News from recent City Study Session

La Mirada~Biola University has leased the former Rancho Elementary School site from the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District to house the University's home school K-12 operations.
The city will partner with Biola to allow continued access to the four-acre playing fields by youth sports organizations such as the La Mirada Girls Softball Association and the La Mirada Soccer Association.

As part of the agreement, the city will provide mowing services, with Biola providing all other general maintenance.

In other news, after a few years of an estranged relationship, the city and the La Mirada Chamber of Commerce may be entering into a new partnership. The city is exploring the idea of providing in-kind services to the Chamber such as office space for monthly meetings.

The city eliminated its subsidy to the Chamber in recent years.

New Chamber President, Debra Ellis told the La Mirada Blog that the Chamber has become all-volunteer, recently eliminating the salaried Director position and is "just dealing with obligations at this time."

Also, the city council recently discussed the role of the La Mirada Community Services Foundation, created in 1999 to serve as a liasion for accepting and raising funds to help support the city's community services.

The foundation's scope will now include support for community cultural arts , including the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

In addition, the council agreed to a name-change for the foundation, which will now be officially known as the La Mirada Foundation.

La Mirada High School will be celebrating the 50th reunion of its first graduating class in 2012.

The organizers recently requested the city to promote the event. The city has agreed to publish the event in a future edition of La Mirada Living.

The organizers also requested the use of the city hall marquee to promote the occasion, however current city policy for the marquee does not allow its use for events that are not city-operated or city-sponsored.

The council agreed to take another look at the policy to see if some changes could be considered.