George Laase

The re-rescheduled end for SunPower/CCUSD’s solar project seems to finally have come into view. This $3.8M project is to go online early next year, if everything goes as planned. After the required testing, I am curious to see...

When looking at the Los Angeles County salary reports, School Board members should understand that even though two districts might have the same pay scale or salary schedule, they ultimately could end up paying vastly different salaries, depending on their employees’ years of experience and education.

In an earlier piece, Robert Smith, longtime president of the Friends of the Culver City Natatorium, estimated that it would cost about $800K to backfill the pool in with dirt and leave the building as an empty shell on the site. What Mr. Smith did not explain was that back in 2005, the School District’s renovation plans were scuttled because the annual maintenance costs for the Natatorium were estimated at $350K. Eight years later, adding for inflation, those costs probably have escalated closer to...

It seems that Robert Zirgulis, the School Board candidate, has latched on to one specific School District contingency plan for the Natatorium and is using it to re-energize his campaign. He is determined to employ every opportunity afforded him to shout from the rooftops, at anyone who will or is forced to listen, that the School Board already has decided to tear it down.

The Culver City Democratic Club interviewed six of the seven candidates for the School Board – the registered Democrats – at last night’s monthly meeting, and two contenders won endorsements...

The statutory bonding limit of our community is estimated at $200M. This limit is calculated by multiplying our city’s approximately $8 billion assessed valuation (not market value) by the legislative debt limit of 2.5 percent, which is $200M. The state Legislature has set a maximum limit of...

I read the other day on the Huffington Post that the scourge of drugs on baseball had claimed its third former major league baseball Most Valuable Player in a month when Miguel Tejada was suspended for 105 games after testing positive for an amphetamine. A person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press that Tejada tested positive for...

As bond underwriters, banks buy general obligation and facilities’ bonds from school districts looking to raise capital. They sell them on Wall Street to mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies and well-to-do individuals. These tax-free bonds are purchased by the investors with an eye on using them as tax shelters.

Early this year, our superintendent, David La Rose, agreed to an understanding with the Teachers Union to raise their salaries 10 percent over the next five years to equal the median teacher salary in L.A. County. Though not an official, binding agreement, all members of the School Board nonetheless...

The ethicist Michael Josephson may have best portrayed the fascinating difference in society’s perceptions of Trust and Candor in a radio commentary involving his teenage son....Similarly, once officials are elected to office, they need to understand they have to continually earn the community’s trust throughout their term.