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Hawthorne Press Tribune
The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
Herald Publications - Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale & El Segundo Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - October 4, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................2
Classifieds............................3
Entertainment......................2
Food.......................................5
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals................................ 4-7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
70˚/63˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
69˚/62˚
Sunday
Sunny
69˚/61˚
New Pool Gets Its First Filling
This past Saturday was the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the El Segundo-Wiseburn Aquatic Center. Officials from Wiseburn Unified School District, City of El Segundo and South Bay Sports, Health and
Recreation were on-hand to mark the event that featured the first look at the 53-meter, 10-lane competition pool filled with water. Photo PSM Communication Arts.
Wiseburn Board Honors Anza
Teacher Liza Downer
By Duane Plank
During last Thursday’s meeting, the Wiseburn
School Board recognized Anza Elementary
fifth grade teacher Liza Downer for being
one of the honorees at the 2017/18 County
Teacher of the Year banquet. Wiseburn Unified
School District Superintendent Dr. Blake
Silvers attended the event held at the Hilton
Los Angeles in Universal City on Sept. 21.
It was a “nice tribute to her and her hard
work,” Silvers said of Downer. “Recognizing
one of our best. She very much deserved the
accolades that she received.”
Anza Principal Alberto Paredes, who also
attended the ceremony, emailed, “Ms. Downer
is an outstanding teacher. She has demonstrated
superior skills and abilities in all phases of
teaching. She establishes and fosters clear lines
of communication with all students, parents
and staff. She is able to develop personal
developments with students. She has created
an environment that is safe and conducive for
learning. Ms. Downer provides an optimistic
view of what the students are learning and what
they can accomplish in the future. She invites
and honors student expression. She advocates
for her students while ensuring that standards
are guiding the curriculum. She loves her
students, and the students clearly love her.”
At the beginning of the meeting, two members
of the public strode to the presentation
podium: one to laud the opening days and
environment at Dana Middle School, and the
second to request the names of the citizens
who are on Wiseburn Unified School District’s
bond oversight committee.
Board member and administration reports
then followed, which were somewhat truncated
because of the absence of member Israel Mora
and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Chris Jones.
Member Dr. Neil Goldman spoke about attending
back-to-school nights and gave kudos
to award-winning Anza Elementary School
teacher Elizabeth Downer. Member Nelson
Martinez mentioned his back-to-school night
attendance, noting how he was excited about
the future and the energy in the District. He
touted what he termed “an exciting time” for
Wiseburn. Vice President/Clerk Roger Banuelos
lauded the Da Vinci schools for their
recent parent information meeting regarding
the perils of student vaping, and how the data
shared was so important as the vaping wave
continues to plague schools countrywide.
Board President JoAnne Kaneda commended
all involved for their participation in a lockdown
situation that occurred at Dana two weeks
ago, as well as the prescient dissemination of
information about the event to the concerned
community. “We learned some lessons how to
manage [similar situations], she said. “We are
working on improving our communications
to the parents and the community.”
Chief Business Official David Wilson spoke
about financial agenda items tabled at the last
meeting because the members wanted clarification
on certain contract amendment points.
Wilson was unable to attend the last meeting.
Director of Facilities Planning Vince Madsen
shared about the funding for the upcoming
demolition project that will take place at the
site of the old Dana Middle School, as well
as the need for the development of a longrange
master facilities plan.
Prior to the meeting, Silvers said that he
was very much looking forward to “getting
the master plan process going.” He said a
key goal for the District is to “get out in the
community and make sure that they know
what we are doing,” as well as encourage
community members to feel that they have
an “active voice in seeing how we are doing
things.” He spoke of the need for proactive
communication with all Wiseburn stakeholders,
quickly communicating, marketing, selling
and telling the Wiseburn story “so that they
don’t have to read about it in a Board agenda
post.” He added that the District is working
with multiple consultants to help broaden and
refine the communication process and hoping
to create a platform to proactively answer the
questions that the community has in order to
draft a strategic communications plan. Silvers
also noted that District websites are being
fine-tuned, with the goal to leverage social
media more effectively than in the past.
Regarding the progress on the long-anticipated
pool facility on the Wiseburn High
acreage, Silvers said that the current timeline
is to “turn over the keys to the City [of El
Segundo] on Nov. 1.” Hopefully, he said,
the gymnasium will come online sometime
after the beginning of the new year, with the
completion of the soccer field still lagging.
“Lots of exciting things on the horizon have
not been solidified yet,” he said. He also
lauded the “downright solid teaching in the
classroom. We covet and take pride in the
work that we do.”
One of the personnel action items passed by
the Board was a resolution honoring the retired
R. Mark Walker, who worked maintenance for
Wiseburn for 37 years. District Maintenance
Supervisor Bill Denney emailed that Mark was
an “incredible asset to the Wiseburn family.
His overall knowledge of locks, doors, radios,
computers and much more is outstanding, and
it will be tough for anyone to follow. Mark
has helped me for the last 21 years in small,
daily tasks, remembering where something is,
or what happened to this or that.”
In other news, the District schools have
wrapped up their back-to-school nights. At
Cabrillo Elementary, Principal Lisa Baggio
emailed about recent events, including the
success of the CGI math family night, and the
popular Coffee with the Principal program.
Cabrillo has also established a new mission
statement “to nurture the whole child to love
learning.” The new mission statement was the
benchmark utilized to develop goals for the
year in English Language Arts, Research and
Inquiry, and English Language Development.
While the Nov. 6 elections may be contentious
in some school districts, at this time it
appears that the three seats up for grabs in
Wiseburn will continue to be held by Israel
Mora, Roger Banuelos and Nelson Martinez.
They are all seeking reelection and are currently
running unopposed.
The next regularly scheduled open session
of the Wiseburn School Board is set to commence
at 7 p.m., Oct. 11, on the first floor of
Wiseburn High School. •