I am proud to serve as the board president to the Claremont Unified School District and, as the 2011-2012 school year comes to a close, I reflect on the many accomplishments that have occurred in the district over this school year.
Our first priority is always our students. Under the guidance of our Past President Dr. Beth Bingham and our Superintendent Dr. Gloria Johnston, we developed and adopted a strategic plan that will guide the district’s focus on individual student success for the next several years.
Every day, the staff of Sumner Elementary School cultivates the potential of students on the diverse Sumner/Danbury campus. It's little wonder that Sumner has been selected as a 2012 California Distinguished School.
The award, which goes to only 3 percent of the state'??s schools, recognizes those that demonstrate "??educational excellence for all students and progress in narrowing the achievement gap."
CUSD has awarded the contract to renovate the Claremont High School Theatre to Paul C. Miller Construction, with work expected to begin soon after classes end this June. The news, 3 years in the making, was greeted with applause at the Thursday, May 3 meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education.
Each day, the kids of Danbury Elementary School, many who live with multiple disabilities, face overwhelming obstacles. On Monday they, like Joseph Huerta, above, enthusiastically took on another challenge, a 25-foot adaptive rock-climbing wall brought to the campus by Mark Wellman, an acclaimed author, filmmaker and motivational speaker.
As 12-year-old Ivy Adalpe scaled the epoxy-and-concrete tower with the help of support ropes and a belay modified with a pull-up bar, her enthusiasm was obvious.
"I'm very high now," she told the array of teachers and students watching below.
Among her disabilities, Ivy is blind and has trouble hearing, so it was impressive to see her ascend, foothold by foothold, to the summit of her climb.
Very soon, our town is going to feel less populated with the upcoming exodus of hundreds of college students. Many are not only reaching the end of the academic year, they are wrapping up their entire collegiate experience and saying farewell to the campus, the city, the friends, the professors and the tests and term papers that have dominated their lives over the last several years.
The Claremont Unified School District board of education met in closed session Thursday night to discuss the search for a new superintendent. A public comment period was provided, however, no community members attended the meeting to present comments to the board.
According to Bill Diedrich of Dave Long & Associates, the district has 33 applications from the pool of candidates provided by the search firm. Of the 33 applicants, 3 are from out of state.
Who: Scott LaFleur joined the staff of Claremont’s Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden as its director of horticulture in March. Coming to Claremont from the east coast, he previously worked at the New England Wild Flower Society, the oldest plant conservation organization in the US.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to work here at Rancho Santa Ana. I’ve always been in love with California and with Rancho, and now I can experience it, immerse myself in it. It’s like a dream come true,” Mr. LaFleur said.
Foothill Country Day School students are embracing character-building through the school's interfaith chapel program, which is teaching students to focus on global awareness rather than the particulars of any one religion.
At the private K-8 school, a variety of interfaith topics and presentations are helping students and teachers alike to cultivate open-mindedness and a well-rounded spiritual education.
"Chapel time is about everyday community gathering. It's a fantastic time to celebrate each other, and we work hard to strike a good balance," said Head of School Mike Silva.
The regular meeting of the Board of Education Thursday, April 19 took on a celebratory aura as board members heard of achievements in various areas of the Claremont Unified School District.
First up in the area of recognition was a report from the inaugural Regional Student Art Exhibition held in early March in the Millard Sheets Gallery at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.
Sponsored by the Career and Technical Education Center of the Fairplex, the exhibition “ArtReach: The Art of Poetry” attracted participants from 67 high schools in 17 districts in the area.
This week, a who's who of writers and poetry lovers gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kingsley and Kate Tufts poetry awards, given each year to a new writer of startling talent and a mid-career poet who has created work of significance.
Tufts prize alumni, Claremont Graduate University president Debbie Freund and literary luminaries like Asian-American writer Maxine Hong Kingston were on hand at an awards ceremony and dinner hosted by CGU on Thursday, April 19 to speak to the talents of the latest winners and the importance of poetry.
Claremont Faculty Association
President Joe
Tonan agrees with Los
Angeles Unified School District
Superintendent John Deasy on
2 key points:
School districts must address any siteby-
site inequities that prevent schoolchildren
from receiving a top-notch
education.
For Los Angeles Unified School District
Superintendent John Deasy,
improving the state of public education
is an important civil rights issue.
Until all students have access to AP and honors
courses, effective teaching, successful schools and
counselors intent on preparing them for college, the
promise of Brown vs. the Board of Education—the
landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared
school segregation unconstitutional—has not yet been
fulfilled.
Claremont High School Chamber
Singers got a taste of paradise when
they headed to Hawaii for the prestigious
Pacific Basin Music Festival, held
March 24-31 in Honolulu.
The event brought 42 CHS students together with
members of 10 choral and instrumental ensembles
from the US, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.
Their acceptance to the festival places the local vocalists
among the top 5 percent of high school-aged
choirs.
Claremont High School vocal music director Joel
Wilson learned that his students would be attending—
on the strength of a CD audition—at the end of
the last school year.
Seeing a blue-tongued skink or an
American alligator in Claremont isn’t
your everyday, run-of-the-mill experience,
let alone touching them. But last
Monday, clients at AbilityFirst had the opportunity
to meet and feel these reptiles as
well as a rosy boa snake, a desert tortoise
and a couple of frisky schnauzer-mix pups.
The animals’ visit to AbilityFirst was made possible
by 2 of America’s Family Pet
Expo community partners,
Barks of Love Animal Rescue
and Forever Wild Exotic Animal
Sanctuary.
