This year was marked by the Claremont Unified School District saying goodbye to valuable land deemed surplus, including the closing of escrow on a large parcel sold last year and the auction of two more significant pieces of real estate.
With escrow closed on the district’s former district office, located at 2080 N. Mountain Ave., the school district is set to receive the $6.2 million the property fetched from homebuilder D.R. Horton at auction in February of 2012.
Dwarak Reddy, with his debate partner Nathan Morgan seated, responds to a question from the other team during the annual Claremont High School debate competition on Thursday at Taylor Hall. Dwarak and Nathan went on to be the champions of the elimination style tournament that took place over the course of several hours. The teams were given the premise: “Be it resolved the benefits of imperialism which occurred between 1700-1930 outweigh its negative consequences." The students took turns arguing either for the affirmative or the negative and fellow debate students judged their performances. Second place went to the team of Kiana Cavanaugh and Dorothy Kang.
Newly re-elected board member Steven Llanusa has been named president of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education. While the title is largely ceremonial, it has been a long time coming for Mr. Llanusa, who is in the midst of his eighth year of the board.
Mr. Llanusa, who last year served as board vice president, received his new designation from his peers in an election held at Thursday’s school board meeting. He characterizes it as “a good development.”
The next meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education—set for Thursday, December 12 at 6 p.m.—will begin with a changing of the guard as new board members Dave Nemer and Nancy Treser Osgood and newly re-elected board member Steven Llanusa take an oath of office. Another significant change will be made later in the meeting when the board is expected to approve the assignments of two new assistant principals to Claremont High School.
Claremont High School Principal Brett O’Connor reads from the children’s book “How Santa Got His Job” on Saturday during a Claremont Educational Foundation fundraising event at Barnes & Noble Booksellers Montclair Plaza. During the weekend-long book fair, 20% of sales proceeds were donated to CEF. The book fair continues online through the end of the week. To participate, visit BN.COM/bookfairs and enter book fair ID 11202447 at checkout. COURIER Steven Felschundneff
Claremont’s littlest bookworms have found home just in time for the holidays with the recent reopening of the Claremont Public Library’s children’s section.
The library welcomed local kids to cozy new digs last week following a long-awaited $125,000 remodel, made possibly in part by a hefty donation from The Friends of the Claremont Library. Years of dreaming and planning between The Friends and library staff became reality in September when the children’s section closed for renovation. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
It was thanks and more thanks last Friday when the San Antonio High School community celebrated their annual Thanksgiving Feast.
Students and employees queued up for a meal of turkey with all the trimmings, served by teachers and staff. Some special guests also showed up for the holiday repast, including Claremont Unified School District Superintendent Jim Elsasser and other district personnel and administrators, various school board members, San Antonio High School alumni and a few parents. COURIER photo/Steven Felschundneff
The Thursday, November 21 school board meeting represented the last time board president Mary Caenepeel and board member Jeff Stark would take to the dais to deliberate the future of Claremont schools.
Ms. Caenepeel’s current term expires this December after eight years of service. Mr. Stark has been on the board for four years. Neither of them opted to run for a seat on the board in the local and municipal election held earlier this month.
Their departures did not go unnoticed as an array of local luminaries, district stakeholders and well-wishers took to the podium to say goodbye.
The school budget situation may have improved a bit, but Claremont students could still use some help. With this in mind, the COURIER decided to reach out to each of the schools in the district this holiday season with a simple question: What do you need?
The answers ranged from big-ticket items like computers and other technology to smaller but still crucial school supplies like markers and copy paper.
If you are a resident or business owner looking to make an impact in the community, donating to a local school might be just the ticket.
As integral as computers have become to our daily lives, we often forget the experts who help us navigate this brave new world: technical support staff.
This crucial role was acknowledged at the November 7 school board meeting when Michael Patrick, a desktop support tech with the Claremont Unified School District, was awarded the district’s annual Spotlight on Excellence award.
Mr. Patrick travels to CUSD’s 11 school sites on a rotating schedule—on Wednesday, for instance, he was at Condit Elementary School for much of the day—responding to work orders and trouble-shooting for anyone feeling technologically flummoxed.
For the fourth consecutive year, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Pitzer College as the top producer of Fulbright students and alumni among all US colleges in the “bachelor’s institutions” category. At 22 Fulbright Fellows, Pitzer had more Fulbright winners than many major research institutions, including Yale University, Stanford University and Columbia University.
At the last school board meeting, Claremont Educational Foundation President Richard Chute was pleased to present a hefty $201,000 check to the Claremont Unified School District.
The oversized check was merely ceremonial, the nonprofit having already given the funds to CUSD for the 2013-2014 school year. There is nothing phony, however, about the steady support the foundation provides to the district.
Thursday’s school board meeting started with great news in the form of an oversized check.
Richard Chute, president of the Claremont Educational Foundation, used the prop to inform meeting attendees of the sizeable donation the nonprofit is giving to Claremont schools this year: $201,000.
The money will be used to fund technology and art and music education at local elementary schools as well as technology at El Roble Intermediate and Claremont and San Antonio High Schools.
Great struggle affords great opportunity to those willing to seize it. This is the guiding principle that led Carol Corwin and her husband, Pete Bekendam, from their battle with alcoholism to the founding of Claremont’s thriving nonprofit Crossroads, providing transitional housing for incarcerated women.
Her recently debuted memoir, A Spacious Place, is about the journey.
