A group of parents is joining together to form a united front in Culver City schools.

The new United Parents of Culver City will hold its kickoff meeting Thursday, May 24. The organization is a “labor of love” designed to represent all of the schools in Culver City, said Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, one of the organizers.

“We all decided that there was a need to have a parents' union when we tried to join forces regarding the adjuncts and parent-funded programs and positions issue,” she said. “It was an organic conclusion that there had to be a way for parents from all schools to exchange information and talk about issues that are important to us.”

Steve Levin, who serves as interim president of the United Parents of Culver City, said he was interested in getting involved in order to give children, including his three in Culver City schools, a voice in the local political process.

"The goal of UPCC is to assure that the children of CCUSD are well represented in the political process," Levin said. "Nearly every issue which effects the children has many stakeholders, some of whom are very effective at presenting their viewpoints.  It is inevitable that these stakeholders will sometimes have legitimate interests which conflict with the best interests of the children, so CCUSD, the Board of Education, and the community will need to weigh these competing interests.  UPCC will assure that at least one organization can present a viewpoint which is motivated solely by what's best for the kids."

The new, non-partisan organization will have a “Representatives Council” with representatives from each school as well as a Leadership Council and a Political Action Committee, Stehlin said.  

"While the beauty of Culver City is that each of our schools are unique, we also realize that parents share one thing in common: we believe that our children, the students, should be the first consideration when the District and the School Board make a decision," she said.

The kickoff event is scheduled to take place from 7-9 p.m. next Thursday at 4443 S. Purdue Ave.

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West Los Angeles College is celebrating this week with the grand opening of its new Student Services and General Classroom buildings.

The grand opening, which is scheduled for this weekend, marks a milestone for the campus, said President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh.

“These are two significant, sizeable projects,” he said. “The college is finally transforming itself.”

The General Classroom building houses new classrooms as well as a lecture hall and offices for faculty members. There is also a courtyard between the two buildings. The new additions to the campus will be of great benefit to the college’s approximately 11,000 students, Abu-Ghazaleh said.

“It signifies a lot to the students who are deserving of appropriate facilities,” he said.

Lindsay Stadler, a business administration student who is in her last year, is pleased with the new buildings.

“They’re very beautiful inside compared to what we used to have,” she said. “It’s more of a university feel.”

Another new addition to the campus is a café called Café West. Stadler said it is a big step up from the food truck the campus used to have.

“That’s the cherry on top,” Stadler said.

The official grand opening will kick off this Saturday with a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. and an open house which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

The UCLA Volunteer Center, a major participant in an annual neighborhood clean-up day, may withdraw staff support from the Westwood Organized Mega Project.

The university's retreat from the event, dubbed WOMP, would be a big "womp womp," Westwood neighborhood organizations say.

The Westwood Organized Mega Project, a day of volunteer service and beautification in Westwood Village, is joint collaboration between the UCLA Volunteer Center, the Westwood Community Council and other local organizations and merchants. The third WOMP was held last month and more than 700 UCLA students participated.

In the last week, both the Westwood Neighborhood Council and Westwood Community Council unanimously passed a resolution urging UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to continue making WOMP a yearly tradition. Members of the Westwood Neighborhood Council said they were told during the WOMP event this year that the service day would not be part of the UCLA Volunteer Center's programming for the following year, citing time constraints.

Steve Sann, chair of the Westwood Community Council, said the UCLA Volunteer Center only needs to commit staff time to organize student participation in the event. The supplies needed for the event is either donated or raised by the community.

"We knew they had no money to put in it," Sann told the Westwood Neighborhood Council. "We raise 100 percent of the money, lunches, breakfasts, T-shirts, water, trees, paint. UCLA committed to be the gateway so that students, staff and faculty can participate."

Vincent Wong, assistant director of UCLA Government and Community Relations which houses the Volunteer Center, attended the meeting and told the council the office may lack the staff resources to coordinate student participation in the event. He said the Volunteer Center has been downsized to one full-time staff member.

"We are not exiting Westwood in any way shape or form, we are not backing out of our commitment to Westwood," Wong told the Westwood Neighborhood Council. "It just may or may not be in this same iteration that is based on our ability to dedicate staff and money."

Several phone calls to the office requesting information about the UCLA Volunteer Center's participation in future WOMPs were not returned.

