Chris Amico: Journalist

ACTON — The lights over the Vasquez High School athletic field are almost finished, but trustees for the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District still have doubts about the project.

School Board President Fred Heslep refused to hear an update on the lighting project at Thursday night’s meeting, since the school board has never officially voted to endorse the project started by Vasquez High athletic director Tim Jorgensen.

“It doesn’t exist as far as the board is concerned,” Heslep said in the meeting. (more…)

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LITTLEROCK — State, district and charter school officials continue to sort through financial records of the defunct Henry Hearns Charter School of Academic Excellence, some of which show how precarious the school’s budget situation was at the end.

The school, which opened in 2000 with fanfare and high aims, ushered in the Antelope Valley’s first major encounter with the charter school movement. Charter schools operate independently from traditional school districts, though under their auspices, and obtain state funding for their operations. (more…)

ACTON — The ghost of Acton School continues to haunt the district that voted to close the campus 18 months ago.

Trustees for the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District voted 4-1 to cancel a restroom installation project at Meadowlark Elementary and High Desert Middle School on Thursday night. Part of the reasoning, aside from fiscal considerations, was a lingering discontent over Acton School’s closure.

“There’s a strong feeling in my mind that we’re going back to Acton,” said Trustee Melissa Harnett, who voted with the majority. (more…)

PALMDALE — By almost a 3-to-1 margin, teachers in the Palmdale School District rejected a tentative contract agreement reached two weeks ago after nearly two years of negotiations.

If approved, the contract would have maintained no-cost benefits for teachers until the 2007-08 school year, when the new contract expires. Teachers again would have given up a pay raise on the exchange, as they have since 2000.

Whatever the cost of the most expensive health plan offered to teachers in 2006-07, that amount would become the maximum district contribution for the next year.

The sound rejection by teachers, 602 voted no; 218 said yes, throws the process back into uncertainty. (more…)

PALMDALE — Teachers in the Palmdale School District will vote on a contract today and Thursday after nearly two years of negotiations, but one hated word threatens to derail the tenuous deal: Cap.

The Palmdale Elementary Teachers Association and district negotiators announced last week they had reached a tentative agreement at the end of their final negotiating session of the school year.

If approved, the contract would maintain no-cost benefits for teachers until the 2007-08 school year, when the new contract expires. Teachers again gave up a pay raise on the exchange, as they have since 2000. (more…)

LANCASTER — In a hearing to establish a restraining order, the former interim-principal of Vasquez High School and the man she accuses of shoving her against a wall in the school office met face to face Friday morning for the first time since the alleged incident occurred.

Sharon Millen, who resigned as principal days after the incident, appeared shaken for much of the hearing.

Her alleged assailant, Charlie Bang Sr., appeared without an attorney and said several times that he meant no harm to Millen or anyone else.

Bang faces a criminal charge of battery against a school official in the incident.

“I’m not a violent person,” Bang said. “There was no violence prior, the incident lasted only three or four seconds, and there was no violence after.” (more…)

ACTON — The interim principal of Vasquez High School, Sharon Millen, said she has resigned following a scuffle prompted by a parent’s attempt to seize records of his son’s suspension.

Millen, interviewed Thursday evening, said she is pressing charges in the May 4 incident, in which she said the parent shoved her and slammed her against a wall. She said a restraining order has also been filed.

“I am pressing it to the full extent of the law, for all the school’s benefit,” she said. (more…)

PALO ALTO — Three weeks after a brutal attack by fellow U.S. soldiers, Spc. Eric Huff is learning to walk again.

Shortly after midnight on Dec. 10, three soldiers from the 305th Quartermasters Company attacked Huff outside his barracks at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea.

According to a preliminary report by the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division, the three soldiers knocked Huff to the ground, then punched, kicked and stomped on his face and head, leaving him with a fractured skull.

The next thing Huff remembers is waking up in the base hospital, his parents at his bedside. Huff had been scheduled to leave South Korea on Dec. 10 after a two-year tour of duty.

Only a week ago, Huff could only take a few steps on his own. He did not leave his mother’s Lancaster home without a wheelchair. Now, he walks independently through the halls of a Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto. (more…)

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Army Spc. Eric Huff remembers a knock on his barracks door just after midnight on Dec. 10, the day he was scheduled to leave South Korea after a nearly two-year tour of duty.

Two other American soldiers stood outside. He walked out and shut the door behind him.

Then came a blow from behind, on the head, and Huff went down. His three assailants punched, kicked and stomped on Huff’s face and head, leaving him with a fractured skull.

The next thing Huff remembers is waking up in the base hospital two days later. His parents, who live in the Antelope Valley, were at his bedside. (more…)

AGUA DULCE — County officials brokered a shaky truce Tuesday afternoon between the manager of a trailer park and residents who, until a few days ago, drove through the park to get to their homes on Briggs Road.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department began receiving calls about a makeshift roadblock behind the Oasis trailer park and campground on Friday.

Rick Helton, a Briggs Road resident, was one of the first to encounter the hastily erected roadblock. On Tuesday, the barrier took the form of a dirt berm and a wrecked car.

“I came home Friday and everything was locked up. I couldn’t get home,” he said Tuesday, standing just outside the boundary of Oasis with other disgruntled residents. “My wife and children are in Canyon Country right now because we can’t get to our home.” (more…)