Week in Review: Mar Vista Schools on Earthquake Risk List, Beethoven Elementary’s Budget Woes and a Local Teenager’s Shoe Drive for Japan

This week Patch collaborated with California Watch to take a look at local area schools at risk in the event of an earthquake.  Here are our top five stories from April 3 – April 9.

1) to take a long, hard look at how local area schools will fare in the event of an earthquake. Among the schools in Mar Vista that could be at risk are Venice High and Mark Twain Middle School.

2) Concerned parents attended a meeting at in an effort to find ways to make up the $80, 272 in budget cuts the school is facing in the 2011-2012 years. Parents from several area schools attended, hoping to take tips back to their schools, too.

3) As part of its give back program, donated 5 percent of its day’s sales on Wednesday to the Mar Vista Family Center, which provides educational programs and opportunities to low-income families.

4) Erin Fitz, a 16-year-old student co-coordinated the at the Mar Vista Recreation Center on Saturday. Erin collected the shoes and took them down to Sport Chalet, where they will be packed up and shipped to Japan for victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami.

5) An explosion at the on Thursday was initially considered a deliberate attack, then an accident and finally police confirmed that a bomb had indeed been intended for the Jewish synagogue. As of this posting, police were still seeking their primary suspect, transient Ron Hirsch.  LAPD have also been deployed to patrol local area synagogues in the wake of the attack.

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