This is the archive for March 2010
By Alyssa Pimentel, Courier School News Editor
Last school year, the administration somewhat set up student connect but they did not announce it to the student body so it was not really used. It was not until this year’s pre-registration process that they made it open to the student body. This year’s was the first time they fully implemented the online process of selecting classes for next year.
The administration and counselors announced to the students that they were to sign up for the classes next year through student connect. The students were given instructions that were printed out in the student catalog they were given during the informative pre-registration assembly. In an effort to also involve the parents in this process, the administration phoned home to inform them.
Posted by courier at 04:45 AM. Filed under: News
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By Omar Alimi, Courier Staff Writer
After 2 years of construction, confusion and anticipation, the new Performing Arts Center at Logan will finally be open to the public, starting with the official Dedication Ceremony, which begins tomorrow at 4:30 pm.
Posted by courier at 09:54 AM. Filed under: News
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Former Logan Principal
Don Montoya
Courier Photo
After 36 long years of service to New Haven Unified School District Don Montoya is retiring at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, in June.
Montoya had been planning on retiring for a few years, but “stretched out” his retirement date a few years. He is currently the Director of Student Services after seven years as principal of James Logan High. Montoya spent 22 years as an administrator in the district after 12 years as a science teacher at Logan and graduating from Logan in 1969. He will be replaced as Director of Student Services, though he says that “the job responsibilities will likely get divided-up a bit. That is still an ongoing conversation, so it is too soon to state exactly what will occur”. New Haven has experienced significant financial problems lately and has had to cut many staff and put even more work on the remaining workers.
Posted by courier at 09:37 AM. Filed under: News
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By Misti Crane
The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio (MCT)
Honeybees continue to struggle for survival throughout the nation, putting in peril the well-being of everything from California almonds to backyard cucumbers.
As the weather has warmed, Ohio beekeepers checking into their hives have been finding significant numbers of dead bees, sometimes in the 70 percent range, said Barry Conrad, a Canal Winchester, Ohio, beekeeper.
"It might be the worst in history," said Conrad, who like other beekeepers has come to expect a 30-percent loss over the winter, up from the 10 percent he used to expect.
Posted by courier at 04:26 PM. Filed under: News
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wikipedia photo
CHICAGO — A coalition of health professionals, parents and corporate accountability advocates is calling for Ronald McDonald to retire as a spokesman for the nation's largest restaurant chain, saying he has too much influence on kids.
Corporate Accountability International, which has waged campaigns against bottled water companies and tobacco companies, said it plans to present the results of a survey Wednesday showing that most Americans agree.
Posted by courier at 03:46 PM. Filed under: News
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By Larry Gordon
Los Angeles Times (MCT)
SAN FRANCISCO — University of California leaders on Wednesday apologized to black students at the University of California, San Diego for recent racial incidents at the campus and proposed changes in admissions policies aimed at boosting enrollment of minorities across the system.
UC President Mark G. Yudof and other UC regents acknowledged that the UC San Diego episodes, including an off-campus student party that mocked Black History Month, has brought attention to the low enrollment of black students on the campus.
Posted by courier at 06:14 PM. Filed under: News
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From the New Haven E-News
Services will be held this week in memory of former James Logan High School teacher and coach Al Roderigues, who died Friday morning after a long battle with cancer. Mr. Roderigues, beloved by colleagues and former students and after whom the “old gym” on the Logan campus is named, was 67.
Visitation will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of the Rosary, 703 C Street, Union City, to be followed by a rosary at 7 p.m. A funeral mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of the Rosary, followed by a reception in the church hall.
Posted by courier at 06:47 AM. Filed under: News
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By Jessica Guynn and David Pierson
Los Angeles Times (MCT)
SAN FRANCISCO — With negotiations over censorship at an impasse, Google Inc. shut down its search engine operation in China on Monday and redirected users to uncensored results — a move certain to anger the Chinese government and jeopardize Google's future in the world's most populous country.
In taking the extraordinary action, Google said it was making good on a promise it made two months ago, when it said it would not self-censor the site as demanded by Chinese officials. At the time, Google also complained that it had been a victim of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China.
Posted by courier at 06:40 AM. Filed under: News
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By David Lightman and William Douglas
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives Sunday passed by a 219 to 212 vote the biggest overhaul of the nation's health care system in more than four decades, sweeping changes expected to make coverage easier and cheaper to obtain.
The largely party-line vote — 219 Democrats voted "yea" while all 178 Republicans and 34 Democrats voted no — meant President Barack Obama's biggest domestic initiative neared the end of its yearlong political and legislative odyssey.
