The James Logan Courier

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Director of Parent and Community Relations

The Board of Education on Tuesday night approved a conditional budget that includes a shorter school year, larger class sizes and reduced funding for after-school activities – and that’s a “best-case” scenario. The school year will be even shorter, class sizes even larger and after-school funding even smaller – and schools will be without librarians – if the California legislature and Gov. Brown fail to agree fairly soon on a state budget.

The 2011-12 District budget approved Tuesday night is conditional on the passage and signing of a state budget, but the governor last week vetoed the budget approved by the legislature, and there is no indication that an agreement will be reached any time soon. That leaves New Haven and every other district in California in a state of uncertainty for the 2011-12 school year.

By Jan Norman
The Orange County Register (MCT)

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Most entrepreneurs start with a business idea and then perhaps later become involved in their communities or local charities.

But while Orange County, Calif., teenagers Brian Schroth and Harrison Steed were still in high school, they wanted to create a business that focused on giving back to the community.

In 2010, Steed read an article that World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization, had received requests for 140,000 backpacks for needy kids in the United States but could only give 18,000 because of donation shortfalls. That story led the pair to launch GivBag LLC to create and sell a great backpack and give one away for every one that was sold.

Nico Colombant, VOA News

Johannesburg, South Africa —:Prior to embarking on her flight from the United States, Michelle Obama addressed a message to Africa's youth. "I am doing this because we know that Africa is a fundamental part of our interconnected world and when it comes to meeting the challenges of our times, whether it is climate change or extremism, poverty or disease, the world is looking to African nations as vital partners and will be looking across the continent to young people just like all of you to help lead the way," she started.

One of those awaiting Obama's brief stay in Johannesburg is 29-year-old Ivory Coast national Aminata Kane Kone, a dentist, mother of four, and activist for women's rights. She was selected to take part in the U.S.-sponsored Young African Women Leaders Forum coinciding with the first lady's visit.

Kone says it will be a great honor and opportunity to meet and listen to Obama.

By David Siders
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

REDWOOD CITY — On the last day of school at Summit Preparatory Charter High School, Meg Whitman removed her car keys from her pants pocket and smoothed her shirt, while at the back of the room a teacher shushed the crowd.

A year almost to the day after winning the Republican nomination for governor and seven months after collapsing in the general election, there was no bunting and no stage, no country music to introduce her. The billionaire former eBay CEO said her rise in business was "one of those great American success stories."

Her campaign for governor, she said, "didn't work out quite as well."

"There's a saying in politics that if you're explaining, you're losing," she told the students.

By Shelby Grad
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — Bryan Stow's family is preparing for Father's Day with the Bay Area paramedic in a San Francisco hospital slowly recovering from a beating he received at the Dodgers' home opener.

The family released a statement last week saying they are playing music and reading to Stow as he continues to receive intensive medical treatment.
"Doctors are still lowering Bryan's seizure medications, trying to adjust them to find a good balance. Bryan has been sleepy this week, but still tracking," the family said. "We continue to play him music, talk to him, and read him your comments. If he hears us, he knows that Father's Day is approaching."

By Justyna Torres, Courier News Editor
After four years and much anticipation, the class of 2011 officially has signed out of Logan.

The process took place over the past week and started with the senior’s receiving their “Sign-Out” forms. To complete this form, seniors Monday had to get clearance from various places around the school including the library, career center, book room, and their counselors.

However, with having each teacher sign off and complete their forms today marked the seniors last official day of high school. Around campus a feeling of happiness, excitement, and melancholy was felt amongst the students saying goodbye to their peers they have spent the
last years with.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Director of Parent and Community Relations

Standing with District teachers, classified employees and administrators, the Board of Education on Tuesday night voted unanimously to reduce expenses by taking a furlough. Board members will not meet in July, giving up one month’s compensation, in solidarity with employees who are being asked to work six fewer days in 2011-12, as part of the District’s efforts to meet the financial challenges imposed by the ongoing state budget crisis.

The Board – which also voted to limit participation in the California School Board Association annual meeting and to restrict travel to other meetings – received an update on the budget situation from Chief Business Officer Akur Varadarajan. The proposed budget for 2011-12 – conditional to the state budget being ratified and subject to Board approval June 21 – is about $6 million less than it was this year and nearly $15 million less than it was just three years ago.

By Julia Ortiz, Courier Staff Writer

Logan's fourth annual Unity Fair was a get-together of most—if not all—of Logan’s clubs. Everyone came together to bring food, music and entertainment to both lunch periods.

On the morning of Friday, May 27, Leadership students began setting up in preparation for the big day.

“It was hard because we really didn’t know the layout of it and there was a lot of clubs and a lot of tables we had to move back and forth, and it was wet,” said senior Janae Mayfield. Luckily, everything worked out when the time came for things to get started up.

By Melissa Healy And Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — Thirty years ago Sunday, a brief report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report described five cases of a rare form of pneumonia called Pneumocystis carinii in five young Los Angeles men, "all active homosexuals." The cases were noteworthy because the men had previously been healthy, though their particular pneumonia had only been seen in people with severely depressed immune systems.

Within a month, a second report had identified 54 young gay men with a rare cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma, another disease that had been almost unknown in young men. And by the following summer, the mysterious disease underlying these reports had a name: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.

AIDS was a murderous, mysterious delinquent that emerged seemingly out of nowhere. Transmitted primarily through sexual activity and blood, it mowed down whole communities of young gay men, tore through a generation of intravenous drug users and made orphans of millions of the world's children.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Director of Parent and Community Relations

The 2011-12 school year will be shorter and class sizes will be larger in the New Haven Unified School District, but despite being forced by the state to make yet another round of budget cuts, the District hopes to be able to mitigate some of the reductions, Superintendent Kari McVeigh said today.

The District plans to fund some – but not all – of the stipends paid to coaches and advisers for after-school activities and plans to retain the media specialists who staff school libraries, but without all previous support positions, Ms. McVeigh said.