1.
Van Nuys
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Van Nuys /vænˈnaɪz/ is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. The town was founded in 1911, and named for Isaac Newton Van Nuys and it was annexed by Los Angeles on May 22,1915, after completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, providing it with the water required for further growth. Van Nuys was the first new stop on the San Fernando Line of the Pacific Electric Railway red cars system, which boosted its early land sales and commercial success. In 1991 Marvin Braude, a member of the Los Angeles City Council and this redesignated area included the community of Magnolia Woods. Some area residents had presented a petition and several original deeds that stated Sherman Oaks to Braude and they argued that the area was originally a part of Sherman Oaks until the 1960s, when ZIP codes labeling the area as Van Nuys were established. In 2014, A Great Streets project was introduced by Mayor Eric Garcetti with Van Nuys Blvd. to be redesigned between Victory Blvd. and Oxnard Street, also, Sepulveda Blvd. was resurfaced between Victory Blvd and Oxnard Street in May 2014. A new Los Angeles County services building is under construction on the southwest corner of Van Nuys Blvd. on February 14,2016, some 170 firefighters battled a fire at the abandoned Voyager Motel at 6500 N. Sepulveda Blvd. The 2000 U. S. census counted 103,770 residents in the 8. 99-square-mile Van Nuys neighborhood—or 11,542 people per square mile, in 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 110,747. In 2000 the median age for residents was 28, considered young for city and county neighborhoods, the neighborhood was considered moderately diverse ethnically within Los Angeles. The breakdown was Hispanics,60. 5%, whites,23. 1%, Asians,6. 4%, blacks, 6%, and others, 4%. Mexico and El Salvador were the most common places of birth for the 49. 8% of the residents who were born abroad—a high percentage for Los Angeles. There were 4,917 families headed by single parents, or 21. 3%, the median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $41,134, considered average for the city but low for the county. The percentages of households that earned $40,000 or less were high for the county, renters occupied 73. 9% of the housing stock, and house- or apartment-owners held 26. 1%. Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Boulevard Metro Orange Line bicycle path Van Nuys FlyAway Bus service Galpin Auto Sports — Pimp My Ride. Sound City Studios Los Angeles Fire Department operates Station 39, Station 90 Van Nuys Airport Area, Station 100 West Van Nuys, the Los Angeles Police Department operates the nearby Van Nuys Community Police Station at 6420 Sylmar Avenue,91401, serving the neighborhood. The U. S. Census Bureau operates the Los Angeles Regional Office in Van Nuys, the Social Security Administration operates a branch office on Van Nuys Boulevard north of Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys. The Van Nuys Recreation Area is in Van Nuys, the area has an auditorium and gymnasium with a capacity of 420 people, and a multipurpose/community room with a capacity of 20–25 people. The Van Nuys adjacent Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area to the west is an open space park behind Sepulveda Dam
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Los Angeles Unified School District
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Los Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in the U. S. state of California and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a student population. During the 2016–2017 school year, LAUSD served around 734,641 students, during the same school year, it had 26,556 teachers and 33,635 other employees. It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County, after the county government, the total school district operating budget for 2016–2017 is $7.59 billion. The school district consists of Los Angeles and all or portions of several adjoining Southern California cities, LAUSD has its own police force, the Los Angeles School Police Department, which was established in 1948 to provide police services for LAUSD schools. The LAUSD enrolls a third of the preschoolers in Los Angeles County, the LAUSD school construction program rivals the Big Dig in terms of expenditures, and LAUSD cafeterias serve about 500,000 meals a day, rivaling the output of local McDonalds restaurants. In 2007, LAUSDs dropout rate was 26 percent for grades 9 through 12, but more recently, there are signs that the district is showing improvement, both in terms of dropout and graduation rates. An ambitious renovation program intended to ease the overcrowded conditions has been completed. As part of its project, LAUSD opened two high schools in 2005 and four high schools in 2006. Los Angeles Unified School District is governed by a seven-member Board of Education, which appoints a superintendent, members of the board are elected directly by voters from separate districts that encompass communities that the LAUSD serves. The districts former superintendent is Ramon Cortines, from 2001 until his retirement in October 2006, the district was led by former Governor of Colorado and Democratic Party chairman Roy Romer. The seven current members of Board of Education include George McKenna, Monica Garcia, Scott Schmerelson, Board President Steve Zimmer, Dr. Ref Rodriguez, Mónica Ratliff, and Richard Vladovic. Every LAUSD household or residential area is zoned to a school, a middle school. Each local school district is run by a superintendent and is headquartered within the district. The latter provided 9–12 educational services, while the former did so for K-8, on July 1,1961 the Los Angeles City School District and the Los Angeles City High School District merged, forming the Los Angeles Unified School District. Additionally, approximately seventy-eight students suffered injuries which ranged from minor to life-threatening, the annexation left the Topanga School District and the Las Virgenes Union School District as separate remnants of the high school district. The high school changed its name to the West County Union High School District. LAUSD annexed the Topanga district on July 1,1962, since the Las Virgenes Union School District had the same boundary as the remaining West County Union High School District, on July 1,1962 West County ceased to exist
4.
