Westminster School District

Like many school systems throughout the state, Los Angeles Unified School District officials spent Thursday reviewing financial projections that will include cutting programs and services because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget does not provide enough funding. Even though the governor included an additional $1.8 billion in state education funding, L.A.

The historic case that desegregated Orange County public schools 60 years ago has been commemorated with a postage stamp unveiled Saturday in a ceremony honoring five Mexican American men who sued for the right to send their children to school with other American kids. The 41-cent stamp recognizing Mendez vs.

Westminster School District trustees on Thursday named Sharon Nordheim as superintendent. The 5-0 vote caps a chaotic search for a leader for the district, which serves 10,000 kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Westminster, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Midway City.

Kimoanh Nguyen-Lam will take over as superintendent of Westminster's schools, the district's board of trustees announced Wednesday. Nguyen-Lam, a Garden Grove school board member, replaces Sheri Loewenstein, who resigned in November. Nguyen-Lam was associate director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at Cal State Long Beach. She will join the 10,000-student district July 1.

Trustees of the troubled Westminster School District left students, teachers and parents baffled Wednesday by withdrawing a job offer to a superintendent seven days after it voted to hire her. With little explanation, the board voted Tuesday night to rescind a decision to hire KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, who many think would have been the first Vietnamese American superintendent in Orange County. Two board members who had voted to hire Nguyen-Lam changed sides to revoke the offer.

The state will negotiate a stalled teachers contract in the Westminster School District, the district announced Thursday. The Westminster Teachers Assn. rejected a package that included 10.76% in various compensation increases, and declared an impasse in negotiations. The declaration means a state mediator will step in to try to resolve the dispute.

When KimOanh Nguyen-Lam was hired last month as superintendent of the Westminster School District, proud Vietnamese Americans filled her voice mail with congratulations. Her appointment made headlines in Vietnamese-language newspapers and on television and radio. She was making history as the nation's first Vietnamese American school superintendent. It was a short celebration.

A fledgling grass-roots coalition demanded Friday that Westminster School District trustees reinstate a superintendent that they hired and then let go a week later. KimOanh Nguyen-Lam, 46, would have been the first Vietnamese-American superintendent in the United States. Some community members and school board President Blossie Marquez, who supported Nguyen-Lam, said the trustees' May 30 decision to rescind the job offer was tinged with racism.

Westminster School District's acting superintendent has quit, adding to a series of high-level resignations and controversies plaguing the district. Mel Lopez declined to comment on why he resigned Friday. "I would rather go quietly into the night," said Lopez. "I just came to realize this is not a place that I can be effective. That's all."

Deep into Thursday evening, the Westminster school board listened to pleas to rehire a superintendent whose job offer had been quickly rescinded last month. The board finally adjourned without taking action. If KimOanh Nguyen-Lam is rehired, she will be the first Vietnamese American superintendent in the United States. Many in the community said the job was taken from her because of racism.