Source: County News Service

March 10, 2015 (San Diego)--Elementary school students learning about the science of natural disasters are also learning how to stay safe and be prepared. A $15,000 donation from AT&T will go toward buying a hand crank-powered radio for each participating classroom to add to its emergency kit.

March 4, 2015 (El Cajon)-College economics professor Anthony “Tony” Zambelli  has won the Roy L. Erickson Civic Education Award from the California Council for the Social Studies, an annual honor given to educators, community leaders or legislators for promoting civic education in California schools. Zambelli will receive the award March 7 in Oakland at the council’s annual conference.

March 1, 2015 (El Cajon )--After a career spanning three decades in the California community college system, Cuyamaca College President Mark J. Zacovic has announced his retirement, effective June 30. Zacovic has served as president of Cuyamaca College, with about 9,000 students in Rancho San Diego, since July 2011. He led the college through some of the toughest budgetary challenges in the institution’s 37-year history, ensuring that students continued to receive a quality education while dealing with dramatic spending cuts from Sacramento.

East County News Service

February 19, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – University of California President Janet Napolitano has announced that UC will postpone a planned 5 percent tuition hike from the summer quarter until fall.  The decision comes after Governor Jerry Brown proposed an extra $119 million for UC funding in 2016, still $100 short of what regents have said is needed to cancel the rate hikes of 5 percent a year for the next five years that are set to kick in this year.

February 19, 2015 (Santee)--The West Hills and Santana High School Art Departments will present a student art show entitled “Santee Visions”, an art show reflecting the community of Santee in the eyes of students from West Hills and Santana High Schools.

By Miriam Raftery; Kristin Kjaero contributed to this report

February 6, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – The current measles epidemic  has focused attention on concerns over parents who decline to vaccinate their children.  In East County and San Diego’s inland region (East of I-15) the rate of unvaccinated children in local kindergartens is as high as 90% (at Holy Trinity, a private school in El Cajon)  down to just 1% unvaccinated at Mt. Vernon Elementary in Lemon Grove.

Countywide, the rate of kindergartners who are unvaccinated or not current on vaccine boosters  is 7.6%.

By Miriam Raftery

January 31, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman this week denied a request by the Grossmont Union High School District, which sought a stay to halt a preliminary injunction issued to protect bond funds for construction of an Alpine high school.

By Miriam Raftery

January 23, 2015 (Alpine) – The Grossmont Union High School District must set aside $14 million in bond money immediately and another $28 million by January 2016 to fund building a high school in Alpine. Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman issued the ruling Thursday, granting an injunction sought by Alpine Taxpayers for Bond Accountability.

Priscilla Schreiber, the only member of the Grossmont Board who has consistently supported building the high school in Alpine, told East County Magazine, “I’m thrilled.” 

But a statement from the district claims that other schools in the district will not get needed improvements due to the court’s decision.  The district indicates it will be back in court January 28 filing for a stay in hopes of halting the injunction.

East County News Service

January 21, 2015 (Alpine)—Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman has submitted a preliminary ruling ordering the Grossmont Union High School District to set aside bond funds for construction of a new high school in Alpine. 

The judge sent his ruling to attorneys for the district and to Alpine Taxpayers for Bond Accountability, which sought the injunction to protect taxpayer money approved for the high school.

January 15, 2015 (San Diego)—The FBI has issued a warning that college students across the United States have been targeted to participate in work-from-home scams that can involve students in criminal activities. Students have been receiving e-mails to their school accounts recruiting them for payroll and/or human resource positions with fictitious companies. The “position” simply requires the student to provide his/her bank account number to receive a deposit and then transfer part of the funds to another bank account. Unbeknownst to the student, the other account is involved in the scam that the student has now helped perpetrate. The funds the student receives and is directed elsewhere have been stolen by cyber criminals. Participating in the scam is a crime and could lead to the student’s bank account being closed due to fraudulent activity or federal charges.

January 10, 2015 (La Mesa)--Spencer McCall, a senior at Helix Charter High School and son of Drs. Michael and Madhavi McCall of La Mesa, earned a top composite score of 36 on a recent ACT test. Nationally, while the actual number of students earning a composite score of 36 varies from year to year, on average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earns the top score. Among test takers in the high school graduating class of 2014, only 1,407 of nearly 1.85 million students earned a composite score of 36.

East County News Service

December 25, 2014 (Alpine)—There are two major new developments in the battle over a high school for Alpine.  At the December 11 meeting of the Grossmont Union High School District, trustee Jim Stieringer stunned fellow board members by announcing his support for unification—the effort by Alpine parents to break from the GUHSD and unify Alpine Union School District (AUDS) to include K-12 grades, so that it can build the high school that the GUHSD has failed to build.

By Miriam Raftery

December 18,2014 (San Diego) – The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at San Diego State University has been shut down for disciplinary action and will remain closed until at least fall of 2016. Additionally, individuals involved in the harassment policy violation will be subject to a Title IX policy investigation and a student code of conduct policy violation investigation.

San Diego State University’s Division of Student Affairs has announced the disciplinary action due to consistent pattern of policy violations including harassment of  women participating in a Take Back the Night March on Friday, November 21st as well as serious hazing and alcohol misconduct issues.

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December 12, 2014 (El Cajon)--The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Governing Board has unanimously selected Bill Garrett to serve an eighth straight year as president, while Mary Kay Rosinski was picked as vice president and Greg Barr as board clerk for 2015. Garrett has served since 2008 as board president for the East County district, which enrolls about 30,0000 students at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges, in addition to the district’s Continuing Education and Workforce Training program.. The Governing Board meeting got under way Tuesday with Garrett giving the oath of office to trustees Barr, Debbie Justeson and Edwin Hiel, who ran unopposed in the November election.

East County News Service

December 8, 2014 (San Diego) – A San Diego State University student is under arrest for a sexual assault reported yesterday at 5074 College Avenue adjacent to the SDSU campus.

Fransisco Paiva Sousa is charged with oral copulation by force and false imprisonment with force.