March 17, 2011 (San Diego's East County) --The 2011 Grossmont High School District Cheer Competition will be held on Wednesday, March 23, at 6 p.m. in the El Cajon Valley High School Football Stadium.

The competition will feature teams competing at the Junior Varsity, Varsity, Varsity Advanced and Varsity Co-ed levels. There will also be a Best Jumper and Best Tumbler award.

By: Jeremy Los

School was in session Saturday morning at Granite Hills High School, as over 300 middle school students and around 100 Granite Hills students took part in S.T.I.N.G. (Student Teachers Igniting The Next Generation), where classes were created and instructed by the participating Granite Hills juniors and seniors.

The brainchild of Granite Hills senior, Andy Keller- who modeled the event after the SPLASH programs at MIT, Stanford, and University of Chicago (where college students teach high school students),  S.T.I.N.G. aimed to “instill a love of learning for a lifetime.”

Update March 11:  Trustee Dick Hoy provided this update on the vote.  

"The item involving issuing layoff notices was split in two.  Librarians were voted on separately.  The vote to issue layoff/reassignment notices to teachers and Vice Principals passed 4-1--Hoy dissenting.  The vote to reassign librarians passed 3-2--Hoy and Schrieber dissenting. .. It should be posted soon.  They were difficult decisions for each member of the board."  A video of the meeting will be posted soon on the GUHSD website, he advised.

“…Schools with librarians have their students achieve better on standardized tests than those that don’t.” – Nancy Everhart, president, American Association of School Libraries

By Jeremy Los

March 7, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – High school libraries across East County will soon be losing services of trained librarians, if proposed budget cuts are approved Thursday by the Grossmont Union High School District board.  As California struggles to dig itself out of a massive budget hole, the board must also contend with massive budget gaps. 

“As I understand the proposal,” Grossmont Union High School District Board Vice President Dick Hoy told East County Magazine, “all librarian positions will be cut.”

“Make Every Drop Count” video competition open to local high school and college students

March 2, 2011 (Spring Valley) -- Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley was placed in lockdown briefly shortly after 10 a.m. this morning after a teacher reporter overhearing students talking about a gun in a bush.

“It’s all over now,” Lt. James Bovet with the San Diego Sheriff informed ECM at 11:15 a.m. “There was no indication that the gun was on or even near the school, however they did a search but did not find anything.” Ten patrol cars were dispatched to the school is located at 3230 Sweetwater Springs Blvd.

March 24-27 Greater San Diego Science & Engineering Fair is among top science fairs in the U.S.

By Mary Domb Mikkelson

February 26, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) -- Budget woes. School funding cuts. American kids left behind. You’ve read the headlines, endured the political posturing, heard – and shared - the concerns of parents and teachers. The litany of protests is long – and worrisome. Is there good news anywhere?

Yes! San Diego and Imperial County students, bucking the downward trend, are known for their scientific achievements. Do these kids have an edge, have something special going for them? Absolutely.

Multiple locations on district campuses were available, but GUHSD chose to use church instead, ECM research reveals

By Miriam Raftery

Jeremy Los contributed research for this report

February 18, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a national nonprofit organization, says that it’s “problematic” and likely unconstitutional for the Grossmont Union High School District to host a school event at Sonrise Church, a fundamentalist place of worship in Santee.

February 12, 2011 (El Cajon)--Grossmont College seeks former students, faculty and staff members who met their spouses at the campus. Couples who respond to college officials will be invited to a free pre-Valentine’s Day reception next year on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 at the El Cajon community college.

The event will be one of several that the college is planning as part of its year-long 50-year anniversary celebration from June 2011 to June 2012. The reception will feature live music--including love songs from the past five decades.

GUHSD BOARD VOTES TO MOVE FORWARD WITH DESIGN PLANS AND AVOID DELAY….FOR NOW

By Miriam Raftery

February 11, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – “Please keep your promise and build the new High School for us,” 12-year-old Alpine student Dominique Markowitz implored the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) board during last night’s meeting, echoing the sentiments of nearly everyone in an overflow crowd that filled three rooms.

Trustee Priscilla Schreiber successfully fought to prevent the Board from approving a proposal by the Superintendent to delay construction bids indefinitely. She also pushed fellow Board members to unanimously authorize submitting site design plans to the state’s Division of State Architects review board. The Board voted 5-0 to approve several other components of the Superintendent’s proposal to keep the project moving forward, but language to delay construction bidding indefinitely was removed from the resolution adopted.

By Doug Deane 

February 6, 2011 (San Diego's East County)--The following local, state and national education news items are excerpted from a very informative e-newsletter published by Doug Deane, chair of the Business Education Committee at the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce.

Our picks for Deane’s top education stories from the latest issue include:

February 5, 2011 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont Union High School Board of Trustees will hold a special session from 5-5:45 p.m., immediately following it’s regularly scheduled 3:30 p.m. meeting on February 10th. The special session will include interviews, selection and appointment of three members to fill vacancies on the Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee for Proposition H/U.

January 31, 2011 (El Cajon) – The Grossmont Union High School District has announced that it will hold a special budget study session on Thursday, February 3 at 2:30 p.m.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at the Instructional Resources Meeting room at 301 North Mollison in El Cajon.

By: Jeremy Los

January 19, 2011 (Alpine)--The proposed 12th high school in Alpine continues to face hurdles as the push for its groundbreaking soldiers on. The latest obstacles facing the potential campus are the potential missed enrollment trigger as well as the prospect that the school will not service all the students in the area.