EL SEGUNDO HERALD December 13, 2018 Page 5
School Spotlight
The Future Is the Past
Sports
Ocean League Starts Soon
By Gregg McMullin
The El Segundo High School basketball
teams had an exciting week leading up to
their Ocean League start this week. The boys
won two close games while the Lady Eagles
advanced to the third place game in the Valley
Christian Tournament. The boys soccer team
is off to a perfect start and look to be tested
in upcoming games.
Boys Basketball Improves to 8-4
Head coach David March has his team playing
with an up-tempo attitude and a stifling
defense that paid off in a signature win over a
top-ranked team. Though the Eagles’ win over
Long Beach Cabrillo wasn’t one over a ranked
team, the Jaguars proved to test El Segundo’s
stamina. In the end, the Eagles second half
rally proved that they could make a comeback
and hold off their opponents.
The real test came against Wiseburn-Da Vinci,
a team ranked 10th. The Wolves reached the
CIF Southern Section finals last season and
they return eight players from that team. So
for the Eagles, this would be a test on how far
they’ve come and how they stack up against
another ranked opponent. Earlier in the season,
they faced top-ranked Providence. The Eagles
competed well before losing control in the
second half and falling short in that game.
Against Da Vinci, it would be another story
and a different outcome. The Wolves had a
10-point lead in the fourth quarter only to see
the Eagles make a comeback and win 41-38.
The nearly packed gym would witness one of
the great games in what has quickly become a
rivalry between two schools in the same city.
Miles Jones, who is the Eagles’ leading scorer,
took a defensive rebound and went the other
way for a layup to give El Segundo an early
4-0 lead. Da Vinci would take a 10-8 lead
thanks to Blake Cabrera’s three-pointer. Dylan
Aubert’s late three-pointer in the first quarter
reclaimed the lead for the Eagles, 11-10.
The tempo and the aggressive style of defense
made for a low-scoring game that plays well
Featured Writer: Allison Armijo,
Junior, ESHS
“Tell me a story, grandpa!”
“One of the past or future?”
“You decide, you always have the best stories.”
The story was one of the past:
A sprightly young woman hovered down
the street, completely entranced by her phone,
physically unable to look up from the screen.
This woman, though endowed with pictureperfect
features and a curious mind, knew
nothing of paperback books or records. She
knew of messages, and “dings,” and salivating
every time she received a text. However, this
was normal behavior in her town.
One night, an overbearing storm swept
across the technology-infested town. The phone
lines were thrashed and diced, scraping along
sidewalks, shattering windows and decimating
any and all technological conservatories.
Of course, nobody in the town noticed this
because they had all departed from the real
world. Not physically of course, but they
were significantly disconnected from the
reality of the real world.
And when the people went to plug in their
phones and other devices for the night, they did
not realize they would lose much more than
battery power. When they woke in the morning,
realizing the lifeless state of their devices, they
embraced a psychotic state of mind. They began
to try and converse with one another to explain
or ask questions about what happened, but
could not physically bring themselves to say the
words. It was painful, watching them try to say
phrases they knew their mouths could not physically
form. It was like pins and needles, except
verbs and nouns. Instead of abandoning their
devices and devoting their time to rejoining society,
the rabid group resorted to fighting each
other for powered devices. Words could not
solve their conflict, so they resorted to violence.
There was one phone left in the town -- one
phone that had not been drained of its power.
One phone that rang. One phone with a ringtone
that beckoned Pavlov’s dogs and sent them
running towards its beacon. Sprinting furiously
over their fallen neighbors, they reached the
device. Yes, it was a phone; but it was a flip
phone. The people, unable to satisfy their
incessant desire for a digital release, began
to plug their chargers into their bodies, seeing
if they could recharge themselves. Left with
gory gashes and spouts, the people caused
their own demise. Not a single person left.
Only a phone. Ringing. Ringing. Ringing.
“Did you enjoy the story?”
“Absolutely! But why were those people
so silly? Obsessed with something as silly
as a phone...”
