La Cañada Unified School District officials have started their search for an “equity and inclusion officer,” months after some students were investigated for allegedly using discriminatory and offensive language at basketball games during the season. Continue reading “School District Aims to Hire Equity and Inclusion Officer”
Meeting to Discuss Sagebrush Transfer on June 5 Canceled; No New Date Set
La Cañada Unified School District Superintendent Wendy Sinnette said it is unclear when a meeting might take place between school district officials and the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization to discuss the possible transfer of the Sagebrush territory into the LCUSD. A scheduled June 5 meeting has been canceled. Continue reading “Meeting to Discuss Sagebrush Transfer on June 5 Canceled; No New Date Set”
School Superintendent Addresses Issue of Big Dig Traffic
Monday, May 20, is now the date on which removal of sediment in connection with the controversial Devil’s Gate Dam project is expected to begin.
La Cañada Unified School District Superintendent Wendy Sinnette made the announcement at the end of a more than three-hour Governing Board meeting on Tuesday night. Continue reading “School Superintendent Addresses Issue of Big Dig Traffic”
LCUSD Hires New Executive Director of Special Education
La Cañada Unified School District Superintendent Wendy Sinnette shares a smile with Derek Ihori, newly named executive director of special education and psychological services, at a May 2 special LCUSD Governing Board meeting.
In a unanimous vote, the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board named a new executive director of special education and psychological services during a special meeting last week.
“I’m really excited for this opportunity and I want to thank you,” Derek Ihori told the board after he was voted in last Thursday. Ihori’s salary will be $151,080, said Debra Cradduck, executive director of personnel services.
Ihori replaces Tamara Jackson, who is set to retire on June 30. Jackson has been with the LCUSD since 2003, always as special education director, she said in a previous statement.
District Superintendent Wendy Sinnette said Ihori, who has been the director of pupil services for the Las Virgenes Unified School District, was selected out of a strong candidate pool. He oversees 120 special education teachers and specialists for Las Virgenes. Continue reading “LCUSD Hires New Executive Director of Special Education”
LCUSD, Former Student Move Forward After $2 Million Settlement
More than a year after a $2 million settlement between the school district and a former special education student who was injured in a fall, guardrails protect bleachers at a La Cañada High School gym where the accident occurred and the young man is trying to put the episode behind him.
Attorneys for Ethan Kalnins, a former LCHS student who has cerebral palsy, settled with the La Cañada Unified School District after Kalnins fell off the side of the bleachers in the north gym at LCHS. Guardrails were not affixed to the bleachers at the time. Continue reading “LCUSD, Former Student Move Forward After $2 Million Settlement”
STEAM Night Energized by Robotics, Lego Fun
La Cañada Flintridge resident Brandon Cipes, his son Everett and STEM World’s Joe Huprich listen to LCHS student Nathan Yun talk about his robot. Yun belongs to the Golden Gears robotics team.
Robotics took over the final STEAM night of the La Cañada Unified School District’s academic year.
A district-sponsored event at Palm Crest Elementary on Monday featured hands-on activities with robotics at two of several stations. STEAM, the educational concept that stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math, is aimed at giving students the tools to succeed in all of those disciplines, and some of the stations showed how they sometimes overlap.
“We’re super big on recruiting or giving a lot of younger kids opportunities in robotics,” said Nathan Yun, a 16-year-old junior at La Cañada High School, who is on the Golden Gears 9881 robotics team made up of LCHS students.
His Golden Gears teammate Ethan Cohen added that the squad, which recently competed in Houston in an event that included two other LCHS robotics teams, composed almost entirely of juniors with a few sophomores and seniors, and is looking for new blood. Continue reading “STEAM Night Energized by Robotics, Lego Fun”
LCFEF Marks Four Decades as Solid Schools Foundation
La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation 2019 Spring Gala Committee members included (front row, from left) Vanessa Terzian, Betsy Hall, Truc Moore, Karen Thurston, Gina Ricci, co-chairs Sunyoung Fahimi and Caroline Anderson, Arlene Fader, Jaime Hefner, Grace Mase and Julie Bae. Back: John Ibsen, Joyce Mayne, Chris Silber, Jason Scherbert and Tim Sheffield. Not pictured: Tracy Nelson and Jeff Parks.
A lot has changed in La Cañada Flintridge over four decades — political divides, buildings, businesses and, lest we forget, some questionable hairstyles and fashion trends — but one thing has remained the same: the community’s steadfast commitment to outstanding public schools.
LCF was built on the very idea of great schools, already woven into its fabric when it was incorporated in 1976, and most homebuyers today also will say the local school district’s superb reputation was the driving force behind their move to the tranquil foothill community. Continue reading “LCFEF Marks Four Decades as Solid Schools Foundation”
Crash Simulation Makes Impact on LCHS Students
La Cañada High School student Nicole Reynolds portrays a victim of a drunk driver in the recent Every 15 Minutes program, which uses live dramatizations to teach kids the dangers of drinking and driving.
The scene — the aftermath of a crash involving a white Dodge Charger and a black Jeep Cherokee — was only a simulation, but it all looked eerily real.
One teenager was sprawled on the ground and others slumped in their smashed vehicles on Oak Grove Drive in front of La Cañada High School, their faces and bodies smeared with fake blood.
Officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol and the county coroner’s office helped move the injured — portrayed by LCHS students — to safety and arrest an allegedly drunk driver. Continue reading “Crash Simulation Makes Impact on LCHS Students”
Sagebrush Territory Transfer Meeting Set for May 1
A meeting between school district officials and the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization to discuss the possible transfer of the Sagebrush territory into the La Cañada Unified School District — and an environmental impact report regarding that issue — is set for May 1.
Petitioners from Sagebrush, which encompasses about 380 acres in La Cañada Flintridge’s western-most part, seek to transfer the area from the Glendale Unified School District to LCUSD. Continue reading “Sagebrush Territory Transfer Meeting Set for May 1”
