Opposition in Compton by some parents to Parent Trigger & petition

The situation in Compton's McKinley Elementary is continuing to be focused on the Parent Trigger petition that initiates a change of the school's operators. A petition has to have 51% of the parent's signing it to have this become effective. Now, as reported by the L.A. Times, the opposition is claiming that many of the signers were not told the truth and that some are rescinding their signature.

"Effort to convert Compton school to charter draws fire- Some are withdrawing signatures given under the 'parent-trigger' law to make school a charter, saying they were intimidated or misled."
By Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, December 11, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1211-compton-school-20101211,0,4177045.story

So the parents are really saying that they did not read the petition, but they signed it anyway. There are some claiming intimidation by the petition signature gatherers and it appears from the story that pressure is being put on many to rescind their signature. The way it looks to me is that, unless there is outright fraud, like having forged or fictitious signatures, the number of those signing the petitions should be left alone.

I doubt that the legal process requires that once the petition initiating the change is presented with the sufficient number of parents signing it, that there has to be any more samplings to see there is no "buyer's remorse," otherwise there is no certainty, something necessary for planning, on the decision represented by the petition.

I am for this change to see what actually can be carried out by the new operators as specified for a couple of basic reasons: 1. Time is up: The school has had a long time with poor performance and recent improvement still did not move it up to the acceptable level; 2. Immediate change will happen in operations once operations are transferred. No assurance of any such move away from "status quo" condition can be made by the school district by leaving it alone to continue with whatever plan is in operation.

The defenders of the school use the big jumps in test scores to show effectiveness but the jumps can be very huge when you start off with a very poor performance. This goes for most conditions in life. Any improvement is a huge one when things have been going wrong. When things go better, the corresponding changes to plans will unlikely to be so dramatic.

Another analogy for this idea, a school analogy: A student can move up his or her grade from a "Fail" to a "D" relatively easily by eliminating some things he is doing, be it truancy or not turning in tests. A move up to a "C" level would be also within reach by a little more action on weak areas. This still leaves the grade at an "average" level, but a tremendous difference from a "Fail."

So, moving the grade in this condition becomes more difficult, though not impossible, when seeking a "B." More effort by the teacher, student and with the studying, that can be helped at home by a parent simply allowing a set amount of time daily for the student to do homework.

In Compton, the gains may be, for sake of example, moving from the "Fail" level to a "D" level, and then later to a "C" level, or close to it, but attributing the continued gains by leaving the situation as it is set just does not assure the continued rise in scores will happen.

If this change does happen, there is nothing to tell you that it will happen with any appropriate speed. Maybe a bit of explicit discussion of timetables and a recitation of actual plans could reassure me on this but we are past that now that the Parent Trigger petition is filed.

I think thae the accusations on both sides will begin to heat up and the district was mentioned in an earlier news story as not allowing any charter schools to operate in Compton so far, nor would the district appear to be changing that condition volutarily.

In this overall situation, I am looking at the impact, positive impact, on the students. I don't say too much for what the future holds for the current faculty roster or others who would be displaced at McKinley by the change. That's another situation connected to this matter but that concern will no doubt be working on stopping the change from happening, and that would just continue to frustrate the situation, doing exactly what the Paent Trigger was created to change.

We will see what develops and whatever happens will be something that I am sure that many other districts are looking at for future changes that may be heading their way. Again, tough as it may be, the parent involvement needs to be cultivated by teachers and anyone else seeking to improve education. In the case of low performing schools, their very existence as they are set up could depend on what the parents perceive is happening in the education of their children. Again, it's the perception important here, not any actual good showings, but that helps, too.

The Compton parents reached a critical point in terms of confidence in the future of education of their children and that's what controls the situation. On the surface, it does not seem to be an unreasonable choice. For children, education delayed is education lost. There are lots of students performing at below-grade-level by the time they enter high school and it's not fun for teachers or for students as extra work has to be done to remedy that deficiency.

Consider that here is where you get that dark shadow of poor performance falling upon many of them, heading them into deeper into the direction of "at-risk" or "high-risk" and then, too often, they don't get out of it, and instead, they encounter more unsuccessful experiences than successful experience in high school, lose interest in school and ultimately they drop out.

Yet another separate factor for problems in education is that these student often becoming involved wtih gangs somewhere along the line. That impact nearly always is a negative one as it relates to schoool performance, be it a distraction in the best case scenario or an obstacle to gaining progress in school performance.

If the Parent Trigger is followed up in Compton, you should take the opportunity. When LAUSD was operating in our days, even while fooling around in school, it left most graduating with a fairly usable level of skills. Not the best conditions for all, of course, but way better than what you see for too large a number of students now. If you recall from that era, we could fill out an employment application well. Now, especially if you have been in a position to see them, too many cannot even do this task without assorted difficulties entering the process.

I will end this here and see what happens next in this situation.

"Parent Trigger" as an alternative to "status quo" in schools

There was a story in the L.A. Times this week about an underperforming elementary school in Compton being the subject of a different manner of operation that's come into law in California. It's known as the parent trigger and in short, it can change the operation of a school by a majority of parents petitioning for the change. In the Compton case, a charter school operation will be in charge of the school.

"Parents present signatures to take over a Compton school-
Using the new 'parent-trigger' law, they take the first step in demanding a charter operation at McKinley Elementary." By Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-compton-school-20101208,0,5155683,full.story


The L.A. Weekly has it's own story on the situation with updates, "Compton Parents Petition to Take Over Chronically Failing Public School Through 'Parent Trigger' Law, Send Shock Waves Throughout the Nation," By Patrick Range McDonald, Wed., Dec. 8 2010. http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/12/parent_trigger_compton_unified.php

This story has reader comments that give assorted views. The main thing here that I see is that the parents using this approach will force the change whereas current methods of complaints on progress have resulted in the snail's pace rate of change in many cases, with little noticeable change to encourage any more patience.

The criticism can be made that you could have a schools educational process equally fumbled after a change but weighing that possibility against continuing "as is" or "status quo," the temptation is strong to make a change, especially if the operators of the school program have been considered and identified in advance. There would be not much point in moving control of a school from a group with no performance improvement methods working to parents without any plan for or idea of what's going to be done next. The goal should be to improve education immediately, not to make a change for just a hunch that it would be better.

My continuing reluctance here is that the special education aspects in education will likely be poorer not better. In working to make for better performance, you can see that the problem areas, the challenges, will be given some attention to reduce that aspect of responsibility. In that regard, you may be allowing for an increasingly disparate impact on students due to a variety of disabilities that a non-conventional school would seek to exclude among their duties.

We see the teachers union against this and that's expected; only the reasons will differ and some may be valid and others obviously weak. Again, this is in Compton and not the LAUSD, so much is still to be seen, and it is at an elementary school level and not a high school.

My observation here is that teachers, supported by their administrators and staff, need to work on linking up with the parents (and that can be one formidable task with some parents) so that there is communication and a better level of response to the needs of the students. At least among parents signing petitions, the perception currently in place demonstrates that this is not happening and a change is called for. Teachers who want to avoid this outcome would be well served to head this off by working to establish contact with parents and develop something of responsiveness to student needs as well as show what's been done and what the student needs to do (especially where classroom management problems involve the student).

LAUSD considers August start for all schools

The LAUSD is considering moving up the starting date for the next school year to August. The change will be about 3 weeks earlier than the regular date so that the fall semester will begin in August instead of September, which was the traditional month for back-to-school that most of us were used to.

Lincoln High was one of about 17 schools that began school in August, a plan that is hoped to move up test scores for the district. Many parents are opposed the plan for a number of reasons that the Daily News story reports on: "Some Valley parents are opposing expansion of LAUSD's 'early start' plan," By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer. http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_16729944

People mention the heat of August but there's air conditioning in nearly all schools and besides, the heat can come as late as October as with this year and a summer can be mild, again, like this year.

My idea on the resistance here is that it interrupts vacation schedules for everyone. The teachers, for example, will have a shorter summer break but there will still be the same number of school days, with a longer winter break.

Parents probably will have to re-arrange schedules but then that’s part of the overall differences in life now compared to even the very recent past. All things considered, I don’t think this will do much for the improvement of test scores or anything else to a significant degree. What might change test scores for the better, along with the rest of school life, is getting better work habits practiced by the students, with some regular cooperation from parents, not to mention having the district and site administration begin dealing with disruptive students in more appropriate ways and consistently so.

The LAUSD is becoming more desperate for getting better results with the tests. I wish they would have been a little more frugal in that building binge that burned up millions of dollars- at least they could have ACTED like they cared about tax dollars instead of going on spending sprees with architects and artists instead of accountants deciding what will be spent on buildings.

