Geoff Maleman

Channel 35 will rebroadcast the Spelling Bee on Thursday evening at 7 o’clock

Natasha Collier stood tall and confidently as she spelled the word t-e-x-t-u-r-e to take home the fourth annual School District Spelling Bee title last Monday night at the Robert Frost Auditorium.

Get ready to dust off those dictionaries because 24 of the best and brightest students in the School District are getting ready to s-p-e-l-l their way to the top.

El Rincon Elementary School, which has adopted global science as a focus to enhance the pursuit of academic excellence, was scheduled to open its new Science Discovery Laboratory with a celebration this morning at the south Overland Avenue campus.

[Editor’s Note: City Manager Jerry Fulwood made his formal retirement announcement — likely effective in mid-spring — to the City Council and other City Hall officials behind closed doors on Monday night. When Mr. Fulwood was hired five years ago last June, this story appeared in the Culver City Chamber of Commerce business publication and was written by one of the leading public relations personalities in Southern California.]

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction has released the Academic Performance Index (API) growth reports for the School District and, incidentally, for 6,400 California public schools.

Results show that all but two Culver City schools have reached the statewide performance target of 800. Several schools had enormous jumps in their scores.

La Ballona Elementary School was a beehive of activity last Friday.

Sure, students still were on summer break, but that didn't stop more than 150 employees of HOK Architects from donating their time to turn a large chunk of pavement into a new athletic field, paint a massive world map and generally spruce up the Washington Boulevard campus. Thanks to more than $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations from its partners and tons of labor from HOK employees, the company delivered a 5,400-square-foot soccer field lined by trees, complete with an automatic irrigation system.

The School District is mourning the passing of Armond Fields, a longtime school volunteer, who died peacefully at his home in Culver City on Sunday. The cause of death was metastatic colon cancer. He was 77.

The Japanese Immersion program at El Marino Language School has been awarded a five-year grant for more than $1 million to assist in increasing the number of Americans learning foreign languages critical to national security and commerce, the U.S. Dept. of Education announced this week.

The School District today announced the dates for Back to School Nights.

“I hope every parent in our district will take advantage of Back to School night at their child’s school," said Supt. Myrna Coté. "Involved parents are one of the biggest factors in a student's success."

Center-Sinai Animal Hospital and Culver City High School have earned a statewide honor from the California Department of Education for their collaboration to provide hands-on work experience for special education students.

Only 15 such partnerships in the state were recognized by being named to the Workability 1 Honor Roll.