In addition to TCUSD courses, secondary students may also attend English Learner classrooms through Pasadena City College.  For more information about TCUSD’s English Language Development Program, please contact the District’s Educational Services Office at 626-548-5000.

Lynne Burkardt
Temple City Unified School District
Public Information Officer Telephone:  626-548-5120 Fax:  626-548-5022
E-Mail:  lburkardt@tcusd.net

Temple City Schools Foundation’s Volunteer Recruitment Campaign

Temple City is the latest in a growing list of California communities that have created non-profit foundations for the express purpose of raising money to help support their local school district. 

The Temple City Schools Foundation, established by a group of dedicated volunteers in 2002, exists to preserve quality programs and create opportunities for the students of the Temple City Unified School District.  It is an organization entirely independent from the Board of Education and District Administration. 

The Foundation has already raised and distributed funds to support numerous projects in the District, including $7,000 for the Temple City High School Band to support their participation in the 2004 Rose Parade, $8,000 for the informational electronic marquee at the High School, and over $21,000 for teacher mini-grants in grades Kindergarten through twelve.  Other financial support has been given to groups ranging from Peer Listening to Aquatics, as well as for the purchase of a defibrillator training unit.

Excellent schools are a key asset of the Temple City community.  Many residents moved here because of the quality schools, and even those without students in school know how important schools are to property values and maintaining the community’s quality of life.  With continuing cuts in governmental educational funding, local foundations have become an increasingly essential component of maintaining a distinguished district.  The Temple City Unified School District is a “High Performing District” according to State criteria and an “Outperforming School District” according to Standard & Poor’s.

The Temple City Schools Foundation welcomes your involvement.  Please contact them at 548-5029, or visit their website at www.tcschoolsfoundation.org

Temple City Unified School District

TCUSD Guidance Programs Receive Awards

TCUSD is one of only two school districts in the State of California that submitted Support Personnel Accountability Report Cards (SPARC’s) for all schools in their  District.    For Temple City, this means all seven schools (Cloverly Elementary School, Emperor Elementary School, La Rosa Elementary School, Longden Elementary School, Oak Avenue Intermediate School, Temple City High School, and the Community Learning Center) submitted SPARC’s for award consideration.

The SPARC, as it is commonly known, is a public document modeled after the School Accountability Report Card (SARC) that schools nationwide complete annually.  The SPARC shows continued improvement and dedication to results in student support services and also gives school counseling programs an opportunity to spotlight student outcomes based on collaborative efforts between school staff, families, volunteers, and the community.

The SPARC integrates the National Standards for School Counseling Programs.  Award-winning support programs must show positive student results in academic, personal/social, and career domains.  The SPARC was developed five years ago by the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Guidance Advisory Council.  This group is composed of counselors, counselor educators, administrators, and consultants from the State Department of Education.

There are ten required sections to the SPARC that include:  school safety, student results, major achievements, measurements, community partnerships, focus for improvement, and volunteer involvement.  Each section is graded by trained practitioners, using a strict rubric.  To receive an award, a SPARC must have at least 22 points out of a possible 33.

TCUSD is pleased to congratulate and recognize all seven schools for receiving awards!

La Rosa Elementary School and Cloverly Elementary School received commendations. 

The Community Learning Center, Temple City High School, and Emperor Elementary School received Academy Awards. 

Oak received its second Best in the West award and was one of only five middle schools in Los Angeles County and eight in the entire State to receive this award.

Longden Elementary School was the only elementary school in the entire State to receive a Best in the West Award.

Schools that have previously received two or three Academy Awards are eligible to receive Best in the West Awards.  Each SPARC which received 30 points or more will be sent to the State Legislature and that includes the SPARC’s from both Longden and Oak.

TCUSD is a State-wide leader in its dedication to results-based comprehensive guidance and providing support services for elementary through high school students and their families.  For the past five years, Temple City USD's Student Support Services has consistently demonstrated the ability to implement the National Standards for School Counseling Programs by the development and publication of a SPARC.     

