The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 6, No. 39 - September 15, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................8 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Entertainment......................2 Legals.................................5,9 Pets........................................6 Real Estate...................10-12 Sports.................................5,7 TerriAnn in Torrance..........7 Weekend Forecast Another First Day Of School In The Books For Torrance Unified By Cristian Vasquez With 17 elementary schools, eight middle schools and four high schools, preparing for the first day of school is no simple task for the Torrance Unified School District. However, on Sept. 8 the District’s 29 schools welcomed back from summer break the almost 24,000 students. “The first day of school is always full of excitement for students, parents, teachers and staff,” Arnold Elementary School Principal Justine Lang said. “You can feel the energy on campus. It’s such a great day for everyone. Tiring, for sure, but great.” Preparations to welcome back the thousands of students from a three-month break range from teacher and staff training to classroom arrangements, such as ensuring lesson plans are in order, supplies are readily available and establishing the logistics to dealing with classrooms filled with students. “While our students were enjoying their time off with their families, our faculty and administration use the summer months to prepare for the coming year,” Torrance Unified School District President Martha Deutsch said. “All of our teachers participated in one or more training over the summer in subject areas ranging from English Language Arts to Math and Science. While we offer some Friday Partly Cloudy 71˚/62˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 71˚/63˚ Sunday Sunny 77˚/65˚ Tough Defense Leads to South Torrance First Win of the Season South Torrance High School football team overcomes a slow start to edge Hawthorne, 14-6, last Friday. South quarterback Anthony Bjazevich (No. 2) fakes a handoff to Evan Tookey (No. 7) and gained some ground yards during this play. Photo by Dirk Dewacther City To Update Guidelines for eNewsletter and Social Media By Cristian Vasquez After reviewing the city’s guidelines for publicizing content on the Torrance eNewsletter and the city’s social media sites, the council asked that a few modifications be made, including adding in detail the process by which content is reviewed and edited before being published. Currently the policies and guidelines do not detail what the information vetting process, prompting a request by Councilman Kurt Weideman on Aug. 9, 2016 to review said guidelines. The request was prompted after residents expressed concerns regarding an Aug. 4, advertisement that was created by the Torrance Refining Company [TRC] and included in a city webpage. “Following the incident at the ExxonMobil refinery on Feb. 18, 2015, a webpage was established to share any and all public information related to the refinery,” states the staff report signed by Cable & Community Relations Manager Michael D. Smith. “The page includes announcements, documents, and links to involved agencies, the refinery, and links to video recordings and presentation materials of all meetings and hearings.” The ad from TRC that raised concern among residents was shared with the intention of just sharing information with the community. However, many residents who read the post and took their concerns with city hall questioned the purpose of the ad, which led to the recommendation by the city manager for the council to review the city’s publication guidelines. “We post third-party information on a routine basis,” Smith said. “The intent behind providing that information is to extend transparency to the community…we include press releases from AQMD [Air Quality Management District], from the, city from the Chemical Safety Board, as well as ExxonMobil at the time.” Upon further review and after looking at the city e-newsletter, Smith’s department determined that there are an estimated 1,000 subscribers, of which 40 percent clicked on the newsletter. Of that total, only and estimated 25 percent people clicked on the read more section of the article. Given those numbers, the department believed it was necessary to clear up any misunderstandings and confusion that could have been caused by the TRC information. The council expressed a mutual agreement in that the policies and guidelines established See City Council, page 8 See School Board, page 8
Torrance_091516_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above