Mystery meat. Ketchup counted as a vegetable. Foods that are processed, frozen and reconstituted until they are barely recognizable. When school lunches come to mind, the picture isn’t usually pretty.
Meals served in the Claremont Unified School District have changed significantly since Rick Cota was hired as director of Nutrition Services in 2009. When he came on board, virtually 100 percent of school food was processed. Now, 80 percent of CUSD meals are made from scratch. His goal is to offer 100 percent homemade fare.
There’s something about summer that spells the opposite of a schedule.
The days are impossibly long, and filled with an ever-changing roster of events. Bedtime varies, with kids often staying up into the night watching TV or hanging with friends.
All this serendipity will come to an end, though, when the bell rings for the first day of school. For Claremont students, that’s Wednesday, August 29.
After a leisurely summer, getting somewhere at 8 o’clock, looking pulled together and feeling ready to do school work, can be a rude awakening.
Between his work as registered principal and partner in an investment advisory firm and his role as president of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education, you would think Jeff Stark doesn’t have much time for reading.
The Thursday, August 9 meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education adjourned in record time.
Only a handful of community members filed into the air conditioned board room at the gathering’s 6:30 p.m. start time. And with no public comments or presentations from student council members, they headed back out into the evening heat at 7:30 p.m.
Much on the agenda was routine.
The Claremont High School campus has been busier than usual this summer. Demolition continues on the CHS Theatre, and its renovation should be completed at the end of February. On July 23, Dana Toland, superintendent of PCM Construction, led a tour of the gutted structure for CHS Principal Brett O’Connor, Assistant Principal Steven Patterson and COURIER staff.
With much of the stage and several walls and staircases ripped out, the theater looked cavernous.
The Claremont Unified School District Board of Education will hold its next meeting on Thursday, August 9 at the Richard S. Kirkendall Education Center at 170 W. San Jose Ave. in Claremont.
Action items will include a vote to approve shared school site waivers for Danbury Elementary and Community Day schools, which are connected with Sumner Elementary and San Antonio High School, respectively.
This summer, Justin Uhl is getting a slice of what junior high will be like.
The young Claremonter, who will be a seventh grader at El Roble Intermediate School this fall, is enrolled in an Algebra Boot Camp held at El Roble through the Claremont Educational Foundation’s annual SLICE of Summer program.
What does Justin think of his new campus so far?
“It’s fun and big,” he said.
Claremont High School has an exemplary graduation rate, says Bonnie Bell, assistant superintendent of educational services for the local school district.
The number of CHS students graduating with a regular diploma, 99.9 percent, extends to those with disabilities, Ms. Bell notes.
The fact that virtually every student graduates is particularly impressive because, since 2005-2006, there has been an additional academic hurtle for those aiming for a diploma.
New Superintendent James Elsasser presided over his first meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education on Friday, July 12 in a gathering highlighted by the approval of new agreements between CUSD and district employees.
These include the contract for the Claremont Faculty Association, which was renegotiated in its entirety, as well as contracts for the California School Employees Association and the Claremont Management Association.
The superintendent’s brief tenure has been busy.
This is not the first time education in the Claremont Unified School District, and in the state at large, has faced an economic crisis.
In 1978, Proposition 13, an amendment to the California constitution significantly limiting the property taxes once used to fund education, was enacted with much fanfare.
In 1982—with the education budget decimated and summer school in Claremont and the surrounding districts slashed—master educators Kay Conley and Susan Warren stepped in to establish an academic enrichment program called Project THINK. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
Associate’s degrees were conferred on 1332 students at Citrus College’s recent graduation, a record number for the local community college.
The June 16 ceremony marked the school’s 96th commencement.
“The all-time high is linked to the fact that, with the economy faltering, more students have been entering the community college system because it is such a cost-effective opportunity,” said Paula Green, Citrus College director of communications.
It was hello and goodbye at the latest meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education, held Thursday, June 21 at the Richard S. Kirkendall Education Center.
The school board and the community bid farewell to Interim CUSD Superintendent Gloria Johnston who stepped in after the previous superintendent, Terry Nichols, traded Claremont for the Duarte school district after less than 2 years in office.
“We were so fortunate to find you at this critical time in our history, at a time when morale wasn’t as high as it could or should be,” said board member Sam Mowbray, who said that Ms. Johnston had managed to “wow” the community.
The author Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.”
With this in mind, Claremont High School English teacher Kevin Glavin has written a children’s book encouraging young people to set goals and look to the future.
Called All The Things You’ll Do!, the story is written in the form of a song, which 2 new parents sing to their child in celebration of the landmark achievements in store, from walking to counting by 10s to adventures on the road and in the skies.
When 536 students graduated from Claremont High School on Thursday, June 14, it was easy to view those receiving diplomas as a sea of caps and gowns.
As any proud parent or loving family member knows, however, each young person participating in the timeworn ritual is very much an individual, with a story all their own.
For 2 of these new grads, the story includes a new chapter in the history of CHS, an innovative course of study called the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program.
Pranay Yeturu and Nicole Clark are among the second crop of students to receive diplomas from the 2-year program initiated at CHS in 2009.
