
The California Department of Education on Tuesday announced “since the beginning of this year the number of school districts that may be unable to meet future financial obligations…has increased by 38 percent.” Of the 174 school districts, officially known as local educational agencies, or LEAs, which are on the financial watch list, 11 are in Orange County. But, Los Alamitos Unified is not one of them.
Despite six unpaid furlough days for all teachers and equivalent pay reductions for administrative personnel, the Los Alamitos Unified School District is not able to offset governmental funding reductions and balance its books. The Board of Education this week approved another deficit spending plan for the fiscal year beginning next week.
When students, parents , and staff arrived for school at Jack L. Weaver Elementary School yesterday morning they were greeted with yet another sign of their continuing success. Principal Erin Kominsky told www.OC180NEWS.com “Orange County Department of Ed comes out , and like the little elves early in the morning, they plant a ‘Congratulations 2010 California Distinguished School’ Banner with two helium balloons that say ‘Distinguished School Orange County Department of Ed.’ It’s in the circular driveway , everybody saw it when they drove in.”
With 60,500 gallons of water leaking from the McGaugh School pool every day, and the nearby tennis courts becoming unstable, the Los Alamitos Unified School District and the City of Seal Beach are trying to determine what to do, and who will pay for it. Nobody seems to know how long the pool has been leaking, but it must be costing the city a—shall we say—a pool full of cash.
About two years ago, the Los Alamitos Unified School District began feeling the impact of California’s financial mess. As a result, some teachers were laid off and class sizes were increased modestly. But, the arrival of one time federal stimulus funds allowed the district to minimize the pain. That was then, this is now.
With this year’s homecoming dances in the history books and winter formals on their way, schools must continue to contend with the over-sexual dance moves that students use. Los Alamitos High School, like many others, uses a contract/ permission slip that the students must sign so they know there are limits.
By: Juan DeJesus, Guest Writer Los Alamitos High School declared ten high school hopefuls nominees for the upcoming Homecoming Crowning. Every year the school votes for who they think should be nominated & this year the brightest & most deserving were chosen.
Additional reporting contributed by Isabelle Carasso.
In a district wide decision, the Los Alamitos Unified School District will not allow students to view President Obama's back to school motivational speech to students. Even though the historical speech, today at 9:00 am local time, has been described by the White House as not a policy speech, the district will not allow students to view it. The text of the President's prepared remarks are at the end of this article.
Earlier this week, the California Department of Education released the results of the statewide testing for 2009. The California Standards Tests (CSTs) are standards-based tests that measure the achievement of state content standards in English-language arts, mathematics, science, and history-social science. Los Alamitos High School beat the averages in all categories, while McAuliff Middle School and Oak Middle School fell well short.
After a marathon five hour plus meeting, the Seal Beach City Council deferred a vote on what to do about the old and leaking pool and the public tennis courts at McGaugh Elementary School. The School district wants to turn the tennis courts into a parking lot, but selling the entire corner where the pool and tennis courts are located to the city is also a possibility.
After a successful used equipment sale and poker night (See related article below), the Los Alamitos High School Baseball Booster Club is readying their biggest event yet—a golf tournament complete with Los Al MLB baseball legends. As Los Alamitos High School head baseball coach Aaron Moore works the put in place a top notch coaching staff, the Boosters Club is busy raising money to help renovate the playing fields.
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Don Olmstead, Los Alamitos High School new junior varsity baseball coach.
(Photo: Courtesy Los Alamitos Baseball Booster Club)
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Los Alamitos High School head baseball coach Aaron Moore, himself a recent hire, announced the appointment of Don Olmstead as the school’s new junior varsity coach. Coach Moore joined the Los Al baseball staff as head coach in July of this year, replacing long time head coach Mark Clabough. See our exclusive interview with Coach Moor under related articles below.
At a special board meeting on November 9, called for the purpose of considering a charter school application, the School Board of the Los Alamitos Unified School District voted 5/0 to deny the petition. Citing numerous deficiencies in the application, district administration questioned the likelihood of success by the Global Tides @ Orange County Charter School. The petitioner, Marco Salazart, told OC180NEWS.com he plans to refile a corrected petition and open the school by next year.
The California Department of Education today released the latest state school testing data. This data, officially known as the 2009 Academic Performance Index (API), is based on the testing from last spring. Once again, Weaver is the star of the Los Alamitos unified School District.
Last week the California Department of Education released the results of the statewide testing for 2009. The California Standards Tests (CSTs) are standards-based tests which, for elementary schools, measure the achievement of state content standards in English-language arts, mathematics, and science. Once again, with scores already way above district , county, and statewide averages, the results at Weaver Elementary improved--proving that even with scores in the 90 percentages, they can still get better.
With class size increases coming as a result of cuts in state funding, the local educational foundation has launched a campaign to raise up to $2 million. The Los Alamitos Unified School District Educational Foundation mailed letters to all district parents last week requesting contributions of $225.00 per student. (Editor's note: this amount was incorrectly stated as $245.00 in a previous article).