By Miriam Raftery

March 22, 2014 (Alpine) – Alpine Union School District Superintendent Tom Pellegrino has announced in a press release that he is leaving in June to move with his family to Costa Rica. 

“Since before our children were born, my wife and I set a goal to raise our kids in a Spanish speaking country for at least two years to give them the gift of bilingualism, teach them about simplicity, and to expose them to a true global perspective,” Pellegrino stated in the release. “This is the last chance to accomplish these goals before our kids would re-enter the States in middle  high school. We have the opportunity to do it, and we are seizing it.”

C.A.S.H., AIA California Council Recognize Projects Funded by Proposition H, Proposition U School Bonds

March 19, 2014 (El Cajon) -  Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) announced that one of its schools, Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, Calif., has earned an Award of Honor in the new-built category as part of the 2014 C.A.S.H./AIACC Leroy F. Green Design + Planning Awards Program. The award was announced at the 35^th Annual C.A.S.H. Conference in Sacramento on Feb. 25.

Public Hearings to be held on April 29 and May 7

By Sharon Penny

On the evening of March 12, the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) board members convened a committee meeting for transmittal of the petition to unify the Alpine Union School (AUS) District. 

Alpine residents successfully submitted a petition meeting all requirements to convert the K-8 Alpine Union School District to a K-12 Alpine Unified School District, which would then include a future high school in Alpine (http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/15043).

March 3, 2014 (San Diego)--Apple picking is a trend nationwide – no, we’re not talking about plucking fruit. Thieves have been stealing Apple iPhones, which are costly to buy and hold their resale value.

There has been a rash of iPhone thefts at  San Diego State University, prompting numerous alerts recently.

San Diego Office of Education to act on unification petition at March 12 meeting

February 26, 2014 (Alpine) – The San Diego Office of Education has formally recognized the Alpine Unification petition as complete, according to a press release issued by the Alpine High School Citizens Com

By Nadin Abbott

February 21,2014 (Alpine) At 6:00 on February 20, teachers at the Alpine Union School District walked off the workplace, joining an unfair practices strike called by the Alpine Teachers Association. Children and parents dropped off their kids at schools where striking teachers marched around the campuses.

The schools had a 65% attendance, according to Alpine School Superintendent Tom Pellegrino, in a tweet posted at the District webpage. Yet, from the reaction of parents at the District’s board meeting at Boulder Oaks Elementary on February 21, the school day was far from normal.

By Sharon Penny

February 15, 2014 (El Cajon)--At the February 13 Grossmont Union High School District  (GUHSD) meeting, the Governing Board provided some recent positive outcomes in the district (see side story: Grossmont District Schools Shine Academically), but took a step back for democracy.

By a vote of 4-1, the Board adopted a resolution: “In Recognition of the Citizens’ Board Oversight Committee (CBOC) and Their Service to the Grossmont Union High School District.”  It  praises the District’s bond oversight committee-- but also aims to muzzle school board members from giving testimony to the oversight comittee.

By Sharon Penny

February 17, 2014 (El Cajon)--Ralf Swenson, Superintendent of the Grossmont Unified High School District (GUHSD) proudly discussed recent academic success rates throughout the district’s 11 high schools at last week’s board meeting.

District seeks to muzzle whisteblower Priscilla Schreiber (photo, left)

By Miriam Raftery

February 8, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – Last week, Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) trustee Priscilla Schreiber testified before the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) to urge examination of a Grand Jury report and other evidence, as ECM reported.   In response, the District’s board has proposed a resolution to prohibit its trustees from speaking to the Oversight Committee unless specifically invited to do so by the chair or a majority of committee members.  The items is on the agenda on February 13.

ECM asked general counsel Terry Francke at Californians Aware (a nonprofit that works to protect open government), if this resolution was legal or not.  “It's legally unenforceable," he responded via e-mail. "School trustees have the same First Amendment, Brown Act and Public Records Act rights as anyone else to attend meetings of a bond oversight board and obtain any documents that pertain to or result from its work.”

February 5, 2014 (San Diego)-- To encourage science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among high school students, Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) announced she is holding a House App Contest in her congressional district.  Students who are interested in participating can get more information at Rep. Davis’s website.

Elected officials, school district urge student participation at college aid workshops

January 25, 2014 (San Diego)--High school seniors, local elected officials and San Diego Unified School District representatives announce plans to increase the number of San Diego-area high school students applying for free college financial aid. Students are urged to attend one of 13 upcoming “Cash for College” financial aid workshops.

In 2013, San Diego region workshop participants were offered more than $3 million in federal and Cal Grant aid.

Seniors who attend a workshop and apply for a Cal Grant by the March 2 deadline could also qualify for an extra $1,000 Cash for College scholarship offered at each workshop. The workshops, titled “Free Application for Federal Student Aid & Califiornia Dream Act Application Workshops, will be held between January 25 and March 1. Workshop information is available in a pdf document here and also at www.calgrants.org/workshops.

January 20, 2014 (Spring Valley) -- Cierra Conwright, a junior at Mount Miguel High School in Spring Valley, has been  nominated to attend the Congress of Future Medical Leaders in Washington, DC on February 14-16.

The Congress is an honors-only program for high school students who want to become physicians or go into medical research fields. The purpose of this event is to honor, inspire, motivate and direct the top students in the country who aspire to be physicians or medical scientists to stay true to their dream and to provide a path, plan and resources to help them reach their goal.

By Janis Mork and Miriam Raftery

Julian Rudd-Falls, Mark Gavit also contributed to this report

January 15, 2014 (La Mesa)- Students, faculty and community leaders turned out to celebrate yesterday’s dedication of the new performing arts complex at Helix Charter School.  The new center features a spacious theater, a black box room for smaller productions, dance room, a digital music lab, choir room, scene shop, and prop storage.

The dedication opened with students playing bag pipes and included the official ribbon cutting by Helix executive director Dr. Mike Lewis, a tour, speeches by education leaders and elected officials, and a dramatic musical performance from some of the students. 

“This landmark facility will benefit our students for many years,” said Grossmont Union High School District  (GUHSD) Superintendent Ralf Swensen.

January 12, 2014 (La Mesa) – Grossmont Union High School District will hold a dedication ceremony on Tuesday, January 14 at 2 p.m. for a new, $15.2 million Performing Arts Complex at Helix Charter High School.  The event will include tours of the facility, a ribbon cutting, student performances in the theater, and music by the Helix Highlander bagpipers.

Click to buy this book

On Teaching Well: Using Classroom Instructional Strategies to Increase Your Teaching Effectiveness, by Dr. Dee L. Fabry (Ready or Not Press, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 2012).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

January 5, 2014 (San Diego)--Dee L. Fabry, Ph.D, along with 18 eighteen high school teachers in a graduate level course on effective teaching practice, shares their journey of improving the cognitive skills of students in Fabry’s groundbreaking book; On Teaching Well: Using Classroom Instructional Strategies to Increase Your Teaching Effectiveness.

The author, Associate Professor at National University, School of Education, Teacher Education Department in La Jolla, serves as the Master of Arts in Teaching Program Lead, teaching classroom teachers returning for their post graduate degrees. This makes her eminently qualified to lead these high school teachers in a graduate level course in effective teaching practice, which has resulted in this innovative book. Her research and scholarship is focused around improving teaching and student learning outcomes.