Last week, two teachers at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles were arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and it was announced that classes would cancelled until Thursday, February 9, 2012. On Monday, February 6, 2012, the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy announced that when the school reopens its doors on Thursday, there will be an entirely new group of teachers and faculty members ready to welcome the students back to class. The current teachers and faculty members are being relocated to a school that is currently under construction. While there, they will be interviewed about their knowledge about the child molestation cases by school officials, and if it proves to be necessary, by the police.

“We have to investigate this,” said Deasy. “And we don’t want to constantly disrupt education while we do that.”

Deasy also said that he felt personally responsible to do two things: comfort the children who were abused and regain the parents’ trust. In an effort to accomplish these goals, he is also assigning psychiatric school workers to each class.

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John Deasy was appointed to the position of the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District in January, and will take office on April 15. More than 5000 teachers and other school employees were laid off just a few weeks ago by the district. In light of the difficult budget cuts and layoffs, Deasy has requested to keep his pay level at his current salary.

“As such, given our current circumstances, at this time I respectfully will not accept the salary offered in your contract,” Deasy wrote in an email to school board members last week. The board has voted to make over $400 million worth of budget cuts. According to A.J. Duffy, president of the teachers union, Deasy’s current salary as the deputy superintendent is $275,000. The salary for the superintendent is $330,000 dollars annually.

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NBC concluded their travel around the country renovating America’s schools for their first season of the hit show School Pride at Hollenbeck Middle School in Los Angeles, California.

Comparable to previous episodes, Former Miss USA and Designer Susie Castillo, Comedian Kim Whitley, Political Journalist Jacob Soboroff and Team Leader and Voice Over Host Tom Stroup come together to spearhead the restoration project of the school.

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Photo Credit: Jacob Soboroff

Hollenbeck Middle School in Los Angeles, California featured on NBC’s School Pride.

Production and renovation for on NBC’s School Pride occurred from August 22 to August 28, 2010.

Established: 1995

Grades: 6-8th

School District: Five School District

School Type: Magnet Middle School Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) in Los Angeles, California Featured on NBC’s School Pride.

Production and renovation for on NBC’s School Pride occurred in early July 2010.

Established: 1977

Grades: 6-12

School District: Los Angeles Unified School District

School Type: Public Magnet

Mascot: LACES Unicorn Read the rest of this entry »

The fame and popularity that come along with being a Hollywood star is something many people long for. Many people’s lifelong dream is to be a famous actor or actress. Although being rich and famous has its obvious perks, many people don’t consider the total lack of privacy that famous people must endure.

But, if that type of attention doesn’t bother you, then being a famous actor could be right up our alley. A lot of people have the natural ability to act while others have been professionally trained, but in any case, if you want to become an actor, it’s not a bad idea to take some acting courses to get a feel for it. Read the rest of this entry »

Cleveland

As a newly minted graduate, I frequently get asked why I chose to move all the way from Michigan to New York. The simple answer is there are more writing jobs to be found in New York. For many recent college grads there’s one issue that determines where they live or move: jobs.

I was actually surprisingly pleased to see that the Motor City didn’t come up as first on this list of worst places to live in U.S. from Wallet Pop. The major factors considered include the number of foreclosures, health and fitness of the population, crime rate and unemployment.

Here’s how the nation’s cities ranked:

10. Memphis, Tennessee

Not only does Memphis have a crime rate that’s 90% higher than any other community in Tennessee, it also suffers from corruption among city officials. Not long ago, a city administrator used government funds to purchase big screen TVs.

9. Miami, Florida

Florida may be the sunshine state, but things are not looking so bright in Miami. According to Children’s Health, it’s the second worst city to raise a family. It’s had nearly 40,000 foreclosures and also has a considerable problem with violent crime.

8. Newark, New Jersey

First of all, New Jersey has the most Superfund sites of any other state in the union, meaning its residents are exposed to high levels of environmental pollution. More than a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, and the city is making drastic cuts to public services in an attempt to close a $70 million budget deficit.

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The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will open next month in Los Angeles. The K-12 complex cost $578 million dollars to build and is the most expensive in America. The high-concept architecture boarders on futuristic, and will accommodate 4,200 students.

“There’s no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the ’70s where kids felt, ‘Oh, back to jail,'” said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, an architecture magazine that specializes in schools. The school complex features a public park, state-of-the-art swimming pool, and murals. It had been dubbed the “Taj Mahal” of public schools. Read the rest of this entry »

For the many college seniors who are graduating soon and want to relocate, Atlanta is the best bet.

According to a report by Apartments.com and CareerRookie.com, Atlanta is the best place for recent college graduates to live. The study determined its results, which are very different from Best-Performing Cities 2009’s results, based on cities with the highest percentage of young adults ages 20-24 years of age, the number of jobs that require less than one year of experience, and the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment.

The average rent in Atlanta is only $724 a month; not too shabby.

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With numerous school budget cuts across the country, the schools getting hit  the hardest, are those in low-income neighborhoods. As program after program gets dismantled, teachers are worried about the activities students will engage in during their newly-found free-time.

Twenty-nine-year-old, classical music phenomenon Gustavo Dudamel, the youngest maestro of a major orchestra in the world, has brought a program that he says, saved him, from Venezuela to Los Angeles, where he is the director of the L.A. Philharmonic.

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