Hawthorne Press Tribune
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - April 19, 2018
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This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
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The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Run to Remember Marathon
Many Hawthorne PD Officers and Explorers participated in the Run to Remember Marathon on April 8. The event is a 10K and half-marathon race that pays tributes to first responders who have made
the ultimate sacrifice. Photo: Hawthorne PD.
Wiseburn School Board Addresses
Cyber Hack; Honors Bee Winners
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening’s meeting of the
Wiseburn Board included only one special
presentation, acknowledging three students
for their success in the Feb. 22 spelling bee.
The Board meeting encompassed the old
and the new, feting spelling bee winners -- a
practice that goes back in the field of education
for decades. It also addressed a very recent
plague – a cyber hack of Wiseburn Unified
School District’s information technology system.
The spelling bee stalwarts recognized included
first place winner Andrew Carranza, a sixth
grader at Dana Middle School; runner-up Sakura
Walters, also a sixth grader attending Dana;
and third-place finisher Christopher Smith, a
fifth-grade student at Peter Burnett Elementary.
Deputy Superintendent Chris Jones, who ran
the initial portions of the meeting because Superintendent
Tom Johnstone was across the street
at Los Angles Air Force Base receiving a commendation
as an “Honorary Base Commander,”
introduced the students and asked each which
word they found to be challenging in the 26-student
competition. The spelling bee winners then
posed for a photo with the assembled Board.
Board member reports followed, with Neal
Goldman thanking all who worked to “negotiate
the ransomware scenario.” Nelson Martinez
thanked the Wiseburn Education Foundation for
its work at the recent Rock Around the Block
extravaganza. Vice President/Clerk Roger Banuelos
echoed Martinez’ kudos for the volunteers
involved in the success of the Rock Around
the Block program and also congratulated Peter
Burnett Elementary for being selected as a
California Distinguished School. “That is just
fantastic,” Banuelos remarked. “I am incredibly
proud of everybody there. It is a validation of
what happens at Burnett.” The Burnett School
will be recognized at a gala that will be held
at the Disneyland Hotel on May 3.
Board President JoAnne Kaneda also thanked
all concerned with quelling the ransomware
threat, and lauded the subsequent game plan
implemented. She thought Wiseburn “made the
right decision” to not pay the “ransom,” noting
it caused the District to investigate possible
options in data storage and data safety that it
may not have considered without the attempted
cyber-attack. Kaneda also spoke about her
wish to have a review of the parameters of the
ransomware attack, what the District learned
and what steps should be implemented. She
added that the District could benefit from a
“rolling three-year IT plan.”
Kaneda also spoke about the District’s plan to
expand the Child Development Center (CDC),
with a key component to lessen the waitlist that
many families find that they are faced with as
they seek childcare options. If the proposed
school bond passes in June, money would be
available to upgrade all District facilities and
supplement and grow the CDC program.
David Wilson, chief business official, spoke
about District financial liabilities as all California
school districts struggle to meet their
financial obligations (pre- and post-retirement)
to people who work in the field of education.
“When you are in the people business, it can
be expensive,” Wilson said.
During his comments, Jones mentioned the
April 9 EdShift event, which took place at the new
high school and allowed the District to showcase
the facility. Prior to Thursday’s meeting, Johnstone
had categorized the EdShift mission as an attempt
to “bring together teams that want to change the
conversation on education, and effect positive, District
wide transformations.” The superintendent
spoke of reconfigured learning spaces that enable
21st century advances that he described as
“very progressive and risk-taking” at the higher
K-12 levels. He posited that it is “fundamentally
a different way of looking at learning,” saying
that one of the goals of EdShift is to “tap into
what the kids already know and build on it.”
About 100 people attended EdShift day, Jones
said, and they were able to “see the schools in
action.” He was also highly involved in quelling
the ransomware attack and spoke of that
threat to the District before introducing District
technology technician Quan Tra.
Tra approached the presentation podium to
share details about the cyberattack. Ransomware
is an insidious software that hackers employ to
paralyze a computer system until a sum of money
is paid. Of the security breach, Tra said, “This
is on me. We need to learn from this and move
on.” He noted that as a small district, Wiseburn
did not think it could be a candidate for
a cyber-hack. This event, Tra said, made him
look at possible District IT “shortcomings,”
noting implementations that will “not allow this
to happen again.” He detailed steps that will
be or have been taken to protect District data.
“Lesson learned,” Quan concluded. “Even
though we are a small [district], we are vulnerable.
Instead of waiting for summer, there are things
that need to be taken care of as soon as possible.”
Among the action items tackled by the Board
were the first of what is expected to be four
approvals for Da Vinci schools charter petitions;
the approval of agreements with Cal State Los
Angeles and Cal State Long Beach to have the
District provide opportunities for student teachers;
and an agreement with UCLA Extension
to train people to work with the CDC.
With work still ongoing at the Douglas Street
location, the facilities portion of the action item
agenda focused on “piggyback” construction
items that have typically allowed the District
to save and make money under the guidance
of Facilities Planner Vince Madsen. The Board
also addressed repurposing the old District
administration facility located on Aviation
Boulevard, and placing the outdoor bleachers
for the pool deck at the Aquatics Center.
Fiscal action items agreed to included the
approval of additional payments to the Law
Firm of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud &
Romo. Goldman queried whether there was any
possibility of looking into a retainer agreement
with District law firms, saying he was hoping
to “look at creative alternatives.”
Johnstone then arrived and took his seat on
the dais after his induction as an “Honorary
Commander” across the street, commenting
that the soiree was “a lot of fun.”
The next regularly scheduled Wiseburn School
Board meeting is penciled in for Thursday
evening, April 26. •