Category: Education

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / March 10, 2025

Students across the Grossmont Union High School District are organizing a district-wide walkout in the wake of the school board’s decision to cut teacher-librarians and other staffing positions, such as school counselors.

Immediately following the 4-1 decision to cut staff at the Feb. 27 special meeting, the Instagram account @studentsforstaff.guhsd, which has now amassed just under 1,000 followers, made its first post calling for a peaceful protest on March 11.

Maggie Kelly, a senior at Grossmont High School, is behind the account. Kelly is also one of two seniors elected to sit in on board meetings and provide reports this year.

She said the initial idea was to hold a walk-out at Grossmont High School, but she decided to make it district-wide. On the account, she said, she put out a call for student leaders at each high school to help organize the event on their campuses.

By Rene Kaprielian

The fast-moving brush fire that swept through the canyon off Montezuma Road near San Diego State University on Oct. 31 reminds us how fast disaster can strike. It wasn’t just the fire, which came within 10 feet of homes on the canyon rim, but the chaos and hours-long traffic jams of residents trying to evacuate the area. If that fire had gotten further out of control and jumped to adjacent neighborhoods, people could have been trapped in their homes and cars and possibly died.

After this harrowing incident and the Los Angeles fires, it’s unconscionable that SDSU is planning to build 13-story towers on a cul-de-sac at the northwest corner of campus on a peninsula surrounded by canyons. In SDSU’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the “Evolve” project, the land is classified as a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.” Besides being in a severe fire zone, this massive project is out of scale for the area.

SDSU wants to demolish 13 buildings, most of which are two-story apartment buildings that house 702 students, and replace them with five 13-story and one nine-story tower that will house 5,170 students.  A recently built apartment complex adjacent to this proposed project and an existing dorm together house another 1,000 students.

To put it in perspective, SDSU’s proposal would put more than one and a half times the population of the city of Del Mar in a two-block area surrounded by canyons, with only one way in and out on a two-lane residential street.

New Menu Cycle Begins February 10!

From SD Unified School District / Feb. 6, 2025

Spring has Sprung at Sandi Coast Cafe! New Menu Drops February 10

To welcome the upcoming season, Sandi Coast Cafe has unveiled a new lineup of new, revamped and favorite items. All meals align with USDA nutrition guidelines and offer great taste with nutrition designed to fuel students’ bodies and minds.

By Kate Williams / The Point PLNU /  Feb 5, 2025

California’s State Assembly Bill 413, a measure that prohibits cars from stopping, standing or parking within 20 feet of both red and unmarked intersections, went into effect Jan 1.

The Daylighting Parking Law’s goal is to give drivers and pedestrians more visibility around crosswalks.

Alex Irving, a second-year communications major at PLNU, commutes to Marine Physical Training in Mission Bay twice a week. She experienced difficulty turning when cars were parked right along the intersection, blocking the view.

The Point Loma High School PA Baseball Booster is collecting Christmas trees to fundraise for the high school’s baseball program. Each $30 donation goes straight to the program to benefit the players.

If you are interested in having the players pick up your tree, please Venmo $30 to @PLHS-BaseballBooster or leave a check for $30 written to the PLHS-PA Baseball with your tree.

Now is your best chance to find my book, The May 1970 Rebellion, available for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their 2024 End of Year Sale!

Find my book and many more at here through January 1!

On this past Saturday, Frank Gormlie, editor of the OB Rag, gave a talk about his recently published book, The May 1970 Rebellion, before a small crowd in the backyard of good friends in a home in northeast Ocean Beach.

Videographer Charlie Landon took a video of the talk and edited it some what — there were many “OB Pauses” — when the airliners passed overhead — and it’s presented here.

By Noah Perkins /Pt Loma-OB Monthly San Diego Union-Tribune / December 11, 2024

It was a very good year for the Point Loma High School girls cross country team.

The Pointers’ second-place standing at the CIF Division III State Championships in Fresno on Nov. 30 was good for the best finish in school history.

“The team went into it very confident, but not overly confident,” head coach Keith DeLong said. “I was ecstatic with the finish. They were thrilled. Getting there and placing was a huge thing for us.”

Frank Gormlie Book-Signing
and Talk on The May 1970 Rebellion
Saturday, Dec. 14, 1–3 pm

Frank Gormlie will be available for book-signing
and will give a short presentation on his book,
what led him to write it and
what it means for us today in the Trump Era.

Times of San Diego

A racist term for a Native American woman will be removed from nearly three dozen geographic features and place names on California lands, the state Natural Resources Agency announced Friday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 signed a bill into law that bans use of the word “squaw” in future place names and ordered the agency to rename all places that used the slur, including on streets, bridges, public buildings and cemeteries, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

By Sydney Brammer / The Point PLNU / Nov 20, 2024

Point Loma Nazarene University claims to be a sustainable campus, yet the inaccurate and outdated information found on their website is misleading to the reality of their efforts. The composting program has just begun making its way back since being shut down during COVID-19, according to Gustavo Bernal, assistant director of campus facilities. Staff workers in the university’s food establishments weren’t aware of the composting process and only a select few actually know where food waste ends up.

by Dave Schwab / Peninsula Beacon / October 18, 2024

Warren-Walker Middle School is back in Ocean Beach and wants to get word out about it.

“Happiness is within reach in Ocean Beach,” joked Paul Saunders, head of Warren-Walker’s Middle School, who has been with the school for over 18 years.

The homegrown Ocean Beach school is one big extended family. “I began my academic journey as a kindergartner on this campus in the ‘80s,” noted Saunders.

The lower- and middle-school campuses of Ocean Beach’s homegrown independent Warren-Walker School are once again reunited for the 2024-25 academic year and beyond. Previously in Mission Valley, Warren-Walker Middle School for sixth through eighth grades has returned to the Peninsula. The school’s staff is excited to have all of its PK-eighth-grade students this school year at its main campus at 4605 Point Loma Ave.