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The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education approved the appointment of Antonio M. Shelton, Ed.D., as the new principal of Santa Monica High School at the August 10, 2016 regular meeting. Dr. Shelton comes to SMMUSD from Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served as principal since 2011. Indian Hill High School is ranked in the Top 100 schools in America by Newsweek and has earned a gold star ranking by US News and World Report....

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encourages all fourth graders to visit the park this year as part of the Every Kid in a Park program. The program gives fourth grade students, and those accompanying them, free access to more than 2,000 federally managed lands and waters. Visit www.EveryKidinaPark.gov to download the pass and obtain more information. "A lifelong love of parks and the outdoors usually starts with a school field trip," said David Szymanski,...

Yes, that's right, FLEAS! And it's not about the lead singer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Those pesky little black bloodsuckers known as fleas have been found in the nurses office at Santa Monica High School. The District issued the following Emergency pesticide notice – Samohi nurses office" on Wednesday: Dear Samohi parents and guardians, We have discovered fleas in the nurse's office on campus this week and determined that this problem requires emergency treatment. The tr...

Indirect pressure on a faculty member at Syracuse University forced her to disinvite an Israeli filmmaker from a planned 2017 conference on religion in film, as reported by Legal Insurrection. The Israeli filmmaker, Shimon Dotan, is a professor at New York University. His film, "The Settlers," is reportedly negative view of Israelis living in the West Bank. The Boycott-Divest-Sanction movement against Israel claims that it is Israeli occupation of the West Bank that is t...

As college students arrive on campus this fall, it's a time of new experiences, new friendships, and making memories that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately for many, it is also a time of excessive drinking and dealing with its aftermath-vandalism, violence, sexual aggression, and even death. According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 59.8 percent of full-time college students ages 18 to 22 drank alcohol in the past month; 37.9 percent engaged in bi...

Santa Monica College (SMC) graduate Daniel Zarate has been awarded a $10,000 Bridging Scholarship for Study Abroad in Japan by the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ). Zarate, who earned his Associate degree in Business Administration at SMC, was one of only 79 undergraduate students from colleges and universities across the United States to receive the AATJ scholarship, which is sponsored by the US-Japan Bridging Foundation. Zarate is now a student in Tokyo...

After deciding to start the school year in the third week of August several years ago, the school district has managed to determine that the complete lack of air conditioning in any of its classrooms might be a wee bit of a problem. June is typically a cool month in Santa Monica. August, not so much. Apparently, the number of schoolkids nodding off during a hot summer afternoon has prompted the below measures. Dear parents and guardians, We understand that a comfortable...

The Santa Monica College Foundation says it has awarded a total of over $170,000 for a "President's Circle Award for Innovation and Progress", four "Chair of Excellence" grants, and 22 "Margin of Excellence" mini-grants to Santa Monica College (SMC) professors. "These awards represent the truly distinctive and innovative learning experience that Santa Monica College professors provide to our diverse student body," said Lizzy Moore, SMC Interim Dean of Institutional Advanceme...

A federal judge has refused to block a new California vaccination law, which eliminates an exemption based on the parents' personal beliefs. The law requires children in both public and private schools to be inoculated against 10 contagious illnesses. "Society has a compelling interest in fighting the spread of contagious diseases through mandatory vaccination of school-age children," said U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego. He noted in Friday's ruling that the...

CORA-a short film written and directed by SMC student Kevin Maxwell-won Best Short Film at the 2016 Prague Independent Film Festival (PIFF). The winners of the first edition of the four-day festival-which took place in Prague, the Czech Republic-were announced on August 18. The film festival accepted 291 submissions from professional filmmakers from all over the world, and only 33 were selected by an international jury. While most of the films were Czech Republic premieres, fi...

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that California students made significant progress in the second year of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) online tests, with the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards increasing at every grade and in every student group. Nearly half the students tested met or exceeded standards in English language arts, and nearly four in ten met or exceeded standards...

Brandy Young, a second-grade teacher in Godley Independent School District just outside Dallas-Fort Worth, sent home a letter to parents promising that she will not assign homework to students this year. Her letter has been shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook in one week, indicating that this is indeed a national issue. "After much research this summer, I am trying something new," Mrs. Young wrote. "Homework will only consist of work that your student did not finish dur...

Two followup notes to our story last week entitled "Outsider Named as New Samohi Principal." One is we received a very nice note from a parent of a Cincinnati area pupil, who spoke well of Dr. Antonio Shelton, named as Samohi's new school principal. She writes: " Our loss is your gain and we are so saddened to be losing Dr. Shelton," she says. "I am SURE he will do great things for your very large, diverse school district. Our kids thoroughly enjoy him! By the way, Mason,...

