By Justin Swanson | LB Indy A 66-year history serves as testament to one of Laguna Beach’s special traditions, now an ingrained coming of age ritual for the town’s high school graduates. Witness the $328,955 in scholarships awarded at Laguna Beach High School’s Honors Convocation last week to 107 graduates, the largest sum in [...]
Screening a Sommelier Film A special advanced screening of “Somm” will be held at Montage Laguna Beach on Saturday, June 15 from 6 until 9 p.m. The film takes viewers into the court of master sommeliers. To purchase tickets for the screening and wine tasting, advance tickets are required at http://somm-montage.eventbrite.com. Space is limited. The [...]
Schoolpower’s Endowment Board delivered checks totaling $170,174 to Laguna Beach’s school board last week, including $70,174 for teacher grants next fall, and $50,000 each for a 10-year foreign language grant and the first installment of a three-year pledge for a strings program. Endowment President Bill Moore called this year’s payout “spectacular.” A whopping “We are [...]
All students who participated in Laguna Beach High School’s instrumental music program benefited from the Festival of Arts Foundation’s $5,000 grant. This year’s donation provided instruments to the students who needed them, purchased sheet music and underwrote recording the jazz band’s 2013 CD. Support insures the continued improvement of music instruction and student opportunities for [...]
With a $150,000 donation to upgrade the wireless system for the Laguna Beach Unified School District, all four schools and 3,000 students are being primed for the day in the near future when school supplies are defined by individual laptops and tablets. School Power, a volunteer organization that raises funds to augment the district’s budget, [...]
Laguna Beach High School students equipped a 16-foot, single-seat canoe to run on sun power to compete in the 11th annual Solar Cup, held recently in Riverside’s Lake Skinner. A series of qualifying events and endurance races preceded the final sprint race. Laguna’s team finished 21st overall in the event sponsored by the Metropolitan Water [...]
Top of the World Elementary School teacher Triana Ramazan was named teacher of the year, the school district announced this week. Ramazan was recognized for her ability to intervene with students at every level in the district’s K-12 Response to Intervention program to ensure that each student is progressing. “It’s a reading intervention program for [...]
Middle School’s Café to Open May 30 Thurston Middle School’s Wave Rider Café is scheduled to open Thursday, May 30, allowing parents and students to purchase a sample lunch while they are visiting campus during the annual open house. The café is intended to offer students nutritious, healthy grab-and-go lunches without a long wait. “A [...]
Eighty-five students in Laguna College of Art + Design’s class of 2013 participated in this week’s commencement ceremony. This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Mitch Rosenberg, a human resources expert. President Jonathan Burke congratulated students on their achievement, which he described as demanding rigor, perseverance and creative vision. “I had the privilege of watching the [...]
Jackson McKay Pries is the winner of the DAR American History Scholarship for Laguna Beach High School. The organization also honored a score of other students at an awards program this past Thursday at at Laguna Presbyterian Church’s Tankersley Hall. Counselors and teachers selected Jackson for the award because of his passion for American history [...]
Local Student Graduates from Azusa Pacific Laguna Beach resident Madeline Arterburn graduated from Azusa Pacific University. She earned a bachelor of science degree in applied exercise science. Schools Honor Their Staff The school district’s longtime classified employees were honored this past Tuesday, May 14, at a school board meeting. Students Make a Splash [...]
Teens Aim for Sticker Shock With prom just around the corner, several teens from the Boys & Girls Club’s Keystone leadership club teamed up with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-Orange County (NCADD-OC) to participate in Sticker Shock. The teens visited Broadway Liquor and Stop’n’Go in Laguna Beach, where store owners allowed them [...]
With the end of the term just weeks away, Laguna College of Art and Design seniors didn’t need all that much prodding to show up on a weekend to work on unfinished year-end projects in newly finished studios and workspaces. Though student animators, painters, designers, gamers and illustrators settled in with light tables, easels [...]
Editor, This year’s Earth Day & Kelp Fest event was another successful Laguna happening thanks to all of the teamwork among the community in Laguna and beyond. Transition Laguna skillfully organized music, food and helpful demonstrations of sustainable living while Kelp Fest participants at Main Beach decorated a giant kelp forest surrounded by displays from [...]
By Laura Yale, Special to the Independent This spring break, 37 Laguna Beach High School students and eight adult leaders traveled to the small island of Molokai, Hawaii, for Laguna Presbyterian Church’s annual Molokai Mission Trip. The islanders are some of the poorest people in the nation. Rev. Dr. Steve Sweet, senior associate pastor [...]
Ill Prepared Hiker Rescued from Hillside
A sheriff’s helicopter was used to extract a hiker who suffered an anxiety attack and was unable to move from a steep trail in Laguna Beach’s open space about 6 p.m. Sunday, June 9, police said. Lifeguards in an all-terrain vehicle coordinated the extraction from thick brush and a steep slope between Alta Laguna Park [...]
