Garland steps down from city school board

After serving on the Huntington Beach City School District board

for 25 years, Brian Garland has stepped down.

Having left his post with the city school district, Garland said

he plans to be back on a school board soon. He has announced that he

will run for a seat on the Huntington Beach Union High School

District board this November.

Garland’s resignation from the board last week comes less than a

month after his retirement as principal of Edison High School.

He spent a total of 32 years at Edison, first as a teacher, then

an administrator and finally as principal.

Garland would have been up for re-election in November. His

decision to step down leaves the board with the option of appointing

someone to fill the position until the election or leaving the seat

vacant until a new member is elected.

The board decided to table the matter until its Aug. 20 meeting,

said Jerry Buchanan, assistant superintendent of administrative

services.

Garland’s will be tough shoes to fill, Buchanan added.

“Brian has been a very dynamic person in this entire community

and on this board and he’ll be a very hard person to replace,” he

said, adding that the longtime educator always had the best interest

of the children in the district in mind.

A gift from a helpful clown

Whenever Matthew P. Mendoza eats at McDonald’s he’ll remember how

the restaurant chain helped him with his college education.

Mendoza, a senior at Ocean View High School was just one of 140

Latino seniors in Southern California who received a $1,000

scholarship as part of the Ronald McDonald House Charities/Hispanic

American Commitment to Educational Resources Scholarship Program.

The scholarship program was established in 1989 by a group of

concerned McDonald’s restaurant owners and operators who wanted to do

something about the low college enrollment and high drop out rate

among Hispanic high school students.

Including this year’s recipients, the scholarship fund has

distributed nearly $900,000 to students throughout Southern

California since it started.

Allowing students to reach for the stars

With the help of the Affordable Housing Management Assn. two

students who immigrated here from Russia will be able to realize

their dreams. Igor Gladnikov will be able to become an optometrist.

Recent Ocean View High School graduate Irini Salamah will have the

opportunity to become a dentist. Gladnikov and Salamah received just

two of 13 academic scholarships. Both students were presented with

$1,500 scholarships. Gladnikov, a full-time student at Golden West

College, is studying optometry. Salamah will attend Cal State Long

Beach to pursue a bachelor’s degree in biology. When she graduates

from she hopes to attend the University of the Pacific to study

dentistry.

The awards were part of Affordable housing Management Assn.’s

annual Dan Grady Memorial Scholarship Program that gives awards to

students of all ages who live in affordable housing owned and/or

managed by a member apartment complex in Southern California, Arizona

and Nevada.

The program has awarded more than $250,000 since it was started in

1984.

Complied by Jose Paul Corona