DOWNEY - Speaking before the Downey Unified School District (DUSD) Board of Education Tuesday, Phil Davis, director of Support Programs and the motivating force behind the district's successful Career Technical Education (CTE) program, put the achievement of the ten Downey High and Warren High students who took part recently in the ROP Student Recognition Competition held at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) in context:"A total of 38,000 students attend LACOE's 22 districts, from which 140 students were asked to participate. [Averaged out], each district would have sent 6.4 students to the event. DUSD sent 10, clearly close to double the average!" What's even more heartwarming, Davis said, paying tribute to "our great staff and hard-working students," is the fact all ten contestants for 2008-09, five each from Downey High and Warren High, all won medals. He then introduced two "very important people," ROP counselors Antoinette Brown and Michael Frye, the first working at WHS and the other at DHS, who "deserve much of the credit for the success of the CTE program at the two sites." The silver medal winners a) from DHS: Nancy Rodriguez (careers in education), Briaun Tyson (professional dance/creative arts), Christina Vasquez (pharmacy technician), and Vicente Velasco (computer-assisted drafting); b) from WHS: Emily Gregario (film and TV production) and Nicolette Klesynski (graphic arts). The bronze medal winners a) from DHS: Lafleche Giasson (careers in education); and b) from WHS: Ryan Ha (commercial photo), Lacy Johnson (office occupations), and Jasmin Medrano (supermarket occupations). Davis afterwards recognized Construction Technology (CT) teacher Kent Kiess, along with his four students composing his CT class at Warren (Francisco Rivera, Ryan Robles, Richard Molina, and Ian Benton) who competed locally and placed third at the state-level SkillsUSA competition held in Fresno. Meanwhile, Superintendent Wendy Doty announced that Davis has been named "Administrator of the Year" by the L. A. County Industrial Technology Education Association (LACITEA). Formal award ceremonies are scheduled for tomorrow at Knott's Berry Farm. In other action, the Board: •Accepted with gratitude cash and in-kind donations from individuals and organizations/groups including $14,500 from the Gypsy Johnson Auxiliary in support of the TLC Family Resource Center; •Approved the payment of expenses for convention and conference attendance; •Ratified the payments for special education placements; •Approved the Career Technical Education application for 2009-10 funding associated with the Carl D. Perkins C&TE Improvement Act of 2006; •Ratified purchase orders by the Purchasing Department; •Ratified the issuance of payroll orders for hourly, overtime, Civic Center work performed by classified personnel, Adult School, and Food Services, through April 2009; •Ratified B warrants; •Approved the financial advisory service agreement (for disclosure of tax-exempt bond finances) between DUSD and Dale Scott & Col,, Inc., effective May 12, 2009 through May 12, 2014, or as otherwise indicated; •Approved the agreement with Quintessential School Systems (QSSA) for services and support of the Student Data Information System effective July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010; •Approved the Workers' Compensation self-insurance service agreement with Southern California Risk Management Associates, Inc., effective July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010; •Ratified the agreements between Downey Adult School (DAS) Career and Education Center and &-Day Dental Euclid and Lincoln Office, Scott A, DDS, Inc., Children's Dental Fun Land, Douglas Nguyen, DDS dba Norwalk Dental Associates of Dr. Nguyen, Alon Offir, DDS, Inc. Orthodontics, Mahesh A. Sejpal, DDS, and Smile Care Dental, to furnish practical experience to students enrolled in the Dental Assistant program; between it and GYN/OB Medical Group, to students enrolled in the Medical Assistant program; and between it and Community Pharmacy as well as Medicine Cabinet, to students enrolled in the Pharmacy Technician program; •Authorized the advertisements for bids for the purchase of snack foods, pre-made pizzas, bread products and dry & refrigerated foods, to be charged to the Food Services fund; •Rejected all bids associated with the Downey High School modernization of Bldgs. J, K, and N (received against Bid #08/09-12), and authorized the re-bid of same, pending review of options and revisions to scope of work, against Bid #08-09-14; •Approved the change orders involving purchase orders for various items ranging from pre-made pizzas to credit card arrangements with various vendors, to modernization work at Warren High School (new library, classroom building), as well as that at Downey High (Building "B" construction); •Accepted as complete electrical, fencing, backhoe, paving, and concrete work throughout the district, as well as structural steel/miscellaneous metal, aluminum, hydraulic elevator projects done related to the modernization at Warren High, and the installation of an enhanced vapor recovery (EVR) system for DUSD's transportation department-performed by various contractors; •Approved the adjustments to the 2008-09 General Fund restricted and unrestricted budgets, as well as to the restricted 2008-09 Deferred Maintenance Fund and County School Facilities Fund budgets; •Acknowledged the receipt of claim dated April 2, 2009 (received on April 7, 2008), submitted by State Farm Insurance Companbi3es, on behalf of Juan A. Soria, and denied the claim in compliance with Government Code Section 911-15 and 945; •Approved routine Personnel items until subsequent action is taken by the Board of Education; •Tabled the abolishment of 45 classified positions (mostly instructional assistants) to the June 9 meeting, to make sure its context and impact are clear to all parties concerned; •Ratified the establishment of five new positions corresponding to the current classification of Senior Instructional Assistant (with varying pay grades), farmed out to Rio San Gabriel, Carpenter, West Middle School, and Downey High School; •Approved the changes to the duties of Utility Worker as shown in revised duty statement, effective May 12, 2009; •Approved a maximum of 200 words for candidate statements for the November 3, 2009 Board of Education election (candidate to pay filing cost at filing time); •Approved the proposed middle school and high school textbooks for the 2009-10 school year; •Reviewed the high school algebra textbooks for adoption for the 2009-10 school year; •Approved the designation of the Board members to the different graduation ceremonies; •Approved the Memorandum of Understanding establishing a special hourly summer school rate for a speech and language pathologist for the 08-09 school year only; •Approved the Memorandum of Understanding with the Downey Education Association regarding the temporary suspension of Article VII, Part A (class size for grades 1-3); •Authorized the Declaration of Need for fully qualified educators for the 2009-10 school year; and •Endorsed the actions taken by the Superintendent on all student cases. The next meeting of the Board of Education will be a regular one to be held at 5 p.m. on June 9 at the Gallegos Administration Center, 11627 Brookshire Ave.

********** Published: May 15, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 4