Schools Roundup
CUSD unchanged after Nov. 2 election
At the Cupertino Union School District, three candidates ran for two, three-year terms. Voters reelected both campaigning incumbents, leaving the board of trustees unchanged.
Incumbent Barry Chang received the highest support with 37.4 percent of the votes. Incumbent Roberta Pabst followed close behind with 36.4 percent of the votes and newcomer Gary McCue received 26.32 percent of the votes. About 18,000 of the district's 59,800 registered voters turned out to cast ballots.
Both Chang and Pabst said during their campaigns that, if reelected, they would work to increase district revenues in order to retain qualified teachers.
The Cupertino School District serves more than 15,200 students in its 20 elementary schools and four middle schools located in Cupertino, Los Altos, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale.
The candidates are scheduled to be sworn in on at the organizational meeting Dec. 14.
LASD moves ahead with preschool plans
A little creativity and a love of fudge earned Graham Middle School $4,000 in library funds last week.
Sixth-grader Vanessa Perkins won first place for her recipe "Mr. Fickle's Fabulous Fudge," in Amazon.com's continent-wide, "Harry Potter Magical Candy Contest" Nov. 4, which drew more than 20,000 contestants.
Her award came as a pleasant and unexpected boost to the school's library, which has raised $270,000 over the past three years as part of its focus on literacy.
School officials say the Potter books, which were at the center of the contest, have encouraged students who don't normally like reading to dive into the 400-plus page novels.
The contest was open to children in the United States and Canada ages six to 13. Each contestant had to invent, name and draw a picture of candy with magical powers that would impress the children's book character Harry Potter.
Vanessa, 11, said she has read all three books in the Harry Potter series four times.
Vanessa created fudge, sold at Honeydukes Candy Shop, that grows plants completely made out of candy. She said just sprinkle sugar fertilizer over the fudge and watch it sprout candy plants.
Vanessa said she likes fudge. "I knew it had to be something with fudge," she said. After some brainstorming and looking through a special effects cookbook, Vanessa said she came up with her fudge recipe.
"She's always been very creative," said Vanessa's mother, Barbara Perkins.
Amazon.com presented Graham school with a $4,000 check to be used on library books and a boxed set of three Harry Potter books signed by author J.K. Rowling Nov. 4 at Graham's library. Vanessa won $500, a boxed set of signed Potter books, a wizard set and a 3-D art piece of her winning candy, designed by a Seattle artist.
Judges said Vanessa's recipe was the "only one we actually wanted to eat."
For more information about contest winners, go to Amazon.com.
Despite dozens of protests from school neighbors, the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees decided to move ahead with its plan at the regular Nov. 1 meeting to place preschool centers on its Egan, Covington and Blach school sites.
Neighbors overflowed the board room urging the district not to place preschools on its campuses, saying the centers would be inappropriate and would add to the "already enormous traffic problem" at many of the schools.
School officials said leasing portions of district property to preschool providers has been part of the district's master facility plan from the start, though the locations had not been specified.
Under the master facility plan, the district will reopen Covington as its seventh elementary school in fall 2001, losing revenues from tenants who currently are leasing space at the site, including five child-care centers.
Randy Kenyon, associate superintendent of business services, said the school district's budget could be out of balance within two years after Covington reopens if the district doesn't recapture some of its lease revenues.
He said the district could use its land assets as the basis of gaining revenues.
School officials said the district will work with a traffic consultant to mitigate traffic impacts.
No money from the $94.7 million bond that voters approved last year for school renovations would be used on the preschool centers, school officials said.
Any costs of building a preschool building will be reimbursed by the preschools, Superintendent Marge Gratiot said. .
"There are no architects or engineers out there all day with the kids. We're the experts on this issue. No one knows better than we do," said one parent about the traffic congestion.
"Doing away with preschool spots is not a solution," said board member Gerri Carlton. Informal studies showed that any traffic generated by the preschools would not impact the regular hours of school, according to school officials.
"I think this calls for some creative thinking," said board member Victor Reid.
"Even if we don't have daycare, the traffic won't go away. We're the only ones with this program. If we have space, it makes sense for us to look at this."
IN BRIEF: Amar Chada, a Los Altos High School math teacher, recently won the 1999 George Polya Memorial Award, granted by the California Mathematics Council, for his outstanding classroom curriculum and his statewide influence in education.
Colleen B. Wilcox, superintendent of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, was named Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.
She will be honored this month in Anaheim.
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