Big Bear, Ca, July 21, 2011, 12:00pm – At the July 20th meeting of the Bear Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees, the board approved John Fischer as the new Big Bear High School Vice Principal. Mr. Fischer comes to the Big Bear Valley from Indio where most recently he was the Assistant Principal at Indio High School, and has been working in education since 1994. 74 applicants applied for the position, and a panel of 7 people representing certificated and classified staff, a union member, and a parent interviewed a narrowed down pool of 8 people. Mr. Fischer was approved on July 20th, and will begin work once his paperwork in complete. The board of trustees also approved the purchase of 110 laptops for certificated teachers, allowing them to use computers in the classroom and also at home for grading and lesson planning. The Soroptimists of Big Bear Valley also presented the school district with a $20,000 donation for surveillance equipment at Big Bear Middle School. According to the school district the donation will go towards designing and installing a security surveillance system that will consist of 14 to 16 cameras around the school. Last year Big Bear High School installed a similar system, and the school saw incidents go down as a result. The district expects a similar result at the middle school. “We are very appreciative of the Soroptimists donation,” said Walter Con, Director of Business Services, “and we are excited to get the surveillance system in place.” Con also told KBHR that the school district will be installing the system in an effort to save money on installation fees, resulting in the district being able to purchase more cameras.