Sann said WOMP would continue whether or not UCLA is involved, but members of both councils lamented the loss of the university's participation.

"I see so little required because the community does 95 percent of the work," said Wolfgang Veith, a North Village resident and Westwood Community Council member. "There’s no excuse that UCLA wants to change what they have done so far."

Westwood Neighborhood Council member Lisa Chapman said she was disappointed that UCLA may not give back to the community just outside its grounds.

"Are we the doormat to UCLA or the foyer?" she said.

Should UCLA stay involved in WOMP? Should the event go on with or without the support of the UCLA Volunteer Center? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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Venice High School, which doubled as Rydell High School for the popular 1970s musical Grease, will be the site of an upcoming Grease-Sing-A-Long to benefit the school's alumni association.

The free event will take place June 1 on the school's football field with gates opening at 6 p.m. and the screening beginning at dusk. 

There will be food trucks, student-run booths, raffles and photo opportunities with Gunther the Gondolier. Organizers are suggesting that attendees come in their best 50s outfits with poodle skirts and leather jackets welcome.

The event will have festival seating and people should bring their own blankets and chairs.

Donations will be accepted for the Venice High School Alumni Association, which benefits the school and the alumni scholarship fund.

Two pairs of Grease-Sing-A-Long tickets for an event at the Hollywood Bowl in July also will be raffled off and the winner must be present to claim the prize.

The 1978 film starring John Travolta as badboy Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John as good girl Sandy Olsson was adored by the public and critics and its soundtrack was the second-best selling album that year. 

 This is the second Grease-Sing-A-Long at Venice High after one was held last year during the school's centennial celebration. The Fox show "Glee" also filmed a Grease-themed episode last year at the school.

The 1998 film American History X also was filmed at Venice High.

Eighteen-year-old Jose Chojolan is shy Fairfax student who suffered an unimaginable tragedy. In January, after weeks of back pains and numbness, Jose underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot on his neck vertebrae. He survived the surgery, but is now paralyzed from the neck down.

Congratulations to Culver City High School’s Michelle Bac for talking first place honors in the 2012 Congressional Arts Competition.

Bac’s submission, entitled, "A Face," was selected to be included in a special student art exhibition that will be on display in the U.S. Capitol for the next year.

Congresswoman Karen Bass personally congratulated Bac on her Facebook page, stating: “I’d like to congratulate Michelle for submitting her phenomenal artwork to win Congressional Art Competition and recognize all of the other students for their hard work on the other great pieces of work our office received. It is extremely important that we give students a positive outlet to express their creativity, so I am delighted to provide youth a means to support that effort.”

In a prepared statement, Bass said, “Michelle will have an opportunity to attend an unveiling ceremony with Members of Congress and special guests this summer in Washington, D.C.,"

Since 1982, each spring the U.S. House of Representatives sponsors a nationwide high school arts contest designed to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of young artists. Any high school student in the 33rd Congressional District of California was welcome to submit their artwork to the Los Angeles district office. Bac’s piece was chosen by a panel of judges and in an online competition on Bass’ congressional website.

Bac was also recently featured in a Culver City Patch article as one of five CCHS Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program students currently interning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

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The Washington Post featured photos from award-winning photographer Mary Ellen Mark's latest work titled Prom. The work includes photographs of students attending the Palisades Charter High School prom in 2008.

According to the report, Mark traveled to about 12 high schools from the Palisades to Austin, Texas, to Charlottesville, Virginia, capturing the "hope, fear, sadness, joy … that prom brings."

Mark visited 10 cities with filmmaker Martin Bell to document proms from 2006-2009, states Bell's website. The student interviews were later turned into Prom, a short film, which was completed in 2010.

Mark used a 20x24 Polaroid camera to capture the black-and-white images, which will also appear in her book, Prom, to be published for the 2012 prom season. The film will also be included with the book.

• To view the photos on The Washington Post website, click here.
• For more information about the book and the film, click here.
• For a clip of the short film, Prom, click here.

Timothy Bell, 41, was arrested just after midnight on Thursday when a UCLA community service officer observed him in a stairwell in another residence hall and called the UC Police Department, according to campus police.

Bell was taken into custody by the UCPD.

He is suspected in the May 6 theft of $20 from a room in the DeNeve complex’s Fir residence hall. The money was stolen by a man who fled when a female student returning to the room came upon him at 4 a.m. while the student’s roommate was sleeping in the room.

