School
student speaks at historic reunion.
L.A. High rhetorician Kathleen Glynn, a junior, orated at the Association's 133rd annual reunion as part of its theme tribute to alumni of the WWII years. Alumni attending had the opportunity to hear the speech that made Ms. Glynn a finalist in Hollywood Post 43's American Legion High School Oratorical Contest last February. Fellow Roman Chemil Durant was also a finalist in the event, hosted by Commander Don Schilling and Oratorical Chair Randy Kahn. The 75-year-old competition seeks to develop rhetorical skills of students, to promote their greater understanding of the U.S. Constitution, and to prepare them for their important role as citizens. A month later, almost to the day, Ms. Glynn found herself a finalist once again in a test of vocal skills, this time against the six remaining contenders in the 28th annual high school Shakespeare competition of the Los Angeles branch of the English-Speaking Union of the United States (ESUUS). The Union's National Shakespeare Competition is a school-based program designed to help students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and timeless themes in Shakespeare's works. In three progressive competition levels, students memorize, interpret, and perform monologues and sonnets in their own schools, at ESU Branch-sponsored community competitions, and at the National Shakespeare Competition.
roman football turnaround seems not to be a fluke.
The re-emergence of L.A. High as a gridiron contender may be more than a one-season wonder, and the Los Angeles Times is taking note. For more click here
rome's teachers "make the grade."
For the academic year ending in earlier this year, L.A. High had 80 teachers, of which only one lacked a full credential. No fully credentialed teacher was instructing outside of subject area competence. (By comparison, for the district at large 700 of 25,019 teachers were not fully credentialed, and 3,565 of the fully credentialed were instructing outside of subject area competence.)
math-science charter school leaves campus, all-girls math-science academy to arrive.
Math and Science College Preparatory, a charter school founded in 2013 and reported in the Association's Newsletter of last year to be in residence at Los Angeles High School (and a potential campus rival - if only in name - to Rome's Math-Science Magnet), has relocated to defunct Frederick Douglass Academy High's building on West Adams, near UCLA's William Andrews Clark Library. Rapidly earning a reputation for educational success and renamed Crown Preparatory Academy, the charter school's CEO, Emilio Pack, was profiled by LA Weekly last May as one of its 54 "People of 2015." Pack is known for working wonders. Dr. Olga Mohan High School, founded by Pack and his educator wife, earned nearly 900 on California's API tests, making it LAUSD's third-ranked, top-performing school.
The space vacated at LA High will not remain empty for long. The Board of Education of LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) voted unanimously in April of this year to establish on Rome's campus the Girls Academic Leadership Academy, Los Angeles (GALALA). For more on this, see LAUSD.