It’s nice to have good buildings, but even poorer settings can generate educated students where there’s motivated students and involved parents to cooperate with the classroom teachers, a condition that’s not seen by many schools.

LAUSD and LHS furlough and holiday gives a week vacation for Thanksgiving.

This is the last day of school for LAUSD generally and Lincoln High specifically. Lincoln is on an "Early Start School" schedule and will end the fall semester next month but there's added the extra full week of holiday from the students' viewpoint beginning with the close of school today.

The furlough days, or as the LHS website calendar has it, "furough," will be observed on next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as part of the budget arrangement to save LAUSD some money. The Thanksgiving holiday that customarily includes the following Friday will provide all the District with a full week of "vacation." Next classes at Lincoln will resume in 10 days.

This means lost pay for employees but on the positive side, it givea a head start to anyone taking the opportunity for getting travel done a little early for this holiday.

=======================================================
Closing out this week is that football playoff game that LHS has tonight, as mentioned in the posting yesterday. Good luck, Tigers and Woody, you and your staff have done a remarkable job with the program.

Lincoln Varsity Football in Playoffs- Friday v. Palisades High

It looks like the LHS Varsity team will be able to practice their game-winning style on Friday at Palisades High at 7 p.m. Attendance is encouraged, but just where this location is exactly will be your job to find out.

I can't tell you any more on this since details don't come easily from the official LHS site, so you might try calling the LHS office to verify time and place to be certain:

(323)441-4600 and
Fax: (323)223-1291

Alumni Association Meeting on Saturday

LHS Alumni Association meeting time again this Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Cafe In The Heights across the street from the campus on N. Broadway.

Here's the announcement email from Frank Beltran for this meeting via Mike Ibarra's email forwarding:

MONTHLY ASSOCATION MEETING NOTICE
DATE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2010
TIME: 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: Café In The Heights (Across from Lincoln HS)
3510 North Broadway

YOUR ATTENDANCE IS IMPORTANT FOR THE CONTINUED
SUCCESS OF THE LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE LHS ALUMNI - MAIL IN YOUR $20.00 ANNUAL DUES (Fiscal Year, July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011)
MAIL: LHSAA, PO BOX 31257, Los Angeles, CA 90031
OR BRING TO THIS MEETING
(Please ignore if you already paid your yearly dues)

Log onto the high school website for Alumni news and updates:
http://lincolnhs.org/apps/news/?id=4

PARTIAL -AGENDA ITEMS:
Come and meet active alumni participants.
Committee Reports
Final October Alumni Dance
Final Concession Stand Earnings Report
Discussion of Proposed 2011 Calendar/Budget

Looking forward to seeing you this Saturday.

PS –Read attachment, the Lincoln Football team ends season 9-1 and goes to playoffs.

Support your alma mater by attending the game at Palisades High this Friday at 7:00 pm. You will run into many alumni at the game..

Frank Beltran, Retired Principal
Vice President -Membership, LHSAA
f.beltran@gte.net
f.beltran@mac.com

Last LHS Football Game of the regular season on Friday- v. Wilson

Lincoln ends the regular season for 2010 on Friday, November 12, 2010 at home, JV at 4pm, Varsity at 7pm. Up until last week v. Marshall, the Tigers' varsity team was undefeated and Lincoln will be looking for a win to make that the only loss of the season.

For those not familiar with the relationship between Wilson High and Lincoln Hig, Wilson has long been the principal rival for as long as I can remember. Wilson is the closest LAUSD high school to Lincoln other than Bravo Magnet School that has no team, but with so many transfers and blurring of district lines, I think there's not as much intensity of loyalty to each of these schools as there was back in the 60's. And back in the 60's, Wilson was on Eastern Avenue, now occupied by El Sereno Middle School as the new high school on the hill was completed.

You can check with any assorted groups and people from that time and with more contemporary sources and compare times based on your own experience to see is this is an accurate assessment of school spirit. In any even, this should be a good game to end the regular season.

Remember to support the LHS Alumni Association by buying food at the concession stand at the Visitor's side of the field, reasonably priced and good quality, too.

Veterans Day 2010

Today is Veterans Day, a holiday that honors United States military veterans. The national holiday was originally called Armistice Day to recognized the end hostilities in World War I that was effective at 11 a.m. on November 11th, 1918.

An act of congress in April 1954 changed the name of this holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day that year, and it recognizes all veterans now.

Parade today: 5th Annual Northeast L.A. Veterans Day Parade

PARADE

Today's scheduled parade- the "5th Annual Northeast L.A. Veterans Day Parade"- will begin at 1 p.m. and it looks like the weather will be good but you can never be sure lately. The route begins at York Blvd. and Eagle Rock Blvd. and continue north on Eagle Rock Blvd. up to Merton, a block before Colorado.
OTHER EVENTS

Before that, there will be a solemn ceremony at 11 am at the Eagle Rock City Hall at Colorado and Maywood. A USO Stage Show will begin after the parade at 2:30 p.m. at the parades's end at Caspar and Merton.

PARTICIPATION of local NE area high schools:

LINCOLN HIGH- At last check, there's no information on whether Lincoln HS will have any showing of the band, cheeerleaders, drill team or ROTC or any other LHS organization.

EAGLE ROCK HIGH-
Eagle Rock High has been notably absent in the past parades. According to ERHS Principal Salvado Velasco, there are no plans for participation in this parade as he referenced this topic arising at a faculty meeting. The activities are managed by a director and the scheduling apparently had some date conflict.

ERHS's representation in this, the only parade held entirely in Eagle Rock each year, is pretty strange but that's what was explained to me last week by Principal Velasco.

FRANKLIN HIGH-
So it looks like it will be Franklin High School from Highland Park as the only expected Northeast L.A. High School represented here, now having put in some fine appearances over the history of the parade.

There will still be a lot of other participants from local schools that will be present but you would expect the high schools to take opportunities to show what their performance groups can do in a public event like these. So far, there's no certainty on LHS' entry in the Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade next month. I was told that there is not entry fee like some parades have and there should be no issues on transporting students so maybe they are just taking their time to act.

LATE FOLLOW UP: It turns out that Franklin High sent their ROTC Color Guard as the schools only FHS entry in the parade. LHS and ERHS were non-participants as earlier mentioned. There may be some explanations for this but I still think a school needs to take every opportunity possible to get in some performance time to give the students maximum exposure since many will be graduating in June.

I think this shortchanges them in not allowing friends and family to see them do what they are practicing for in the first place. Just my opinion and I don't have the other side of the story for Lincoln or Franklin. There could be many other reasons that make sense but I find this to be dissappointing.

LHS TIGERS at Eagle Rock High Saturday afternoon

Saturday will be the next game day for the Tigers, JV at 10 am and a 2 pm kickoff for the Varsity teams.

This will be the Homecoming Game for Eagle Rock, with Lincoln having it's own next Friday, so you might see a few more features presented during half-time than for a regular game.

The tickets are $7.00 at the gate, good for both JV and Varsity games and the Tigers are on a winning streak.

Lincoln High Alumni Association's Fundraising Fall Dance is a sellout.

Mike Ibarra announced yesterday that the Fall Dance, a fundraising event this weekend, is a sellout and thanks all who supported the event. See sidebar for link.

Good news for the combined effort of those putting this event together and hope for an enjoyable evening for all those coming down.

Football: LHS travels Saturday afternoon to Eagle Rock HS.

The Lincoln Tigers won last Friday's game at home against Franklin High and will travel to the north for a Saturday day-game for both the JV (10am) and Varsity (2pm) teams at Eagle Rock High. This will also be Eagle Rock's Homecoming Game so there should be a good crowd there.


Lincoln's Homecoming game is NEXT WEEK- October 29, 2010, JV-3pm and Varsity-6pm.
This is the Halloween weekend as that's on Sunday, the 31st. The opponent will be Roybal Learning Center, know some time back by many as the "new" Belmont- the second costliest high school in the country- losing that title to the RFK complex built on the Ambassador Hotel site ($578 million http://laist.com/2010/08/24/lausd_readies_578_million_campus_fo.php )

I don't know the details there about a dance and whether a Halloweeen Dance doesn't happen since the Homecoming comes at the same time, so it's only one dance.

In any event, there's a winning streak with the team working on keeping that going against Eagle Rock this weekend as their immediate objective.

12th Annual Eagle Rock Music Festival-TODAY- Oct. 2nd from 4-11pm

The 12th Annual Eagle Rock Music Festival is TODAY, Saturday, October 2nd, from 4pm to 11 pm on Colorado Blvd.