UCPD Lt. Mark Littlestone credited the cooperation between the UCPD and the campus’s residence hall staff for the arrest.

“Taking this suspect off the streets is a step in the right direction toward keeping our community safe,” Littlestone said. “While Hill residents can sleep a little safer because of this arrest, we want them to continue to keep their doors locked and also pay attention, to prevent people from following them into the halls without card-key access.”

Bell is on parole for burglary and has been ordered to stay away from college campuses as a condition of his parole, police said.

He is is being held at the Men’s Central Jail in downtown L.A. and is expected to be arraigned Monday.

Broadway Elementary School in Venice was one of 117 schools statewide recently awarded with a Title I Academic Achievement Award.

The award is given only to schools receiving Title I funds, a federal program to help students living at or below the poverty line with their educational needs.

“What an honor this is for Broadway. The improvement in student achievement is a result of everyone's teamwork. Students, teachers, parents, and administrators worked as a team to provide students the academic support that they needed,” said Broadway Elementary principal Susan Wang in a statement released this week. “We are a schoolwide Title I school with a large number of English Learners, and the students deserve to be recognized.”

The school's Academic Performance Index, a statewide accountability measurement, has grown by more than 120 points since Wang arrived at Broadway in 2008.

There were nine other Los Angeles Unified School District schools and seven independent charter schools that also were recognized with the Academic Achievement Award. Broadway Elementary was the only school in the LAUSD's District 3, which includes Venice, Del Rey, Crenshaw, Palisades and Westchester communities.

There are more than 9,000 schools in California and more than 6,000 of them participate in the Title I program.

"The progress being made at these schools, which serve our neediest students, should serve as a beacon of hope for California. At a time of fiscal crisis and economic uncertainty, they continue to improve, building a brighter future for their students," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement when the awards were announced. "Their accomplishments prove the value of investing in our schools, and I thank the hardworking parents, teachers, administrators and school employees at these campuses for their efforts."

To meet the criteria for the award distinction, schools must meet all yearly progress targets, as well as the school-wide API target and the target for significant subgroups. In addition, the school's socio-economically disadvantaged students must have doubled the achievement targets set for them for two straight years.

Wang will attend an awards ceremony later this month for the Title I Achieving Schools.

Broadway launched a Mandarin and English Duel-Language Immersion Program in September 2010. It is the largest Mandarin Immersion Program on the Westside.

KNX 1070′s John Brooks reports the move comes nearly a month after students were pepper-sprayed at an earlier rally against a proposed tuition fee increase.

Students claim fertilizer was deliberately applied to all areas on campus where they planned to camp out in tents over night to protest the school’s controversial plan to offer two-tiered fees for popular — and often overcrowded — courses.

The board of trustees has already postponed implementing the two-tiered system amid questions about the legality of the plan.

Nathan Gawronsky, editor of campus newspaper The Corsair, said there was only one spot on campus that didn’t have the smell of fresh manure.

“It was pretty much in every conceivable spot where they could set up a camp except for in front of the police station across the street on Pearl,” said Gawronsky.

At a trustees meeting on Tuesday night, board member Margaret Quiñones-Perez said the manure incident “disgusts me”, but the director of facilities said the timing of the fertilization was just a coincidence.

Gawronsky said students find that explanation hard to swallow.

“They don’t usually do that, and for it to come at a time when students are overtly planning on camping out, it looks like someone made a decision to try and prevent that,” he said.

The following crimes were reported between April 22 and April 28. The information was provided by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Grand Theft Auto

800 block of Haverford Ave.

• When: Between April 20 at 8 p.m. and April 25 at 8 a.m.
• What happened: The suspect took the victim's vehicle from the street.

Burglary

1200 block of Villa Woods Dr.

• When: Between April 23 at 3:30 p.m. and April 24 at 7:05 a.m.
• What happened: The suspect used a torch to cut the locks off of a construction office/storage shed and took tools.

1300 block of Jonesboro Dr.

• When: Between April 20 at 5 p.m. and April 23 at 6 a.m.
• What happened: The suspect entered a construction site and took the victim's tools.

800 block of Chautauqua Blvd.

• When: April 26 between 12 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
• What happened: The suspect possibly reached through a dog door to unlock the rear door to the victim's home. The suspect entered the victim's home and took televisions, laptop computers, a DVD player and jewelry.