This exemplary work makes school counseling and all student support services credible and integral to student academic success and safety at our school sites.

Congratulations, District Guidance Team!

Front Row:  Katharine Maurey, Benita Cruz, Johnny Wang

Second Row:  Kenneth Trang (kneeling), Brianna Ascanio-Moreno, Brianna Ramirez, Josette Temple (seated), Joshua Sanchez, Frank Monforte, Leial Fakhro
Back Row:  Mary Suzuki, Principal, La Rosa Elementary School;
Linda Jo Pyle, Century 21 Adams & Barnes;
Dr. Joan Hillard, Superintendent, Temple City Unified School District

Thanks to local realtor, Linda Jo Pyle, all seven schools in the Temple City Unified School District will have a piece of Temple City history - individual school copies of the Gentle Artist of the San Gabriel Valley, written by Josette Laura Temple and Laura W. Brundige. 

Ms. Pyle presented copies of the Gentle Artist of the San Gabriel Valley to Temple City Schools Superintendent, Dr. Joan C. Hillard, and La Rosa Elementary School Principal, Mary Suzuki.  Also in attendance, Josette Temple was pleased and honored to be a part of the presentation at the La Rosa library. 

The Gentle Artist of the San Gabriel Valley was Walter P. Temple, a man whose vast and extended family helped found and build the towns of the San Gabriel Valley. In this heartwarming book, Ms. Temple reminisces about her father, her family, his work, and the valley in which she has lived her entire life. 

What makes this book so moving and special is the beautiful artwork of Walter Temple.  Temple began painting in earnest in his sixties when he realized how much was changing and how much was being destroyed in his cherished valley.  Only by preserving and recording its beauty could he share this place with future generations to understand and appreciate.  It is Walter’s artwork that preserves the landscape, the architecture, and a bygone lifestyle. 

The book also shares stories about Walter’s father, the founder of Temple City, and his family who were the First Families of the area—going back to the mid-1800’s. 

Walter Temple’s daughter, Josette Laura Temple, wrote this endearing book as a tribute to a place, a time, and above all, a beloved father.

Photo Caption:  Josette Laura Temple, co-author, of the Gentle Artist of the San Gabriel Valley, autographs books for each school in the Temple City Unified School District (Cloverly Elementary School, Emperor Elementary School, La Rosa Elementary School, Longden Elementary School, Oak Avenue Intermediate School, Temple City High School, and the Community Learning Center).

Last month, I visited our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a six-member Congressional delegation.  It was my second trip to Iraq since the war began, and my seventh visit to our troops stationed overseas.  Although our itinerary on some of these fact-finding efforts is heavily circumscribed by the difficulty of moving about in an environment where our planes, helicopters and armored vehicles are attractive targets, I have always found these trips well worth the effort:  There is no better way to get a glimpse of the facts on the ground unfiltered by the Pentagon, to get a sense of the morale of the troops, or to be able to say thank you to the many brave men and women who wear the uniform of our armed forces.

We flew C-130 troop transport planes into Baghdad from a neighboring country.  I am told that anyone who served in Vietnam would be familiar with these aircraft – they were the workhorse, multipurpose aircraft thirty years ago and still are today.  “Be prepared for a rapid vertical descent,” we were advised last year on the same flight, but somehow I didn’t fully comprehend the understatement until the Tennessee Air National Guard Pilot pushed the nose of the plane down and we seemed to rocket towards the ground.  (These pilots had been serving in Afghanistan also, and were active for 20 of the preceding 24 months).  I was better prepared this year for the evasive maneuvers taken to avoid surface to air missiles.

Our agenda on touchdown was packed.  We met with the top staff of Ambassador John Negroponte (who was in the United States at the time) to be briefed on the reconstruction and political transition, followed by meetings with the military commanders such as General George Casey, in charge of all our armed forces in Iraq, and General David Petraeus, given responsibility for standing up the Iraqi Army and civilian defense forces; and meetings with Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.  And most important of all, we had meals and visits with the predominately young men and women who are doing the difficult and dangerous day-to-day work of trying to maintain security and rebuild a war-torn country.

