Award-winning Lennox schools chief proves learning has no barriers.

ATTENTION LAUSD: It is possible to educate children whether they live in poverty, speak limited English and face what may seem like overwhelming odds against learning.

That is what Kenneth L. Moffett, superintendent of the Lennox School District, has dedicated himself to proving. For his efforts, Moffett has been named the 1994 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Assn. of School Administrators.

Moffett, who has been Lennox superintendent since 1976, was awarded the distinction last week for the district’s ability to educate its students even though many of them enter speaking limited English and come from an area where 25% of the population lives below the poverty line.

“Our school district is committed to the concept that all children can learn,” Moffett said.

More than 90% of kindergartners enter district schools speaking no English, yet more than 90% of the eighth-graders graduate bilingual, literate in both languages and ready to succeed in the mainstream world, Moffett said.

The district is just east of Los Angeles International Airport. About 99% of its 5,842 students are ethnic minorities and 92% are Spanish speakers. Lennox is one of eight “port-of-entry” communities in California and the district must deal with a dense population, a heavy concentration of poor students and problems with drugs and gangs.

As national superintendent of the year, Moffett receives a gold medallion, a $2,000 U.S. Savings Bond and other awards.

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A WOMAN’S PLACE: Several famous women will make a surprise appearance in Wilmington next month. (All the more startling since most of them are dead.)

An Olympic athlete, a Civil War doctor and a former congresswoman will visit the Wilmington Teen Center at 2 p.m., March 6, when Doreen Ludwig of the American Living History Theater performs in celebration of Women’s History Month.

In her performance entitled “Not Just One of the Boys--Women in a Man’s World” Ludwig will become doctor Mary Walker, aviator Amelia Earhart, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias and former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first black American to run for president.

The performance is free and men are, in fact, welcome.

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COMMUNITY SPIRIT: It seems the overwhelming number of volunteers who want to advise the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council is causing a few headaches.

The council’s agenda called for it to select advisory board members at a meeting Tuesday night, but it soon became apparent that the task was beyond them.

After much debate, the council decided it couldn’t decide what to do, so Councilwoman Susan Brooks suggested delaying the vote until next month.

Besides, even though more than 100 people are on the ballot, Brooks said, a few names were missing.

“By that time, we’ll have our act more together and we’ll be able to tick these things off,” she said.

Sure they will--so long as the delay doesn’t inspire more residents to volunteer.

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PLAY WORK: Parents of children at Walteria Elementary School in Torrance looked around last fall and saw that their children had a substandard playground. After 44 years of neglect, the swings had no seats, cushioning sand under the equipment had long washed away and the sandbox was mainly fare for termites.

Not exactly an educational crisis, but hey, kids deserve a nice place to play.

The district did not have money for playground improvements and the PTA was trying to fund more urgent educational needs, so the parents began raising money. More than 100 families helped, as did local businesses, and together they put on a Halloween Golf Tournament, carnival booths and a raffle. In December, parents and friends shoveled, excavated, planted and painted to provide a wheelchair-accessible playhouse, an elevated sandbox, a mural of jungle animals and a new blacktop. They also converted a corner of the playground into a vegetable garden to be planted by the kindergartners and their teachers.

The effort took 3,000 hours of work and $16,000 of donated materials.

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SHADES OF POLITICS: Sunburns may be hazardous to your health, but Hermosa Beach city officials said last week they don’t want sun shelters in their city just yet.

The county Beaches and Harbors Department, facing a $150,000 budget shortfall, had hoped to sell advertising on three sun shelters at Hermosa Beach to raise money for lifeguards and beach cleaning. Advertising on the shelters was expected to raise about $30,000 a year.

The County Board of Supervisors decided it could guarantee lifeguard services for Hermosa Beach only through June. And Hermosa officials, who had hoped for a five-year deal, are afraid they would be stuck with the shelters.

So no agreement has been reached, and county officials say they could withdraw lifeguards with little notice.

Hermosa officials agreed to pay for restroom maintenance and to allow the county to expand advertising along the beach--moves that were expected to raise $116,000 annually.

County officials also have asked for more funding from Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, but those city councils also have balked. With county finances so shaky, the cities are afraid they might get burned.