Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, May 4, 2019

8

EDUCATION & YOUTH

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 4, 2019 

DR. BRENT FORSEE RECOMMENDED 
AS NEXT ARCADIA UNIFIED ASSISTANT 
SUPERINTENDENT

ARCADIA-- After nearly seven years as the principal of Arcadia 
High School, Dr. Brent Forsee is being recommended 
for a promotion to the position of Assistant Superintendent 
for the Arcadia Unified School District. Dr. David Vannasdall, 
Superintendent of the Arcadia Unified School District, 
is recom-mending to the Board of Education that it appoints 
Dr. Forsee as Assistant Superintendent of Educa-tional Services 
at its May 28, 2019 meeting. 

If approved, Dr. Forsee would succeed Dr. Jeff Wilson who is 
being recommended to be named as the next Superintendent 
of the San Marino Unified School District. 

“Dr. Wilson has been an integral part of our school district 
for the past ten years. First as Principal at First Avenue Middle 
School, then as Assistant Superintendent. I’m very proud 
of him and can’t thank him enough. His innovation, compassion for students, and knowledge of 
curriculum are second to none. We’re going to miss him, but we are very fortunate for his years of 
dedicated service, and we are a much better school district because of him,” said Arcadia Unified 
Superintendent Dr. Vannasdall. 

Both Dr. Forsee and Dr. Wilson will remain in their current roles through the entirety of the school 
year and are scheduled to begin their new positions on July 1, 2019. A comprehensive national 
search will begin immediately for the recruitment of the next Arcadia High School Principal.

“Dr. Forsee has proven himself as a dedicated leader in our district, and he has tremendous knowledge 
of the educational needs and programs throughout our schools. I’m very confident we will 
have a seamless transition and that Dr. Forsee will be able to help even more students through this 
role,” said Dr. Vannasdall who made the same transition from Arcadia High School Principal to 
Assistant Superintendent before being named Superintendent in May of 2014. 

Under Dr. Forsee’s leadership, Arcadia High School has been named a Gold Medal School by U.S. 
News and World Report on three separate occasions. Arcadia High has also been named in the top 
1% of all U.S. public high schools, while also landing in the top 1% for having the best public high 
school teachers in the country according to Niche. In addition to annually being recognized as one 
of the best public high schools in Southern California and the Los Angeles area, last year Arcadia 
High School’s graduating class had a remarkable 100% graduation rate. The Apaches currently have 
alumni at every Ivy League University in the country plus Stanford and MIT. Arcadia High also 
boasts one of the best performing arts programs in the country and an athletics and sports program 
that has many of its teams in the CIF playoffs every year competing for regional and state 
championships. 

“I believe strongly in the 4 A’s: Academics, Arts, Athletics, and Activities. Thanks to our amazing 
teach-ers and staff throughout the district, we can provide all of these rich opportunities for our 
students. I will continue to focus on providing these opportunities for more students in my new role 
and am very excited for the direction in which both the district as a whole and the high school are 
headed,” ex-plained Dr. Forsee. 

In addition to his time serving as Principal of Arcadia High School, Dr. Forsee brings a wealth 
of knowledge and a wide range of educational expertise to his new role at the Arcadia Education 
Center. He has also served as an assistant principal, coordinator of student services, director of assessment, 
school counselor, and history, math, English, and special education teacher. After earning 
his under-graduate and masters degrees from Point Loma Nazarene University, he completed his 
doctoral de-gree in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California. Dr. Forsee 
and his wife Kim have three daughters, Averie, Everly, and Sierra, along with their two dogs Max 
and Chase. 

SCHOOL DIRECTORY


Alverno Heights Academy

200 N. Michillinda Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

(626) 355-3463 Head of School: Julia V. Fanara

E-mail address: jfanara@alvernoheights.org

Arcadia High School

180 Campus Drive Arcadia, CA 91007

Phone: (626) 821-8370, Principal: Brent Forsee

bforsee@ausd.net

Arroyo Pacific Academy

41 W. Santa Clara St. Arcadia, Ca, 

(626) 294-0661 Principal: Phil Clarke

E-mail address: pclarke@arroyopacific.org

Barnhart School

240 W. Colorado Blvd Arcadia, Ca. 91007

(626) 446-5588 

Head of School: Ethan Williamson

Kindergarten - 8th grade

website: www.barnhartschool.org

Bethany Christian School

93 N. Baldwin Ave. Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

(626) 355-3527 

Preschool-TK-8th Grade

Principal: Dr. William Walner

website: www. bcslions.org

Clairbourn School

8400 Huntington Drive

San Gabriel, CA 91775

Phone: 626-286-3108 ext. 172

FAX: 626-286-1528

E-mail: jhawes@clairbourn.org

Foothill Oaks Academy

822 E. Bradbourne Ave., Duarte, CA 91010

(626) 301-9809

Principal: Nancy Lopez

www.foothilloaksacademy.org

office@foothilloaksacademy.org

Frostig School

971 N. Altadena Drive Pasadena, CA 91107

(626) 791-1255

Head of School: Jenny Janetzke

Email: jenny@frostig.org

The Gooden School

192 N. Baldwin Ave. Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

(626) 355-2410 

Head of School, Carl Parke 

website: www.goodenschool.org

High Point Academy

1720 Kinneloa Canyon Road 

Pasadena, Ca. 91107 

Head of School: Gary Stern 626-798-8989

website: www.highpointacademy.org

La Salle High School

3880 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. Pasadena, Ca. 

