Jordan Middle School

Salvation Army Thanksgiving event SOUTH SAN FERNANDO DISTRICT -- Homeless and low-income people and families are invited to spend this Thanksgiving with the Salvation Army Burbank Corps. The 17th annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner will begin at 5 p.m. Nov. 26 at the corps office, 300 E. Angeleno Ave. Free tickets are available and can be picked up from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at the office's front desk. The Burbank corps will provide dinner and musical entertainment to as many as 500 guests.

Jackson Bell For Amanda Reinhold, it took six days and more than 2,500 miles to learn about national leadership. Reinhold was among 212 middle school students from across the U.S. who traveled to Washington, D.C., last month and toured monuments, attended workshops and met with legislators. The Jordan Middle School seventh-grader was nominated to participate in the People-to-People Student Ambassadors Program, which sends students to various international and domestic locations to learn about leadership, culture and government.

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT TRAVELS TO WASHINGTON, D.C. Alexis Howard , a student at Jordan Middle School, has been accepted into the People to People World Leadership Forum. Alexis will join a select group of students from April 16 to 22 in Washington, D.C., to earn high school credit while studying leadership and exploring of the United States' most prominent monuments and institutions. From Capitol Hill to the Smithsonian Institution and from Colonial Williamsburg to the National Museum of American History, Alexis will examine the characteristics of American leadership during times of national challenge and prosperity.

Molly Shore Jordan Curcuruto is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. The 11-year-old Burbank girl and 29 other Southern California students leave July 10 on a two-week trip to Australia as representatives of People to People. The national organization, founded in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, fosters global cross-cultural friendships among students. Jordan said she was surprised when she learned she had been selected, but she knows the experience will be a positive one. "I'd like to come back ... knowing about a different place, and knowing that people are just the same even though they may be of a different culture," she said.

BURBANK ? Football players at Burbank High are chomping at the bit to get a chance to practice on their new football field for the first time. However, the Bulldogs might only have to wait a few more days to get their first feel of the new facility. Some final preparations on the field itself were being taken care of on Tuesday, and first-year Burbank Coach Hector Valencia said he hopes to have his squad trying out the field by the end of the work week. However, Valencia said he hasn?

Molly Shore Despite a budget shortfall, Burbank Unified School District Supt. Gregory Bowman believes city schools continue to meet the challenge of educating students who perform better overall in the national and state percentiles in reading, language and math tests. "This is outstanding progress for a district that six years ago was just beginning to work on developing academic content standards," Bowman told an estimated 200 guests during the first State of the Schools Breakfast on Thursday at The Castaway.

CITY HALL — A counseling program serving thousands of troubled youths is expected to receive crucial funding for the 2010-11 fiscal year under a proposal approved this week by the City Council. On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously to set aside $250,000 for youth programming, with most of it expected to go to school-based counseling and support services offered through the Family Service Agency of Burbank. Parents, counselors and Burbank Unified School District officials lobbied on behalf of the school-based programs designed to address self-esteem, anger management, substance abuse and family issues.

BURBANK ? City officials will interview candidates Monday to replace Eric Hansen, the director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, who is retiring. Five candidates are being considered, one of whom is a current city employee, though officials would not say who because of the ongoing interview process, City Manager Mary Alvord said. ?We will be doing some preliminary interviews Monday and narrow the list down to two or three Tuesday,? she said. A decision could be made in the next two weeks, and the new director could start in February, Alvord said.

BURBANK — The City Council, during a joint meeting with the Burbank Unified School District Board, received a status report from construction officials Tuesday for three schools whose aging athletic fields and parking lots are the focus of ongoing refurbishment efforts. The scope of work for Jordan Middle School, and Burbank and John Burroughs high schools, includes new landscaping and irrigation measures, Americans with Disabilities Act-approved parking lots and ramps, and new men’s and women’s restrooms.

More than a decade of planning and fundraising came to a head Monday as elected officials and community leaders crowded John Burroughs High School Memorial Field to break ground on a long-awaited $12-million renovation of the site. "It is a wonderful feeling, especially for the school district and the community who have worked on this for such a long time," said Burbank Unified Supt. Stan Carrizosa. The renovation of Memorial Field is the third in an $18.5-million, three-phase capital improvement project designed to modernize decrepit athletic facilities at Jordan Middle School, and Burbank and Burroughs high schools.