Source:  Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

July 12, 2017 (El Cajon) -  The Grossmont College Griffins have added more hardware to their golden year of athletics.

A state community college championship in baseball has vaulted the college to the top to win the coveted Chet DeVore Trophy for the second straight year as the most successful men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic program in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.

By Jordan Damond

July 9, 2017 (San Diego) -- President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has announced her intent to discard college policies created by the Obama administration to  protect students and taxpayers from certain predatory for-profit colleges. Many take issue with Devos’ action, because during the final stages of Obama’s administration, it became evident that these policies have been increasingly effective ways of eliminating costly college programs that have left students mired in debt, without the earning power to pay off student loans.

East County News Service

July 4, 2017 (La Mesa-Spring Valley) -  Applications are being accepted now through July 24 to fill a vacancy on the La Mesa-Spring Valley Board of Education. Board member Rick Winet resigned after taking a position with McGregor Inc., a benefits administrator, to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, reside within the boundaries of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, be a United States citizen, and a registered voter.  The appointee will serve through December 2018.

By Miriam Raftery

July 2, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) – San Diegans for Open Government (SDOG), a government watchdog group, filed a lawsuit in January against the Grossmont Union High School District and Superintendent Tim Glover.  It alleges that the defendants “intentionally used personal e-mail accounts and text-messaging devices (e.g., mobile phones and tablets) to communicate about illegal political activity they were conducting—without being subject to public scrutiny—on Measure BB appearing on the November ballot.”

By Jonathan Goetz

June 30, 2017 (El Cajon) – Today is the last day of the fiscal year, and Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) ultimately lays off nine teachers and six classified employees effective today, according to Catherine Martin with GUHSD. This is down from 35.4 teacher lay-offs and 21 staff eliminations originally resolved.

East County News Service

June 18, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) – A new state program authorizes school districts to work with local water districts to provide free lead testing of drinking water at all school sites.  The results are in for Cajon Valley Union School District campuses, which draw water from three water agencies: Helix Water District, Otay Water District and Padre Dam Municipal Water District.

Source:  Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

June 12, 2017 (El Cajon) - The impact on lives that Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges have is never more apparent than on commencement day, when speakers talk about their first steps taken in their academic journeys and the encouragement they’ve received along the way.

By Julie Pendray

Photo via Twitter

June 6, 2017 (Alpine)--Lou Russo, who ran unsuccessfully three times for Alpine Union School District (AUSD) board, has been appointed to Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee.

“I am honored to announce that I have been unanimously selected by the Grossmont Union High governing board to be a member of the Citizen Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC),” Russo wrote in an email to news media in early May. “Although I am the representative at large, I will bring Alpine's perspective to the Bond Oversight processes.”

East County News Service

May 31, 2017 (Sacramento) - California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) today won approval by the Assembly for her legislation that will require school districts to test for lead contamination in their water supplies, and to notify parents if any lead is discovered. Assembly Bill 746 was approved on a vote of 68-0.

Source:  Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

Photo:  Viriginia Hall

May 27, 2017 (El Cajon) - Graduates of Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges have done it again. The two East County colleges will award 4,833 degrees and certificates this year, a 13 percent increase from last year and another record high for the college district.

East County News Service

May 25, 2017 (San Diego's East County) -- Throughout the month of June, approximately 4,797 students earning a high school diploma from nine comprehensive high schools, two charter high schools and three alternative high schools in the Grossmont Union High School District will be donning caps and gowns for  commencement exercises.  Congratulations, East County graduates!

Following is a schedule of graduation dates, times, locations, listing of valedictorians and salutatoriansby school, and a list of the valedictorians including parent names and communities.

By Ryan J. Smith, Executive Director of the Education Trust-West

May 17, 2017 (Washington D.C.) -- Today we rightly celebrate the milestone Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision issued on May 17^th, 1954 striking down school segregation. Yet today also marks another anniversary – the annual issuing of statements reminding us that, decades later, we still have not closed the gaps in access and opportunity that segregate our students and limit their ability to learn.

When asked about William Faulkner’s essay urging the nation to “go slow” on integration, Brown v. Board attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall pointed out “They don’t mean go slow. They mean don’t go.”

By Julie Pendray 

May 15, 2017 (Alpine) -- When construction of a high school in Alpine was delayed indefinitely following passage of bond measures in 2004 and 2008, Alpine Union School District (AUSD) decided to seek unification. Reorganizing the district would enable it to operate K-12 schools and build the high school without waiting on Grossmont Unified High School District (GUSD), which is responsible for the school’s construction under Props. H and U. Alpine’s proposal was given the green light by the County Office of Education, which forwarded its recommendation to the state Board of Education (Board) in 2014.

Source:  Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

May 9, 2017 (El Cajon) - Tim Garfield has seen it all in his 37 years as attorney for the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. Dealing with issues ranging from student discipline to an endangered species that caused a massive construction delay, Garfield has quietly handled the East County college district’s legal issues based on a deep knowledge of education law and human nature.

Source:  Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District

May 6, 2017 (El Cajon) - Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.

So is picking up college credits from more than 500 classes being offered this June 12-Aug. 3 at Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges. Open registration for summer session starts Monday, May 8, and continues until June 11.