Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 61, No. 12 - March 21, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................4
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 5,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
A Happy Birthday to Scottie!
Wiseburn Looks at Mandarin
Immersion; Facilities Master Plan
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening’s Wiseburn School
Board meeting started with a presentation
from two parents about the launch of the
Mandarin Language After School Program
slated to begin during the 2019/20 school
year. The presenters were Jenna Boller and
Zalina Visentin, and they laid out a program
that would culminate with a launch of the paid
afterschool program at Anza Elementary this
fall for TK, kindergartners and first graders.
The program will be run by a third-party
group, Ni Hao Chinese, and will be open to
all Wiseburn students, with those at Anza receiving
priority if they sign up in March. The
second of two informational parent sessions
took place on Tuesday at Anza.
Superintendent Dr. Blake Silvers, Assistant
Superintendent, Educational Services, Dr.
Aileen Harbeck, and member Dr. Neil Goldman
all praised Boller and Visentin for their
tireless work in getting the Mandarin program
off the ground.
The program hopes to attract an initial
minimum of 15 students, with a tentative cap
of 20, although Goldman quipped, “What
happens when we get 400 students?” He
also congratulated the organizers on their
perseverance and tenacity as they “take the
big-picture view.”
Parents can sign their children up and
leave an initial deposit ($200, which will be
applied to the first month tuition) at the Anza
front office. The presenters detailed their
communication plan to bring the program to
fruition, including Silvers sending an email
blast to community members to build awareness.
Principal Alberto Paredes will also email
Anza families, while social media outlets like
Facebook and Instagram will additionally
promote the upcoming program.
Boller and Visentin also detailed next steps
after the launch of the program, including
summer camps, field trips, cultural experiences,
and a possible fifth grade trip to China. They
also showed the Board members a sample
Ni Hao Anza class schedule that could be
implemented this fall.
The second presentation came from Rick
Musto, Associate Managing Director of the
design firm LPA, which is working with the
Wiseburn Unified School District in the nascent
stages of the Long-Range Facilities Master
Plan (LRFMP). Now that the heavy lifting
has been accomplished with the opening of
Wiseburn High, the District’s focus turns to
next best steps and future priorities. Silvers
said the District had enacted a thorough vetting
process to secure a LRFMP partner, and
that LPA was selected as the “the best firm
out there” to partner with Wiseburn
Musto provided details about the firm, which
has been in business for more than a half century
and boasts more than 400 employees, with more
than a quarter of their personnel dedicated to
education. He touted the firm’s master-planning
experience, noting collaboration with school
districts in Hawthorne and Compton, among
others. He spoke of establishing a “visionary”
process, based on how students will learn in
the future; discovering the impact of program
to facilities and technology needs; and developing
a long-term phased implementation
approach. He then shared components of the
development of the LRFMP, including educational
visions and goals; a demographics
review; facilities condition assessments; and
financial analysis -- all under the umbrella of
necessary collaboration with all stakeholders
in the final recommendations that will be
brought to the Board.
Next Musto detailed planned stakeholder
outreach, including the development of District
focus groups; school site input; possible online
staff surveys; and town hall forums and voter
opinion surveys. He also spoke of the formation
of a LRFMP Committee that would include
from 25-40 members and meet monthly to
provide their various inputs. All this process,
according to the current timeline, would culminate
in the LRFMP going to the Board for
approval in late spring or early summer 2020.
Musto touted the work his company does
with school districts, saying, “We do it well.”
He spoke of four tenets to “delivering education”
and was hopeful that the first committee
meeting would take place in September. At
the conclusion of the presentation, Silvers
added how comfortable he was working with
the very strong team of personnel that LPA
has assembled.
Board member reports then followed, with
Goldman extolling the virtues of the recent
District engineering-based Hackathon. Clerk
Roger Banuelos termed the evebt a “wonderful
program,” noting it helps open the doors for
District students to explore the opportunities
to consider studies to pursue an engineering
option. Goldman added that he was in awe
of the diversity of learners Wiseburn was
The Hawthorne Police Department recently wished a happy birthday to its very own K9 Scottie! Photo: Hawthorne PD
See Wiseburn, page 8
Friday
Mostly
Cloudy
62˚/54˚
Saturday
Mostly
Sunny
64˚/52˚
Sunday
Sunny
67˚/53˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne