In This Issue:
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YOUNG CHILDREN ARE OFTEN VICTIMS OF GUNFIRE IN U.S. |
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The
Attack on Adult Ed Continues: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS
AIRPORT THREATENED BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS; GARCETTI PLEDGES TO HELP |
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CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND DEFUNCT' |
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LAUSD HONOR BAND PUTS IT ALL TOGETHER FOR ROSE PARADE |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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The title to this issue of 4LAKids is not an original thought. I was multitasking
the other day, the radio droning in the background while I was
answering emails, talking on the phone, surfing the web, etc – saving
the world with a keyboard and a mouse – when someone said it in the
background. I wrote it down and then promptly forgot who it was or even
what show it was. But truer words….
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that twenty children and six teachers were gunned
down at school. And that while Sandy Hook was an aberration – numbers
of children dying by gunfire isn’t. See the article following: Young
Children Are Often Victims Of Gunfire In US.
WE SHOULD BE WORRIED. As the article reports, children tend to be safer
when they are in school (because schools are essentially gun-free) but
the NRA would like to reverse that by arming principals, teachers and
volunteers. (A LA Times Op-ed, http://lat.ms/Vse9RG
dripping in sarcasm, suggests arming kids.) Never mind that the worst
school killing in US history – at Bath Township Michigan in 1927, 38
elementary kid and 6 adults dead plus at least fifty wounded was
perpetrated by a school board member …or that the South Pasadena Junior
High School Principal shot his way through that district, shooting
seven and killing five (all adults) in 1940
The NRA is the lobbying arm of the firearms industry. They wrap
themselves in the flag and the second amendment and insist on the right
to manufacture and sell “civilianized” military assault rifles with
thirty-shot clips as sporting arms and home defense weapons. Because
being able to kill a man 300 yards away is a home defense requirement.
Isn’t it interesting that the whack job who shot up the elementary
school and the whack job who gunned down the volunteer firemen both
favored the Bushmaster .223 AR-15? The Bushmaster is the favorite weapon
of whack jobs everywhere – and is a killing machine every bit as
effective as a Trident Submarine.
I can enumerate 29 people the Bushmaster has killed in the last two weeks.
Q: How many people have been killed by Trident missiles since the first sub was launched in 1981?
A: Zero.
Wanna be scared? Go here: http://bit.ly/ZKVqs5
It’s a how-to video to convert a Russian-made semiautomatic shotgun to
a fully automatic AK 47 12 gauge with a twenty round drum magazine –
essentially by modifying the stock so the recoil makes it continually
fire when you hold the trigger down. It’s the perfect weapon if you’re
ever attacked by a rabid Broad-Side-of-a-Barn. Or, as the video
proposes: by zombie watermelons.
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that teachers in Utah are arming themselves after
school district sponsored gun-training Professional Development. Maybe
the front desk clerk should have that fully auto AK-47 12 gauge?
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the situation in Syria. And North Korea. And Iran.
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the gang rape and murder of the medical student on a bus in India. India: Birthplace of Gandhi.
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the genocides and brutal wars in East
Africa. And The Horn of Africa. That the Arab Spring becomes a winter of
discontent.
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about assassination attempts on fifteen-year-olds by Pakistani Taliban for advocating education of girls.
THE FISCAL CLIFF is a piece of Political Theater with a script written
by Congress itself in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (the same wonderful
law that brought us The Super Committee!) The Sequester and Sovereign
Debt (Ceiling) meets the Filibuster in the last gasp of the 112th
Congress. Luckily, right out of Greek Drama (not to be confused with the
Greek Drachma) the solution lies in a Deus ex Machina: With the tick of
a clock and the dropping of a ball in Times Square at zero-dark-zero
Tuesday morning the dreaded tax hike becomes a welcome tax cut. We can
party like it’s 2013! The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are
playing the parts they wrote themselves while pretending to understand
the economics and imagining their understanding can be distilled into
sound bites and name calling, And Grover Norquist can slink back to
whence he hath emerged – all obeisance made.
Total compromise: No promises broken/no promises kept. Would you like some tea with that?
WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that the attack on Adult Ed continues. LAUSD’s
popular and successful Aircraft Mechanics Training Program is on the
chopping block – much like the celebrated/successful nurse training
program that was tossed under the bus in the previous regime. Read the
story below: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT THREATENED
BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS. Note how the school principal as been told that
LAUSD is investigating a reduction in the lease rate …and how the L.A.
Dept. of Airports is unaware of any such thing.
Thankfully mayoral candidate/city councilman/friend of adult ed Eric
Garcetti is engaged. Note that Mayor Tony is not… he is busy breaking a
city lease for workforce development programs made with the community
college district at the Van de Kamps site in Glassell Park. [http://bit.ly/TAwYTY]
The current leadership at LAUSD Beaudry is totally committed to K-12 as
measured by standardized tests to the exclusion of everything else --
including adult ed, early childhood ed, school libraries, arts and
music and after school programs. Tablets-and-laptop-computers-for-all –
the test platforms for the new Common Core Standardized Tests – seem to
be attractive shiny/sparkly things on the Toys R LAUSD wish list. Much
like the fiscal cliff argument, restoring what was been cut …whether
programs/jobs/days/hours (or gosh-forbid: Employee morale) is called
“raising employees salaries” by the powers that (shouldn’t ought to) be.
THERE IS AN INTERESTING REVIEW of a biz book I intend to read in today’s
L.A. Times (lifted from the Financial Times of London) called THE
PIRATE ORGANIZATION: Lessons from the Fringes of Capitalism [http://lat.ms/YDhNcT]
The book points out that we are in love with pirate culture. Pirate DJs
in the fifties spread the gospel of Chuck and Elvis. (It’s no mistake
that Keith Richard IS Captain Jack Sparrow’s father!) What goes around
comes around/No good deed goes unpunished: Pirate music downloaders
undid the music industry. Apple founders Jobs+Wozniak started by
building+selling black boxes to pirate phone calls.
Current charter school operators are much the same as earlier century
privateers – using their charters as letters of Marque to raid
traditional public education. The difference being that these
freebooters prey on the very governments that grant their charters.
The entire State of California seems a bit of a pirate, ignoring the
Feds mandate to access teacher performance based on test scores … and
then pretty much stating the obvious in pooh-poohing No Child Left
Behind. CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND
DEFUNCT'
CONCERNS FOR THE NEW YEAR: Keep kids safe and clean and healthy; make
schools safer, cleaner and healthier. Identify, Retain and Maintain
successful programs. Honor and Respect the folks who make it happen:
Employees / Parents / The Community.
¡Onward/Adelante to 2013! - smf
YOUNG CHILDREN ARE OFTEN VICTIMS OF GUNFIRE IN U.S.
by The Associated Press | http://n.pr/12PkmgU
December 24, 2012 7:16 PM :: WASHINGTON (AP) — Before 20 first-graders
were massacred at school by a gunman in Newtown, Conn., first-grader
Luke Schuster, 6, was shot to death in New Town, N.D. Six-year-olds John
Devine Jr. and Jayden Thompson were similarly killed in Kentucky and
Texas.
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, died in a mass shooting at a movie theater
in Aurora, Colo., while 6-year-old Kammia Perry was slain by her father
outside her Cleveland home, according to an Associated Press review of
2012 media reports.
Yet there was no gunman on the loose when Julio Segura-McIntosh died in
Tacoma, Wash. The 3-year-old accidentally shot himself in the head while
playing with a gun he found inside a car.
As he mourned with the families of Newtown, President Barack Obama said
the nation cannot accept such violent deaths of children as routine. But
hundreds of young child deaths by gunfire — whether intentional or
accidental — suggest it might already have.
Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children age 12 and under were killed by
firearms, according to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Reports. The
numbers each year are consistent: 120 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 116 in 2008,
114 in 2009 and 96 in 2010. The FBI's count does not include
gun-related child deaths that authorities have ruled accidental.
"This happens on way too regular a basis and it affects families and
communities — not at once, so we don't see it and we don't understand it
as part of our national experience," said Daniel Webster, director of
the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
The true number of small children who died by gunfire in 2012 won't be
known for a couple of years, when official reports are collected and
dumped into a database and analyzed. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention expects to release its 2011 count in the spring.
In response to what happened in Newtown, the National Rifle Association,
the nation's largest gun lobby, suggested shielding children from gun
violence by putting an armed police officer in every school by the time
classes resume in January.
"Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones ... They post signs
advertising them and in doing so they tell every insane killer in
America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with
minimum risk," said NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.
Webster said children are more likely to die by gunfire at home or in
the street. They tend to be safer when they are in school, he said.
None of the 61 deaths reviewed by The Associated Press happened at school.
Children die by many other methods as well: violent stabbings or throat
slashings, drowning, beating and strangulation. But the gruesome
recounts of gun deaths, sometimes just a few paragraphs in a newspaper
or on a website, a few minutes on television or radio, bear witness that
firearms too, are cutting short many youngsters' lives.
One week before the Newtown slayings, Alyssa Celaya, 8, bled to death
after being shot by her father with a .38-caliber gun at the Tule River
Indian Reservation in California. Her grandmother and two brothers also
were killed, a younger sister and brother were shot and wounded. The
father shot and killed himself amid a hail of gunfire from officers.
Delric Miller's life ended at 9 months and Angel Mauro Cortez Nava's at 14 months.
Delric was in the living room of a home on Detroit's west side Feb. 20
when someone sprayed it with gunfire from an AK-47. Other children in
the home at the time were not injured.
Angel was cradled in his father's arms on a sidewalk near their home in
Los Angeles when a bicyclist rode by on June 4 and opened fire, killing
the infant.
Most media reports don't include information on the type of gun used,
sometimes because police withhold it for investigation purposes.
Gun violence and the toll it is taking on children has been an issue raised for years in minority communities.
The NAACP failed in its attempt to hold gun makers accountable through a
lawsuit filed in 1999. Some in the community raised the issue during
the campaign and asked Obama after he was re-elected to make reducing
gun violence, particularly as a cause of death for young children, part
of his second-term agenda.
"Now that it's clear that no community in this country is invulnerable
from gun violence, from its children being stolen ... we can finally
have the national conversation we all need to have," said Ben Jealous,
president of the NAACP.
This year's gun deaths reviewed by the AP show the problem is not
confined to the inner city or is simply the result of gang or drug
violence, as often is the perception.
Faith Ehlen, 22 months, Autumn Cochran, 10, and Alyssa Cochran, 11, all
died Sept. 6. Their mother killed them with the shotgun before turning
it on herself. Police said she had written a goodbye email to her
boyfriend before killing the children in DeSoto, Mo., a community of
about 6,300.
In Dundee, Ore., Randall Engels used a gun to kill his estranged wife
Amy Engels and son Jackson, 11, as they ate pizza on the Fourth of July.
An older sibling of Jackson's also was killed. Engels then committed
suicide. The town of more than 5,000 people boasts on its website that
it is a semirural town with "the cultural panache of a big city."
Many of the children who died in 2012 were shot with guns that belonged
to their parents, relatives or baby sitters, or were simply in the home.
Webster said children's accidental deaths by guns have fallen since
states passed laws requiring that guns be locked away from youths or
have safeties to keep them from firing.
But even people trained in gun use slip up — and the mistakes are costly.
A Springville, Utah, police officer had a non-service gun in his home
that officials said did not have external safeties. His 2-year-old son
found the gun and shot himself on Sept. 11. The names of the father and
son were not released at the time of the shooting.
Obama has tapped Vice President Joe Biden to shape the administration's
response to the Newtown massacre. The administration will push to
tighten gun laws, many that have faced resistance in Congress for years.
The solutions may include reinstating a ban on assault-style rifles,
closing gun buying background check loopholes and restricting
high-capacity magazines.
Those may have limited effect for children like Amari Markel-Purrel
Perkins, of Clinton, Md. He shot himself in the chest on April 9 with a
gun that an adult had stashed inside a Spiderman backpack.
Like most of the child victims at Newtown, Amari was 6.
The Attack on Adult Ed Continues: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS
SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT THREATENED BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS; GARCETTI
PLEDGES TO HELP
► L.A. UNIFIED MAY CLOSE OR MOVE THE VOCATIONAL
FACILITY. LOSS OF THE PROGRAM WOULD BE A BLOW TO THOSE SEEKING TECHNICAL
CAREERS IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/12K9CjK
December 27, 2012 :: A popular vocational center at Van Nuys Airport
that has trained thousands of aviation mechanics during its 40-year
history faces closure or relocation next year if the Los Angeles Unified
School District can no longer afford to keep the facility open.
Educators, students, national organizations and business owners at the
airport say the loss of the program would be a blow to those seeking
technical careers in the aviation industry, which is already suffering a
shortage of qualified entry-level mechanics.
"Many businesses hire our graduates, from small engine shops to major
aerospace firms," said Michael Phillips, a senior instructor at the
school. "It would be devastating to our program if we had to close or
move."
The North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center is housed off
Hayvenhurst Avenue in a hangar with adjoining workshops and classrooms.
The facility is filled with more than a dozen aircraft, including
helicopters and a U.S. Air Force T-33 jet trainer from the 1950s.
The setting is ideal. Van Nuys is one of the busiest general aviation
airports in the world and home to hundreds of aircraft. Scores of
aviation businesses surround the runways. There are engine shops,
airframe shops, flight schools and fixed-base operators that offer an
array of services including charter aircraft.
"It's an inspiration," said Matthew Dods, a 24-year-old student from
Thousand Oaks who left a retail job to pursue an aviation career.
"Closing the school just doesn't make sense when so many people are
looking to hire fresh air-frame and power plant mechanics."
The center, which opened in 1971, offers a two-year program that
prepares students for certification by the Federal Aviation
Administration. About 100 students attend per semester and the total
cost of tuition is $2,400, far cheaper than at private technical
colleges.
Carlynn Huddleston, the school's principal, said the district's budget
problems are continuing to threaten the program, which has already cut
its staff and canceled evening classes.
The school might be relocated to another North Valley Occupational
facility in Mission Hills, but there would be less space and students
would have to share workshops with other trades.
"We would be squeezed into some rooms. There is no hangar," Huddleston said. "The program would become second rate."
If closed or relocated, the center would join other aviation programs
that have been shut down or scaled back at school districts and
community colleges across the region.
The situation has attracted the attention of the Van Nuys Airport Assn.
and major organizations, such as the National Business Aviation Assn.,
the National Air Transportation Assn. and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Assn. All have urged LAUSD Supt. John Deasy to keep the school at the
airport.
"This is a huge asset for the city," said Curt Castagna, president of
the Van Nuys association. "A couple hundred students from the school
have been hired at the airport. These are good-paying jobs, and they
have provided economic value locally and to the industry."
Bill Dunn, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.'s vice president of
airport advocacy, reminded Deasy in a letter that the mechanics school
has gained national recognition. Closing it, he wrote, would only
aggravate a growing shortage of aviation mechanics.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the need for aircraft
mechanics and service technicians will increase 11% annually at least
until 2016. Industry analysts say the number of graduates will not keep
pace with retirements and those leaving the trade, let alone the
projected need.
Huddleston is looking into whether Los Angeles World Airports, the
operator of Van Nuys Airport, would be willing to lower or virtually
eliminate the school's rent, which, she says, is about $12,000 a month.
She added that she is also working with the district to see if the lease
can be extended for a year to buy some time.
Though the FAA requires airports to charge tenants a fair rent, agency
policy allows reduced or nominal rents for nonprofit, accredited
education programs that benefit aviation.
Diana Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Van Nuys Airport, said that Los Angeles
World Airports has long supported the mechanics program but that the
school district faces financial challenges beyond rental expenses.
Though there have been tentative discussions, she said, district
officials have not formally approached the airport department about a
new rental agreement. She added that Los Angeles World Airports is
willing to work with the aviation center and the FAA if a proposal is
made.
►GARCETTI URGES EFFORT TO SAVE AVIATION MECHANICS SCHOOL: The councilman
says he will ask the city airport agency and L.A. Unified to explore
ways to keep the program running at Van Nuys Airport.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/VnB8R5
December 29, 2012 :: Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti on
Friday called for measures to keep a highly regarded aviation mechanics
school at Van Nuys Airport from shutting down or being moved to smaller
facilities elsewhere.
Garcetti said he will request at the Jan. 4 council meeting that Los
Angeles World Airports, the operator of Van Nuys, and the Los Angeles
Unified School District explore ways to ensure the continued operation
of the vocational school, which has produced thousands of mechanics
during its 40-year history. Because of tight budgets, the district might
close or relocate the school.
"The aviation training program at Van Nuys Airport is a critical asset
for Los Angeles," Garcetti said. "I am deeply concerned that it could
close."
The North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center, which opened in
1971, is located off Hayvenhurst Avenue in a hangar filled with more
than a dozen aircraft, including helicopters and an old U.S. Air Force
jet trainer.
The two-year course at one of the busiest general aviation airports in
the world prepares students for certification by the Federal Aviation
Administration and potential employment with aircraft maintenance shops,
commercial carriers and aerospace firms.
Center officials say, however, that budget problems could force the
LAUSD to close the school next year or move it to smaller facilities at
another vocational center unless Los Angeles World Airports can lower
the rent, which has been about $12,000 a month.
There have been some tentative discussions so far, but nothing formal has been proposed.
David Bowerman, an instructor at the center, called Garcetti's effort to
get substantive talks going "a good idea." He said the school now has
about 100 students per semester and provides technical training to those
who don't want to go to college.
The situation has attracted the attention of the Van Nuys Airport Assn.
and major organizations such as the National Business Aviation Assn.,
the National Air Transportation Assn. and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Assn. All have urged LAUSD Supt. John Deasy to keep the school at the
airport.
Garcetti, who cited an article about the aviation center's plight in The
Times this week, said that saving the program would help address a
growing shortage of entry-level mechanics in the aircraft industry and
continue to offer Los Angeles area residents a career path if they are
interested in aviation.
"In setting priorities during tough budget times, the school district
must focus on education programs that lead directly to industries that
are hiring now and in the future," Garcetti said. "A trained aviation
workforce in Los Angeles is critical to the competitiveness of our
airports, our aerospace industry, our trade sector and our overall
economy."
•• smf NOTES: The L.A. Times story carries the following online paid
advertisement as for a private for-profit aviation maintenance school:
Ads by Google
Aircraft Maintenance Acquire Proper Knowledge & Skill Levels To Get An A&P Mechanic Job! FixJets.com
CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND DEFUNCT'
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail : 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/VNMxWb
December 29th, 2012, 12:58pm :: One of California’s top education
officials said the federal No Child Left Behind law is no longer
credible or legitimate because too many states have been given a waiver.
“They have already disowned the program in terms of the U.S. Department
of Education by the secretary already declaring it null and defunct in
effect in 33 states," said Michael Kirst, President of California’s
State Board of Education. "I don’t see that it has any credibility or
legitimacy left.”
His board sets policy for the most public school children of any state in the nation.
President George W. Bush signed the law in 2001, setting 2014 as the
year that every student, including those whose first language isn’t
English, will be proficient in English and math.
“It’s turned out to be illusory and not attainable by any state,” Krist said.
The Obama administration has been exempting states from the 100 percent
proficiency goal and other key provisions — but only if they meet a list
of reforms.
Krist said Federal officials told him California's waiver application is
about to be denied, likely because California has not agreed to use
student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations.
California’s teachers union opposed doing that.
Former Long Beach Unified superintendent Carl Cohn doesn’t think it’s
necessary, either. He says students were doing fine even before No Child
Left Behind and don’t need more rules from the federal government.
“Some of us are saying, you know what, in the real world of urban school
districts for ten years we actually made gains in student performance
without beating up on teachers and without tying evaluations to student
test scores,” Cohn said.
Joanne Fawley, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association,
said No Child Left Behind has done more harm than good by focusing
learning only on what’s going to be on the test.
“English teachers have been told in many schools not to teach novels or
literature because they take too much time and are not tested,” she
said.
Despite the waivers, it remains the law of the land, said USC education
scholar Katharine Strunk. She credits the law with improving student
achievement nationwide and slimming the achievement gap between students
of different races.
“I don’t think it’s a failure of a policy, I think that there are parts
of NCLB that no longer make sense or perhaps never made sense,” she
said--specifically the 100 percent proficiency requirement.
By one estimate 80 percent of California schools will fail to meet that
requirement in 2014. Observers say that may be the impetus for federal
lawmakers to overhaul the education law.
LAUSD HONOR BAND PUTS IT ALL TOGETHER FOR ROSE PARADE
By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/VrQktk
12/28/2012 08:27:41 PM PST :: The sounds of the brass and drums soared
over Chavez Ravine on Friday as the columns of student musicians, their
sneaker-clad feet churning, marched up and down the rolling hills of
the Dodger Stadium parking lots.
They were practicing the music and memorizing the choreography, but the
350-plus members of Los Angeles Unified's All-District High School Honor
Band were also training for the 5 1/2-mile Tournament of Roses Parade
route they'll tackle on New Year's Day.
"Marching is even harder than playing," said Khuyen Nguyen, an
accomplished flute player from Cleveland High, who took up the 10-pound
baritone just two months ago so she could participate in the brass- and
percussion-only group.
Now in its 41st year, the Honor Band draws musicians from high schools
around the district. Horn players -- trumpet, trombone, baritone,
mellophone and sousaphone -- are recommended by their music teachers,
while auditions are held for drummers, the flag and shield teams, and
the drum majors who lead the band.
The musicians rehearse every Saturday beginning in the fall, then every
day of winter break -- forgoing vacations, hanging out with classmates
or just sleeping in for the rigorous practice sessions.
They're booked this weekend, too, performing today at Disneyland and on
Sunday at Bandfest, a showcase of Tournament of Roses musicians.
"We get to play with so many people and make so many new friends," said
Keira Fernandez, a 17-year-old drummer at North Hollywood High School
who marches with a 40-pound quad set braced against her 110-pound frame.
"It's so worth it."
The kids' enthusiasm is matched -- if not exceeded -- by band director
Tony White, who, 28 years ago, played cymbals with the group as a senior
at Narbonne High.
"The band represents not only LAUSD, but all of Los Angeles," said
White, now the performing arts coordinator for LAUSD's Beyond the Bell
Branch.
"It gets youths involved, and gives them a sense of belonging, a
positive experience ... For some of these kids, this will change their
lives."
Verdugo High senior Dorian Lopez picked up a trumpet for the first time
this year at the urging of his campus mentor, music teacher Victoria
Lopez. She recommended him for the Honor Band despite his inexperience,
and Dorian thrived under the discipline that White demands.
"It's been such a fun experience -- the energy, the music," said Lopez,
who plans to enlist in the Marines and audition for the Corps'
prestigious band.
Many of the band members are veterans, returning year after year for the
connection they make with other young musicians and the chance to march
in the nationally televised Rose Parade.
They'll have to arrive well before dawn for Tuesday's parade, which
starts at 8 a.m., marching 58th in the 92-entry lineup of floats,
equestrian groups and other marching bands.
"It's really, really cold, especially your toes and nose," said Jetzell
Verduzco from Southeast High, returning for the second year as a member
of the flag team that performs at the rear of the band.
"But it's a fun experience getting to bond with other students and go
from being from different schools into performing as one group."
Wilson High senior Jerry Pulido also is back for his second year, this
time as head drum major, leading the columns of musicians as they
perform a rotation of six songs.
"Running the whole band - the respect you get as a drum major - is
really, really incredible," said Pulido, wiping the sweat from his
forehead during a break from Friday's rehearsal.
Retired Lincoln High Principal Art Duardo, a longtime volunteer for the
band, knows that training and adrenaline will take the musicians only so
far. The drummers' arms will be aching, the horn players' lips will be
burning and everyone's feet will be throbbing before they reach the end
of the two-hour trek down Colorado Boulevard.
"At one point, there's nothing left," Duardo said. "All they'll have is heart."
On the web
http://www.laallcityband.com
http://www.tonywhiteinc.com
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
IN-SHAPE STUDENTS OUTSCORE HEAVY PEERS ACADEMICALLY,
STUDY FINDS: By Nirvi Shah, Ed Week Rules for Engagement bl... http://bit.ly/Z1OO7x
NAEP DATA ON VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT SHOW SAME GAPS: By Erik W. Robelen, Ed Week | http://bit.ly/VQevRe
KPFK - Politics or Pedagogy: Recap of Broadcasts about Charter Schools – Today @ 11AM: KPFK 90.7 FM |... http://bit.ly/TNUwbL
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.
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