January 2012 - Oak Park Unified School District

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Page 2Oak ViewsPrincipal’s CornerHappy New Year to our entire Oak View School Family! Students are working diligentlyto complete the second quarter coursework in time for finals on January 25-26, 2012.Our school staff and faculty continue to provide outstanding teaching and instructional activitiesthat are personalized and effective for each and every student.Community service is alive and well at Oak View High School, as Oak View participatedin several unique projects. In November, our Turkey Walk for the Needy raised over$1300 for local families. We returned from donating the money to the Westlake JuniorWomen’s Club representatives and enjoyed a holiday school barbeque. Thank you againto Mr. Ferman, Oak View parent, for his generous donation of food and barbeque skills!In December, our students presented gifts to the severely handicapped students atLokrantz School in Los Angeles. As always, the event is so meaningful and important to allinvolved; Thank you students and Oak View parents. Finally, six Oak View students servedlunch to the homeless at the Hope of the Valley Mission in San Fernando. We had a tour ofthe facilities and really enjoyed this special event at holiday time.Fresh and Easy welcomes Oak View students, staff and parent volunteers on January 18 th . Oak View recieves a percentageof the sales that day and our seniors hope to put the funds to good use. Please support us by shopping at Fres and Easy onthe 18 th !Our school staff and site council parents are putting finishing touches on our Single School Plan. The goals and activitieswill guide us in providing the very best program that promotes success for all students at Oak View High School.Jeremy Rogers, school counselor, is hard at work serving Oak View students and their counseling needs. Jeremy is wellreceived at Oak View and it planning to begin our Teen Issues Young Men’s Group in January.All 10 th graders and those 11 th and 12 th graders needing another chance, willscheduled for February 7-8 th , 2012. Passing marks are a graduation requirement forstudents. Good Luck, Oak View!An additional measure of progress is under way, as our math students arereviewing everyday computational skills with decimals, per cents and fractions. Theseskills have a way of being forgotten, without some review along the way. A few problemsare completed each day and on Friday a brief “quiz” is provided-complete withawards for progress!Finally, the site council parents are discussing ways to provide informal supportto each other-to parents of Oak View Students. The council parents may be contactingyou for your ideas and to invite you to a “Parents Night Out,” maybe for coffeeor a light meal, to continue the dialogue.Welcome to the January-February Edition of Oak Views. Enjoy these pages- dedicatedto the success of our Oak View students.participate in the Exit Examall Californial Public SchoolFresh and Easy welcomes Oak Viewstudents, staff and parent volunteers onJanuary 18 th . Oak View recieves apercentage of the sales that day and ourseniors hope to put the funds to good use.Please support us by shopping at Fres andEasy on the 18 th !Alumni UpdateWe were saddened to acknowledge arecent death. Kelly McCusker was a1997 graduate of OVHS and workingas an aide at Oak Park NeighborhoodSchool. She is fondly remembered byMs. Cohen and Ms. Liepman and willbe missed by all who knew her.Andrew Levine (‘08) is working inAustin, Texas for a computer firm thatoriginated in Simi Valley. Accordingto his parents, “He is working in technicalsupport, assisting clients whentheir software is not working properly...Hehas had three raises in sixmonths, was promoted to a supervisorposition, and is both the youngest employeeand the youngest supervisor ina 120+ employee firm.” Staff is wellaware of Andrew’s prodigious computerskills; we’re not surprised he isdoing so well.Ms. Liepman saw Scott Evans (‘04)working at the UPS store. He is doingwell, working hard, and recently engaged.Ashlea Sneed (‘11) stopped by. She isout there looking for a job will stillattending Moorpark College. Thereare many Oak View graduates attendingright now, including Sean Thiele(‘04). He is the assistant manager atLamppost Pizza (stop by and have aslice!) but has decided to continue hiseducation. He attended last quarter,while still working, and got goodgrades, so will continue this spring.
Page 3Notes from the Superintendent and School Board PresidentPREPARE FOR MID-YEAR TRIGGERCUTS These are the warnings coming outthis month from the Legislative Analyst’s Office(LAO) and the numbers are not pretty. Thebudget that was passed by the state last Juneeliminated extensions of existing taxes on carlicenses, income, and sales taxes. The hopewas that an improving economy would bring inadditional tax revenues to replace these. In theevent that this projection didn’t happen, thebudget included a provision to impose ‘triggercuts,’ at varying levels depending on theamount of the deficit. The LAO is projectingthat the state will be short $3.7 billion in thisfiscal year. The way the trigger cuts are designedto work requires that the first $2 billionbe made up from cuts to various state programsand the CSU and UC systems. Theamount after that would fall on K-12schools. This means that K-12 schools may beexpected to take a cut of about $1.7 billion inTHIS FISCAL YEAR. This translates to a cut between$181-189 per