More about the performers: http://www.centerartseaglerock.org/index.php/calendar/event/id/526

Parking at Eagle Rock Plaza, with the Shuttle Bus service to and from the event site on Colorado Blvd. beginning at Eagle Rock Blvd. is strongly recommended. Parking and the shuttle bus service is provided at no
charge.

Eagle Rock Plaza is located on Colorado Blvd, by the Glendale city eastern border, next to the 2 Fwy. (Glendale Fwy.).

More about the performers: http://www.centerartseaglerock.org/index.php/calendar/event/id/526

City Council March election hopefuls at "L.A. Clean Sweep" public forum Saturday

SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN HIGHLAND PARK- for the public

The March 2011 city election nears, just a bit over five months away, and here is the first event featuring the candidates for the even-numbered City Council District seats. Well, even though the incumbents have been invited to attend, Bernard Parks of CD-8 is apparently the only one who feel secure enough to show up.

"Clean Sweep Presents LA's First All-City Council Candidate Forum from 1 to 4 p.m.. Details at: http://ronkayela.com/2010/09/clean-sweep-presents-las-first.html

This is a free event, with a registration requested to ensure the seating requirements can be met.

The location is the American Legion Hall at 227 N. Ave. 55, between Figueroa and Monte Vista.

This city election offers an opportunity to unseat several from their reign over the city where you see that honesty in government is a lost concept.

Some of the signs of that, if you are a non-believer or maybe simply a fan of these elected officials is that they had their voting machines set to generate an automatic "Yes" vote for motions, showing that really no one opposes another's motions or there's payback. "You vote for my motions or your motions will not pass," is an unspoken rule, and where there's no response to meaningful discussions or just no meaningful discussions to begin with, you have a dictatorial environment operating.

It's all very corrupt to say the least. Sometimes a "Yes" vote would be registered and the Council Member was NOT EVEN IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER. (That had them scrambling for excuses when the L.A. Times revealed this set up.) I've heard Eric Garcetti ask for corrections from time to time on the vote as incorrectly registered and I suspect they still have not set the auto-pilot "Yes" vote control to "off."

The other thing that this automatic voting setup tells you is that there is really no need to read or study whatever comes before a CM. If they aren't interested in the particular topic- why should they read it? They are voting "Yes" anyway, right?

This seems to have happened with that ballot measure B on solar power- totally distorted by Garcetti and they all voted to put it on the ballot only to find a lot of manipulations and self-serving provisions (of course) inserted that would have you thing the IBEW local union itself
wrote it. Maybe they just dictated it. The CMs were changing their opinions when the public complained and it was Garcetti trying to find some way to avoid blame. Fortunately, Measure B was defeated at the polls by the people for the phony setup that it was.

There was a calculation of the votes taken in Council's motions that showed they voted UNANIMOUSLY in over 99% of the votes taken.

So when you see people in Public Comment speak against a motion in front of the Council and then see that the vote taken right after those comments is a unanimous "Yes," it looks like those speakers were totally ignored. And that's just what happens.

The speakers might have had more success in persuading the public out on the street by saying the comments out on Spring Street instead of inside the Council Chambers.

The other fact often presented is that while Public Comment goes on, the CMs have their own conversations with aides, chat with each other, or simply leave the room. It's so bad that often the person at the podium has to ask that they please pay attention to what they are saying.

There's lots more to show that tells you we need an overhaul in City Council, but if you are in the groups getting an inside connection and are having your interests addressed, then you have an interest in keeping that CM in office with so much invested in making campaign contributions and deals. Or maybe you are on the staff and in that case I can see why you would like to stay employed aside from the CMs worthiness or lack of same. That's just about job survival, not anything to do with a CMs actual merit.

More to be shown by candidates, for sure, before the elections, but at that $15,000 a month salary and perks on top of that, you know it's taking nearly a demolition team to get those incumbents out of their seats.

Too often we have acquiesced to the political double talk and allowed the career politicians to control major decisions that have taken us perilously close to a city bankruptcy filing.

Politicians at other levels are as bad, if not worse- check the State level and see that even Mayor Villaraigosa's cousin, State Assembly Speaker John Perez is caught clearly with more political-speak than substance in the news clips of the last few days, but it "sounds" important. Mostly it's all for the public to think something productive is happening with a state budget that's nearly permanently overdue.

It's time for change all around, but starting at the local level is a very do-able action to get better government.

"Shoot to kill" policy for NYPD is claimed and changes sought

The item from yesterday should have had some other things to be complete. The NYPD had critics for shootings, especially the Sean Bell shooting in 2006. LAPD's currently being criticized by many about shooting an armed-with-knife suspect by person's denying that shooting was an overreaction, that there was no knife, that a non-lethal response needed to be attempted first, and that there was no knife present at all.

Here's the story on the NY side, "Proposal to change shoot to kill policy for cops,"
Tuesday, May 25, 2010, Joe Torres, WABC, Ch. 7, New York,
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7461450

The story on video is brief and direct.

What started criticism was was the shooting of Sean Bell by undercover officers after coming out of a bachelor party on November 26, 2006, when police believed there was gun drawn by someone in the car Bell was in, causing officers to fire 50 shots immediately.
The police were found not to have violated the law, but I think that was not true, that it was a CYA situation with mistake upon mistake happening to result in this fatal outcome.

The Wikipedia entry has many details and background, but is a version presented by assorted contributors who may themselves be in error, but it's still very helpful to see so many things happening to cause this to occur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Bell_shooting_incident

Police are supposed to apprehend or stop suspects, not to be the executioner, so assuming a shoot to kill policy in the first place in contrary to what the legal system supports.

ABOUT DEADLY OR LETHAL FORCE, IN GENERAL, What is it? and What happens because of it?
If deadly force was justified, as where a suspect's own actions rise to that level, then the death of that subject by a responding police officer who is trying to stop the suspect from carrying out his action that is reasonably believed to be an immediate threat to the officer or another innocent person is justified.

Once that stopping the actions that posed the threat occurs, the continued use of deadly force not longer is justified since the threat employing deadly force has ended.

So the cops can't then kill the suspect. However, if the suspect then dies from wounds inflicted in the justified use of deadly force, that is within legal and moral limits since the suspect created that situation.

Again, as in the doctrine of retreat where self-defense is claimed, a fleeing person is not usually ripe for shooting (deadly force) since the necessity to stop the threatened harm has ceased by his withdrawal. There still may be a crime, but it’s not one that supports a lawful use of deadly force as a response at that point. (In certain situations, shooting a fleeing suspect can be proper, but that is in specific conditions.)

Also, where is it the law that a police officer MUST use non-lethal force to respond to a deadly force situation? If there is truly deadly force used by a suspect, why should the police risk their own lives or the life of innocent persons where the suspect can literally kill them?

Police are supposed to have an acceptable casualty level of “zero” in doing their jobs. You may find military actions where deaths are expected outcomes of various choices where the military operations occurs, but that's not police work.

Sometimes you have to recognize what's there is all you have to work with, and not pretend that any different outcome is possible. But neither can you indicate permission for police to kill anyone anytime they shoot.

Once the threat ends, you don't continue to guarantee death. The death as a consequence of "stopping" (shooting for center mass) instead of a "wounding" result (some wishful thinking on marksmanship) is a permissible outcome of the justified use of deadly force, and that it’s the suspect himself who decides and causes that condition to materialize by his own choice of actions that precipitate such responses.

Now, this is something of a discussion that I put together very quickly and there may be some vagueness that needs narrowing but I think you can see there's more here than what most people don't or refuse to consider or understand. And let's not forget that the outcomes can change with a change in what the facts happen to be. Not all situations are equal, but the principles to use remain consistent.

And when state Senator Gloria Romero proclaims, "We are not in the Wild West," you have a lot going on for police to handle to show she's wrong and she should see that.

State Senator Gloria Romero Shoots off her mouth on "Shoot to Kill" policy of LAPD-

State Senator Gloria Romero must be totally ignorant of the law, and the factors affecting marksmanship and just plain common sense notions to have spoken about a need for LAPD to change their "shoot to kill" policy. First off, there is no policy in place. Sen. Romero made her comments in reference to the recent shooting and death of a man with a knife by LAPD bike patrol officers. She referred to the need to use alternatives to shooting in disarming the suspect.

Well, there appears to have been an immediate threat to the officers by this man but she would have had the officers put their own lives at risk by using non-lethal force as a response to the man. That could have resulted in some cut up or dead officers but Romero is not looking at the whole picture.

In trying to preserve life, you don't just throw out long established principles regarding the use of lethal force and then put the officers' lives on the line as some sort of sacrifice of a trade.

