Orange County Schools

Orange County residents give their public schools a mediocre report card, with more than half rating them a C or below in a poll for the Times Orange County Edition. But the schools received better ratings in the poll from parents with school-age children--the group educators say is most familiar with the schools. In that group, 55% gave the schools As or Bs. The survey also asked residents to rate Orange County schools on a variety of programs and problems.

Re "Poverty's new address is in suburbs," May 20 This eye-opening study, which shows that more poor people now live in suburbs than in urban areas, indirectly highlights one of the major failings of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed school funding formula, which favors the urban poor. The impact of the last recession was so deep and broad, no place was unaffected. The number of homeless, hungry and uninsured schoolchildren has grown sharply in Orange County schools, even in districts like Irvine.

Swastikas and the word "skinhead" were painted at a Costa Mesa elementary school's baseball field, officials said Monday. Kaiser Elementary School Principal Deborah Granger said staffers first noticed the slurs when they got to school. Swastikas were painted on trash cans, and the word "skinhead" with a swastika had been painted on part of the backstop, Granger said. The tops of benches had also been painted white. Over the weekend, a usually locked gate that is used by other campuses had been left open, Granger said.

Cited as some of the best schools in the nation, six Orange County high schools and intermediate schools have been selected as finalists in the 1992-93 National Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Brea-Olinda, Westminster, Laguna Hills and Los Alamitos high schools, along with La Paz Intermediate and Hewes Middle School are among the 260 public and private secondary schools across the country honored recently in the program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Latinos now make up the single largest ethnic group of students in Orange County public schools for the first time since the county education department has been keeping such figures. The biggest ethnic cluster of students previously in Orange County schools was white, but now that percentage is down to 40.8%, just under the 42.3% of enrolled Latino students, according to the annual enrollment survey taken each fall and released this week.

Orange County's "school-to-work" initiative fell under scrutiny again Thursday, with critics calling the program a wasteful federal mandate and backers touting it as a useful means to help students consider careers. At a hearing here Thursday before the Orange County Board of Education, more than 150 people split into two opposed camps. It was the board's third and final hearing on the issue this year. Ken L. Williams Jr.

Robert D. Peterson, who is now in his sixth term as county superintendent of Orange County schools, announced Friday that he has decided to run for a seventh term next June. Peterson, who has never faced serious opposition and ran unopposed in 1986, said he is announcing earlier than usual because elections have become more costly. Peterson said he wants to begin collecting campaign funds, with a goal of $60,000 by the end of the year.

With most Orange County schools set to open in less than two weeks, the fall back-to-school rituals are well under way. There are shopping trips for new lunch boxes and pencils and the less-pleasant outings to receive immunizations required for entering school. The mandatory inoculations are DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) and oral vaccine for polio. Each series requires two or more doses over varying periods of time.

Chuck Allen, a onetime high school surfing coach in Southern California who established amateur surfing and snowboarding groups that organized and elevated the sports, has died. He was 74. Allen, who was the special events manager at Mountain High Resort in Wrightwood, died of emphysema Feb. 14 at Redlands Community Hospital, his son, Robert, said. A former rodeo cowboy, Allen set out to civilize surf culture after starting a surfing team at El Toro High School in Lake Forest in the early 1970s.

If anyone remains unconvinced about the magic of sports competition, here's the story of how three baseball players from rival high schools in southern Orange County became best friends. Austin Saenz of Mission Viejo, Kris Paulino of Tesoro and Kyle Hunt of Capistrano Valley got together last November with family and friends and signed letters of intent to Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Nevada, respectively. "It was kind of surreal," Hunt said. "I've always dreamed of signing a D1 letter and playing baseball, and I'm sure they had the same dreams.

The cinder-block locker room is little bigger than a gas-station restroom. Squeeze in 15 high school hockey players and their sweat-soaked equipment, and it smells about the same too. Yet Megan Browning, the team's freshman goalie, can't think of any place she'd rather be. "Just because you play hockey doesn't mean you have to act like a boy," Browning explains as she checks her makeup and adjusts the twin braids in her hair. "I wear pink. I'm still girly. But when I come to the rink, I get intense.

Monday was supposed to be the day for a hearing in Orange County Superior Court matching lawyers for the CIF Southern Section against their counterparts representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange on behalf of its client, Santa Ana Mater Dei High. I was hoping Mater Dei grads Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley could make an appearance to add to the spectacle. The honorable Judge Gregory H. Lewis was scheduled to preside. I doubt he's a Servite grad, so that's good for Mater Dei. The hearing, however, was postponed because the lawyers are reviewing amendments filed last week (probably at $150 an hour)

Orange County students on Friday were grieving the death of softball standout Nadia Brianne Matthews, who, according to the county coroner's office, committed suicide a day earlier. The sophomore was a well-liked honor student at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. "Everybody's shocked," said Mater Dei softball Coach Doug Myers. "We're just absolutely devastated." The 16-year-old hanged herself Thursday night. Police and fire officials were called to an apartment in the 2100 block of East Almont Avenue in Anaheim shortly before 8 p.m., Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez said.

One of the strengths of the Pacific Symphony's annual American Composers Festival has been its inclusion of a wide range of arts groups and voices. This year, in exploring the themes of "The Greatest Generation," the challenges and hardships faced during the turbulent 1930s and '40s will be seen through the eyes of the newest generation. The symphony has partnered with the Orange County High School of the Arts, tapping students from the film and TV conservatory to produce documentary shorts that bring the experiences of this older generation to a younger audience.

The Anaheim City School District has refused to give the Rev. Louis Sheldon assurances that it will not "condone" homosexuality in the classroom, prompting the religious lobbyist to say Thursday that he will develop a countywide campaign on the issue. In a November letter, Sheldon asked the district to pledge that no school employees would support or provide materials, counseling or services that suggest homosexuality is "a positive life alternative."

Months before George Bush made respect for the flag a burning political issue as part of the 1988 presidential campaign, Paula Burton realized the importance of the Pledge of Allegiance. For Burton, a Villa Park substitute teacher, the pledge and all the emotional issues attached to it became a crusade earlier that same year. It started when she asked her students at Taft Elementary School in Orange to discuss the pledge's famous phrase, "one nation, under God, indivisible."

A group of Orange County Catholic educators and businessmen faced a tough decision last fall: Do they close six struggling local parish schools or take aggressive steps to keep them open? It is a scenario confronting church leaders throughout the nation who are beset by shrinking enrollments that threaten to decimate urban parochial schools. In 2006, St. Boniface School in Anaheim closed after 50 years of operation, a victim of debt and dwindling enrollment.

Here's a little advice to Orange County coaches and athletes who aspire to be the best in the Southland: Start venturing outside your neighborhood for competition and stop worrying about who ranks best in the county. High school sports has changed. The Southern Section has grown so large and diverse that it's yesterday's news when the focus revolves around "all-county."