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Los Angeles Times
17-07-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
LBUSD Supt. Jason Glass aims to meet community needs, embrace technology
Jason Glass, the newly-appointed superintendent of the Laguna Beach Unified School District, refers to education as the family business. Looking back at his own path, he recited a family tree that included a Kentucky school teacher for a paternal grandmother, followed by a pair of educators for parents. Glass grew up in a small town in Brandenburg, an agricultural community along the Ohio River. 'I grew up seeing that the community would do anything for us as kids, and the school district would do anything for us as kids, as well,' Glass said. 'So that professionally has always had an impact on how I've tried to lead school the responsibility of this community and the school district to do everything it can for its children.' Glass said he has relocated to Laguna Beach with his wife, Sarah, and their two children. Norah, entering eighth grade, and Chase, heading into seventh grade, will both be attending Thurston Middle School. Most recently the associate vice president of teaching and learning at Western Michigan University, Glass was previously the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Educatio and the Iowa Director of Education. He has also served as superintendent of the Eagle County School District and Jeffco Public Schools, both in Colorado. 'I'm not new to leadership roles, but over the course of all those years, I have learned to slow down and learn a community and what it wants and values, and then build the future plan based on that,' Glass said. 'I don't come in with a playbook … and start directing people. I'm taking the time to understand this place, what are the aspirations and needs of this community, and then build our future from that, because I think it'll be much more stable.' The Laguna Beach Unified Board of Education appointed Glass as the new superintendent on June 9. Jason Viloria had held the position since 2016, until his contract was terminated in December. Jeff Dixon, formerly the district's assistant superintendent of business services, had stepped in as interim superintendent as the board carried out its search to fill the position. He has since moved into an assistant superintendent role in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Faculty and parents heard Viloria prioritize the development of the whole child in his latter years with the district. While Glass said he does not enter his new role with a playbook, he indicated that would be a focal point for him, too. School systems continue to grapple with several challenges, including those brought on by a disruption in educational and social-emotional development during the coronavirus pandemic. 'I think it will take us years to fully unravel the effects of what experiencing COVID as a young person were,' Glass said. 'We definitely have seen an increase in social-emotional and behavioral challenges, student isolation, a drop in academic performance — although that's recovering.' Glass surmised that some of the trends around student interaction were showing up before the pandemic, attributing some of those impacts to the rise of technology. Nevertheless, he is prepared to embrace it, sharing a belief that students should be prepared for the world that they will be sent out into. 'That's exactly the space that Laguna Beach has stepped into is supporting both teachers in the development of lessons that have students responsibly and ethically engage with [artificial intelligence], and students learn about what that looks like, too,' Glass said. 'As adults and as professionals, we're using it. I'm using it as a really high level sort of executive assistant to proof things, to give me concepts and ideas to think about. 'I do the work. I make the final decision. The analogy I think of is it's not driverless. … You're not giving the thing complete control, but it's driver-assisted. I'm still making the final decisions and deciding where we're going, but it's helping me out. I think that's the concept that we want students engaging with right now, too.' There is an importance to be placed on programming that results in human experiences, Glass said. He noted that social media can create 'fear of missing out at scale' because people generally post the best moments of their lives. '[Technology is] going to be all around us, even at levels that we can't even comprehend right now, but at the same time, as a school system, we've got to emphasize and create opportunities for human connections and to develop uniquely human traits,' Glass said. 'Creativity, complex problem solving, persisting through adversity, designing something new, standing and delivering a presentation or experiencing something that makes you feel … those are things that we have to intentionally design into education.' Glass said his new stomping grounds have it all. He believes Laguna Beach is a place where people get to experience 'the full palette of a vibrant life.' 'From arts and music to wonderful restaurants and the beaches and the outdoors, it's a full, rich life here,' Glass said. 'The Laguna Beach Unified School District has done a good job thinking about how they bring learning experiences from all those [areas] into schools, so that's something that I definitely want to continue and support.'