Magnet school
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In the U. S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Magnet refers to how the schools students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools. There are magnet schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, other magnet programs are within comprehensive schools, as is the case with several schools within a school. In large urban areas, several schools with different specializations may be combined into a single center. Other countries have similar types of schools, such as specialist schools in England, the majority of these are academically selective. Other schools are built around elite-sporting programs or teach agricultural skills such as farming or animal breeding, at first, districts tried using involuntary plans which involved court-ordered attendance, the busing of children far from their homes, and building closer schools to achieve the required balance. Later, voluntary school integration plans were developed, one approach that educators within the public school system came up with was open schools. These schools were characterized by parent, student, and teacher choice, autonomy in learning and pace, non-competitive evaluation, Magnet schools have been the most successful of the ideas that originated from the Open Schools movement. It was expounded in 1971 by educator Nolan Estes, superintendent of Dallas Independent School District, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program was developed in the early 1980s as a way to encourage schools to address de facto racial segregation. Funds were given to districts that implemented voluntary desegregation plans or court orders to reduce racial isolation. The districts annual budget more than tripled in the process, the expenditure per pupil and the student-teacher ratio were the best of any major school district in the nation. Many high schools were given college-level facilities, still, test scores in the magnet schools did not rise, the black-white gap did not diminish, and there was less, not greater, integration. Finally, on September 20,2011, The Missouri Board of Education voted unanimously to withdraw the districts accreditation status from January 1,2012. To encourage the voluntary desegregation, districts started developing magnet schools to students to specialized schools all across their districts. Each magnet school would have a curriculum that would draw students based on their interests. One of the goals of schools is to eliminate, reduce. Magnet schools still continue to be models for school improvement plans, with a wide range of magnet schools available, a suitable program could be found for more children than only the bright ones for whom the earliest efforts were directed. Some 21st-century magnet schools have de-emphasized the racial aspects, such as Capital Prep Magnet School
5.
Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles
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Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, founded in 1927 with boundary changes afterward. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower density than some other areas in Los Angeles. A partner of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, Gen. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, the company had subdivided 1,000 acres of land that would become Sherman Oaks. In 1927 each acre was sold for $780, shermans other major venture was the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad. Petitioners in the area argued that their neighborhood was part of Sherman Oaks. As a result of change, Van Nuys Middle School became separated from its namesake neighborhood. Finally, in 2009, the Los Angeles City council voted to redraw neighborhood boundaries again to allow an area of about 1,800 homes in Van Nuys to be included and this proposal attracted criticism from locals. The 1994 Northridge earthquake caused damages in the surrounding area, the Community Redevelopment Agency sought to manage the rebuilding efforts. The homeowners in the Sherman Oaks area later won a lawsuit to prevent the agency from managing efforts, as of the 2010 census, according to the San Fernando Valley Almanac, Sherman Oaks had a population of 52,677 people and 25,255 households. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82% non-Hispanic white, 5% Asian American and 3% African American, other races made up less than 1%. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 65,436, in 2000, the percentages of residents aged 19 to 49 and 65 and older were among the countys highest. The percentages of divorced residents and of widows were among the countys highest, the average household size of two people was low when compared to the rest of the city and the county. Renters occupied 58. 9% of the stock and house- or apartment-owners held 41. 1%. The neighborhood was considered not especially diverse ethnically within Los Angeles, the breakdown was whites,73. 8%, Latinos,11. 8%, Asians,5. 7%, blacks,4. 4%, and others,4. 4%. Iran and Mexico were the most common places of birth for the 26. 2% of the residents who were born abroad—an average percentage for Los Angeles. The neighborhood had a household income of $69,651 in 2008. The percentage of households that earned $125,000 and up was high for Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Fire Department operates Station 88 Sherman Oaks and Station 102 South Van Nuys/Valley Glen in Sherman Oaks. In addition the department operates Fire Station 78, which serves Sherman Oaks, the Los Angeles Police Department operates the nearby Van Nuys Community Police Station at 6240 Sylmar Avenue,91401, serving the community
6.
