LAUSD DENIED BID FOR 2 DECATHLON TEAMS.Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer In the battle of academic decathlon decathlon (dĭkăth`lŏn), in modern Olympic games, a contest for men held over two days and composed of 10 track-and-field events. contenders, the final score is: Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. - 1, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. county schools - 2. California Academic Decathlon officials Wednesday stuck by their decision to allow Los Angeles County to send its two top schools to the state competition in March. But they ruled that the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) will be allowed to send only its winning school, not the second-place finisher as the district had requested. ``The request was denied,'' said Judy Combs, executive director of the California Academic Decathlon board of directors. ``I don't understand why they want this.'' The dispute began when a mistake led the state board to allow Los Angeles County's top two finishers to compete for the state title. LAUSD officials asked for the same privilege. ``It's about fairness,'' said LAUSD spokesman Brad Sales. Beyond that, LAUSD officials say the number of teams sent from each district should be limited only by how well they score when compared to schools in other districts. Several LAUSD teams would have beaten the top two county teams if they had been competing. ``It's especially unfair when they send teams from other counties to the competition, and Los Angeles teams have scored higher,'' Sales said. Yet the county will be allowed to send both Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as "Beverly" or as "BHHS") is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. (The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on Beverly's campus. and Peninsula High School Peninsula High School is a public high school located in Purdy, directly north of the city limits of Gig Harbor, Washington. It is built on a hill overlooking Henderson Bay and Burley Lagoon. History Peninsula High School was founded in 1947 in its current location. in Palos Verdes Palos Verdes is often used to refer to a group of coastal cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the Los Angeles/South Bay area of California. This affluent bedroom community is known for its dramatic views, good schools [1] extensive horse trails [2] to the state championship - all because of a mistake. During the county competition, Beverly Hills High was announced as the winner - but in reality, Peninsula High had scored higher. Rather than disappoint Beverly Hills students, the state decided to allow both teams into the California competition. Combs argued that LAUSD does not deserve to send two schools, and the scores of the losing LAUSD schools was a ``nonissue non·is·sue n. A matter of so little import that it ought not to become a focus of controversy and comment: She felt that the matter of her attire should have been a nonissue. .'' ``We allowed one more team from L.A. County this year because of a specific reason, a mistake,'' Combs said. ``There is no other reason that any other team should be allowed to go.'' Combs said the state board understands the Los Angeles district's concerns that the system is unfair to high-scoring schools. This year, it agreed that any school scoring 47,000 points or more could progress onto the state meet - even if they did not win their local competition. But this year, no additional schools qualified, Combs said. ``We would be happy to honor that,'' she said, ``but that didn't happen this year.'' LAUSD board member David Tokofsky, who formally coached Marshall High School's academic decathlon team, said he believed the state competition would suffer because of the decision. ``All she cares about,'' he said of Combs, ``is the show must go on, and cares very little about high academic achievement and a competition that encourages such achievement.'' |
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