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Hawthorne Press Tribune
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - August 9, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals.................................4,6
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Rep. Waters Takes a Stand with
Lawyer Moms and Local Kids
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), joined Lawyer Moms of America and residents of the community at the “Kids Take a Stand” lemonade stand in Hawthorne to support “Project Corazon,” a
program designed to help reunite children taken from their parents under Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. The event took place on W. 134th Street in Hawthorne. Photo: Office of Maxine Waters.
Electric Scooters Not Just a
Summer Fling
By Rob McCarthy
Electric scooters have moved from a
curiosity in Venice to a cool, cheap way
for South Bay office workers to step out
for lunch without breaking a sweat and
losing their parking spaces. The sight
of these speedy people-movers on city
streets and corners caught some residents
off-guard though.
People noticed the scooters in the
beach cities early this summer, sparking
a debate on social media about whether
this transportation for short trips will cure
traffic problems or create new ones for
local drivers. The scooters are rented for
$1 and riders pay 15 cents per mile to
the companies behind this new rideshare
option. One of the questions people ask
is who owns the scooters.
Right now, the rideshare company Bird
is making an aggressive move into the
South Bay with electric scooters for rent.
Another company called Lime competes
with Bird. Both rent their scooters through
a phone app that unlocks the two-wheeler
and keeps track of the mileage for each
user.
Bird and Lime drop off the scooters
around town and near high-traffic areas,
but they don’t control where the scooters
end up. One El Segundo resident complained
on social media she nearly tripped
over one that was dumped on a sidewalk.
See Scooters, page 7
Friday
Sunny
82˚/70˚
Saturday
Sunny
78˚/68˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
77˚/67˚
Silvers Attends First School Board
Meeting as Wiseburn Leader
By Duane Plank
Since his selection as the successor to
the retired Tom Johnstone as the Wiseburn
Unified School District (WUSD) Superintendent,
Blake Silvers has reported “an exciting
start” to the ramp-up to the new school year
that will commence later this month. “One
beautiful, rewarding thing about Wiseburn is
that everybody works so hard, it is so collaborative,”
he said. Silvers noted the benefit
of being able to work with “very, very smart
people” who are dedicated to putting the
education of children first and foremost. He
also singled out his administrative assistant
Wendy Tsubaki, who has helped get him
acclimated to his new post. “She has been
instrumental in everything I have done this
first month.” Silvers called Tsubaki a “beacon
of light,” helping to guide him through the
byzantine “institutional issues” that a new
superintendent needs to get up to speed on
at the start of the job.
Silvers, who attended his first Wiseburn
School Board meeting as superintendent
Tuesday evening, gave kudos to teachers
who didn’t spend most of their time pursuing
rest and recreation after the classroom
dismissal bells clanged a final time in mid-
June -- but rather travailed to outposts like
Milwaukee, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
to increase their professional development.
“Things don’t stop in the summer,” he said.
“It’s been a very productive summer. I can’t
believe how fast it was. An action-packed
month or so.” On replacing Johnstone, who
was an educational icon in Wiseburn, Silvers
said, “I am not trying to fill his shoes. Just
trying to take the confidence that he gave
me and step into my own shoes.”
Silvers has served the WUSD for the past
10 years as assistant principal, and then
principal at Dana Middle school. In March,
the School Board unanimously selected him
to follow Johnstone after interviewing the
final six candidates,
Silvers taught History and Spanish in the
Culver City Unified School District prior to
taking the assistant principal position at Dana
in 2008, and then ascended to the principal
post in 2013. Assistant Principal Kiana Brede
was promoted to Dana principal after Silvers
moved to the superintendent post. Silvers
was Loyola Marymount University-“trained”
until he attended the University of Southern
California to pursue his doctorate degree.
Asked about challenges facing the District
in the 2018/19 school year, which kicks off
for the middle and elementary schools on
Aug. 28, Silvers said that any challenges
upcoming are positive. He emphasized that
every school year presents different opportunities,
dealing with the “changing landscape in
curriculum.” At the core of what the District
does, he said, is “teaching and learning.” He
spoke of making students “future-ready” and
See Wiseburn, page 6