Earth Day Celebration at Irvine Valley College

Evidently, I missed the third act, which (readers report) was excellent. Had a class to teach. But I liked the first two, which are represented here. Anybody know the bands' names?

Just sayin’

I just noticed a recent article in the OC Reg: Hispanic Chamber holds annual dinner

Ron Gonzales reports, among other things, the latest accomplishments of our own Rebel Girl:

Lisa Alvarez, a professor of English at Irvine Valley College, contributed a short story to the recently released "Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America." ¶ The editors of the anthology settled on a 1,500-word limit for the 60 stories in the book, and combed through a variety of sources to find the works. Contributors include Junot Díaz, Sandra Cisneros, Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende.

Alvarez said her work, "Cielito Lindo," deals with the tentative reconciliation between a daughter and a father.

In addition to writing and teaching, Alvarez hosts an Orange County literary arts blog at http://themarkonthewall.blogspot.com/

So, um, the Reg has no problem celebrating the career and achievements of the Reb. Just sayin'.

UPDATE ON STRIKE:

5:40 UPDATE: Attendance plunges during Capo strike

Student attendance plunged well below 50 percent across the Capistrano Unified School District on Thursday as hundreds of teachers picketed outside schools, but there still weren’t enough substitute teachers to go around and at least one high school was reportedly vandalized by unsupervised students.
. . .
Initial attendance figures released Thursday afternoon indicate about 52 percent of elementary students were absent, plus about 59 percent of middle school students and about 76 percent of high school students. The district cautioned, however, that the figures were preliminary and subject to change….

Strike: Day 1

Capo picketing continues; classrooms trashed (OC Reg, 2:00 p.m.)

Student attendance at many Capistrano Unified schools was light Thursday as hundreds of teachers picketed outside the district’s 56 schools, and while schools reported that both picketers and students were generally orderly, at least one high school appears to have been vandalized by unsupervised students.

Several classrooms at San Clemente High School were trashed Thursday morning, with desks thrown to the ground and papers scattered around.

Student witnesses said about a dozen students were responsible for the damage and that it was the result of students reporting to classrooms that weren’t staffed by a substitute teacher.
. . .
This is Day 1 of a teacher strike in Orange County’s second-largest school district over the district's failure to make a "clear, unambiguous offer" to settle a bitter, months-long pay cut dispute, the teachers union says.

Hundreds of Capistrano Unified teachers, clustered in groups of 20s and 30s at schools across south Orange County, were walking picket lines, holding up signs that read "Quality public education at stake," "Board of tyrants," "I'd rather be teaching" and "Willing to fight for our kids.”
. . .
Many students at Aliso Viejo’s Aliso Niguel High School were reportedly heading home by midday “because there was little instruction,” the teachers union said in a statement released Thursday morning. Some Aliso Niguel students were reportedly watching episodes of “The Office,” according to a KTLA posting on Twitter.

"There's no point in going to school,” said Alia Bonetti, a senior at Aliso Niguel High School, who arrived at 6 a.m. and was planning to picket all day with the teachers. “The subs are not qualified. We're not going to learn. These people are our teachers. The subs just want money. Our teachers care."
. . .
At district offices, about 70 parents and their children – mostly elementary and younger – stood outside for about a half hour, waving signs and chanting "We support our teachers," "Be fair with teachers," and "End the strike now."

Similar protests were reported along the 5 Freeway overpass at Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano and near the Avenida Calafia exit in San Clemente.

Many of the district's 2,200 educators began lining the sidewalks outside their campuses at least 30 minutes before classes began.
. . .
It is unknown how long the strike will last. The teachers union has offered to meet with the district at 2 p.m. Thursday, although union leaders are stressing they are not making a commitment to negotiate, but rather to seek out additional information.
. . .
"I have to go with the majority," said Dan Grassman, a seventh-grade teacher at San Juan Capistrano’s Marco Forster Middle School. "Eighty-seven percent of the union voted to strike. The union feels it needs to make a stand. I wish that I wasn't out here striking, and that I was inside the classroom teaching kids."
. . .
Capistrano Unified's school board said in a statement Wednesday that it was "saddened" to learn teachers in the district will begin striking on Thursday, but added that trustees "remain hopeful" for a speedy, mutually acceptable resolution to settle teachers' bitter pay cut dispute.

Capistrano Unified's school board unilaterally imposed a 10.1 percent pay cut on teachers in March, after nearly a year of unsuccessful negotiations.
. . .
Capistrano's teacher strike is the first in Orange County in a decade, and the only one in California this year, at least so far.

The California Teachers Association says about 17 school districts in a five-county region – Orange, Riverside,San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial – are at impasse in contract negotiations….

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "This is the field where grass joined hands"

In honor of Earth Day -

and National Poetry Month -

this poem by William Stafford:





At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border


This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed—or were killed—on this ground
hallowed by neglect and an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

*

For those literary hipsters making their way north this weekend for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA, check out the ETC Stage on Saturday at 3 PM when National Public Radio's program DimeStories will present writers reading their three-minute stories.

Among those featured is IVC student Henry Pruette, a long-time member of Rebel Girl's WR 11 class (the fiction workshop. He'll be reading "Pound Cake," a short story he composed in last year's class. Rebel Girl is proud of Henry as this is quite a honor and he and his story are most deserving.

Rebel Girl and Red Emma and their little fella will be where they usually are - in the Santa Monica College Booth (#504), across from the Humanities building and right next to the Scientologists. Come by and say hi and get your free copy of the Santa Monica Review, SMC's literary journal which was recently featured in Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Alice Sebold. This issue features, among others, another one of Rebel Girl's students, longtime IVC student Linda Purdy and her short story, "Waiting for the Light to Change."

Linda Purdy will be reading next Thursday at the UCI Bookstore at 5PM, as one of three featured readers. Rebel Girl is proud of her too, can't you tell?

Quite the accomplishments.

Lots to celebrate.

*

April BOT meeting agenda: politics as usual

The agenda for the April meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees (Monday) is now available here. (See the blue box on that page.)

I haven’t had a chance to peruse it, but I did notice the following:

The discussion item will be:

SOCCCD: 20 Year Capital and Scheduled Maintenance Needs:
Discussion on Capital and Scheduled Maintenance Needs and Possible Funding Mechanisms through 2031.

The board (Fuentes) has requested and will receive reports:

SOCCCD: Hiring of Relatives
A report as requested by the Board of Trustees on the Hiring of Relatives in the District.

SOCCCD: Board Requested Report - Retirees Receiving Over $100,000 Annually
A report as requested by the Board of Trustees on Retirees Receiving over $100,000 Annuall

So it's politics as usual.