No, none of it makes sense. Maybe to Romero. Let's see, is she up for election again? Maybe she should put some time in a simulator or on the range to see it's easier to make charges than to actually perform as she expects. Those who know all this can see she hopelessly ignorant on this- or maybe not. She could be enlightened by trying my suggestions and then re-think her proposals.

BELOW: NEW YORK P.D FROM WABC TV Ch. 7 . in May charged with a shoot to kill policy that they should change.
The idea was to have the police use their guns to "not kill" really. The NYPD doesn't have a shoot-to-kill policy. Here, they DO want some feats of consistently amazing marksmanship to replace some established and rational, as well as legal, principles that have been taught.

The story is about having cops shoot in the arm or leg- you know, like in the movies. More sheer ignorance on marksmanship and the law. The training for officers has them aim for the largest part of the target, or "center mass" where there are vital organs to ensure a "stop"- remembering that shooting a gun is an act of "deadly force" that is to be used as a response to a an immediate deadly force threat.

I will examine this a little more, only because a "colleague" at a meeting over the weekend was vehemently denying that "shoot to kill" is a forbidden policy and I have to examine this for myself to see that the world is not upside down on this.

So the idea is to save lives by the cop responding to the situation that, by definition, means the officer or another innocent person in in immediate danger of loss of life or crippling injury. That now puts the officer likely to "take one for the team" to carry that idea out if the non-lethal response does not stop the perpetrator.

And as for choosing the spot to hit, it's insane. Most shooting done by police results in more shots missing than hitting. But these are cops TRYING to hit the subject and they miss entirely most of the time. So expecting a leg wound or some precision result is lunacy. Further, you are treating the situation dangerously from a liability standpoint: "He killed the suspect instead of hitting him in the leg." Now cop says "I tried that but missed that part of the body. I meant to hit his leg." OK, sounds like a lawsuit coming up for NOT doing what he was "intending" to do and causing the greater harm to the subject.

All that is a crazy scenario. For anyone to support that is to ignore legal principal of justifiable use of lethal force and when it is proper and when it is not.

Shooting or any infliction of other deadly force AFTER the suspect has stopped his threat is NOT justified, otherwise you'd have the police as the executioner. Some think that already is the case but there's a legal basis to determine all that.

SEN. ROMERO'S COMMENTS SET OFF SERIOUS RESPONSES FROM POLICE
You can check a story on the LAPD response in Earth Times, "LAPD Officers Furious About Senator Romero's Inflammatory 'Shoot to Kill' Remarks," LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) .
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/inflammatory-shoot-kill-remarks,1467868.html

Lincoln Alumni Meeting tomorrow, Lincoln at Belmont tonight

There's an alumni meeting tomorrow at the Cafe in the Heights on North Broadway across the street from the campus beginning at 9:30 a.m.

There's also a varsity football game tonight (Away game) at Belmont, at 7pm- and this is the old Belmont that we all know, not the "new"Belmont that became "The Edward R. Roybal Learning Center."

FACULTY, ALUMNI OR NOT, WELCOME TO MEETINGS
And like I said, maybe not to precisely, but the Alumni Association tries to help students and address what it can for assistance, but maybe teachers think it's only alumni that can come to meetings and even at that, there's still only the same very small hard-working faculty contingent attending meetings and handling activities.

Faculty members don't have to wait for a need to make a request from the organization for equipment, money or other materials to make an appearance at a meeting or two, but the observation is that this situation happens to be the only certain time that a visit happens.

All faculty members (you who don't have to be alumni) are also welcome to attend, maybe just to check in to let us know what's changed in the school, or to tell us how we can all work to help them do a better job handling the job of educating students.

Too often the opportunity for expanded involvement of willing people is overlooked when the job could be shared among many in trying to achieve a goal of helping students of Lincoln High obtain a better education.

------------------------------------------------------------
An earlier photo posted here showed a shot of LHS from City Hall- to compare the view, here's ths same view in a wide angle shot. But to most people away from our area, we are located "downtown."

LHS Alumni Association Meeting This Saturday

It's time for the September editiion of the LHS Alumni Association meeting happening this Saturday, 9:30 am, at "The Cafe In The Heights" across the street from LHS on North Broadway. If you remember where the old fire station was that used to provide us with the 10 am, last-Friday-of-the-month, air raid siren function exercises, done city-wide similtaneously, then a few doors away from there you will find the Cafe.

(photo at right is telephoto view of LHS from City Hall tower)

Linocoln has been in session a month already and most of the LAUSD started this past Monday. That 5 day shortening of the school calendar is one reason for a short Fall semester.

There's not much to tell about the LHS experience at the moment, but there's lots going on with the teachers' union and the District concerning test score significance and teacher evaluations. All that is for a separate blog entry but as for Alumni matters, you will have to check the LHS Alumni link in the sidebar.

One matter that's been an ongoing condition with the Alumni Association is the sparse membership or even contact with teachers here who are alumni, and there's a lot. Of course, things get busy for teachers, but there might be a better condition produced for all if there was a little more presence of current alumni faculty in the association. Just an observation that's not anything new.

We do have several teacher alumni who DO attend meetings and give another perspective to the needs and conditions that school environment produces, and that one very postive feature of faculty participation. This participation would not even have to be as a member but an occasional visit to give us all some idea of what the current LHS is all about.

As usual, the meetings are open and anyone is welcome to attend, give comments and share ideas, or just hear what others have to provide. There's a football season underway with the food concession stand on the Visitor's side operated by the Alumni Association. Volunteering to help is always very useful for before, during and after the games.

Dodgers' divorcing owners were No O'Malleys- More like the Bell City Manager.

Frank and Jamie McCourt were no angels when it came to buying the Dodgers. The story that's coming out in the pretty entertaining divorce is showing how they used the Dodgers like a cash cow to bring in money with very little of a plan to return value to the fans. Dodger fans being exploited is what it looks like, all to make the owners lots and lots of money with that the main goal. Winning championships maybe did not cross their minds as often and probably not part of the plan.

"McCourt: Plan was to cut Dodgers players’ salaries," Sep 1, AP,
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-dodgers-mccourts-salaries is interesting in showing comments that reflect some views of some bitter fans.

A much longer article on the same topic is loaded with datails, "McCourt Divorce Trial Reveals Dodgers' Massive Debts, Payroll Deductions," 9/02/2010 1:20 PM ET By Jon Weinbach, Sports Business Writer, http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/09/02/mccourt-divorce-trial-reveals-dodgers-massive-debts-payroll-de/

The player development was not a concern and one part of what got into some full speed ahead action was the increase in ticket prices. There was a time Tommy Lasorda used to say about Dodger Stadium, "Where you can bring a family of 4 for ten dollars.' That WAS a long time ago and the seat were in the upper deck or pavillion but it was true. Parking alone jumped to $15- was it any wonder that the Dodgers (the McCourts) did not want to contribute to any shuttle busses? There's shuttle service now from Union Station, but guess where that money comes from? Like when city council waived extra expenses for added officers to control traffic during the playoffs- the public paid for helping the business operate.

The McCourts had an arrangement where the Dodger Stadium property and the team were treated separately according to the reports. They were charging the team rent where you did not have that in earlier ownerships. The idea was to be able to have the property as an asset in case the team's future turned into some financial downturn.

Remember Walter O'Malley who brought the team to L.A.? Probably not, but back in those days and then with his son, Peter, there still was a "Dodger Family" sense about their operations. As people grew older and some died or moved to other organizations, the team aura changed and that's what it looks like to me, a forme avid fan, maybe beginning to lose that interest back when Steve Garvey left to the Padres and broke up the long-time infield.

The idea that baseball is a business is what you have to recognize and this is what the McCourts did, and that's all they did. I don't think you should feel any sympathy for either of them as more and more of the story is coming out that all they appear to have as a common goal is the cointinued accumulation of wealth and they did keep the team going but not with any passion for the game or the team.

If this team gets sold, I hope it gets some owners who don't "use" the operation like the McCourts did, but work to have some restoral of tradition. Anybody remember such long gaps between World Series appearances as these more recent years haven't changed?

The loss of Manny as the story linked here says, saved them over $3 million on payroll, and the fact that he really did not produce after that first year didn't help to keep him. But that was an exciting short time that you have to give Manny a lot of credit for generating.

I have to admit, I don't follow major league baseball anymore, but the time I did see Dodger Stadium after many years since the last visit was when they dedicated Mannywood, and then the small matter of taking steroids was revealed and a few days later, no more Manny on the field. I used to know all the Dodger roster years ago- not too hard since they had a pretty stable situation, but now when I hear the names of the players there's only a few I recognize as Dodgers from the current crop that seems to change as there's more and more millionaires in the game- on the field, that is.

