MVHS Alum Is UCLA Athlete Of The Week

    MVHS  alum  Tess  Schofield,  now  a  senior  at UCLA, was named UCLA Student Athlete of the Week for March 9-15 according to UCLA Swimming.  Tess is a tower diver.  She was selected over athlete nominees from other sports, including baseball, gymnastics, track & field, basketball, golf, and water polo.

    She will compete in the NCAA Championships this week, after qualifying by winning the tower event at the NCAA Zone E Championships.  It was Schofield’s second win at Zone E, where she took the only individual title for the Bruins.

    At Mission High Tess compiled an impressive resume: Four-year letterwinner; 2005 first-team All-American; Two-time All-American;  Two-time South Coast League Champion (’04, ’05); 2005 CIF Division I runner-up; Two-time team captain; 2003 South Coast League runner-up; Four-time Scholar-athlete; Eight-time Jr. National Qualifier and three-time US Senior National Qualifier for the Crown Valley Divers.

    Schofield is the daughter of Charles and Sharon Schofield.  She is majoring in Communications Studies at UCLA. [UCLA Swim Photo]

Read Full Post »

Letter: Double Standard Disgusting

I can’t believe that they [City Council] suggested that SVUSD teacher pay should be cut by 4% while Ury, MacLean and Kelley recently voted to double their City pay and provide themselves lifetime medical benefits for a part time commitment. That is disgusting! Who are these leaders? They should be ashamed of themselves. We need them out ASAP!

Jill Young

Read Full Post »

Trabuco High Junior Honor Roll

     Trabuco High today announced the following 143 Juniors achieved the Principal’s Honor Roll for the first semester with grade averages over 3.75: 

Namrata Abhyankar, Haddy Alas, Jake Anderson, Alex Archibeque, Kailee Armstrong, Madina Azizi, Shinhwa Baek, Timothy Baker, Daniel Baldonado, Andrew Barretto, Patrick Beason, Andrew Berg, Allison Bieda, Kaley Brouwer, Peter Buchowiecki, Danielle Buckner, Kristin Burger, Tiffany Charters, Jeremy Chao, Li-Chang Chen, Melissa Christiansen, Herbert Cofer III, Kathrina Consing, Caleb Constable, Lake Copeland, Ashley Crumpler, Dylan Dabasinskas, Charlene Dahlstrom, Eric De Jesus, Alanna Denton, Jessica Dix, David Dompas, Kasie Dorr, Kevin Driscoll, Scott Ebel, Erika Eckermann, Maureen Erwin, Megaira Escobar, Renee Estrada, Brandon Evans, Stephanie Faber, Grant Fjastad, Tanya Flink, Kamilah Foley, Alexander Froloff, Lauren Garcia, Amanda Gaska, Aubrey Georgianni, Trenton Grabowski, Josiah Grepo, Robert Grepo, Carolyn Griner, Rahil Haneef, Paniz Hayati Rezvan, Kayla Heaviside, Asma Hussain, Alexander Im, Learon Inbar, Tanay Jain, Jorge Jimenez, Gina Jue, Adam Johnson, Rachel Ker, Timothy Kilfoy, Ester Kim, Paul Kim, Harley Kimbril, Christian Kodsi, Hillary Lam, Jerry Lan, Alexander Le, Amanda Lee, Amy Linzmeier, Steven Lo, Anastasia Lobanova, Victoria Lopez, Kaitlyn Luxton, Alexandra Marten, Allison Martin, Nicholas Marais, Caleb Matulis, Stephen Matz, Tess McCarthy, Alexandria McKim, Bo Meng, Molly Miller, Samantha Morohashi, Kristen Mulder, Brittani Nagy, Dip Naik, Pallavi Nair, Andrew Nguyen, Daniel Nguyen, Travis Nguyen, Vyonne Nguyen, Emilie No, Allison Oh, Katrina Otto, Tarun Patel, Brandon Pereira, Teresa Pho, Tyler Pickell, Louie Rael III, Shiva Ramamurthi, Tristan Ramberg, Stephanie Raymundo, Ryan Robinson, Allison Rodriguez, Mikayla Rondeau, Chad Rozean, Hillary Rush, Zachary Russell, Tanner Sabako, Kevin Salgado, Joshua Scherer, Maria Gabriele Schuessler, Daniel Schwerdtfeger, Tong Seo, Jayaram Sherikar, Irene Shin, Solveig Siem, Megan Simone, Makenna Smith, Han Na Song, Alexa Stephenson, Nigel Stockdale, Elizabeth Sugawara, Amanda Summers, Kristyn Summers, Lauren Sunyich, Anh Tran, Tori Tveit, Rebecca Walsh, Jessica Walters, Erin Wenzel, Keenan Wiles, Katherine Williams, Andrew Wolff, Shannon Wongvibulsin, Heather Wormmeester, Derek Yano, and Maria Zhou

Read Full Post »

Mission High Supports TOMS

Founder Blake Mycoskie

    TOMS Shoes has a cause.  For every pair sold, it sends a free pair of shoes to needy children overseas.   In the last three years it delivered over 200,000 pairs to South America and Africa.

