What is going on in our public schools?

On the second of May, just one day after Poway High’s shooting scare, Ramona High School had to lock down three of their local schools. Apparently a 16-year-old brought a pellet gun on the bus. An administration assistant said that with the two situations so close together that "this made some of the teachers jumpy."

More information about the lock down can be found at: http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/03/news/inland/ramona/21_27_345_2_07.txt

Poway Unified School District Teachers Gets Jumpy!

Rancho Bernardo High School received a threat on May 1st. The threat was on the wall in a boys bathroom written in lip-stick. "School shooting 2 marrow," according to The San Diego Union Tribune May 2. Also in the San Diego Union Tribune, Principle Paul Robinson talked about the attendance drop for the day the threat was to be carried out. Robinson said in the article that "some of the classrooms were missing up to a third of their students, while others were at full capacity. "This was a wake up call for us... we continuously keep up our safety plans," said Sharon Rasffer, director of communications for PUSD. "Our student support services is very important, their are counselors and teachers to help student," she said.

The article of the San Diego Union Tribune can be found on:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20070502-0339-graffitithreat.html
An address from the Superintendent by telephone can be read on:
http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/5-4-07message.asp

Is it right?

Students at CSULB rally to fight against tuition increase on Tuesday. Many of the students that are leading the rally helped the Faculty during their fight for a new contract and a "better CSU system." Many things that the California Faculty Association (CFA) did to appeal to students was that they were fighting for us the students. Classes are always being canceled and students are forced to fight for the few spots in the classes need for them to graduate. They also talked about the continual increase in tuition and how the CSU system was made up for the working class. In the new contract for the faculty no where does any of the issues used to rally students were mentioned. The CFA had left the student's well being on the side of the road, while it drove off in a new Corvette.

Helen Doe, A 18-year-old, a junior political science major said "Students with computers started networking." However, when I asked who was backing the rally, one of the major contributor's are the CFA. I then asked her how she felt about the new contract and how everything they said they were fighting about for students didn't even get mentioned in the contract. Her face looked a little annoyed and sad, then she said that they did what they had to... Blah, Blah, Blah. Obviously she didn't want to talk badly about the group that was now supporting her cause.

More information on the CFA's new contract can be found at:
http://www.calfac.org/contract.html

Safety on Long Beach Campus

After the Virgina Tech. shooting, I along with many other student questioned the safety on our own campus. I was able to talked to Police chief Jack Pearson for the California State University Long Beach (CSULB) campus. He talk about three phases that are involved in a crisis. The threes are: planning and practice, emergency managing (during the situation) and recovery (how to get back to where it was). He also talked the possibility of the school completely falling down, and the mobile command center. "It [the mobile command center] allows the university to continue to function even during a disaster," Pearson said. CSULB's full time emergency service coordinator, Sargent Scott Brown, showed me the mobile center. Brown said that the mobile unit has everything needed to run the school in a crisis.

For more information on emergency prepareness at CSULB refer to this site:

http://emergency.csulb.edu/

A parents reaction!

Dana Hamson was born and raised in Virginia and feels sad at a personal level. She said even though she doesn't know anyone from Blacksburg, she still feels a great lost. As a mother of five children who are currently enrolled in two of the schools in Poway Unified School District, she shares her concerns of the situation that took place on April 16. Hamson said that she does not worry about her children at school. “I’m so scared to think of the guy who was the shooter, and how there are kids in school who are mentally depressed or ill that go unchecked,” Hamson said.

To find updates on the story of Va. shooting visit:
www.latimes.com
www.CNN.com

“Three hours of chaos”

New York Times: April 17, 2007

The lead was a human interest with timeliness and summarized the story.
Col. W. Steve Flaherty, state police superintendent, described as a “horrific crime scene” at Norris Hall.
Charles W. Steger, university’s president said the campus will be hosting convocation and that President Bush will be in attendance.
32 people were killed and the gunmen, at least 15 were injured, during the “three hours of chaos,” said an article in the N.Y. Times. The article had Survivors that told their stories. The sources in the article were very creditable and added “Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning, President Bush said. “When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.” The story structure was not an inverted pyramid and I feel that an inverted pyramid would have been best for this story. As a reader I wanted to know who was involved, how it happened and why did he do it. I feel like it started with what, who and a little bit about how it happened. A paragraph at the end of the story, I feel was very important and should have been told at the beginning. The paragraph talked about the gunman having two separate attacks with two hours in between them.

Link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17virginia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Drop-In Day is a statewide effort

The 22nd annual Drop-In Day for drop outs helped adult students work towards a GED.
David Boulware assistant principal at Poway Adult School said in an article for the North County Times, “It gives adults the opportunity to pursue their education in a flexible and individualized environment.” The Poway Adult School offers many different types of classes at a reasonable price. The day provided opportunities for the adults to meet with counselors. The Drop-In Day was held on Feb. 1-2. For more information, call the Poway Adult School at (858) 668-4008 or go to www.powayadultschool.com.

Links:
http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/news/2007/DropInDays.asp

Highest API Scores

Poway Unified School District is a prime example of Academic Performance Index Scores, according to the California Department of Education on March 27, 2007. API is a system that uses a scale of numbers starting with 200 and topping out at 1,000. PUSD is also leading the way with state ranking. State ranking is calculated by first category and then compared with the other schools in the same category. 21 out of 32 schools in the PUSD scored a 10.

Information gathered from:
1."School district posts high state ranking" by Kathy Fairbanks
Poway News Chieftain
2. "District does well on API ranking" by Donna Harting
Poway News Chieftain online
http://www.mylocalnews.com/nws/index.php?/main/content/district_posts_strong_api_scores/
3. California Department of Education
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/

Education v. Construction

Poway Unified School District has always been well known in San Diego for having great schools; just ask anyone who lives there. In the last five years a majority of its schools have undergone construction. A few of the elementary schools have been rebuilt from the ground up. A elementary school called Midland was completely rebuilt from the ground up and school was relocated to another school for one year. A new high school was built, while the other high schools have been upgraded. The upgrades include refurbishing old building and equipping them with state of the art technology, according to the school district’s web page. Poway High School's web page stated that four of the buildings on campus have been closed this year alone for construction. The buildings have recently been re-occupied and have new LCD projectors. Is construction beneficial or detrimental to a student’s chance at learning?

Poway Unified School District web page:
http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/

Poway High School's web page:
http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/pusdphs/

Journalism Class 311

This blog is for Journalism 311. All entries will be based on my beat, which is education. The city I chose to focus on is Poway, California.