BRIEFLY IN EDUCATION

Jazz Festival features Kofi Baker

Kofi Baker, the son of Cream and Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker, will be the featured performer at the 13th annual Heussenstamm Blues & Jazz Festival — a benefit for the Laguna Beach Unified School District music programs — to be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Artists’ Theatre.

The 2007 festival will pay homage to the influences of Jimi Hendrix and Cream on the blues and rock genre, the predominant influence on successive generations of saxophonists and the reshaping of modern jazz by John Coltrane.

Baker will be joined by festival founder John Heussenstamm on guitar and vocals and Doug Lunn on bass.

A group of young musicians picked by Heussenstamm will make their public debut before the performance. Roger Shew, who will play bass for the Steve Hommel Quartet later in the evening, will also direct the Laguna Beach High School and Thurston Middle School jazz ensembles.

Premium seating is $30 for all tickets. Other seats are $20 for adults and $10 for children and students with student ID. The Artists’ Theatre is not equipped to process credit cards for ticket purchases. To use a credit card, patrons are asked to purchase online, in-person at the Laguna Playhouse or by phone through the Laguna Playhouse Box Office at (949) 497-2787, ext. 1.

All seating is reserved. Will call and day-of-purchase tickets will be available at the Artists’ Theatre on Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m.

PTA Coffee Break to cover homework

The next Laguna Beach PTA Parent Education Coffee Break will be held on Feb. 14 and will cover the efficacy of homework.

The guest speaker, Nancy Kalish, is co-author of the bestselling book “The Case Against Homework: How Homework is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It.”

Nancy Hubbell, District Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services, will also speak about the district’s homework policies and all of the school principals will be in attendance to hear parental comments. The Coffee Break will be held at the Surf and Sand Hotel from 8:15 to 10 a.m.; $5 includes coffee and muffins.

For more information, call Judith Anderson at (949) 494-0447 or e-mail drjzanderson@cox.net.

Boys & Girls Clubs hold awards night

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Laguna Beach held their Annual Awards Ceremony on Jan. 26, where they honored more than 100 kids for outstanding citizenship and personal accomplishments in 2006.

Thomas Fenner, Kara Dunne-Dombrink and Tessy Dominguez were named Youths of the Year, which are selected from the 2006 Members of the Month.

Fenner, 10, represented the Main Branch, Dunne-Dombrink, 9, represented the TLC Branch and Dominguez, 14, represented the Cove Teen Center.

They will go on to represent Laguna Beach among the 16 other Orange County clubs at the county Youth of the Year event, to be held in March.

An extra honorary award was presented to club volunteer Uday Gupta for his mentoring of teens through the Movie Tech program offered in the Clubs’ Cove Teen Center.

For more information, call (949) 494-2535.