Where Your Children Are california

California bribing schools to reopen

It’s no secret that public schooling is all about the money. Teachers are never paid enough. Failing school? Throw more money at it – maybe in the form of high-priced consultants or more testing.

The problem Covid-19 posed, of course, to public schools’ bottom line is, of course, that it’s hard to justify the astronomical costs of running these schools when they haven’t been open for a year. California is set to remedy that with – you guessed it – even more money, now bribing districts to reopen by March 31 to receive extra funding ($2 billion). “Get it while it lasts,” because every extra day they wait after that, they will lose out. An addition $4.6 billion will be made available to all schools, regardless of how they offer instruction.

Eighty-five percent of the money must be used for in-person instruction: perhaps summer school or extended hours for struggling students (because you know virtual school didn’t work out for many).

Specifics such as how many days or for how long students will be in school, haven’t been addressed. Some lawmakers suggest that the reopening could mean just 12 days of in-person instruction between now and the start of summer break. But for a district to receive funding, all K-2nd grade schools must reopen, but only one middle school and one high school grade need to have in-person classes.

Here’s a look at what’s in California’s $6.6 billion school reopening law (KTLA 5)

Newsom signs California schools bill, but SF Democrat says leaders still must ‘beg’ for reopening (Politico)

“Bill to reopen schools” is really a “Bill to try to reopen pre-k to second grade” NOT to reopen all schools for in-person learning for most kids. Be aware. (790 KABC)

Where Your Children Are california

California sophomore shoots 5 others and himself at high school

nathanielberhow

Nathaniel Berhow is listed as the suspect in a shooting at a local high school that left 2 students dead and another 4, including Berhow, injured. It is said that Berhow, on Thursday, the morning of his 16th birthday, opened fire on his classmates killing 2  and injuring 3 before using the last bullet in the .45-caliber handgun on himself. He remains in “grave” condition.

The entire ordeal lasted approximately 16 seconds.

Berhow is assumed to be half-Japanese; only relevant because this blog aims to show that disturbed children and teachers come from all ethnic backgrounds. His father died from heart failure in 2017 after a long battle with alcoholism. A neighbor attests that it was Nathaniel Berhow who had found his father’s body. A motive for the shooting has not been determined, although Berhow’s mother and girlfriend are both being questioned and the family’s house has been searched, and by all accounts Berhow seems to have appeared a “quiet” and “respectful” teenager,  as well as a good student, athlete, and a long-term Boy Scout, although in recent days one Saugus student claims he noticed the alleged shooter looking different than usual, possibly more depressed. It’s only assumed that nothing was done about it.

Santa Clarita, a city about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, is 70% white and 0.6% Japanese. The median household income is $82,607. Seventy-nine percent of the 715 students at Saugus High School, which serve students in grades 9-12, are white. While test scores and college readiness are at about the state average, parents and students report the school contains teachers that “don’t care,” and students that are quick to bully.

Police look into motive behind California school shooting

What we know about the California school shooting suspect

A community in shock describes suspect they know

Santa Clarita shooting: Dad of Nathaniel Berhow was avid hunter who used to ‘make bullets’: reports

Nathaniel Berhow: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Neighbor Describes Saugus High School Shooting Suspect Nathaniel Berhow’s Family As ‘Good People’

Santa Clarita, California – Wikipedia

Deadly shooting at California high school, Live Updates

Saugus High School – GreatSchools

Where Your Children Are california

Teen steals, then runs over accuser

thousandoakshs

A 16-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly ran over a woman with his car after she accused him of stealing, leaving the victim in critical condition.

Some articles said she confronted him about stealing candy or “packaged food items,” while others assert it was money that was pilfered. Either way, the incident took place in Thousand Oaks High School in Thousand Oaks, California, during a basketball game last Friday evening. Lisa Solis, an activities assistant at the school, witnessed the teen stealing from a concession stand at the event, and confronted him about it when he fled outside to a Mercedes Benz sedan in the parking lot along with four of his friends. Solis stood in front of the car to prevent him from leaving when he decided it’d be a good to idea to not only use the car to knock her to the ground, but run over her as he left the scene. She was subsequently rushed to the hospital, and police quickly caught up with the unnamed teen, who was taken into custody on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, and booked at Ventura County’s Juvenile Justice Center.

