Training Wheels?
The School District has lost a part-time athletic trainer to a more lucrative calling for the second time in three years, and that ruffled Board member Dr. Dana Russell. Displeased that Culver City seems to have been reduced to a mere training ground for trainers, he was puzzled by the lack of a community outcry over losing another good instructor/role model. Omar Uribe, a trainer here for the past three years, has accepted a $50,000 a year position with LAUSD. Mr. Uribe succeeded Jose Salcedo, who was the athletic trainer for nine years before being lured to Hawaii. Under Mr. Salcedo, the as he gained experience, the position grew in visibility and stature. Dr. Russell remarked at length about the lack of a communal protest over the departure of the popular Mr. Uribe. He also wondered how the School District can embrace a Wellness Policy that aggressively advocates good nutrition, sound eating habits and good hygiene while employing a key figure such as a trainer on just a part-time basis. While none of Dr. Russell’s colleagues offered a dissenting word, neither did any Board member suggest taking the steps toward hiring a fulltime trainer.
In the Counting Room
Hours after the state budget was adopted on Tuesday afternoon, the School Board approved its own budget for the new fiscal year, which begins Saturday. The Board still has six more weeks to refine the final shape of its budget as additional data become available. Among noteworthy listings in the new budget are an update of the employee salary survey, the superintendent search (which is just beginning), a Teacher on Special Assignment (for technology and assessment), a Special Education clerk, an assistant principal at an elementary school, an elementary school counselor and provisions for the recently granted salary increases.