A public school in California who'd directed an LA Deputy Sheriff to call on a seven-year-old boy to cease his sharing of religious literature has officially backed down on their restrictive attitude toward the bible. The Desert Rose Elementary school in Palmdale had wanted the child to stop handing out bible verses and stories at school and even outside the school gate. The deputy told the family that "someone might be offended." The issue began with the child sharing notes...

I am writing to shed light on my family's experience in Santa Monica. When we moved to Southern California two years ago, we specifically chose Santa Monica for many reasons - the schools had a good reputation, the community was known for being welcoming and accepting, it was walkable, it was a convenient commute to my job (under 40 minutes for LA) and the proximity to the beach was amazing. We moved into the Grant Elementary School area in Sunset Park. Grant was a phenomenal...

As college campuses across the country begin fall enrollment, the increasing problem of homeless students is causing a flurry of concern. One university in Georgia decided to do something about it. With the help of a donation of $25,000 from the Kennesaw-based Beacon Foundation Charitable Trust, Kennesaw state has dedicated an apartment on campus for temporary housing of homeless students. The students are allowed to stay up to 14 days, and the university's Campus Awareness,...

A contentious law that passed this summer eliminated both personal and religious exemptions from vaccinations in California schools, and 145 Sacramento children missed all or part of their first day of the school year on Tuesday because of it. Many of the children returned later on after their parents provided proper paperwork. Two clinics were open and available on school properties for parents wishing to vaccinate that day. The district says it is working to reach the other...

Editor's Note: No one knows why, but both Samohi Principal Eva Mayoral and SMMUSD Superintendent Sandra Lyons mysteriously, suddenly quit in June. Mayoral indicated she had to take care of her sick, adult son in another State. Sandra Lyons said something vague about other opportunities. To tell you the move was political would tell you nothing, since pretty much everything in Santa Monica is political. And pretty much every position at SMMUSD pays really well, so you have to...

Santa Monica, CA (July 11, 2016) – The Milken Scholars, a joint initiative of the Milken Institute and the Milken Family Foundation, has selected 15 exceptional Los Angeles-area high school seniors as 2016 Milken Scholars. The Scholars were chosen based on academic performance, community service, leadership and their ability to persevere in the face of challenges. "We're honored to welcome these exceptional students to the Scholars family," said Mike Milken, who cofounded the...

A Christian group which was denied use of facilities at Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) today prevailed in a federal lawsuit that requires the school to ensure religious group have equal access going forward. Plaintiff's filed a Federal Complaint after CEF sought equal access to the school district's facilities for its after school Christian charter education programs. The school district wanted to charge rent, which CEF could not pay, forcing it to shut down...

Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Sandra Lyon quit lat March, and Thursday, Eva Mayoral resigned after 3 years as principal. In an e mail to the community, Mayoral said she is leaving the State of California to live closer to family. “I can tell you unequivocally that I have never been fonder of any group of students, parents or staff,” she wrote. “It is this love that has made my life joyful, and this decision excruciating. But you are not my only...

Santa Monica College (SMC) has awarded its fourth annual Chui L. Tsang Transfer Scholarship to SMC student Angel Josue Najera. The new Tsang Scholar – the first in his family to go to college – will transfer this fall to UC Berkeley as a computer engineering major, with a 4.0 GPA. Named for retired SMC President Dr. Chui L. Tsang, the scholarship will provide $15,000 a year for two years toward the completion of Najera's baccalaureate degree. SMC Superintendent/President Dr....

It casts Snapchat in a whole new light. Stanford rapist 'took photograph of his victim's breasts during attack - and shared it with swim team friends who deleted it after his arrest', police believe Stanford rapist Brock Allan Turner shared a photo of his victim's breasts, by sending it to his swim teammates after the attack. This according to court papers, which indicate one of his friends deleted those photos. In a pleading entitled "Sentencing Memorandum" filed by the...

Los Angeles (June 6, 2016) – OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center is hosting two weekends at Camp Erin-LA this summer (June 10-12 and August 19-21) at the scenic Camp Bloomfield in Malibu. Camp Erin-LA is a weekend-long camp experience for children and teens ages 6 to 17 who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or guardian in the past 3 years. Camp is free of charge for all children and combines traditional camp activities with grief support, education, and r...

Santa Monica College (SMC) announced that four SMC students have been awarded the California Colleges for International Education (CCIE) Scholarship for South Korea. Marc Cuison, Alexis Erskine, Evelyn Ramos, and Tonisha Parham received the scholarships-awarded by Soonchunhyang University in South Korea-for the fall 2016 semester. A total of ten study abroad scholarships were awarded by the University through CCIE. "This is an exceptional opportunity for our students," said...