So this is the short post here just to criticize the owners of the Dodgers now that their business plans were revealed, using the fans who would pay higher ticket prices anyway, even if the team was not a contender. That's got to tell you a lot of how the McCourts handled their ownership responsibilities. Now they've turned on each other and the exposure of all the behind the scenes plans they were using is more than interesting.

I usually write about the city hall politicians, but these folks appear to have about the same need for power and have it coming at the expense of others. It's coming out that the purchase of the Dodgers was done without really an actual presence of cash on hand. Just a lot of leveraging to pull off the deal.

They got the Dodgers and were working on their plan and now it's divorce time, with all the dirty linen aired out on both sides. Bell's city manager Rizzo is being discovered in more ways to be ripping off the city of 40,000 residents (the entire city population would fit in Dodger Stadium- just an observation) and so were others in their city structure. Were the McCourts ripping off fans? It's all a matter of opinion, and this was mine as the revelations tend to support a very different picture than what they presented to the fans.

Alumni Meeting Saturday, location change

It's time again for another Alumni Association meeting, and there's a location change that was noted in the email from Mike Ibarra.

It will be at the regular time, 9:30 a.m. but across the streed at the Cafe in the Heights, 3510 North Broadway. Recall that LHS is at 3501 N. Broadway- "Downtown" as many of my teacher trainee colleagues from across the city's expanses called it- but not to us. It's still the Eastside- but not it's not quite "East L.A." as many others like to pigeonhole the school and it's issues.

I don't know why there's a meeting change since school's back in session- add that to the list of things going on with the school and the alumni association that I don't know about. I can only report what people share with me or what I observe first-hand, and this isn't part of that at this time.

There are s few events coming up and I know little about them- especially the poker tournament. My knowledge about poker calls up some freshman memories of college when all-night card games were the cause of some of the more financially well-off students being relieved of some sizeable amounts of cash. That disinterest in poker holds to this day for me.

That tournament is happening on the 28th of August and you can see the sidebar link for the LHS link and see under the Alumni tab for more.

Fall Semester Starts Today for Lincoln High. What Else Is In Store for Students?

A "Welcome Back" goes out to the LHS students, faculty, administration and other staff on this sunny and warm August day.

There are only a handful of LAUSD schools, other the shrinking list of year-round schools, that start a new semester today. The rest come back in the traditional month for back-to-school, September. The short summer has a good aspect to it. The whole semester is done by the time the Christmas season rolls in.

There's a new change in the way the school operates after the decisions on the Parent Choice selections were decided by the Board. The program control resulting from that Board action remains within, as I understand it, the plans of two approved plans, one teacher lead and the other, principal led.

I just checked the LHS official web site and here's something new about "Advisory":

What is an Advisory?
The goal of Advisory is to ensure that each student is known well by at least one adult staff member. These connections promote both student satisfaction with school and academic success.

When do they take place?
Every day for 30 minutes. Each student will have their advisory period during the 1st or 2nd lunch period.

What will be learning in advisories?
The advisories will be divided into different subjects each day. SLCs with decide the sequencing; however, all Mondays are for Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). Below are the topics of focus for advisories.

Aside from some proofreading oversights here, there seems to be a return of sorts to the homeroom type of consistency of contact, but with a bit of curriculum attached to the period.

That conclusion comes from the sentence, "The goal of Advisory is to ensure that each student is known well by at least one adult staff member." But I hope they really mean, "teacher, including interns, or other certificated employees," since we have "staff" that help the school plant run, from plant manager and that staff to the cafeteria and maintenance persons.

Yet more importantly than the choice of wording here is the real effectiveness of the concept. I really have very low expectations from most things that come from LAUSD Board choices, given the history of major blunders in the past relating to poor fiscal management, poor personnel management and just foolish conceptual choices that do nothing for the student that is in school at the moment and that will probably be gone, either by graduation or dropping out, by the time LAUSD action arrives at a completed project.

Am I just a pessimist here? Maybe so, but as for LAUSD I would say it's more of a "realist's" view that's come about from seeing history unfold with LAUSD since back when I was a student here:

1. Belmont construction fiasco with years of delays and cost overruns as Vicky Castro was the Board President to begin that; building over an oil field was a poor choice and the earthquake fault seems to be everywhere; long gone from the picture are the street level "mixed-use" retail establishment's whose rental income payments were envisioned in the initial plans.

2. The payroll software disaster; putting a "beta" level software system into full operation was destined for major problems:

LAUSD (Los Angeles) payroll system price tag balloons - $ 210 Million!!
Los Angeles Daily News 12/15/2007 Nash Boghossian Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 6:28:10 PM by Loud Mime.
Ten months after installing a new computerized payroll process that has been roiled by glitches, Los Angeles Unified officials now say costs for fixing the system and completing its rollout could top $210 million.

The system, with an original price tag of $95 million, has underpaid or overpaid thousands of employees, and last week district officials said hiring consultants to fix it has already ballooned the cost to $132.5 million.

And some officials are questioning the district's transparency on all the costs associated with the system, noting that at least $6 million will be forfeited by allowing some overpaid teachers to keep the money.

Full article here: http://www.utla.net/node/965

3. The RFK- Ambassador Hotel school site history and final cost-the District got into early and costly litigation on the purchase of the site with Donald Trump and I would say he was not the loser:

Shocking choices: LAUSD's most expensive school raises questions about priorities
Posted: 07/15/2010 01:00:00 AM PDT
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15516956

"The sensible answers are pretty obvious, right? Not to the Los Angeles Unified School District, which chose to spend $572 million to build elaborate - no, lavish - schools out of the former Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. Artificial turf soccer fields, historic replica spaces and public art sculptures helped push the per-student cost of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools to $135,000, nearly 40 percent higher than the average school built in the central Los Angeles area over the past two years.

"When the completed campus opens this fall, students will be met by a shocking incongruity. They'll enter the most expensive school ever built by the LAUSD and find fewer teachers, older textbooks, larger classes and a shorter school year."

4. The aggressive school construction program that puts up school, evicts some of the persons it might have served and all in the face of a continuing history declining enrollment.

"Art School or LAUSD Folly? - A gorgeous downtown high school has no plan, no curriculum — but sure looks fab"
Comments (9) By Erica Zora Wrightson Thursday, Sep 4 2008
http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-04/news/art-school-or-lausd-folly/

This was the second most expensive high school in the country, at about $242 million, behind Belmont aka Roybal Learning Center. But the RFK site sounds like it will be the most expensive after all is done.

This is why you cannot depend on letting choices be made without some accountability involved.

What COULD have been done with all of the money spent if it was spent WISELY? But you know what? They don't care. NO ONE takes the blame, no one gets fired, and if there were millions involved, who would be sued anyway with any money on hand to pay for their share of wrongdoing?

And do you know what the school district wants? More money from taxpayers. I think that's not happening, not quite in this lifetime anyway. At some point this wasteful spending binge ends. We cannot help the District's spending jones here. Sorry, everybody is broke or did they miss that over at the Beaudry offices? Being an "enabler" is what we'd be doing. As a matter of fact, that goes for all the politicians. Some "tough love" is about all they can expect now.

Oh, I forgot to say that this is considering that there's always some behind-the-scenes choices going on with contracts to direct the money to make some groups or people happy. Notice how building trades unions happen to be the first level to benefit from building programs money that the LAUSD spends. Union pressure on moving toward development is a regular item in all politics. Just check the LA. City Council and its choices in building and spending to see theory in actual operation.

Well, I am going beyond what is really the point here, and that's Lincoln's participation in yet another experiment with an early start that seems simple enough to understand. You have a district desperate to see improvements in test scores and measurable academic achievement.

But for all the money poured into these plans, I think they'd benefit from more outside participation for arriving at better, or at least comparably hopeful and practical ideas.

They plan and then they don't do a sort of "walk-through" of what they have created to see if it works or if it's practical. If they put themselves into the shoes of the students for a lot of things that happen, they might see why a lot of results that are produced happen to turn out like they do.

Ah, but they are bureaucrats, and the ritual more than the functionality matters more to them- "form over substance."

Wander off the path of the traditional or mandated choices and you become an outlaw in the eyes of the bureaucracy, even if what you, as a teacher, think is an absolutely valid basis and is a vehicle that will produce something of value- like educated students. What a novel concept.

So we will have to see what happens. Too bad that the lives and education of young people have to be what is at stake here, for better or worse, as the adults sort out the plans at snail's pace and still come up short.

Oh, and I would like to have seen some presentation of the program at Lincoln to clear up questions on how improvement will be achieved, item by item. Of course, the parents, I guess, have already been given that demonstration by now.

Maybe that is so, but the community members, including the business community might benefit from a presentation that could attempt building a renewal of faith in the schools. We already see that the LAUSD has done a very good job in tearing that faith down and causing so many families to head to private schools, that is, if they even choose to move into LAUSD school areas to begin with.

