January 2007 - Kelly kane attended a meeting at the Mayor’s Office – to discuss the six pillars of excellence for education.

January 2007 - WPEF Board attended meeting with Henry Anker, LAUSD Dist. 3 technology expert, meeting at Orville Wright (to discuss how to spend the “Microsoft Money”).

Beautification Grants - January 2007

• Orville Wright - Pocket Park for joint use with the school and community
  
• Loyola Village - Irrigation and Garden Planting
  
• Paseo del Rey - Mural painting and development in conjunction with Otis College.
  

Partnership with Otis for Murals program.

WPEF purchased a Foundation Directory Subscription to assist with grantwriting campaign for our LMU family of schools. Contact Ann Wexler for more information.

2006 Strides
December 2006 - Received donation of laptops and desktops (60) for Westport Heights Elementary School

Holiday Lights Contest - December 2006 Thanks to Coffee Company, Paco’s Tacos, Vons, Just Massage, Jerry’s Liquor and Nanci Edwards for donations of prizes. Thank you for Nanci Edwards sponsorship!

Over the past three months, the LMU School of Education has been working with the different Westchester schools, the district, and various departments within the University to begin laying the foundation and building the proper relationships for the LMU Family of Schools. read the full letter...

Forouzan Faridian spearheaded the creation, collection and analysis of the teachers' surveys, utilizing community donations to purchase $15,000 worth of supplies to address our teachers' needs. The elementary schools and middle school teachers received their supplies on the first day of school in September. The High School teachers will receive their supplies on December 12th. WPEF values teachers and listens to their needs. We appreciate all the community members who donated towards this, with special thanks to VONS, and Office Depot.

Distribution of Teachers Supplies

For the third year, WPEF delivers supplies to all of the teachers in our seven local public schools. These requests were the results of surveys asking for priceless teacher input about our schools. We're listening. The supplies are merely a token of our appreciation for all the teachers hard work, expertise and care for our students. This year we gave over $25,000 in supplies.

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Kelly Kane was one of a handful of speakers at the LAUSD sponsored Parent to Parent night, two years in a row! WPEF is now mentoring other new parent groups to help public schools throughout LAUSD and California. For more information on the blueprint of how to get started, visit: partfoundation.org
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Marie Murphy and WPEF are instrumental in the planning to create a shared-use park on the corner of the Orville Wright Middle School campus, along with Mayor Villaraigosa’s office.
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Susan Way-Smith and Forouzan Faridian of WPEF led the charge to apply for AND RECEIVE a million dollar federal grant for the planning and implementation of Small Learning Communities (SLCs) at Westchester High School.
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WPEF is assisting with grantwriting in the areas of enrichment, curriculum, professional development and beautification for all of our family of 7 schools.
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GATES DONATES $1.3 MILLION TO LAUSD TO IMPROVE MATH CLASSES, Associated Press, Thu, Sep. 14, 2006 - LOS ANGELES - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.3 million to the Los Angeles Unified School District to improve algebra classes and other courses that prepare students for college. The grant will help all high schools in the district next year but for its first year, it will fund pilot programs in 17 high schools and provide 120 math teachers with more training and resources. The campuses include Arleta, Crenshaw, Dorsey, Francis Polytechnic, Grant, Hamilton, Los Angeles, North Hollywood, San Fernando, Sylmar, University, Van Nuys, Venice, Verdugo Hills and Westchester high schools. "The investments we make to improve instruction in our schools are investments in our children's future," Superintendent Roy Romer said. The foundation has invested more than $24.3 million in the Los Angeles region to open new high schools and strengthen existing ones.
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Meeting of the Minds at WHS 7/31/06. In Attendance were: Roy Romer, LAUSD Superintendent (first time ever at WHS), Marlene Canter, LAUSD School Board President and Representative for our district (and Allison Bajracharya and Dan), Anita Barner, Eric Davidson and Dachelle Byrd, Dr. Shane Martin and Dr. Irene Oliver & Clarence, Terry Marcellus and Kelly Kane. Discussions were focused on how to best partner with LMU to immediately affect change to all our schools with special focus on the middle (retention of local families) and high schools (SLC’s). We openly discussed autonomy and creating a board that consists of two members of each of the following: LMU, LAUSD/WHS, Neighborhood Council, and WPEF.

* WPEF met with LAUSD and assisted in getting the proposed charter school removed from Orville Wright Middle School Campus as well as an additional assistant principal back to Orville Wright that was to slated to be removed due to declining numbers.
* SLC’s (Small learning Committees) committees have begun at Westchester High School. Every other Tuesday at 7:15 at WHS there is a growing number of stakeholders meeting to discuss the development and support of our SLC’s.
* Kelly Kane, WPEF President, was invited to the annual Rotarians of greater LA breakfast by the Playa Sunrise Rotary on 7/18. The Guest Speaker was Dan Isaacs, CFO of LAUSD.
* Also on the 18th of July, Grace Strauther, Local District 3 Superintendent and Doug Waybright, Director of High Schools came to WHS to discuss with us the replacement of our high school assistant principals that will be leaving.
* Public School Expo April 2006 was a huge success with over 800 visitors. More on the expo...
* Playa Vista, Steve Soboroff and Sybil Buchanan have pledged to donate $10,000 to WPEF in September.
Plans are underway for the Sandra Tsing Loh event targeted for October. We need a committee to pull this together.
* Announcements were made that Neighborhood Council has created a committee for education (local public schools) whose sole purpose is to discuss autonomy (our own district). Terry Marcellus is the contact.
* Our July 2006 meeting was the first ever WPEF/PTA/Booster Summit, to work more cohesively together, and what can be coordinated through WPEF. This resulted in the different groups working to assemble email lists for each of our schools. These are set up as announcement lists through Yahoo, we also gathered all of the school Wish lists, Current school PR materials, and Calendars.
* Participated in Cowan Nature Center celebration
* Sponsored a table at the Grand Opening of Fire Station #5
* Participate in the 4th of July Parade – 2 years
* Hosted Mr Stephen Rochelle, Principal Orville Wright Middle School, who discussed the critical success factors for a child attending middle school.
* Obtained 501c(3) status within 90 days of filing paperwork.