Got questions for the school board candidates? Tell me about it. Now for the newsblitz:
- We report that schools are scooping up grants for everything from a new weight room to fresh fruit to help bring money in as budgets are slashed. It’s a welcome source of extra money, but there is a downside: grants take time to get, don’t last and don’t always match schools’ needs.
- Poway schools will cut teachers’ pay again and shorten their work year, the Union-Tribune reports.
- Chris Reed at the U-T blogs about a proposal by San Diego Unified school board member John de Beck that undocumented parents of children born in the U.S. get visas to stay in the country temporarily. De Beck brought it up in response to the upcoming school board resolution condemning Arizona.
- Marsha Sutton at SDNN writes that school nurses and winning academic teams are getting their due at an upcoming San Diego County Office of Education meeting.
- San Marcos schools are also laying off teachers to fill their budget gap, the North County Times reports.
- The Telescope in Palomar is upset about parents’ push for bilingual education at Chavez Elementary in San Diego, saying that it’s a luxury that schools can no longer afford.
- The Sacramento Bee reports that most school districts in Sacramento County don’t have money to pay the health benefits they promised to future retirees, according to a grand jury report. Is this a problem here? How could we find out? Give me pointers at emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org.
- You know about virtual schools. You know about traditional schools — you know, with a building and teachers. Educated Guess writes about a new hybrid school that includes online classes and more traditional seminars in a brick-and-mortar building.
- And the Associated Press takes you into the high school years of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
— EMILY ALPERT