(And, City Council, this is another factor in NOT being attractive to new business development - the children of the prospective employees might have to go to an LAUSD school which right now is a big negative for any considerations of attracting businesses to locate in L.A. In reality, they'd just have to see if they could pay for a private school on top of what they have to already have to pay in taxes for the public schools anyway. Not a good deal for them.)

See "Advisory" at http://lincolnadvisories.wikispaces.com/

Early End to Summer Vacation- Classes begin Monday at LHS

Yes, this was not only a very cool weather summer but a very short one to for LHS students. The school schedule for the Fall Semester begins on Monday for them and a few other LAUSD schools, while the rest of the district begins in September as we remember as the "back-to-school" month.

I don't have the exact basis for the selection of the schools for the early start but it's got something to do with a desire on the district's part to have more of an advantage in recall and learning for testing that will include an entire semester done by the end of the year.

When I was taking our teacher training, we discussed the effect of breaks on the students. You usually found that there was a lot of re-learning that had to be done for the students to be back where thet were in June. And the district is really hurting for showing some improvement, too. The other factor that must be a consideration is the change that happened to Lincoln with the new programs that I understand left some teachers out in the cold without certain classes due to the new parent choice outcomes and changes to the SLCs.

Whatever the reason, let's hope something in the way of performance improves at the alma mater, and if coming back early helps, then so be it. More of an effort to get parents on board with all the programs would do wonders, too, for the results to be expected.

Abuses from Assembly Speakers- and it just keeps happening.

The Speakers of the California Assembly seem to be establishing a proud tradition of abusing their power and flaunting their influence. We only have to look at the most recently departed Speaker, Karen Bass, that's done at taxpayer expense, of course- and that's the thread that runs through most of the actitivities that these public officials create.

Karen Bass is no longer the Assembly Speaker but is using drivers and guards that are reserved for the Speaker. The story, "Assemblywoman Continues To Use Speaker Perks," is at the KCAL channel 9 webpage, http://cbs2.com/local/Karen.Bass.Perks.2.1823556.html July 24, 2010. She is noted to be doing this as she campaigns for the Congress seat being vacated by Diane Watson.

It's no surprise that Bass does not show much concern about using more of the services paid for by the taxpayers than she's entitled to. Bass was discovered to have collected per diems payments recently for Assembly meetings she did not even attend. "California lawmaker skips Capitol meetings but collects tax-free per diem payments- Former state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has been missing from the chamber more than she has been there since announcing her bid for Congress. Her aides say she has been working in her L.A. district."
June 05, 2010B y Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/05/local/la-me-bass-20100605

"Bass collected a per diem of $141.80 per day for 29 days she was not in
Sacramento, amounting to a payment of more than $4,000."

The payments are somehow legal but this is clearly an abuse since Bass is actively running her campaign for Congress and as normally is seen, they just don't tend to much business of their office while they look for that new job..

It just goes to show that these people are never at a loss to find laws to pass that affect others, but just don't care to follow the spirit of the laws themselves when it suits them. Thay should not rely on the fact that the "official business" qualification is very loosely applied and it seems there's no requirement for them to show clearly what it is exactly they are doing in the name of "official business." It's a lot of bending of terms and definitions that all comes back to the tax payer to cover. The fox guarding the henhouse is what we have in too many places.

On March 1, 2010, Karn Bass' last day as Speaker, she gave out raises to her staffers, ignoring an unofficial policy of not giving raises during the California budget crisis.

"The Curious Case of Karen Bass - How a dedicated community organizer becomes an insulated, perk-oriented politician." By BETH BARRETT -Thursday, Jul 1, 2010, L.A. WEEKLY, http://www.laweekly.com/2010-07-01/news/the-curious-case-of-karen-bass/
It sure does seem that there's an entitlement notion carried around here by the way Karen Bass approaches things. The L.A. Weekly article givea a lot more examples of the details of what turns out to be not-so-odd behavior for Assembly Speakers as they spend the public's money.
See also, "SacBee: Former speaker handed out staff pay raises," Sacramento Bee, March 5, 2010. http://inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/03/05/sacbee-former-speaker-handed-out-staff-pay-raises/

John Perez, the cousin of Mayor Villaraigosa, was recently elected with the help of the Mayor's influence and soon replaced Bass as Assembly Speaker on March 1. The Sacremento Bee urged Perez in an editorial in March 2010 to show leadership and reverse the raises that Karen Bass issued on March 1, the last day that she had the authority to give those raises without permission needed of any others.

The Bee said that Bass had grown out of touch with what she needed to do and this was a chance for Perez to start with some good leadership and rescind the raises. It WAS a chance, but read on.

Sounds like a good idea? Not for Perez and surprise for you all. Perez, by the time that tej editorial was published, already gave out raises of his own on March 1, his first day with the power to so order a raise. "New Assembly Speaker John Perez gives chief of staff a $65,000 raise," By Admin– March 16, 2010. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/03/new-assembly-speaker-john-perez-gives-chief-of-staff-a-65000-raise/

So we use something of a piggish theme when it comes to politicians for pulling out money from a state that's broke- much of THAT condition due to their actons- and the message I get from them is, "it's just too bad" for the rest of us.

The raise to the Perez chief of staff made her more highly paid that Perez himself. Well, that's politics where you can weasel your way into situations to reward your friends and family (John, I hope you thank Antonio often for your rapid political rise) and most of the time it's both at the expense of tax payers and done at a time when it is highly inappropriate; just plain bad manners but then pigs don't have manners.

I will get to some other things along these lines that happen with these and other speakers at another time. Remember the predecessor to Bass and Perez, Fabian Nunez, who lived the high life, getting lots of gifts and things paid by non-tazpayer sources, but then when you get favors, do you think it's all for your charm? There might be some favors expected in return, don't you think? We already know the answers and the companies and organizations are not doing this "for their health," to use a phrase that we have all probably heard our parents use in telling us about their guiding actions- "I am not doing this for my health."

Maybe it IS for their health as they all get richer for it and live with more opportunities for self-indulgence. But, as I often mention, this is just a little of all the squeezing politicians do of the system for personal gain. I can only point out a few things but check Mayor Sam's blog and RonKayeLA.com for a lot more each day.

In music history today- notables of now and then

Just to jog your memory if you were around in the 60's when they began their popularity, or to add to your information if you only know of them but not how far back they were from, this is from L.A. RADIO.com www.laradio.com in today's music historical information.

BORN-
1943 - Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger born in Dartford, Kent, England.(Still a part of today's music."

1941 - Brenton Wood (Gimme Little Sign, Oogum Boogum Song) born in Shreveport. (Performed at Lincoln High in the past and has performed recently. (An LHS teacher, an accomplished musician, and fellow alumnus, whom I also consider a friend , Mr. Huff, also from the 60's, has performed with him over the years. )

1940 - Dobie Grey (Drift Away, Loving Arms, The In Crowd) born in Brookshire, TX. (Ramsey Lewis did the jazz intrumental version of "The 'In' Crowd," after it was originally performed by Gray.)

DIED-
1992 - Mary Wells (My Guy, Two Lovers, Laughing Boy) dies of cancer at 49.

1977 - Led Zeppelin halts tour when Robert Plant's son, 5, dies from a virus.


L.A. RADIO.com has more on radio's past, present and some ideas on the future, too. There is a free version with a lot of information every weekday.

That's good, but the suhscriber version is even better. At a yearly rate that amounts to roughly 10 cents a day, it's a bargain- and I think it is much easier to read through with it's different text formatting.

It's mid July and 2010 Summer Vacation for LHS ends in 4 more weeks.

Just checking around the recent activities for LHS and see that the LAUSD schedule for the academic year 2010-2011 will begin on August 16th. That semester ends on December 17, 2010 with 77 "instructional days," according to the school calendar approved by the School Board.

The next semester will begin on January 10, 2011 and end on June 7, 2011, with 98 "instructional days."

The new school year is shortened from last year as a budget cutting measure. A semester was normally 20 weeks. 5 days a week would make a semester total out as 100 days, so you can see the second semester is still a respectable length but the first semester looks like its 23 days short of the regular semester length, 4 weeks and 3 days shorter. On the bright side of things, if you have a teacher or class that you don't really like, if that happens in the fall semester you have only 77 days to go through instead of 98 if it was the spring semester.

Things have changed a lot since I was a student at LHS and there have been a few changes, too, since I was teaching there. Most alumni have the idea that school now is like it was when they left and that's not quite the case. Homerooms or Roll Calls were part of the norm when I was there in the 60s. You recall that you were assigned to a particular room and teacher for Homeroom that was usually right before the Nutrition break.

