Three years' worth of AP data for 4,869 school districts across the country
were examined....

By Ed Pilolla
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If your child takes the classes needed to graduate form High School then they should be eligible to go to a UC or a Cal State, right? Not necessarily.

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Schools across California are expected to plan for the worst this month. No one knows what the budget from the state will be for public schools next year.

The prediction is that hundreds of teachers statewide will be issued preliminary layoff notices by the mandatory date of March 15. Because of this unknown – the question we are all thinking -- how many teachers could we lose next year?If the governor's proposal to seek tax extensions ends up on the June ballot, school districts will not know until later that month whether they can rescind layoff notices or not. What happens if the tax extension is not approved? With the tax extensions extended, the loss to the district would be $19/student. Without the tax extension, the lost would amount to $350 per each student in the district. This amounts to funding levels from almost 10 years ago wiping away all cost of living expenses and more!

For our Redondo schools, it would mean a $2.7 million deficit. Also, this time around, there will be no federal stimulus money to help ease the red ink. Our students would experience less teachers, program elimination, larger class sizes and instructional materials not being purchased.

The time is NOW for us as parents to join forces and make a difference for our students!  How you ask? By getting the vote out and through the RBEF’s annual donor drive. One involves our inherit right as citizen’s to flex our voting power and the other is our privilege to live in a country where for $30 a month, we can afford to give our students an excellent education.

Please show your support for the tax extension vote in June and support our schools and teachers with a $360 tax deductible donation to the current donor campaign running through April 1st.  Any donation helps and supports our students!

To donate or for further information about the tax extension ballot measure, go to www.rbef.org.

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At the third annual RBEF mixer, caller "Mix, Mingle and Make A Difference" held at the Cheesecake Factory on November 18th, over 250 parents, school administrators and community were present for the announcement of the fall round of teacher grants for the 2010-11 school year.

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RedondoBeach.Patch.com

DailyBreeze.com

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Welcome back! We hope that all of the students, teachers, staff and administrators of our wonderful district had a Happy and Healthy summer. The Redondo Beach Educational Foundation (RBEF) is very pleased to have been able to help the district in bridging the gap as we presented a check for $120,000 to the district at the end of last school year to save two teachers’ positions, helping keep classroom sizes reduced this school year. We are also pleased to continue to fund the very important Safe School Ambassador program. The RBEF and the PTA have partnered together to bring the Safe School Ambassador Program to our district.

Safe School Ambassadors is a nation-wide program that harnesses student power to stop bullying and violence at our schools. Safe School Ambassadors will be at every school in our district: Elementary, Middle and High Schools. The program and its training help empower peer leaders from diverse groups on campus and equip them with nonviolent communication and intervention skills to stop bullying and violence among their peers. By reducing bullying, violence, and social mistreatment on campus, grades and attendance rates improve as well as student morale. Also, with increased good behavior, less administration time is spent on discipline, and classroom time on task is increased. RBEF believes strongly that our children need to feel safe and respected at school and that Safe School Ambassadors is a great way to create an even safer and healthier learning environment. Please ask your principals about the program; they have already seen much success at the campuses.

Lastly, please visit us at www.rbef.org. We want to thank all of you who have contributed or volunteered to RBEF to better your child’s education and we appreciate your continued support. Please tell a friend about us and let us keep the momentum going! RBEF has made a difference and will continue to make a difference with the support of our outstanding community. Look for our flyers at “Back-to-School” Night.

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Fundraisers and stimulus funds allowed RBUSD to save 16 teacher jobs this academic year.

Here's the bad news: Classroom sizes are up and supplies more limited in Redondo schools this year. The really good news: No teacher jobs were lost.

The outlook was much darker in May, when the Redondo Beach Unified School District sent layoff notices to 16 elementary school teachers to make up for a $3.6 million budget deficit. Educators, community members, parents, and students protested, held fundraisers, and pleaded passionately to members of the school board to save the jobs.

Their efforts paid  off. Every teacher pinkslipped is still working in Redondo schools.

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To parents joining RBUSD this year, RBEF is an organization made of parent and teacher volunteers who care about the quality of education in Redondo Beach.  We raise funds during the lean years to help with saving teacher positions and programming none of us want to see go away. We also raise funds during better financial times and put the money towards extras like science equipment and expanded art programs. We are your ed foundation, here to help make our schools great.

This fall we are raising funds to support our technology labs on each of our eleven campuses. You will find a flier in your Back-To-School Parent Packets where we are asking each family to donate $50. You can find more details about this on our website. Donations accepted via PayPal through our website or by check and can be dropped off in the RBEF box at each school’s office.

We love to hear from parents. Email me at brad@rbef.org with any comments or suggestions you have. And, we are always looking for volunteers to help. If you are interested in giving some time, please join our team of volunteers.

A great way to get up-to-date information about the ed foundation, and our schools is by following us on Facebook. Join our page as a supporter. And, you can also get information on our website at www.rbef.org.

Redondo Beach Educational Foundation
President & Treasurer

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