Cost more than doubles expectations; Rooms will not be used to lower student-teacher ratios

New classrooms = happier teachers + better students? So far, so good. Hundreds of students came back from Spring Break on Tuesday to 14 new, long-awaited classrooms at Palisades Charter High School. ‘It’s a really big improvement,’ said Gabriela Nunez, an 11th-grader who visited her new classroom for the first time. ‘The desks are more comfortable here than in the older classrooms. And we have air conditioning!’ The school acquired seven trailers, which it calls ‘bungalows,’ from Los Angeles Unified School District last year. And it pushed to make them available to students and teachers, who have complained that the school is stretched to capacity. The 2700-student school has expanded by more than 60 percent since the early 1990s without any additional classroom space or infrastructure. That expansion has left space in high demand at the school. In fact, the school’s library was converted into a classroom. Without their own classrooms, dozens of teachers have had to shuttle from one class to another from period to period. And student-teacher ratios have ballooned. The trailers, each divided into two small classrooms, are an antidote to these problems, say school officials. To make room for the 14 new classrooms, the school moved five older classrooms, giving the school a net gain of nine rooms. Executive Director Amy Held said the bungalows have already reduced the number of teachers ‘traveling’ from 30 to between three and five. ‘I am happy to see traveling teachers get some relief,’ said Marilyn Haese, a Pali parent who was on the school’s task force to acquire the bungalows. ‘But in the long-run, I would also like to see significantly reduced class sizes’at least by five students per class.’ But so far, student-teacher ratios have not changed, and there are now indications that the bungalows will never be used to reduce class size. The school shied away from using the bungalows to lower class sizes this semester because it would have required breaking up students from teachers in yearlong courses. ‘The main obstacle with reducing class size is that it can necessitate hiring more teachers which in turn ends up increasing traveling again,’ said Held. She says the school is committed to lowering class sizes through other means. The school wants to increase the number of students who take some classes at community colleges. PaliHi is also considering staggering the school’s schedule. The school’s board hoped to make the bungalows available to students at the beginning of the second semester in January, but complying with state and LAUSD regulations and slower-than-expected construction delayed the move-in until this week. When the school initially acquired them, the state Department of Education mandated that they could only be used for administrative offices. A group of parents, however, lobbied the state to allow the school to use them for classrooms. Although LAUSD gave the school the seven trailers, preparing the trailers for student occupation has been costly. The board initially budgeted $350,000, but the cost doubled to more than $700,000. The school expected that the cost would, in part, be offset by district bond funding, but the district rejected the school’s application. The school expects to save as much as $180,000 from reusing older bungalows for field houses, which the school no longer has to purchase. ——– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.

A site has been finalized for the new $3.5-million aquatics center at Palisades Charter High School. The area approved, just north of the intersection of Temescal Canyon and Bowdoin Street, is currently occupied by handball and basketball courts. The space is large enough for an eight-lane outdoor pool as well as a smaller instructional pool and a pool house. According to PaliHi executive director, Amy Held, the Aquatic Design Group (ADG) is designing the pool. ADG specializes in the design of competitive, recreation and leisure aquatic facilities and has completed over 2,000 projects. David Jay Flood Architects, a Santa Monica-based firm, will be designing the buildings. Founded in 1967, the firm originally focused on the programming, master planning, and architectural design of winter resort areas. Most recently DJFA completed the planning for all of the venues and villages for the 2012 Los Angeles Olympic bid. Rose Gilbert, 88, an English teacher at PaliHi since the school opened in 1961, started the pool campaign in the summer of 2005. ‘I had an epiphany after I had an accident while I was hiking in an Australian rainforest, ‘ Gilbert said. ‘I fell and hurt my head and didn’t think I was going to live. Suddenly it hit me that we need to have a pool at Pali.’ Gilbert said her hope is for all students to learn how to swim before they graduate, especially at a school where the mascot is a dolphin. ‘I asked all of the kids on our basketball teams if they knew how to swim and none of them did,’ she said. In addition to providing swimming lessons, the facility will accommodate PaliHi’s City champion swim teams and a new water polo team, Soon after her return from Australia, Gilbert donated $1 million towards the on-campus aquatics center in memory of her daughter Maggie, who was a swimmer. The project has moved slowly but steadily forward ever since. Approval had to come from LAUSD to build on its property, a site selected, a business plan developed, architects chosen and technical drawings made. ‘We couldn’t ask for money until we had the final pool plan and cost,’ said Maggie Nance, the school’s swim coach. ‘Developing the business plan was huge. ‘We’re planning on community access–before and after school hours and during vacations when the high school is not using it,’ Nance said. The goal is to also have the pool open to the community on Sundays. Once the plans were finished, the cost for the pool was set at $3.5 million. Gilbert was honored at a kickoff brunch in November and donated an additional $100,000 to the project. ‘With very little asking, we’ve already raised an additional $50,000,’ Nance said. ‘We’re hoping that residents will support it whether they have kids at PaliHi or not.’ The swimming pool committee is kicking off the fundraising drive by asking the community ‘Want to dive in?’ For $500,000, one can gain naming rights for the competition pool, $350,000 for the instructional pool title, $300,00 for the pool house title, $150,000 for the scoreboard and $50,000 per swim lane. There will also be a pool-house donor board, and for $25,000 one can be on the platinum level, $10,000 for gold, $5,000 for silver and $1,000 for a Friend of the Pool. Any amount between $25 and $999 earns the designation of pool supporter. On March 26, Nance learned that the Palisades High Booster Club voted to buy a center lane for $50,000. It plans to donate $12,500 a semester for the next two years. The pool will be used for lessons during the day and swim team and water polo (a new sport) practices after school. ‘We need donations,’ Nance said. Nance is estimating that it will cost about half a million dollars a year to run the facility but that rental fees from summer camps and swim meets will cover operating costs. All donations are tax deductible. Contact Amy Held (310) 454-0611 aheld@palihigh.org or Greg Wood (310) 459-0310 gwood@palihigh.org. Donations may be sent to the attention of Greg Wood at Palisades High School 15777 Bowdoin St, Pacific Palisades. Mark the check with the notation ‘pool account.’

FRIDAY, APRIL 6 Quarterly networking breakfast for Chamber of Commerce members, hosted by the Palisades Rotary Club, 8 a.m. at Kay ?n Dave?s Cantina, 15246 Sunset. Reservations required. Call the Chamber at 459-7963 for details. Opening night of the Theatre Palisades production of ?The Hot L Baltimore,? 8 p.m. at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. Performances continue Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees. For tickets, call (310) 454-1970. SATURDAY, APRIL 7 Auditions for the next Theatre Palisades play, ?A Few Good Men,? by Aaron Sorkin, will be held today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Pierson Playhouse, 941 Haverford. MONDAY, APRIL 9 Lyn Lifshin and Karen Black will help celebrate National Poetry Month at Moonday in the Village, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. The public is invited. TUESDAY, APRIL 10 The Paul Revere Madrigals, led by Vanessa Ling, will perform at a lunch hosted by the Pacific Palisades Woman?s Club, 11:45 a.m. at the Clubhouse, 901 Haverford. Lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m. ($10 with a reservation). RSVP: Jean at 230-2792. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11 Monthly meeting of the Palisades AARP chapter, 2 p.m. in the Woman?s Club, 901 Haverford. The public is invited. THURSDAY, APRIL 12 Zohar Abronovitz, head coach of the rowing club for teenagers at the Marina Aquatic Center, will be guest speaker at the Palisades Rotary Club breakfast meeting, 7:15 a.m., Gladstone?s restaurant on PCH at Sunset. Contact: 482-2006. The United Methodist Women will host speaker Dee Dee Phelps at the group?s ?Share-a-Sandwich? luncheon, 1 p.m. in the Methodist Church lounge, 801 Via de la Paz. The former pop singer of ?Dick and Dee Dee? fame will talk about the Self-Realization Fellowship, of which she has been a member for 27 years. The public is invited. Contact: (310) 454-5529. Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting, 7 p.m., Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real. The public is invited. FRIDAY, APRIL 13 Music at St. Matthew?s features the Concord Ensemble and Piffaro Renaissance Wind Band performing music from the Bavarian Court of Albrecht V, 8 p.m. in St. Matthew?s Church, 1031 Bienveneda. Tickets at the door: $25. (See story, page 16.)

