Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............3
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................3
Community Briefs...............3
Entertainment......................2
Finance..................................3
Lawndale..............................4
Legals............................. 4,6,7
Pets........................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Rams, Chargers Surprise High
Schoolers with New Uniforms
The Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers teamed up to surprise Inglewood High and Morningside High with new football uniforms. Presenting the new uniforms was Rams Hall of Fame running
back Eric Dickerson. Chargers former defensive end Marcellus Wiley revealed the new uniforms and spoke to each varsity team about unity, character and the importance of teamwork in their community.
Photographer Credit: Will Navarro/Rams.
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
75˚/69˚
Saturday
Partly
Cloudy
76˚/67˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
78˚/67˚
The Weekly Newspaper of Inglewood
Daily News on a Weekly Basis - Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - August 16, 2018
Inglewood Starts Off School Year
with Some Steady Improvements
By Haleemon Anderson
With next Monday marking the first day of
classes, the Inglewood School Board took steps
at last week’s meeting to bolster its governing
role. The Board conducted two public hearings:
one, to renew the charter petition for La
Tijera K-8, and another, to consider a move to
district-based elections for Board members. No
public comment was offered on either item.
Principal Franklin Tilley of La Tijera addressed
the Board, noting that the middle school
has met all academic performance markers to
warrant extension of the charter petition for
the next five years. Inglewood Unified School
District Director of School and Community
Relations Dr. Jacqueline Sanderlin also spoke
on behalf of the renewal. “La Tijera has been
a conversion charter since 2013,” she said.
In 2013, the K-8 school received a $30 million
rebuild. It was rebranded as a district-run
charter school and renamed La Tijera TK-8
Academy of Excellence Charter School.
The modern-design building features a new
gym and state-of-the-art library, an outdoor
amphitheater and classrooms equipped with
wireless technology.
Along with the new look and academic mission,
La Tijera became a test case for Inglewood
schools. The District is seeking to increase
overall enrollment, bringing back students who
have been lured away by independent charter
schools. Before the rebuild, student enrollment
had dwindled to under 400 at La Tijera, which
has a capacity for 700 or more.
The rebuild project was funded with a bond
measure passed by Inglewood residents in
1998. The school currently features AVID,
the statewide college preparatory program, in
grades 5-8, with plans to become a school-wide
AVID academy.
Other programs highlighted on the school’s
website include interscholastic football, basketball,
soccer and cheerleading, intramural
sports for fifth through eighth graders, weight
training, chorus, a girls’ and boys’ self-esteem
group (Ladies and Kings of Majesty), the
“Tiger Times” student newspaper, a yearbook
committee, Peer Mediators, Career Day, eighth
grade trips to Washington and abroad, and Parent
Teacher Association (PTA) and Associated
Student Body (ASB).
Although no public comment was offered on
the move to district-based elections, Inglewood
residents had already expressed majority support
for the move by assenting by over 70 percent
in the June primary to move school (and city)
elections to coordinate with state elections.
Director of Human Resources Nora Roque
noted the new election sequence is intended to
increase voter turnout. “It will also transition
the District from at-large positions to elections
based on candidates’ local district,” she said.
The move will bring Inglewood in line with
school districts up and down the South Bay.
Almost all districts have made the change to
comply with SB 415, a state law that aims to
boost dwindling voter turnout in local elections
by having them take place on the same day
as statewide races.
The Inglewood City Council must still decide
whether to move elections from April of oddnumbered
years to March or November of
even-numbered years, starting in 2020. That same
decision will cover Inglewood Unified and the
School Board. If ratified, it will cause extensions
of some of the member seats. Margaret Evans
in Seat 4 and D’Artagnan Scorza in Seat 5
would have their terms extended to April 2020.
Dionne Young Faulk in Seat 1, Carliss McGhee
in Seat 2 and Melody Ngaue-Tu’uholoaki in
Seat 3 would remain in office until April 2022.
In Board comments, the newly elected Vice
President Scorza reported on a recent trip to
Africa. He took several Inglewood alumni on
the trip. Scorza congratulated his colleagues
and staff on recent facilities improvements.
“We are moving in the right direction,” he said.
Board President Margaret Turner-Evans reported
on the District presence at last weeks’
Taste of Inglewood. She said there was a good
deal of interest at the table for the new kid’s
website. Turner-Evans also noted the recent
facilities upgrades. “For years, money has been
sitting in Inglewood and nothing was happening.
Now things are happening,” she said.
State Administrator Thelma Melendez de
Santa Ana noted that the Board would be going
out to visit the campuses on the first day of
school. “We are very excited [at all the improvements],
but its facilities and maintenance
who are the most excited,” she said.
In public comments on non-agenda items,
one resident asked the Board to consider
bringing back the former principal of City
Honors, noting inconsistent leadership at the
high school for the past six years. “We have
had four principals and three state administrators,”
she said.
The Inglewood School Board meets once
monthly, unless otherwise noted. The next
meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept.
19, at 5:30 p.m. at 401 S. Inglewood Ave., in
the Dr. Ernest Shaw Board Room. A special
workshop is scheduled for September 26. •