Horace Mann

More than 15 years after the Glendale Unified School District started switching elementary schools to year-round calendars to accommodate a burgeoning student population, enrollment has declined sufficiently to move the last three schools back to a traditional school calendar in the 2008-09 academic year. “What we’re really talking about is the end of an era,” Supt. Michael Escalante said at Tuesday’s board of education meeting, where school officials discussed the logistics of the switch.

As many of you know, Burbank just celebrated 100 years of its incorporation as a city.  There are many things to admire about Burbank, my hometown and the place I've lived in nearly all of my life.  However, a few things perplex me. For example, recently opened on Lake St. is the new façade to the Burbank Water and Power building.  Have you seen it?  It's gleam and sheen would make any private company proud, only this is a public utility. Then there's the extensive maintenance work being done on the police and fire headquarters on Third St.  But why is such work being done on a building a little more than 10 years old when right across the street the nearly 40-year-old central branch library remains a dinosaur, an aging embarrassment to city visitors.  How many Burbankers instead visit the newer, nicer Buena Vista instead?

Darleene Barrientos Grinning broadly for the camera with three classmates, Nona Buniatyan, 10, was excited Monday about leaving Horace Mann Elementary School for Roosevelt Middle School. Nona is also a bit anxious -- she was promoted Monday to sixth grade, along with all of Horace Mann's fifth-grade classes. Next school year's sixth-grade students will be pioneers at Roosevelt Middle School, which was previously only for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Darleene Barrientos Police arrested a 42-year-old Glendale man Wednesday on suspicion of sexual assault and attempted kidnapping. He is scheduled to be arraigned in court today. Glendale Police said Gabino Rosales tried to grab a 7-year-old girl near Glendale Avenue and Windsor Road and drag her to his car on Tuesday. The girl pulled away and ran to her mother, police said. Parents, school officials and students had been on heightened alert Wednesday after Tuesday's attempted kidnapping of the Horace Mann Elementary School student, who happened to be on vacation from school.

Students in kindergarten, first, second and third grades at Horace Mann Elementary School helped build what could become the world's largest crayon. Students donated "Leftola" -- leftover blue crayons -- to help build Crayola's 10-foot-long crayon as part of the company's 100th birthday celebration. The company's goal is to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for making the largest crayon. A crew of Crayola employees is traveling across the country in the Crayola ART-rageous Adventure Bus and making stops at schools, festivals, zoos, fairs and retailers in 25 cities.

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE ? Horace Mann Elementary School Principal Rosa Alonso likens herself to the head coach of a team with its biggest match of the season starting this week. Students took a practice test Monday in preparation for the California Standards Test, the state performance assessment that measures academic proficiency and growth. Official testing starts today. But before delving into the one-hour practice test, students gathered in groups on the playground for the kind of pep rally that more often precedes sporting events.

As many of you know, Burbank is celebrating 100 years of its incorporation as a city. There are many things to admire about Burbank, my hometown and the place I've lived in nearly all of my life. However, a few things perplex me. For example, recently opened on Lake Street is the new façade to the Burbank Water and Power building. Have you seen it? Its gleam and sheen would make any private company proud, only this is a public utility. Then there's the extensive maintenance work being done on the police and fire headquarters on Third Street.

Gary Moskowitz Eleven-year-old Vardan Semerjyan is already thinking about the future career choices he is going to make. At a special career day for sixth-grade students at Horace Mann Elementary School, Vardan learned that even his experience winning first place in a karate match this year can be used to help him as he plans his career. "I had to fight a kid bigger than me in the final round, and I thought I couldn't do it, but I kept punching and won. If you just follow your dreams, you can do anything you put your mind to," Vardan said.

New clothes, soap, shampoo and a backpack are things some students might take for granted. But not all. That is why more than 10 children from Horace Mann and Thomas Edison elementary schools were treated to new uniforms and school supplies Thursday as part of the Assistance League of Glendale's Operation School Bell. "You know, new shoes can make such a difference," said Lois Frederick, public relations chairwoman of the Assistance League. Operation School Bell is a program that, for the past 24 years, has been providing underprivileged, low-income children in Glendale with school uniforms, supplies and hygiene products, Frederick said.

