A Program That Focuses on the Power of Parental Influence

SAY NO TO DRUGS: The Lawndale School District has formed a partnership with Cal State Dominguez Hills to implement a program designed to steer young people away from drugs and gang activity.

The program, called Community Empowerment Through Cooperation, will be aimed at educating adults on how they influence their children’s behavior.

“The target population is parents, but we’re hoping to reach the community in general,” said Jackie La Bouff, program coordinator with the Cal State Dominguez Hills foundation.

The team has received a $192,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s drug-free schools and communities office to start the program and will receive the same amount for two more years if this year is successful, La Bouff said.

SCIENCE SKILLS: Hughes Space and Communications Co. and UCLA School of Medicine have joined with the Lennox School District on a program aimed at motivating and strengthening the science skills of the district’s nearly 6,000 students.

Hughes and UCLA have pledged to support the school district in developing science and technology training to help students develop skills in those areas.

The program is designed to provide teacher support and training to create stimulating science learning environments. Parent centers will be created to help adults enhance their own science skills so they can work with their children. There will be field trips and other extracurricular activities for students.

PERSONAL BEST: More than 500 Hawthorne Intermediate School students will receive awards today for academic achievement, attitude and participation in school activities through a motivational program called Striving For My Personal Best.

Students with a grade point average between 2.0 and 4.0 will be given personalized T-shirts imprinted with the name of the program and emblems recognizing their achievements since the beginning of the school year. Emblems will be awarded for maintaining high grades, good attendance, citizenship, service to the school and for their parents’ involvement.

“Our goal is for the students to achieve a greater academic gain,” said Jose Alarcon, assistant principal. “We hope that through this program students will feel better about themselves, participate in school programs, and that they will gain a sense of school pride.”

The school received a $5,000 donation from Prime Reality in Hawthorne to purchase the shirts.

To qualify, students cannot have any “F,” “U” or “N” grades on their report cards, Alarcon said.

SMART KIDS: The brainiest students in Los Angeles County converged Saturday on the campuses of Gardena and San Gabriel high schools for the annual academic decathlon.

The decathlon is a 10-event contest in which high school juniors and seniors compete individually and in teams.

Events included tests in economics, mathematics, fine arts, English and literature, physical and biological sciences, social science, essay, speech, interview and a game-show format test called Super Quiz.

Gardena High School was the site for the Los Angeles Unified School District competition. Super Quiz was at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

From the South Bay, teams from Banning High School in Wilmington, Carson High, Gardena High, Narbonne High in Harbor City and San Pedro High were among the 55 schools that participated.

Sixty-seven high schools participated in the county competition at San Gabriel High School, including 11 from the South Bay.

The South Bay schools were Hawthorne High School, Leuzinger High in Lawndale, Inglewood and Morningside high schools in Inglewood, Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, North, South, Torrance and West high schools in Torrance and Palos Verdes Peninsula High in Rolling Hills Estates.

County finalists will be announced at awards banquets Tuesday. They will move on to a state competition in Stockton in March, and, if successful, to a national competition in Phoenix in April.

Marilyn Whirry, an English teacher at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, was chosen by Lamar Alexander, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, to be a member of the National Assessment Governing Board.

Whirry is known for her expertise in curriculum and testing and has acted as a resource to the State Department of Education and California legislature.

Her four-year term on the 24-member governing board will end Sept. 30, 1996.