The Arcadia School Board accepted $26,365 in state funding to prevent alcohol and drug use among elementary school students. The money, available on 1/0/90, is being allocated under the Comprehensive Alcohol and Drug Prevention Education Program (CADPE), targeting 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in every district in California.
Arcadia teachers are eligible for mini-grants of $100-300 under a program being implemented by the Arcadia Rotary Club. The program will provide funds to district teachers for special projects beginning in February. All teachers, from kindergarten to 12th grade, are eligible to apply.
About 1500 people went to a hearing before the county Commission on School District Organization to discuss the possible transfer of Sierra Madre schools from the Pasadena Unified School District to the Arcadia Unified School District. The hearing is the first step in a long process that involves approval by the state Board of Education and local voters before an area can transfer to another school district.
School district gets CAP test scores. Although Arcadia students remained comfortably above the 80th percentile in most categories in California Assessment Program test scores, the influx of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students into the district is having a definite impact. In 1976, there were 63 limited or non-English speaking students in Arcadia school district. As of October 1 this year, 539 students are in the LEP program. 78% of LEP students are Asian; 14 % are Spanish, 2 % European, with the remainder from other cultures. Fifteen languages are represented. See hard copy in Box 51.
Some Sierra Madre parents want to split from the Pasadena Unified School District and join the Arcadia Unified School District because of Arcadia's high-ranking CAP scores and low dropout rate. Members of Arcadia's Board of Education question whether they could handle the influx of new students.
The Arcadia Rotary Club is involved in a program with the Gormeck Polygraph School providing subjects for a class of new students entering polygraph training.
The Los Angeles County Commission on School District Organization voted 9-0 to deny Sierra Madre's petition to join the Arcadia School District. The matter will go to the state Board of Education, which may take 3-4 months to make a decision.
Beginning October 1, Arcadia High School athletes and student government officers will have the opportunity to participate in a "strictly voluntary" urinalysis drug testing program.
Arcadia High School students had the highest math scores in 15 years on the SAT, 61 points above the national average, but verbal skills scored 16 points below the national average.
Apparent violations of state laws prior to 1978 are costing the Arcadia School District $250,000 at a time when it is already having to squeeze $1 million from its program just to maintain a balanced budget.
Arcadia Board of Education members appeared somewhat disappointed at the disclosure that only 40% of those high school students eligible to take the voluntary anti-drug urinalysis tests are participating in the program.
The Arcadia Rotary Club has announced a major building program at the Casa Hogar Lazaro Cardenas, an orphan's home in Tijuana, Mexico for 100 children. Members of the Tijuana Rotary Club have agreed to provide one-third of the costs of the project.
John B. Simmons, principal of Continuation High School, will be honored by the school district for his efforts in developing and administrating the Continuation High School program. Simmons' background and the school's program are discussed.
Immediately after passing a balanced budget of $25.4 million, the Arcadia Board of Education eliminated another $265,854 worth of jobs from the district payroll to help provide pay hikes for district employees.
Construction will begin in September on a new district office for the Automobile Club of Southern California. The building is part of the redevelopment project on east Huntington Drive.
The Rotary Club of Arcadia made its annual Christmas caravan bearing food and gifts to the Lazero Cardenas Orphanage and the Santa Teresita Home near Tijuana, Mexico. A new all-purpose building, financed and built by the Arcadia and Tijuana Rotary Clubs, was dedicated at Lazero.