George Laase

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System estimates that fully funding the teachers’ pension debt will cost over $4.5 billion in 2014-15. It will increase to almost $4.6 billion the next year and much more each subsequent year after that as more Baby Boomer-aged teachers retire. Even by CalSTRS’s own calculations, 30 years from now, the annual pension costs for teachers living into their 70s and 80s will hit...

During the winter break, Culver City High School boys basketball Coach Adam Eskridge took his players out of the gym for a day of fun and relaxation at his parent’s house. The day off has paid big dividends going into Ocean League play next week. The rejuvenated Centaurs defeated...

The Teachers Union and the Culver City USD have settled negotiations early this year, agreeing to try once again to entice some of the School District’s higher salaried teachers to retire early.

Culver City High School’s Lady Centaurs basketball team blitzed tournament host El Segundo with 10 three-point shots and at times played tenacious defense to come away as the undefeated champions in El Segundo's third annual Winter Classic.

A Wednesday afternoon meeting in the School District’s offices basically was the same old again. Supt. David LaRose, Mike Reynolds, assistant superintendent for business, along with 14 invited community stakeholders, met with the newly hired District consultants for the upcoming General Obligation bond measure campaign, Jared Boigun (pronounced “BOY-gone”) and local resident Paul Goodwin, our new election pollster.

It seems Robert Zirgulis still has not lost all hope in convincing at least three School Board members that there is more community support out there for refurbishing the Natatorium than they think.

Save the Date: Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 4, a get-together at Janice’s Green Valley in Kenneth Hahn State Park, recalling the Baldwin Hills Dam break exactly 50 years ago...On any afternoon, the sounds of health-minded hikers and cross country runners trekking up and down the hills and city-bound children at play, fill the hollows of Kenneth Hahn State Park, giving all a sense of country-like serenity in the middle of our urban setting.

I agree with Alan Elmont’s assessment of the School Board’s latest rendition of the Community Budget Advisory Committee (CBAC). Compared to the initial, parent-community driven committee in the middle of the last decade, this rendition isn’t even a rubber stamp of our School District’s latest actions.

It seems our local environmental community still is concerned over the use of rubber crumbs in artificial turf, even after thousands of synthetic fields have been installed around the nation and the world. About the Culver City High School Athletic Field installation, one would think these well-known concerns about using rubber crumbs in an artificial turf installation and the field's proximity to the Ballona Creek already would...

Culver City High School’s boys basketball team roared into the finals of the venerable 62nd Pacific Shores Tournament over the weekend, and held close until the final seconds before losing to Mira Costa in overtime, 59-58. The Centaurs, tournament champions three years ago, are 3-1.Mira Costa is 4-0, following the four-game introduction to their season.