In Jr. High, homeroom was segregated by gender and was the first class of the day at Nightingale when we started in the 7th grade. And they changed Jr. High to Middle School, made the first year to be 6th graders and you left at the end of 8th grade regardless, as I found out, whether you learned anything or not. This was commonly known as social promotion.

But the homeroom of old at Lincoln put about 20 students of both sexes together for the entire duration of high school. The benefits of this setup was that you had 15 or 20 minutes to hear the daily bulletin to know what was going on, get some questions asked on a low or no-threat level when it came to ego, and you got to know you homeroom members and see them, for better or worse, each day that you went to school. Stories were traded and updates on what's happening at LHS were talked about as well as talking about things with the teacher who was going through the high school years with you to 12th grade.

My homeroom teacher was Mrs. Ruth Daniels and she was from the old school but nice to us in her special way. We also had some of the student teachers assigned to her stick around for homeroom. One was a young teacher from Hungary who was in the revolution there and told us about the experiences from time to time. I don't think that we were able to appreciate the significance of the struggles he talked about since we were in the U.S. and had no way to know all about the lives of people in other countries like we have now.

Well, that's then and this is now. I think it was a good part of school and maybe might have had some positive impact on the dropout situation had it been kept. At least there was one "class" that you were not going to "fail" and you could talk with others for a while about what was happening and you don't have that "no-pressure" class now, no respite from whatever the day held for students.

That was taken out, and when I taught there already 5 years ago, your 2nd period class had some time added on for roll taking and some "reading" to be done for the first 15 minutes. Each semester that particular group of students changed, and each semester there was a new combination of students; there was no continuity of any sort with the student grouping or the teacher. This arrangement, I suppose, was to improve things but I don't see that either the behavior or the student academic performance went in any positive direction that I think an old style homeroom arrangement would have helped promote.

While I was teaching at Lincoln, there was so much "F"-word and "B"-word that was in the air at any given time outside of class that it was very noticeable upon first arriving at Lincoln. It was just like that at about ever other school in the district as I was told by other fellow teacher/students at the teacher courses we had to take during the semesters. I don't see this "non-academic language" coindition was anything that the school administration ever cared about fixing when I was there. A school-wide "behavior plan" that a "review" or accreditation team created after visiting LHS during my first year there never got off the ground. I'd say that the word "appalled" would describe their reaction to the school's profanity-rich environment. But it never really seemed that the administration cared about that during my time there.

In fact, I never heard one word again after the "Team" made the report after studying and visiting classes for a week. You could see that their ears burned with the student chatter that was heavily laced with profanity flowing freely through the air during lunch breaks and passing periods. I walked in the same halls near them and heard a lot of what we had, to some extent, grown used to. They clearly appeared to notice the bad language from some of their reactions that I observed during their first day's visit.

We as teachers, at least outside of our own classrooms, had quickly become numbed to these words but newcomers usually had this area as their first shocking observation.

LHS was like this with the dress code, too. It never was enforced unless it reached some level of a penal code violation, I guess. The administration really was not useful in this area from a teacher's point of view. A lot of promises and there it ended. I think that discipline, applied evenly, fairly and consistently, could have done a lot to make the place a lot better for students and adults alike, but that was never grasped by the on-site powers that be- and I doubt that's a condition changed much, even with the change of principals. I mean, what was this lack of limits doing for getting them used to conforming with life "outside" school where your language and manner of dress may be subject to "expectations" and being hired or not can depend on such basic choices? No, LHS did no favors for students by allowing this nearly complete "freedom" it you want to call it that.

And it was every teacher for himself in handling the "in class" situation. We, or more accurately, my students, always made progress, although it was far from perfection, but the classes were very good, almost profanity-free during class hours by the second semester. And then it all started again after summer vacation.

Well, school is changing and the Public Choice and SLCs have made what you and I remember even more distinct and distant from the current conditions. I think the SLCs are another bunch of straws that are being grabbed at in desperation for some way to improve performance. But how can you have continuity of contact with a specifically grouped faculty- a touted feature of the SLC plan- when there is so much turnover in the faculty?

And equally questionable is the idea that every student can pick his or her special area of interest, often associated with a career path, to pursue for their full high school time? Nothing stays the same, especially with teenagers.

These are students, just teenagers, and they constantly are changing their minds as they feel the need to. They learn new things that influence them and your 9th grader may not have the same thoughts by the time he or she is getting to the 11th grade, or even earlier. Often, many never get to the 12th grade and this is not the way that I think will do much just because a class group is smaller. You may have even a worse time if you find that you don't seem to click with one or more teachers and this program is designed to make your academic fishbowl of teachers much smaller.

Well, when there are some significant trends that someone can show me and can connect any changes to these theories, let me know.

Lincoln High Alumni Meets Tomorrow at 9:30

It's that time again for the LHS Alumni meeting and July's will be tomorrow-7-17-10, on campus in the Student Cafeteria.

All alumni and friends are welcome to attend and hear the plans for the upcoming events and some reporting on the past recent events.

LHS ALUMNI PICNIC SATURDAY

The LHS Alumni Annual Picnic is back after a year's break last year.

It's on Saturday afternoon, July 10- Tomorrow, starting at Noon in Roland Height at the Schubarum Regional Park. The park has an entrance/parking fee of $6.00 or so.

See the link to the LHS event posting for more details.

This is one of the more relaxed activities for the Alumi Association for the year.

Villaraigosa gets investigated two times for not reporting freebies.

First, there was the news about some things the mayor wasn't tell us.
Mayor Villaraigosa is being investigated by Ethics Commission about accepting free tickets as reported by Fox television reporter John Schwada. "Ethics Commission Investigating LA Mayor," Friday, 11 Jun 2010.Reporter: John Schwada
http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/ethics-commission-investigating-la-mayor-20100611


Then, today, it seems that there's yet another investigation of the mayor that has the potential for more serious consequences.

"Second investigation opens into mayor's free tickets - D.A.'s Public Integrity Division joins the city's Ethics Commission in looking into whether Villaraigosa's unpaid attendance at sports and entertainment events should have been disclosed." By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, June 22, 2010.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayor-tickets-20100623,0,562239.story

The mayor's attitude on this whole situation is the most revealing part of entire picture. Tony still has the arrogance and cavalier attitude on the subject is what continues to be the most troublesome here. The idea of disclosure of such gifts according to this the law is to provide some limits on the amount of influence that may arise where gifts are given alone. The other part of the law creates an obligation to report where there is some dealing in city business by the gift giver.

AEG has a number of ongoing transactions with the city and the mayor tries in a very lame fashion to try to shield his actions from disclosure by saying he is acting on official business so no disclosure and nor any gift value limitation applies here. He is just too far gone into his own caricature of a fool. When anyone expects something even remotely resembling the truth from this mayor, it's not going to happen. He is continually evading and avoiding disclosures of any sort. The mayor is taking the exact path to make it look like THERE IS something to hide- and he's right.

On the D.A.'s investigation? I really don't think there's any chance of criminal violations being found as the mayor has too many friends and some exculpating factors will be found to cover him; no specific intent to do the acts, a misunderstanding or any other "excuse" is going to let him slide.

The real story here is that we have a mayor who holds himself above the laws and regulations that are intended to apply to elected officials. If he does this with the simple stuff, what else do you think he might not be exactly following that he should be? The answer: Any and everything.

The additional signal here is that the Council members don't dare speak out against the actions since "birds of a feather flock together" and no one will blow the whistle where it might be themselves next in the news. THAT failure on the part of any of the CMs shows their own character flaws and just because they make the highest pay of any city council in the country, over $15,000.00 a month apiece, there is no connection to any higher level of anything being followed, be it morals, character, ethics or good judgment.

It's all about money and power and they already get too much money and you can see how much the power has corrupted them in assorted ways.

Operation Clean Sweep for a new Council in the even-numbered district elections coming in March 2011- like burned out light bulbs that leave us in the dark, they need to be replaced.

Alumni Association meeting on Saturday, June 16, 2010

It's time again for another Alumni Association meeting on Saturday, June 16, 2010. 9:30 a.m. in the Student Cafeteria at Lincoln.

It's the third Saturday of the month and time for the Alumni Association meeting.
The meeting is on the campus of Lincoln HS, at 9:30 am. in the student cafeteria. No charge, no obligation, everyone is welcome even if you are only an interested person and not alumni.

There are a few events to come and check for more details at the Alumni Association pages linked in the sidebar here.

June 25, 2010 Golf Tournament
* July 10, 2010 Picnic
* August 28, 2010 Texas Hold'em Poker
* Save the date: October 23, 2010. The next Alumni Dance.

