Quattro glassy, glossy gastronomy WEEKEND | P.14 JULY 29, 2011 VOLUME 19, NO. 28
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Deadline looms for whooping cough shots STUDENTS NEED PROOF OF BOOSTER SHOT OR WAIVER WHEN SCHOOL STARTS By Nick Veronin
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See EDI, page 9
bout a third of Mountain View elementary students still need to get whooping cough booster shots before school starts, and high school students could be turned away from class if they haven’t been immunized by the time school starts. Under a new law, seventh- through 12thgrade students at Mountain View schools, along with the rest of California, must prove that they have received a pertussis booster shot. State Assembly Bill 354, which was signed into law in September 2010 by Arnold Schwarzenegger, mandates that any student without documentation for the shot will not be allowed to attend school. The requirement applies to seventh- through 12th-graders in 2011-12, but will only apply to seventh-graders in subsequent years. It was passed in response to last year’s outbreak of pertussis, commonly called whooping cough. Officials at both the Mountain View Whisman and Mountain View-Los Altos school districts began working with students and their families as early as January
Mathy Stanislaus, the EPA assistant administrator of the Office of Solid Waste Siegel and Emergency Response, the EPA program overseeing the nation’s Superfund site cleanups. Siegel, an active member of the Moffett Field Restoration Advi-
sory Board, was given the “2011 Citizen Excellence in Community Involvement” award July 19 at the EPA’s Community Involvement Training Conference in Washington, D.C. “In Mountain View we have found that an empowered community offers constructive input, and as a result we are listened to. Our success has not only helped protect our families from toxic environmental exposures, but it has served as a national model for community engagement,”
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Monta Loma teacher Gloria Higgins works with Bubb student Andrea Lozoya and Landels student David Lopez Ortega during Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) summer lab for math at Castro Elementary School on July 14.
Teaching a new way to teach MV WHISMAN HIRES CONSULTANTS TO IMPROVE MATH AND SCIENCE SCORES By Nick Veronin
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n an effort to improve math and science scores, the Mountain View Whisman School District has begun contracting with an education research company to teach teachers how to teach better and
more efficiently. With the help of a $1 million grant from Google, the district has hired DataWORKS to train teachers on Explicit Direct Instruction, a methodical teaching system designed to engage students while at the same time allowing teachers to quickly
identify those students who are having trouble with the material. The idea is to address confusion the moment it arises. “Instead of waiting for the quiz on Friday, we’re finding out right then and there,” said
EPA honors Lenny Siegel By Andrea Gemmet
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he Environmental Protection Agency is honoring Mountain View’s Lenny Siegel as its “Superfund Citizen of the Year” for his work in the community. Siegel is the executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight in Mountain View, where he has long
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been involved in the cleanup of the Superfund site at the Naval base at Moffett Field and the Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) study area that is affected by fumes from contaminated groundwater. “You serve as a shining example for other communities faced with the challenges that come with having a hazardous waste site in their community,” said
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to ensure that the new requirement is met. About 67 percent of next year’s seventh- and eighth-grade students — about 850 children by the latest count — have received whooping cough booster shots, according to Stephanie Totter, director of administrative services with the Mountain View Whisman School District. In an effort to get ahead of the requirement, a free whooping cough vaccination clinic was held at Graham Middle School at the end of the 2010-11 school year, Totter said. The district is prepared to hold another clinic “depending on the need.” No such clinics are planned for the 3,600 students of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District. Superintendent Barry Groves said he hopes that the mail and email reminders sent to students and their families will be enough. “We’ve been letting people know for a long time and have sent out many reminders,” Groves said. While Totter’s district plans to take advantage of the state’s 30-day grace period, Groves said See WHOOPING COUGH, page 11
said Siegel upon receiving the award. The honor is “very well-deserved,” said William Berry, the former deputy director of NASA Ames who is currently the community co-chair of RAB. “I have engaged with Lenny from both sides of the table and over the years have learned to respect his knowledge, dedication and integrity while appreciating his vision and insights for See SEIGEL, page 7