State of City in Paramount: After-School Program is Unveiled in Speech

By Karen Robes, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Calif.

Feb. 2–PARAMOUNT — City and school officials at the 2007 State of the City Address on Thursday unveiled a new $1.7 million after-school program that will provide academic help and recreational activities at every Paramount Unified School District K-8 campus for the next three years.

The STAR program, which stands for Success Through Academics and Recreation, will begin Tuesday at Hollydale, Jefferson, Lakewood and Tanner schools and will commence at the rest of the campuses in the coming months, City Manager Linda Benedetti-Leal said.

“I think it’s truly a unique and wonderful partnership that we’re developing (between the city and the school district),” she told the more than 100 people gathered at Progress Park Plaza.

The State of the City program featured Benedetti-Leal, PUSD Superintendent David Verdugo and other community leaders lauding the town’s upcoming projects and past accomplishments, including declining crime rates and technological elements that improve the district’s communication with parents.

Benedetti-Leal often alluded to the city’s 50th anniversary of incorporation, which officials celebrated this week, and often compared the Paramount of 1957 with the city of today.

“When we had started out in the city, back in 1957, we only had about 26,000 residents, and this number is really slightly misleading because it only accounted for our human residents and it did not cover the other 25,000 residents that we had at the time,” she said, showing a slide of cows, referencing the city’s dairy roots.

“Over the next couple of decades, the people kept coming but we did have some significant bovine flight out into Chino,” she joked.

Part I crimes, violent crimes that include rape and homicides, dropped 15.7 percent and property crimes were down 15.4 percent from last year, Benedetti-Leal said.

Sheriff’s deputies also made 49.6 percent more arrests, she said.

“This is the highest arrest rate, not only in the Lakewood Station area, but in the entire region,” she added.

The city spent $9 million on public safety, which accounts for 38 percent of general fund.

The city manager also reported a $1.9 million surplus from the city’s $36 million budget. During this budget cycle, the city funded a gang specialist, a housing authority inspector and neighborhood preservationist, whose job is to coordinate city services to solve targeted neighborhood issues.

The city also hired another two-man patrol car, which is freed from answering service calls to address specific problems.

Verdugo gave a brief overview of the school year, which included the creation of a K-12 “Arts for All” program and the November passage of a $100 million bond measure.

“This campaign for kids will pave the way for many improvements, including a new Paramount High School sports complex/stadium,” he said.

The district also established a wellness and nutrition policy, a new Web site and a “Connect Ed” voice message system, which enables the district to message and connect with 17,000 students and their families in the event of an emergency.

Almost twice as high as state rates 10 years ago, dropout rates at Paramount Unified have fallen below state and county rates in the last six years, Verdugo said.

In terms of the Academic Achievement Index, Paramount outpaced 46 other districts in Los Angeles County over the last four years, gaining about 20 percent more than the next highest API point gainer, Verdugo said.

“Considerable improvement is always our goal,” he said. “Our schools are facing challenges, but we continue to work toward improvement.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, Press-Telegram, Long Beach, Calif.

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