Mayor Villaraigosa makes announcement on Lakers home game. Can he be more idiotic?

It just keeps getting better with Tony as he makes an announcement today that is being played on the radio news. He is making an annoucement to try to help the police side of things and keep people out of the area if they don't have tickets.

He says that you should stay home if you don't have a ticket and spend time with your family and save money and gas, blah, blah, blah. And where will HE be?

Well, he doesn't care- He's not exactly your best role model for much and most people are getting to see that as time goes on. He gets free courtside tickets he was not declaring and still doesn't as far as I know. at 3 to 4 grand apiece, there's a value for each pair that creates some tax impact for him but maybe that's not declared either. Some estimates at the value of free tickets he's been getting are around $400,000.00.

But to go on, his radio announcement is particularly idiotic since he's not telling you anything useful, helpful or even trustworthy. He gets free tickets, the city pays for his vehicle, his gas, his drivers, his police bodyguard detail, and who charges him parking? and you already know he's in the process of getting a divorce so there's the family aspect.

All more of what's so irrelevant with this guy. He is so bad that I can only see Eric Garcetti as a worse mayor with all his personal ambitions that will cost everyone but Garcetti should he get into office and work on more social engineering.

Well, good luck Lakers and if you notice the mayor there, he's supposed to be on "official city business" according to his view of things. According to Tony- "if you have an official purpose, it's not a gift, no, it's not a 'reportable gift'."

Spending more time at city hall and less at glitzy affairs would probably be too much of a culture shock for him. Anyway, it looks like the city's being affected more by Austin Beutner whose in charge of, what? 15 different departments now? He probably does know more about management of things than the Mayor does, but it's from his experience as a profit-motive entrepenuer. Is that good for the city? I don't think it is.

City Council's Arizona Boycott- sort of.

When the City Council decided that part of the job of managing the City of Los Angeles also included managing not just another city's business, but that of another state, Arizona.

Arizona's bill that passed, modeled after federal law, creates another statute to deal with the illegal immigration problem within the Arizona borders. The outpouring of criticism of the statute appears to have been made in many instances, and by persons of relative importance, without it ever being read.

One very vivid example was presented that was pretty amazing for what it demonstrated. This was within the Obama administration itself, no stranger again for making hasty statements on matters. So you have persons including the U.S. Atty. General Eric H. Holder, Jr., testifying about his views that he stated were formed without reading the law.

"Holder Admits to Not Reading Arizona's Immigration Law Despite Criticizing It," Published May 14, 2010. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/13/holder-admits-reading-arizonas-immigration-law-despite-slamming/

I recall that he mentiond the media as his source for forming his views during that session. So if this is the way the chief lawyer for the U.S. acts when he's expected to be better informed than just going by what he's heard, who can fault the rest for doing the same. (Except that this guy is getting paid to know such items of legal substance and if this were the private sector that employed him, he'd be looking for new job the next day.)

Here's the link to the YouTube video on the exchange (time: 3:53) that's also linked in the story above. "Eric Holder on Arizona Law: 'I have not read it yet'," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rH1FEcbi4A (By the way, Rep. Ted Poe who is doing the questioning was a state court judge beginning in 1981 and a felony prosecutor for 8 years before that.)

Council members approved the boycott, in a vote on the motion made by Janice Hahn during her campaign period for Lt. Governor, and Council president, Eric Garcetti, who might be even more disastrous than Villaraigosa if he ever becomes mayor.

The boycott that was so quickly adopted by the Council of course like most things that they do in their rushes to judgment, is not clearly a boycott in purist terms. There are lots of exemptions and exceptions that had to be made to keep the City from shooting itself in the foot.

The case of the Agenda Item 23 today, Tuesday, June 15, 2010, is one of those exceptions. The choice is to boycott or carve out an exception since this is something that may have some actual benefit to the LAPD, one of the pioneers in using helicopters as part of the law enforcement tools, now commonly used by the departments across the country.

The City Council might have considered using "prioritization" and working on getting the budget settled and not spending time and energy on a non-city, non-California items. But there's so much the Council is doing poorly, so what's another bad choice going to mean to them anyway? They have since authorized a amicus curiae brief to be drafted and submitted in the litigation on the Arizona law. So we have more expenditures of taxpayer money on items that do not have an impact on us and the bried if one of dozens, which means that unless L.A. finds something novel that other lawyers missed, it won't matter much in the big picture here. And in the face of the City Attorney's office being the subject of the reduction of their numbers by 100 according to Villaraigosa's budget proposal, it's not a good application of resources. But that's my view and you already know that there's lot's more poor application of resources by the Council and Mayor that a book could be written about it. Several books if you get into the unethical aspect, the intimidation and the political payoffs and bartering of appointments and intentional deceptions made upon the public. "Transparency" in city government is purely theoretical under Villaraigosa's leadership and Garcetti's own manipulations in the City Council.

And let's add the choice on the Agenda that they have to make today on an exception to the boycott:
ITEM NO. (23)
10-0991

MOTION (SMITH - PARKS) relative to Council authorizing a one-time exemption to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to attend the annual Airborne Law Enforcement Association Conference in Tucson, Arizona from July 12 through July 17, 2010.

Recommendation for Council action:

AUTHORIZE a one-time exemption to the LAPD to enable four officers to attend the annual Airborne Law Enforcement Association Conference in Tucson, Arizona from July 12 through July 17, 2010.

And so much more to consider. March 2011 will be elections for even-numbered council districts.

DWP gets caught again on a matter of veracity- This time by Controller Wendy Greuel

The DWP held back the transfer to the city of $73 million a few months back, saying it needed a rate hike and could not spare the money at that time without it.

The City Controller, Wendy Greuel, completed an audit and found that there was over $700 million in the DWP's own account, 10 times the amount that the City was waiting for.

"Controller finds DWP misled the public when it threatened to withhold funds from city- Wendy Greuel launched a probe into the agency's accounts after officials refused the mayor's request for $73.5 million. 'The DWP's actions unnecessarily plunged the city into a fiscal crisis,' she said." By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2010. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-controller-20100611,0,7666607.story

Somebody in the DWP lied? All I can say is, 'What else is new?" Wendy is still a political person and very close to the mayor so she's not about to call these guys liars, even if that's the best word to use. The Mayor was the one pushing for the rate hike in April and he was completely on the DWP's side of the situation that was going to make bills higher for the residents and businesses in L.A. (Didn't he get elected to take care of the public's well being, and not to try making the road clear for DWP to make the most money it can make?) But you know what? He doesn't care as long as it moves all things to his goals of "looking good"- in this case, not the pretty boy stuff, but in the context of heading to a better record on converting to renewable energy and environmentally friendly things. It's all very expensive but not anything that will have him taper off for the public benefit. It's kind of like the way that Eric Garcetti presents, continuing to press on no matter how much expense it means for you and me.
===============

Check out Ron Kaye's blog and see his view of that situation,
"Condemned to Failure -- Beutner, DWP and the Refusal to Learn from the Past " By Ron Kaye on June 10, 2010 3:56 PM
http://ronkayela.com/ Austin Beutner is the Mayor's pick to run about 15 city departments. Usually you have one person with one department and that's the way that should make the most sense. Milliionaire or actually billionaire is working for a token amount and is the Mayor's hope for a solution to get him out of this financial jam that's been closing all around the city little by little over the past few years.

Ron Kaye sees some problems with Beutner's style and it's pretty apparent that there's a lot of posturing on this subject all around since no one wants to look bad here. The DWP workers caught by the Channel 2 reporter as they were drinking on the job and spending some down time in a strip club was just a little of a lot of ills that may not be widespread but should not be allowed to happen at all. DWP supervision either condones by its acquiescence regarding such activities or they didn't know at all what was happening until the Channel 2 reporter pointed out the problems by showing them. In that case, it points out some poor supervision practices followed, like, maybe, a failing by whoever is supposed to be supervising.

The DWP is more or less working on its own like a rogue agency, out of control from the City Council's view. Mayor Villaraigosa put Beutner into the job to be the extension of his authority. Villaraigosa was part of the problem when he was pushing for the rate hike that the DWP wanted, or it could have been a rate hike that the Mayor wanted to CYA on the budget, and keep the IBEW happy (as if they were not with the salary disparity and cushy terms that gave them raises to come in for 5 years).

The Mayor usually used to be on the union side of things and now had to be the bad guy on budget matters and you can be sure he did not want to be on the bad side of any union issues since he has relied on them for votes, a real big reason he caters to the union interests all around but look where it left the city. Such a fool.

But let's leave that for now as there's lots more going on- more antics of the Council and the Mayor to be examined, past and ongoing.