Archive for the ‘School Advisory’ Category
Heading Back to School
January 3rd, 2012
1. Motivation. It’s so easy to let school slide. If you’re tired or don’t feel well, school is one of the first things to go. And after time off, it’s really hard to get up the motivation to leap back in. I suggest (and I plan to) making the first couple of days back fun days. Pull out the crafts and the educational games. Ease back into the routine by padding the way with fun rather than diving right back in to all the workbooks. I think the teacher needs this just as much as the students.
2. Lapses in memory. When I was a homeschooled kid, we did year-round school because we forgot too much if we took the summer off. The same thing can happen if you just take a few days off – your children can forget skills and concepts they were learning just before the break. If you need to backtrack, no worries-just go back to where they feel comfortable and move forward from there. It’s not a race.
3. Keeping it positive. Sometimes when we’ve taken a break, we put pressure on ourselves to get back into the swing of things. We worry about how much time we’ve lost, and if our kids are reluctant, we might put too much negativity into the process. Homeschool is about finding joy with our children, and if we get too stressed about catching up, we’re missing the most crucial part of why we chose to homeschool in the first place.
Welcome back to school, and may it be fun and rewarding for you and your children!
Tags: School
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DC Agency: Single-Sex Dorms at Catholic U Don’t Violate Law
December 12th, 2011
The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights has held that John Garvey, president of Catholic University of America did not violate a District law banning sex discrimination by returning the institution he leads to single-sex dormitories. As I mentioned in a summer blog post, George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf filed a charge of discrimination against President Garvey.
The DC agency observed that laws banning discrimination on the basis of sex do not categorically forbid all sex-based distinctions. The DC Human Rights Act, the law under which Prof. Banzhaf sued, prohibits only those policies that are motivated by an invidious purpose, not policies that make distinctions between the sexes for benign purposes. Along the same lines, the agency stated that a policy that makes distinctions between men and women is valid so long as the policy is not motivated by discriminatory animus.
I must confess that I am slightly amused by the agencys use of this line of reasoning. When public universities accuse religious student groups of discriminating on the basis of religion by requiring their officers and leaders to share the groups religious commitments, my ADF colleagues and I typically first argue that what the religious group is doing is simply not discrimination which I would define as the invidious reliance upon irrelevant characteristics. When the schools Chess Club says no Hindus, thats discrimination; but when the schools Jewish Students Association says our leaders must be Jewish, its not. Despite the power of this common sense argument, it almost invariably fails when made by religious student groups at public universities. Thats why Im amused (and heartened) that the DC agency accepted a conceptually identical argument.
In any event, props to the DC Office of Human Rights for getting this one right and respecting religious freedom in the process.
Tags: Catholic U, Law
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Thomas Aquinas College gets grant
December 7th, 2011
Thomas Aquinas College has received a $200,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
The grant will be used for financial aid at the private Catholic college, which is in Santa Paula.
The Hilton Foundation has given nearly $1 million to Thomas Aquinas over the past 20 years. This year’s gift is the foundation’s largest to the college.
Thomas Aquinas has been recognized for its financial aid program in rankings published in U.S. News & World Report and the Princeton Review.
Tags: Aquinas College, Grant, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas College
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Head finance officer at Centinela Valley takes new job
December 4th, 2011
After less than a year-and-a-half on the job, the head finance person at the Centinela Valley high school district serving Hawthorne and Lawndale has moved on.
James Pham, who was hired as assistant superintendent of business after the summer 2010 death of his predecessor, Angelita Dalan, served his final day on Wednesday. On Thursday, he began his new job as director of fiscal services at the K-8 Little Lake City School District in Santa Fe Springs, in southeast Los Angeles County.
Pham, who could not be reached for comment, earned a salary of $143,000 in the Centinela Valley district, which consists of three high schools: Lawndale, Hawthorne and Leuzinger. At Little Lake, which is smaller by a couple thousand students, he will earn about $100,000, an official at Little Lake said.
Centinela Valley officials are proposing to replace him internally by Ron Hacker, who wears two hats: administrator in the business-services department and the food services director. The school board will vote Dec. 13 on whether to officially appoint Hacker as the interim assistant superintendent of business.
Tags: Centinela Valley, Head Finance, Job
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The Flu and You: Tips for Staying Healthy
November 25th, 2011
Fever. Stuffy head. Sneezing. Runny nose. Sore throat. Does any of this sound familiar? Oh yes, it’s that time of year again! Flu season is just around the corner, and that means the best time to prepare and prevent illness is now!
The flu (influenza) is one of the most commonly spread infectious diseases in the United States. It is responsible for an average of 5 missed work days a year. Flu can impact children and adults alike. And because the severity of illness from the flu depends on each person’s level of immunity, you may be one of the 200,000 Americans who are hospitalized each year from flu related complications.
But there’s good news! The flu is preventable. The number one means of preventing a flu infection is through vaccination. Each year the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) utilizes data collected on the most prominent flu viruses from the previous year and includes them in the flu vaccine. This is why it is recommended that each eligible child and adult receive a flu vaccine annually – because the vaccine changes annually. Flu vaccine can be found at your doctor’s office, your local pharmacy, and even in some schools and workplaces.
In addition to vaccination, good hygiene will go a long way! The most important form of good hygiene is frequent hand washing. This does not mean throwing some soap on your hands and rinsing it off. Rather, the most effective method of hand washing is with soap and warm water, ensuring that the hands are scrubbed for at least 30 seconds (or one round of the ABC’s) before rinsing.
Next always be sure to cover a cough or a sneeze with either a tissue or a sleeve. If you use a tissue, be certain to throw it away in a trash receptacle immediately! Don’t use your hands – ever! But if you insist, then wash your hands with the hand washing method mentioned above.
If you follow all of this advice and still get the flu this season please stay home until you are fully recovered. You are still contagious until you have been fever free for 24 hours.
For further information on the flu and methods of prevention, please visit: . And, as always, NEA HIN will maintain up-to-date information on our website: .
Tags: Flu, Flu Tips
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