El Segundo Boulevard.
Since 2017, this area has been used as the
staging and dumping grounds for Metro’s
Crenshaw/LAX expansion. Drive/walk by
this eastern border of El Segundo and you’ll
see debris, dirt, construction materials, heavy
machinery, left over trash from workers’
lunches, etc. This land is embarrassing for
the City and an eyesore for our eastern
neighbor- the neighborhood of Del Aire.
To the rescue comes the proposed Bikeway/
Greenway, a proposal to clean up, beautify,
green, and put the land to use for the community.
This proposal involves installing a bike
and jog/walk path off the street with beautiful
landscaping and big trees in order to make
this introduction to El Segundo something to
be proud of. A Bikeway/ Greenway along this
stretch will provide transportation options not
available today. This stretch of road is identified
as a priority in the South Bay Regional
Bike Plan and the LA County Regional Bike
Plan. However, no bike lanes currently exist.
The Bikeway/Greenway would allow El
Segundo cyclists to connect with the nearby
Metro Green Line station and get to LAX or
to a Rams game without driving, get to work
in downtown, or tie into future links of the
South Bay Bike Path network throughout El
Segundo. Furthermore, the Greenway will
beautify the blighted corridor, provide a safe
route to school for Da Vinci school students
living in Del Aire, boost economic investment
along the rapidly changing entrance to El
Segundo, and enhance safety for pedestrians,
students, and cyclists.
To visualize this proposal, see the renderings
created by local architect Nathalie O’Gorman.
It’s striking to compare and contrast the
renderings that include blue-butterfly attracting
bushes and meandering paths with the
present conditions. By traveling one mile
south and turning left at 135th Street into the
neighborhoods of Hollyglen and Wiseburn,
one can view two developed walk/jog paths
along the east and west side of the San Diego
Freeway. These examples demonstrate what
can be done. These developed paths were a
mess for decades until funding, bureaucracy,
and politics were overcome by determined
community members.
This project faces similar challenges. Los
Angeles County Metro owns the land along
this stretch of land and supports the project as
it will help them increase accessibility to and
from Metro train stations. However, BNSF
Railroad owns the operating rights to the
tracks; which means that the railroad tracks
along Aviation are still part of BNSF’s active
system. Even so, BNSF has not put any trains
along this stretch for over ten years and the
Crenshaw/LAX Metro expansion blocked the
tracks ability to go north. Thus, BNSF could
ABC Doc
See ABC Doc, page 4