All week long Jake Robinson, nearly 6, had been reminding his mother Leslie, ‘Remember March 31, remember March 31! We have to go to Mort’s and say goodbye to everyone’it’s the last day!’ Sure enough, Jake could be found early Saturday morning at Mort’s Deli, eating breakfast at one of the restaurant’s round tables with his mother and his sister Lily, age 2. Their server was Albino Fuentes, a 15-year employee who proudly told his many well-wishers that he had landed a job at Gladstone’s down on PCH, a restaurant also owned by former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, Mort’s new owner. ‘Albino is so friendly and he remembers all the kids’ names,’ said Leslie Robinson, who has lived in the Palisades for six years. ‘This place will really be missed, but we can go to Gladstone’s; it’s a fun place for kids.’ Like many of Mort’s patrons, Robinson hoped that Riordan’s new eatery (which will return as a remodeled deli restaurant this summer, along with a revamped and remodeled Oak Room), will continue to offer a variety of soups. ‘Time and time again,’ she said, ‘if a friend was sick, this was the place we’d come by to pick up soup and drop it off.’ Numerous other patrons continued coming into Mort’s to order a final, favorite meal, and to hug owner Bobbie Farberow, who opened the deli with her husband Mort in 1974, after several years getting the business going at tiny locations on Sunset and Swarthmore. Mort died suddenly in 1999. Jacqueline Braunstein, 87, said she had been having lunch at Mort’s with a group of friends every month for more than 30 years. ‘We’d talk about everything going on with our kids and grandkids. Now our kids are bringing their own children here. I loved that continuity about Mort’s.’ Prominent businessman Steve Soboroff, who ran for mayor after Riordan retired and is a longtime Palisades resident, said he was pleased at how Farberow was able to bring off a sale of the restaurant to Riordan, a Brentwood resident who had been eating breakfast and holding meetings at Mort’s for many years. ‘What he [Riordan] did was great,’ Soboroff said. ‘Bobbie put her life into Mort’s, but without a lease, she didn’t have any value in the place.’ Fortunately, Riordan stepped up, paid Farberow for her hard-to-obtain liquor license and will now use that license to build a banquet business in the Oak Room, along with a separate area where people can gather and visit after work, order a drink, and enjoy various appetizers. ‘The sale is good for Bobbie,’ Soboroff added, ‘and I think Dick will do a good job. He cares about the community.’ At about 9 a.m., Riordan quietly entered the restaurant through the back door and got in line to order his usual breakfast: eggs over easy, bacon, rye toast, tomatoes and potatoes. He had brought in a framed photo of himself with Mort, taken out in front of the deli in 1997, to give to Bobbie. Of course, a reporter couldn’t resist asking Riordan is he intended to keep Mort’s as the name or part of the name for his new restaurant. ‘We haven’t decided yet,’ he said. ‘If I open my mouth, people will hold me to it. People say ‘Mort and Dick’s’ might be a good name, but I just don’t know yet.’

Terminal could increase smog levels in Palisades, westside

By HANS LAETZ Special to the Palisadian-Post It’s decision time for the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal proposed to be anchored 14 miles off Zuma Beach in Malibu. Five separate government bodies, plus Governor Schwarzenegger and probably President Bush, will have to act this spring if BHP Billiton is to gain permission to build its Cabrillo Port terminal and pump natural gas ashore to the California market. There have been more than three years of study, tens of millions of dollars of research, and thousands of letters, petitions, speeches and protests over the issue. And the whole matter may boil down to Monday night (April 16) in Oxnard, when a obscure three-member state agency takes testimony and then decides whether California should allow the Australian gas company to run its pipelines under an Oxnard beach in exchange for $155,000 per year in rent. The Cabrillo Port LNG project may be worth $50 billion over its 40-year lifetime to BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, and the Australian government. If approved, an aircraft-carrier-sized ship would be permanently anchored off Malibu. The specially-built ship (officially described as a ‘floating unit’) would not be visible from Pacific Palisades, but the project’s environmental studies show that significant amounts of smog generated at the proposed LNG unloading facility would blow towards Los Angeles 80 percent of the time. The ship, and its fleet of LNG carriers unloading fuel, would be visible on clear days along the coast from Pepperdine University up to Oxnard, according to environmental studies. First proposed in 2003, the Cabrillo Port project has been mired in questions from federal and state agencies about gaps and errors in the application to anchor the energy terminal in 2,900 feet of water off Leo Carrillo State Beach. City councils from Malibu, Port Hueneme and Oxnard are on record against the proposal as it is currently envisioned, as is the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (41st District). Endorsing it are several taxpayer, business and industry groups, including most local chambers of commerce in the affected area. The prospect