    On Friday MVHS hosted a TOMS event, and 61 pairs of shoes were purchased to support the cause. TOMS shoes are a slip-on design made of lightweight fabrics and vibrant colors and prints. 

     The shoes are available at Nordstroms in The Shops at Mission Viejo.

Read Full Post »

Biz Consultant Dismissed

    A hasty plan by Deputy City Manager Karen Wylie and Councilmembers Kelley and MacLean was ‘returned to sender’ by the rest of the Council last night.  The proposal was to hire a business consultant to prepare a $70,000 study of Mission Viejo’s business environment, arguably to help attract new businesses to the City.

    It appeared from the original agenda that the suggested consultant, the Buxton Company from Texas, would not make a presentation.  A Buxton representative did attend, however, engaging in a 45-minute dialogue with the Council, including providing a Powerpoint video. 

    During the discussion it became increasingly clear that a beneficial, quantifiable result from such a study could not be adequately defined.  Even Kelley, who originally advocated the consultant, agreed the idea was not ready to proceed.  She acknowledged the City could not replace the landlord-tenant relationship which is the foundation for attracting and retaining successful businesses.

    Karen Wylie admitted the no-bid proposal was rushed to the Council in an attempt to prepare for a Retail Convention in Las Vegas in May.   The Council felt that was an inadequate justification. 

    The Buxton representative was politely dismissed without any motion or action from the Council.  The matter was sent back to the Council’s Economic Development Subcommittee.  It’s members are Kelley and MacLean.

Read Full Post »

Council Rejects O’Neill School Families

    Last night four council members turned a cold shoulder to parents who were appealling for city help to prevent the closure of O’Neill Elementary School.  The families were turned away with hollow sympathy and a meaningless gesture by the council to write a letter to the SVUSD board.

    Admittedly it isn’t the ideal policy for cities to cross into the separate jurisdiction of schools.  But that wasn’t the issue, because the Council already crossed over years ago.  It pays for school police, crossing guards, and afterschool day care programs.  The five school officers cost MV over $200,000 each, for a total exceeding $1 million.

    The City Attorney explained courts give cities broad latitude to make expenditures to other agencies as long as it is for a city purpose.  In the O’Neill situation a host of city issues are available including preserving neighborhood character, preventing additional traffic from school reassignments, concern about the future use of abandoned school property, effects on home values, well-being of children, etc.

    Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht tried to save O’Neill by proposing that two of the five police officers assigned to schools be eliminated from the city budget, still leaving all three high schools with an officer.  That would free $400,000 that could be transferred to saving O’Neill.  SVUSD is planning to close O’Neill to save $500,000. 

    Schlicht pointed out many cities have only one officer to serve all schools, and MV is already California’s safest city.  She also noted the Capo and SVUSD do not assign enough priority to school officers to fund them from the District budgets.  Cathy also suggested security personnel could be hired for far less than $200,000 per person.

    Frank Ury and Lance MacLean simply ranted against SVUSD, telling parents the District should cut teachers pay by 4%.  It was ironic considering Ury, MacLean and Kelley recently voted to double their City pay and provide themselves lifetime medical benefits after serving part-time for twelve years.  Schlicht said the salary suggestion was a cop-out.

    Mayor Ury and Councilman MacLean tried to find a way to channel the issue into a closed session meeting, but Cathy Schlicht challenged the council to deal with the matter openly.

    MacLean and Ledesma went down a strange trail asking the City Attorney if MV could bring a lawsuit against SVUSD.  Both voted against a letter of support for  O’Neill a few months ago. Schlicht stated litigation wasn’t the answer, saying the City simply needed to reprioritize some funds already used by the city for school services, and then sit down with SVUSD officials to discuss a solution.

    O’Neill parents went to the public podium explaining the loss of their school would have an adverse effect on the entire Deane Homes neighborhood.  One mother described how her children would be sent to a school in another city (RSM), while friends would be scattered among three other schools.  A father told the council that parents needed O’Neill to remain open at least one more year to provide time to achieve a solution.  Another speaker cited the long list of O’Neill awards and commendations from the nation and state for outstanding educational results provided by Mission Viejo’s first school.

    At the end of the night Schlicht’s proposal was rejected, and parents left the meeting with nothing but empty rhetoric from the other council members.  The council voted to send a letter of support for O’Neill to SVUSD Trustees, admitting it was a weak gesture.  The letter, including the suggestion for a 4% teacher pay cut for one year, will go to Trustees, administrators, teachers, and teachers’ union.

    Ledesma pointed out the pay cut suggestion “would not be well received” by the SVUSD, but the Council majority was not apparently seeking a constructive relationship, because they turned down Schlichts’ request to ask SVUSD for a meeting.  Ury, a former SVUSD Trustee, and MacLean seemed to be confronting the School District. 

Read Full Post »