Vandalism

1400 block of Floresta Dr.

• When: Between April 5 at 8 a.m. and April 7 at 11 a.m.
• What happened: The suspect struck golf balls towards the victim's home causing damage to potted plants.

600 block of Las Casas Ave.

• When: April 25 between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.
• What happened: The suspect smashed the rear window of the victim's vehicle.

DUI

Pacific Coast Highway at Temescal Canyon Road

• When: April 24 at 3 a.m.
• What happened: An 18-year-old male was arrested for DUI during an investigation of a possible traffic collision.

Possession of Weapon on School Grounds

1400 block of Allenford Ave.

• When: April 24 at 12:30 p.m.
• What happened: A 12-year-old male was arrested for possession of a taser on school grounds.

If you observed any activity related to the above crimes, please contact Senior Lead Officer Moore at 27995@lapd.lacity.org.

If you see something suspicious, but it is not an emergency, you may file a report online at www.alertcommunity.com.

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Ron "Stix" Ballatore, who coached the UCLA men's swimming team for 16 seasons, including guiding the Bruins to the 1982 NCAA championship, died tonight in a Gainesville, Fla. hospital from bone cancer, the university announced. He was 71.

UCLA finished in the top 10 in the NCAA championship 15 times and top five nine times under Ballatore. Ballatore coached 28 Olympians at UCLA including five-time gold medalist Tom Jager and two-time gold medalist Brian Goodell.

After UCLA discontinued its men's swimming program in 1994, Ballatore was Brown University's coach for two seasons, then was the University of Florida's coach. Ballatore was an assistant coach with the U.S. men's swimming teams in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, Peru's team in the 1968 Olympics, Ecuador's team in the 1972 Olympics and Israel's team in the 1976 Olympics.

Ballatore was inducted into the American Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009. He was voted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame on April 5.

Ballatore's survivors include his wife Ann, daughters Lisa, Jenne and Angelina and sons Ronald and Brent.

Did you know Ron Ballatore? Share your memories in the comments below, or you may email them to saraf@patch.com.

Palisades Charter High School will act as a Red Cross Evacuation Center Saturday. It's part of the 2012 "Ready, Set, Go" Topanga Evacuation Drill, which will be in effect from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

According to TopangaSurvival.org, a website for the Topanga Emergency Management Planning Program, residents will evacuate Topanga Canyon and head to one of two evacuation centers: Taft High School in Woodland Hills or Pali High.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are among the public safety agencies that will be conducting the drill.

If you live in the Topanga area, TopangaSurvival.org asks that you register your information with Alert LA, a mass notification system, and that you keep your radios tuned in to KNX 1070 for information Saturday. Organizers are also asking residents to check in at an evacuation site and to allow enough time to answer a few questions while there.

As for Palisadians, be prepared for an influx of traffic at Pali High Saturday.

• For more from TopangaSurvival.org, including information about evacuating horses, click here.
• For information about Alert LA, click here.

City News Service contributed to this report.

KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reports the DWP announced its plans to review the $90 million bill while refusing requests to lower the school district’s utility rates.

Utility officials will focus the review on the “Dirty 30″ — the district’s biggest energy-guzzling campuses — in its effort to shrink costs for the nation’s second-largest school district.

LAUSD facilities chief Kelly Schmader ranked the “Dirty 30″ list according to energy usage per square foot on the district’s campuses and buildings.

The DWP will prioritize their efforts to start with the most problematic campuses — which include El Camino Real High School and the West Valley Occupational Center in Woodland Hills — along with over a half-dozen other San Fernando Valley facilities, said school board member Tamar Galatzan.

“The DWP has offered to come out and walk through those campuses with LAUSD facility staff and really trying to figure out some ways that the district can use some of our bond dollars that can only be used for facilities,” said Galatzan.

The audit comes after the City Council approved a 3 percent rate hike for water usage back in February.

In celebration of Earth Day, students at Broadway Elementary School were invited to submit a drawing addressing the theme: "What Does 'Going Green' at Broadway Mean to Me?"

Broadway Elementary School is currently soliciting community sponsors to showcase the student art on large outdoor banners where some 15,000 cars pass daily. The school is also hoping to start a small student-led recycling program.

Learn more about the history of Earth Day right here.