December 19, 2013 Page 3 Wiseburn Holds First Unified School Board Meeting Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project The Project Groundbreaking is set for early 2014. Regularly scheduled construction update meetings will begin in February 2014. Be sure to sign up at crenshawcorridor@metro.net, to receive construction notices and invitations to all future meetings. Delivering on Measure R’s promise of speeding the delivery of transit projects to provide congestion relief, the majority of funding for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project flows from the Measure R half-cent sales tax approved by Los Angeles County voters in November 2008. Jobs Besides building the new rail line, the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project will bring many benefits to the City of Los Angeles, particularly jobs and economic revitalization. Construction and administration jobs for the project can be found at: walsh-shea-corridorconstructors.com/ opportunities. Metro also offers ongoing employment opportunities and those jobs can be found at: metro.net/about/jobs. WSCC is a joint venture between Walsh Construction and J.F. Shea Company. Together, they have collaborated on many rail projects in the United States, including systems in Dallas, Phoenix, Charlotte and Chicago. In addition to its October Business Opportunities Summit, WSCC has made an immediate impact in the Crenshaw/LAX community by hosting two food drives and a toy drive for the 2013 holiday season. This year has been very productive for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project Team, beginning with the Metro Board of Directors awarding a contract to build the 8.5-mile rail extension to Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors (WSCC). Running from the Expo Line to the Green Line, the $1.272 billion project includes two recently added stations, one in Leimert Park and one at Hindry. Construction Since September 2013, Metro has been completing final design, mobilizing its team, conducting right-of-way surveys and preparing for major construction, scheduled to begin in Spring 2014. Scores of utility lines have been relocated. These include an 18-inch sewer line at Crenshaw Bl/67th St, a 10-inch sewer line at Crenshaw Bl/59th St and a storm drain just north of Crenshaw Bl/48th St. There have been zero accidents, and Metro remains committed to safety. Construction Safety Awareness Training for project neighbors has also begun. Schedule yours now at crenshawcorridor@metro.net. Additional pre-construction activities include meeting with diverse stakeholders, coordinating construction activities and conducting business profiles in anticipation of construction. The project team has finalized its list of properties to be acquired and acquisition has begun. 14-1105rb ©2013 lacmta 855.477.7100 crenshawcorridor@metro.net metro.net/crenshawcorridor facebook.com/crenshawcorridor twitter@crenshawcorridor Winter 2013 Project Update metro.net/projects By Dylan Little Both Superintendent Tom Johnstone and Board member Nelson Martinez called it an “obviously historic moment” when the first Wiseburn Unified School District meeting was held during the regular Dec. 12 meeting. The meeting had a very brief agenda consisting of just swearing in members and appointing Board officers, but it represents a culmination of over a decade’s worth of volunteer, Board member and staff efforts to split from the Centinela Valley High School District. Johnstone credited the community’s tenacity for getting the District to finally clear the hurdles to unification. “Unification is something all the districts in Centinela Valley have been talking about . . . but Wiseburn is really the only community that took it seriously,” said Johnstone. “Typically what happens is there’s a lot of energy--it’s almost like running a sprint. It’s like running a 50-yard dash. Well, unification is a marathon. If you get to the end of the 100 yards and think that you’re done, you’re not.” Board member Israel Mora said that in addition to the overwhelming public support, there was another factor that guided the efforts to split from Centinela Valley--Johnstone. “I thought we ran into a wall and we couldn’t do this and along comes Tom Johnstone,” said Mora. “I tip my hat to you. I wasn’t sure we could do this and you made it happen.” Since 2001 when unification efforts started in earnest, the District has faced challenges from both Centinela Valley--which sued Wiseburn for not filing an environmental study and caused the District to miss its first chance at unification--and the other “feeder” districts to Centinela Valley, which wanted to see an area-wide vote instead of just the residents served by Wiseburn voting. However, by crafting a solution that amicably addressed the concerns of the other districts, Wiseburn was able to clear the way to unify into a K-12 district. “Things got shot down, we had a bad experience with the State Board of Education in 2010,” said Johnstone. “We came back, put on our thinking caps and started to work collaboratively for what we called a regional solution with the other districts in the Centinela Valley.” When Measure W, the initiative that would create the Wiseburn Unified School District, finally did end up on the ballot, 92.77 percent of the voters approved it. Still, Johnstone would’ve liked to have done better. “I’m still bummed out we didn’t get 95 percent of the vote,” said Johnstone. While the hard work of becoming a unified school district is over, Board member Dennis Curtis said now Wiseburn faces a bigger challenge in making the best of the opportunity the District has been given. “Unification has been a very important milestone,” said Curtis. “We know it did not come easily. Now it rests on our shoulders to carry on with the important element of unification. How to implement it, the things we do with it and how we embrace the community spirit of what they want and how we put it into--not only the structure of the building, but also the curriculum. That we give the Wiseburn community, just like we always have at least as far back as I can remember, the best educational process that they can get.” Johnstone saw the successful unification as another way the Wiseburn community works together to provide the best possible education for its children. “The education of our children is the task of all of us,” said Johnstone. “Look at how much we can contribute when we work together. The ultimate beneficiaries of this are our kids and families.” Lastly, the Board also considered a plan to add a student-painted mural to the east side wall of the multi-purpose room at Juan Cabrillo School. Principal Margaret Lynch explained the mural would be based on student artwork depicting gestures and movement and would be painted on four movable wood panels by the students. Lynch said that parents have sought to spruce up the school’s image, but only with the help of art nonprofit P.S. Arts did the mural plan come together. Part of why the idea worked is that it can be done “super cheap” or for about a third of the cost of a conventionally done mural. “When I first came to Cabrillo, what parents and community members asked me is, ‘How can we get the feeling of children, that this is a place that celebrates children . . . can we do something like a mural?’” said Lynch. “Well, it’s taken a few years but the PS Arts instructor said, ‘This school needs a mural and I can do this with your kids.’” While the project is still in the planning stages, the Board seems excited by the idea, especially since it would allow the students to paint it themselves. • Hawthorne Happenings News for the ‘City of Good Neighbors’ From City Clerk Norb Huber Merry Christmas I would like to wish you and your family a very blessed Christmas. Christians around the world will mark the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem on December 25, even though there is much evidence that Jesus was probably not born on that date. Doing a little research we find the following comments from biblicalarchaeology.org: “The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.” The traditions that are associated with our American Christmas now far overshadow the origins of the holiday. Americans like holidays. We really don’t care how the holiday started or what we are celebrating. We just like to celebrate. We like to give gifts. We like to be together with our families. That is all good. As for me, God gave us the greatest gift of all in the form of a baby that came to save all humans and me. I have Jewish friends who exchange gifts at Christmas time. I know of people of other faiths who enjoy the traditions of Christmas. No matter what you believe spiritually, the joy and happy times associated with this holiday be with you. Merry Christmas! Be a GOOD NEIGHBOR today! Comments or Questions Please contact norbhuber gmail.com or 310-292-6714. •
Lawndale 12_19_13
To see the actual publication please follow the link above