EDUCATION : Community Service Plan for Students
Temple City high school students will be required to perform 100 hours of community service in order to graduate, under a new policy that was expected to be passed Wednesday night.
The policy would make Temple City Unified School District one of a handful in the state and the second in the county to make such service mandatory.
For more than a decade, South Pasadena Unified School District has required 45 hours of community service for graduation.
In Temple City, students will be required to donate 30 hours of service in each of their first two years of high school and 20 hours of service each year as a junior and senior.
Janice Murasko, program author and district service coordinator, has lined up opportunities such as teaching English as a second language, working with the U.S. Forest Service or making home repairs for senior citizens. Students also can propose their own ideas, she said.
“Studies show gang activity and dropout rates go down and test scores go up in states and cities that have tried this,” she said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
