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 - November 23, 2017 HMSA Students Participate in the 2017 Forestry Challenge Six students from Hawthorne Math and Science Academy (HMSA) recently participated in the 2017 San Bernardino Forestry Challenge. The event took place November 8 to 11 at Green Valley Lake Christian Camp and allowed participants from 10 SoCal schools to provide data for real-world forestry issues. The HMSA students conducted a seeding survey at SkyPark at Santa’s Village near Green Valley Lake. In the photo, L-R, Front: Esteban Becerra, Jordy Reyes, Angela Valadez. Back: Elizabeth Morales, Cinthya Montoya, Hop Hnguyen (advisor), Meredith Brandon (advisor), Ledeya Tesfaye. Photo provided by Diane Dealey Neil. Wiseburn School Board Meets for the Final Time at Aviation Office By Duane Plank Last Thursday evening’s meeting of the Wiseburn School Board was probably the final meeting that will take place at the old office, ensconced in somewhat tight quarters, on Aviation Boulevard. For the second meeting in a row, parents showed up to voice their concerns about preschool and after-school programs currently in the Wiseburn Unified School District (WUSD). Superintendent Tom Johnstone is keenly aware of the challenges faced by parents, especially working parents, as they try to juggle all the balls tossed their way and guarantee that their young learners are getting the best care possible. Said Johnstone, at the start of the meeting: “We have drafted a plan, which is very, very tentative right now.” Johnstone talked of current wait lists to take advantage of the District’s before- and after-school programs, intoning that residents would be ahead of the game to get their children into the programs--vis-a-vis permit students who are taking advantage of opportunities offered by the District Johnstone reported that the District is looking at long- and short-term solutions to the daycare challenge, “which include expanding capacity by hiring more staff.” Added Johnstone: “Don’t despair, and know that your pleas are not falling on deaf ears. This has been on our radar.” Johnstone also noted the importance of taking care of the needs before, during and after school of all interested in pursuing their education in the WUSD,.“If they can’t get what they need from us, they may go somewhere else.” With the District personnel, teachers and students moving into the new gleaming building on Douglas Street during the last couple of weeks as a backdrop, the School Board members witnessed two special presentations--including one helmed by Dr. Aileen Harbeck detailing a new “dashboard,” utilizing current educational tech lingo, that will allow all concerned to track school and student progress. Termed a “local performance indicator review,” the dashboard is available for all to peruse, as data and analytics somewhat replace the old-fashioned teachings of “reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.” Hardback’s presentation quickly delved into current District numbers, including testing scores, suspension rates, chronic absenteeism and graduation rates. The next presentation came from Kim Merritt, who is currently leading the design and implementation of Da Vinci X--which is billed as a “new college transfer and degree pathway for students who wish to complete their freshman general education coursework.” In her presentation, Merritt described Da Vici X as “truly amazing and free to the students-- college done differently.” She said that while everything was exciting when the Da Vinci schools came into being, after the afterglow of the charter schools waned, “we noted that, we really saw what was happening” and that Da Vinci graduates were “tracking at the national average” for matriculating students. “There are still a significant portion of our kids that are not successful in college,” Merritt added. The Da Vinci X program, she explained, is about pointing all students towards success in college and leaping over the “old-economy” parameter while preparing high school graduates for what is happening on college campuses and in the workplace in 2017. She also talked about preparing the students for the “gap” in the educational process and guiding the Da Vinci students in understanding the types of challenges they will face in the future. “We have really been focusing on getting kids into college, [thinking] everything would go great,” she said. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Merritt pointed out that the current data shows multiple issues for high school graduates, but that WUSD is aggressively addressing these concerns and utilizing analytics to that end-- and that students who participate in the Da Vinci X program have an increased possibility of migrating through college successfully and gleefully tossing their graduation caps into the air sometime in June. Prior to the 100-minute meeting, Johnstone checked in on District issues. He had recently moved all the necessary artifacts and paperwork from Aviation to Douglas in the past couple of weeks, including his Dodger paraphernalia. A staunch Dodger fan who shares season tickets, he announced that he is over the loss by the Blue, responding to a recent email about his sports emotional state with “Go Kings!” Although there were “hiccups” on the first day of student entry to the new Wiseburn edifice (drop-off and pick-up were challenges), the almost always positive superintendent who will retire from the District at the end of the school year, said “campus security issues are surfacing at all schools,” but opening day at Wiseburn was awesome and incredible. Said Johnstone about the move into the new digs: “Honestly, we had a lot of anxiety on the Da Vinci side that they were going to be moving into a building that was incomplete. On the technology side, they were worried that they weren’t going to have everything. If you talked to [all involved], I think that 99.9 percent would say that this is the [best] thing that has ever happened to them. And the other people, from my perspective, don’t even belong here. If you can’t see the glass as not even being half-full, but full-full, then I can’t help you. It has gone very, very well. The technology is up.” But all the work is not completed on Douglas. Johnstone said that they are “still dealing with soil issues” as the construction continues Phase 2 of the project, which includes the much-awaited Aquatics Center, as well as the gym and turf field. Johnstone said he hopes the soil issues will be dealt with very quickly, before the “rainy season” that lasts for who knows how many days in the desert of Southern California. The next regularly scheduled meeting for the Wiseburn School Board, scheduled to take place in the glistening new building on Douglas Street, is slated for December 14. • Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................5 Classifieds............................3 Film.........................................4 Finance..................................3 Legals.......................... 2, 6-7 Looking Up...........................7 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................3 Seniors..................................4 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 75˚/62˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 73˚/61˚ Sunday Sunny 72˚/61˚ The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne
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