Sitting down to an exam never looked so fun Monday at Horace Mann Elementary School, where public officials and community leaders descended on the campus for a standardized testing kickoff celebration. “We are trying to tell the kids that this is a celebration of their learning,” Principal Rosa Alonso said as she weaved through the crowd doling out high fives. It is testing season for California public school districts. Horace Mann students, like thousands of others in grades 2 through 11 across Glendale Unified, are sitting for the California Standards Tests - commonly known as the CSTs - that assess proficiency in subjects including English, math, science and history.

As many of you know, Burbank is celebrating 100 years of its incorporation as a city. There are many things to admire about Burbank, my hometown and the place I've lived in nearly all of my life. However, a few things perplex me. For example, recently opened on Lake Street is the new façade to the Burbank Water and Power building. Have you seen it? Its gleam and sheen would make any private company proud, only this is a public utility. Then there's the extensive maintenance work being done on the police and fire headquarters on Third Street.

As many of you know, Burbank just celebrated 100 years of its incorporation as a city.  There are many things to admire about Burbank, my hometown and the place I've lived in nearly all of my life.  However, a few things perplex me. For example, recently opened on Lake St. is the new façade to the Burbank Water and Power building.  Have you seen it?  It's gleam and sheen would make any private company proud, only this is a public utility. Then there's the extensive maintenance work being done on the police and fire headquarters on Third St.  But why is such work being done on a building a little more than 10 years old when right across the street the nearly 40-year-old central branch library remains a dinosaur, an aging embarrassment to city visitors.  How many Burbankers instead visit the newer, nicer Buena Vista instead?

Horace Mann Elementary School kicked off testing season on Monday with flashing lights, pom-poms and energetic speeches meant to put a positive spin on an otherwise tense few weeks. “This is a celebration,” said Mann Elementary Principal Rosa Alonso of the rally, which drew district administrators and local celebrities. “Our testing is our championship game and we are really getting the kids excited about showing what they know, and showing the world how smart they are.” Horace Mann students are joining thousands of others — grades 2 through 11 — across Glendale Unified in taking the California Standards Tests, state-wide exams that assess proficiency in several subjects, including English, math, science and history.

SOUTH GLENDALE — A group of Horace Mann Elementary School students on Friday were the youngest consultants Glendale parks and recreation officials said they had ever worked with. The group of a half-dozen mostly fourth- and fifth-graders presented pitches for a new proposed park space on Maryland Avenue, about three-tenths of a mile away from the school. “One of the purposes was problem solving and a higher level of thinking skills,” Assistant Principal Lynda Teems said.

As she stood by herself onstage, Ani Vardayan said she realized how much she had grown. The 12-year-old was about to belt out the Armenian song “Qele Qele” in one of the final performances during Horace Mann Elementary School’s multicultural week. Just two years ago, she arrived at the school without knowing a single word of English. “Little by little, with the help of my teachers and parents, I learned,” she said. “Now I’m doing well . .

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE ? Horace Mann Elementary School Principal Rosa Alonso likens herself to the head coach of a team with its biggest match of the season starting this week. Students took a practice test Monday in preparation for the California Standards Test, the state performance assessment that measures academic proficiency and growth. Official testing starts today. But before delving into the one-hour practice test, students gathered in groups on the playground for the kind of pep rally that more often precedes sporting events.

More than 15 years after the Glendale Unified School District started switching elementary schools to year-round calendars to accommodate a burgeoning student population, enrollment has declined sufficiently to move the last three schools back to a traditional school calendar in the 2008-09 academic year. “What we’re really talking about is the end of an era,” Supt. Michael Escalante said at Tuesday’s board of education meeting, where school officials discussed the logistics of the switch.

Students huddled, smiling, their faces transfixed to the mounted television on their classroom wall. Kun Kin, 10, mouthed the words to his news report as he watched himself read out loud on the monitor. Dong Yoo, 10, giggled at a teacher's confession to thinking Ashton Kutcher was cute. The two are members of the Mann Action News Network, a closed-circuit, almost completely student-driven broadcast at Horace Mann Elementary School. Topics on Mann Action News range from teachers' celebrity crushes to new school uniform fashions.