Czech Students Get a Chance to Brush Up on Their English

CZECH SUMMER EXCHANGE: Eighteen Czech high school students on Friday will complete two weeks of English classes at Mira Costa High. The South Bay Adult School ESL program is providing the lessons, and a former student helped make it happen.

Daniel Kostelnak studied English at the South Bay Adult school when he arrived in the United States in March, 1992. A native of Ostrava, a city in the Czech Republic (part of the former Czechoslovakia), he learned the language quickly, and began an import-export business based in El Segundo with a fellow Czech.

Knowing that being forced to speak a language is the best way to learn, Kostelnak, 26, and a friend decided to organize a program for Czech students to come to the United States.

“My friend knew the teacher in Ostrava,” Kostelnak said. The idea was to have students spend two weeks living with local families, but when Kostelnak couldn’t find enough sponsors he contacted Neva Rico, director of the South Bay Adult School’s ESL program.

The Czech students, who range in age from 13 to 18, have attended the adult school ESL classes every weekday morning since July 6. In the afternoon, they practice English while visiting Southern California’s many tourist haunts. After the English classes conclude on Friday, they will spend the next three weeks traveling to San Francisco, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Kostelnak’s business and a company based in Ostrava have covered the students’ expenses.

Kostelnak said sponsoring this exchange program was a way to say thanks to the South Bay Adult School.

STAFF CHANGES: Tim Scully, an assistant principal at North High in Torrance became principal July 1. He takes over from Margaret Tremayne, who has retired. Cheryl Boyden-Daugherty will move to North High to take a position as an assistant principal. She was an assistant principal at Leuzinger High.

John O’Brien, formerly an assistant principal at Leuzinger High, has left to become principal at Shery High in Torrance, a continuation school. Steve Carnes, Leuzinger’s varsity football coach since 1984, has resigned to concentrate on his duties as assistant principal of athletics and campus security. In 1985 Carnes led the team to its only CIF Southern Section title. Leuzinger is still seeking a football coach.

BOWING OUT: Palos Verdes Peninsula school board members Marlys Kinnel and Jeff Younggren have decided not to seek reelection in November.

Both cited personal reasons for not returning to the board. Younggren, a psychologist who practices in Rolling Hills, said his main reason for leaving was that after eight years on the board, he felt it was time to move on. But he said discord among board members was also a factor.

“I have no problem with disagreements,” he said, “but I think even after (board members) make a decision, there is always a remaining difficulty.”

Kinnel, also an eight-year board veteran, said there are many capable people on the peninsula who should be given an opportunity to serve on the board.

Perhaps Younggren and Kinnel’s toughest decision was their 1990 vote in favor of closing two of the peninsula’s three high schools.

“We made some tough decisions that saved us from financial ruin,” Younggren said. “It was so difficult to close two high schools,” he said. But in retrospect, he added, “I don’t regret anything.”

SPACE SCHOOL: Rockwell International is sending three Hawthorne teachers to The Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Seattle for a two-day teachers conference.

Mark Steffen, an industrial technology teacher from Hawthorne Intermediate School; Linda Campbell, who teaches fifth grade at Eucalyptus School; and Roxanne Prue, a fifth-grade teacher at Williams School, were chosen by Hawthorne school district officials, who cited their interest in improving science education.

From July 22 through 25, the trio will participate in workshops including “Touching the Future: Linking the Classroom with Space.” Space education experts from NASA and speakers from the Mars Observer Facility in Seattle will offer ideas teachers can use in their classrooms to get students excited about science, math and technology. The teachers will also embark on a simulated space flight that will re-create the Apollo Lunar Landing Module’s landing on the moon.

Rockwell’s North American Aircraft Division, based in El Segundo, has been involved in educational partnerships with local schools. “Last year, we sponsored a teacher from Hawthorne Intermediate School who went to the Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama,” said Nelson Wong, director of community relations for Rockwell. When the teacher returned from last year’s trip, Wong said, she organized young astronaut clubs in some Hawthorne schools.

“We get a big payoff,” Wong said. “Teachers will come back from this conference, bring this information back to their students and to other schools in the district, and get children more interested in learning science and math, which is our intent.”

The Challenger Center was created by the families of the deceased Challenger flight crew to continue the mission of using space technology as an educational tool.

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