Beckford Kids at Zuma Beach

Ok, seriously.... What. The. Hell.

If there isn't enough over at LAUSD to worry about, Ray Cortines is in a kerfluffle over this pic:



Yes, it's tasteless. Yes, it's classless. Yes, it's SaSha Baron Cohen, so what did you expect? Yes, my 16-year-old will probably see the new "Bruno" movie this summer. Yes, he will probably laugh his butt off and come home and tell me how EPIC it was. Because he is a teenager. And this is what teenagers do. Apparently, this Sasha Baron Cohen makes the teens all LOL.

Now, I don't know what Ramon Cortines is freaking out about when there are a bazillion more pressing issues resting atop his desk, I'm sure, but here he is spouting off in the Daily News:

While parental consent was granted for the April 16 photo shoot, LAUSD Schools chief Ramon Cortines said the forms lacked "specificity" about the nature of the photos.

Cortines said "appropriate personnel action" would be taken against Birmingham's principal, Marsha Coates, and athletic director, Richard Prizant. But he said personnel matters were confidential and he could not specify the disciplinary actions.

"Rules were broken. The principal is ultimately responsible, but I also hold accountable the athletic director, who is also the school's filming coordinator and was present when the pictures were taken," Cortines said.

"I also want parents to know that this district will allow no one to take advantage of our students."

District officials said they did not know if Birmingham students will also appear in the "Bruno" film, due out July 10.

The key here is that parental consent forms were signed, proper forms and permit applications were filled out and submitted, and business was conducted as usual. Clearly Mr. Cohen & Co. pushed the envelope as is their wont, and now we have Mr. Cortines screaming SOFT PORN! and BURN MARSHA COATES AT THE STAKE! You know I'm rollling my eyes at you right now, Mr. Cortines. Because that's lame.

Dude, seriously... chill. Honestly, it looks like you're making the administrators at Birmingham your sacrificial lambs in an attempt to veer attention away from whatever is going on (or not going on, in your case) at LAUSD and this kind of penny-ante bullcrap is wearing thin. FOCUS RAMON, FOCUS!

I've posted the worst (from what I've seen) of the photo shoot above. The rest of the photos are pretty benign. (Click here to see a photo gallery of the GQ shoot). As of this writing, I don't believe any parents or students involved have complained. I would suggest to Mr. Cortines that he not make moutains out of molehills and instead FOCUS ON THE TASK AT HAND.

We are losing teachers; we have lost teachers; we may lose more... and LAUSD is a quickly sinking ship. Could ya maybe start acting like it, Mr. Cortines?

REMINDER - VALLEY SCHOOLS TASKFORCE MEETING TOMORROW MORNING (SAT. 6/27 9AM - 12PM)

The meeting will be held at West Valley Special Education Center.
The address for those of you who, like me, have never heard of the West Valley Special Education center, is:

6649 Balboa Blvd.

The cross streets are Vanowen and Victory. Hope to see you all there!

A Few Words From Mrs. Farber

Beckford won't be the same...

Mrs. Farber, June 2002 (photo by Matthew Lopez)

After 18 years teaching at Beckford, beloved teacher Mary Ann Farber will be retiring at the end of this school year. For many of those 18 years, she has also served as a dedicated UTLA representative at our school.

For all the thousands of children she's taught over the years, a profound "thank you" from all of us at Beckford Elementary.

VALLEY SCHOOLS TASKFORCE MEETING

Valley Schools Taskforce Meeting -a follow-up meeting to the Non-Title 1 Conference held last month by Tamar Galatzan -will be held on Saturday, June 27th from 9am - 11am. Tom Waldman, from Tamar's office stated that he intends to notify everyone who attended the last meeing by email with more specifics. This meeting will include the next steps for Non-Title One schools to move forward with the ideas discussed in May.

