ARCADIA: Holly Avenue Elementary School has adopted...

ARCADIA: Holly Avenue Elementary School has adopted a voluntary year-round class schedule to go into effect July 20. The school will continue to offer the traditional September-June schedule as well. The new year-round schedule has the same number of school days, about 180, but has four shorter breaks instead of one three-month summer vacation. School officials said their decision is not based on crowding but is designed to eliminate the academic reviews necessary after long summer vacations.

HACIENDA HEIGHTS: As part of a project to reduce tobacco use among minors, 23 teen-agers from the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District walked into 60 local stores to see whether merchants were breaking the law by selling cigarettes to minors. The results from the experiment, released in February, revealed that state laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors are not being enforced. More than 50% of the youths ages 12 to 17 were successful in purchasing cigarettes.

PASADENA: Pasadena residents Jerry and Sis Levin marked the 10th anniversary of Jerry Levin’s release by Muslim militants in Beirut by launching the Violence Intervention and Prevention program at John Muir High School. The new program incorporates many of the methods used by Sis Levin in her yearlong effort to free her husband, a former CNN bureau chief. The program trains students, teachers and parents to use problem-solving techniques that resolve conflict through nonviolence.