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Business Standard
27-06-2025
- Health
- Business Standard
Rural schools in US struggle as Trump admin cuts mental health grants
In parts of rural upstate New York, schools have more than 1,100 students for every mental health provider. In a far-flung region with little public transportation, those few school counsellors often are the only mental health professionals available to students. Hennessey Lustica has been overseeing grant-funded efforts to train and hire more school psychologists, counsellors and social workers in the Finger Lakes region, but those efforts may soon come to end a casualty of the Trump administration's decision to cancel school mental health grants around the country. Cutting this funding is just going to devastate kids, said Lustica, project director of the Wellness Workforce Collaborative in the Seneca Falls Central School District. The workforce that we're developing, just in my 21 school districts it's over 20,000 kids that are going to be impacted by this and not have the mental health support that they need. The $1 billion in grants for school-based mental health programs were part of a sweeping gun violence bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The grants were meant to help schools hire more psychologists, counsellors and other mental health workers, especially in rural areas. Under the Biden administration, the department prioritised applicants who showed how they would increase the number of providers from diverse backgrounds, or from communities directly served by the school district. But President Donald Trump's administration took issue with aspects of the grant programmes that touched on race, saying they were harmful to students. We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students' mental health, Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said. School districts around the US cut off training and retention programmes Lustica learned of her grant's cancellation in April in a two-page letter from the Education Department, which said the government found that her work violated civil rights law. It did not specify how. Lustica is planning to appeal the decision. She rejected the letter's characterisation of her work, saying she and her colleagues abide by a code of ethics that honours each person's individuality, regardless of race, gender or identity. The rhetoric is just false, Lustica said. I don't know how else to say it. I think if you looked at these programmes and looked at the impact that these programs have in our rural school districts, and the stories that kids will tell you about the mental health professionals that are in their schools, it has helped them because of this programme. The grants supported programmes in districts across the country. In California, West Contra Costa Unified School District will lose nearly $4 million in funding. In Alabama, Birmingham City Schools was notified it would not receive the rest of a $15 million grant it was using to train, hire and retain mental health staff. In Wisconsin, the state's Department of Public Instruction will lose $8 million allocated for the next four years. The state had used the money to boost retention and expand programmes to encourage high schoolers to pursue careers in school-based mental health. At a time when communities are urgently asking for help serving mental health needs, this decision is indefensible, state superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement. In recent House and Senate hearings, Democrats pressed Education Secretary Linda McMahon on the end of the grants and the impact on students. McMahon told them mental health is a priority and the grants would be rebid and reissued. Anyone who works or spends time with kids knows these grants were funding desperately needed access to mental health care services, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said in a statement. Cancelling the funding now is a cruel, reckless act that puts millions of children at risk. Grant programmes put more mental health specialists in schools The strains on youth mental health are acute in many rural school districts. In one upstate New York district, half the students have had to move due to economic hardship in the last five years, creating instability that can affect their mental health, Lustica said. In a survey of students from sixth through 12th grade in one county, nearly half reported feeling sad or depressed most of the time; one in three said their lives lacked clear purpose or meaning. We've got huge amounts of depression, huge amounts of anxiety, lots of trauma and not enough providers, Lustica said. School is the place where kids are getting a lot of the services they need. Some families in the region are unable to afford private counselling or are unable to get their children to appointments given transportation challenges, said Danielle Legg, a graduate student who did an internship as a school social worker with funding from the grant programme. Their access to mental health care truly is limited to when they're in school and there's a provider there that can see them, and it's vital, Legg said. In the past three years, 176 students completed their mental health training through the programme Lustica oversees, and 85 per cent of them were hired into shortage areas, she said. The programme that offered training to graduate students at schools helped address staffing needs and inspired many to pursue careers in educational settings, said Susan McGowan, a school social worker who supervised graduate students in Geneva City School District. It just feels, to me, really catastrophic, McGowan said of the grant cancellation. These positions are difficult to fill, so when you get grad students who are willing to work hand in hand with other professionals in their building, you're actually building your capacity as far as staffing goes and you're supporting teachers. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
10-06-2025
- Politics
Los Angeles' image is scuffed since ICE raids and protests
