LOS ALAMITOS : Panel to Examine Programs at School

A panel of teachers, parents, students and school administrators will meet Tuesday to review programs offered to students at Los Alamitos High School.

Parents are encouraged to attend the 7 p.m. meeting of the School Site Council at the school’s media center and present ideas on how to improve current school programs or decide what new ones to adopt.

“If parents want to influence the school, they should come and be active participants,” said Brian McEvoy, who co-chairs the 20-member council.

McEvoy said the council updates and approves the School Site Plan, which contains the school’s goals and objectives over a number of years. The advisory panel meets four times a year.

Los Alamitos High School, which currently has more than 2,400 students, was honored last year as one of the nation’s best schools.

But since 1993, there has been racial tension at the school. That year, white supremacist flyers were found stuffed in student lockers. The police have investigated but so far no one has been arrested.

“The issue is still a hot one and will come up in the School Site Council meeting,” McEvoy said.

To deal with the issue and raise consciousness about it, the school has had speakers on racial tolerance and cultural diversity, and the students have discussed the subject at club meetings and in the classrooms.

A computer consultant for a Cypress company, McEvoy has a son at Los Alamitos High School. He has been on the School Site Council for two years, and this year shares the chairmanship with Pat Ramsburg, a Los Alamitos High teacher.