High School Inc. Academies, the innovative technical school set up by the Santa Ana Chamber and Santa Ana Unified School District, is only in its first semester. But already the idea is catching on. Anaheim Chamber CEO Todd Ament says his group is talking with Anaheim schools about establishing a similar program in their city. Six hundred Santa Ana high-school freshmen,mostly poor and 90% Hispanic,are enrolled in the first class. They learn skills such as Web page design, nursing and mechanical engineering, visit construction sites and law offices and get business internships. HSI occupies part of the 2,600-student Valley High School and is expected to gradually take over the entire building. Executive Director Jack Oakes, a veteran teacher and administrator, gives the school “an A+ for passion” and says, “The kids are off the chart.” Donors gave about $480,000 in 2007 but Oakes says more private support is needed. And he worries that the state’s and district’s financial woes could force larger class sizes, hurting the school’s small-team setup …
Marathon man: “Jan. 3 to 16 is the heaviest travel schedule I have ever had,” says Scott Baugh, which is saying a lot for the lobbyist/former Assembly leader/OC GOP chairman. Baugh went to Iowa for Mitt Romney, returned here for two days to chair the OC Marathon, then caught a red-eye to help Mitt in New Hampshire. Next he was flying to Colorado, OC, Seattle and New Orleans for clients before rejoining Mitt in Michigan and returning home to spar with OC Dem Chairman Frank Barbaro on “Inside OC.” Baugh says the marathon “is back,” thanks to new sponsors Avia and Nutrilite, after a year on the “endangered list” following the pullout of founding sponsor PacifiCare. The mood in the Romney camp “is surprisingly good” …
No cigars for John: OC Supe Chairman John Moorlach rips Gov. Arnold for a late reaction to the state’s fiscal crisis. Moorlach notes that the county government in the past year reduced its $1.4 billion retiree medical unfunded liability by $940 million through union negotiations, while the governor addressed the state’s corresponding $118 billion unfunded liability by appointing a commission (whose members include Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle). “It came out with a report this week that was of no value to anyone in a position to address” the problem, says Moorlach. “We need action, Gov. Schwarzenegger, not whining about cycles” …
Author Salman Rushdie speaks at Chapman U on March 31 …
They’re engaged: OC publicist Maryann Maloney and KRLA-AM (870) News Director Larry Marino …
You won’t find prize-winning hairstylist Dusty Simington at Salon Gregorie’s in Fashion Island on Fridays anymore. That’s when he runs up to Kevin Josephson Salon in Beverly Hills to serve celebrity clients such as Ryan Seacrest and Tiffany Amber Thiessen. Simington charges up to $500 a session.