“Well, back in my day, they would tell us
this story so we would not consume ourselves
with such remedial toys. In an attempt to
eradicate all technological devices, the government
issued a bill stating that cell phones and
all devices period were banned. We gradually
returned to our archaic ways and grew to
enjoy -- even thrive -- in old ways of life.”
“Good, I am so glad I don’t have a phone. Don’t
want to end up like those phone-thirsty
zombies”
– All student’s creative writings are
welcome. Please keep at 500 words and send
to web@heraldpublications.com •
See Eagles, page 14
ES School Board Welcomes Two
New Members Heading Into 2019
By Duane Plank
Tuesday evening, the El Segundo School
Board administered the oath of office to
new members Paulette Caudill and Tracy
Miller-Zarneke and welcomed back the reelected
Emilee Layne. All three were voted
in by the El Segundo electorate when the
ballots were tallied after the election polls
closed on Nov. 6.
It appears 2019 is shaping up as the
year of the woman in El Segundo Unified
School District (ESUSD), with all five
board members, the superintendent (Dr.
Melissa Moore) and almost all the school
site principal positions helmed by women.
Superintendent Moore said, “I can say, in
our case, everybody was interviewed, the
best person was selected…and if that happened
to be a woman, so be it.”
The only exception is Ali Rabiei, who is
the acting principal at El Segundo Middle
School. He took over for Dr. Melissa
Gooden, who was tabbed to succeed Dr.
Jennifer Hawn when Hawn unexpectedly
resigned her post to take a position with
the Whittier City School District.
After the oaths, protocol moved forward
with the election of officers for the upcoming
year. Nancy Cobb was selected to take
over the reins of the presidency from Layne,
with Dr. Jeanie Nishime selected as vice
president, and Miller-Zarneke to serve as
clerk for the next year.
Prior to the meeting, Miller-Zarnecke
said she was eager to assume her duties,
having spent “countless hours in gearing-up
discussions and meetings, digging through
piles of reading materials, and attending
a jam-packed four days at the California
School Board Association Annual Educational
Conference in San Francisco.”
For her part, long-time ESUSD teacher
Caudill, who also attended the San Francisco
conference, emailed that she was “excited
and inspired” to put into practice some of
the tenets she had learned at last month’s
conference.
After a brief celebratory reception to
honor the election-winning members, Moore
then detailed the myriad accomplishments
during Layne’s tenure as president, thanking
her for her service and leadership in a “very
challenging year.”
The Board then quickly got down to the
nuts and bolts of the only regularly scheduled
meeting for December, designating meeting
dates for 2019, as well as approving member
assignments for so called “ad-hoc” committees
that will be tasked to members for the next year.
Special presentations were next on the agenda,
with Moore starting the proceedings by announcing
the designation of the prestigious Golden
Bell Award to the El Segundo High School
Career Technical Education Program, citing
the implementation of the school’s Biomedical
Science Pathway. The District also received a
$1,000 sponsorship award from the California
School Board Association to further support
the Biomed Pathway and students involved in
the program. Moore gave kudos to Biomed
Pathway teachers Donna Tucker, Kathy Moody
and Tiffany Missoni.
Also presenting Tuesday evening was PBK
Architect representative Gilbert Baez, who,
along with ESUSD administrator Dr. Dylan
Farris, updated the members on the recently
demolished Madsen House, with plans for
the new modular classroom building, parking
lot, and upgrades to the playing field on the
western acreage of the Richmond Street School
(RSS) property. The summary noted current
blueprints on the drawing board, pending cost
estimates, and the anticipated timelines for
project completion. Layne said that none of the
plans mentioned were “set in stone.” Moore
had said, prior to the meeting, that while she
hoped the process for the new facilities would
move forward quickly, she understood that “it is
important that we follow all of the regulations
and timelines as it relates to student safety.”
Moore then retuned to present information
regarding the “Profile of a Graduate” document
that has been in the works for months.
She explained what the profile was and why
it’s needed, as well as how the profile was
See School Board, page 13
Miles Jones (left) and #2 Dylan Aubert prevent Da Vinci’s Nathaniel Perry to score in the closing moments of the game.