The James Logan Courier

By Larry Gordon
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — State budget cuts and declines in philanthropy and endowments helped push the cost of college tuition up much higher than general inflation across the country this year, amounting to an increase of 7.9 percent at public campuses and 4.5 percent at private ones, according to a study by the nonprofit College Board.

Tuition and fees for the current school year average $7,605 for state residents at public four-year colleges and $27,293 at private institutions, according to the report released Thursday. Room and board added an average of $8,535 at public campuses and $9,700 at private schools.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Director of Parent and Community Relations

The East Bay Community Foundation, which during the past two years has granted the New Haven Unified School District more than $40,000 to support literacy programs, has awarded the District an additional $15,000.

The Foundation’s latest grant will enable New Haven Unified to provide another Summer Institute of training for kindergarten through second-grade teachers in Writers Workshop. A research-based approach to writing instruction, Writers Workshop has met with great success in the District since it was adopted in 2007-08.

UNION CITY - The New Haven Unified School District announced today that the New Haven Community Forum meeting originally scheduled for Thursday evening at Alvarado Middle School has been canceled.

Anyone with comments to share with Superintendent Kari McVeigh regarding a possible parcel tax, or any other subject, is asked to send an e-mail by going to the District website, www.nhusd.k12.ca.us and clicking on “contact us and “e-mail by topic”

By Tom Hamburger And Kathleen Hennessey
Tribune Washington Bureau (MCT)

WASHINGTON — With the campaign in its final week, well-funded conservative groups have shifted their focus from the airwaves to voters' phone lines, front doors and mailboxes — part of a get-out-the-vote effort that could tip the scale in tight races across the country.

But the push to get the nation's conservative voters to the polls is fractured and untested, with some "tea party" activists refusing to cooperate with more mainstream Republicans, in contrast to the unified and well-organized parallel effort by labor and the Democrats, according to key players involved in both sides.

Courier Staff Report

Logan’s students and staff joined millions of others around the state in the Great California Shakeout, a statewide earthquake disaster drill, the largest such drill in U.S. history.

At 10:21 a.m. at schools and other locations around California, Logan included, the “drop,cover and hold” command went out and students and staff climbed under their desks to practice their responses to the large, damaging earthquake that scientists say is likely to hit the state at some unknown time in the future.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Director of Parent & Community Relations

The Board of Education on Tuesday night accepted a $50,000 donation from the Ball Foundation in support of the District’s work with Instructional Leadership Teams at each school. The Ball Foundation, founded in 1975 by the late seed company owner G. Carl Ball, has adopted New Haven as one of a handful of districts across the country where it supports the development of high-performing schools.

By Sean Zhu, Courier Correspondent

Candidates for the New Haven School Board responded to questions at a forum held at the New Haven Unified School District Education Services Center on October 8.

The incumbent Gwen Estes, along with Jerico Abanico, Linda Canlas and Sarabjit Cheema are all running for board positions. Abanico is an alumnus of James Logan High School; Canlas and Cheema are parents of New Haven students. Canlas has also served the district for over 20 years as a teacher, vice-principal and principal.

The questions posed can be divided into two categories: funding and student performance.

By James McDonald, Courier Staff Writer

Little is known about the Secret Sidewalk, located between Niles Canyon and Sunol. The sidewalk winds through the canyon and connects to the Sunol water temple. However, the sidewalk was actually created to transport water through the canyon and eventually to San Francisco.

The sidewalk and aqueduct was built by Spring Valley Water Company in the first decade of the 20th century. It is three feet wide and as high as seven feet tall in some areas.

The sidewalk continues through the hills and has a great display of nature. Local trees and plant life grow around the sidewalk.

By Jose Baltazar, Courier Staff Writer

Many Logan teachers claim that the school's new e-mail system, SOGo, doesn’t work for them because of its glitches. It sometimes freezes while someone is typing and sometimes fails to send or receive e-mails.

Teachers are angry not only because the system does not work but also because they have to check in their boxes for materials they need to run their classes.

By Beatrice Esteban, Courier Editor-in-Chief

Hundreds of Logan students and staff are at risk for exposure to tuberculosis upon discovery of an active case in a person associated with school, according to school officials.

Principal Amy McNamara called an emergency staff meeting at Logan’s new Performing Arts Center, held after last Friday’s annual Homecoming rally. In both the e-mail and announcement, the meeting’s purpose was not given.

At the meeting, McNamara told staff that a person “associated with the school” has a case of active TB. Although the individual’s identity was not released, McNamara said that the person is receiving treatment and is no longer on school premises.

By Ned Parker
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

BAGHDAD — The last seven tortuous months of bickering and bartering to form Iraq's government? It was a garden party compared with the political endgame playing out today, in which the players are like gladiators unleashed in an amphitheater.

With the American guardians of the new democratic system fading from the scene, politicians know that this moment is pivotal. To lose now may be to lose forever.

Asked about the blood sport of Iraqi politics and the challenges of ruling the country, one politician here suggested only half-jokingly, "The only way to make an Iraqi obey you is to kill him."

By Rick La Plante, Director, Parent & Community Relations

The Board of Education on Tuesday night received a presentation from the Division of Teaching & Learning on implementation of the Strategic Plan for 2010-11. The Action Plans call for:

• Providing Instructional Leadership Teams with support, through Targeted Leadership consultants who are supported by the Ball Foundation and with the help of multi-cultural education expert Enid Lee;
• Continuing to support sites in Balanced Literacy and Writers Workshop;
• Continuing to support Secondary Literacy at James Logan and Conley-Caraballo high schools;
• Developing site-based intervention plans;
• Implementing the revised Student Study Team process;
• Reviewing and revising the English Learners Master Plan, grading policies and practices, and the GATE identification process;
• Developing outreach and support programs focusing on post-secondary options;
• Increasing parent education opportunities and outreach.

By Andrea Higares, Courier Staff Writer

Last year at James Logan High School there was a calling system that the office could use to send messages out to the whole school, but this year the system has experienced a few adjustments.

Beginning this school year, teachers can also use that same calling system just for their classes. For instance, the teacher of a class with a big test coming up can choose to call just the parents of those students and leave a voicemail.

Principal Amy McNamara said about the adjustments, “It is a great way for teachers to remind their students of what is coming up."

By Katie Crowe
(MCT)

Facing national polls showing decreased enthusiasm among young people, President Obama spent the week rallying college students nationwide to stay "fired up" throughout the upcoming midterm elections.

"We can't sit this one out," the president told a crowd of more than 25,000 Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin. "We cannot let this country fall back because the rest of us didn't stand up and fight."

Later in the week, Obama excited young supporters at a rally hosted by the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C, reminding them: "we've been through worse as a nation and have come out stronger."

By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

MEXICO CITY ⁙ Exposing a dark page in its history, the U.S. government acknowledged Friday that its scientists had infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis in experiments conducted from 1946 to 1948 in "appalling violations" of medical ethics.
Under the experiments, U.S. scientists sent prostitutes infected with syphilis into a Guatemalan prison, mental health hospital and army barracks to test possible cures.
"Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a joint statement.

"We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

By Megan K. Stack
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LIZHUANG, China — This is a village of empty rooms, children left behind and frail grandparents who struggle to hold it all together. Most of the able-bodied adults have left the hamlet of rutted, muddy roads and drought-withered fields of corn.

House after house, the same family tale is repeated: The parents have migrated to the big cities for work; their young children stay with grandparents, great-grandparents or any other relatives who can shelter and feed them. At the age of 10 or so, when the youngsters are considered old enough, many move into packed boardinghouses attached to their public schools.

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