LOS ANGELES -- This isn't the image Los Angeles wanted projected around the globe. Clouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words between President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal detention center building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds. In a city still reeling from January's deadly wildfires — and with the World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon — Mayor Karen Bass has been urging residents to come together to revitalize LA's image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far. 'It's about pride,' she's said. 'This is the city of dreams.' Instead, a less flattering side of Los Angeles has been broadcast to the world in recent days. Protests have mostly taken place in a small swath of downtown in the sprawling city of 4 million people. As Trump has activated nearly 5,000 troops to respond in the city, Bass has staunchly pushed back against his assertions that her city is overrun and in crisis. Bass, in response to Trump, said she was troubled by depictions that the city has been 'invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals, and that now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming our federal agents. I don't know if anybody has seen that happen, but I've not seen that happen.' The series of protests began Friday outside a federal detention center, where demonstrators demanded the release of more than 40 people arrested by federal immigration authorities. Immigration advocates say the people who were detained do not have criminal histories and are being denied their due process rights. Much like New York, Los Angeles is an international city that many immigrants call home. The city's official seal carries images referencing the region's time under Spanish and Mexican rule. Over 150 languages are spoken by students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. About half of the city's residents are Latino and about one-third were born outside the U.S. Bass faulted the Trump administration for creating "a chaotic escalation' by mobilizing troops to quell protests. "This is the last thing that our city needs," Bass said. Los Angeles resident Adam Lerman, who has attended the protests, warned that protests would continue if the Trump administration pushes more raids in the city. 'We are talking about a new riot every day,' Lerman said. 'Everybody knows they are playing with fire." It's not the publicity LA needs as it looks to welcome the world for international sporting events on a grand scale. 'At this stage in the process, most host cities and countries would be putting the final touches on their mega-event red carpet, demonstrating to the world that they are ready to embrace visitors with open arms,' said Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University professor who has written widely on the political and economic impacts of the Olympic Games. The scenes of conflict are 'not exactly the best way to entice the world to plan their next tourist trip to the U.S. to watch a sports mega-event.' The federal raids and protests have created another dicey political moment for Bass, who has been struggling with a budget crisis while trying to recover from political fallout from the wildfires that ignited when she was out of the country. She's been careful not to discourage protests but at the same time has pleaded for residents to remain peaceful. The mayor will likely face backlash for involving the Los Angeles Police. And she needs to fight the perception that the city is unsafe and disorderly, an image fostered by Trump, who in social media posts has depicted Bass as incompetent and said the city has been 'invaded' by people who entered the U.S. illegally. Los Angeles is sprawling — roughly 470 square miles (750 square kilometers) — and the protests were mostly concentrated downtown. "The most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful," Bass said. 'I don't want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the (Trump) administration.' On Monday, workers were clearing debris and broken glass from sidewalks and power-washing graffiti from buildings — among the structures vandalized was the one-time home of the Los Angeles Times across the street from City Hall. Downtown has yet to bounce back since long-running pandemic lockdowns, which reordered work life and left many office towers with high vacancy rates. Trump and California officials continued to spar online and off, faulting each other for the fallout. At the White House, Trump criticized California leaders by saying 'they were afraid of doing anything' and signaled he would support Newsom's arrest over his handling of the immigration protests. If Los Angeles' image was once defined by its balmy Mediterranean climate and the glamor of Hollywood, it's now known 'primarily for disaster,' said Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney. 'A lot of perception depends on images," Pitney added. Right now, the dominant image "is a burning Waymo.'
Boston Globe
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Los Angeles' image is scuffed since ICE raids and protests, with World Cup and Olympics on horizon
Advertisement 'It's about pride,' she's said. 'This is the city of dreams.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Instead, a less flattering side of Los Angeles has been broadcast to the world in recent days. Protests have mostly taken place in a small swath of downtown in the sprawling city of 4 million people. As Trump has activated nearly 5,000 troops to respond in the city, Bass has staunchly pushed back against his assertions that her city is overrun and in crisis. Bass, in response to Trump, said she was troubled by depictions that the city has been 'invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals, and that now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming our federal agents. I don't know if anybody has seen that happen, but I've not seen that happen.' Advertisement The series of protests began Friday outside a federal detention center, where demonstrators demanded the release of more than 40 people arrested by federal immigration authorities. Immigration advocates say the people who were detained do not have criminal histories and are being denied their due process rights. An international city Much like New York, Los Angeles is an international city that many immigrants call home. The city's official seal carries images referencing the region's time under Spanish and Mexican rule. Over 150 languages are spoken by students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. About half of the city's residents are Latino and about one-third were born outside the U.S. Bass faulted the Trump administration for creating 'a chaotic escalation' by mobilizing troops to quell protests. 'This is the last thing that our city needs,' Bass said. Los Angeles resident Adam Lerman, who has attended the protests, warned that protests would continue if the Trump administration pushes more raids in the city. 'We are talking about a new riot every day,' Lerman said. 'Everybody knows they are playing with fire." It's not the publicity LA needs as it looks to welcome the world for international sporting events on a grand scale. 