4 Nominated for Arts Award

Four local teachers have been nominated by the Music Center in Los Angeles for a top award that honors educators in the arts as well as those who integrate arts into academic study.

The 12th annual Bravo award nominations, given by the Music Center’s education division, went to 69 teachers in Southern California who have demonstrated creativity and leadership in teaching the arts, at a time when budget cuts have crippled many school programs, officials said.

Winners and finalists will be announced at the awards ceremony Feb. 22 in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Local nominees are:

* Diane De Julio, a drama teacher at John Glenn High School in Norwalk, noted for her contributions to the school’s theater arts program.

* Leonard Narumi, band leader at Schurr High School in Montebello. Narumi spent several thousand dollars of his own money to buy instruments to lend to band members after the financially strapped district slashed the music budget.

* Nancy Sandoval, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Norwalk. She incorporates art education in such subjects as reading, writing and mathematics.

* Linwood Thompson, a history and speech teacher at Bellflower High School, incorporates such activities as role-playing, storytelling, script-writing, exploring Shakespeare, stagecraft, costuming, painting and video production in his daily instruction.

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Clare C. Faulkner has been named chief executive officer of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. Faulkner, a Long Beach resident, has worked in not-for-profit management for most of her career, including directing successful fund-raising campaigns for the March of Dimes and the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. She has also worked for AIDS Project Los Angeles, where she created a corporate development program.