Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 1, No. 16 - December 19, 2019
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............5
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................4
Classifieds............................5
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Hawthorne Hotspot............3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals................................ 6-7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
LA Chargers Surprise 100 Inglewood
Unified Students with New Bikes
(Left to right) A Bennett-Kew essay contest winner poses with his new bike alongside players from the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers and the Bikes for Kid’s Foundation, which surprised more than
100 students with bikes. More than 100 Bennett-Kew Elementary School second- and third-graders cheered and jumped with excitement when they received new bikes from the Los Angeles Chargers and
Bikes for “Kids Foundation during December 10 surprise event that included Inglewood’s Mayor and Inglewood Unified’s top administrators.
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
70˚/51˚
Saturday
Cloudy
66˚/52˚
Sunday
Rain
62˚/53˚
Wiseburn School Board Tabs
Israel Mora as new President
By Duane Plank
Last Thursday evening the Wiseburn Unified
School District (WUSD) School Board
selected Israel Mora to succeed JoAnne
Kaneda as president. Mora, who also serves
on the board of trustees of Da Vinci charter
schools brings a wealth of experience to the
post, having served on the WUSD board
since 2001.
Dr. Neil Goldman will serve the next year
as vice president/clerk. The 2019/20 board
is rounded-out by Kaneda, Roger Banuelos,
and Nelson Martinez.
Superintendent Dr. Blake Silvers said that
“I have really thoroughly enjoyed working
with JoAnne Kaneda.” He said he views her
as a mentor and touted her “professionalism.”
Silvers added that “I have great respect for
Israel, he is just a really engaged member
of the community. His focus is kids and
Wiseburn.”
Kaneda said that she was honored to serve
the Board as president for the past two years.
“It has been a challenge, a privilege, an opportunity,”
she said.
Mora thanked the Board for their “confidence”
that they showed in him. He noted
this will be his second tenure as president,
saying the experience was “very enjoyable,
but a lot of hard work.” He lauded his
fellow Board members, noting that their
decisions are always based on what is best
for the students.
Juan de Anza Elementary principal Albert
Paredes and assistant principal Katie Masterson
made the only special presentation of the
evening. The pair spoke about the strides being
made at Anza in the STEM program, focusing
on Project Lead the Way (PLTW). Paredes
dubbed 2019 as the “year of the Anza,” noting
multiple school accomplishments. “We are a
future-ready school,” he said. “We want to
continue to utilize technology as a learning-tool.”
Masterson delineated what the PLTW program
entails, citing classroom experiences,
teacher development, and parental engagement.
She showed slides portraying how the Anza
students are embracing PLTW and developing
21-st century learning skills.
Said Kaneda: “I love the idea of including
the parents,” which Paredes said is a focal
point of the Anza PLTW program.
Board member reports followed. Nelson
Martinez spoke about attending the recent
California School Boards Association (CSBA)
conference. He noted the value of attending
the meeting, and how coding and engineering
may be the future, but was also curious how
to best serve students who may not be geared
towards or interested in high-tech fields, but
may be interested in more hands-on areas like
plumbing.
Silvers thanked Banuelos and Martinez for
their attendance and help at the CSBA conference
and spoke about the recent facilities
master plan meeting.
Next up were three discussion items. Chief
Business Official Dave Wilson briefed the
members on the Districts first interim financial
report. Wilson gave the members the
“Cliff notes” version of the changes since the
last budget numbers were crunched in July.
Upshot: District financing looks good, with
the WUSD to file a “positive certification.”
Securing funding is always a hot-button issue
in school districts. Mora said he foresees”
tough years ahead, with limited increases in
funding.” Kaneda questioned if state revenues
were down, to which Wilson replied, “for the
most part, we are still on target.”
Noting the positive financial certification,
Silvers said that “one of the pillars in the
District is to be financially strong so that we
are good moving forward” to combat a possible
future economic slowdown
Next-up was the Child Development Center
(CDC) financial report. Prior to the meeting,
Silvers had mentioned the need to “look at the
books,” that the goal was to run a “break-even”
program, but is facing a structural deficit,
which triggered the District to take a look at
multiple facets of running the CDC. “We need
a plan for what we want to do,” Kaneda said.
The final discussion item involved exploring
a proposed District history project. Jack Goode
penned a thesis when he was a college student
that covered the WUSD historically from the
late 1800’s until 1960. Dr. Don Brann, who
See Wiseburn, page 4
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