1933 Long Beach earthquake
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The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at 5,54 P. M. PST south of downtown Los Angeles, the epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 6.4 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, damage to buildings was widespread throughout Southern California. An estimated forty million dollars worth of property damage resulted, many of these fatalities occurred as people ran out of buildings and were hit by falling debris. The major damage occurred in the city of Long Beach on the south-facing coast of Los Angeles County. Unfavorable geological conditions combined with poorly constructed buildings increased the damage done by the quake, at Long Beach, buildings collapsed, water tanks fell through roofs, and houses were tossed off their foundations. School buildings were among the structures that incurred the most severe damage, the earthquake highlighted the need for earthquake-resistant design for structures in California. Many school buildings were damaged, with more than 230 school buildings that either were destroyed, suffered major damage, the California State Legislature passed the Field Act on April 10,1933, mandating that school buildings must be earthquake-resistant. If the earthquake had occurred during school hours, the toll would have been much higher
7.
Bob Waterfield
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Robert Stanton Waterfield was an American football player in the National Football League. He was the leagues Most Valuable Player in 1945 and a two-time NFL champion in 1945 and 1951 as the quarterback, kicker, Waterfield was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Born in Elmira, New York, Robert Stanton Bob Waterfield grew up in Southern California in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and he attended Van Nuys High School, in Van Nuys and went on to play college football for UCLA. He led the Bruins to the Pacific Coast Conference football championship in 1942, the game was scoreless into the fourth quarter until Waterfields punt was blocked for a safety. Georgia added a touchdown to post a 9-0 win, Waterfield entered the U. S. Army in 1943 and while in the service he was selected with the 42nd overall pick of the 1944 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Rams. He was discharged from the due to a knee injury and returned to college. His rookie year in football was in 1945 and he started immediately. Waterfield was taken in quickly by fans, becoming the first ever rookie to win the league’s Most Valuable Player and unanimous All-NFL choice. He ended the season with a win in the NFL Championship game, after the season, he signed a three-year contract for $20,000 per year, which made him the highest-paid player in pro football. In 1946, the Rams moved to Los Angeles, California and he would later split time at quarterback with Norm Van Brocklin, who joined the team as a rookie in 1949. Behind this duo, Los Angeles played in three straight games, 1949-1951. Runners-up in the first two, the Rams regained the title in the 1951 championship game with a 24-17 win over the Cleveland Browns. It was the Rams only league title during their first 49 seasons in southern California, in a 1948 regular season game, the Rams were behind the champion-to-be Philadelphia Eagles 28-0. Waterfield managed to rally the team for a tie on four touchdown passes. In the 1950 divisional playoffs, he was unable to due to a severe flu he had endured. However, he came off the bench anyway and threw three passes in a 24-14 win over the Chicago Bears. In his first four seasons, he played defense and intercepted a career total of 20 passes. As a place kicker, he had 315 successful PATs and 60 field goals, while an accomplished kicker and punter, Waterfield was best known for his ability to throw the deep ball
8.
Don Drysdale
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Donald Scott Don Drysdale was an American professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played as a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers for his entire career in Major League Baseball. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, Drysdale was one of the most dominant pitchers of the late 1950s and early to mid 1960s. Standing 6 ft 5 in tall, he was a presence on the pitchers mound. Drysdale won the 1962 Cy Young Award and is known for setting a Major League Baseball record by pitching 58 2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings in 1968, after his playing career, he became a radio and television broadcaster. Drysdale was born in Van Nuys, Los Angeles and attended Van Nuys High School, pitching for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, he teamed with Sandy Koufax during the late 1950s and early and middle 1960s to form one of the most dominating pitching duos in history. Nicknamed Big D by fans, Drysdale used brushback pitches and a fastball to intimidate batters. His 154 hit batsmen remains a modern National League record, Drysdale was also a good hitter for a pitcher. In 14 seasons, he had 218 hits, including 29 home runs, in 1962, Drysdale won 25 games and the Cy Young Award. In 1963, he struck out 251 batters and won Game 3 of the World Series at Los Angeles Dodger Stadium over the Yankees, in 1965, he was the Dodgers only.300 hitter and tied his own National League record for pitchers with seven home runs. That year, he also won 23 games and helped the Dodgers to their third World Championship in Los Angeles. In 1968, he set Major League records with six shutouts and 58 2⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings. He ended his career with 209 wins,2,486 strikeouts,167 complete games and 49 shutouts and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, and had his number 53 retired at Dodger Stadium on July 1,1984. He was also the last player on the Dodgers who had played for Brooklyn and he won three NL Player of the Month awards, June 1959, July 1960, and May 1968. In 1965, Sandy Koufax declined to pitch the first game of the World Series because it was on Yom Kippur, Drysdale pitched for the Dodgers instead of Koufax, and gave up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings. When Walter Alston, the manager, came to the mound to remove him from the game, Drysdale said, I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, the Dodgers lost to the Minnesota Twins, 8-2. Drysdale and Koufax took part in a famous salary holdout together in the spring of 1966 and those contracts made them the first pitchers to earn more than $100,000 a year. This holdout was the beginning of collective bargaining in baseball, a chronically sore shoulder forced Drysdale to retire during the 1969 season
9.
