Torrance Dropout Rate Plummets

DROPOUT RATE DROPS: A range of programs, including one that identifies even first-graders at risk of dropping out, are responsible for a huge reduction in the Torrance Unified School District’s dropout rates, school officials say.

The three-year dropout rate for Torrance’s Class of ’92 was 1.9%, a major reduction from 1986’s 19.3%, according to a report by the state Department of Education. The report presented figures on the number of students in the 1992 graduating class who entered 10th grade but did not graduate.

Although the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified High School District was slightly ahead of Torrance with a 1.8% rate, Torrance’s dropout rate decline was the South Bay’s biggest.

“We are pleased, but not satisfied,” said Arnold Plank, Torrance’s assistant superintendent of educational services, who is scheduled to take over as superintendent in July. “We will be satisfied when no student drops out of schools in Torrance.”

Torrance Unified operates a variety of alternative schooling programs aimed at keeping students in school, including a continuation school for students in the 11th and 12th grades, a pregnant minors program and tutoring and peer counseling programs.

The largest dropout rate of any district that serves South Bay high school students was in the massive Los Angeles Unified School District, which recorded a rate of 36.9%. However, it is an improvement over its 1986 figure of 42.7%.

After Los Angeles Unified, the South Bay district with the highest three-year dropout rate last year was the Centinela Valley Union High School District, which saw 25.7% of its 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students leave school before graduation. That represents an improvement of about 10% over the dropout rate of the class of 1986.

The Inglewood Unified School District had a dropout rate of 18.5%, a 41% improvement over its 1986 rate. El Segundo Unified’s 1992 dropout rate was 7.8%, a decline of 49% over its previous rate. And South Bay Union High School District’s dropout rate was 3.8%, a 44% improvement over its 1986 rate.

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DISTINGUISHED SCHOOLS: Four South Bay elementary schools were among 206 schools statewide that have been

recognized in the California Distinguished Schools Program.

The schools are Hermosa Valley School in the Hermosa Beach City School District, Pacific School in the Manhattan Beach City School District, Mira Catalina Elementary in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District and Victor Elementary in the Torrance Unified School District.

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CONTRACT RENEWED: Trustees of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District have unanimously approved a new three-year contract for Supt. Michael Caston, who has been the district’s top administrator since August, 1990.

After the school board voted, Caston received a standing ovation from supporters, including members of the Parent Teacher Assn., the Palos Verdes Education Foundation and the district’s booster clubs.

“It was a very dramatic meeting,” said Trustee Vice President Brenton Goodrich. “There’s many, many people in the district who feel very strongly about the support for Dr. Caston.”

The board voted 4-1 to renew Caston’s contract last summer. But trustees decided to vote on the matter again last week after learning that Caston was being actively recruited by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Orange County.

“We felt it was very important that we let Dr. Caston know we want him to stay,” Goodrich said.

The strategy worked. At the meeting, Caston expressed appreciation for the support of parents, teachers and other members of the community and said he looked forward to staying in the district for “a very long time.”

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PRINCIPAL HONORED: Billie Jean Knight, principal of Manhattan Beach Intermediate in Manhattan Beach, was one of 17 administrators honored last week by the Assn. of California School Administrators.

The group, which represents 15,000 administrators in the state’s public schools, named Knight an Administrator of the Year in the middle-grade principal category. The award recognizes outstanding performance and achievement by school administrators around the state.

Knight, who has headed the 567-student school of seventh- and eighth-graders since 1986, said she felt “particularly blessed” by the award, but that she shares the honor with the teachers, students, business leaders and other administrators with whom she works.

Items for the weekly Class Notes column can be mailed to The Times South Bay office, 23133 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 200, Torrance, CA 90505, or faxed to (310) 373-5753 to the attention of staff reporter Kim Kowsky.