"We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things," Obama said late Sunday from the White House.
Posted by courier at 10:15 AM. Filed under: News
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Courier Staff Report
James Logan coaching legend Alfonso Roderigues passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer.
Coach Roderigues, for whom the Alfonso Roderigues Gymnasium (sometimes called the “old gym”) is named, died peacefully at about 5 a.m. with his family at his bedside.
“A true teaching, coaching and community icon has left us,” wrote friend and colleague Tom Rosenthal, Logan’s athletic director, “His memory is embedded in our hearts forever."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Posted by courier at 08:45 AM. Filed under: News
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image:giftofvision.org
Akur Varadarajan, who has more than 15 years of extensive experience in budgeting, financial analysis and school business operations, has been hired as Chief Business Officer of the New Haven Unified School District. The Board of Education confirmed his appointment Tuesday night.
Mr. Varadarajan, Assistant Superintendent of Business Service for the Salinas City Elementary School District for the past three years, will start work in New Haven on April 5.
Posted by courier at 09:21 AM. Filed under: News
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By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Due to the continued volatility of state funding for education, which has forced the District to issue layoff notices to teachers, classified and administrative employees for the 2010-11 school year, the Board of Education on Tuesday night voted to postpone the reopening of Barnard-White Middle School.
The Board approved a staff recommendation to postpone the reopening until such time that financial projections show that the District has the necessary resources to balance the budget without additional layoffs and cuts to programs such as co-curricular activities, site administrative ratios and class-size reduction. Postponement also reduces the possibility that the District would be reopening the middle school at the same time it may be forced to consider -- as outlined in the budget assumptions adopted March 2 -- the closing of an elementary school.
Posted by courier at 09:13 AM. Filed under: News
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By
Alyssa Pimentel,
Courier School News Editor
Regina Irvin, House 9 Counselor, in charge of putting together the fourth semi-annual Student Shadow Day that occurred on March 9, 2010 said it was another successful turn out.
A few of the fourteen teachers that participated this year were Shane Henderson, Alida Lombardi, Matt Smith, Abigail Noche, Francis Rojas and Amy McNamara.
Names of the students that were shadowed were not revealed by the administration to protect their privacy.
Posted by courier at 09:17 AM. Filed under: News
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By Beatrice Esteban, Courier Managing Editor
James Logan High School has implemented the use of online class pre-registration via Zangle.
Students had their annual pre-registration meetings, where they were provided with information about college and how to utilize Zangle in the pre-registration process. In addition to being given a course catalog and pre-registration form, students were also asked to register online so as to ease the burden of scheduling for counselors.
Posted by courier at 09:00 AM. Filed under: News
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By Thomas H. Maugh Ii
Los Angeles Times (MCT)
LOS ANGELES — It seemed like a good idea at the time. Diabetics are at an unusually high risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, so treating them intensively to sharply reduce blood pressure, cholesterol levels and sugar levels should be highly beneficial. But a decade of studies in thousands of patients show that is not the case.
Two new reports from a major nationwide trial called ACCORD released Sunday show lowering either blood pressure or cholesterol levels below current guidelines do not provide additional benefit and, in fact, increase the risk of side effects. A third arm of the study, released two years ago, shows lowering blood sugar levels excessively actually increases the risk of heart disease.
The results are very disappointing, researchers say, because they suggest clinicians may have reached the limit for what they can do for diabetic patients without the development of totally new therapeutic approaches.
Posted by courier at 09:08 AM. Filed under: News
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By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Since 1990, young people dancing with the Ballet Folklórico de James Logan High School have served as representatives of both the high school and the wider community comprising the New Haven Unified School District, celebrating Latino culture throughout the Bay Area and beyond. And when the troupe commemorates its 20th anniversary this spring, the New Haven Schools Foundation is going to help.
Posted by courier at 08:34 AM. Filed under: News
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By Farah Habad, Courier Staff Writer
This past Saturday, the James Logan forensics team hosted the Golden Gate Speech Association state qualifying tournament at Alvarado Middle School. Hundreds of students from dozens of schools came to the tournament in hopes of attending the 2010 California High School Speech Association State Championships.
Rounds began at 10 am, and lasted until 6pm, with students speaking their hearts out in hopes of hoisting the qualifier trophy. The Logan team is notorious for sweeping this tournament, and this year was no different. Logan had at least two qualifiers in each of the events with a grand total of 36 qualifiers in individual events.
