This is great news for the community!  Eagle Rock High School is the first school in LAUSD to be authorized as an International Baccalaureate World School.

From Denise Campos, Director of Community Affairs for LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan:

Los Angeles-Eagle Rock High School, the only traditional campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with a grades 7-12 configuration, is now the first school ever in the District to be authorized as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. As such, the school will implement a fully recognized IB Middle Years Programme for students in 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grades beginning this fall.

“Your hard work, dedication, and an ongoing mission of excellence have gained Eagle Rock High School this merit,” LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy said. “You are truly a role model for this district.”

“This is an incredibly historic moment for the students, families and greater community of Los Angeles,” added Judy Elliott, Chief Academic Officer for the LAUSD. “After three years of hard work and dedication, Eagle Rock, under the leadership of Principal Salvador Velasco, has been awarded this international  recognition of excellence. This has truly been a school-wide and community effort.”

An IB education occurs at three levels-the primary, middle years and diploma (high school) programs. Each offers a rigorous curriculum that provides an education with a global perspective.

IB students are encouraged to develop specific character and learning traits-to be thinkers, inquirers and communicators who are principled, open-minded, reflective, balanced, knowledgeable, and caring risk-takers. The IB designation provides a framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world.

In April, a team of evaluators from IB visited Eagle Rock High School and shortly thereafter, the IB America headquarters notified Principal Velasco that the school had exceeded the requirement and would be authorized as an IB school. It was the culmination of more than three years of Eagle Rock High School’s faculty, staff, administration, students and families preparing to provide the IB Middle Years Programme.

“Our school community made a determination that Eagle Rock High School would build an environment of success where every student has the opportunity, motivation and tools to achieve,” Velasco said. “The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme is the foundation we chose to build on to further grow and develop our educational culture of excellence. We are very proud of the teachers, families, faculty, administrators, and especially our students, who embraced IB and worked so hard to achieve our authorization.”

Eagle Rock High School is located in northeast Los Angeles, between the cities of Pasadena and Glendale. As the only traditional LAUSD school with a 7-12 grades configuration, it houses both a comprehensive junior and senior high school, as well as a magnet program serving gifted, high-ability and highly-gifted students in grades 7-10. In addition, Eagle Rock High School will offer the fully authorized IB Middle Years Programme to all students in grades 7-10 in the 2011-12 school year.

To transform Eagle Rock High School into an IB school prepared and qualified to undertake the Middle Years Programme, teachers and administrators underwent more than two years of specialized training, most of it funded by the school itself. In addition, the school adjusted its bell schedule to allow for longer instructional periods and re-emphasized areas of the curriculum, such as foreign language and the arts, to align the course work with the expectations of the IB. This was achieved while maintaining strong English, math, science and social studies programs. Students and families were included throughout the process.

The program consists of eight subject groups integrated through five areas of interaction that provide a framework for learning across subjects. IB students are required to study their first language, a second language, humanities, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical education and technology. In the final year of the Middle Years Programme, students engage in a personal project that allows them to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have developed throughout the program.

“Eagle Rock faculty, staff and administration have been working toward certification for the past three years, undergoing rigorous training, and aligning the school’s curriculum, schedule and mission to meet the IB’s exacting standards,” said Laurie Bollman-Little, the IB coordinator for Eagle Rock High School. “Our school got behind the Middle Years Programme because it will provide the foundation and methodology for our students to succeed in middle school, in high school, in college and beyond.”

Looking ahead, Principal Velasco said the school’s next goal is to be authorized to offer the IB Diploma Programme (high school). “At Eagle Rock, we see the IB as a blueprint we can follow so that all our students achieve at their highest levels.”

For more information on Eagle Rock High School, visit the school’s website.

November Home Sales Eagle Rock 90041

Here are the single family home that closed escrow in Eagle Rock 90041 this November.  We have two exciting home sales to report: 1205 Eagle Vista (a beautifully remodeled midcentury which sold for $1,155,000 and is now the highest home sale in Eagle Rock since 2007!), and 1260 Hill Drive (another great midcentury which sold for $725,000 and has a price per square foot of $489.20 – we’re working on getting Eagle Rock property values back up!).

Check out what sold last month in Highland Park and Glassell Park/Mount Washington.