of having three storage domes floating on the sunset horizon has most Malibu residents up in arms. Celebrities, school children and surfers have rallied against Cabrillo Port. But business interests, taxpayer-rights advocates and conservative radio-show hosts counter that the natural gas brought through Cabrillo Port would be cleaner than coal, and is needed as a bridge fossil fuel as California moves away from coal-generated power from other western states. The proposal is one of 40 or so similar plans to locate regasification plants in U.S. waters. Tankers from Russia, the Middle East and Australia are expected to begin bringing liquefied natural gas to the West Coast beginning next year, when a huge plant opens near Ensenada, Baja California. Australia’s BHP Billiton hopes to beat several other companies into business directly supplying California with natural gas, which utilities can burn for electricity. BHPB hopes to chill its natural gas from Australian waters to minus 260 degrees, ship it in condensed form across the Pacific, then regasify the superchilled product off Malibu, for sale in the Golden State. But BHP Billiton’s proposed ship would reheat the LNG by burning natural gas and diesel in large amounts, releasing an estimated 480 tons (or more) of smog-causing chemicals per year into the air. Other LNG terminals proposed for the California coast promise to use different regasification technology, and avoid nearly all of those emissions. BHP Billiton has not yet explained why Cabrillo Port can’t use a technology that doesn’t burn gas or diesel. Last week, two state agencies came out with what first appears to be diametrically opposed conclusions about Cabrillo Port. The staff at the California State Lands Commission recommended that its three-member board approve the project, because California’s need for more fossil fuels outweigh the 20 negative impacts on the state’s coast. On the same day, the state Coastal Commission staff released its analysis, which says BHP Billiton’s proposed technology will violate the Clean Air Act with hundred of tons of soot and smog annually, released just upwind of the Los Angeles air basin. ‘This, or another, LNG terminal should be able to both supply California with natural gas and meet relevant Clean Air Act requirements,’ the commission staff concludes. ‘BHP has not done so.’ The Lands Commission executive director, Paul Thayer, cautioned that the two reports should not be viewed as contradicting each other. ‘We have no authority under the Coastal Act to enforce the coastal protection laws, or under the Clean Air Act to enforce the smog laws,’ Thayer said. ‘Our recommendation should in no way be taken to be at odds with the Coastal Commission staff–each of us is looking at this project through a different set of requirements.’ A byzantine set of federal and state laws apply to Cabrillo Port, and the final chapter began last night when the federal government took public testimony in Oxnard on whether the LNG ship can be anchored and operated in federal waters. Their decision will be announced in Washington within 90 days. The State Lands Commission has set aside an entire day for testimony and a vote Monday, and a no vote there would kill the project. State Lands and the federal government have signed a compact that gives both agencies the right to reject the project, and requires both to approve for a permit. The State Lands panel is made up of Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and State Controller John Chiang, both Democrats, and state Finance Director Michael C. Genest, who represents Gov. Schwarzenegger. If the LNG plant is approved by State Lands, the Coastal Commission has reserved another whole day for testimony and a vote Thursday (April 12) in Santa Barbara. A yes vote would send Cabrillo Port to Schwarzenegger, who has the power to veto the entire project. But a rejection by the Coastal Commission would send the matter to the White House, where the Commerce Secretary can overrule the state agency’s rejection in the national interest. But lawyers said no project has ever gone down that road, which is subject to several legal challenges. Looming over that convoluted decision process is a snafu at the Environmental Protection Agency, which is under congressional investigation by Rep. Henry Waxman for its handling of Cabrillo Port. The EPA tentatively ruled in 2004 that BHP Billiton would have to follow the strict smog rules in effect in coastal Ventura County, which could have killed the project because the company would have had to buy and retire smog offsets. Ventura officials say those offsets are not available at any price in the largely nonindustrial area. The EPA mysteriously reversed course in 2005, and said Cabrillo Port would be treated as if it were an island and would not have to meet the strictest level of smog rules. Waxman said last week it appears the White House improperly intervened on BHP Billiton’s behalf. The agency has withdrawn its earlier reversal, and is now studying the matter. The Monday State Lands Commission hearing will begin at 10 a.m. at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way. The Thursday Coastal Commission hearing will be held at Fess Parker’s Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Ave., Santa Barbara. —————- Hans Laetz, a freelance writer, has been covering the Cabrillo Port project since 2003 for newspapers in Malibu.

