EDUCATION BRIEFS

ALHAMBRA UNIFIED: Monterey Highlands Elementary School won the grand and second prizes in the 1994 California Youth Energy Award for Project EARTH (Environmental Awareness Research Through Hands-on) activities, a 15-year tradition at the school. Seventh-graders Christine Chau, Jacqueline Law, Candace Gee and Amy Tsai traveled to Sacramento to receive the award on May 13. The students organized a toy recycling drive to benefit child earthquake victims and they also planted trees on campus.

CLAREMONT UNIFIED: The school board tentatively decided to eliminate two part-time school nurse positions. A committee of community members and school district administrators will review the services those nurses provide and determine if there are alternate ways to deliver them. For example, teachers could give health education lessons that nurses now teach, or local optometrists could conduct vision screening. The school board will review the findings in a month and decide whether to cut the positions. Pay and benefits for the two jobs cost $84,000.

DUARTE UNIFIED: Gov. Pete Wilson appointed special education teacher Marina Tse to the California State Special Education Commission. Tse has worked in Duarte since 1977 and also taught adult education part-time for Los Angeles Unified. She serves as an adviser to the Chinese American Education Assn. and is co-chair of the San Gabriel Valley Multi-Cultural Community Assn. She is the only Asian on the commission and hopes to investigate how minority students are evaluated for special education.

EL MONTE UNIFIED: A group of students from Kranz Intermediate School was selected from more than 1,300 entries as Western Regional Finalist in the 1994 Noxema Extraordinary Teen Awards for its “Cougar Pride Campaign.” The students planted 500 trees and shrubs in and around the school, painted over graffiti on school walls and repainted school benches and trash cans. The group won $2,500 for the school.

PASADENA UNIFIED: Five Pasadena teachers received $2,000 each as winners of the Rotary Club’s 1994 Annual Teacher of Excellence awards. The winners are: Yvonne L. Davis of Alexander Hamilton Elementary, Jane Lambert of Thomas Jefferson Elementary, Ani K. Simonian of Webster Elementary, Sandy Bustion of Woodrow Wilson Middle School and Michael Haussler of Marshall High School.

ROSEMEAD UNIFIED: The school board approved a technology partnership between Muscatel Middle School and Cal State Los Angeles. The Exploring Technology Program will be a school-community technology lab involving students and parents. Seventh- and eighth-graders will develop skills in computer-aided design, drafting, animation, robotics, aerospace engineering, broadcast communication and laser technology. Parents will be offered career assessment and hands-on lab experience in the evenings through the district’s adult school. The program will begin in September.