student. For Oak Park,that cut would mean a reduction of about$775,000. Based on the information that I havealready shared with you about our fiscal situation,you know that we do not have the abilityto absorb that level of cut.This projection by the LAO is not the finalword, however. On December 15, the Departmentof Finance will announce their take on thestate’s fiscal condition and the law requires thatthe state use the more optimistic of the twoestimates. Everyone expects that the LAO projectionis the worst of the two and so thisshould be the worst-case scenario.It is highly likely that we will put in motion,a campaign to raise these funds here in OakPark as we had discussed last year if reductionsof this level were to be imposed on us. Thealternative will be drastic cuts to the program inthe middle of the instructional year, whichwould include the possibility of a shortening ofthis school year.I will send out an updated email as soon aswe hear the news from the Department of Financeor any further developments. As youthink about making end of the year contributionsto charities, please keep in the back ofyour mind that we may be asking for your helpthrough this crisis in order to preserve the programand the school year for your children,recognizing that you are already being asked tocontribute to the schools on many levels.I wish you and your family a very happyholiday season! I hope you can find someextra time to spend with your children as theygrow up way too fast.Dr. Tony KnightSuperintendentA Note From the OPUSD BoardPresidentDear Parents and Community Members,This month’s Partner in EducationAward was given to Barbara Vaswani.Barbara served as PFA president at OakPark High School during which time sheworked collaboratively with parents,teachers, staff and administrators to furtherthe efforts at the high school. Barbarabrought “Race to Nowhere” to Oak Parkby working with our neighboring districtsin a joint venture to bring awareness tothis social phenomenon. Barbara alsohelped to bring a week of activities to thehigh school in regard to the dangers ofdrinking and driving. Barbara led an effortto improve registration at the highschool and as an example of her selflesswork, Barbara came back to help withregistration this year even though herfamily has “graduated” from the district.The bulk of our board meetingfocused on two discussion items, theCommon Core Standards and DistrictCapacity. The Common Core Standards, anational approach to education, has beenadopted by almost all states, includingCalifornia. Our discussion focused on anoverview of the program as well as theimplications for OPUSD, including curriculum,materials and staff development.As this approach is very new, a lot is stillunknown, but please be assured that thedistrict is diligently staying apprised of itsdevelopment and looking forward to incorporatingit in a manner to furtherbenefit the students in Oak Park.The second discussion item focusedon district capacity in anticipationof an action item at our December meeting.Setting a “District Capacity” is a requirementunder the District of Choiceprogram, which, as I think you are aware,enables OPUSD to more easily accept interdistricttransfer students. In a perfectworld OPUSD would be able to maintainenrollment at a level the district couldfinancially sustain itself with Oak Parkresident students. However, our currentdemographics present an otherwise decliningenrollment. When combined withdestructive state budget cuts, the decliningenrollment would paralyze our programsince public school funding in Californiais based on average daily attendance.The District of Choice students arecurrently bringing in $6,684,432.00 morethan the cost of the teachers and suppliesnecessary to educate these additionalstudents, money that benefits all studentsin Oak Park, resident and non resident.Without these additional funds it would bedifficult for the district to stay solvent, letalone offer the high quality education OakPark residents expect and deserve, includinghonors and AP classes, electives,counselors, maintaining, to the extent possible,lower class sizes, as well as theavoidance of teacher layoffs and, at leastat the time I write this note, furlough days.In other words, these District of Choicestudents are crucial to protecting the qualityof education for which many residentsmoved to Oak Park.The board did take action on anexciting program entitled “Educatius International”,which will enable the districtto receive students from abroad for up toa one-year period of time. The studentswill stay with a host family and the districtwill receive tuition for these students,which will more than cover the cost ofeducating them. Please know that althoughthe additional funds brought in bythese students will be utilized to betterserve all of our students, the board’s purposein choosing to be a part of this programis to benefit our students by exposureto international students in an effortto better prepare them to work, functionand collaborate in a global society.I hope you and your families havea Happy, Healthy Holiday Season and NewYear.Barbara LaifmanOPUSD Board President
Page 1: O A K V I E W H I G H S C H O O LJa
Page 5 and 6: Page 5Vanessa Feliciano with daught
Page 7 and 8: Quarter 1 - 2010 -2011Gold Honor Ro
Page 9 and 10: Page 9Finals will be held according
Page 11 and 12: Page 11Above left, Kevin Ferman int

January 2012 - Oak Park Unified School District

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?