The Oxnard School District moved a step closer Wednesday to finding a new superintendent, choosing a search firm to help recruit candidates.
Trustees voted unanimously to enter into negotiations with Leadership Associates of Mission Viejo. They appointed board President Ernie Morrison and Trustee Ana Del Rio-Barba to negotiate a contract with the search company.
“I just felt it was a search firm that would be able to bring us from the beginning to a closure in a reasonable amount of time,” Morrison said. With its help, he thinks the district can find a superintendent for the long term, he told trustees.
Former superintendent Anthony Monreal started the job in July 2009. He had a four-year contract but was put on paid leave by the school board in February 2010 without explanation. Trustees have said they cannot discuss personnel issues, citing confidentiality rules.
Monreal retired from the district effective June 30, 2010, and under a settlement reached that month, the district agreed to pay him $116,600.
Oxnard trustees hired Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to conduct a national search before hiring Monreal.
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Tags: Find, Find Next
Akron schoolchildren diagnosed with head lice may soon be able to return to school as early as the day after treatment, even if lice eggs remain in the hair.
The district now keeps students out of school until all the eggs, known as nits, have been removed.
The Akron school board heard the first of three readings of a policy on Monday that would allow children to return to school even if they have nits.
The Summit County Health Department recommends that students with head lice stay home until after treatment with a medicated shampoo and all nits are removed.
But the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses discourage ”no nits” policies because they’re not necessary to prevent the spread of head lice and they keep otherwise healthy kids out of school too long.
The AAP () reports anecdotal evidence of some kids missing weeks of school because of such policies — some miss so much they have to repeat a grade.
”However, most researchers agree that no-nit policies should be abandoned,” according to the AAP’s head lice policy, which was last updated in August. ‘
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Tags: Lice, Lice Policies
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A House panel has approved plans to merge the state Museum Commission and the Arts Commission into the state’s parks agency.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper said Tuesday the move will save about $500,000. The measure now moves to the House floor for debate.
The reduced spending would come from a combination of savings on rent and utilities as well as cutting management jobs.
The $5.3 billion spending plan the House approved last month called for merging the two agencies into the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
Gov. Nikki Haley has told lawmakers that no more taxpayer money should go into the Arts Commission.
Tags: House Panel, Museum
CLEMSON, S.C. — A Clemson University group is using origami to help out in the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami.
A group called Acts of Campus Kindness is holding a daylong origami folding event Wednesday at R.M. Cooper Library. The event raises money for Architects for Humanity, an organization currently working to support rebuilding efforts in Japan.
Through the day, students can come by and make an origami crane. For each paper crane folded that day, Students Rebuild and DoSomething.org have agreed to donate $2 to Architects for Humanity.
Organizers say the event is part of undergraduate student government’s first-ever week of service.
Tags: Tsunami, Tsunami Victims
LAKEWOOD, Colorado — Police in suburban Denver are defending their use of pepper spray on an 8-year-old boy they say was throwing a violent tantrum at school.
Denver’s KUSA-TV reported Tuesday that the boy had been spitting and cursing at teachers Feb. 22 at Glennon Heights Elementary in Lakewood. He was also allegedly trying to stab them with wood trim he had broken from the walls.
Police say they pepper-sprayed the boy twice after he refused to drop the wood, then handcuffed him.
His mother says police had been called about her son twice before and should have handled the situation differently. Police say it was the safest option.
The boy has been transferred to a school for children with behavioral problems.
Tags: Boy, Pepperspray Misbehaving