Last week’s school board meeting started with an emphasis on the primary goal of the Claremont Unified School District: student achievement.
First, Michaela Moriarty and Robert Smith, who attend Claremont and San Antonio high schools, respectively, were sworn in as new student representatives to the board of education.
It’s a job that requires commitment.
During the 2014-2015 academic year, the Pilgrim Place community will offer two $12,000 Napier Awards for Creative Leadership to graduating seniors at the five Claremont Colleges.
The awards were established as a memorial to Davie and Joy Napier, longtime residents of Pilgrim Place, who in earlier years had remarkable careers as prophetic advocates for a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
The Scripps College Ceramic Annual, the longest continuous exhibition of contemporary ceramics in the United States, will open for its 71st year on Saturday, January 24 and will continue through April 5.
A selection of hybrid works, this exhibition represents both emerging and well-established artists and will feature an illustrated catalog with an essay by art writer Leah Ollman.
Some of the Claremont Unified School District’s youngest students are becoming very avid about going to college.
The increase in academic ambition comes after a move last year to bring the AVID college-readiness program—which was already at El Roble Intermediate and Claremont High School—down to the elementary school level.
AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a program dedicated to closing the achievement gap.
In May, Vista del Valle won Grades of Green’s third annual Trash Free Lunch Challenge, a kudos that comes with a $1,000 reward. Vista nabbed the award after reducing the amount of waste produced at the school by 95 percent, going from nearly 1,000 bags of trash per year to less than 100.
Vista shared the top honors with Parrass Middle School in Redondo Beach, with both schools beating out 22 other K-12 schools in Los Angeles County.
It is an exciting time to be part of the Claremont Unified School District! Although we are coming to the end of the 2014 calendar year, CUSD is in the middle of another very exciting and productive school year.
It was a busy and packed school board meeting last Thursday, with the first order of business being a tendering of applause for outgoing school board president Steven Llanusa. After a quick election, Mr. Llanusa’s seat was taken by school board member Hilary LaConte, which makes for her second term as board president.
School board member Nancy Treser Osgood will serve as the board’s vice president and Dave Nemer is now clerk. As always, Claremont Unified School District Superintendent Jim Elsasser will serve as the board’s secretary.
A row of students playing Santa’s reindeer sing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” on Friday during the Merry Everything holiday show at Sycamore Elementary School. The show was a joint effort from teachers Kelly Diaz and Jodi Erlinger-Irwin’s kindergarten through second grade students. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
The Lions have something to roar about, because San Antonio High School has been named a Model Continuation School.
In order to nab the honor—which is awarded by the California Department of Education in partnership with the California Continued Education Association—the school submitted an application detailing the school’s strengths. These, according to Principal Sean Delgado, include the widespread use of technology, nurturing community partnerships and warm relationships between students and staff.
After more than 12 years, Laura Skandera Trombley will step down as president of Pitzer College on June 30, 2015, according to a press release from the college. Ms. Trombley has been named the president of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.
“Pitzer is fortunate to have benefitted from President Trombley’s distinctive leadership and vision, as she shepherded the college through its 50th year,” Shahan Soghikian, chair of the Pitzer College Board of Trustees, said in the announcement.
It is the end of the first trimester in the first year of Common Core implementation. Report cards went out on Friday, gauging how students are mastering the new standards and how schools are doing at imparting them.
The Claremont Unified School District is having some growing pains when it comes to this next stage of the transition to the Common Core. Some teachers say the nearly two-page report cards pose a challenge for instructors to complete and parents to decipher.
Having guided Claremont schools through one of the most transformative periods in curriculum in recent history, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Bonnie Bell is on to an even more challenging role.
After four -and-a-half years with the Claremont Unified School District, she will be helming the Lowell Joint School District (LJSD) in the Whittier/La Habra Heights area. Becoming a school superintendent may sound like a daunting proposition, but Ms. Bell takes loads of preparation to her new job.
On Monday, Devin Bradley did something incredibly brave. She stood before her peers and recounted the toughest experience of her life.
A little more than a year ago, her father Matthew Bradley took his own life. It was a shattering experience, and there are still some really tough days.
Devin shared her story during a Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention assembly at the high school, and one held earlier at El Roble, in the hopes it would be cathartic.
Wolfpack music students marched to their own drumbeat at the Edison Invitational Competition held in Huntington Beach on November 1, and they were rewarded for their efforts. The Claremont High School Marching Band took first place, with additional individual first-place honors going to CHS Percussion and Color Guard.
Kudos go to the dedicated students whose countless hours of practice paid off, as well as to tireless music director Melanie Riley Gonzales, who helms the orchestras and marching bands at both CHS and El Roble as well as the CHS Jazz Ensemble. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
