A reader tipped me to the press release below, which appears on the Santa Ana Unified School District’s website. I am no fan of Henry Nicholas III. He is a very rich guy who is famous for an awful divorce, ensuing bizarre allegations, and for tanking three strikes reform. But in this instance he appears to finally be doing something good, for low income children in Santa Ana. I am not certain how he is identifying which of these kids have “high potential.”
$10 Million Pledged to free after-school tutoring for low income high potential high school students
DR. HENRY T. NICHOLAS III TO OFFICIALLY OPEN THE DOORS OF THE FIRST
NICHOLAS ACADEMIC CENTER IN SANTA ANA
EVENT: Dr. Henry T. Nicholas III and Retired Judge Jack Mandel, Executive Director of the Henry T. Nicholas Education Foundation, will officially open the doors of the new, state-of-the-art Nicholas Academic Center in Santa Ana, where high-potential, low income high school students within the Santa Ana Unified School District can go after school in hopes of reaching their educational goals.
Through the Nicholas Education Foundation, $10 Million has been committed to operate the Santa Ana center and future centers in San Juan Capistrano and the Echo Park district in Los Angeles, to be operated in partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Plans call for additional centers to be opened statewide.
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
TIME: 10:30 a.m. ? 11:30 a.m.
Press Conference and Center Tour
LOCATION: Nicholas Academic Center, at 412 West Fourth Street, Santa Ana
Parking available on the street or in adjacent parking structure
VISUALS: The Nicholas Academic Center in Santa Ana is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and staffed by professional educators and counselors who will be available for interviews along with Dr. Nicholas and Executive Director Jack Mandel. Directors of the program are all graduates of Santa Ana High schools and four year colleges who participated in a similar program started by Judge Mandel when they were in school.
*Are we mistaken here..isn’t this
the same guy that had the Playboy
Sex/Slave Cave in his cellar?
What happened to his wife? Are
we totally wrong about this?
Public Service huh? 10 Million
bucks worth! Must admit he is
doing better than Larry Craig!
And then,from the L.A. Times, comes this:
Billionaire sought secret lair for sex, drugs, complaint says
Flush with wealth from Broadcom Corp.’s 1998 public stock offering, computer chip magnate Henry T. Nicholas III made a few additions to his equestrian estate in Laguna Hills: hidden doors and secret levers, an underground grotto, tunnels and a 2,000-square-foot sports bar he called “Nick’s Cafe.”
But there was more, according to a claim made in court documents: plans for a “secret and convenient lair” with hidden entries for Nicholas to indulge his “manic obsession with prostitutes” and “addiction to cocaine and Ecstasy.”
Wow. This guy sounds like he would be a perfect fit for the board of education in SAUSD. Another new low. I am surprised the board hasn’t taken money from the Russian or Italian Mafia too. But hey it’s for the kids so it must be ok.
#2. Of course it’s for the kids. Just like the New & Improved Bond. It’s for the kids.
Forget that incompetent staff and consultants (under Richardson, Noji and the vertically challenged Hernandez) failed to keep SAUSD hardship status with the State of California and lost/or had to payback construction funds to the State Department of Education.
Ask your board members how much money has been lost by not constructing Otsuka Elementary and others.
What a bunch of morons the local elected officials are knowing full well that their constituents are losing their jobs and homes and putting this stupid bond on the ballot.
People are having to chooose between putting food on the table and putting gas in their car. When this Bond Measure fails, I hope every single elected official that was in favor of it, never wins office again. They should be ashamed of themselves and I rebuke every one of them in Jesus’ name.
Santa Ana High School has had free after school tutoring for years — with or without special monies. A lot of the teachers just hang around in the classrooms for an hour or two after school with a welcome out for anyone who wants some help. A few take advantage, most do not. What we need for the schools is better leadership, not more money (although losing several hundred teachers next is going to hurt, whatever the leadership).