Posted by courier at 09:43 AM. Filed under: News
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By Marc Benjamin
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
FRESNO, Calif. — Three students at Clovis West High School thought it was the perfect prank — a fake Facebook page for Principal Ben Drati.
The teens didn't make a serious effort to hide the comical intent of the page, which first surfaced in October. One entry, for example, told students that if they disliked the mega-hit vampire flick "Twilight," they should "get the hell out of Clovis West."
Drati, however, was not amused. In a district document provided to the families, he contended the Facebook page stole his identity and threatened his authority at the school, which is in Fresno.
Posted by courier at 06:06 AM. Filed under: News
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By Alexa Rocero, Courier Staff Writer
This past weekend, I went to watch the movie
Legion. Now, going into the theater, I had very high hopes. After watching the Red Band trailer online and looking up the movie's basic plot, I was highly anticipating a film of epic proportions. Perhaps I was hyping it up too much.
Personally, I find movies that deal with some kind of apocalypse fascinating, and Legion's story line of a "war against God" promised 2 hours of action and thought-provoking dialogue. Unfortunately, what the audience got more of were plot holes, covered up by overly dramatic, so-profound-it-will-go-in-the-trailer line after line.
Posted by courier at 09:44 AM. Filed under: News
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Courier Staff Report
James Logan's students, teachers and administrators joined others around the state in protesting ongoing cuts to education budgets and the resulting crowded classrooms, reductions in services and staff lay-offs besetting the high school and other education institutions.
The day started with teachers passing out protest fliers (right) to parents and others as they dropped students off for their day at school.
Posted by courier at 10:16 AM. Filed under: News
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By Megha Satyanarayana and Jennifer Squires
Santa Cruz Sentinel (MCT)
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The student-led strike and campus shutdown at the University of California, Santa Cruz, continued Thursday with a rally at the main campus entrance in which students with signs, drums and bullhorns marched down the street, carrying with them a giant paper puppet of the school's mascot, the banana slug, covered in slogans decrying privatization of the University of California system. Cars drove by, honking in support.
Speakers from university unions, faculty and grass-roots organizations congratulated the roughly 200 students, staff and faculty for their role in shutting down campus.
Posted by courier at 09:23 AM. Filed under: News
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Kevin Notohamiprodjo
and Eric Brown
Hubert Notohamiprodjo photo
February 18 to 21 was the 2010 CBDA All State Honor Band convention, where the best players of the state accepted by audition met in Fresno and after an intense few days of practicing performed a concert.
Eric Brown and Kevin Notohamiprodjo from James Logan participated in the event. It was Notohamiprodjo’s first year accepted, and Brown’s second, though they are both seniors. Brown plays B-flat clarinet and E-flat clarinet; Notohamiprodjo plays bassoon and piano.
Posted by courier at 09:16 AM. Filed under: News
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By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Forced because of the ongoing state financial crisis to make another round of drastic budget cuts, the Board of Education on Tuesday night accepted a recommendation that will save – for only one year, unless a new revenue stream is identified – the co-curricular and extra-curricular activities that are so vital to the New Haven community.
The Board approved staff recommendations totaling $3.6 million in new reductions for 2010-11, on top of $1.6 million in reductions previously approved for next year. As a result, class sizes will be larger in kindergarten through third grade in 2010-11, and the District no longer will offer transportation for elementary and middle school students.
Posted by courier at 09:08 AM. Filed under: News
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By Ocar Avila
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — Kitchen worker Carlos Garcia envies the waiters who make more money and suffer fewer aches than those like him in the "back of the house." The very term, common in restaurants, speaks to a divide that is conspicuous yet often overlooked by diners.
The division of labor plays out in Chicago steakhouses and sports pubs: Taking the order or seating the clients is the girl next door or a suave older man, most likely white, while a cadre of young Mexican men construct the meal behind the scenes.
Posted by courier at 10:28 AM. Filed under: News
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Haotian Wang (left) and Christina Wang
Courier Staff Photos
The National Merit Scholarship is one of the most prestigious and acknowledged awards for students, but is also one of the simplest to qualify for. Christina Chang and Haotian Wang, both seniors at James Logan, are both National Merit Finalists.
To qualify for the scholarship, you must be a US citizen or legal resident and take the PSAT/NMSQT no later than your junior year in high school. This test is commonly taken as preparation for the SAT, which is used in college admittance, but the high scores of every year are also all it takes to be in the first cut of National Merit students. The PSAT measures critical reading, math problem solving skills, and writing skills.
Posted by courier at 09:22 AM. Filed under: News
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