(626) 351-8951 website: www.lasallehs.org

Principal Mrs. Courtney Kassakhian

Monrovia High School

325 East Huntington Drive, Monrovia, CA 91016 

(626) 471-2800 Principal Darvin Jackson

Email: schools@monrovia.k12.ca.us

Odyssey Charter School

725 W. Altadena Dr. Altadena, Ca. 91001

(626) 229-0993 Head of School: Lauren O’Neill

website: www.odysseycharterschool.org

Pasadena High School

2925 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. Pasadena, Ca. 

(626) 396-5880 Principal: Roberto Hernandez

website: http://phs.pusd.us

St. Rita Catholic School

322 N. Baldwin Ave. Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

Principal Joan Harabedian (626) 355-9028 

website: www.st-rita.org

Sierra Madre Elementary School

141 W. Highland Ave, Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

(626) 355-1428 Principal: Lindsay Lewis

E-mail address: lewis.lindsay@pusd.us

Sierra Madre Middle School 

160 N. Canon Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024

(626) 836-2947 Principal: Garrett Newsom

E-mail address: newsom.garrett@pusd.us

Walden School

74 S San Gabriel Blvd

Pasadena, CA 91107 (626) 792-6166 

www.waldenschool.net

Weizmann Day School

1434 N. Altadena Dr. Pasadena, Ca. 91107

(626) 797-0204

Lisa Feldman: Head of School

Wilson Middle School

300 S. Madre St. Pasadena, Ca. 91107

(626) 449-7390 Principal: Ruth Esseln

E-mail address: resseln@pusd.us

Pasadena Unified School District

351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena, Ca. 91109

(626) 396-3600 Website: www.pusd@pusd.us

Arcadia Unified School District

234 Campus Dr., Arcadia, Ca. 91007

(626) 821-8300 Website: www.ausd.net

Monrovia Unified School District

325 E. Huntington Dr., Monrovia, Ca. 91016

(626) 471-2000 

Website: www.monroviaschools.net

Duarte Unified School District

1620 Huntington Dr., Duarte, Ca. 91010

(626)599-5000 

Website: www.duarte.k12.ca.us

Arcadia Christian School

1900 S. Santa Anita Avenue Arcadia, CA 91006

Preschool - and TK - 8th Grade

626-574-8229/626-574-0805

Email: inquiry@acslions.com

Principal: Cindy Harmon

website: www.acslions.com

All Things By Jeff Brown

ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER 2,000-YEAR-OLD REMNANT 
OF A NOVA.OBSERVATION CONFIRMS ONE 
OF THE OLDEST CHINESE MEASUREMENTS

Researchers have discovered the remains of a nova in a galactic globular cluster, located near the 
center of Messier 22. The finding, using modern instruments, con-firms one of the oldest observations 
of an event outside the solar system."The posi-tion and brightness of the remains match 
an entry from 48 BC in an ancient col-lection of observations by Chinese astronomers," says first 
author Fabian Göttgens of the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen.They probably 
saw the original nova in the same place." The newly discovered remains of the nova form a 
red shining nebula of hydrogen gas and other gases, which has a diameter of about 8,000 times the 
distance between Earth and Sun. 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

GHOSTS OF GOLD MOUNTAIN: THE EPIC STORY OF THE CHINESE WHO BUILT 
THE TRANSCON-TINENTAL RAILROAD by Gordon H. Chang 

A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental 
Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows 
of history until now. From across the sea, they came by the thou-sands, escaping war and 
poverty in southern China to seek their fortunes in Amer-ica. Converging on the enormous 
western worksite of the Transcontinental Rail-road, the migrants spent years dynamiting 
tunnels through the snow-packed cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laying tracks 
across the burning Utah desert. Their sweat and blood fueled the ascent of an interlinked, 
industrial United States. But those of them who survived this perilous effort would suffer 
a different kind of death—a historical one, as they were pushed first to the margins 
of American life and then to the fringes of public memory. In this groundbreaking account, 
award-winning scholar Gordon H. Chang draws on unprecedented research to recover 
the Chinese railroad workers’ stories and celebrate their role in remaking America. 
An invalua-ble correction of a great historical injustice, The book returns these “silent 
spikes” to their rightful place in our national saga.