I will share the email when I receive it for those who were unable to attend the last meeting. I hope you all intend to join me at this meeting - I know it isn't easy giving up your Saturday mornings (believe me, I know). But the alternative, ie: doing nothing at all, means just that -nothing at all is going to change. I, for one, am not satisfied with things as they are and from what I'm hearing and reading, neither are you. Please join us...

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" --Mahatma Ghandi

Mrs. Farber

In case you can't read itty bitty typing below, our beloved Mrs. Farber retires after 18 years of dedication and service for our school. If you would like to include a message in a "Big Book of Beckford Memories" you can either pick-up a piece of statitonary from the office this week, or you can e-mail me your message at heartshelly@mac-com. We need to receive any messages by Friday June 12th (the sooner, the better). Thank you

Mrs. Farber

Congrats Chatsworth High School Baseball!!!

Yesterday at Dodger Stadium, Chatsworth High School's awesome Chancellor Baseball team won their THIRD CONSESCUTIVE CITY CHAMPIONSHIP!

I wrote about it over at street-hassle... be sure to check out the pic of Beckford Alum Christian Lopez that was published on the front page of the Sports section of the Daily News!

Christian's youngest brother, Alejandro, is a Beckford student; his older brothers, Daniel and Rafael are also Beckford alums. My post at street-hassle also has a link to a piece I wrote last year at MayorSam's about the Lopez Boys' amazing mother, Lupe.

Felicidades!

Family Fun Day

Seriously, you have no idea how hard Kelly Mattinson, Kelly Moore and Chistina Tessel worked to make Family Fun Day happen, along with the rest of the Family Fun Committee. They do it, because they care about Beckford and about your kids. When you see them around school this next week, be sure to tell them thank you, heck, buy them a coffee, make them some cookies, give up your parking space, just do something to let them know that you appreciate all that they do for our school.

Family Fun Day Photos

Family Fun Day Photos

Family Fun Day Photos

Another Great Family Fun Day!

Well, it was another great Family Fun Day today at Beckford!

Many thanks to Kelly Mattinson, Kelly Moore, Christina Tessel and all of the Family Fun Day coordinators, volunteers and sponsors for making the day so great for our kids!

Pictures and video clips are forthcoming.... we're all pretty tired right now, so you're just going to have to sit tight and wait for the good stuff.

For now, a few of my favorite scenes of the day.....

In the interest of fairness (and because our Mrs. Friedrich and a few teachers, sadly, are from that "other" school in LA) I searched for anyone wearing their UCLA colors so I could take their picture.

I couldn't find anyone flying their UCLA colors. Of course not. We understand.

FIGHT ON MIGHTY BECKFORD TROJAN FANS! WE RULE!

My Notes from Non-title One School Summit with Tamar Galatzan

These are my notes from the May 16th meeting w/ Tamar Galatzan for those of you who couldn't make it.

THE GIST OF THE MEETING WAS TO GET NON-TITLE ONE SCHOOLS, THEIR PARENTS, THEIR TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO BAND TOGETHER AND FORM ONE GROUP THAT TACKLES THE ISSUES AS ONE "POLITICAL UNIT."--

There has been some progress this year, we're getting some extra money in the form of Title II funds for 4th ,5th, and 6th grades. Also for 9th - 12th.-- Title One schools with 65%-100% poverty will receive $919 per student (combined Title One and Stimulus), schools with 40%-64.99% will receive $629 Per student. Those schools with under 40% poverty will get none of those funds. We were going to get $50 per English Learner, but they changed their minds and took that away.

--Peggy Barber from the State Legislative Office spent some time explaining Title One, its history, purpose and how it has changed over the years.

-- The intended purpose of T1 is to give each and every child access to a quality education and close the achievement gap.

-- ESEA --stands for Elementary Secondary Education Act. It has evolved into what is now "No Child Left Behind"-- At the state level, Title One is based on the concentrated # of students living in poverty.--Title II - is for teachers- based on the # of Title One students (this can be used to buy back teachers, reduce class size - it funds "Highly Qualified Teachers"-- Title III is for English Learners-- LAUSD has 2 1/2% of the population of poor children living in California.-- California has 6% of the nation's English Learners.