Ruling Opens High School, Charters Statewide to Punitive Damages

The California Supreme Court has rejected Palisades Charter High School’s request to review a court decision that weakened the legal position of the school’s sexual harassment case and the legal protections of independent charter schools, their employees and their board members statewide. The California Charter Schools Association lawyer Greg Moser said the decision could be ‘devastating,’ jeopardizing the financial health of independent charters and their ability to attract and retain employees and volunteers. Independent charter schools, like PaliHi, are financially and operationally independent of school districts. The four other public schools in Pacific Palisades are not financially independent of LAUSD and are unaffected by the case. The sexual harassment case at PaliHi will now head to trial, unless the school agrees to settle out of court. The date for the trial has not yet been set. In June 2004, Dr. Thomas Knapp, the father of a 13-year-old prospective PaliHi student, filed a lawsuit against the school, charging longtime history teacher Ron Cummings with sexual harassment. Among other complaints, Knapp alleged that Cummings commented on his daughter’s breasts, humiliated her religious background and unnecessarily used sexual innuendo during the girl’s one-time visit to his AP European history class. The case was dismissed twice on technical grounds, based on the California Government Tort Claims Act (TCA). But the Second Appellate District Court reversed its previous decision after a Knapp appeal. The Supreme Court’s unwillingness to review the case means that the appellate court’s ruling stands, leaving the high school unprotected by the TCA. That law gives extensive legal protections to public entities and their employees. For example, it imposes a six-month deadline from the date an alleged act occurred for filing a claim with a public entity. Public entities have historically included the state, counties, municipalities, school districts and, until recently, independent charters like PaliHi. For non-public entities, like individuals or private corporations, the statute of limitations can be as long as two years. Projecting potentially serious consequences for state independent charters, the CCSA will pursue a legislative solution, says Moser, who petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case. He argues that because independent charter schools must take on many of the conventional burdens of local government agencies, they should be given the same legal protections. But because of the PaliHi decision, school employees and board members could now be legally liable for actions within the scope of their job. Board members who vote to expel a student or fire a teacher might now be sued for exercising their own judgment, Moser says. He fears that teachers could face a similar loss of workplace protection. As a result of the decision, the school will have to operate in a different legal environment in which it is no longer entitled to the protections of the TCA. One immediate result of the Supreme Court decision is that Knapp’s attorney, Ed Carney, will now seek additional damages from the school that were not permitted when the school was protected by the TCA. He said his client will seek punitive damages from the school and a claim for negligent supervision of Cummings. Knapp said that his daughter’s experience at the school excluded the possibility of sending her to the high-performing school. He demands the school pay for the cost of four years of private high school, which he estimates at no less than $125,000. ‘You have to believe that the school knew about this teacher’s behavior for years,’ said Carney, who hopes the lawsuit will force the school to change how it handles complaints about teachers. ‘This appeal has gone on so long, you tend to forget the underlying case. But we’re glad we’re finally going to get to take this case to a jury.’ PaliHi officials could not be reached for comment. The school is currently on spring break. Ron Cummings, who has worked at the school for more than 17 years, teaches history on a part-time basis. School officials would not say whether his part-time status was the result of Knapp’s allegations. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing did not remove his teaching credential, but it did issue a ‘public reproval,’ following Knapp’s complaints. After a school investigation in May 2005, then-principal Linda Hosford admonished the teacher for fostering an inappropriate classroom discussion and using sexual language in an ‘attempt to gain favor with your class.’ Hosford also dismissed Knapp complaints. PaliHi’s legal expenditures on this case are not known. But Cummings’ fees have been paid for by United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing almost all Pali teachers. Despite Knapp’s complaints against the teacher, many current and past students have praised the teacher for his ‘colorful lectures’ and ‘animated style.’ —————- Reporting by Staff Writer Max Taves. To contact, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.