Seventeen Los Angeles Unified School District teachers...

Seventeen Los Angeles Unified School District teachers in the Southeast area have received grants averaging $400 from the privately funded Los Angeles Educational Partnership. The grants, intended to promote innovative educational programs, are among 257 awarded by a panel of educators, business people and community leaders from more than 600 applications.

Grant recipients in the Southeast area were Judith Ann Teeple of Corona Avenue School in Bell, Cherre M. McKnight of Fishburn Avenue School in Maywood, Glenda L. Blake of Loma Vista Avenue Elementary School in Maywood, Irma Gamboa-Hammond of Miles Avenue School in Huntington Park, Dale D. Buboltz, Sara Jackson, Marie Ragland Lazore and Muriel P. Ralph of South Gate Junior High School, Jacqueline A. Bowers of Vernon City School in Los Angeles, Larry Abee, Grace M. Coleman, Manuel Parra Jr., Max Putz, Susan E. Schoettler and Betty M. Simon of Bell High School, Barbara F. Barnett of Huntington Park High School and Shirley J. Shelley of South Gate High School.

The Olympian Greek Folk Dancers, founded in 1970 by Colleen Papadakis of Signal Hill and directed by John Basdakis of Long Beach, won the gold medal and top costume awards this month at the Greek Folk Dance Festival in Oakland.

The group’s junior dancers, directed by Dina Basdakis, received the silver medal in the intermediate category. The dance group won the sweepstakes award for highest total score in last year’s competition and was ineligible for sweepstakes honors this year.

Students at California High School in Whittier took a first-place award for their performance of “Voices From the High School,� at a theater festival sponsored by the Southern California Educational Theatre Assn. at Occidental College. California High student John De Fer was named best actor at the festival, and Chris Maxwell and Lisa Garcia received certificates of recognition.

Edward Quesada has been named adult education and job training program administrator for the Paramount Unified School District.

Quesada, 41, was an administrator with the Orange County Department of Education for seven years. He served as the chief administrator for the department’s regional occupation program. He is a former counselor at Saddleback High School and former coordinator for the Santa Ana Unified School District occupational program .

Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne) has announced the names of his nominees to the U.S. military academies. Neal Cook of La Mirada has been nominated to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Herbert Cook of La Mirada and Eduardo Martinez, Stewart Mattson and Mark Thomas, all of Whittier, have been nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and Allen Pollrich of La Mirada has been nominated to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, N.Y.

Ora Blackman, a resource specialist at Alondra Intermediate School in Paramount, has been chosen as the outstanding teacher in the mid-cities school districts by Chapter 563 of the Council of Exceptional Children.

Paul Leung, principal engineer in Bechtel Power Corp.’s Norwalk office, has been honored by being named a Bechtel Fellow. He is one of four Bechtel employees recognized by the new program, which is an effort to honor superior performance. Leung, a 31-year Bechtel veteran, has played a key role in planning the expansion of electrical power systems in developing nations, including Korea, Mexico and China.

Rick D. Sanchez of Downey is serving as a member of the Southern California Gas Co.’s Hispanic Community Advisory Panel.