EL SEGUNDO HERALD October 31, 2019 Page 3
School Spotlight
WUSD Sports
Legendary Football Coach
Steve Shevlin Stepping Down
By Gregg McMullin
El Segundo High School has been fortunate
to have some great head coaches. If there was
a Mount Rushmore of El Segundo High head
coaches and it was narrowed down to four, you’d
find for the first three Urho Saari (water polo
and swimming), John Stevenson (baseball) and
Rick Sabosky (basketball) proudly displayed.
Each was a legendary coach who brought out
the best in their players both on and off their
respected field of play for decades. You can
add and chisel Steve Shevlin onto that special
monument.
Friday night will be Shevlin’s final regular
season football game as head coach of the
Eagles. After 26 years, Coach Shev” is stepping
down. He’s adamant that he is not retiring
from his athletic director position at the high
Head Coach Steve Shevlin is stepping down after 26 years. Here he accepts the 2013 CIF championship Runner’s Up Plaque.
school he has held since 1999. “I’m not going
anywhere -- I’ll still be the AD. It is just time,”
he said. He added that the timing was right to
pass the program over to a highly motivated,
experienced and qualified person.
Coach Shevlin was a standout defensive
back for Culver City High School in 1979
and 1980. He became an assistant coach at
the lower levels for his alma mater for five
seasons before being hired as a teacher at El
Segundo High in the winter of 1990. He spent
four years as an assistant coach for the Eagles
before being named head coach in 1994.
Shevlin’s first several seasons were challenging
when El Segundo moved into a league
with such powers as Mira Costa, Redondo and
Rolling Hills (Peninsula). When El Segundo
was moved into the Santa Fe League in 2001
it was the start of an incredible run that saw
the Eagles win six league championships, advance
to the CIF playoffs 15 times in 18 years,
make five quarterfinal appearances, reach one
semifinal and play in one final. Since 2001,
the Eagles have had just one losing season and
won 139 games. In that time, the team has
a 64 percent winning percentage. With 158
wins overall, Shevlin is the second winningest
South Bay football coach in the area behind
Don Morrow of Mira Costa.
With Shevlin at the helm the program has
established school records for consecutive
Wiseburn School Board Views Cali
Dashboard Special Presentation
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening’s Wiseburn School
Board meeting featured special presentations
updating compliance with the state-mandated
California Dashboard analytics educational
tally, and implementation of the Ni Hao
Mandarin after-school program at Juan de
Anza Elementary.
The Ni Hao Mandarin presentation, helmed
by Wiseburn Unified School District parents
Zalina Visentin and Jenna Boller, included
information regarding the current after-school
program, videos that portrayed the joy of
students who attend the program, parental
testimonials, plus next steps as they try to
grow the nascent offering.
There are currently 12 students enrolled
in the program. Nine were listed as “fulltime.”
Two well-credentialed teachers, Zoe
Lao shi and Joy Lao shi, are working with
the students, whose after-school activities
begin at 12:30 p.m. and can conclude for
some at 6 p.m. Their daily activities include
“Circle-time,” where the focus is on
music and movement with Mandarin songs;
group learning that includes a theme book
in Mandarin; and an enrichment timeframe
featuring arts and crafts, with the emphasis on
Chinese characters. Then there is a block for
“story-time in Mandarin.” Also on the daily
agenda: Outside playtime and the probably
necessary “bathroom break.”
Anza Principal Alberto Paredes gives high
marks to the program. “Ni Hao gives our
students an opportunity to learn a language
in a fun, collaborative way,” he said. “We
are happy to be able to partner with them.”
Parental testimonials rounded out the
presentation, with a couple of the young
program participants being coaxed to sing
a Mandarin tune to the appreciative Board.
Da Vinci Charter School administrator
Gloria White, who appeared on the boardroom
big screen from Sacramento, spearheaded the
next presentation remotely. Wiseburn Assistant
Superintendent, Educational Services
Dr. Aileen Harbeck was deeply involved
in the gathering and reporting of the staterequired
data.
The Dashboard is a fairly recent mandate
asking educators to help identify strides made
by school districts trying to button-down analytic
data that does not just reflect the results
of a single test score -- but also focuses on
perceived disparities among student groups,
with more information culled to support the
local school strategic planning process.
Harbeck said that the Dashboard allows
educators to provide “self -reflection.” White
noted that while implementing the Dashboard
metrics is “a little scary, with a lot
of hard work,” she added that the process is
“super-fun and super-exciting.” The goal of
the Dashboard implementers is to improve
the outcomes for all District students in a
transparent way.
Summing up the Dashboard analysis in
Wiseburn: All necessary indicators have
been “met,” including basic services, parental
engagement, school climate, and access to
a broad course of study. The next steps for
the Dashboard regimen include the Nov.
1 end-of-submission date, and the public
release of accumulated data in the second
week of December.
Wiseburn Superintendent Dr. Blake Silvers
said he is a fan of the Dashboard. “It gives
us the data,” he said. “It allows us to look
at the data and see how we can match our
metrics with what the State considers to be
a high performing [district]. We are using
the Dashboard quite a lot.”
Board member reports then followed, with
many looking forward to upcoming events.
Board President JoAnne Kaneda noted how
things must be humming along because she
hasn’t received too many stakeholder missives
recently.
District CBO Dave Wilson answered questions
on the R.H Dana Middle School gym
financials. President Kaneda asked about the
fact the local fields are “absolutely packed
with soccer.” She queried, “I would really
like to know who is using the fields? There
is a lot of stuff going on.” She mentioned
she wanted to make sure that all users of
Wiseburn facilities were paying their fair share.
During his report, Silvers thanked White
for her diligence in helping compile the
Dashboard data and reporting remotely, noting
that gathering required data “is not the
most fun.” He also spoke of his attendance
at Peter Burnett Elementary School’s Native
American artifacts exhibit., giving props to
teacher Dorothy Sweeney and adding that it
is nice to see how students respond to what
he termed “old technology.” He also pointed
out the continuing District efforts to address
perceived safety concerns and continue to
ramp up communications to stakeholders.
In other District news, Burnett fifth graders
culminated a unit of study with the Native
American exhibit on campus that featured students
making an artifact at home, which would
be displayed at the school. Students were
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