EDUCATION Bringing the arts to class First-grade...
EDUCATION
Bringing the
arts to class
First-grade teachers and principals of Sonora Elementary School,
St. John the Baptist Catholic School and three other Orange County
schools took part in the area’s first ArtsConnect orientation,
designed to provide teachers with creative ways they can incorporate
the arts into the everyday curriculum.
The school staff met at the Orange County Performing Arts Center
on Wednesday with Artsvision President Mitchell Korn, who explained a
bit about the program. Next year, the first-grade teachers will use
music, dancing, visual art and drama in their classes, and students
will be able to meet with artists who will visit their schools.
The five schools were selected last month from 18 Orange County schools that applied for the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s
first ArtsConnect grant.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Haidl to be kept
in jail until trial
Gang-rape defendant Greg Haidl, 19, sobbed quietly and dabbed away
tears on Monday after a judge ruled he must stay jailed and not
released to a psychiatric hospital until the end of his upcoming
retrial.
The judge in November revoked the bail of Haidl, son of former
Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, after a series of run-ins
with the law. Haidl and co-defendants Kyle Nachreiner and Keith
Spann, both 20, are awaiting retrial after a jury could not decide
last year if they were guilty of gang-raping a seemingly unconscious
16-year-old girl in 2002.
Jury selection in the high-profile case started this week, and so
far, 142 of about 450 candidates remain. The retrial is scheduled to
start Jan. 31.
* The investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a Newport
Beach couple continues, but it looks like foul play is definitely
involved, police said this week.
Tom and Jackie Hawks, 57 and 47 respectively, have been missing
since November when they sold their 55-foot cabin cruiser Well
Deserved, which they’d been living on in Newport Harbor. The boat’s
buyer, 25-year-old Long Beach resident Skylar DeLeon, is due in court
Tuesday on unrelated grand-theft charges. He is being held without
bail because of parole violations.
* A local man nearly took a slow tube to China when his joyride on
an inner tube got diverted during a Jan. 9 rainstorm.
The man, who lifeguards think is a Newport Beach resident in his
20s, suited up in a wetsuit and launched his tube on the beach at
56th Street in Newport Beach as his friends videotaped the adventure
during a driving rain, lifeguards said. A heavy current from the
Santa Ana River emptying into the ocean swept him out to sea and
lifeguards, Harbor Patrol and firefighters mounted a search until he
floated ashore an hour later in Huntington Beach.
POLITICS
Schools, cities not
in fear of state budget
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a 5% increase in education
when he released his $111.7-billion state budget Monday. The budget
changes won’t affect UC Irvine and Orange Coast College as much this
year as last year, when tuition and student fees were bumped up
considerably.
Orange Coast College President Gene Farrell expects little to no
change in course fees. UC Irvine, on the other hand, will begin the
second year of an expected three-year hike in enrollment fees 30%
across all the University of California campuses. Those fees will
likely rise eight to 10% this year.
Newport-Mesa city officials didn’t see any scary surprises in the
governor’s budget. The two cities lost money last year and will lose
more this year to help solve the state’s budget shortfall, but that
was expected as part of an agreement forged in 2004.
The 2005-06 budget doesn’t take any more money from cities, but
local officials said they won’t be surprised to see cities suffer
from state funding cuts to transportation, police services, welfare
and other programs.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
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