Much was apparent from our briefings, meetings and tour about the challenges we face in Iraq.  Having been there almost exactly a year earlier, I had a point of reference with which to compare the current status.  Two conclusions seemed inevitable, one positive the other plainly negative.  The political transition had made important strides, and the security situation had only continued to degrade.

A year ago, the Iraqi Governing Council lacked real decision-making authority and was widely perceived as a creature of the coalition authority – which it largely was.  It did not enjoy the popular support of the Iraqi people, and although its members served at great personal peril and took their responsibility seriously, still, it did not engender enough support from the population for Iraqis to defend it.

Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary and now the president of Harvard University, once observed that “no one washes a rented car.”  This is a great truism about many things in life, and applies to governments as well as cars.  The Iraqi people were not going to stand and defend a government in which they lacked ownership. 

Prime Minister Allawi struck me as a forceful and courageous man.  Fresh from the first successful meeting of delegates to choose an interim national assembly, and an unsuccessful effort to invite radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr into the political process, he outlined his vision for representative government in Iraq.  “It will not look like American democracy,” he was quick to point out, but Iraq’s own brand of democratic rule.  At the delegates meeting, he boasted, people shook their fists, they shouted, and they found agreement.  With mortars striking the outside of the convention center where they met, not a single delegate left.  This was Iraqi style democracy, and he wanted all of Iraq to participate, even al-Sadr.  But he was clearly losing patience.  “I have extended my hand to al-Sadr to join the political process,” he confided, but if al-Sadr continued to use violence “in violation of Iraqi norms,” the prime minister made it clear he was prepared to take action.

The leadership of Prime Minister Allawi, although imperfect, is probably better than we had any right to expect; and the establishment of the interim assembly – a provisional congress – is also an important milestone.  But threatening all of this important political progress is the deteriorating security in Iraq.  The most critical stage of the political transformation will come with elections in January, and already the coalition is debating whether large urban centers like Fallujah will be excluded from voting.  Under the present deadly circumstances, it is difficult to conceive how nationwide elections could be conducted in a matter of months.  Yet, with the most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, already impatient for elections, the prime minister and coalition may have no choice but to try.

A year ago, the insurgency appeared confined to a few hundred dead-ender Baathists, Saddam’s Fedayeen, some contingent of foreign fighters, and criminals released by Hussein before the war.  Regrettably, the insurgency has spread, fueled by a much more substantial influx of foreign fighters and made more complex by Shiite uprisings in what had been more tranquil parts of the country.  More deadly still, Iraqi extremists have adopted the tactics of foreign fighters -- suicide bombings and more sophisticated improvised explosive devises (IEDs) -- which take a daily toll on our troops.

We visited an American military hospital in Baghdad, where I spoke with several Marines hit with IEDs.  Two Marines, who lay side by side in adjoining hospital beds, were riding in the same armored humvee when they were struck.  I asked them if they had seen the IED just before they hit it.  “No,” one replied.  “In the beginning, the IEDs were primitive and you could see them by the side of the road.  Now, they bury them in the middle of the road with only a small wire protruding, which they use to detonate them.  The first thing I knew, I hit the roof of the turret and the windows were blown out.  The next time I regained consciousness, I was being medevaced away.”  While these two Marines had shrapnel embedded in their legs and faces, a third Marine in the same humvee walked away unharmed.  The fourth Marine, they told me, hadn’t been so lucky; he died on the operating table the night before.

Given the significant casualties, and the random nature of the violence in Iraq – in addition to the roadside bombs, mortars and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) are routinely lobbed at coalition forces – it is impressive that morale is as high as it is among our troops.  (We got a small sample of this random violence when two RPGs were fired over the Tigris River in our direction as we prepared to board Apache helicopters, landing 500 yards away and injuring two embassy workers.)  This strong morale is a tribute to the strength, discipline and focus of our troops, as well as their training.  Morale was highest among those who had a date certain for coming home; they could get through anything.  For those at risk of being extended, or involuntarily reinstated under a stop-loss policy, morale was more problematic.

