Report Card

Mike Sciacca

Enthusiasm is still high in the Huntington Beach City School District

nine days after voters passed a $30-million bond to pay for improvements

to city schools.

“The first thing I told my one daughter was that the leak in her

classroom roof will now be fixed,” said Jan Conrad, co-president of the

Peterson Elementary School, who has two daughters in schools within the

district. “I also think this will mean more books and more computers for

our students, as money that was used before for the maintenance and

upkeep of old and outdated equipment will now be freed up to use

elsewhere.”

Sowers Principal Paul Morrow said he hopes that a new telephone system

will be one of the first things they see from the bond money.

“Ideally, this new phone system will give parents better access to

teachers and warrant more accountability for our students,” he said.

“This new phone system will impact parents, students and administrators

by providing us with modern technology, instead of the very outdated

system we now have.”

Teachers currently do not have phones in their classrooms, Morrow

pointed out.

Huntington Beach City School District Supt. Gary Rutherford promised

on election night that new telecommunications systems would be a high

priority.

“All schools will have something done this summer and we will be

looking closely at what we feel are our high-profile, high-impact

projects,” he said. “But the very first thing we will do as a district is

develop a citizens oversight committee.”

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, trustees will begin discussing the

formation of the citizens oversight committee, said trustee Robert Mann.

The oversight committee will include a cross section of the community,

with a business person, a senior citizen, a parent with a child in the

district school, a parent active in the PTA and a member of a taxpayers

organization all involved.

No district employees will be included.

Members will serve a two-year term and will be able to hold no more

than two consecutive terms, Mann said.

“Getting the bond passed was so satisfying, but the first thing I see

that should be done is that there needs to be an evaluation of what the

critical needs are within the district,” he said. “Second, whatever we

do, I strongly believe that o7 qualityf7 should come first and that

the money is spent wisely. My main concern is that we do not rush in to

do repairs. Having repairs done in a thought-out and timely matter will

prevent future costs.”

Students at Sowers are really showing heart

Students at Sowers Middle School will run their hearts out today at

the school’s annual Heart-a-thon, a 5K run/walk/in-line skate event that

will benefit the American Heart Assn.

Event participants have sponsors pledging money, said Sowers Principal

Paul Morrow. The school’s goal is to collect more than $35,000 -- the

amount raised last year.

“This is a big, big event at Sowers every year,” he said. “It’s a

community-driven event and a big part of it is teaching our kids to reach

out to the community. Our students really get behind this cause.”

More than half of the student body will walk, run or skate a course

that begins at Brookhurst Street and Huntington State Beach and travel

north to Beach Boulevard and back.

Driving home a victory

Two Marina High School students and their instructor showed their

automotive expertise by winning the ninth annual Automotive Technology

Competition at Hyundai’s National Technical Training Center in Fountain

Valley.

Mitch Harris and Evan Arnold, with the help of their teacher Mike

Rittenhouse, beat out 10 other teams in the hands-on competition designed

to measure their technical and diagnostic abilities.

The competition covered engine management, vehicle safety, chassis,

and body and electrical problem-solving.

Harris and Arnold, both seniors at Marina, each earned $5,000 in

scholarship money to the Universal Technical Institute and a chance to

compete in the 2002 National Automotive Technology Competition scheduled

for April 2-3 in New York.