BEVERLY HILLS COURIER | AUGUST 19, 2016 Page 4
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B E V E R LY H I L L S M A I N N E W S BHPD AT HORACE MANN—Beverly Hills police officers joined Horace Mann students Sunday at the opening of its new campus. Pictured, front row (from left): Gunner Duclos, Berkay Uguz, Leah Shin and Leanne Park. Back row (from left): Officer Jeff Bedinian, Officer Lynnsey Diamond and BHPD Chief Sandra Spagnoli. Photo by Victoria Talbot
Horace Mann Unveils New School Building By Laura Coleman Fresh on the heels of Sunday’s historic celebration at Horace Mann to debut Beverly Hills Unified’s first ground-up construction project using Measure E funds, students at the K-8 actually began to learn inside the district's first truly 21st century classroom building as of this week. Horace Mann Principal Dana Findley, now in her first year leading the school, lauded the new building, which currently houses both elementary and middle school classes over multiple levels. In two years time, the school will have an additional new building, thereby completing Horace Mann's top-to-bottom redo. “Make no mistake about it
Beverly Hills, the modernization of the Beverly Hills Unified School District is well underway,” declared BHUSD Superintendent Steve Kessler at Sunday's back-to-school “Open House” at Horace Mann, which first opened in 1929. The modernization construction project, which kicked off in fall 2014, followed the unveiling of the school's fully renovated historic auditorium earlier that same year. This phase also included a multipurpose/community room, new playground areas, and an underground parking structure just below a synthetic turf guaranteed to engender Husky pride with its custom-matched “Horace Mann purple” color.
At Sunday’s celebration, which was presented by the Horace Mann PTA, new and current school families, along with community members who supported the project and had personal ties to the campus, got a glimpse of the brand new, state-of-the-art facility. The hours-long event, which included snow cones, lemonade, quesadillas, hot dogs, and cupcakes, to name a few of the goodies on hand, also included remarks by City leaders. “I'd like to congratulate the school board in getting it right,” Mayor John Mirisch said. “The schools continue to be so important for our City and kids.”
TUTORING—The Beverly Hills Academic Tutoring Program is set to return again for another year, beginning with orientation on Tuesday, Sept. 6, from 4-5:30 p.m. at Roxbury Park Auditorium. The program is seeking volunteers to work with elementary school children having social and/or academic difficulties. High School students will receive community service hours for volunteering in the program. For more info contact Adrienne Weise at adriennetutor@gmail.com or call 310-2856810. Pictured: a BHHS senior tutors a young student during last year’s Academic Tutoring Program.
Legendary Director, Former Academy President Arthur Hiller Dead At 92 By John L. Seitz Legendary director Arthur Hills, a 45-year Beverly Hills resident and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America, died Wednesday after a long illness. He was 92. Ironically, his popular wife of 68 years, Gwen, to whom he had first proposed at age 8, died seven weeks ago. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, on Nov. 22, 1923, Hiller spent three years in the Royal Canadian Air Force, flying bombing raids over Germany in World War II bombing raids over Germany during World War II. After attending the University of Toronto, he began producing and directing talk shows and radio documentaries
before helming live TV dramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He came to California in 1955 to direct for NBC’s Matinee Theatre and Playhouse 90 for CBS. He went on to direct multiple episodes of other series like Naked City, Route 66, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock resents, Gunsmoke, Ben Casey and I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster. Hiller then began directing a myriad of feature films, notably Love Story, Silver Streak, The Out-Of-Towners, Plaza Suite, Man Of La Mancha, Author! Author!, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, The Lonely Guy, Outrageous Fortune, etc. He was involved with the Motion Picture and Television Fund, public TV station KCET, Amnesty International, Inner
Arthur Hiller
City Filmmakers, L.A. Central Library’s reading program, the Deaf Arts Council, AntiDefamation League, and Humanitas. Hiller is survived by son, Henryk (Melora); daughter Erica Carpenter (Kevin); grandchildren Sienna Hiller and Kellen Carpenter, and step-grandchildren Christopher Carpenter, Patrick Carpenter, and Claire Mocha.
Submissions Now Being Accepted For Second Annual Will Rogers Awards By Matt Lopez The Will Rogers Awards debuted last year in Beverly Hills, celebrating the best in Beverly Hills real estate, development, retail and restaurants. This year, the awards return to once again pay homage to the best of the best in Beverly Hills. Suggestions are currently being accepted for both “Realtor of the Year” and “Real Estate Lifetime Achievement” awards for the 2nd annual edition of the Will Rogers Awards, set to take place Nov. 9 at the Montage Beverly Hills. Submissions should be sent to submissions@willrogersawards.org and must be received by Sept. 9, with compelling reasons why the person
suggested should be nominated. Those selected for nomination will be announced midSeptember, and will be profiled in the Courier, interviewed on local Beverly Hills channel 10, and recognized at the Nov. 9 gala event.
Beverly Hills Police Pancake Breakfast On Sunday, Aug. 28 the Beverly Hills Police Officers Association will host its annual Police Service Day and Pancake Breakfast from 8 a.m. to noon at the Beverly Hills Police Department (464 N. Rexford Dr.) The event will include: • Police station tours and interactive displays • Free pancakes • Face painting Sponsors include the Beverly Hilton, the Rotary Club of Beverly Hills, Whole Foods Market and Langers Juice.
Council Rejects Outreach Plan For Townscape’s Gehry Project By Victoria Talbot A meeting to collect public comments on what to do with 6.5 acres of City-owned property in Beverly Hills’ Industrial/Entertainment District – east of City Hall – turned into a debacle Tuesday when staff instead produced a framework focused only soliciting feedback for a project proposal for a Frank Gehry development. The process for outreach presented by Community Services Director Susan Healy Keene, was soundly rejected by every council member, and it is unclear how Community Development staff could have made such a colossal miscalculation. “This proposal is. . . the antithesis of what the council directed,” said Councilmember Lili Bosse. “I cannot even tell you how insulting this is.” The proposed Gehry project calls for entertainment, media and tech office space, along with condominium suites, retail and restaurants, a public park and a hotel. The proposal introduced by MIG Consultants was for a process that would have disenfranchised a large segment of the community while creating a captive audience of a small
hand-selected segment of the population for the Townscape Partners project. In Phase 1, the consultant would “host nine one-hour focus groups to engage stakeholders in a dialogue about the future of the site,” read the agenda. The focus groups would come from businesses, neighborhood groups, task forces and commissions. “The input obtained. . . would inform a Virtual Town Hall meeting.” Such a meeting would be “attended” by computer. In Phase II, the consultants would introduce “details about the proposed project” in a single “City-wide community meeting,” including “impacts, benefits and trade-offs” in small group discussions to solicit feedback on the project. Phase III would result in a “set of guiding principles and direction,” that could be used to solicit Request for Proposals on the property. The $111,600 process would be paid for by the developers as part of an agreement concluded in April to accept a $1 million deposit from Townscape Partners to explore, “What the community wants for potential uses of the land [and] community involvement,” in a “transparent (see ‘TOWNSCAPE’ page 30)