--The federal government uses a formula to figure out how each state will be funded. It is based on two factors: Equity and Effort. California is good for Equity - poor for Effort. Equity is not determined by poverty. It means that the level of funding is distributed equally throughout the state. Effort is determined by the amount of money spent per pupil. California used to be #6 in the nation. Now we are #49 or 50! Our schools get 1/2 as much per student as schools in say Conneticut or New Jersey.

-- 2010 Census is extremely important to California and to the district. The higher the Census count, the more money we get. That is how money is allocated to the different school districts.

-- No such thing as Title One children, only Title One schools.

-- Title One schools are determined by where the district places its cut-off. LAUSD places ours at 40%. By law it can be as low as 35% but will have more restrictions.

-- There are two types of programs for Title One: Targeted and Schoolwide. Targeted is when you only spend the money on the students who qualify. You can't use the money to benefit other students who don't qualify. For ex: you can't spend it on reducing class size, b/c that benefits all students. Schoolwide programs, on the other hand are not limited to spending only on poor students. They can use the money for everyone as long as it is towards something that will raise student achievement. All schools are considered targeted for the first year they receive Title One money. After that it is determined by the percentage of students living in poverty for each qualified school.

-- No Child Left Behind requires accountability but doesn't provide the funding for it.-- At the federal level, School Improvement Funds are Title One funds but not limited to Title One students. The money goes to the state and is determined by the # of poor children in the district.--Federal Title II funds- The district spreads equally across the board - all schools in the district get the same amount of money per pupil. But not limited to poor students.

-- Reauthorization of NCLB is coming up sometime in the near future.

-- District is cutting State Legislative Office -Peggy Barber's office which is the office we would go to for help lobbying for our cause.-- Unfotunately for our children, California is so far in debt that we don't even have enough money to run our schools. These compensatory funds are supposed to be "additional" funds on top of the basic school funds, but our schools have to use it for things like buying back teachers and reducing class size. Other states get to use theirs for all of these innovative programs and we get stuck using ours to cover bread and butter, well , those who are lucky to get these additional funds. The problem with California is that in the State Assembly you need a 2/3 majority to get anything passed. That's why we can't get a budget passed.

-- California needs to fund education at a reasonable level. CA funds far below rest of the Nation.

-- NCLB took out the Follow-the-child part of the Title One bill.

-- For Title II money, whatever you spend on Non-Title One schools you have to spend equal amount on Title One schools. Special Ed money spent only on Special Ed.

TAMAR GALATZAN URGED US TO START THINKING OF A MESSAGE FOR OUR CAUSE. SHE THINKS WE SHOULD STEER AWAY FROM, THE TITLE ONE AND NON-TITLE ONE LABELS BECAUSE WE ARE MARGINALIZED ENOUGH AS IT IS.

MOST PEOPLE DON'T THINK SCHOOLS LIKE OURS EXIST - POOR SCHOOLS IN RICH NEIGHBORHOODS. THERE ARE A LOT OF MISCONCEPTIONS THAT WE WILL HAVE TO BE READY TO ADDRESS.

WHAT WE NEED TO DO: ADVANCE OUR MESSAGE BY CHANGING PUBLIC OPINION AND COUNTERING MISCONCEPTIONS. FIND ALLIES AT LAUSD - BOARD AND DISTRICT. FIND THE ONES WHO HAVE EMPATHY ANT TURN IT INTO ACTION. WE ARE A SMALL MINORITY. KEEP AWAY FROM "US VS. THEM" SENARIOS. WASHINGTON AND SACRAMENTO - DON'T RECOGNIZE OUR SCHOOLS AS A SEPARATE GROUP OR COMPONENT. THAT IS WHY WE MUST COME TOGETHER AS A SINGLE DRIVING FORCE.