School News: An occasional look at South Bay classroom news : Torrance Picks New Schools Chief From the Ranks

NEW HIRE: Trustees of the Torrance Unified School District searched the state for a replacement for retiring Supt. Edward J. Richardson before deciding this week on an administrator right under their nose.

Assistant Supt. Arnold C. Plank, who joined the district in 1962, was named Torrance’s new top administrator Monday night. He was one of six finalists for the job.

“It was unanimous and enthusiastic,” board President William Blischke said. “He’s come right up the ranks within the district. He understands the problems we’re in . . . in terms of the fiscal

situation, (and) he also has some exciting ideas. He also has a broad base of community support.”

Plank’s new contract is under negotiation. He currently earns about $85,000 a year. Richardson, who retires next month after 15 years in the job, earns about $100,000 a year.

Plank’s five-page resume lists affiliations with more than two dozen professional and civic groups. He is incoming chairman of the Torrance-South Bay Area YMCA, past president of the Rotary Club of Del Amo, and chairman of the state and federal legislation committee of the Assn. of California School Administrators.

Last year, the school administrators group named him State Administrator of the Year for the Central Office. The year before, he received an outstanding service award from the same organization’s local region.

Plank will head the South Bay’s largest school district after the Los Angeles Unified School District. Torrance Unified serves about 21,000 students in 17 elementary schools, six middle schools, four high schools and one continuation school. It has an $85-million operating budget.

During the past several years, state funding cuts have forced trustees to slash more than

$8 million from the budget. Among the casualties were the district’s once-extensive reading and music programs.

The district also has undergone rapid demographic changes in the past several years. Once predominantly Anglo, the district now has a student population that speaks more than 60 languages and is nearly 30% Asian, 12% Latino and 3% black.

Plank received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University. In 1975, he received a doctorate in education from USC. Plank described the superintendent’s job as “the culmination of a long period of service in Torrance.”

“During that time, I’ve buried my roots pretty deeply and learned to love the community,” he said.

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UFO ART: Squadrons of unidentified flying objects created by the artistic imaginations of third-grade children have invaded the San Pedro Library.

The display is being sponsored by Art to Grow On, a nonprofit organization of parents and community volunteers who provide supplemental art experiences to elementary school children throughout San Pedro.

Students from Leland and South Shores elementary schools in San Pedro fashioned the three-dimensional art projects out of recycled scraps of metal, paper, plastic and wood donated by several South Bay businesses.

Nearly 100 imaginary flying machines are hanging from the ceiling and set on pedestals throughout the library at 931 S. Gaffey St. They will remain on display through June 8.

The project was created by San Pedro artist Joan Kenney, an art teacher at Rolling Hills Country Day School. Inspired by the work of San Pedro artist and sculptor Ron Pippin, the project “gave children the opportunity to experiment with the concepts of balance and symmetry,” said Terry McHale, who heads Art to Grow On.

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ESSAYIST AWARDED: Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles has awarded Gardena High junior Kamisha L. Johnson a $750 scholarship for her prize-winning essay “Riot or Rebellion? Los Angeles 1965, 1992.”

Johnson, 17, a student in Gardena High’s Foreign Language/International Studies Magnet School, was one of more than a dozen students from Los Angeles and surrounding areas who submitted essays to the contest.

Johnson’s essay compared the 1965 Watts riots with last year’s unrest and concluded: “People, as a whole, need to respect one another. It doesn’t matter what race or religion a person is because we are of one race--the human race.”

Alice Faye Singleton, a professor of pediatrics at Drew University who organized the contest, said Johnson won the first prize because her essay gave “personal reflection on the event. She showed some originality of thinking and (considered) the role government has to play in the unrest.”