THE BRITISH ARE COMING: THE WAR FOR AMERICA, LEXINGTON TO PRINCETON, 
1775-1777 (THE REVOLUTION TRILOGY) by Rick Atkinson 

From the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy comes the extraordinary first volume 
of his new trilogy about the American Revolution. Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer 
Prize-winning An Army at Dawn has long been admired for his deeply researched, 
stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in 
the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of 
America’s violent war for independence. From the bat-tles at Lexington and Concord in 
spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and 
then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It 
is a gripping saga alive with aston-ishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller 
with an uncanny understand-ing of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin 
who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves 
to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns 
the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from 
the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling. Full 
of riveting details and untold stories, The book a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption 
and profound suffer-ing. Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.

THE PIONEERS: THE HEROIC STORY OF THE SETTLERS WHO BROUGHT THE AMERICAN 
IDEAL WEST by David McCullough 

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic 
chapter in the American story—the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless 
pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that 
would come to define our country. As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain 
recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense 
Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the 
future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister 
named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the 
Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance 
were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most 
im-portantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New 
England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran 
General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River. McCullough tells the 
story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter 
turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their 
families created a town in a primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves and 
bears, no roads or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile 
relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough’s subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat 
them. Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The 
Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. 
This is a revelatory and quintes-sentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative 
en-ergy. The 3 reviews are from Amazon.com


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

LOW COST COOKING WITH THE SUN


[Nyerges is the author of many books who teaches 
classes in self-reliance and survival. He can be 
reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or 
www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

I made my first solar oven over 40 years ago, 
after reading an article in the original Mother 
Earth News. I built several of the designs published 
in the magazine using most scrap materials. 
Still, I learned that although the sun was 
“free,” the ability to capture the sun in a cooker 
of some sort still required an output of time 
and dollars. And I also learned that the more 
time and the more dollars you spend, the more likely you are to create 
a solar cooker that will actually cook your food efficiently.

Over the years, I have made dozens of solar box cookers and reflector 
ovens, and have learned that solar cookers are indeed a practical 
every-day way to cook many of my meals. The details of my early 
solar ovens can be found in my book “Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading 
in the City,” and the 
step-by-step instructions for 
making your own are found 
in my “How to Survive Anywhere” 
book.

In the beginning, many of the 
companies and non-profits 
who were promoting solar 
cooking were fo-cusing on 
Third World countries, where 
wood fuel for cooking was 
scarce. 

It’s been a long road, and 
many are realizing today that 
the sun is a viable way to cook 
our food most of the year. 
Many top-quality solar cookers 
are being manufactured 
today are highly efficient, and 
will generally out-perform 
any solar cooker that you’d 
make with scrap materials 
in your garage. 

SOLSOURCE

I recently acquired the new SolSource dish cooker, and had several 
chances to test it.

 On a warm clear day with temperatures in the high 80s (f.), I 
pointed the reflective dish towards the sun. The mounting mechanism 
includes a way to rotate the dish up or down to the sun, depending 
on how far above the equator you live, and time of year. 
There is also a gearing mechanism so you can rotate the reflective 
dish from side to side, so you can easily move it as the sun moves 
across the sky.

Once set up, this cooker is remarkably easy to use, and the most 
efficient solar cooker I have used to date. In fact, on a clear day in 
the 80s, we found that this cooker cooked food as fast as it would 
cook on a conventional gas oven!

The frame that supports the solar dish also contains a rest where a 
pan or pot is placed to cook. See the picture. When cooking, the 
first step is to make sure the solar dish is pointed directly at the 
sun. Then you add your skillet or pot onto the grill, and step away.

We have cooked omelettes, hot dogs, sunny side eggs, stews, and 
other dishes with this cooker, and in all cases, the cooking took no 
longer than a conventional stove top. Each day was sunny with some 
cloud cover. The device is engineered so that the cook can stand 
directly behind and stir or mix the food being cooked.

HISTORY

One Earth Designs – the company that makes the SolSource cooker 
– started in the Himalayas, where the founders worked together with 
nomadic families to develop the SolSource dish cooker as a solu-
tion to extreme energy poverty, where families had to search around 
to find firewood everyday. The company made 58 prototypes in the 
course of developing the original SolSource design. Since then, they 
continued evolving the SolSource line of solar-powered stoves and 
working to bring clean solar energy to people.

In most of the villages, women bear the burden of finding fuel, cutting 
down trees and often risk per-sonal injury. There is a lot of 
smoke inhalation when cooking with woods indoors. And purchasing 
other fuels takes a large chunk out of the household income.

PHOTO BY RICK ADAMS


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com