You can see what sold in Eagle Rock in October here.

This Saturday, December 3, 1-5pm the Solheim Lutheran Home is hosting their Second Annual “Spirit of Giving” Christmas Boutique!

• Holiday shopping at our vendor tables
• Christmas caroling
• Christmas sweets and treats
• Hot chocolate, cider and coffee
• Silent auction
• Plus, Santa Claus will be coming to Soheim 2-4pm for pictures!

Get in the holiday spirit by attending the “Spirit of Giving” Christmas Boutique while benefiting a great cause, the Solheim Lutheran Home.  Solheim is a non-profit continuing care retirement community that helps provide an abundant life for older adults.

You can also sign up as a vendor to sell your own merchandise  – go to www.SolheimLutheran.org and click on the link to download the vendor information and application.

For more information call Tina Antypas at 323.257.7518 or email giving@solheimlutheran.org.

The Festival of Trees, presented by the Women’s Twentieth Century Club of Eagle Rock, is this Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.  Enjoy hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar while viewing and bidding on more than 20 Holiday trees, each beautifully decorated by a community business or organization (including one decorated by us!).  There will also be a Santa’s Workshop Drawing for a bonanza of gifts valued at more then $2,000 (tickets are $5 each).  This event is always a lot of fun, and we hope to see you there!

Event will be at the Women’s 20th Century Club house (5105 Hermosa Avenue, Eagle Rock)
Cocktail Attire • No-Host Bar
$30.00 Advance Ticket Sales Only

For ticket information please contact: Holly Nieto 323-259-2598 or hnieto@oxy.edu

WTCC, ER is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible as allowed.

This Wednesday, November 30, from 4-8 pm, support the Eagle Rock High School Booster Club by eating at Panda Express, (located at 4947 Eagle Rock Blvd.).   Present a flyer when ordering and your ERHS Booster Club will get 20% of the purchase.  Click here to download a flyer, or you can get one at the ERHS Parent Center.

Facebook- Now you can get the latest news and updates on the Boosters via Facebook.  “Like” your ERHS Booster Club and get all the information directly to your Facebook feed.

Ways you can help:

Donate Equipment for Concessions – The booster club is still looking for donated items to equip their concession stand.  In dire need of a small portable electric cooking stove, ice chest, large coffee maker, pots and pans, igloos, etc. Concessions are a great amenity for our visitors and fans so we welcome all donations.<

Get Involved – The new ERHS Booster Club needs you.  They have business outreach, concessions, membership drives, special events, and many more activities in need of volunteers.  The booster club is raising money to support our teams and our school, so call or email Patricia Perez (626.390.6444 or patricia@vpepr.com) today to discuss your availability.

Join Us – If you are not already a member, consider joining today.  Patricia can email you an application form or you can pick one up at the ERHS Parent Center next time you’re on campus.  It costs only $10 per person to join this growing community of parents, alumni, administrators, teachers, and community members dedicated to supporting our school.

Just sold! 5126 Ellenwood Drive just closed escrow – proof that short sales are indeed do-able!  We brought this classic Craftsman bungalow on the market on March 28 of this year, accepted on offer on April 18, and closed escrow on August 29. Just four months to get short sale approval from Bank of America, navigate through buyers’ inspections, and close escrow.

Here are the details:

Listed on March 28, 2011
Closed on August 29, 2011 – for a final sales price of $584,000!
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths
1,612 sq. ft. house
9,150 sq. ft. lot, with pool

Here’s my take on this report:

Median price means half the properties sold for more than this number and half sold for less than this number. Is it meaningful? Figure this out (all concerning the month of July only):

3 of the sales this year were for more than the highest sale last year

But what is truly noteworthy about this year over last year is:

The number of active listings is over 40% fewer
The number of properties pending sale is 150% more
The percent of properties under contract compared to what is on the market is over 330% more!

The market is much more active right now. Why? We can say it’s low interest rates and that there is a perception that we are truly at the bottom, but we had the same factors going last year. The economic news isn’t much better, in fact, a number of homeowners have decided to sell because the future holds no promise that the picture will improve in the next couple of years. I think the true meaning is that buyers are buying homes to live in because everyone has to live somewhere and many people do not want to rent, and sellers can sell in this market if their homes are priced right.