Gains & losses

GAINS

All eyes on bond vote

If voters give a “thumbs up” to Huntington Beach Union High School

District’s $123-million bond on Nov. 9, other districts may follow suit,

local educators say. Huntington Beach City School District administrators

say they support issuing a bond and concede that if the high school

district is successful, it could bode well for their own election.

Down on the farm

Plavan Elementary School kindergartners took a barnyard tour of

Centennial Farm, where they were able to cradle baby chickens and come

face to face with a 1-ton Holstein cow. The farm, at the Orange County

Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, brings in 50,000 students a year for guided

tours that give classes a unique hands-on experience with agriculture and

animal husbandry.

Off to a healthy start

The Huntington Beach Union High School board granted approval to accept a

$400,000 grant from the state Department of Education to establish a

Healthy Start program at Westminster High School. Funding is from June

1999 to June 2002. The program will provide support to low-income

families through various community partnerships as students transition

from elementary school to high school. Matching funds of $100,000 are

required.

LOSSES

Art Center faces audit

As the revamped Huntington Beach Art Center opens its first exhibit

Sunday, accounts from the previous administration remain unsettled,

prompting an audit. The desire for an audit, approved last month, grew

out of concern about missing funds and expense records.

Spiritual bonds

American Indians and activists reinforced their spiritual bond with the

land at the Bolsa Chica mesa. About 60 people made the pilgrimage to the

sensitive habitat, where they lamented the push to develop the mesa as

they performed a religious ceremony to honor ancestors who once lived

there and, some believe, remain buried at the site. Hearthside plans to

build 1,235 houses on the 215-acre coastal property overlooking the

wetlands.

Officer to appeal firing

The city is gearing up for an appeal of a recent court decision that

Frank Opp, a Huntington Beach jail detention officer, should not be fired

for allegedly assaulting his estranged wife. Opp is seeking to be

reinstated. An internal investigation led Huntington Beach Police Chief

Ron Lowenberg to fire Opp in June 1994 after Opp allegedly assaulted the

woman when he found her with another man. After three administrative

hearings decided against him, Opp took the case to court.