There is no question that the burden of this war falls disproportionately on a small number of troops.  While this may always be the case in wartime, our Guard and Reserve are constantly being called up, our active duty forces are stretched thin, and the general population has been asked to make no sacrifice for a war effort that we are financing through debt.  And it’s not just the physical sacrifice that we are demanding of these brave men and women.  Their families struggle too.  One Marine from Pasadena had been serving in Iraq since February and was due to return home in the fall.  He just learned that his wife had been called up, and she was being sent to Iraq in the fall.  Their planes might literally pass each other in the night.

Almost forty percent of the troops in Iraq are in the Guard and Reserve.  One of the reasons we are so reliant on the Guard and Reserve is that they possess many of the skill sets needed for post war reconstruction.  They are the architects and the engineers, the linguists and the military intelligence, the urban planners and the military police. 

Upon my first return from Iraq, I introduced bipartisan legislation to begin the process of reorganizing our armed forces, determining whether we need to shift some of these critical skill sets into the active duty or into a civilian ready response unit.  I also cosponsored legislation to increase the number of active duty forces, a sober recognition of the fact that the Cold War dividend was not as large or as long lived as we would have liked.  My recent visit to Iraq only underscored the importance of efforts to restructure our military in light of the post Cold War challenges we face.

TEMPLE STATION LAUNCHES NEW
E-MAIL CRIME REPORTING PROGRAM

In an effort to improve our crime prevention abilities and provide the public with a computer assisted method to relay information, Temple Station has recently launched a new e-mail crime reporting program. The program is designed to receive the type of information that has been provided to the "WeTip" type telephone reporting programs for many years. Users of this e-mail system are being asked to report problems in their neighborhoods such as gang hangouts, suspected locations where drugs are being sold, the locations of wanted individuals, or any other information they may want law enforcement to be aware of. This e-mail reporting system is not designed to replace the telephonic reporting of crimes or requests for police services and should not be used to report crimes in progress or whenever a timely law enforcement response is needed. All e-mail messages received will be read on a daily basis and may be sent anonymously.

Temple Station provides law enforcement services for the cities of Bradbury, Duarte, Rosemead, South El Monte, and Temple City, and to a number of unincorporated areas in the West San Gabriel Valley. The following six e-mail addresses have been established for residents, businesses, and anyone else wishing to bring information to our attention:

bradburycrimetips@lasd.org

duartecrimetips@lasd.org

rosemeadcrimetips@lasd.org

southelmontecrimetips@lasd.org

templecitycrimetips@lasd.org

templestationcrimetips@lasd.org

In this day and age of such widespread use of e-mails we feel this approach is a modern common sense augmentation to existing crime prevention reporting programs and will strengthen our partnership with the communities we serve.

Questions may be referred to Captain Richard Shaw or Lieutenant Sheila Sanchez at (626) 292-3300.

The TCSF was established to provide community members with a tax-deductible avenue to support their schools in the face of dwindling federal and especially state resources to our public schools. All donations to the Foundation will go directly to support the schools and programs of the Temple City Unified School District. The Schools Foundation will also provide community leadership to supplement and enhance the educational programs of the District.There are currently four officers, twelve voting members and six ex-officio members of the TCSF Board of Directors representing all segments of the community within the boundaries of the Temple City Unified School District.

Community members interested in serving on the Board of Directors should contact TCSF President, Margie Gins, at (626) 287-4086.The Temple City Schools Foundation is planning a Fall Membership Campaign, one large annual fundraising event, and the “Leave Your Legacy” project in which children and families create permanent tiles and bricks which will decorate each school in the District.

Anyone interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation can designate which school or program should receive his or her donation. Forms for making donations are available at each of the schools or by calling the Foundation at (626) 287-4086.