'At this stage in the process, most host cities and countries would be putting the final touches on their mega-event red carpet, demonstrating to the world that they are ready to embrace visitors with open arms,' said Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University professor who has written widely on the political and economic impacts of the Olympic Games. The scenes of conflict are 'not exactly the best way to entice the world to plan their next tourist trip to the U.S. to watch a sports mega-event.' Advertisement A mayor under pressure The federal raids and protests have created another dicey political moment for Bass, who has been struggling with a budget crisis while trying to recover from political fallout from the wildfires that ignited when she was out of the country. She's been careful not to discourage protests but at the same time has pleaded for residents to remain peaceful. The mayor will likely face backlash for involving the Los Angeles Police. And she needs to fight the perception that the city is unsafe and disorderly, an image fostered by Trump, who in social media posts has depicted Bass as incompetent and said the city has been 'invaded' by people who entered the U.S. illegally. Los Angeles is sprawling — roughly 470 square miles (750 square kilometers) — and the protests were mostly concentrated downtown. 'The most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful,' Bass said. 'I don't want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the (Trump) administration.' On Monday, workers were clearing debris and broken glass from sidewalks and power-washing graffiti from buildings — among the structures vandalized was the one-time home of the Los Angeles Times across the street from City Hall. Downtown has yet to bounce back since long-running pandemic lockdowns, which reordered work life and left many office towers with high vacancy rates. Trump and California officials continued to spar online and off, faulting each other for the fallout. At the White House, Trump criticized California leaders by saying 'they were afraid of doing anything' and signaled he would support Newsom's arrest over his handling of the immigration protests. Advertisement If Los Angeles' image was once defined by its balmy Mediterranean climate and the glamor of Hollywood, it's now known 'primarily for disaster,' said Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney. 'A lot of perception depends on images,' Pitney added. Right now, the dominant image 'is a burning Waymo.' Associated Press writer Jason Dearen contributed.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lack of parking makes flying out of SLO dicey
I am very glad to have our San Luis Obispo airport become busier, adding more flight options. However, the parking availability has not kept up with the passenger growth. Recently, my wife had a 6 a.m. flight and arrived at 5 a.m. to find all the four parking lots already full! She drove around and finally found someone pulling out of a space, but was by then nearly late for her flight. Are there plans for more parking at SBP? Please expedite! Ed Cox Nipomo Thank you for covering events at our school boards on the transgender rights front, educating the public on our laws, the economic impacts and how federal and state governments work. Conservative Christians have misled the public into believing that a female athlete's right to safety was violated when the opposite is true. They have gotten away with this because it has been a long time since we were inside a school locker room. We assume they are like they were when we were in school; one open room with lockers in rows. No privacy for anyone. No adults around if someone bullied or shamed you. Time to pull the curtains back and let the public see the facilities at AG high. The public needs to meet the adults who are present in these spaces protecting our kids. We need to hear more about current policies and staff members already in place who support all students having both access and safety. I hope that's The Tribune's next Reality Check. We can't have a community-based discussion on protecting our kids without all the facts. Jennifer Stover Founder of Caring Adults of Lucia Mar, C.A.L.M. My husband and I moved to SLO a couple of years ago. We were lured in by the beauty of the area and the kindness of the people. Now I am starting to wonder if that's a facade, given the hateful and intolerant discussions at the Lucia Mar Unified School District and the recent decision by the Morro Bay City Council to allow hatred to permeate a town we used to visit weekly. When we moved here, the Nazis, apparently from another county, were spreading their racist ideology, and it was wonderful to band with others to stand against them. Now a number of local residents seems to be more aligned with a racist, misogynistic president than the laws that have been laid down by California. As someone who grew up in Texas, I never imagined I would find this repugnant reminder of the home I wanted to escape from here on the Central Coast of California. I am hopeful that stores in these communities will have Pride and transgender flags year-round so those of us who believe in justice, compassion and human decency can shop with a conscience. Lauren Ornelas San Luis Obispo Currently the federal government spends about $7 trillion a year but only takes in about $5 trillion, thus going into deficit by about $2 trillion. The really bad thing is that this deficit has been added to for decades and is now reaching an astounding national debt of $37 trillion dollars. That $37 trillion is borrowed dollars that we pay interest on to the tune of nearly $2 trillion a year. So, we've been spending money for government programs and services that we could never quite afford. I may not like it, but I understand that the Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress feel the need to cut back and save. What I can't excuse is that, while cutting programs that benefit the poor, they are reducing taxes to benefit their supporters. And here's the kicker: The Republican's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill will actually be making the deficit worse not better. Frank Merrill Morro Bay The Martin Luther King Jr. High School Memorial Scholarship Fund, now in its 56th, year honored 16 high school seniors with scholarships that will support them as their pursue their dreams. Their possibilities are limitless, thanks to our community's generosity. Mary Matakovich, board president San Luis Obispo I've been driving an electric car for almost 10 years, and love it. But sales of EVs in California are not rising fast enough to reach our goals. Surveys say that the primary reason people don't buy an EV is 'range anxiety.' But having gone 10 years down the EV road, my range anxiety is now almost non-existent. Why? High-speed chargers are ubiquitous across California. Tesla has placed superchargers about 100 miles apart on major highways, and by the end of this year, nearly all EVs will be able to charge at many of the Tesla charging stations. Furthermore, Electrify America and ChargePoint are working to place chargers every 30-50 miles apart on major highways. True, it takes a bit longer to charge my battery (20 minutes) than to fill up a gas tank, but honestly, I appreciate the extra time. It gives me a chance to stretch my legs, walk around, maybe have a bite to eat. I also feel better about spewing less pollution and carbon dioxide into the air, while I save significant money on fuel and maintenance. So let your range anxiety chill out; we're living in an EV-friendly world now. Don Gaede San Luis Obispo