SAT
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The SAT is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned and published by the College Board, a private and it is developed and administered on behalf of the College Board by the Educational Testing Service. The test is intended to assess students readiness for college, on March 5,2014, the College Board announced that a redesigned version of the SAT would be administered for the first time in 2016. Scores on the SAT range from 400 to 1600, combining test results from two 800-point sections, mathematics, and critical reading and writing. Taking the SAT, or its competitor, the ACT, is required for entry to many. The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors, the College Board states that the SAT measures literacy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyze, however, the test is administered under a tight time limit to help produce a range of scores. Various studies conducted over the lifetime of the SAT show a significant increase in correlation of high school grades. A large independent validity study on the SATs ability to predict college freshman GPA was performed by the University of California, the results of this study found how well various predictor variables could explain the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT I were combined, they explained 20. 8% of the variance in college freshman GPA, when high school GPA and the SAT II were combined, they explained 22. 2% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When SAT I was added to the combination of high school GPA and SAT II, SAT scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective. However, independent research has shown that high school GPA is better than the SAT at predicting college grades regardless of school type or quality. SAT consists of three sections, Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. Each section receives a score on the scale of 200–800, all scores are multiples of 10. Total scores are calculated by adding up scores of the three sections, each major section is divided into three parts. There are 10 sub-sections, including an additional 25-minute experimental or equating section that may be in any of the three major sections, the experimental section is used to normalize questions for future administrations of the SAT and does not count toward the final score. The test contains 3 hours and 45 minutes of actual timed sections, most administrations run for about four, the questions range from easy, medium, and hard depending on the scoring from the experimental sections. Easier questions typically appear closer to the beginning of the section while harder questions are toward the end in certain sections and this is not true for every section but it is the rule of thumb mainly for math, grammar, and the 19 sentence-completions in the reading sections
10.
Panorama High School
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Panorama High School is a public high school located on Van Nuys Boulevard in the Panorama City district of Los Angeles, California, United States. Designed by architect DLR Group WWCOT, Panorama High School opened in 2006 to students in grades 9,10, the school is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school serves the Panorama City, Arleta and Van Nuys sections of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, Panorama High Schools mascot is a python and the school colors are gold and black. Panorama opened in fall 2006 with grades 9,10, and 11, in June 2008, the first students graduated from the school. Panorama relieved Van Nuys High School, Birmingham High School, the opening allowed for Van Nuys High School to return to a traditional calendar. Prior to having the name Panorama High School, the school was known as East Valley Area New High School #3, the school had previously had a variety of after school classes within an after school program from October 2007 to June 2010. The after school classes were film production, dj music, urban art, sound art, by September 2010, the after school program at Panorama cancelled the after school classes, leaving only after school tutoring instead. The first principal of Panorama High School, Sue Lepisto, retired in June 2010 and she was replaced by Elias de la Torre in September 2010. The school has its own softball, baseball, water polo, football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, wrestling, the school has two gymnasiums, a heated swimming pool, one fitness room, and a weight room. In 2010 the school gained its first city championship title, when the 2010 boys varsity water polo team, led by head coach Nick Samara, the school won its second championship title, after forming it first ever full girls wrestling team in 2013. Led by head coach Richard Ramos, and assistant coach Abby Herrera, Panorama High School served as the location of the Costa Verde High School for Heroes in late 2007. A JC Penney commercial was shot at the school, using some of the hallways, classrooms, the auditorium, a new Disney Channel show Madison High was filmed for the first episode. The outside of the school was used during episodes of Bucket & Skinners Epic Adventures Skittles Commercial was filmed in the area behind the bleachers