Solis remains in critical condition with extensive injuries, including bleeding on the brain, broken ribs and collar bone, punctures in both lungs, and a broken jaw. Her family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with medical bills.

Thousand Oaks High School is part of Conejo Valley Unified School District and serves approximately 2300 students in grades 9 through 12. Nestled in an affluent, primarily-white neighborhood where homes regularly sell for well over half a million dollars, the school boasts a 98% graduation rate, and above average performance on standardized tests, as well as an elevated SAT college readiness rate. A student reports via GreatSchools.org that minorities receive a great deal of bullying within the school. This is a perfect example of the school construct itself breeding criminal activity, and not merely culture or socioeconomic status. A spoiled rich kid deliberately ran over a school employee in his Mercedes, while his friends laughed in the back seat. This isn’t a blog about white privilege, but one cannot help but draw those parallels. Still, one only needs to look at prisons throughout the world, in every location, housing people from every walk of life, to see that crime begets crime, criminals come from anywhere, and concentrating them into as unnatural of circumstances as prisons (or schools) serves as a detriment to those there that aren’t a threat to society. They just get caught in the crossfire.

Teen arrested after hit-run leaves Thousand Oaks school employee in critical condition

Teen suspected of deliberately running over a Thousand Oaks High assistant is arrested

Teen intentionally ran over woman at Thousand Oaks High School, authorities say

California teen runs over woman with car after she confronts him about stealing at high school: officials

GreatSchools.Org – Thousand Oaks High School

Thousand Oaks, CA Real Estate – Realtor.com

Conejo Valley United School District – Thousand Oaks High School

#stayingstrongforlisa – GoFundMe Page for Lisa Solis

Where Your Children Are california

Teachers strike in Los Angeles, citing low pay

 

Los Angeles students are still coming to school today, but they’re being met with unfamiliar faces as substitute teachers step in to fill the gap left by 28,000 striking teachers, who are of course “doing it for the students.”

The dispute is over (what else?) a demanded 6.5% pay raise – teachers insist the district has the money to burn, and want the raise immediately (Friday they rejected an offer from the school district giving them a 6% raise over 2 years). They’re also wanting smaller class sizes and “fully staffed” schools, which include more nurses, librarians, and counselors. The district said meeting every demand would put them more than half a billion dollars in the red.

So in essence, teachers (or, rather, their union bosses, who of course “only have the interests of them and their children at heart) are wanting greater compensation (which means greater union dues) for less work.

Never mind that teaching degrees constitute some of the easiest-earned degrees in the nation, and education students collectively have the lowest SAT scores among matriculating freshmen. GPAs for education majors are nearly a full point higher than those studying math or science. Countless undergraduates joke that if they can’t cut in their challenging classes, they “could always just major in education.”

Don’t tell me teachers weren’t aware they may not receive astronomical salaries, when they were back in college. Don’t tell me they “did it for the children;” how many of us had teachers that “just didn’t care” and were literally counting the minutes until school let out for the day, or the year (or until retirement)? If they really had children’s interests in mind, would they be refusing to come into work, forcing their charges to spend the days on the streets, in front of the television, or in a classroom with a clueless substitute?

The average teacher salary in Los Angeles Unified School District is $75,000. This doesn’t take into account the 3 months’ vacation they get every year, or the excellent benefits package, including retirement benefits that put most other jobs to shame.

The school district serves approximately 640,000 students.

LA Teachers Go On Strike For First Time In 30 Years

CITY RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO FAMILIES DURING THE EVENT OF A STRIKE

Here’s The Nation’s Easiest College Major

Photos: Thousands of L.A. Teachers March on Strike